The Silence Between Us

By the second month of school, Maya is used to life at Engelmann, but she still feels like an outsider. Nina is becoming a closer friend, but Maya wonders why no one else seems interested in getting to know her. Beau continues to learn more sign language, and she learns more about him: “Beau was Engelmann’s golden boy with all his student council work and academic achievements” (73), she says, and she points to the way he sits in his desk with one leg outstretched as evidence that “he definitely [knows] it” (73). She suspects that his interest in her is a ploy to pad his college applications with explanations of how he has helped a Deaf classmate. Kathleen questions Maya about why she avoids signing with Beau. Kathleen thinks Beau is nice and that he genuinely wants to be Maya’s friend, but Maya tells Kathleen that she is at school to learn, not to get a boyfriend.

At lunch one day, Nina invites Maya over to her house to prepare for the AP US History presentation they are giving together for midterms. Maya accepts because she would prefer to work at Nina’s house than her own at the moment. Connor is still having trouble adjusting to the altitude of their new home and is getting clingy and grouchy.