As Troy began to wakeup he noticed that he was warm, comfortable and pain free. He enjoyed the feeling for a moment before he remembered that he was now living with the Bolton's. While the Bolton's hadn't disciplined or punished him for his crimes last night they were sure to do it today.
He looked over at the clock that was on the night stand and saw that it read 5:45, he knew he was awake and that he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep however they had told him wake up was at seven and he didn't dare get out of bed although he wanted to explore around the room and the house. He wasn't given permission and he didn't know what he would be allowed to do in this house. He didn't want to be caught wondering around their house.
The Bolton's house of what he could see was moderately big. They had four bedrooms upstairs; there was the master suit which he assumed belonged to the Bolton's. There was a guest room that looked like it was used quite a bit as it looked well used. There was this bedroom which shared a bathroom with the room next door. He didn't dare go in it as it looked like it belonged to someone as there was quite a lot of stuff in it and it looked like a tornado had gone through it.
Troy wondered if he should tidy the room up so they would see that he was good at something but didn't dare move. Coach Bolton had told him yesterday that he was going to tell him what he was supposed to do around the house. He wondered if the coach would tell him when he was to be disciplined as well. He liked knowing because rule number one was to be ready and if he didn't know when he was to be disciplined then he couldn't be ready.
Perhaps he was right in his thinking last night and that the coach would be the one to discipline him. He shivered when he thought of Coach Bolton using his strength to belt him or cane him or whatever method of discipline was his preferred method. His father had been strong but Troy had known Coach Bolton for the past year and knew that he was strong and fit and could take his father down easily in a fight. Troy didn't want to feel him use that strength against his back or any other part of his body.
He shook his head to clear the unwanted thoughts. Of course Coach Bolton was going to do whatever was necessary to get him to obey, if it was a belting then he would just have to live with it, God he hoped it was not the belt however the sooner he got used to the fact that these people were now responsible for him the better.
He still was not sure why he had been removed from his own home. His father hadn't done anything wrong. On the contrary he had tried very hard to make Troy normal. Meredith had asked again and again if he had understood why he couldn't live with his father any longer. He had not.
Maybe his father wasn't doing a good enough job? The coach was definitely stronger and could be better at disciplining him. This past year his father had told him often enough that he had to find harder discipline methods for him because apparently as his head got thicker so did his skin and it was harder for his father to discipline him. Troy never one to argue with his father had wondered if his skin was getting thicker why had it hurt far more? Maybe having two people in the house was going to be better at getting him to do whatever he was supposed to do better. He wished someone would tell him what he was supposed to do better.
His hearing picked up noises from the other room. It looked like the Bolton's were awake and talking to each other. Troy took another look at the clock; 6:37 at least there wasn't much longer to go, he hated staying still and not doing anything. He suddenly had the feeling he was being watched and turned around to look in the direct eyes of Coach Bolton.
"Good morning," said Jack in what he hoped was a jolly enough voice standing in Troy's door way. He didn't want to enter the boy's room without his permission so Troy could start to feel safe and comfortable in his own room but asking now would be a mute point so he had decided to wait until a time that Troy could give him the permission.
"You awake or would you like some snooze time?" he asked knowing full well that Meredith had warned them against too many questions.
"Awake sir," was the answer he got, he disliked anyone calling him 'sir' and on the first day that Troy had come to live with them he had told him to call him 'Jack' but again was warned yesterday by Meredith that this would be difficult as Troy apparently called his father 'sir'. He knew this was a problem for another day and that he couldn't reprimand the child.
"You want to get out of bed and get dressed?" asked Jack in the most neutral voice he could muster. As answer Troy got out of bed and looked down at it not sure if he was supposed to make it or not.
"Why don't you make your bed?" Jack asked in a tense voice, maybe he could get his hands on a gun to shoot the bastard?
Jack couldn't help but watch as Troy made his bed, he had seen many people make beds and knew many of their children just threw the covers over the bed and declared it done. But he was frozen on the spot as he watched on with amazement the amount of detail Troy gave the bed and made it with military precision. He would have liked to joke and say that Troy could have a nice military career, as he seemed to have calling people 'sir' down to pat, followed orders very well and apparently made his bed to their standards but he kept the joking to himself as he was not sure how Troy would take it. He continued once he thought that Troy was done.
