After the bumpy start of Sam's placement in Miss Carmichael's class both boys settled into the school year with very little difficulty. Sam was finally being challenged as Miss Carmichael would give him more complicated projects when the day to day work was finished. Although she saw some similarities between the brothers they were definitely different children.
Sam's mouth often spoke before his brain processed the words. This got him into trouble from time to time but mostly with teachers that didn't know him well. Miss Carmichael had found a way of quickly reeling him back in. Sarcasm was Sam's way of responding when he was unsure of how else to deal with a situation. Many teacher's felt he was being rude, however Miss Carmichael recognized the tone for what it was, a way of Sam dealing with frustration.
At the end of every day Lucas would come by the classroom and pick up his younger sibling. Miss Carmichael would update Lucas if needed as she may a parent. It may not have been the most professional but it seemed to be working. She had overheard Lucas counseling Sam from time to time on how he should be behaving and what he should be doing to stay out of trouble. Lucas wasn't worried about the added responsibility as he felt that he could keep Sam from stepping out of line far enough that anyone else needed to be brought into resolve the problem.
This didn't mean that Sam was a perfect angel but it did mean that everything wasn't thrown all out of proportion. Lucas and Miss Carmichael in their own way understood, without a discussion, that keeping things calm would minimize the likelihood of a larger issue blowing up.
This didn't stop Sam of course but it meant that things were quiet at home and through the successes Sam's behavior seemed to be improving. He would still scream angrily when bumped or his things moved or touched but he was less likely to take a swing.
Lucas was also having success in his final year in middle school. Next year he would be heading off to high school. Lucas was popular in a geekish sort of way. He was class representative with the administration, he helped to calculate house points for the entire school and he worked hard on his classwork. He had finally grown out of his trouble maker reputation by either having changed the teacher's views or having those who saw him as such retiring.
For the past two years Lucas had been followed in the school yard and halls by a gaggle of girls. His good looks and sweet empathetic personality meant that he had a bit of a following. He was secretly but embarrassedly enjoying the attention. Lucas blushed at even the mention of a crush by any of his family members. Tim had been trying, even before Lucas was old enough to be involved with girls, to set up a path of communication that was open and unencumbered by social awkwardness. But he had very little success. Lucas would still stare off into the great beyond if Tim brought up any aspect of a relationship.
Tim spoke to Abby on numerous occasions about how else he could approach the situation to make Lucas more comfortable, but neither had any brilliant ideas. However one of the positive side effects of these impromptu conversations was that Sam was far more comfortable with these discussions and would even ask questions. When another of Tim and Abby's conversation about Lucas came up with no new ideas Tim left the conversation by stating "Well I know that at least one of the boys has the right information, Lucas can always go to Sam if he has any questions!" With a laugh Abby gently patted her husband on the cheek and continued with the evidence in front of her for the newest case.
Tim and Lucas had a breakthrough one afternoon as they drove to a classmate's birthday party. As Tim casually asked about the other attendees; Lucas offered information about the social awkwardness that would likely happen when choosing movie seating at the upcoming event. As Lucas fumbled through words trying to tell his father about who liked who and who was expecting to sit with whom, Tim tried to conceal the stupid grin that would portray how he was feeling but would probably shut Lucas down. But he was beyond happy that not only was Lucas sharing with him but he was having a conversation with his son that he would never have had with his own father. When Lucas couldn't come up with his own words to describe the problem he was able to use a shared reference to a geeky online comic strip that described the problem exactly.
After that conversation Lucas was ever so slightly more comfortable with everything including the gaggle that followed him around. It is this gained comfort that lead to Lucas to his current predicament.