Of course I don’t tell Mia. Fact is, I haven’t even met Mia yet. She’s coming tomorrow, so they say, but there’s still a whole day before that happens. A whole day for fun.
After the morning’s talk, it’s like I find energy I never knew I had. We go down to the pool in the afternoon, me, Freya, Charlotte and the boys. It’s warm, sunny and funny. Truck specialises in bomb dives, he signs to me. ‘You’re gonna get wet,’ he warns.
‘You think so?’ I tease back. ‘You wish.’
But he’s not kidding. When he jumps in, it’s like the pool loses a third of its water. “Argh!” I scream. I’m as wet as anyone can be. ‘That’s it, buddy.’ I jump in and try to splash him, but he’s clearly more practiced in a pool than I am and I end up clinging to the side, wet and giggling my head off.
Charlotte’s wearing a swimming cap with her braid tucked into it. ‘Hey, the Year Tens are coming,’ she signs.
‘With a camera,’ signs Freya. ‘What’s the deal?’
The deal is a camp video, according to Sam, a tall Year Ten girl with blonde hair. ‘We need you guys to dance for it,’ she tells us. I immediately want to shrink down into the warm water. Dance? For a video? I don’t think so.
But Freya jumps out of the pool, and then Truck jumps out after her, and grabs my hand to pull me out. ‘You too,’ he says. ‘We gonna shake it, baby.’ He signs it with such a funny grin on his face that I laugh all over again.
Freya stands us in a line and makes us practice some moves.
“What’s the beat?” she asks Sam, who taps out a simple rhythm. One, two, three, four.
We step and shimmy and then Truck does a version of twerking which even makes Nick look up from the game he’s on.
‘You’re crazy, dude,’ he signs. ‘No way I’m doing that,’ but in the end, we all do it too, laughing our heads off.
‘I think Truck likes you,’ says Freya, when we’re getting ready for bed after dinner and games.
‘What? No,’ I sign. I turn to the mirror and focus on my toothbrush, but I can see my cheeks turning red.
‘He totally does,’ signs Charlotte. ‘He’s in love with you.’
‘Nooo,’ I protest. But there’s a smile on my face that I can’t wipe off.
In the morning we all play touch footy again. This time I can follow the rules better, and I even pass the ball one time so that Truck can score a try. He gives me a grinning high five when he sprints back.
‘Awesome.’
I smile back and keep running. Halfway through I’m puffed, but I don’t feel bad, like I normally do when I have to play sport. Somehow this time it’s easier.
But then, everything’s easier, today.
Auslan is easier, today.
Following conversations is easier, today.
Feeling happy is easier, today.
Nick taps my arm after the game. ‘Jazmine, I’m adding you on Facebook and Messenger.’ He bends down to his phone, and it’s like a trigger for everyone else to get theirs out.
‘Good idea,’ says Freya. Charlotte and Truck do it too, and I grin and pull my own phone out. There’s a message from Gabby, which I look at quickly - nothing important, just ‘hey, what are you doing?’ kind of stuff - and type back a reply.
I’m at camp. It’s awesome. Text you soon and tell you everything.
I smile to myself. Gabby would love camp - if she knew Auslan, of course. She’d love Truck no matter how he communicated, though. And Charlotte and Freya too, although she’d probably tell Nick to get his head out of his technology. She was constantly telling her Dad to stop checking his phone last time I was there.
‘Lunch yet?’ signs Truck. ‘I’m hungry.’ He overemphasises his sign for hungry and makes huge eyes, and I laugh.
‘Now, I think,’ I sign.
‘Woo woo,’ signs Freya. ‘Falling in love.’
I turn away, embarrassed. But Truck just shrugs and grins. ‘Whatever,’ he signs to Freya, and turns to me. ‘Lunch?’
‘Sure,’ I sign. ‘Let’s go.’
