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"Hey, you're here early," Caitie said, dropping down next to Jamie on the bench and swinging her backpack around to sit on her lap. "Usually you're racing the bell."

"Yeah." The buses were a little slow from Alex's neighborhood, but not as bad as Alex had made it sound. Jamie would probably be okay taking the later one. Well, that or he'd be late to homeroom, but that wouldn't be anything new. He was just glad that someone had opened up the lunchroom for students who got to school early, because there was no way that he wanted to be outside in the snow right now. It'd be even better if the cafeteria was serving breakfast—he'd eaten with Alex so he wasn't actually hungry, but he'd learned to grab food when he could—but they'd stopped that program a couple years ago.

"Found a coat too," she continued. "How did you manage that? I figured that the thrift stores would be bare by now."

"Oh, believe me, they were." At least they had been when he'd checked after school the last couple days, anyway. Jamie wasn't exactly picky about clothes, but when the only coats he could find had no lining or giant holes, even he couldn't pass them off as usable. "This one isn't mine, I'm just borrowing it."

"Well, good timing. I saw on the news last night that it's now officially the coldest December on record."

"And we're all of three days in, great." He hated being cold. The coat was nice, though. And the sleeves were a little too long even for him which meant that Alex had probably been telling the truth about it being something that he'd stuffed in a closet somewhere when it turned out to not fit right. Not that Jamie was very familiar with being able to throw anything in a closet and forget about it, but that was way less awkward than any other option. He still couldn't believe that Alex was being as nice as he was.

"Where's Kenny?" Caitie asked, looking around. "Skipping again?" She didn't wait for an answer. "What is going on with him? I've seen him in a bad mood plenty of times before but he's never lost it like that. Your eye looks gross by the way."

"Great, thanks." Not that she wasn't right. Stupid thing was still throbbing. "I've got no idea what's going on in his head." Sure Kenny had been grumbling some when they'd been waiting for the girls to get out of detention yesterday, but it hadn't been anything out of the ordinary. School sucked, life sucked, everything sucked. Pretty much like normal. He hadn't been very happy when Jamie had said that he'd be passing on the party at the Ivers' place on Saturday, but considering that said party involved hanging out on a rooftop in negative-whatever degree weather, Jamie would have skipped it no matter where he was sleeping. Freezing wasn't his idea of a good time.

"He didn't say anything to you last night?"

"I haven't seen him since it happened. I'm not staying with him right now." Which meant that he had no idea if Kenny was skipping today, but he kind of hoped so. Kenny wasn't the kind of person who apologized, no matter what he'd done, and even if the moment when Jamie might have hit him back was long past he still wasn't sure he'd be happy to see him.

She frowned, twisting to look behind them. "So where are you staying, then? Is Tom or Faustus or someone around here somewhere?"

Them being far less likely to skip school than Kenny was, and it would therefore be reasonable to expect them to be sitting with Jamie if he'd slept at one of their places last night. He hadn't told anyone about being at Alex's house yet, but he hadn't figured he'd be there long enough to need to, either. Especially after yesterday: coming home with a black eye had been the end of the line more than once before. No one liked fighting, and they never seemed to care that Jamie liked it even less than them. Somehow things were still okay, though. His mouth had gotten him into more trouble than the bruise had, and even that had just been a snap. Not exactly anything new for him, especially where Alex was concerned.

"Jamie?" Caitie asked.

"No, it's…I'm staying with Alex," he admitted before she could ask again. It probably was time to let a few people know, just to be safe, and she was a good enough friend that if he didn't tell her she'd dig until he did.

"Alex?" Her forehead creased. "Marks? The redhead who sits behind Micah in History?"

The redhead who sat behind Micah in history was a girl and not in his and Caitie's usual social circle, and he shook his head quickly. "No, Freeman. From the squad."

Confusion was replaced by surprise. "As in the guy who runs the whole program?"

"Yeah."

"How did that happen? He's a foster parent?"

"No way." That was a seriously weird thought. "But I was at the station Thursday, and with the snow coming down there weren't a lot of other options." He shrugged. He wasn't about to bring up the bus stop with her, either. "I sort of got stuck with him when the snow kept falling, and then when he found out about my foster parents, he said that I could stay at his place until Sonja finds somewhere else." Another shrug. "I'll end up back at Kenny's or somewhere eventually, I'm sure, but for now it's going okay."

"Seriously? I mean, isn't he kind of…." She trailed off, waving a hand vaguely.

"Yeah. I mean, he wanted me to do homework last night. Almost on Friday." Never mind that he'd actually given in and done a little bit while eating a couple sandwiches, either. It wasn't going to become a habit.

