Devon's First Day :)
Who: Devon and Mercedes
What: A First Meeting
When: Monday, September 25th, before first period
Where: Halls at school
Rating: SFW


Devon Bishop was nervous but excited about this day. He had been to McKinley High before, of course, but visiting the school after hours to perform for the glee club was quite different than actually enrolling as a new student. He’d underestimated how many students would actually go to this school. Having finally located his locker, he began unloading the stack of text books which still had to be covered. Carrying all of his uncovered books definitely advertised the fact that Devon was brand new. He looked around surreptitiously for signs of familiar faces. The only kids he’d possibly recognize would be the twelve members of the glee club and their teacher...

Mercedes had been loitering in the halls, attempting to get cell signal, when she did a double take. There was a confused looking kid, a familiar confused looking kid, standing by a locker. It was one of the kids from the deaf choir. She raised an eyebrow, curious as to why he was here and not in one of the preppy school uniforms.

Devon unloaded all but the book he needed and then stuck that book in his backpack. He turned to find a pair of dark, chocolate brown eyes on him. A very familiar pair of dark chocolate brown eyes! His face lit up when he realized it was one of the girls from McKinley’s glee club. He had never learned her name, but he remembered this girl. She’d been the one to get up and sing with them, which Devon had taken as a sign of true respect. She’d recognized that, although different, their music was a valid form of artistry and expression. He could see that she’d appreciated their performance, maybe even more than the rest.

Apprehensively, he spoke to her. “Hello,” he said, smiling warmly. “I remember you.”

She glared at him, still not at all over their sectionals fiasco. Sure they may have won, but she was jipped out of her solo and it had caused a whole lot of stress for everyone. “Trust me,” She said sassily, “I remember you.”

Devon watched her face carefully as she spoke. It was always tricky the first time he talked with someone, but after a few times, he could read a person’s lips fairly well. He could tell that this girl, for whatever reason, wasn’t happy to see him. And then he remembered why. Once it got back to the principal of Haverbrook that Mr. Rumba had stolen that song -- Don’t Stop Believin’ -- from McKinley, well, that was precisely why Mr. Rumba lost his job and glee club lost its funding. It looked like there were still some hard feelings though...

“We didn’t know,” Devon said, immediately, stepping closer to the girl. “That our teacher did that, I mean. We... we didn’t know.” His eyes were apologetic as he spoke, willing her to be understanding. He really wanted to befriend the girl. “I’m new here.”

Mercedes continued to give him a dirty look but relaxed a little after that. “Why’d you transfer?” She figured that a deaf person going to a deaf school would probably work out better for him in the long run. None of the teachers, that she knew of, here knew sign language and she was pretty sure that the student body didn’t either.

“Why’d I transfer?” Devon repeated the question to verify that this was what she’d asked At least she wasn’t glaring at him quite as menacingly as before. “We don’t have glee club anymore. And you beat us..." A grin spread across his face. “Still taking new members?”

Mercedes was still weary. She did have this problem with grudges... especially if it involved her solos.

"We're always taking new members." She said evenly, "But you'll have to audition."

“Audition,” he repeated, confirming that he understood. It was a habit he’d learned long ago. And sometimes, he’d say the word and the person would shake their head to indicate he’d gotten it wrong. “I can do that. It looked like your teacher liked what we did.”

Mercedes shrugged, "Mr. Schue's a sap." She paused for a moment, wondering if she should just walk away, but she decided to be nice. "Lemme see your schedule."

“My what?” Devon blinked in confusion.

“Your classes,” she clarified.

Devon blinked again. “I’m sorry, what?”

Mercedes huffed in annoyance as she snatched the schedule peaking out of one of his books.

“Mr. Schuester’s the Spanish teacher," she said, offhandedly.

Devon was taking Spanish I because he'd been informed that he needed a foreign language, despite the fact that Devon already knew two languages - English and ASL. He didn’t know, however, that she’d mentioned Spanish. Devon had looked down at his schedule as she’d taken it out of his hands. Consequently, he’d looked away from her lips long enough to miss what she said. But she was getting visibly annoyed with him, that he knew.

“Look,” he replied, getting irritated himself but trying to stay calm. He gestured at his hearing aids, reminding himself an awful lot of Mr. Rumba as he chided this girl whose name he didn’t know for not knowing how to talk to him. “I’m trying to read your lips, but you could slow down a bit...”

Mercedes sighed, and nodded, “Alright.” She said at a slower pace, “But you should know, I’m one of those girl’s that shoots off a mile a minute, yah got it? Don’t blame me if I go off, it’s just the way I talk.” She glanced down again at his schedule before pointing to health. “I take health with you.” She commented.

