Career Day, Lorelei Everleigh, Please!

[Dani Johnson]

Dani walked into the gymnasium of his high school. Tables were scattered in an organized fashion around the floor. There were a number of students who were looking at the different tables, seeking out possible career options for their futures. Others were just milling about wasting time and using career day as an excuse not to go to class.

Dani felt the hand of his interpreter on his shoulder. He turned to see her sign at him, asking where he would like to go first and if he had any particular interest in anything. He shook his head, Not really. I think I’m just going to go browse. See what there is.

It still felt weird to have an interpreter to follow him everywhere. He would have liked to have told his interpreter that he didn’t need her to come with him, but he knew that in order for him to be able to understand anything that the people in the gym said, he would need it to be interpreted. Even though he had a Cochlear, it was difficult for him to hear any of the guest speakers in the gym. With the high noise level, it was a challenge for him to be able to focus on just one voice. Even though he could read lips, not everyone spoke clearly. With his luck he would find a career that he liked but, the person would mumble their answers to his questions.

An hour passed of looking up and down the rows of tables. Dani felt his interpreter tap him on the shoulder. I’m sorry but I have to use the restroom. Will you be okay to go around on your own for a bit?

Yeah, I’ll be fine. There aren’t a lot of students around so I can hear better. And I am comfortable talking to people too, Dani replied.

A strange feeling of abandonment crept over him as he watched his interpreter leave the gym. He felt a little silly for it, but he was the only deaf person in Fork’s High School. No one knew how to sign, aside from the occasional student who knew their ABC’s. But even finger spelling things to them was pretty hopeless because it took them a long time to figure out what he was trying to spell to them. Which Dani didn’t hold against them, it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t know his language. He knew that it was difficult to learn a new language. Dani had been fairly young when he had been taught how to speak. He still had a stuttering problem and he had difficulty pronouncing certain words, but he was still able to manage. He wasn’t mad at the students who did attempt to talk to him with hand gestures when his interpreter wasn’t around. When people did talk to him he could understand them as long as they spoke clearly and at a steady pace. He only had trouble deciphering certain words.

Dani took a deep breath and forced himself to move on. He had managed to function at school before he had been able to get an interpreter, what made today any different. He scanned the thinning crowd of students and spotted a table for Forensics. Crime shows were one of Dani’s favorite things to watch, it couldn’t hurt to see what the real thing was like. He made his way over to the table. He didn’t see anyone around for it at that moment. Earlier in the day he had spotted a woman at the table. He wondered where she had gone, but it made him relax slightly. He wouldn’t be put into a situation where he would have to speak if no one was around. No one would have to hear his stammering attempt of speech. He quietly stood in front of the table, gazing down at all of the different displays and handouts that were on the table.

A smile came to his face when he spotted a brief description of a process that was used to find fingerprints at a crime scene. He leaned in close to the tri-fold board to get a closer look, he didn’t notice the three boys that were sneaking up behind him.

All of a sudden, Dani felt a strong hand grab onto his shoulder, making him jump. He spun around to see who had touched him and felt his stomach drop when he saw who it was. It was Bryan, Derek and Adrien, the group of guys who had picked on him since his first day.

Bryan snickered as he looked down at Dani, who was only chest high against to the giant senior.
“Sorry, ‘bout that Dani. Didn’t mean to scare ya,” he said. “Oh wait, you can’t understand what I say. I know something that you definitely know what it means.” He then proceeded to make a number of obscene jestrues at Dani.

“Hey where’s that lady who talks for you? Where’s your babysitter?” snickered Adrien.

“S-She’s n-not my b-babys-sitter,” Dani stammered. He could feel the heat rushing to his face.

“Yeah, with a stammer like that, no wonder you don’t talk,” said Derek.

“P-Please, just g-go away,” Dani said quietly, looking at the floor. He knew that by talking he was just making things worse for himself, but he couldn’t allow himself to just stand there and take it.

“No, I can’t do that. I came all the way over here to make sure that you were okay and you understood everything that this lady was saying,” said Bryan. He reached down ruffled Dani’s hair.

Before Dani knew what he was doing, he raised his hand and knocked Bryan’s hand away. But in the process, Bryan’s hand got caught on Dani’s Cochlear and caused it to be ripped away from his head. He had no idea where it landed; all that Danu knew now was that he was completely deaf and vulnerable. If he ran he wouldn’t know if they were chasing him or if he would be able to lose them. He knew that he had to find his Cochlear but, his goal was quickly changed to not being beat up.

“What the hell was that for, you little punk?!” yelled Bryan. He shoved Dani, who stumbled back into the display table, but managed to remain standing. He hadn’t heard a word that Bryan had said.

Bryan along with Adrien and Derek, pulled Dani through the side gym door next to the table, into an empty hallway. The three boys surrounded him, trapping him in the far corner of the hallway, just out the of the view of the gym.

