HAPPY NEW YEARS!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun holidays. Thank you all so much for the reviews.

Tobi-Chan: I completely understand! There isn't a lot of diversity in fanfiction or even in published books. I always find it upsetting being a POC myself. I'm half Asian and half Mexican, so it especially hard to find characters in books that represent them when Asians are hardly ever portrayed along with Mexicans. Its seems that they still are the stereotypical token. Thank you so much for your kind words.

Someone commented about Sookie Stakehouse and I just wanted to clear the air that Zuri will not be a fey like Sookie stakehouse. Honestly, I didn't like how they portrayed it. If you ever read Holly Black's Tithe series then know that Zuri will have similarities to this story. If you never read them, I highly encourage you to.

As for Bella, she will be in this story. This won't be a story where she conveniently disappears. I watch way too much Korean dramas to skip out on some good drama action when I see it.

Enjoy!

Zuri grumbled lightly as she snuck back into the house. Her dad was home and she misjudged how long it would take her to get home. She opened the door quietly (or so she hoped it was) and was relieved that her father wasn't downstairs. He must have just gotten home and was taking a shower. She quickly ran up the stairs and into her room. She shed off her clothes and shoved it at the bottom of the hamper. She spritzed on some body spray and some leave in conditioner to mask the smell of pot. She sniffed the ends of her hair and was happy that it smelled like sunflowers. There was a vibration beneath her feet and she turned around to see her dad smiling at her, dressed in comfy clothes.

"Hey," She signed and moved to kiss his cheek. "How was work?"

"Good." His hand moved up to his chin and into his other hand. "School?"

"Diane goes to the school! I'm happy that I'm not the only Deafie there." Zuri grinned brightly. Her dad seemed happy to see her happy.

"That's great!" He pulled her into a hug and Zuri eagerly accepted the hug. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Pizza!" Zuri pulled him down the stairs with her.

"Only if you watch the game with me." Zuri pouted at her dad, but couldn't stop the smile on her face.

"Only because I love you." Zuri settled on the couch. She felt happy. She enjoyed these moments with her father.

-x-

A week later, Zuri's interpreter came and he was pleasant man. They got along well enough, Zuri couldn't help, but feel irritable all the time at school though. Whenever someone spoke to her they spoke to her interpreter and not her. They asked him questions as if Zuri couldn't answer it herself. It was incredibly rude to do, but it wasn't like anyone was educated on the subject. She knew what people were saying and she read their lips.

"Hey Ethan, what was the homework?"

"Hey Ethan, how was your day?"

"Ethan, can you pass me that?"

Zuri felt like an accessory. She felt overlooked and glossed over. She didn't like feeling like that and Ella and her dad taught her to stand up for herself, but since being at a Hearing school she felt insecure with herself. She was lucky that Ethan was a good person. He often scolded people who spoke to him. She was also lucky that Diane was here.

Unfortunately, today Ethan was sick and Diane was camping with her family, so it left Zuri alone. She brooded the whole day, unable to stop her moodiness that clung. Her fingers clutched her plastic yellow tray as she walked in the cafeteria. Her dark eyes roamed the room and she couldn't see anybody that she knew who she could sit with. Suddenly someone bumped into her and she was sent sprawling onto the ground. Her food crashed into the ground and she banged her knee on the floor and her wrist ached when it contacted the ground. Her hearing aids were sent skidding across the floor. She reached out for it, but a boot kicked it further away. Furious, she looked up to see smirking teenager. His mouth was moving, but Zuri couldn't hear what he was saying.

"What the hell!" Zuri snarled and the boy burst into laughter. His blue eyes crinkling. Zuri flushed slightly, humiliated. She didn't need to hear his words to know that he was mocking her. He said something, his hands coming up to mimic a seal and Zuri angrily stood up. Deciding it was best to ignore him. She didn't want to look at anybody and it seemed like nobody wanted to help. She found her hearing aid under and table and she crawled under to grab it. The other was seemed to had fell in a drain and was now useless, but she fished it out anyways. Humiliated she left the cafeteria, she ignored her hungry belly and she avoided eye contact with anyone. She finally trapped herself into the girl's bathroom. She locked herself in the handicap stall and sat on the toilet. Her hands shook with fury and anxiety. She was crying, and she wiped her tears away.

