Lee reached to snatch his backpack back from Jackson, a boy several inches shorter than Lee, who kept jumping back every time he got close, a smirk playing on his lips. Lee's adrenaline was pumping, his mind racing with wild thoughts and angry words.

  "I'll give it back, man," Jackson taunted. "Just talk to me. Something more than one word."

  Lee wanted to scream, to let out all the pent-up frustration and anger that had been building inside of him for weeks. But he couldn’t. Not that it would matter if he could. Jackson would just mock him further, and the teacher would sit back in his chair, hoping someone else would intervene.

  Lee mouthed words but no sound came out. He turned and slammed his fists on the teacher's desk, who had not moved from his chair. "You need to speak up for yourself, Mr. Collins," The teacher said, pointing a finger at Lee.

  "Yeah, Lee, just speak up," Jackson chimed in, a mocking tone to his voice.

  Lee threw his hands up in defeat and stormed out of the classroom in a fit of rage, ignoring the teacher's calls for him to come back. He needed to get out of there, away from Jackson and the teacher who refused to help him.

  Lee sat on the ground, curled up in a ball with his hands over his ears. He could hear the voice of the security guard talking to him, but it blended with all the other voices he could here, all the voices were overwhelming. He couldn't handle it anymore.

  Suddenly, a new voice cut through the chaos. It was a girl's voice, and it had a strange accent that Lee couldn't quite place. "Get away from him," she said firmly to the security guard. "Can't you see he can't speak?"

  The guard hesitated for a moment before backing away. The girl knelt down in front of Lee and gently touched his shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked, her voice soft and comforting.

  Lee slowly removed his hands from his ears and looked up at her. She had long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and bright blue eyes. But what caught Lee off guard was that she was signing as she spoke.

  The girl sat in front of Lee, her blue eyes full of curiosity and concern. She handed him a pad and pen, and he hesitantly took them.

  "You can’t speak can you. Even if you wanted to?. she asked, gesturing to the pad.

  Lee shook his head no.

  “Why don’t you sign?”

  "No one taught me," Lee wrote down on the pad.

  The girl's expression softened. "That must be really hard," she said sympathetically. "My name is Lily." She pointed to herself as she signed her name.

  Lee hesitated for a moment before writing his name on the pad. Lily smiled when she saw it. "Nice to meet you, Lee," she signed, speaking at the same time.

  “You have a translator in class, yet I can hear you speak. Why is that?” Lee wrote.

  Lily's smile faltered for a moment before she replied, "I was born deaf and learned how to sign and speak from a young age. I can lip read but it’s too much to keep up with in class so I have a sign language interpreter help me."

  “How about you? How is it no teacher realizes you are a mute? Haven’t you’re parents talked to them.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “My parents are dead and my foster parents don’t care. They get money for me and the rest is to much for them to bother with.” Lee wrote.

  “Thats horrible.” Lily signed in shock.

  Lee smiled bitterly. “That’s foster care and this home is a whole lot better than my last one was. At least they leave me alone. “

  “If you don’t mind telling me how bad was the last one?”

  Lee sighed. “I was only there two weeks and had to use my martial arts training to defend myself and the other kids from them. When the police showed up after they were stupid enough to call them to have me arrested. I showed them all the bruises on the other kids and the police arrested them instead. So I got shifted to another foster home.” Lee scribbled on the pad.

  “You know martial arts?” Lily asked.

  “Just a little.” Better not let her know too much Lee thought. Lee Lied as he wrote “just enough for some basic self defence.”

  “That’s an incredible story. If you feel calmer, we can go in together to get your backpack back. Come on stand up.” Lily said with a smile offering him a hand.

  Lee grabbed it and stood up.

  “Now let's teach you how to ask for it back. Dopy my signs. Lily said then signed and spoke. “I want my backpack back, now please.”

  Lee practiced the signs.

  Lee walked back into the classroom, he felt Lily’s hand grabbing him to indicate she needed him to wait. She went and signed something to the sign language interpreter who came and stood nearby Lee.

  “Go ahead Lee. Tell him. Tell him using sign.”

  Lee's heart raced as he walked over to Jackson, who was still holding onto his backpack. He repeated the sign’s Lily just taught him. "I want my backpack, now please," Lee signed. The translator stepped forward and interpreted Lee's sentence.

  Jackson's eyes narrowed at him. "your not deaf," he stated. You’ve reacted to me when I called to you with your back turned.

  Lily rolled her eyes. “He’s mute.”

  Jackson turned back to Lee, his eyes searching for an explanation. "Are you saying you don't talk to me because you can't?" he asked, sounding offended.

  Lee pulled out the note pad and wrote “My voice box is badly damaged and my body rejects the voice box implants, so I physically cannot speak.”

  Jackson scowled and then let go of Lee's backpack and walked away without saying another word. The tension in the air dissipated and Lily let out a small sigh of relief.

  Lee's pen scratched against the notepad as he wrote "Thank you,”

  “You welcome.” The rest of class Lily taught Jackson a few basic signs.

  The bell rang Lee sighed in relief, it was the end of the day. Lee walked towards the graveyard and stopped in front of three graves labeled Janice Night, Eric Night, and Lee Night. Not for the first time he wondered who was buried in his grave. To say that the foster system messed up his paper work was an understatement. Lee shook his head in frustration, their idiocy ended up hiding him better than the silent witness protection program ever could.

  He was not “Allen Lee Curtis” as the foster records showed. He frowned wondering what happened to the actual Allen Lee Curtis. Could it be that whoever he was was the one in Lee’s grave?”

  “I remember Mom, I remember Dad. I know you weren’t my real parents.” Lee thought towards their graves as tears streamed down his face. “But that doesn’t make a difference does it. You loved me as a son even as you guarded me from the people who would have tried to kidnap me. Thank you, and I’m sorry. If I had trusted you I wouldn’t have stupidly hacked and got on the regular internet and you would still be alive because they wouldn’t have found me.” Lee said as he sat down in front of their graves.

  “I’m going to find them. I’m going to find Mom and Dad.” Lee thought as the last bit of winter sunlight started to fade. “Until then I’m not going to let another kid lose their parents like I did.” Lee thought as he put the dark glasses over his eye and then a ski mask over that. He took off his school closed and rolled down the sleeves of his body suit. He didn’t bother with gloves the people who had kidnapped him from his parent to experiment on him had seared of his finger prints plus he needed to have his skin physically touching the wall to be able to climb up it. Dr. Alvin had a thing for designing his experiments after animals. A gecko for his hands and feet, a chameleon for his skin, and the most embarrassing was the flaps of skin that allowed him to glide from the flying squirrel. He shifted his fingers and toes to be the same shade of black as his body suit. He was ready to go meet up with Silver Blade. He sighed the man was annoyingly loud and did not know how to be subtle or quiet, but he was a good fighter and could actually communicate to give evidence to the police so Lee put up with him.