“What did you say to me?”

The boy shoved her, hard. Maxine whimpered as she caught herself on the concrete, her palms scraping against gravel. She let out a wet cough, lifting an arm to try and smother the hacking sounds as she looked up at the boy above her. He had a near-feral grin on his lips as he spun the medical mask she had been wearing in a desperate attempt to not get everyone sick.

Dust covered her new jacket. The boy let the mask fall, catching it under his foot and crumpling it. He ground his heel into it, and Maxine grew more frustrated, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

I just wanted to get through school today.

She wondered if there were any masks left in her bag. She had to change them before each class; the act of simply walking around was laborious, she panted and wheezed against the cloth. Now she was fighting back tears from the ache in her hands and the cruel people in front of her. The one who had pushed her looked filthy. His hair hung in greasy clumps, and his face was dimpled with acne scars.

She kept her head down and reached for her bag; it was missing. A boy with a buzz cut was crushing the bag with his foot. Her lip began to quiver.

The bag was new too, a gift from her mother for starting the year at a new school. And now it had a giant, dirty footprint right in the middle of it. The one at the front sneered, leaning down to get closer to her face.

“Are you deaf as well as dumb? What did you say to me, you little brat?” He hissed, making Maxine’s nose crinkle as she got a smell of his pungent breath. She shook her head, sucking back a sniffle filled with mucus from the tears as well as the rotten head cold that had lingered for far too long.

“I-I said don’t touch me. You’re gross!” She hiccuped, the sharp intake of breath quickly turned into a cough, and instinctively, she dipped her head into her elbow. The boy growled, reached down and gripped her shirt, making Maxine squeal. Before the boy could say anything else, a sharp whistle pierced the air.

Both of them turned to look at a girl who had shouldered her way through the door and into the school’s courtyard. Maxine blinked, recognizing the senior from one of her classes. She wracked her brain for a name that simply wasn’t there. The dark, freckled girl kept to herself, never uttering a word – this was understandable, considering she couldn’t hear.

The only thing Maxine knew about her was that she had a younger brother and chose to attend public school despite the possibility of being alienated. Maxine felt bad for her, unable to imagine what it must be like to live in a silent world.

The girl grunted, looking at the three boys and then to Maxine, making a motion as though she were waving them off, a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. The junior gripping Maxine’s shirt sneered but released her, turning toward the older girl.

“What was that?” he hissed. “We can’t hear you.”

“G-o a-way,” she mumbled, her voice garbled and awkward. Maxine could see why she never spoke in class. She didn’t blame her, picturing a younger version of this girl being laughed at for garbled syllables and a too soft or too loud voice, unable to hear herself.

The boy standing on Maxine’s bag moved his foot enough for her to snatch it away. She sniffled, seeing the footprint in the middle of it.

“Piss off, this isn’t any of your business,” the boy growled. The freckled senior ignored them and approached Maxine. The junior stepped in her way.

“Oh,” he said, feigning an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry. I forgot freaks like you only know sign language. Well, do you know what this means?” He flashed her his middle finger. The two beside him whooped with laughter.

The girl let out a hiss of laughter before taking a step back. Maxine panicked, wanting to call out to her despite knowing it would do no good. The words had barely left her lips when the senior’s leg snapped up, swinging and catching the boy square in the temple. The thwack of foot against skull made the other boys pause as they watched their friend crumple to the ground like a rag doll.

One of them yelled and lunged at the girl with a raised fist. The girl caught him square in the nose with her own fist; he crumpled too. The last boy turned and ran off.

The senior extending a hand and pulled Maxine to her feet.

“Uh, th-thanks,” Maxine said, over-exaggerating the word. With her sleeve, the girl dabbed at Maxine’s tear-stained cheeks. Then she turned on her heel and headed off to the parking lot, keys in hand.

Maxine wondered how she could be so casual after knocking two boys unconscious; she acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. Stepping carefully over the duo, Maxine rushed to meet her mother at the school’s entrance.

        •         •

Erin looked up from the pencil she had been rolling across her desk as she waited for class to start. The little sophomore she had found being bullied yesterday stood in front of her. The girl tugged nervously at her sleeve before pointing to herself and beginning to sign her name, letter by letter: “Hello, my name is Maxine.”

When she was done, she bit her lip and rocked onto her heels. Erin stared in surprise before smiling widely. Leaning back in her seat, she raised her hand and pressed two fingers to her chin, moving them down and turning her hand into a thumbs up. Then, she slowly spelled out Erin.

Erin watched, amused, as confusion crossed the sophomore’s face. The bell rang, and Maxine waved meekly before shuffling to her seat. Erin watched Maxine settle into her seat and frantically type into her phone, her eyes scanning whichever page it had brought her to. It took a grand total of 23 minutes and two reprimands from the teacher for Maxine to get it.

At the end of class, the two made eye contact; smiling, Erin pulled out her phone, typed, and turned the screen to Maxine: “Took you long enough haha. Nice to meet you.”