Free Harder by Blue Ashcroft

signed.”
    “It’s an easy class,” I lie. “I didn’t know you worked with autistic kids.”
    “Kids with autism,” she corrects.
    “Anyway…”
    “Yes. Anyway. Ryan is waiting for you, and you are going to go out with him and then call me after.”
    “I’ll see you later, then,” I say, turning away before she can respond. I drop into the senior office and grab one of Knight’s hats off the desk, winking at Rain. Hopefully he doesn’t mind. It’s bright out there and my hair’s a mess. With Knight’s hat firmly in place and my wallet chained to my belt loop, I’m finally ready to face Ryan. I push open the heavy back door and head into the sun.

Chapter 7
    I brace myself as Ally comes out the back door. She’s wearing one of Knight’s hats again, and I’m tempted to steal all of them from him because she looks so much better in them than he does.
    She’s so relaxed as she walks towards me. Hat smashed to the side, hands in her cargos, wallet chain swinging. She looks around, then sees me and jogs over. I wonder what she’d look like in heels rather than converses. At the same time I never want to see her like that, because it’s not her.
    “So where’s your ride?” She waves at the lot.
    “Over here.” I lead her to my car, wincing and ready for another reaction like the one she had at the house. “This one.” I stop by my silver Mercedes.
    “You drive a Mercedes.” Her voice is flat.
    “Yes…” I get in and pop the lock so she can get in too. She just stares down at the door. I wait while she takes a deep breath, sighs up at the sky, and then yanks open the door and slumps down beside me.
    “Not gonna hold it against me?”
    She sighs and folds her arms, blowing a wisp of hair out of her face. “I guess if you don’t hold it against me for being a poor slob I won’t hold it against you for being a rich prick.”
    “It’s a pretty old car.”
    “It’s a Mercedes. What was it, a sixteenth birthday present?”
    “No. A prom present.”
    “Your parents gave you a new car for prom?”
    “No. They gave me a used car, because no one would go to prom with me and I was home alone that night. They thought it might help me make friends.”
    She’s silent for a moment, then rolls the window part of the way down, then back up. “Nice windows.”
    “Thanks.”
    She turns to me. “Hey Ryan, do you think it could have been the hair? I mean, kids aren’t used to hair.”
    “No. I grew the hair to hide from people. When I got older people started liking it so I kept it.”
    “Why did you have to hide?”
    “Cause I was a freak.” I try to take a turn calmly and the car over-corrects. It’s hard to stay calm thinking about back then. I don’t ever want to go back there.
    “Why were you a freak?”
    I sigh. I guess I was expecting her to say I wasn’t one. But honestly if she’d been at my school, she probably would have been one of the cool kids, one of the kids pointing at the freak in the glasses who couldn’t talk right. “I didn’t talk like the others.”
    “Why?”
    “Why do you think? I only hung around deaf people. I had ASL grammar. I didn’t learn to speak properly until I got to school. And I didn’t like it.”
    “Did you tell your parents?”
    “No. No point.”
    “Couldn’t they send you to a deaf school?”
    “I’m not deaf. I’m sort of culturally deaf I guess. But I’m not ever really going to be a full part of that world. I have one foot in each. It’s why I love college. I get to hang out with hearing people and yet be a part of deaf culture. I feel included. Wanted.”
    “Wow. That’s the most I think I’ve heard out of you yet.” She leans her chair back and puts her feet up on the dash, then takes them down. “Is it still okay to put my feet up in a Mercedes?”
    “Sure.” I laugh.
    “Good, ‘cause it being fancy kind of makes me want to put my feet on it even more.”
    I laugh again. “Okay then.”
    She smiles at me. “I like