She hated this school. She hated the people. She couldn't understand why people were cruel. She fished her phone out of her back pack and she debated calling her dad to pick her up. She just wanted to be consoled. It wasn't the first time she was bullied and it won't be the last, but she still couldn't help, but be surprised and hurt when it did happen. She decided to tuck her phone away. She would tell him she got home. She felt slightly better knowing the holy hell her father would rain down, but right now she hurt. Right now she pitied herself.

-x-

The Cullens decided that the best course of action was to avoid the faerie half-breed, but Edward couldn't help the temptation that came with her. She was peacefully quiet. Her mind a blank slate, but he knew that she was filled with thoughts. He would read other's minds just to get a glimpse of hers. He learned that she's a smart girl. She loved history, she was passionate about civil rights. He learned that people ignored her. That some thought hurtful things about her. Edward wondered what she thought of others.

"Oh," Alice whispered softly. Edward heard it in other's thoughts. He saw it in their minds. He saw Owen Tilly trip Zuri Swan. Watch as Owen mocked her and told her that she should've heard him coming. He kicked her pink hearing aids and when she yelled at him, he compared her voice to a seal. Edward hissed angrily. He could see in other's eyes as Zuri walked away crying. Apparently, Jessica heard her crying in the bathroom. She was gossiping to Mike about it.

"Humans are cruel." Alice mused as her husband pulled her closer. Jasper kissed her shoulder. Suddenly, her brows furrowed. Edward disappeared from her visions. "Edward, don't." Alice hissed, but Edward ignored his sister and started following the thoughts that he knew would lead him to Zuri. He followed a few trailing thoughts, she was no longer in the restroom. Mike Newton spotted her sitting under a tree at the benches.

Zuri Swan is beautiful under the sunlight. The leaves shadowed over her, but the peaks of sunlight illuminated her skin. Her wavy dark hair was tucked behind her ears, which were now free of her trademark pink hearing aids. Her brown eyes were rimmed red and her nose was pinked. Edward moved towards the table and for a moment he didn't know what to do; how to alert her of his presence. He lightly tapped her shoulder. She looked up at her, wary and suspicious.

"Hi," He awkwardly lifted a hand and Edward had never felt so awkward before.

"What?" Her voice was deep, and she had a slight speech impediment. "Come to make fun of me?"

"No." Edward took a seat next to her. He made sure to keep his body fulling facing her. "I wanted to apologize. What Owen did was cruel." Her brown eyes softened a bit and she shrugged her shoulders.

"It happens. People are cruel to what they don't understand." Her fingers curled around the jacket and she bunched the fabric into her palms.

"Have you always been Deaf?" Edward asked, hungry for more of this girl. Her quiet mind was intoxicating.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get that." She apologized, face pink. Edward repeated his question.

"Oh no, Dad says that I was hearing up until I was four. I got sick with bacterial meningitis. I became Deaf because of it." Her phone buzzed against the table, a bright light flickered through the camera. She quickly read the text and sent a message back. "Sorry, my dad." Edward offered her a reassuring smile.

"Do you think you could teach me? Sign that is." Edward wanted to communicate with in a way that she was comfortable with. Her eyes brighten.

"Really?" She smiled widely and Edward couldn't help, but admire how pretty she smiled.

"Yes."

"I'll teach you the basics." She placed a flat hand to her chest. Then on both hands her index finger and middle finger remained close while her other fingers curled into her palm. She lightly tapped one over the other in a diagonal fashion. Then her fingers made several shapes. Edward watched with interest.

"What is that."

"I said, 'My name is Edward.'" She grinned. "Now you try." Edward copied her movements. She laughed when his fingers stumbled on his letter 'A'.

"That's an 'S'." She took his enclosed fist. "Your fingers should be pointed down and your thumb to the side." She corrected his hand.

He's very handsome. His hands are cold, but he's nice. Her mind suddenly became an open door to him. Edward could see himself through her eyes. He was startled by this development, but he didn't express it. Suddenly around them flickered red and blue. Her head darted up to see her father's cruiser.

"I have to go." She jerked her head in her father's direction.

