Give Me a Sign(41)

“And you don’t know me. Maybe I’ll murder you in your sleep.” Shit, I might’ve matched her dark humor with a little too much severity. I can’t read her face right now; she’s so serious. Just because I can speak to her like a peer doesn’t mean we’re familiar enough to goof like this.

I’m about to apologize for the joke when Phoebe bursts out laughing.

“Guess I wouldn’t see it coming. Or I’ll get you first, since you wouldn’t hear it coming.”

“Ah, touché.” I like this girl. Maybe we would be friends if I hadn’t missed the last few years of camp. “All right, I’ll catch you later.”

The campfire is about a third of a soccer field away where Natasha is pushing Isaac to stand, nodding in my direction. He realizes I’m there with a camper and jogs over. I walk toward him as Phoebe goes on her way without me.

“Is she okay?” he asks me.

I glance back, watching her walk into the bathhouse, and nod. “Yeah, just a bathroom trip.”

He nods back to the campfire. “We’ve got pizza.”

“I know,” I sign, holding up my own box.

“Right.” He runs a hand through his dark hair and avoids looking straight at me when he signs, “My friends want you to come sit with us.”

“Do you”—I say and sign one-handed—“want me to?”

No hearing boy would stare at your lips this much unless they were about to kiss you. But Isaac is just watching what I’m saying.

“Yes.” He nods nervously. “Yes, I want you to sit with us.”

I smile. That’s a good sign.

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

* * *

Phoebe makes it back to her cabin. None of the other campers emerge tonight, but fortunately, I don’t even need excuses to get away from the campfire, because I’m holding my own.

Natasha and Jaden carry the bulk of the conversation, but I follow along all right, still worried about slowing things down by chiming in. But whenever I get lost, Isaac seems to intuitively know. He lifts a single finger to the side of his head, flicking it up once while raising his eyebrows in question. “Understand?”

If I nod, he smiles and jumps right back into the conversation without missing a beat.

If I furrow my brow and shake my head, he backtracks and figures out what I missed. “——， water m-e-l-o-n, you know, red, green fruit? Watermelon. Jaden and I played baseball with a big, round one. I threw it high, and Jaden hit it.” Isaac turns his shoulders, role shifting to demonstrate Jaden’s actions, holding his hands overhead and mimicking a sword. “Whoosh, sliced right through.” With increasingly animated movements, incorporating more and more ASL grammar, Isaac demonstrates the watermelon exploding, over both him and Jaden, chunks sticking to their hair and juice running down their faces.

“Really?” I laugh. “Are you serious?”

“True business, that really happened.”

I stare across the fire, watching his eyes crinkle as he grins. It almost feels like the beginning of summer again, before I went and made everything awkward between us.

Chapter Fifteen

The campers are excited for tonight’s dance—the first one of the summer—and the counselors are eager for a staff outing that will follow. Gary and the nurse will stay on-site while the rest of the staff gets Saturday night off. It’ll be our first long break after two weeks with the campers. All conversations during the day revolve around plans for the evening.

Before lunch, our cabin tries to decide what song to perform for the talent show, which is happening before the dance. And by “decide,” I mean bicker. Although we’re all wearing matching friendship bracelets, we haven’t achieved group unity yet. The girls are zoning in on one pop hit, but Blake has yet to relent.

“I don’t want to sign anyway,” she complains.

“If you don’t want to, then why does it matter what they pick?” I ask.

“Fine.” She crosses her arms and lies back on the grass while the rest of the girls practice together in a circle. But I notice Blake is singing along to the loud music, just refusing to move her hands.

I nudge her. “Hey, try it with me. I still have to learn a lot of the words, too.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Okay, well, what else are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?” She sits up.

“Well, we’re all going to be signing this song. So, are you going to dance? Sing out loud? Or fall asleep on the stage?”

Blake makes a face. “Why would I do that?”

“You’re falling asleep now, aren’t you?” I smile, trying to coax her into lightening up. “Come on, try signing with me. We can make mistakes together!”

“Fine, only because you’re being so annoying about it.” Blake follows along with the other girls but quickly grows frustrated and stops.

“Maybe she’s not smart,” Honey signs, giggling with another camper.

“Hey!” Mackenzie says and signs, waving toward Honey. “Don’t say mean things.”

“What’d she say?” Blake asks.

I shake my head, nonchalant. “Nothing, really.”

“I want to play my favorite game now,” Honey signs. She turns to the side to mimic a second player. “Honey, if you love me,” she signs back in the direction where she’d been standing, then turns back around to embody herself again. “I love you all.” She blows kisses to the other girls.