Chapter 2 is uppp! :) Sorry they're taking much longer now! School's in and I just haven't found the time! I'll try my best though! :) Read and review! Much appreciated :D 3 xx

Thanks,

~ Twihardfan3194.

My mom's eyes looked like they were about to jump right out of their sockets. That had never been something that I wanted, and we both knew that for a fact. I was not sure what had changed my mind, but right now it seemed like the right thing to do. I felt like I was missing out on everything important in life due to my disability. I couldn't take it anymore.

"You want to what?" she asked with surprise, her voice catching.

"I want to get the cochlear." I sighed and buried my face in my hands. "I'm tired of everybody thinking that I am different. I want to be accepted. I want people to know me as someone who is just like them, not some retard who can't even speak to someone without having to read their lips to figure out what they're saying, or who needs a translator to follow her around at school because she can't pick up the quick words that her teachers are explaining or what other students are constantly babbling about. Everybody talks so fast that I can't keep up. I want to go and do things on my own terms without having to have someone be around with me twenty-four-seven!" I complained.

"Retard? Who on earth ever called you retarded?" my mother demanded, signing angrily.

"Just a girl from school. And many others behind my back, I'm sure—literally. If I can't see their lips, I can't hear them. Anybody can say what they want about me and I won't know because I can't hear a freaking word they're saying!"

"Now that does not sound like the Daphne Paloma Vasquez that I know."

"In the technical sense, I was never supposed to be Daphne Paloma Vasquez! None of this was supposed to be mine. I was not supposed to be the one who caught the bacteria that made me deaf, and I wasn't supposed to have the life that I have right now, trying to figure out what the heck is going on!"

I could tell the words I said hurt my mother, and I wanted so badly to take back every one of them. But I couldn't. It was too late and now I knew this discussion wasn't going to end well.

I took a deep breath and wiped a few tears away from my eyes. "Forget it. Just forget I said anything." I started to get down my stool when my mother walked around the table and placed her hand on my shoulder. She waited a minute until I would look up at her so she could speak to me, her signing more pronounced then earlier.

"You are beautiful. There is absolutely nothing that you should want to change about yourself. If the other kids at school can't accept you for who you are, then they aren't worth your time. Just don't do anything that you don't want to do. Do not let Katherine and John pressure you into something that could end badly for you. What about Emmett? Do you want to leave him alone?" she questioned.

"Emmett has other friends who are deaf. I would not be leaving him alone," I insisted, moving my hands in annoyance as I rolled my eyes. Did my mother think that I was the only friend that Emmett really had? I could name quite a few friends at Carlton that Emmett had, although I was the only one he really hung around.

But I couldn't help but think through her words. What would happen if I got the cochlear? What would happen to my friendship with Emmett? Would he shut me out, think of me as someone who would just betray him because she wants to be like everybody else?

I did have to agree with my mom. This isn't something I would normally do. I didn't normally let what other people had to say about me effect my decisions and wants. But after I had heard John and Katherine talking last night about the cochlear and telling my mother in the mansion, I couldn't help but start to have second thoughts on the whole surgery.

"Just think about it," my mother insisted, rubbing my shoulder before walking out of the room. I took an exasperated breath and turned around to walk back out the door. I needed to go see Bay. Although I knew Emmett would be with her too, I knew he also needed to know what I had to say.

I nervously knocked on the side of Bay's garage door, stopping dead in my tracks when I saw her and Emmett. They pulled away from their make out session and she looked at me curiously, not even bothering to look offended or sheepish with embarrassment. I had long come to accept Emmett's feelings for Bay, but every once in a while there was still that hit of jealousy that lurked in the furthermost corners of my brain.

Bay ran her hands over her dark curls and detangled her hand from Emmett's, standing up to walk over to me. She could read the expression on my face, I could tell by the way she looked at me with worry.

"What's wrong?" she asked nervously, signing very slowly.

"You don't have to sign for me. I can read your lips just fine," I said, annoyed.

Emmett's eyebrows furrowed and he came over to stand beside me. He put his arm around my shoulders and I shrugged him off, sitting down in a nearby cushioned chair. Bay's art cluttered the room, paints and pastels scattered all over the floor and in various corners of the garage. I spotted countless easels next to each other and spread apart, all painted written on. There was a pastel portrait of Emmett in one corner, newly finished. His grin was pronounced in the picture and he looked happy. I wished he would look that happy now.

"I want to," she insisted. "For Emmett."

I rolled my eyes and signed, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. I measured Emmett and Bay's expressions for a few minutes before blurting out, "I think I want to transfer back to Carlton." I mentally slapped myself. What was I doing? That had not been what I had wanted to say at all!

Bay's face was taken aback, surprised. She cleared her throat and looked at Emmett, who was a mirror of what Bay was showing. "Transfer back to Carlton? What's wrong with Buckner?" she asked slowly.

"Nobody wants me there," I insisted, angrily signing my hands out of habit. "I don't belong with you hearing people." Not yet, I silently thought. "I was doing so much better at my old school. I think it would be best for everyone if I just transferred back and life went back to the way it used to be."

Bay shook her head. "Life can never go back to the way it used to be, Daphne. Life will never be normal. We were switched at birth for crying out loud! What the heck is normal about that? Nothing!" Her voice toned down a bit and she murmured quietly, "Nothing."

Tears sprang to her eyes and for once she didn't try to cover them up. "You want to be with Emmett, I can understand that. You want to be with people who are just like you, but look at you! You are one of the strongest people I know, and you're just going to give that up because you feel like you aren't wanted at Buckner? Lindsey was just being today what she normally is to everybody—an idiot and a brat." How did she know about that? I sighed. Emmett. Of course he told her.

"But don't let what she says get to you," Bay continued, tears trailing down her cheeks. "I have dealt with her the whole time I have gone to Buckner, but look at me! Do you think people accept me for who I am? No, of course not! But do you see me running away from my fears just because I feel like I'm not wanted or accepted? I know I'm not accepted! Not everybody is acc—"

"STOP!" I yelled, standing abruptly up and cutting off her painful words. "You have no idea what it's like…to be lost all the time! Going back to Carlton would make me a whole lot better instead of crap all of the time I'm at Buckner!" I shouted.

I could tell Emmett wanted to say something, but knew it would be best if he just hung back. This was not his fight to argue with, and after what Bay had just told me, I had almost forgotten about the cochlear all together and felt this is what I had come to tell them.

"You're just doing what you always do," I insisted. "Making everything about Bay. You know, Liam was right when he said that."

"Don't you dare bring up Liam! He is not of our concern right now! He's out of my life for the better! And I will not have you sticking around here, reminding me of my past mistakes!" she shouted, storming out of the garage before bumping my shoulder as she walked by.

I knew she was saying things behind my back that I couldn't hear (and probably didn't want to hear, for the better), but at the moment I honestly didn't care. The way Emmett was looking at me now, standing in front of me, broken and helpless, made me want to run into his arms and hug him, telling him everything was going to be alright. I knew nothing was going to be alright.

Nothing would ever be alright. Bay was right. We were switched at birth.

And nothing was going to change that.

Reviewww plzz!:) They make me happy and some feedback is always nice :D Gives me inspiration to keep writing. And thanks so much for the favorites and story alerts that I've received !

~ Twihardfan3194. (Kaitlyn)

P.S. Trying to make the chapters longer, but honestly don't have the time :/