"What about class?" Edward felt breathless.

"Ditching." She gave him a weak smile. She signed something to him and Edward memorized the movements.

"What did you say?" Edward smiled crookedly. She gave him an impish grin.

"Figure it out." He watched as the half-breed human walk away with a sway in her step. His curiosity of her was a full-blown fire and he would figure out just who Zuri Swan was.

-x-

Zuri could tell her Dad was furious when they got home. Zuri wanted to hold out from texting her father, but when she left her bathroom stall two girls were standing near the sinks. They took one look at her and giggled before talking to one another. Zuri felt an inkling that it was about her and she had hurried herself out of the bathroom. When she found that table she had texted her father and begged him to take her home.

"Owen Tilly?" Her father fingered spelled the name. Zuri nodded solemnly. "I know his mother. I'll speak to her about it. I won't ask them to pay us back for the hearing aids though. I know his mom is struggling since her husband left." Zuri shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't care about the hearing aids. I'm just sad." She signed and her father looked pained.

"Come here, Sweetie." He opened his arms and Zuri was more than happy to cuddle into his embrace. They hugged for a while before he pulled himself away to sign to her.

"I'm sorry you went through that." He kissed her head. "Who was that, the boy you were talking to?"

"Edward Cullen."

"Dr. Cullen's boy? Dr. Cullen is a good man. I'm sure his son is to." She smiled fondly at her father's expression, borderline protective and reassuring.

"He's been the only kind hearing person so far." She signed. "Can we have Chinese tonight?" It was Zuri's comfort food.

"Of course."

-x-

"You spoke with it?" Rosalie hissed furiously.

"Her." Edward pressed. "I spoke with her."

"You could expose us." Rosalie argued as their family sat around the living room.

"To who? She's not human." Edward defended. "She has secrets just like us."

"That is if she knows." Jasper adds. "We don't know for sure if she's even aware of what she is. Her father smells plenty like a human."

"Flowers were blooming from the ground when she danced." Emmet supplied. "I'm sure she realized that."

"She was high and they disappeared after every step." Alice shook her head. "We can't rely that we know she is aware."

"We don't know what she's capable of. We don't know her kind." Rosalie breathed heavily.

"She's right." Esme agreed with her blond daughter. "What the Swan girl is; is something the none of us have ever run into. We are unaware of the threat that she poses to us."

"If she's a threat at all." Edward sighed. "We cannot base our opinions on our fears of what she could do."

"Edward's right." Their patriarch spoke. "We cannot eliminate her if we do not know if she is a threat." Rosalie opened her mouth to protest. "Now kitten, I understand you too. We also should be aware that she can be a threat." Carlisle turned to his eldest son. "We will keep an eye on her. Edward is fine to interact with her, but please be careful, son. Alice was injured in a way we do not know was possible."

"But I'm fine!" Alice protested.

"But you couldn't have been." Jasper snapped at his wife. "I thought I lost you." Alice seemed mulled over by her husband. She took his hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it,

"I'm sorry, but I'm fine. Zuri is different, yes. But I don't see her as a threat."

"You can't see her at all." Emmet added.

"But I could hear her." Edward brought up. His families' topaz eyes darted to him.

"What do you mean?" Esme asked curiously.

"She was teaching me sign, and she fixed my fingers when I messed up and for a moment I heard her thoughts. I don't know if it's because she was touching me or if it's because she was comfortable around me that caused her mind to open up." Edward thought about the Zuri's thoughts.

"Fascinating." Carlisle murmured and the family didn't know what else to say. "Be careful with your interactions with her Edward."

"Of course."

It was around three A.M. that Edward browsed through the internet for instructions on how to learn American Sign Language. He found a website and paid twenty dollars for online instructions. With his vampire speed and his lack of need to sleep and practiced Signs so he could speak with Zuri. His mind kept wandering to what she signed to him. It was memorized into his brain, but right now he was only learning colors and foods. When it reached six in the morning he finally pieced together what Zuri had signed to him.

"It was nice to meet you. I hope you continue learning sign. You're a very kind person." Edward leaned back his computer chair. Today he was have a conversation with Zuri Swan and figure out more about the girl.

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