"Firecrackers"

Chapter 1: Winter's Sorrow

Lark's POV

Pulling at my short, black dress, I walk through the crowd of adults, people who knew Mrs. Lamb, and I see the group of boys I have known since age 10. I sneak up behind Cary and cover his eyes quickly.

"What the hell?" he yells at me. I firmly keep my hands over his eyes. "Guess who?" I say in a disguised voice. He squirms in my hands, wanting so badly to escape.

"Um, it's Preston, right?" I drop my hands, shocked.

"You know what? I'll just talk to Joe. At least he knows who I am," I said, threatening to leave.

"No, Lark, I knew it was you! I was just teasing!" he chuckles nervously. I groan and walk back, my high heels clicking on the floor. Preston snickers and stuffs macaroni salad in his mouth.

"What was in the coffin, the thing that crushed her?" Cary asked. Charles groans and I snicker at his reaction. "You guys weren't wondering that?"

"No, I'm eating macaroni salad," Preston complains, shoving yet another mouthful of macaroni salad into his mouth.

"I was wondering that too," Charles admits. I nudge Preston to stop being grouchy.

"Steel beams, they weigh a ton, literally," he finally says, calming down on the macaroni salad.

"I don't know how you guys can eat," Martin finally says. I roll my eyes.

"Well, I don't know, maybe it's because our stomachs prefer not to throw up?" I say, sarcastically. Martin shoots me a look. Cary and I snicker.

"Just try a turkey roll and you'll see how," Charles replied to Martin. I immediately grab a turkey roll, realizing that I was hungry. It tasted like a turkey heaven.

"I don't think Joe'll want to do my movie now," Charles says.

"Why?" Martin asks, obviously clueless.

"Why do you think why? His mom just died!" Charles hissed.

"Yeah, but his mom is not a zombie," Preston says, defending Martin.

"But she's dead, shithead!" he shot back. Cary and I had to cover our mouths to stop laughing.

"I'm going to go talk to Joe, alright?" I say as soon as I stop laughing.

"No, don't!" all of the guys yell. The adults turn to look at Charles, Cary, Preston, and Martin. They chuckle and continue their conversations. I turn around.

"Well, why not? He must be lonely out there! And freezing!" I hiss.

"He wanted to be alone, shithead!" Charles hisses back. I lift my eyebrow and I fold my arms.

"Dude, you did not just call her that!" Martin says.

"Well, I had to! It's not my fault!" he protests.

"Actually, it isn't her fault she cares how Joe feels. Her dog died when she was eight," Preston replies. I shifted uncomfortably.

"It's alright. I'll just go," I say. I head towards the front door. Just as I reach for the door handle, the door smacked me to the ground. I see feet step over me.

"Lark, are you ok?" I hear Cary's familiar voice and someone helping me up. I wobble and sway, dizzy. I lift my hand to my ears. My hearing-aids, gone! I burst into tears and fall against the floor, my hands brushing all over the tile floor.

"Guys, did you, um, know that she couldn't hear?" Preston asked, stating the obvious. I find my hearing-aids and a sigh of relief brushes over me. I forgot. I never told them that I'm partially deaf.

"Oh, so that's why we always have to look at her when we talk to her?" Charles says. I groan and I walk straight out the door. I wave bye to Joe and I quickly cross the street.

Cary's POV

"What the hell?" Charles exclaims. "Why do you think she didn't tell us?"

"Oh, I don't know! Why don't you ask her?" Preston hisses at Charles, obviously agitated. I think she didn't want to be made fun of for something that wasn't even her fault. I get that a lot with how tall I am… Not very tall.

"Maybe she didn't want to get made fun of?" I suggest.

"What? That's crazy!" Charles says.

"We should all just go and talk to her," Preston suggests.

"I'll go tell Joe! Maybe he'll want to come!" I say. I rush out the door and I run towards Joe.

"Joe! Joe! We are going to go talk to Lark! Want to come?" I say. He sighs and gets off of the swings.

"Sure. Why?" he says.

"Well, long story. We'll tell you on the way there," I explain.

Lark's POV

I open my bedroom door and fall into my safe, cozy blanket. I take off my hearing-aids and plug in my iPod earphones, only to hear a rather loud knock. I immediately pull out the earphones and plug my hearing-aids back in. I open the bedroom door and I see the five boys grinning and holding a bag full of turkey rolls. Boy, do they know how to cheer me up! Food!

"What do you guys want?" I ask. They shove the bag of turkey rolls towards me and sit down next to me on my purple bed.

"Nice room!" Cary says.

"God, shut up, Cary. Anyways, is there anything you want to explain to us? About the hearing loss and all?" Charles says.

"You guys care this much about me? Enough to bring food and Joe when he is sad?" I ask. Wow. This is more than I can handle.

"Yeah, we care about our friends, dummy!" Cary exclaims.

"Cary!" Joe exclaims. I grin.

"What?" he says, unaffected by his comment.

"Ok, well, here goes nothing. When I was two, I had a horrible cold. It got really bad, so bad that my hearing disappeared forever. I learned how to read lips and that's how I survived on not hearing a thing until I was four. My mom took me to the audiologist to see if her suspicions were true, that I really lost my hearing. It was a seventy-five percent hearing loss. They gave me hearing-aids and that's how I started hearing for the first time," I explain. I took out my hearing-aid and showed it to the guys. Their eyes were wide and they were speechless.

"Oh my gosh," Cary says after a while.

"Now you know the truth," I said, officially.

"You really do have it worse than me, after all those times," Joe says. I nod and get up.

"Ok, you guys really need to get going. I want to eat my turkey rolls in peace," I say.

"Aw! You're not going to give me one?" Cary whines. I shake my head and push the guys out of the door. I sigh and climb into my purple bed and take out my hearing-aids. I turn out the light and drift into dream world.