Silence is Golden(Naluc and Twi)

[Naluc]

Tom:
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc189/c_toverajr/8f49b782b57f553b66f5e7a997846743123.jpg

Hanako:
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff355/nobody1231/Anime/6386.jpg
At Clemson High, students hustle and bustle about their daily grind, their eyes constantly on the clock, waiting for the chance to be free and socialize with their friends.

But there is one boy at the school,Tom Robinson, who cannot speak. It was a birth defect found a few months after he was born. When he should have spoken his first words, it was found that he could not. His mouth would move, but no sound would come out. His parents took him to the doctor and he was proclaimed to be born mute.

Distraught, his parents tried everything they could to give him a normal life, but, being unable to talk, Tom was constantly unable to get along with the other kids, tortured daily for his lack of a voice and inability to defend himself. He has no friends and very few allies, his situation often described as "him against the world"

Despite the setbacks, he actually does quite well in school, academically at the least.

It's Junior year now, little has changed, except for the brand new exchange student from Japan, Hanako Aya Atarashi. Like a pack of wolves they descended upon her, trying to drag her into all of their cliques so she would be assimilated almost immediately, but Hanako only seemed to be interested in one person, Tom.

This is their story..

[Naluc]

Roll call in Algebra 2 class on the very first day of Junior year. How exciting. Of course, nearly every child was having a sugar rush in their seat while waiting for the bell so they could see who was in their next class, all except for Tom Robinson.

The teacher continued to rattle off name after name.. "Sarah Slusser.."and the like, followed by a perky "present!". and this process continued to repeat until it reached.. "Tom Robinson."

of course, Tom's natural reaction was to speak. His mouth moved to speak the words "present", but nothing came out. Immediately the class began to crack up laughing as the teacher once again called his name. Tom raised his hand, but one of the jocks pushed it back down onto his desk. The teacher had thankfully noticed and marked Tom present, continuing through roll call.

2 minutes later, the teacher laid down her clipboard and stated, "and, we have a new exchange student from Japan, miss Hanako!" gesturing over to Hanako's desk. The whole class began to mutter and chatter (minus Tom of course), while the teacher proceeded with the lesson.

"Okay Tom, so what's the answer to this equation?" the teacher asked, turning to him. still clueless that he was a mute.

Reacting quickly, Tom began to scribble the answer down on a whiteboard and held it up for the teacher to see.

"er.. that's.. perfectly right. but.. why aren't you speaking?"

Tom looked away with futility in his eyes, and the class began to laugh. "He's just a mute boy!" they exclaimed, bursting out in a louder laughter. The teacher shot Tom a sympathetic look and continued on with the lesson after shushing the teens, being sure not to call on Tom again to spare him the torture.

Tom, meanwhile, could only sit there and take notes while the other students would occasionally look and sneer as they spoke answers to easy questions.

[Pastel Apathy]

Hanako blushed when she was pointed out in front of the entire class, but kept her posture straight. She would not slouch or cower in front of these people. That was not who she was. She was not someone to slouch, nor cower, nor have her nose in the air like a snob. She may have had a slightly richer than average past, but she was no snob, nor was she a total slacker. She tilted her head against her hand, the palm of it smooth and silken. Her eyes ran over each student, noting things about them in her head as she observed the class. As she observed each one, she found herself getting more and more... disgusted with how obsessed they were with their cliques and their reputations.

When her eyes rested on Tom for a minute, the one who couldn't talk, she smiled to herself. He seemed the least obsessed with cliques and reputation, and seemed like he could honestly use a friend. And Hanako decided that she was going to be that friend. She straightened her glitter encrusted designer label t-shirt, and tuned into the teacher. She was called on once, and her surprisingly good English was only slightly accented, and accented with... French? She had spent a good part of her life in France, and had only been living in Japan for two years before moving to where she was living now. She felt all eyes on her, and she smiled when the teacher amended her for her correct answer, and went back to the lesson. Hanako went to her notebook, and started to sketch a landscape.

[Naluc]

Tom spent the rest of the period writing a small creative paragraph, considering he wasn't going to be called on. Finally, the bell rang for the next period. Tom began to gather his things as most of the kids dashed out, as well as the teacher.

The jocks, smirking to themselves, enacted the plot they had been concocting all period, shoving Tom against the wall. "Well well, if it isn't our favorite little mute, Tom Robinson!" they jeered, as one of the jock's followers held up his notebook.

"Hm? what's this garbage? you know you can't express yourself, Tommy!" they toyed with it a little, ripping out pages and scattering them about the room in crumpled wads. All of Tom's hard work, balled up and strewn aside with so little respect.. but he couldn't do anything about it... how do you get someone to stop when you have no strength of body or voice..?

Eventually, the jocks got bored, leaving the room with the same horrible sneers plastered onto their faces. But not before throwing Tom into a desk and bruising his side.

Distraught, Tom began to pick up his things, almost wanting to cry. They always tried to make him "cry", to watch the tears stream down his face and no sound coming out when he should be bawling. It was their goal of almost every single torture session..They enjoyed it with the sick, twisted sense of humor they all had.

There were so many papers strewn about.. there would be no way he was going to make it to his next class at this rate..Plus he was holding his side in pain.. it had hit right on the bone and it didn't feel to pleasant.. but it wasn't broken, thankfully..