Devon’s tense expression relaxed into a smile. “Great, so I’ll see you in my last class,” he replied, smiling a bit. That was good news, knowing that he was going to see the girl again. “Um, my name is Devon.” He stuck out his right hand, shifting his books to his left.

Mercedes raised an eyebrow. Did he seriously just stick out his hand to shake? Uh okay. She took the hand, gave it a little shake, and smiled at him.

“Do you... have a name?” he asked, shaking her hand and feeling kind of goofy for being all formal. But... she made him kind of nervous. She intimidated him a bit. He wasn’t sure why.

Mercedes didn’t even realize she hadn’t introduced herself, “Oh, sorry,” she apologized, “I’m Mercedes.”

Devon gave a slow little nod, but then grinned sheepishly and ducked his head slightly. “Yeah, I’m sorry, gonna have to ask you for an autograph...” He grabbed a pen out of his back pocket and handed it to her, indicating his schedule and holding it against his text book so she could write her name on it.
Mercedes scribbled her name neatly on the paper before handing it back to him. She wasn’t really sure if he could pronounce it.

“Mercedes,” he said, reading the name off the page and pronouncing it fairly well. Speaking wasn’t too problematic for Devon. He spoke better than most of the kids he’d known at Haverbrook, which was why he was always chosen to lead the choir and do the spoken parts. (Actually singing at Sectionals had been a bad idea, though, and even Devon knew that.) “Pretty name.”

“Thanks, I like your name,” Mercedes said. right as the bell rang. “That was the bell.” She said more to herself than him, pocketing the phone she had been playing with throughout the entire conversation. She said a quick goodbye before she set off towards her classroom.

Devon blinked a few times, processing what she’d said. What had she said? Oh, right, he thought, noticing the increase of activity around him. Obviously, the bell had rang. And here, the bell wouldn’t be paired with a flashing light like it had been at Haverbrook. He would just have to be observant. Still thinking about the girl, Mercedes, he headed off to his first class: Spanish I.


Who: Devon and Mr. Schue, with an appearance by Sunshine
What: A First Meeting
When: Monday, September 25th, minutes after meeting Mercedes
Where: Will's classroom
Rating: SFW


Upon arriving to Spanish I, his first class, Devon approached the teacher to request a seat near the front. It seemed no one had informed his teacher that he was getting a deaf student. Nothing was ready for him. There wasn’t an interpreter yet, but supposedly, one was coming later in the week. There wasn’t even an open seat in the front of the classroom.

Much to Devon’s relief, he recognized the Spanish teacher. It was the McKinley glee club teacher! Devon had no idea that they would be one in the same.

“Uh... I’m your new student,” he said, approaching the teacher’s desk and standing awkwardly in front of him, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. “Devon.”

Will shuffled through the papers on his desk as he prepared for his first lesson of the day. Sensing someone approaching his desk, he looked up at a student he didn’t recognize and smiled. “Hello,” he said politely. “Welcome to Spanish I, I’m Mr. Schuester.”

“Thanks,” he replied. Then he gestured at his ear, feeling almost like he was doing an impression of crazy Mr. Rumba. “So... I’m hard of hearing. Can I sit up front? And... I think I might get a sign language interpreter later this week.”

He narrowed his eyes, waiting to see if Mr. Schuester would remember him.

Will nodded before realizing that he did in fact know who this student was. “Oh! Hi, I didn’t recognize you at first,” he said, smiling and making sure that he kept his mouth in plain sight. He’d never had a deaf student before, and he was a little disturbed that no one had let him know. But he could make the most of this. “Uh, sure. No problem.”

“Thanks,” said Devon, noticing that the room was getting pretty full. A look at the clock told him that the tardy bell would be ringing in just a minute or so. He wanted to ask Mr. Schuester about glee club, but it appeared it would have to wait until later. Maybe he would ask in email...

Looking at some of the students sitting in the front, he wondered which one of them wouldn’t mind being moved. “Sunshine,” he called out, stepping toward her seat. “Would you mind moving to the free seat right over there,” he said, pointing to an empty chair in the third row. “Our new student is hard of hearing, and would prefer a seat in the front. That cool?” he asked, pleasantly.

“Oh, okay,” said Sunshine, quickly, glancing up to see the tall African-American boy standing next to Mr. Schuester. With a small smile and a wave at the boy, she quickly collected her things and moved so that he could have the seat.

“Thanks,” said Devon, noticing a few other kids giving him curious looks as he took the seat. He nodded at Mr. Schuester, playing it cool. But inside, he was feeling panicky. He was going to have to attempt to lipread while this teacher spoke to him in a foreign language. Yeah, not a big deal at all...