Chapter Text
Martyn gripped his sister’s hand as she walked him down to reception, having to sign him in late. This had happened yesterday, 1 hour and 40 minutes late to his first day of school, but at least he was only 54 minutes late to his second day. Small steps his sister told him.
The school was already aware of his situation, it had been the same in Primary school so all coping mechanisms and his strategies were passed onto his new teachers.
His sister, Natalie, walked him to his current class, his English Literature class, this was also his first English Lit. class of High School.
“-be studying Jim Hawkins relationship with the other characters- oh hello.” The teacher stopped his sentence, turning his head to face Martyn before he and his sister had even entered the classroom, “Ah hello Martyn, Natalie. I’m very glad you could make it, Martyn.” The teacher’s voice was very nice, Martyn thought, he sounded like he could be an audiobook person.
Martyn simply nodded.
“Are you comfortable with sitting down at one of the tables or do you want to stand with your sister for a bit longer?” Unlike most teachers, this one didn’t sound judgmental or annoyed at all. It made Martyn feel safe.
‘Sit.’ He signed with one hand.
“Pick your table then.”
Martyn’s eyes glanced over the classroom, he counted 17 students, making him 18th one. He then saw a table that only had two people on it, it was the only table that had the least amount of people. He pointed to that table.
As he did Natalie kneeled down to his ear and quietly said to him, “I’ll come pick you up at lunch alright little biker.” Martyn nodded before giving his sister’s hand one more squeeze before slowly walking over to the table, table three the number in the middle gave away.
He placed his cartoon bus covered backpack on the ground as the teacher cleared his throat, earning the attention of the class onto him instead of Martyn.
“Ay, dude, you have a cool backpack.” One of the girls who had crutches leaning next to her said, their voices in a low whisper as the teacher explained the book they were meant to be reading this year.
Martyn nodded.
“Can you talk at all?” The other girl said, they both look identical apart from the fact one had a single braid and the other had a double braid.
“Carol and Carla Smithy, I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak whilst I’m speaking.” The teacher's voice rang out.
Martyn supposed it made sense the two girls, who he guessed were twins, had similar names. When both girls went silent, the teacher continued.
Eventually he got handed a book, Treasure Island, handed out, Martyn took one, lightly moving his fingers over the cover to feel the texture. It was a nice one. Soon enough he also got his English Lit. workbook. The texture was weird but not bad.
Mr Sims was his name, as Martyn learned as he got them to write his name on the front of the book. As the students copied out the instructions that Mr Sims put on the board for the class to write on their book and inside it, he came over to him and sat on one of the spare chairs.
“Do you want me to explain to you the details of what you missed or give you the notes on it?” Mr Sims was giving him a choice of having to be talked to or just reading notes?
With both hands he signed the word for notes but before he even finished signing the word, Mr Sims got up and grabbed a sheet of paper from his desk before placing it beside Martyn’s book. The paper had notes of the details of what they were to be studying, the rules of the classroom both in class and outside of class. Martyn, not looking at the man’s face at all, smiled at him.
“What’s your name?” One of the girl’s asked him once Mr Sims walked away to help another student, Martyn didn’t know which was Carol and which was Carla.
Martyn went to write on his hand the answer before he was stopped, “Don’t worry we know sigh! Our cousin is deaf so we learned sign for him.”
Martyn nodded, he then spelt out his name for them.
The girls then introduced themselves. Carol was the one with the single braid, and the closer he looked at her face, he saw a tiny mole on her nose. And Carla was the one with the double braids, crutches, and she didn’t have any moles.
“I was going to ask about your bag before Mr Sims stopped us, where did you get it from? It looks so cool.” Carla asked.
‘Charity shop. Sister brought for me.’
“Sick. Charity shops always have the best things, that's where we got our necklaces from.” Martyn knew that Carol and Carla showed them their necklaces, but he already felt uncomfortable looking at the two girls for such a long time, so he looked away to the side, pretending like he was still looking.
“Wanna be our friend, Martyn?” Carla then asked him. That shocked Martyn. No one ever asked to be his friend, the only friends he had was after his parents death, but after the pity left so did those friends.
The look of confusion on his face must have been a question to the twins as Carol began to talk, “Yeah, we wanna be your friend because, well, having a group of three is always better than just a pair. So do you want to be our friend?”
Martyn thought for a short while before nodding, putting his hand out. He knew that a handshake was very important, so if this friend was to be true, they gotta shake his hand. And it seemed like they understood as, at the same time, Carol and Carla shook his hand.
Second day of High school and he had some friends! Maybe Natalie was right, maybe he was going to be fine.