Normal?
It was quiet. Ella loved quiet when the only sound was the tinnitus in her ears--the wavering drone that was always with her, annoying when the volume was too high, distracting when she allowed herself to be aware of the brain music, conscious of the prickly sounds that accompanied her everywhere. ~ She had thought it was normal, assumed everybody had a constant scramble of sound in their head and was surprised when Mary Sue stared at her wide-eyed when Ella asked her what kind of noises were in her head, "....You know, the tinkling, bubbling stuff in your brain." "What!?" Mary Sue had hissed, loudly, too obviously, right there in the recess line where, luckily a lot of other kids were laughing and punching each other. "You don't have them?" Ella whispered. Mary Sue, her best friend in life, her constant companion, snorted her high pitched laugh, and shouted the predictable, "YOU'RE CRAZY!" Ella laughed...
