M.U.T.E.
written by Adelina Lovegood-Braith
Riley Carson, a girl in 8th grade, goes to a school in Florida. She has blonde hair and pretty eyes, but she has one problem. Riley was born with no vocal cords, making her unable to speak, making her mute. The only way Riley can talk to people is writing words on a page in her "voice diary", which she writes words in to try to talk to people. Somehow, Riley befriends a girl named Andrea, who was born with selective mutism, which means she is only comfortable talking to certain people. Riley soons does an experiment, and finds out she has selective mutism too when she's able to talk. Maybe Andrea and Riley have more things in common than meets the eye.
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
11
Reads
799
The Voice Diary
Chapter 1
A teenage girl with blonde hair wrote down some words in a book. A girl in 6th grade was seemingly waiting for her to show what she was writing. "I CANNOT SPEAK" was what the words said. The teenager ripped out the worded page and showed it to the girl. "Oh," She said sadly. "Riley! We're leaving for school! Get in the car!" The teenager's mom called. The girl named Riley quickly rushed to the car, a black and long car with the words "MUSTANG" skidded on the right side of it. The Mustang could only hold 4 people, and wasn't a limo. Somehow Riley could communicate with her family, and she talked to people by writing words in a book she called her "voice diary". A friend of hers gave it to her for her birthday. There were lots of people in Riley's hometown in Florida. People often raised eyebrows when they looked at her. Riley would always do the same thing: write "I CANNOT SPEAK" in her voice diary and ripping out page by page. Riley was born without vocal cords, which made her unable to speak. Some doctors mistaked her for having Angleman Syndrome, which meant you were unable to speak. Some doctors even wanted to install fake vocal cords to unlock her voice. Riley's mom, however, always refused. Riley looked out the window of her family's Mustang. How would she talk to her friends and teachers? Using her voice diary, obviously. It was simple to talk to her teachers. Whenever Mrs. Parson, Riley's homeroom teacher, asked the class a question, Riley would raise her hand, then write down the answer on a page from her voice diary, rip it out, and show her the answer. Riley began to smile. Maybe today, Monday, her least favorite day, wasn't so bad after all.
