Someone Different Chapter 1

Alison DiLaurentis was sitting the backseat of her parents car. The family was moving to Philadelphia from Rosewood. Alison was upset at first by the move. She had grown up in Rosewood and was going to miss her friends. But the one person she wouldn't miss was her ex-girlfriend Sarah who had cheated on her six months before. The teen was listening to music on her iPod. The reason for the move to Philadelphia was because her father Kenneth got a job transfer.

The family arrived in Philadelphia and settled into their new home over the next week. Alison then started at her new school, Wilson High School. On her first day of school, she noticed another school across the street from Wilson. The sign on the other school read Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Alison didn't think much about the other school. She went through her first day of school well. But she really had not made any friends. She felt lonely mostly because back in Rosewood she in a popular clique.

At the end of the day, she started to make her way home on foot. Her home was about a mile and a half away.

She was about half way home when she saw a group of boys in a circle, it looked like they were laughing at someone or something. As Alison got closer she heard one of the boys say, "I love making fun of the deaf kids."

Then Alison saw a dark hair haired girl on the ground crying. Some boys were throwing crumpled papers at her.

The young blonde saw the look of fear in the dark haired girls' eyes. Something in those eyes made Alison want to help. Back in Rosewood, she had seen kids get bullied, but never did anything. Here she decided to do something.

"Leave her alone." Alison yelled.

One of the boys said, "What are you going to do about it?"

Alison then kicked that boy between the legs. The rest of the boys then left. The dark haired girl stayed crying and she looked up at Alison.

The blonde slowly knelt down and said, "I won't hurt you. My name is Alison"

The dark haired girl then pulled out a small notepad and a pen from her backpack. She wrote on the pad for a few minutes and then showed Alison.

Alison read the pad which stated, "Thank you for helping me. My name is Emily and I'm deaf, I go to school across the street. I can read lips, but I'm not always right. Did you say that your name is Alison?"

Alison then showed the note to Emily and pointed to her name and nodded.

The blonde said, "You can call me Ali too."

Emily smiled.

Emily then got up off the ground and put her backpack on one of her shoulders. She then started to walk away. Alison then followed her and tapped her on the shoulder.

She said to Emily, "About I walk with you for awhile, in case those boys come back."

Emily just nodded. She followed Emily across the street to the School for the Deaf.

A short brunette girl then came up to them and started communicating with Emily in sign language. Alison was curious about their conversation. Emily then wrote on the notepad and handed it to Alison.

The new note read, "This is my friend Aria, she goes to school here too."

Alison nervously waved at the short girl and said, "Hi", hoping that the other girl read lips like Emily. Aria smiled at Alison.

Aria then went back into one of the buildings. Emily then led Alison to some benches in the school courtyard.

They sat down. Alison then said, "Do you like this school?"

Emily wrote down, "I like it a lot. I've been coming to school here my whole life. I live in the dorms here. My dad is in the Army and he and my mom are in Texas for awhile. You probably go to Wilson High School right"

Ali said, "I just started at Wilson. My family just moved her last week."

Emily wrote, "Where did you move from?"

"I moved from a town called Rosewood."

The brunette then wrote, "Small town?"

The blonde nodded.

Ali then looked at her watch and saw that she needed to be home soon. Her parents were going out on a business dinner and she was invited as well. She told Emily that she had to go, but asked if Emily had a cell phone. Emily then pulled an iPhone. She then wrote in the note app, "I have this for phone for texting."

Alison pulled out her phone and said, "Here put your number in my phone. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow after school?"

Emily took the phone and put her information in the contacts. Alison said bye to her and walked off.

The brunette then headed to her dorm. As she entered, she saw her roommate Spencer Hastings on her laptop.

Spencer saw her and signed, "Aria saw you with a hearing girl awhile ago. Why were you with a hearing girl?"

Emily signed, "I wanted to go to Starbucks for coffee. On my way there, some boys from Wilson High started to teasing me and throwing papers at me. That girl Alison defended me, she made the boys go away."

Spencer signed, "You shouldn't go off on your own. Some hearing people are really mean."

"I know." Emily signed back.

An hour later, Emily and Spencer headed into the dinning area to have dinner with Aria and another friend Hanna Marin. Emily told Hanna about what happened to her earlier and how Alison helped her out.

It was 9:30 pm. Alison and her parent had come back from dinner. The blonde went up to her room. She still thought about Emily. She thought the girl was pretty, but she had never been around people with disabilities. Well, maybe except for the occasional elderly wheelchair bound person. Alison pulled out her laptop and pulled up a Google page, she typed, "sign language" in the search bar and then looked at the list and clicked on a link title, "ASL alphabet". She clicked on it and looked through the online alphabet chart. She then looked at a few online sites and decided to download an ASL e-book to her iPad. The girl then looked through the e-book.

The next day after school, Alison's phone buzzed and it was text from Emily that read, "Want to meet at Starbucks?"

