Chapter 2:

Gus was sat in his room, reading his file in great depth when he heard a knock at the door.

'Who is it?' He shouted, as he did not particularly want to be disturbed, but could do with some help to understand what it was he was reading, and whether it was normal for parents to do this.

'It's me!' Came the sound of Johnny's voice from behind the door. 'I have algebra homework, and was wondering if you would be able to help me.'

Gus thought about this for a moment, and then shouted back;

'If I help you with your algebra homework, will you help me with something?' This confused Johnny, as Gus never usually needed help with anything, but he agreed to it anyway, as he (nor any of the other kids in the house for that matter), really could not get his head around x2-y6h+3qr.

Gus hid his file underneath his pillow, and spent the next half hour talking Johnny through how to do his equations.

'Wow!' Johnny thought to himself, 'Gus is better at teaching me than my teacher is!'

When they had finished the algebra, Johnny was just about to get up and go, when he remembered Gus's compromise:

'So, what was it you needed me to help you with?'

'Why do you live here?' Johnny had just taken a sip of water, and this question nearly made him spit it out everywhere, but he managed to swallow it, as he was in Gus's room, and Gus would have gone completely mad if he had of spit it out. Johnny was about to just get up calmly and leave the room, but first of all wanted to know if there was a good enough reason for Gus to be asking him that, or whether he was just being nosy.

'Well,' Gus replied. 'I have been reading my file, and want to know if what my parents did was normal or not.'

Johnny had wondered for years what had happened before Gus arrived at The Dumping Ground, so, although he did not want to talk to Gus about his own past, he thought that this would be the perfect time to find out what really went on in Gus's. Pretty soon the two of them were reading Gus's file, and uncovering facts about themselves and each other, that they had never known before, or had never spoken to anybody else about. For some reason, Johnny felt fine, happy even, to talk to Gus about his past. He did not understand why, but he actually enjoyed getting the chance to talk to someone about it all, somebody who would just take what he was told as a fact; and not judge anybody else by it.

By the time tea was ready, however, Gus was still not satisfied. Johnny was in care for a completely different reason to him, and he did not know who would be the best person to explain everything to him in a way in which he would understand. He decided to investigate further after tea…..