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“You don’t have to thank me for kissing you, Paisley. I’ll kiss you anytime you want me to. All you have to do is ask,”Luca signs with a smile, then hugs me.
CHAPTER26
PAISLEY
When Lucaand I get back to the kitchen, we actually work on our project with Atlas. For the next four weeks, we are going to feature each band member. So we decided to split them up and each work on one today that way the next three weeks are done. They did fight me on it. Their excuse was “then we won’t have any reason to spend time together.” I told them we can still do other homework in the meantime. It’s not like things are going to change when I get home if I do different homework. I’m still going to get hurt. No matter what.
Finishing up my week’s part of the project, I head over to Kade to see what he is doing. It looks like he’s working on our English homework. I wonder if he needs help. It looks like he has erased a lot.
“Hey, do you need help?” I sign.
“Maybe a little. Words are hard for me to comprehend sometimes. Having dyslexia doesn’t help me in English at all.”
“Hey, we all struggle with something, okay? So there is nothing to be worried about. I’d be happy to help. What are you struggling with?” I sign.
“Writing the words down. I keep mixing the letters up and the words up. When I go back and read them, they don’t make sense, even to me.”
“Okay do you want to maybe sign what you want to say, and I can write it down for you? That might be easier for you since ASL doesn’t use a sentence structure and there are no words or letters involved for the most part,” I sign excitedly.
“That’s a brilliant idea, Paisley. Guys, how come we have never thought of what Paisley just mentioned?” Kade shouts to his brothers.
“What did she say?” Mateo asks.
“She asked if signing would be better for me to explain answers than writing them down. So basically, I would just need help from one of you guys to write down what I’m signing and then I can just copy what you write instead of me trying to write down what’s in my head, since it gets scrambled,” he explains to Mateo and Atlas.
Once they get done discussing what I had said, Kade turns back and starts signing. I write down everything he says, and it feels like we get the homework finished in no time.
“Do you think you can help me read the book we have in English? I know that sounds weird since you aren’t verbal, but I think if I read it out loud and you can sign the words to me that I struggle with, maybe that might help me,” Kade asks.
“Sure. I don’t mind helping, though I don’t know how much I will be of help. Maybe we can work on it during lunch and in ASL. We can leave Luca to talk to himself about the multiverse while we do homework,” I sign while smiling and laughing.
That makes Kade laugh. Then it makes me smile, and I let out a laugh as well.
And I freak out. This is the second time tonight that I have made a noise that was voluntary. I look at Kade, and he looks at me with a smile.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. Yes. For once, I think it is. But I do think it’s about time for me to head home. It’s getting dark, and I need to go deal with Mother,” I sign, taking a deep breath and taking a few steps away from the conversation.
“We want to save you. Wearegoing to save you. Just give us time to figure out how to do it. Okay, Paisley?”
“It’s okay, Kade,” I sign honestly.
I touch his hand affectionately, letting him know that I meant what I said.
“You can’t save me, and that’s okay. You four giving me these moments means everything to me. I know eventually they will end, but I will cherish them for the rest of my life,”I sign with a sadness on my face.
Just then, a cat jumps into my lap, surprising me.
“Oh, that’s Pickles. He is basically Atlas’s. While he is technically all of ours, Pickles sleeps in Atlas’s bed more than anyone else. I’m kinda jealous. I wanted Pickles to like me too, but he just never became attached to me like he did Atlas,” he says, shrugging.
This floofball decides he is going to take pets and puts his head under my hand. I smile. I like him already. He is so soft. I give him a look-over, and he has that tuxedo look where he has a patch of white on his chest surrounded by black. There are also these cute white patches on his front paws and his nose, with his tummy being white, along with his back legs. He is honestly just so adorable.
He seems like a well-behaved cat, but from what I have read about cats, they seem to be independent and homebodies. Cats will come to you when they want attention, and it seems that Pickles wanted me to give him attention. It’s also nice to know that he wasn’t scared of me.
“Cats are supposed to be excellent judges of character,” Kade says.
Scratching behind his ears for a few more minutes and getting him to purr on my lap, I realize that it’s later than I intended to stay.