The boys continued to yell profanities and call him names, none that Dani could hear, nor chose to lip-read. He started at the floor, the grey tiles starting to blur against his will. Then he felt some one grab a fist full of his hair, forcing his head up, making him look into the faces of the bullies. Moments later he felt a fist make contact with his stomach. He doubled over, feeling his lunch rise in his throat, but somehow he managed to keep it down. Then the fists and hands kept on coming.

Dani did his best to yell. He tried his best to call for help, but he had no idea if he successfully formed the word ‘help’ let alone the phrase ‘help me’. All he heard was silence. He was afraid, not knowing if he was even being heard. By the force that he was using to say the words, he would have liked to think that he was shouting, but for all he knew he could be whispering.

[Lorelei Everleigh]

“Career day!?” Lorelei all but yelled into the phone “You have got to be fucking kidding me”
“You’ll only be there for a few days and-“
“Damn it Steve I’m a biochemist not a teacher”
“Have you been watching star trek again?” Her boss mused; she could hear the smirk in his voice.
“Shut up! I’ve done a lot for this company and frankly I find it insulting that you’re sending me off to some high school to try to make hormone jacked teenagers understanding something about forensics science!”
“Don’t take it as an insult-“ her boss began
“Too late”
“Come on lore, it’s not an insult! You’re the only one smart enough who can explain it to kids.”
“Don’t try to placate me now. Why is it always me? Is there ever going to be a time when I can just sit back and actually do my work?”
“This is work”
“Bull shit. This is them using me to make them look good”
“And hiring you didn’t do that already?”
Lorelei paused at that. She wasn’t vain or self absorbed but she knew when she was good at something.
“That’s different I wanted the job. However I don’t want to go skipping around to high schools giving demonstrations to people who won’t even retain it twenty minutes later because they’ll be too busy smoking their brains away.”
“Think of it as a vacation. You won’t have to say much just stand there and answer any questions as easily as possible. Besides you’ll be in Forks, it’s a cute town. Lots of trees, relaxing atmosphere and you don’t have to pay for it!”
She took another long pause “I don’t have a choice do I.”
“Not one sliver.”
“Fuck you Steve” it wasn’t serious and he knew that, he laughed.
Steve was the type of boss that she joked around with, he was like her big brother.
“I owe you one”
“You know you’re racking up a lot of debt in that department. You better pay up good like…an all expense paid trip to Italy for a week!”
He laughed again
“The best part is you think I’m joking” she smirked
“Well we’ll talk about it.”

He gave her all the details when her flight would be leaving, where she would be staying etc. He even went as far to hire a driver for her over there as well since she couldn’t drive herself. So Lorelei packed her suitcase estimating for about a week and tried to look at it as he said…as a vacation. High School students were the worst. Bullies, lazy, rude and incompetent. She could remember high school and how terrible it was for someone with a disability and she had no patience for people who picked on others because something was “wrong” with them. Idiots. They’re just afraid of things they don’t understand, like children. And that’s exactly what they were.

*Welcome to Forks*

When she stepped out of the car in the small town of Port Angeles, only about twenty minutes or so from Forks, she could smell the air was thick with rain. Not only that but there was a lot of vegetations as well. The air was so incredibly…clean and filled with so many different scents that it threw her off for a moment. When she asked her driver to describe it for her she wasn’t surprised to hear him say there were forests everywhere, grass, trees, shrubs etc. It was entirely green. She was beginning to like it though, the air was refreshing though the dampness made it chillier she didn’t mind.

Lorelei went to her hotel room with no assistance, she preferred it that way. She felt along the wall for the plaque with the room number, searching for the Braille code that would tell her when she reached her destination. All the way at the end of the hall, 10th door to the right on the first floor. She unlocked the door and stepped it and began to get acquainted with the space.

It took only about an hour or so before she had started going over papers, her fingers skimming the Braille printed sheets hoping that the information was at an understandable level to high school students. It was just information on things they would probably think was cool. Such as finger print analysis, black light for bodily fluids and analyzing blood and tissue samples etc.
She then picked out her outfit, feeling the studded to tags to figure out which was which. A simply white blouse with a black pencil skirt she thought would suffice. Nothing fancy after all, they were only 17 year olds.

Once everything was done she settled down in the bed and fell asleep, her I-pod in playing soft classical music. Of course her Violin was with her, nestled safely in the corner of the room. She never went anywhere without it. Long distance rather, because it wasn’t as if she took it to the grocery store with her. She calmed her mind and fell asleep with her alarm set to 7.

The school smelled just like any other high school, it even felt just like it should. It was weird thinking that but that was the only way she could really base things on scents and feelings both physical and emotional. The gymnasium echoed the sound of her heels and cane right back at her. Someone set up her table for her but she had set up everything just wanting to be alone for a moment. She set up the poster board Meg had made, they had both gotten a kick out of it and ended up spending part of the evening talking about middle school and high school science fairs.

