The day had finally arrived. Zelda Harkinian's first day of elementary school—kindergarten!

The brunette girl wore a cute smile on her face as she trotted into the kitchen, clutching her purple backpack and throwing it on the table.

Zelda looked at her mother expectingly, grin deepening when she discovered that her mother had made pancakes for her. Those had always been her favorite breakfast. They were more like a treat, which is the main reason why she enjoyed them so much.

They both sat down at the kitchen table, Zelda immediately digging into her plate of chocolate chip pancakes and sighing when the delicious and fluffy pancakes entered her mouth. The chocolate and the pancakes blended perfectly together and made this morning twice as good.

"You excited?" Mother signed to her, and Zelda nodded eagerly as she continued to wolf her breakfast.

Finishing in an exceptional amount of time, Zelda grabbed her plate and skipped over to the dishwasher. She sloppily placed her plate and fork in there, skipping back over to Mother, who wore a proud grin on her face.

Mother cleaned up breakfast before doing anything else, and quickly got freshened up herself. When that was finished, she gently took Zelda's hand and lead her to the front of their driveway. The bus would be here soon.

"Momma, do you think the kids there will like me?" she signed, and it took Mother awhile to think of a suitable reply that wouldn't crush her hope and spirit.

"You're a wonderful girl, of course they'll like you. Just smile and wave to them, that's all they'll need," Mother signed, and Zelda nodded after she read her words.

The yellow bus pulled up beside Zelda's home, coming to an abrupt stop. The exhaust from the engine in the back released, leaving a smoky and disgusting scent traveling Zelda's way. When she got a whiff of the exhaust, she fanned her nose and coughed a bit.

Mother hated the smell too, but she couldn't help but giggle at little Zelda's reaction. It looked so innocent and pure to her.

Mother kissed Zelda on the cheek before she could take that first step on the bus that would take her away to a whole new world - school. Mother had always been anxious about this day, and now it was finally here.

And with Zelda being deaf, she began to wonder what the kids really would think of her daughter.

Pulling her into a tight hug, Mother felt tears brimming in the corners of her blue eyes. She didn't want to let go, but Zelda pulled away and smiled innocently at her mother. Oh, she was so innocent. She didn't know what she would enter.

Zelda skipped into the bus, the smile leaving her face once she saw the large row of kids sitting in the two person capacity seats. The colors of the bus were boring, with the bland gray seats and the basic white and black colored grounds. Zelda wondered if traveling on this every morning would really be worth it.

She would have to see after her first day of school was over.

The brunette girl smiled cutely at her new bus driver, who returned the smile but it was obviously forced. Zelda just didn't know that people faked happiness to be polite or make others not worry.

She didn't know what all of those negative thoughts meant. Wasn't everything happy and wasn't everyone happy?

Sitting down in the first seat on her left, she looked over at a boy with chestnut colored hair and striking blue eyes that reminded Zelda of her mother's eyes, in a way. But this boy's eyes were different. And Zelda had no idea what made them so different, but she loved them.

Zelda waved and smiled her signature cute grin again, looking straight ahead and out the front window of the bus. The boy just stared at her oddly, wondering why she hadn't spoken at all yet. All the other students have, even if they were shy or outgoing, they at least said hi to the bus driver.

He had said hello to the bus driver, so why hadn't she?

Zelda watched as the bus parked in one of the spots near the school, watching with bright eyes as other students of all ages entered the large building she had seen a few days before.

The bus doors opened, and Zelda saw the boy next to her wince and a few others as well. Why were they wincing? Had the doors opening produced some funky scent?

Ignoring this fact, Zelda stood up from her seat and tried getting off the bus. But a few other students from the other grades had already piled to the front, moving their mouths widely and smiling broadly. Shoving through the narrow aisles, Zelda almost tripped and fell over and on top of the chestnut haired boy.

She looked at him earnestly, hoping that he'd know how to get out of here. Should she just wait until everyone got off? No, then she'd be late!

The boy gave her an odd look and began to move his mouth around. Zelda noticed that a lot of people did that, but she herself had never done it - she didn't even know how to. She could open her mouth, but not like how everyone else did.

Zelda decided that she wouldn't be getting any help from this boy, so she slipped into the waves of her peers exiting the bus. Alas, she managed to get off of that vehicle.

She ran into the classroom—her classroom; she remembered its number and everything. Sitting down at one of the random circular tables and in one of the yellow chairs, she excitedly awaited for class to start.

The whole room had filled up with students, and Zelda saw her new teacher enter the room wearing a broad smile on her face.

She started to move her mouth around in a specific way, just like everyone else had. Zelda heaved a light sigh and began to fiddle with the pink bows on her outfit. If everyone was going to move their mouths, there was no point in her participating.

Moments passed, before someone next to her harshly poked her shoulder. Zelda glanced up and over at the person, noticing a red haired girl smiling innocently at her. The redhead moved her mouth, and Zelda noticed that after she had done that, everyone turned and glued their eyes on Zelda.

Zelda didn't know what was happening.

She just shook her head and looked down. She didn't look back up, but when someone touched her shoulder again she did.

It was the chestnut haired boy, and he was laughing at her. Why?

Everyone was laughing at her. Why?

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