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Luke won his tooth and nail fight against CPS to keep his sister with him in the foster home for magic users, but boy, was he happy to still have her. He made a makeshift crib on his own bed out of his blanket and his pillow, sleeping curled around the newborn so she wouldn’t fall off and get hurt. He spent the first few days staying by his sister’s side, not at all interacting with the other kids there, but there was one boy who was constantly checking in on him and Betsy. Of course, the boy didn’t know sign language and Luke was always thought to be mute growing up, though he did yell and scream at the people who tried to take his sister, and he has spoken quietly to Betsy.
It took a week, but the adults of the foster house finally set up a room for Betsy, really it was just a crib and a changing table in one of the full time caregiver’s rooms, but it was better than pillows and a blanket. Luke could finally start trying to communicate with the others in the facility.
The first boy he talked to was the same boy who would check up on him and Betsy, Stanley was his name. Stanley was two years younger than Luke, but he’d been in the system for his whole life. Luke did more listening to the eccentric boy than talking to him, forcing out a few words through his normally unused vocal cords.
The next day rolled around and before Luke could even sit up in the morning, Stanley slammed a book on his bed. “Learn the Basics of Sign Language” was the title.
“I finally got to go to the library at school! Now you don’t have to talk! And I can understand a little bit of what you say; I learned the alphabet a few days ago, but I wanted to practice before I tried to talk to you.” He said quickly and excitedly.
Luke gave a tired grin. “Thanks…” He said quietly. “We can both learn.” He whispered, but Stanley still heard him.
“Yeah! You teach me how to sign and I’ll teach you how to talk! I can teach you Spanish and Korean too, if you want that is. Languages are fun to learn; you get to talk to more people!”
Stanley went on his excited ramble even in the early morning, but Luke was happy to listen. He was just happy to have a friend in this place.