Lunch is salad wraps with ham or chicken. I eat two; Truck has five. Freya just watches, open-mouthed as he eats. ‘You’re a pig, Truck.’
‘I’m a growing Truck,’ he signs. ‘A hungry, growing Truck.’
‘I can’t believe…’ she begins, and then breaks off, flicking her head towards the main door of the dining room. ‘Oh!’ She half stands up. ‘She’s here.’
I stop and look, like everyone else around me is doing. All the conversations have broken off, and the total focus is on the doorway, where a girl is leaning against the doorframe, watching, a backpack slung over one shoulder.
Mia.
It must be. Freya is out of her seat, almost running to the end of the room, and Charlotte is waving enthusiastically next to me. She pokes me in the arm. ‘It’s her,’ she signs. ‘Mia.’ The smile on her face is huge, but I see her swallow hard.
She’s nervous.
I look back to Mia, now hugging Freya and slinging her backpack off into a corner. She seems alright - normal and friendly, not the kind of person who makes other people nervous. It’s not until she starts walking across the room, between tables, heading towards our group, that I see what it is about Mia that’s making Charlotte play anxiously with the edge of her t-shirt.
It’s her confidence.
It’s in everything about her: her walk, almost a swagger; her posture, upright, owning the room; her smile that says ‘I’m the boss of this camp, and everyone in it’.
I feel my own throat go slightly dry, and I clench my fingers together, but no one even looks at me. Not Charlotte, not Truck, not Nick. They’re only looking at Mia.
She arrives at our table.
‘Seat for you,’ signs Nick. ‘Kept it free just in case.’
Mia takes the seat, without even answering. Her eyes turn to Charlotte. ‘Hey,’ she signs. And to Truck, ‘Fatter than last year, eh?’
Truck laughs. ‘You’re still too skinny.’
Mia turns to Nick. She’s smiling. ‘I beat your score on that Hex game you sent me. Loser.’
I’m even more nervous now. Is this the way Mia talks to people? I can’t tell if she’s just straight forward, or rude. What will she say to me, and will I be able to cope?
I find out, right then.
Mia looks at me, and then around the table. ‘Who’s this?’ she signs.
‘New kid.’ Charlotte jumps into the conversation super quickly. ‘Jazmine. She’s nice.’
Mia shrugs and then turns straight to me. ‘Deaf, or Hard of Hearing?’
I’m surprised by the question, and I hardly know how to answer. Mia’s face gets impatient. ‘Are you Deaf? Or just hard of hearing?’ she repeats.
‘Hard of hearing,’ I sign, slowly.
She stares at me. ‘Have you always lived around here?’
I almost forget my numbers, and my signs are awkward. ‘About five years.’
‘So, why haven’t you come to camp before?’
‘I didn’t know it was on.’
She gives me a look like I’m stupid, turns away from me and starts chatting with the others. And that’s that. I’m on the outside of the group once again.
We wait for Mia to get her lunch and eat it. By the time she finishes, everyone else except the Year Eight group has left the dining room. I don’t leave, although it’s not like anyone around our table would miss me if I did; because Mia is ignoring me, it seems like the others are too. And it’s harder to follow the conversation now that she’s here. She signs super-fast, too quickly for me to catch everything, and it seems like everyone else has picked up the pace as well.
I’m disappointed, but I can’t do anything about it.
It’s not until we’ve finally left the dining room, and are heading out to the afternoon’s activity, making kites, presumably to try to fly them on the oval when we’re done, that Freya taps me on the shoulder.
‘Jazmine,’ she signs.
‘Yes?’
‘Don’t be upset, okay?’
I make a confused face at her. ‘What do you mean?’
‘About Mia. I know she’s, you know…’ She makes a face at me, and rolls her eyes a bit. ‘She never liked me either, at first. Not until she got to know me. She doesn’t talk to new people, she’s just like that. Give her time. She’s awesome when you get to know her.’
‘Okay,’ I sign. I grin at her. ‘I guess so.’