Chapter 17

He listened to Sam's many complaints—not once did she even greet or acknowledge him. In the past this would signal an upcoming terror but in the present this signaled the amount of frustration she was suffering. Poor Sam.

But he had a plan to ease this. Honestly he was excited to execute it. Thing was, she had to leave the premises first. But he was so exciteeedddd…! Why couldn't she go now? She could come back later and he would be done, he would show off her surprise and she would be so happy.

And he would see her smile and know he was the one who made her smile. It was weird though… He'd seen her smile a hundred times but now he wanted to see her smile and he didn't even have a reason for it. He wasn't afraid of her getting angry at him. He was afraid that one day she wouldn't want to be around him as much as he wanted to be around her. So he wanted her to smile. He had no real reason, he just wanted to make her happy.

She huffed angrily and stood up, then she went over to this wooden box thing that looked sort of like a table. She pulled out a smaller box-ish thing and grabbed a number of different clothing items from it. There was a shirt, a pair of pants, another pair of pants that looked really weird and probably wouldn't cover nearly as much as her longer pair, and then something that…might've been passable as a shirt…? It had two straps and then this band that connected on the back, and then it had two bowls made of cloth side by side on the front. It wasn't the first time he'd seen it but he still had no clue what it was. That thing was definitely not a shirt.

All he knew what that Sam didn't want him inspecting those. The extremely tiny pants, those were also off limits. He didn't need to understand English to know that when someone used "no" ten times in one sentence, it meant he should stay away. There were things in the bathroom that also got him in trouble. And he wasn't allowed in there when Sam was, no matter what. There were too many rules for the bathroom. It wasn't even worth it.

"I'm showering, don't come in," she said, carrying her clothes into the bathroom.

She didn't have to tell him not to come in every time she went to go shower. It was one of the few English sentences he could understand—that was how often she said it.

On the upside, she took long showers when she was upset—perfect.

He went over to her desk and scanned her notebooks. There were three. He pushed one to the left, one to the right, and the third forward. It made a nice open space. Also perfect.

He heard the shower turn on in the bathroom and immediately got to work.

First came the right notebook. It was a struggle, as with all books, but he did manage to open it. He opened the second and third as well. Now the real work began…

He bit down onto a page in the first notebook, carefully separating it from the other pages, and pulled on it until it tore off. He placed it square in the center of the desk. He went for the second notebook and did the same. Then the third, and the first, and the second, and the third. Eventually he began mixing them up to keep Sam amused when she came back. There were blank pages when he got nearer to the end though…

Nevertheless! This was a minor obstacle!

He took a pencil in his mouth and dragged it all over the remaining pages until all the notebooks had been completely filled. What he drew looked similar to very large letters/numbers. Sam probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway, setting aside the size. And even then, he'd just done the extra work for her and successfully turned three notebooks into one. He just needed the metal spiral to connect the pages but other than that this was a perfect notebook.

He tried to straighten up the stack as best he could—not easy with useless fingers—and only stopped when it looked good enough. He bit his lip and smiled. This was by far. The. Best. Thing. Ever.

He took several deep breaths to calm himself down and listened closely to Sam sing as she showered. She never sang in front of anyone else and as far as he knew, she restricted her singing only to the shower. He'd already picked up on whistling. Singing appeared to be the next step—perhaps another reason he wanted his voice back so much. But for now he was happy to listen to hers.

Eventually he just started trying to whistle to her song. It…well, it didn't match up… He settled for mouthing the lyrics. …He didn't actually know the words either. But that was okay, because Sam always said he was trying and that was what counted.

It took forever for her to get out of the shower and forever longer for her to get out of the bathroom.

As soon as she saw the surprise her jaw dropped and she froze. He smiled and pointed to all the papers.

"Y-You…you…" She took a deep, deep, deep breath. "Before I flip. Why. Just…why."

She walked over to her desk and started flipping through all the randomized pages. He beamed with pride.

"Daniel, you have singlehandedly destroyed— What is this?" She held up one of the previously blank pages he'd filled out for her. "You scribbled all over any free pages I had left, too. And worse! They are mixed in with every other subject I had! Math and history don't belong together! And literature?! Seriously?! What is the point of doing this?!"

There was no doubt that she was pleased with this, and was now asking him how he did it.

"Sneaking into my underwear is one thing, Daniel, but this is unacceptable!"

She was loving this, he could tell. No need to thank him though, the reaction was thanks enough.

"Do you have any idea how long it'll take me to sort these out?" she sighed. "I won't have time to copy all these notes onto new notebooks…"

He grabbed one of his picture books and nudged her arm with it.

She sighed again. "Sure."

A/N

Mm. Yeah. So. That happened.

I also had another reason for this chapter—his comfort zone. He's finally coming out of it and he's gone on to explore new things now. He's comfortable with Sam and Tucker, he knows he's safe and he knows they won't hurt him even if they get upset with him. He's fully trusting them.

He's also trying to impress Sam without actually realizing it. And to clear up any doubts, yes, he is falling in love with her but no, he has no idea that it's a normal feeling.

The reason he's so curious now is because he wants to be like Sam and Tucker—he wants to understand what they understand and he wants to know what they know. Pay close attention to this. And his curiosity and affection for Sam will play an enormous role later down the road.