"Well since you are up and I am up, why don't we meet outside in 10?"
Troy nodded his head as he moved towards the bathroom, he knew that the coach was evaluating him and would test him this morning. He hoped that he was pleased with the bed as he wasn't sure how they wanted him to make it, he would just hope that it was ok.
The run was uneventful as they tracked though the neighbouring blocks. Jack was impressed that Troy was so well in shape, he couldn't help but think that it was because of that bastard of a father of his. After their run Jack supported Troy in some sit-ups and exercises, he used the time to think about the things they could be doing together in the mornings to make Troy a better player, he was after all a basketball coach.
When they were done he told him to go upstairs, take a shower, get dressed and not show up before the half hour was up, he didn't want Troy coming downstairs before he managed to have his own shower and make his way downstairs to start breakfast. He then went in their bedroom to wake up his wife who probably had gone back to sleep the moment he left her.
He was downstairs making eggs and sausages when Troy came back down on the dot, he lingered in the doorway not sure what he was supposed to do. Jack waved him over to the kitchen island where they always had breakfast in the mornings.
"Come sit down, I hope you like eggs," he said as he placed a plate in front of Troy along with the anti-anxiety medication. At that moment Julie came down the stairs still yawning and sat down next to Troy, she reached over to him and before he could react gave him a kiss on the cheek and moved away.
"Good morning, sweetheart," she said and Jack could have sworn he saw the tiniest of smiles on the boy's face before he got down to eating his breakfast.
Julie could see that Troy was getting nervous as the breakfast came to a close. She and Jack exchanged glances, it was at least nice to know what made Troy nervous as they had been blind to it in the last couple of days. They had imagined that Troy was just shy and nervous about living with people he didn't know. After all they had done this eight times in the past and they had just continued on with their lives as normal. None of their children had had a panic attack before. She decided that they needed to get out of the house before something happened.
"Why don't you boys head out? You can stop by the nursery. Casey said that she would have flowers for me today for the backyard."
"Will do love," he said and Julie knew that they were already changing as Jack hated it when they got flowers because then he had to help plant them. He was known to complain long and hard about it. But now for the sake of Troy he was trying to keep the negative comments to himself. She couldn't help the evil look that came over her eyes as she thought about what else she could manage to get her husband to do without the usual commentary that accompanied them.
Her husband must have caught the look as he said "Don't even think about it" to her and "Come on champ, let's hit to road," to Troy as he grabbed his keys.
He turned towards Troy and he saw that Troy was frozen on the spot. He had to repeat himself three times before Troy found the courage to move. Jack thanked Meredith for sharing Troy's schedule with them as Jack knew what the delay was about however he was angry as they got in the car and he could see that his anger was making Troy nervous.
The turned towards the boy and visibly saw the boy flinch back, he knew he at least needed to try "it's not you Troy. I am not upset with you, do you understand that?" The boy's eyes were huge as he nodded his head.
Jack knew and wasn't waiting for miracles to happen the first day and hoped that sometime in the future Troy would finally understand that not everybody wanted to hurt him.
"I am not going to hurt you, nor is Julie. We are never going to hurt you. I know you don't believe me, but we are going to show you that we are not. What happened to you was wrong, no child should have to go through what you did," he said and gave Troy a few minutes to digest what he said. He had a feeling he would be saying these things for a while from now on and without waiting for a response started the car and backed up the drive way.
The trip to the nursery and the mall went uneventful if you could call having a shadow uneventful. Troy followed him around in total silence and helped out when needed. An elderly lady even commented on what perfectly mannered gentleman he was when he helped her with her flowers and Jack almost felt like growling at her while giving her a tight smile.
Troy on the other hand seemed to have calmed down a little. Jack figured that it was to do with being in public, he knew that Troy felt a bit safer knowing that Jack wouldn't be doing anything to him here.