Around 10 o’clock or so students started filing in the noise got increasingly loud and the fluorescent lights of the gym were slightly agitating. She put on a charming smile and ignored the feeling of people’s eyes curiously on her face. A few students even asked why she was wearing sunglasses inside to which she always answered honestly. There were a couple that asked about the display but for the most part they just looked and kept moving.

She had just moved away from her table to get a drink of water when a boy had come up to it. He didn’t say anything so she assumed he was just going to look. Carefully she made her way to the water fountain but something caught her attention back at her table. She zeroed in on the sounds, a boy was stuttering but he was speaking too quietly for her to hear at her distance. But it was clear someone was picking on him, the bullies were being loud and she was surprised a teacher hadn’t intervened yet but it occurred to her that perhaps that there weren’t any in the room. But why hadn’t another adult stopped it? Lorelei was making her way back to the table, her thirst forgotten but she couldn’t get there in time before one boy started yelling. By the sound of it one was shoved into her display table, the poster board fell to the floor.

By the time she got there she heard the door to the side of her table shut and she hurried after them, worry filling her from the stuttering boy. When she stepped into the hallway the boy was crying for help, his voice hoarse and by the tone of his speaking she wondered if he had slight hearing problems.
“Hey!” she yelled following the sounds of the struggle “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She demanded.
The boys stopped instantly and let go of whoever they were holding, shocked into silence.
“Who the hell are you?” One demanded
“Lorelei Everleigh, I work for the F.B.I” she said coolly and again there was silence.
“Bullshit. Let’s see your badge.”
She pulled it out of her pocket and opened it smoothly.
“What do you want lady?”
“I want you to leave the kid alone and get your asses back to class before I drag them there.”
The boys hurried away and she waited until their footsteps disappeared.

She knelt where she heard the other boy breathing and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you alright?” she asked but before he could answer a woman came hurrying down the hall.
“Oh my god!” she was saying “what happened?”
Lorelei stood, the woman’s loud voice was echoing all around which made it hard for her to pin point where she was exactly.
“I saw some kids roughing him up.”
“What did they look like?”
“I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you”
“What do you mean you don’t know? What are you bli-“
She must have looked at Lorelei because she cut herself off “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
“Don’t worry about it. Is he alright? I tried asking him but-“
“He can’t hear you, he’s deaf. And it looks like he lost his cochlear implant.”
The woman hands began moving, she could hear her fingers brushing against themselves and she knew she must be signing to the child.

[Dani Johnson]

Dani didn't know what was happening. One minute he was getting beaten up, the next, the hitting had stopped. He stayed frozen, sitting in the corner. He took the opportunity to quickly pull his knees in front of him to protect himself better before they could start hitting him again. He kept his arms over his head and his face hidden. His body ached from where he had been punched, but he didn't think that there was any serious damage. He had had worse before. His only worry now was to find where his Cochlear implant went. His mother would be very upset with him if he lost it, and he would be very upset with himself as well.

He cried out when he felt someone touch him, but he allowed himself to look up when the hand started to gently rub his back. He felt someone take his hand and start signing that it was okay, into it. He slowly raised his tear streaked face. A couple of bruises had already started to form against his pale skin and he could tell by the metallic taste in his mouth, that his lip was bleeding.

His interpreter frantically apologized and asked if he knew who had been hurting him and if he was okay.

I'm okay, just a little shaken up that's all, he tried to reassure his interpreter. It was Ryan and his two friends again. I'll be okay. Thank you for helping me

That woman over there was the one who got those boys to stop.

Dani looked up at the young woman who also stood over him. She was wearing sunglasses, which he thought was a bit odd. But he didn't care what she was wearing, he was so grateful for her help.

His interpreter asked him if he knew where his Cochlear went. Dani told her what he remembered, Bryan touching his head and then it suddenly not being there. He guessed that it was somewhere in the gym by the Forensics table. His interpreter told him that she would get it for him then she was going to take him to the nurse. Dani nodded and watched her say something to the woman.

"I'm sorry to ask you this but would you mind just staying with him a moment while I find his Cochlear? I'll be right back."

He looked back up at the woman who had helped him. "T-thank you," he said,and signed at the same time. He didn't know how clearly he was speaking, he hoped that she could understand him a little.

If she said anything back to him, he wouldn't be able to understand her very well. The best he could do was try to read her lips.

He winced as he pushed himself up into a more dignifying sitting position. He took a sharp intake of breath when he straightened his back. His stomach ached from being hit so hard, and he still felt nauseous from it. He leaned his head against the wall but kept his eyes open. He had to rely on his eye sight to know what was going on until he got his hearing back.