Wow! Quite a hiatus I took there. I apologize to those of you requesting an update, and I appreciate your support of my writing. Because of your kindness, I am putting up a long-ish update. I hope you'll enjoy. ;) I also got tired of finding song lyrics and having to edit the people who put "U" instead of "you" and misspelled the "who's"/"whose" and the "your"/"you're" and the "to"/"two"/"too" and whatnot. Those people are incredibly aggravating and I, frankly, have had just about enough of them. I'm just doing titles now...chapter 14 belongs to Death Cab.
Anyways—thanks so much for reading and reviewing as you have been. Your benevolence fuels me. ;)

Princess Oats 435: Sounds like Tommy Rupert had it coming. Good for you for making him eat that brown crayon. The time I got to be boss was in fourth grade. We had a substitute who called me Dorothy because she said that I looked like Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz". And she left the room and I didn't let Maggie play Cat Jeopardy and then when my real teacher came back he took me in the hall and told me that I would never have any friends if I banned people from playing Cat Jeopardy. Being the boss is not all it's cracked up to be, huh?

Brenda Osler: You have absolutely no idea how happy it made me that you "cheers"-ed me. I've never been "cheers"-ed before. Cheers right back atcha! I'm glad you're enjoying it! ;)

Dulcey: Another lovely review! You kick ass!

And thanks so much to everyone else! Especially Cynda, with the encouraging "at least there are no typos". That was very enlightening. Brilliant, really.High five to you.

Okay! Here we go! Please review again!!! You're all awesome! ;)

xoxo

Chapter 14: The New Year

The first day of school was met with more disappointment than usual. Sandy looked almost comically miserable slumped over his cup of coffee at the island, Ryan observed, but the second the door opened he perked up.

"Morning, kid," he said, attempting cheerfulness and failing for the most part. Part of Ryan wanted to tell Sandy that it was okay to him to act upset, that his sadness was justified and this was his own home where he should have been able to act how he wanted. But a larger part felt very uncomfortable and that part told him to play along.

"Morning." He got himself a bagel and sat down across from Sandy, grabbing the sports section of the paper so he could have something to distract him from the awkward silence. Sandy focused his eyes just above the upper-left headline of the business section and was able to revert to his thoughts without appearing too suspicious. Kirsten came down a minute later, examining the two of them sadly, and went for some coffee.

"Morning, boys." Her voice was especially perky as she kissed Sandy on the head. "Ryan, you look nice." Ryan gave himself an uncertain once-over and glanced up at her, confused.

"Uh, thanks? You too." She smiled.

"I meant...you know. New clothes, new bag, new books. You look ready." She studied him. "Are you ready?"

"I guess," he shrugged. "I mean...first day of school. Not so much about being ready as it is about...dealing with it?"

"Fair enough."

"How're you feeling, honey?" Sandy asked Kirsten, standing up. She glanced over at him warily.

"Fine. Great," she said quickly without looking at Ryan, hoping Sandy would take the hint. She didn't want to think about this now, and she definitely didn't want Ryan involved.

"What's the matter?" Ryan asked.

"Nothing," Kirsten said, smiling tightly.

"She's been throwing up," Sandy explained.

"Bad Thai. I'm fine," she said firmly, looking hard at Sandy. He backed off.

"So, there's a senior in my kitchen." He patted Ryan roughly on the shoulder. "This is a big year, kid."

"Yep," Ryan agreed.

"Senior year," he mused, leaning against the counter with a fresh cup of coffee. "Seth's been looking forward to his senior year since he was eight. You'd think this would be a moment he wouldn't want to miss."

"Sandy," Kirsten said quietly.

"It's just ironic," he said, shrugging.

"Not really," she said warningly.

"Well, I think so. And we're supposed to be opening up more, right? 'Creating a comfortable conversational flow'? And, you know, in case you haven't heard, Dr. Mercer is the most highly praised psychologist in California." Ryan looked uncomfortable and Kirsten shot a deliberate glare at Sandy.

"Sandy."

"What?" He sounded like a kid, challenging her, and she looked surprised.

"I..." When she saw Ryan looking at her, she flashed him a small smile and then placed a comforting hand on Sandy's shoulder. "Ryan got Mr. Lerner for English," she informed, and Sandy seemed to snap out of his immaturity.

"Man, what did you do to deserve that?"

"That's inspiring feedback," Ryan commented dryly.

"When Seth was a freshman he made him reread Moby Dick four times because his annotations weren't detailed enough," Kirsten explained.

"And he called security on Kirsten during a parent-teacher conference," Sandy added. Ryan laughing, looking at her for confirmation. She blushed.

"He threatened to. He didn't actually call anyone."

"Kirsten called him a self-important prick," Sandy elaborated, nudging her.

"So basically I'm screwed?" Ryan asked.

"Hey, your last name isn't Cohen. You can probably stay on his good side until he finds out you're related to Kirsten."

Sandy picked up his briefcase. "So, kid, are you ready to go, or what?"

"Yeah, just let me go get my stuff." Ryan went out to the pool house, leaving Sandy and Kirsten alone.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, turning to her. "For acting like such a jerk to you. You don't need that. I was just..."

"It's okay."

"It's was so important to him, you know? For the past three years, he was so ambitious about his schoolwork, and for him to be missing the first day of one the most critical high school years..."

"I know," she whispered, taking his hands. "It makes it more real."

"I didn't think that was possible," he said with a short laugh. She smiled cynically.

"Me either."