They stopped by the electronic store where Jack brought a play station. Last night he had called Daniel, their third foster child who was into all sort of electronics and worked at creating computer games and had gotten advice on what he should buy. He had then spent 10 minutes talking him out of coming to the mall to buy it with him and then another 20 minutes talking him out coming over to set it up and then play with it. Setting it up was what he planned on doing with Troy sometime in the week. He convinced Daniel to give them a week before coming and test driving the system.
The problem arose when they went into the huge toy store. Troy just froze in the entrance and looked around in amazement. He had never seen such a place. He had never had many toys to begin with and when he had turned ten his father had gotten rid of what he had saying he was too old for them. He took a step towards the aisles and looked behind him and halted when he saw Coach Bolton. He had a look of furry on his face. Troy thought back to all they had done that morning and wondered what he could have possibly done wrong.
Jack had to get out of there before he did any damage. "Troy, I need... a moment, can you stay in the toy store for a little while? I'll be right back?" he did not wait for a response and left the store and found the closes bathroom and locked himself in a stall.
He wanted to scream and shout and hit something, he could understand a child not having any toys or not taken to a toy store. There were many people out there who couldn't afford to buy toys for their children but to do it out of spite was something that Jack could not understand and he didn't want to understand. After he calmed down he left the stall splashed his face and took several long breaths before going back to the store.
What he found there was even more heartbreaking then he had left. Troy was standing exactly where he had left him staring at the ground not even looking around, any other child would have taken advantage of their parent or guardian not being there and wondered about. Jack moved around the front of the boy so he could see his face. He wanted to say that they'll come back at another time but he knew that would be a bad idea as Troy would feel even guiltier about something he had not done.
"Sorry about that, wasn't your fault," Troy didn't even look up, Jack reached out and ignoring the flinch back took him by the arm and dragged him though the toy store keeping up a running commentary about the toys each of their children had liked and had and he also talked about the toys he had when he had was a boy and how they had changed. He also made a mental note to himself to come back and get some toys for the boy. He didn't want to spoil the child from the get go of getting him one of everything which this child deserved but he knew that they would be fighting a losing battle as Troy's now older brothers and sisters picked up on the lack of toys they would be lucky if one didn't show up every day.
He knew that Troy was at the age where you got a fourteen year old toys they would be embarrassed, but Jack figured in this department Troy was following his age mates a bit behind and he also needed the play.
He knew he had made the right decision when they reached the remote controlled section as Troy seemed to have lost his fear and was actually taking in every detail of every single thing in. Jack decided to buy a car where you had to put together the engine. He knew Troy was not dumb; he should be able to figure out that it was for him if not in the buying process but when Jack handed the bag to him saying "It's yours, so you should carry it."
They then met Julie for lunch and visited the bookstore afterwards. They saw an entire transformation when they entered the store as Troy lost any trance of uneasiness and went around the store like he was in bliss. Julie went over to him and Jack could see her talking to him in a soft voice and him nodding his head with a smile on his face.
Troy could not believe it; they wanted him to pick a book to buy. He wasn't quite sure what he should pick. There was this great book that was about the history of basketball, the next story in the Drizzt's series but as he wondered around he saw a seagull out of the corner of his eye. There standing in on the shelf was "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" he looked at the price and it wasn't much so he braved it, praying that he hadn't made the wrong choice he approached Mrs. Bolton with it.
When she saw that Troy was coming over with a book she smiled, they had apparently found something Troy enjoyed. They had a huge collection of books at home but hadn't observed that Troy showing any interest in it. Perhaps he didn't know that he could. Julie made sure to make a comment about it when they got home. She looked over at the book he had picked, it was one of her favourites as a matter of fact they had three copies of that particular book in their home. She decided not to mention it as this copy would be Troy's alone and he needed that.
"Excellent choice Troy," she said and saw the blush that worked its way up his face. "Why don't you go and see if you could pry Jack away from the sports section so we can go home?"
