Week Eleven - UDC 5

51. Office

Dr. Salvatici joined them in the room not long after Pete had fallen into a restless doze, and he cleared both of them for their Foster Care physicals and then examined Pete visually first, and then woke him to ask questions, which Pete answered yes to a headache and body aches, but no to coughing. "Dizzy?"

"A little?"

Dr. Salvatici nodded and jotted down some notes and then checked his eyes and nodded again as he wrote out instructions on two different prescription papers, which he handed to Helen. "The medication is for the conjunctivitis in his right eye. It's rare, but I've seen that happen with a bout of Flu before." Pete looked at him oddly. "Have you had a lot of stress recently?" They were treated to a tired twelve-year-old with a case of the giggles. "Ah, so that would be a yes."

"More accurate than you realize," Walt told him. "His coming to live with us was awful sudden for him."

"But good?"

"The best," Pete said for himself when he could talk again. The doctor's raised eyebrows set him off again.

52. Sales

Third period had gone by in a boring blur and Nick sighed as he got his locker open, only for both Bart and Karen to pounce on him. "What?"

"Checking on you," Karen said with a smile. "For we seem to be without our Tiny Terror today to give you directions. Not sure about Bart."

"Oh, I was just going to thank him for his mother getting my Dad to get me re-assessed," Bart told her and Karen frowned at him. "I didn't realize I could have gotten better tutoring if I'd just asked?"

Karen nodded. "That makes sense. I think."

Nick sighed. "Did everyone hear about my re-directing during PE? I wasn't lost!"

"Didn't think you were." She waited while he got books out of his backpack and put different ones in, and then grabbed his lunch sack. "One today."

"Pete didn't feel good this morning. Ma kept him home."

53. Accounting

"If you weren't lost," Campbell said from nearby, causing Nick to wince. "Then why did you make up a story like that? Even I heard about it, and I wasn't in PE that hour."

Nick carefully shut his locker, then moved to look into the Nurse's office. "Mrs. Joosten? Do I have permission to smack Campbell for being an idiot?"

Mrs. Joosten blinked up at him from her paperwork. "No, Bradshaw, you do not. Wait to talk to your JROTC advisor."

"Thank you, Ma'am. I will." He turned back around and looked at Campbell humorlessly. "If you can't figure it out, I'll explain it in very small words later for everyone before drills, along with certain things you should not say to people. Think about that until then." Nick nodded to Karen and Bart. "Let's go eat. I'm starving."

54. Management

"I think I love you," Karen muttered as they got to the cafeteria.

Nick smiled. "As nice as that sounds, I don't-"

"Not in that way," she clarified and led them to... was he wrong, or was this Geometry Central? "And I'm taken. Fionn would be so mad if I dumped him for you."

"Fionn?" Nick wondered and she motioned down the table to where Jaime was talking animatedly with Charlie and another guy. "Oh."

"Heard about this place being a maze," Bart said as they sat down and Nick pulled his lunch out of his bag. "But not the why."

Nick bit off a piece of his sandwich, chewed. "I didn't want to find out what happens when Pete's control actually does break and he loses his temper, and that was what I interrupted."

Bart froze. "Oh."

"Three days and it's been the same set of guys," Nick nodded to a table and Bart turned to look.

"But he's in the JROTC with them," Bart said slowly, confused. "That doesn't make sense."

"And now you know why Mrs. Joosten told me to talk to our JROTC advisor instead. I was going to, anyway, but it's nice to have an adult say I should."

55. Temp

The way home included a stop at a convenience store and another at Social Services to drop off the rest of the paperwork with Alan, who didn't seem at all surprised that Pete had the Flu. "How's he seem?"

"Exhausted," Helen said. "And I wouldn't expect any less. It's been an emotional week." She reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. "And I got this developed quickly, because you missed it."

Alan opened the envelope and slid something out of it that turned out to be a group photo. "Oh! Thank you, Helen. You're all in here... why is Bart Tomkins in this?"

"His father took it," she explained with a smile. "Is there any more paperwork?"

"Nope. I'll just get everything filed and get the background checks back and we'll be good to go."