Alison texted back with a yes. She then walked to the Starbucks and saw Emily with Aria. Emily smiled and waved and Aria did the same thing.

Alison remembered the sign for "Hello" and did it.

Both Aria and Emily smiled. Emily pulled out her phone and typed into the note app, "I see that you learned a sign. That is good. Sign language can be hard to learn though."

Alison said, "I know. I want to learn, it might take me awhile. I figured it wouldn't hurt to learn, especially since our schools are across from each other."

The three girls then went into the shop and Alison was surprised when the male barista started signing to Aria and Emily.

The male barista faced Alison said, "Hi I'm Toby. I know sign language and I've known some of the deaf school students for awhile. The girls said your name is Alison. It's nice to meet you."

Alison said, "Nice to meet you too."

Toby then signed and said, "What do you three want to drink?"

Alison allowed the other girls to sign their orders first and then she told Toby her order. Toby then signed and said that the orders would be ready in several minutes.

The girls went and found a table. Alison had been wondering if the girls spoke with their voices. She was nervous, but she decided to ask.

She looked at them and said, "I don't know if I should ask this, but are you two able to speak?"

Emily typed into her phone and showed it to Alison, "We are able to. I don't speak ever though. Aria speaks sometimes."

Aria then nervously said, "Hello."

Alison noticed that the word sounded different from Aria's voice, but she couldn't describe how Aria sounded.

Toby then called out for Alison than the drinks were ready. She pointed to the counter and the three girls went over and got their drinks.

The girls went back to their table and communicated through the note app on their phones. Ali did wonder why Aria didn't speak to her more. She figured that the girl was probably uncomfortable.

A couple of hours later, Ali entered her home. Her parents weren't home. She went up to her room and did homework. She pulled out her iPad and began reading the ASL e-book. She did some of the beginner signing exercises.

Meanwhile at the deaf school, Emily was having dinner with her friends as usual. Halfway through dinner, Hanna's boyfriend Caleb Rivers came up to the table. He greeted all of the girls in sign and he then bent down and kissed Hanna. A few minutes later, Hanna and Caleb left the table.

Aria signed, "I wish I had a boyfriend."

Spencer signed, "Me too."

Aria then faced Emily and signed, "Do you wish you had a girlfriend?"

Several months before, Emily came out to her best friends. All of them supported her and agreed to keep her secret. Emily didn't want her parents to know about her sexual orientation. She had known since a young age that her mother didn't approve of homosexuality.

Emily signed to Aria, "I sometimes wish I had a girlfriend. But you know how things are complicated for me with my parents."

Aria just nodded.

Spencer then signed, "I have a crush on Toby."

Aria signed, "You should ask him out. He knows sign language and is really nice."

Spencer signed, "I'm scared. I don't know if would want to date a deaf girl. I also don't know if I could relate to a hearing guy. Hanna seems to be happy with Caleb since he is deaf too."

Emily signed, "Maybe you should try with Toby. You won't know unless you try."

Spencer just nodded.

Awhile later, in Emily's dorm room, she set up her laptop to video chat with her parents. She wanted for her parents to come online.

She then saw the image of her parents on the screen. Her father Wayne was wearing his military fatigues and she could tell that her mother Pam was wearing running clothes. Running was something she enjoyed doing with her mother.

Pam and Wayne in unison signed, "Hi Emily."

She signed hello back to them.

Wayne first signed, "How is school going?"

Emily replied that it was going fine.

Pam then signed, "Have any boyfriends?"

Emily was slightly embarrassed and signed no.

Pam signed, "Sweetie, we are ok if you want to start dating. Is your friend still dating that boy Caleb? Maybe find a boy at your school and ask him out."

The teen signed, "Yes, Hanna is still dating Caleb. I really can't think of a boy from school that I would be interested in. Mom can you drop the subject of boys?"

The mother signed, "Ok sweetie."

Emily and her parents discussed other things. She mentioned her new friendship with Alison. Her parents were a bit concerned with her being a friends with a hearing person. Both Pam and Wayne remembered some bad incidents involving hearing people around Emily. Her father told her that they would be going up to Philly for Thanksgiving and they would visit with Emily. Emily was happy about that. She missed her parents since they moved to Texas. She could have moved with them, but decided not to since she spent all her previous school years at Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. She stayed with Aria's family for awhile, but Aria's father and mother decided to spend a year in New Zealand because Aria's father got hired at a college there. So Aria and Emily moved into the dorms. Aria was rooming with Hanna. Emily later logged off the video chat.

She laid down on her bed. She really wished that she could come out as a lesbian to her parents, but she was scared of them. She knew that their lives had always been difficult since Emily was deaf since birth. She remembered the looks of frustration on her parents' faces back when she was a very young child. It took Pam and Wayne a long time to accept that their daughter was deaf. The teen began to cry when she remembered the past. Eventually she fell asleep.