If there was one thing that Dani hated, it was the awkward silence that persisted while she erased and rewrote on her whiteboard.  She was glad to hear that the other girl didn’t consider her an intruder, however, as that did alleviate some of her anxiety.  While she held up the board asking for the other girl’s name, a boy with dark skin and hair knocked on the door before asking if he could join them, looking at the whiteboard with a bit of a puzzled expression.

While Dani nodded her consent for the boy to join them, a tad uncomfortable because of how he was looking at her.  The other girl answering the question posed on the whiteboard by stating that her name was Pearleane distracted Dani from her uncomfortableness, though her follow up question brought it back full force.  It wasn’t that she cared much that Pearleane asked the question or was curious; it was that it would make the whole situation pretty awkward.

“I suppose that you could say that,” Dani wrote on the whiteboard.  “I was born mute.”  After making sure that they both saw it, as it was rather tedious to have to keep repeating that, she hurriedly erased what she had written so that she could write “Don’t feel bad.  You didn’t know.  And I’m okay with that,” onto the board.  The last thing she wanted was for them to feel bad about not knowing about her condition.

Once again after making sure that they had both seen it, and that they were okay with that information, Dani wrote, “So what are you guys most excited about?”  While she waited for a response, she happened to see another kid chasing what appeared to be a chocolate frog as it hopped down the aisle, his wand out as he tried to hit it with… something.  Eyes wide, Dani tried to keep her focus on Pearleane while waiting for an answer in order to keep from overloading on weird stuff.  So long as she could ignore that she and Pearleane and the new boy were witches and wizards.