Troy wondered over to Jack nervously he was supposed to tell him it was time to go? As he reached him he saw that Jack was looking at the same book he had admired before. Jack turned towards him and smiled "Time to go?" he asked and went on "nice book isn't it? Saw you looking at it, nice," he said as he placed it back on the shelf. Troy momentarily felt disappointed if he had picked that book Jack would have been pleased. Jack on the other hand thought that the disappointment was for leaving the bookstore, "don't worry, we will come back to visit the bookstore again." Then he lowered his voice like he was sharing a secret "Julie loves books so we get to visit bookstores at least once a week."
Troy smiled the first smile that Jack had seen since coming to their house. Regardless it wasn't long lived because when they got home Jack made the error of telling Troy that they would be discussing what was expected of Troy and it seemed whatever ground they had won with Troy disappeared when they saw the disappointment on his face as he believed the time had come for them to punish him.
Jack saw Troy's heart rate go up and that he was taking great care to calm himself and prepare himself to what was to come. Jack very calmly moved him over to the coach and guided him to sit.
"I am not going to hurt you, Troy look at me," he said and waited until Troy had gotten the courage to lift his eyes up from his hands he was studying to look at him. "You have done nothing wrong today or in the last four days we have known you that would warrant punishment."
He looked to see if he was getting though to Troy and realised maybe not so decided to try again maybe specify the day? "I repeat you have done nothing wrong in the past four days so there will be no punishment or discipline."
He sat back and wondered once again how they were going to get through to the boy. He then spent the next 20 minutes writing down everything they expected Troy to do around the house. They had spent a part of last night discussing what they should be and Jack couldn't help but look over at Troy when the list was done.
Troy could not believe the list. There was nothing on it. They wanted him to do very little around the house; the list considered things like making his bed, putting away his clothes and toys, carrying his own dishes to the kitchen after a meal, helping clean up after dinner and making sure that he tidied up after himself in general. How was he supposed to repay these people? They had already brought him a toy he wasn't sure what to do with and a book and now they were telling him that no work was expected of him? He knew his father was well of and the Bolton's while it looked like they didn't need for anything they weren't in the means as with his father. How will they be able to keep him if he didn't pay for himself somehow?
After some consideration he decided to voice his concern. "How am I to pay for myself?"
The discussion that had followed Troy's loaded question was long and hard. It had taken longer than expected to explain to Troy that children were not responsible for themselves. At the end they were not sure if Troy had gotten the idea and Jack made a note to have a word with Meredith so they can include this particular topic to discuss in their sessions.
Then Troy and Jack made their way to the youth centre so they could play basketball and Jack could see Troy's actual personality shining through. The boy Jack had seen and known for the past year. He was confident and sure of himself as he played the position of small forward but Jack already knew that Troy had the makings of a great point guard otherwise known as the play maker. The other players responded well to him and Jack could see that Troy was not shy of physical contact with the other players as he easily traded handshakes and back slaps with them.
Jack was angry at himself, he had never looked beyond the court to see Troy, and if he had then maybe he would have noticed that there was something wrong. Was he missing other children because he was not looking at the rest of their lives but just concentrating on their sporting lives? He made a vow to himself that he would be more involved with all his players' lives from then onwards.
After they were done playing everyone broke off for some scrimmages and Troy went to have his hour with Meredith. Jack usually spent this hour supervising the scrimmages or spending time with some of the players that came up to ask him for advice.
When Troy came out of his meeting with Meredith he seemed to be in deep thoughts as he made his way over to the changing rooms to pick up his stuff.
The dinner that night also went without any troubles as Jack concentrated on talking basketball and managed to get Troy to comment on different plays. He also noticed that while Troy knew about basketball on the court he was lacking in knowledge in the NBA and college basketball, Jack added that to things that he needed to do with Troy. Julie being with someone who most of the time talked basketball for the past 30 years also managed to join in the conversation, they made sure to keep the conversation going as they cleaned up the table and placed everything in the dishwasher.
Then Jack with a really calm air sat Troy down at the table and talked to him about the next day's schedule. He wrote it down on a piece of paper and when they were done got up and stuck in on the fridge for everyone to see and know.
They got the shock of their life as they settled down to read, they didn't want to watch television as they thought it might disturb Troy as he practiced the piano, however the moment Troy started to play they turned around to look at him in astonishment. Troy feeling their eyes on him stopped playing and turned to look at them in return.
