Leo signed back, a little clumsily: “No shortcuts. Just the long way.”

His roommate, Maya, was Deaf and usually helped him, but she was on a weekend trip. Desperate, Leo did what any exhausted college student would do. He texted the group chat: “Anyone have the Signing Naturally 10.5 answers? I’ll trade a coffee.”

Leo’s heart raced. He logged into the student shared drive, navigated past old party photos and a half-finished screenplay, and found it: a PDF titled “SN_10.5_Answers_Explained.pdf”