http://clampfix.fanworks.net/ccd-fix/silence3.txt </head><body><pre>{{Disclaimers, ratings, etc appear in part 1a}} ~ ~ = thoughts, memories, letters { } = conversational written notes # # = sign language * * = emphasis *** = scene change *** The 6Z girls gym class had almost finished running sprints while Suoh walked past on his way to karate practice. He caught sight of a familiar lavender bow on the dark head of one heat's leader. ~I didn't know she could run like that.~ Things were going much smoother in class 6Z, it seemed. Kaichou had charmed Abe-sensei into allowing his turn as interpreter to count as a project for English, as he was technically translating. Kellie-san's grades had improved dramatically, and she moved with much more confidence, even in gym class. ~I wonder if Kellie-san has considered entering the school track meet.~ He glanced toward the clock tower, satisfied that he was still early, and elected to wait a moment. Indeed, shortly after, Kellie-san jogged over to him, a towel around her neck. %Hi,% she signed slowly. Nokoru had been relentless in teaching his friends some of the signs he had learned, but neither boy had completely grasped them yet. Suoh nodded and gave her a slight smile. %You ...are...how?% She held her fingers up in a 'not quite' gesture, and changed the order of the signs to 'how are you?' With both Akira and Suoh, Kellie had developed a sort of pidgin ASL that meant less of their conversations had to be written. %Good,% she replied. %You?% He nodded again, then pointed to her and made running motions. %Fast,% he signed, then pointed back to her. "Like the wind," he said. "You're going to compete, aren't you?" To Suoh's surprise, Kellie-san waved her hands in front of her and shook her head quickly. %Oh, no!% Indigo brows lowered over tiger-eyes. "Why not?" She held up a finger and dashed over to her bag, which meant she had something to say beyond their crudely approximated sign language. Patiently, he waited for her to pull out something to write on. {Competing is too hard. I tried back in America, but since I can't hear the starting gun, I either false-started out of anticipation or wound up behind everyone. I've run in a few Special Olympics--they hold them every year for people with all sorts of disabilities--but I don't think I'm good enough to compete with normal people.} She dabbed at her forehead with the towel nervously. Not for the first time, Suoh wished he had Kaichou's sense of women. He felt like there was something very important he was missing, something he could have said or done to convince Kellie-san that there was no reason she couldn't compete with everyone else, that being deaf didn't mean the rest of her body and mind didn't work as well as anyone's. "You're fast," he repeated at last. "That's all you need to be." Another glance at the clock tower, and he hurriedly bowed and moved on to his lesson, making a mental note to see Nokoru about it later. Over coffee and apple pie in Council, the Secretary brought up his conversation with Kellie-san. "I think she stands a good chance of competing well, if not winning. There shouldn't be any reason why she can't." Pouring a refill, Akira nodded in agreement. He liked Kellie-san very much. She had much of the same spark and fire that Utako-san did. He hurried back over to the coffee cart before Kaichou or Takamura-sempai noticed he was blushing. "Aa." Nokoru ran the edge of his fan against his bottom lip, cerulean eyes clouded with thought. The light through the window cast a faint corona around the edge of his golden head as he contemplated. Dramatically, he flicked open his fan, which read "A perfect idea!" With catlike grace, he bounded out of his chair and stuffed the last bite of apple pie in his mouth. "Kaichou! Where are you going?" Suoh demanded. When he was in this kind of mood, he hated letting his One out of his sight. The devilish innocence that clung to him usually, if not always, meant trouble. Nokoru giggled blithely, a sound Suoh both loved and feared. "To change the world, Suoh!" *** The day of the Elementary School Track Meet dawned bright and sunny, with slight, variable winds blowing just enough to cool the air to comfort on the walk to the Salad Bowl Dome. Inside, the athletes preparing for competition warmed up, stretched, and bounced around nervously. Kellie took her time on the walk, committing to memory the layout of everything. Yesterday, her parents had told her that their stay in Japan would likely be cut short, extending only through the end of May instead of the full school term. Most likely, this would be her last week at school. It didn't seem fair, but then again, life wasn't fair, was it? She sighed soundlessly and glanced around for everyone. Akira-san and Utako-san were supposed to meet her at the gate so they could sit together. Suoh-san, Nagisa-san, and Nokoru-san would be joining them later. A breathless Akira-san and Utako-san ran up scarcely a minute after she arrived. "Come with me, please," Utako-san said, grabbing Kellie's hands and tugging her inside the entrance and down one of the ramps...not towards the stands but the locker room. "There's not much time to get you changed and ready to run." Run? Kellie shook her head fiercely. %I told Suoh-san I'm not running.% Inside the locker room, Nagisa-san was waiting, and she held out Kellie's running clothes and shoes. "Everything will be all right. Please change and then Takamura-san and Ijyuin-san will explain. Please hurry." ~Note to self,~ Kellie thought a few minutes later, tugging her shorts back into place while Utako-san and Nagisa-san dragged her towards the field. ~Never underestimate a pair of sneaky kindergartners.