"For awhile," she answers. He doesn't get the sign quite right, but she still understands his meaning. She isn't sure how she wants to explain her meaning, though, and she finds herself hesitating for an almost awkward amount of time. Then she says, "I used to go to a Deaf school. Then my parents homeschooled us before I got here."

There's more to it than that. So much more. But she isn't sure how much she wants to go into it — or if she even should, really.