Lily and Bee are best friends. They both love to dance and they are both members of the Deaf Community.

Lily is a CODA. That means she can hear but at least one of her parents is deaf.

Lily's mom is deaf.

Bee is not a CODA. Bee is deaf, but her mom is hearing. Her mom can't sign.

WOOHOO!

Bee and Lily have a lot of sleepovers. They use sign language to talk to each other all night long.

One day while playing outside with her dog Ralph, Lily signed, "Bee, why doesn't your mom speak sign language?

Bee was quiet for a minute before signing with a frown, "She's just busy. Sometimes it's hard for me to read her lips, but she writes things down if I don't see what she said. Then I write my answer back. We make it work."

That night Lily went home to talk to her mom. She needed to do something to make Bee feel better and her mom always knew what to do.

The next day at dance practice Lily didn't talk about Bee's mom. Her mom had said everything would be okay, so she knew it would be.

But the night before, Bee had also gone home upset. She wrote on a piece of paper "Why won't you learn to sign for me?" and gave it to her mom. She didn't get an answer back.

For the next month the girls tried to forget about what had happened. They had to practice for their big dance competition coming up.

The day of the big dance competition came fast. As their dance teacher welcomed the crowd, Lily and Bee looked out at all the people.

There were so many happy faces smiling back at them, the girls knew they had to do their very best and win for their family and friends.

The other dancers were really talented. The girls started to get nervous.