"Is there something wrong sir? Ma'am?" he behaved to ask them.
"Wow, is the only thing I can think of," said Julie as she got up and went over to him. "May we listen to you play?"
Troy went cold all over. He knew what happened to him when his father listened to him play. He turned back to the piano and repeated what Meredith told him just that afternoon 'these people were not his father, not everyone was like that.' He repeated what he had been told again but had trouble believing in it nevertheless he went back to playing. He knew that their piano was out of tune and he was used to playing a grand but he was not going to complain.
Jack and Julie spent the next hour being mesmerised as they listened to Troy play. Both of them weren't great at understanding music all the same they knew that what they were hearing was not a mediocre player. After Troy had finished playing they were still sitting there staring at him.
Finally they snapped out of it and moved the conversation to the living room where they could be more comfortable.
"Troy I don't know what to say, you are incredible," said Jack.
"Not really, I just practice a lot sir," replied Troy.
"You can't have gotten this good without help, do you take any lessons?" asked Julie ignoring the bit of information Troy gave them about himself not being a good player.
"Yes, Ma'am I do. During the winter Mrs. Watson gives me lessons on Sundays."
"Do you know how we can get in touch with her? Perhaps she can continue to work with you now that you are here in the summer. Of course if you wish to?" added Jack.
Troy looked down; Jack seemed to notice that when he was not sure of the reaction he was going to get he would break eye contact and look down. "I am sorry sir, I don't know her number. My father was the one who made all the arrangements."
"Well did she come to your house to give you lessons or did you go to her house?" asked Julie after all she was a business woman and a teacher she knew how deal with problems.
"I went to her house Ma'am."
"Do you know where she lives?" asked Jack knowing where his wife was leading with her questions.,
"Yes sir."
"Well perhaps the day after tomorrow we can go by her house to see her and talk to her."
"If you think that is a good idea sir" was the answer they got.
"Well, now that is settled, why don't we watch a movie before bed?" asked Jack moving over to the DVD collection to pick a movie.
Troy moved over to the couch reluctantly, normally he studied if he had time at night however there was not anything about it on tomorrow's schedule nor was it on todays. Did they not expect him to study as well as not clean? When he reflected on it he decided that he could do without the cleaning but he couldn't do without studying. Perhaps he could bring up the question up with Meredith. It was much nicer to talk to her today knowing that it was coming to an end rather than yesterday where it went on and on. He was actually beginning to like her.
He looked up when the movie started and for the next two hours and thirteen minutes he watched in fascination as he was introduced to the world of Star Wars. When the movie finished he couldn't help but look over to the Bolton's with a smile on his face.
"Well if you liked this movie there are five more in the series," said Jack with his arm around his wife who had cruelled up by his side.
"I would like to watch them as well sir, very much," said Troy and Jack couldn't help but laugh as his wife elbowed him in the side. All their children had been made basketball and Star Wars fanatics because of this man and it looked like it was not going to be any different with Troy.
"Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for bed, I'll be up in a moment," said Julie getting up of the couch and stretching, she had slept through the second half of the movie after all see had seen the movie 13 times since it had come out on DVD, she didn't even want to think about how many times she had watched the original trilogy. She also ignored the tenseness that came over Troy and knew that it would take time.
The bed time went smoother than it did the night before. She knew that Troy wasn't too keen on taking the sleeping pill and had phoned Meredith today to talk about it and was told that the pill was for a short while until Troy slept better. This piece of information she shared with him,
"This pill is just for a little while, until you are more comfortable at sleeping in our home and in your bed. After that you don't have to take it," she told Troy as she handed it over to him. He swallowed it without looking up.
After showing him the clothes he was to wear the next day she tucked him into bed. She had brought up her own copy of 'Jonathan Livingstone Seagull' upstairs and started to read from the book to her son. She knew that she had made the right choice as a really relaxed and nice smile came over his face as he turned towards her to listen. After a while his eyes drifted closed and his breathing evened out without the stress of last night.
She reached over to give him a kiss on the head and turned off the light and went in search of her husband. She couldn't believe it had just been one day. It had been one long day.