chapter 7

13 years later, Siri had made a lot of progress with her cognitive behavioral therapist and wasn't scared anymore. She still had nightmares occasionally but she had learned and grown from the trauma. She was in her final year of school. A normal school because she had adamantly refused to go to a special school, she knew her condition was temporary but for some reason she refused to go for speech therapy.

Siri was a very driven girl, talented, intelligent and disciplined. She almost always had an attitude and was a bit sassy causing most people to think that she was rude and proud but even though she had every reason to be, she was very down to earth and kind. At 17 years old, she was a 5'6 with very light skin and long dark curly hair.

Her gorgeously intricate facial features had most people turn for a second glance anytime she passed by, long lashes that adorned her face beautifully, big bright brown doe eyes, a slightly pointed little nose, well defined cheekbones,thin pink lips and a nice jawline. She was an epitome of beauty and was often being called several adoring names by admirers.

She had met Khalil at church when they were both 7.she wasn't one to make friends easily because she never wanted to open up to anyone, having friends meant sharing secrets and everything so she stayed away from people no matter how hard her mother tried to convince her not to, but for some reason, Khalil didn't stop talking to her after a while like the others did even when he came to know that she was mute, he still didn't relent. He had just lost his twin sister Kyra and he thought Siri reminded him of her.

' friends? ' he would always scribble childishly on a piece of paper and hand it over to her in Sunday school until one day she finally wrote back, ' sure, whatever ' since then, they've been friends. He eventually learned how to use sign language so he could understand her better even though she always disliked when people who could talk used sign language to talk to her cause in her opinion it was a foolish waste of time when you could just use your voice.

Over the years, she discovered her passion for drawing and she started working on it. Pencil sketches, paintings and brush works, she could do them all and she loved it so she majored in art and her new ambition was to be an artist. She still wished she could sing but... everything happens for a reason.

' what are you reading? ' she signed at Khalil.

" It's just some novel a friend recommended to me, turns out it's very interesting." Khalil whispered. They were in their last class for the day, further mathematics and it's safe to say they both disliked it with passion.

' what friend?' Siri asked with a frown and Khalil rolled his eyes at her obvious jealousy.

" You're not the only friend I have you know." He whispered and she scoffed.

' I pray Mr. Kingman catches you using your phone. Maybe your 'friend' would keep you company in detention ' she signed and he chuckled. Minutes later, she couldn't take the boredom anymore. She poked Khalil.

' what's the title.' she signed.

" Echoes and whispers." Khalil responded.

' author?' she signed.

" The author's identity is unknown though he/ she goes by the name ' north star ' " Khalil said and she nodded bringing out her phone to check for the book. Seeing the cover picture and the synopsis, she thought to herself, 'not bad.' as she added it to her tbr.

" Miss. Martins and Mr. Mark- Johnson. No phones during classes. DETENTION!" Mr. Kingman yelled and just then,the bell rang, school was over.

' oh come on..!' Siri signed and Khalil laughed.

" Looks like the friend keeping me company in detention is you." Khalil smirked at her.

' yay ' she was sarcastic.

**************

The clock ticked rhythmically in the quiet room of 12 students and one teacher, voices of students chatting and laughing could be heard from outside but inside the class was as quiet as a cemetery maybe it was due to the fact that the students inside were scared to make a sound so as to avoid more punishment or were simply intimidated by the stone cold faced teacher.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.....

The silence was killing Siri, she looked out the window, at the lively bunch of teenagers and tweenagers downstairs, some took the bus, some rode home with bikes while others waited for their designated drivers all in different groups. One could recognize how every highschool was divided into meaningless social groups no matter how daft one was. There was the queen bees the ones who were the so called popular girls due to flimsy reasons like being pretty and having extremely rich parents, there were the cool guys which comprises of all the boys which according to highschool standards were handsome, there were the geeks AKA the nerds who mostly wore glasses and were extremely socially awkward, then there were the ones the richer kids referred to as normies—the ones who came from average families and were mostly here on scholarships and lastly, the misfits, those are the ones who according to everyone else were considered weird and freaks for one reason or the other, hanging out with people like that can automatically make you an outcast in the school.

Social suicide, Khalil always said.

If there was one thing Siri hated the most about highschool, it was the whole senseless social groups that made some think they were better than others. It's really sad looking at it, maybe she would make a painting about it.