~ Warily, she looked around, feeling very exposed, and not just because of what she was wearing. This wasn't like running with the kids back home. This was CLAMP Gakuen. Every person who came here excelled in whatever he or she did. ~But you got in here, too. Doesn't that make you one of them?~ that same inner voice questioned. She shook her head, not wanting to have this discussion with herself right now. "Please forgive the pretense, Kellie-san." Akira-san pressed his hands together and bowed slightly. "Kaichou swore us to secrecy." Suoh-san stepped into view, getting Kellie's attention and then pointing past them to the track. "Do you see the lights down there at the end of the track?" She nodded. "They use them on racetracks and speedways in America, I'm told. The lights count down, and when it hits green, you start. All of today's competitions will be run the same way. Everyone entered will know exactly when to begin." He smiled just a bit. "Including you." It was overwhelming, all of this attention to detail, just for her sake...not to treat her specially, but to treat her the same. %I...don't know what to say.% A new figure stepped into view, wearing a familiar smile. "Don't say anything, then," Nokoru said softly. "Just run." *** No sooner, it seemed, than the preliminaries had begun that Kellie crouched behind the starting line, ready to run in the finals. She had placed second in each of her qualifying heats, and win or lose, she was thrilled just to be competing. Really competing. ~Just let me finish. That's all I want, to finish. To prove I can go the distance.~ She shook out her ankles and positioned her feet in the starting blocks. Breathe. Breathe. ~Today I'm not 'special'. Today I finally get to be like everyone else.~ First light. Mark position. Breathe. Breathe. Second light. Raise to set position, eyes front. Breathe. Breathe. Green light. Run. Run. Run! The runners came out of the blocks like a shot, clustered in a pack to fifty meters. Sixty. Some pulling ahead. ~I can do this.~ Seventy. Three girls in the lead. ~I'm still in it.~ Eighty. Two, neck and neck. ~A cheeky boy passing a note with a drawing of himself and a little teacup, refusing to give up or give in...~ Ninety. Running like the wind. ~I want...~ Ninety-five. ~...to...~ ~...WIN!~ The tape hit and broke across her chest, and the momentum carried her forwards almost another ten meters. Kellie bent over, catching her breath, feeling the thrum and pound of her heart, and slowly, still adrenaline-drunk, raised her head. And every person in the stands stood to their feet, raised their hands, and as one they applauded. But not in the manner of the hearing world. They held up their hands and wiggled their fingers, the ASL sign for clapping. For one moment in time, an entire stadium of people spoke her language. Happy tears streamed down her cheeks, and her knees wobbled under her. Strong arms from either side supported her...Suoh-san on her left, Akira-san on her right. Utako-san and Nagisa-san flanked her in front, spots of excitement bright on their cheeks. And the floods began, the crowds pouring out of the stands to congratulate her, to shower her in one more round of signed applause. It was too good to be true. New, familiar arms embraced her from behind, holding her tightly. ~Dad?~ Kellie turned around just in time for her mother to hug her as though she hadn't seen her in years. She hugged her back, reality only now dawning completely. She'd *won*. She couldn't see him in the crowd, but knew somehow he was watching. ~Arigatou gozaimasu, Nokoru.~ *** "That was most impressive, Nokoru-san." Rijichou stood to her feet, carefully readjusting the folds of her kimono. "Kellie-san was indeed an excellent runner, and that was most insightful of you, arranging for a truly fair competition to prove it. Well done." Nokoru folded up his fan and bowed slightly. "You know, she told me that one person can't change the world." Golden brows lowered just a bit in thought. "That may still be true, but I think that one person can change a campus, even if it's just for a day. And isn't this campus a sort of small world all of its own?" "Sou da ne," Rijichou replied softly. "Still, I can't help but think that Kellie-san was wrong. I think that there is one person out there who can change the whole world." He turned and looked over his shoulder, face wreathed in a heart-stopping smile. "I'd like to meet that person one day." He bowed again, this time in parting. "If you will excuse me, Rijichou, I have a lady to congratulate." Quietly, Imonoyama Nokoru slipped out of his mother's box to find his friends. Rijichou stepped to the one-way mirrored glass of the box's window, looking down on the excitement below, watching her blonde son laugh and celebrate. "One person who can change the whole world, ne?" As it often did, her mind turned to a sacred sword held in trust by the campus, kept aside for that one. For "Kamui". "Keep believing that, Nokoru-san. You'll certainly meet him some day..." Owari All of the stuff I'm sure I forgot to notate are my own errors, too. ^_^ Thank you for reading. *dissolves into complete goo and squishes off to bed* ~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~ Kea ("It rhymes with Princess Leia...") ImonoyamaGroup@aol.com AIM: Nokoru Rijichou Slave to a chibi Nokoru muse and worshipper of Evil Genki™ Images and Words ~ located at www.dreamscapestudios.net ~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>