"James." Debra yelled up the stairs. "Breakfast is ready."

James jogged down the stairs, his backpack on his shoulder. Bryce and Samantha didn't look at him. He really couldn't blame them.

"Don't dawdle." Debra said, her voice rather cheerful given the circumstances. That was all the clue James needed to know something was up. Something like he wouldn't be coming back after school. Not for long at least. "I'll give you kids a ride to school."

James quickly ate his bacon and eggs. "I forgot my soccer bag." He said as they were leaving. "I'll just be a minute." James yelled as he ran back up the stairs. He grabbed the bag from the corner where it sat next to his suitcases, already packed and waiting for the final decision.

Everyone was quiet as they drove, first to Sam's school and then to the high school. James made the appropriate nods and grunts at Debra's parting words and jogged into the school, not caring where Bryce went to meet up with his friends and regale them with tales of what a mental case freak the charity boy was. He quickly opened his locker and found three envelopes sitting on top of the textbooks he had left at school. He opened them and counted the money before tucking it inside a copy of Shimomura's Takedown he had found at a used bookstore. He dropped the book into his backpack next to his notebooks of computer programs and other bits of research he'd done over the years. His actual schoolbooks and notebooks were packed into his suitcase along with his soccer gear. Debra had been paying so little attention to him that she didn't notice that his duffel bag was overpacked for just a uniform, shoes and some knee pads.

James pulled out another book before closing his locker. As he walked down the hall, he stopped at three different lockers, dropping an small card through the vents into each one. Having delivered the promised goods, James slipped into the library and dropped the borrowed book into the return bin. No one paid any attention as he walked down the hall and out a side door just as the bell for class was ringing.

James kept walking until he reached a public bus stop well away from the school. A short ride and he was at the Greyhound station. He quickly scanned the departures, looking for the first bus to leave,

"One ticket to Boston." James slid a bill across the counter

"ID please."

"Sure." James plucked his ID out of his wallet and handed it to the clerk.

"Thank you Mr Birkhoff." The clerk smiled as she handed him back the ID, ticket and his change. "Platform 12B, sir."

James wandered to the bus, stopping to get a soda at a small newsstand in the station. As he sat in his seat waiting to leave, he glanced at the ID. He felt a bit like Dorothy, realizing that he had had the means to get away for weeks. James Kincaid was a teenage orphan at the mercy of the rules and the system. Seymour Birkhoff, on the other hand, was an adult. Seymour was free. Free to go where he wanted, to be anyone he wanted.

"Excuse me." A voice interrupted his thoughts. "Is this seat taken?"

She was pretty. Tall and slender with curly blonde hair pulled back in a bouncy ponytail. She was in a denim skirt and a MIT sweat shirt.

"Uh, no." He smiled, moving his backpack to under his feet.

"Thanks." The girl smiled back. "I'm Tracy."

"Seymour."

"Seymour?"

He laughsd. "I know. It was my great grandfather's name. Everyone says I should get it changed but it would break my mother's heart. She was really close to him."

"That's sweet."

It was so easy. He could pretty much make up any lie he wanted and the lie would be his life.