"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Kirsten asked, as she pulled the Range Rover up to the front of the school. "I don't want you to feel like I'm pushing you or something..."

"It's fine..." Ryan gave her a small smile, "Now that I can sorta walk, it's pretty much torture to be stuck in the house all day."

"I know, but if you need anything or decide you do want to make it half day, you'll call me, right?"

"Yeah," Ryan said, sliding sideways out of the car, then seeing Kirsten's eyes boring into him to extract a more sincere promise, "I'll call." He balanced carefully on one leg as Seth got out of the back and handed him his crutches. With the help of the crutches, he had started being able to put some pressure on his leg. Next week or two Pam said they were going to take away the crutches all together, before the leg muscles atrophied any further.

It was only when he started limping up the handicap ramp that led into the school and noticed the gathered students gawking at him, that he began to have second thoughts. He focused on just taking the next step. He could feel Seth's presence beside him, but they didn't share many classes, Ryan took several advanced math and science classes while Seth preferred art classes.

"Hey Seth, hey Ryan," A cheerful voice called.

"Hey Anna," Seth said smiling.

"Hey Anna," Ryan didn't look up, he just focused on just taking another step, and avoiding eye contact with the other students at the school who were all staring at him.

"You're looking better..." She said nervously.

"Thanks..." He said.

"How's your leg?"

"Uh... Anna, maybe we should let him get up the ramp and then start bombarding him, alright?" Seth said, steering Anna out of Ryan's way so he could concentrate on the challenge of just walking. He was still getting used to using the crutches and putting partial weight on his leg.

"Oh right... Sorry..." Ryan saw her feet backing away up the ramp as he made progress foward. God, he wasn't even inside the building yet and he was exhausted.

As he reached level ground, he was able to move at a slightly more rapid pace, and he finally managed to answer Anna's question, "My leg feels better, thanks for asking."

"Yeah, sure..." Anna said.

"Dude, you're back!" A male voice said. Luke was standing with some of us water polo buddies but he broke away and did a chest pound/hug with Ryan, but gently, so Ryan could stay balanced on his crutches.

"Yeah," Ryan managed to smile. "Had to come back sooner or later..."

"Have you... talked to Marissa?" He asked cautiously.

Ryan shook his head, "Nah man,"

"Yeah..." Luke decided not to tell him about his encounter with Marissa at the diner. "Well, uh, good to see you up and about man,"

"Thanks," Ryan said, moving again towards the school and his first class. At this right, first period would be over by the time he got the door. Seth and Anna, hands clasped together, followed after him, like some sort of parade.

Reaching his classroom was a relief, as he slid into his seat. Even the short walk had worn him out. He was never going to make it through the day, he realized. He was going to have to call Kirsten and ask her to come and get him by lunch time. Or third period. The rest of his classmates were slowly starting to come into the room. A few shot him curious glances, he had been MIA for awhile, and he was sure various rumors had been circulating in his absence.

Ryan opened his binder, and organized his overdue homework, trying hard to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room. He slowly dawned on him how few friends he really had at this school. At his old high school, he had known everyone. He had earned a sort of gritty respect both on his own merits/ fights he had won and being Trey's brother. Here, he looked around the classroom, he knew almost everyones name, but no one well. For instance, there was no one he could ask to pass his homework to the front, and he was faced with two options. Hope his teacher would come to his desk and collect it, or manage to get back to his feet and hobble to the front of the classroom and leave it on the teacher's desk.

"Hey, do you want me to pass that in for you?" A girl with bright brown eyes asked. From the drudges of his mind he managed to pull a name to memory.

"That'd be great, thanks, Taylor." He hoped he had her name right. He must have because the girl, Taylor, smiled.

"No problem, Ryan." As she swept the papers off his desk, "By the way, just so you know, I don't believe any of the rumors."

"Rumors? What?" He stared at her, she blinked at him innocently.

"You know... About you drunk driving, and crashing with Marissa in the car."

"Uh yeah..." Ryan felt his shoulders sag, "It was a skiing accident."

"Really?" Taylor's eyebrows shot up.

"Yeah, really." He could tell from her expression that she didn't totally believe him.

"I wouldn't peg you as the skiing type." She told him, bluntly.

"I'm not," Ryan said, "It's probably why I fell and broke my leg." He managed to smile slightly, and Taylor returned the smile, slightly nervously, then walked over to the teacher's desk and dropped Ryan's homework on to it, and returned to her seat, without making eye contact. Ryan sighed, what had that been all about? He suspected that her friendliness had more to do with trying to get to the bottom of the rumors than any genuine urge to help him out. He was relieved when their teacher finally showed up and started class.