"So is that where you got the coat?"

"Yeah. He said I can hang onto it until the snow stops since he's got another one that fits him better."

"That was nice of him. Does the super squad know? I know Val hasn't said anything."

"I doubt it. I know you're the first person I've told, and Alex mostly never tells anyone anything. Not about other people, anyway." Jamie knew all the rules about confidentiality as far as handling patients and reports and that kind of thing, he'd had to repeat them often enough before getting cleared, but Alex was even stricter than that. "They'll probably figure it out soon enough." Alex would offer Jamie a ride when his time at the station overlapped with the high school squad, Jamie was sure of that, and although the story might have been different if it was the middle of summer, he wasn't stupid enough to decline in this weather.

"Huh. What do you think they'll say?"

"Got me. I don't think any of them even know I'm in foster care. Alex didn't so it's not on whatever forms Sonja filled out to get me on the squad, and it's not like I talk about it much." The other so-called bleacher junkies knew, but that was just because they were the people he generally crashed with when he was between homes. He'd never even thought about asking Hank or Tyler. They were nice guys, sure, especially for jocks, but they weren't that kind of friends.

"What do you think about staying with him? Minus the homework thing."

"I don't know. I mean, there's no lock on the fridge, and he's got an actual spare bedroom for me to use which is nice." She knew all about the converted porch last winter. "We don't always get along so well at the station, though, so mostly I'm trying to stay out of his way." Not exactly easy when Alex expected him to at minimum join him at the table for meals when they were both around, but so far it really was going all right.

She nodded and then Micah was there and Jamie definitely didn't feel like talking about his current living situation with him, especially since he might need Micah's place to crash at at some point in the reasonably-near future. "Is everyone at your place recovered from whatever bug you picked up?" he asked instead.

"I feel like I'm gargling marbles," Hank said, putting his forehead down on his open book.

"It's not that bad." Hank lifted his head slightly, and Jamie grinned. "It's mostly worse. I've got no clue what you just said but I'm very sure that that it didn't involve anything that you could do on vacation or buy at a supermarket."

"Thanks. It's probably a bad thing that I'm hoping that someone slips on the ice and we get a callout, isn't it?"

Jamie's grin didn't fade. The only reason that he was doing decently in French was because he already spoke it pretty well courtesy of his mom's mom way back when, and he was remembering more and more as the class went on. The written side was still a pain, but it was about the only thing that he was better at than Hank, and trying to do homework together was kind of hilarious.

"Okay, enough of this for a minute," Hank said, lifting his head and pushing his book away. "What did you do to get yourself suspended last week?"

Jamie was kind of surprised that he'd waited this long to ask. "Ran my mouth when I shouldn't have."

"Yeah, well, next time could you not? We've gotten kind of used to having you around."

"Sorry."

Hank frowned suddenly. "Wait, when did you even have time for that? You left at the same time I did, and I know you weren't in trouble then."

"I had to go back for something the next day." Like killing time in a reasonably warm place, and if he'd ended up counting bandages, it wasn't like he'd had anything else to be doing.

"On Thanksgiving?" Hank's frown deepened. "What did you forget that was that important?"

Of course Hank would know the date. Overachiever all the way around. Except in French. "I don't…. It's complicated." Jamie looked down at his book for a minute. Alex wasn't here yet, but he said earlier that he'd be stopping by this afternoon and that Jamie could catch a ride back with him. Maybe that would be after the rest of the squad left, but maybe it wouldn't be, and Jamie would rather avoid having to answer the completely awkward questions in front of Alex.

"What's complicated about forgetting something?" Hank asked.

Jamie looked over his shoulder. Hank was probably the best of the super squad to start with; he was pretty steady and as far as Jamie knew there wasn't any awkwardness going on in his family like there was with Tyler's stepfather. Or Tyler's father, who didn't seem to be in the picture too much right now. Val was his second choice since he could give her the basics and let her bug Caitie for the rest of it, but she and Tyler were over watching TV and pretending like they weren't practically dating and he wasn't about to get in the middle of that.

"Jamie?"

He looked back at Hank. "Okay, here goes. I'm guessing that the answer is no, but did you know that I'm in foster care?"

"What? Doesn't that mean that you don't have any parents? What happened?"

"Well, that answers that question. No, my parents aren't in the picture, they haven't been for a while, and I don't want to talk about it."

"Why not? Did they die?"

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Not as far as I know, but my mom took off around the time I started school, and my dad is in prison. And I don't want to talk about."

"What did he do?"

"Is there some part of 'don't want to talk about it' that's not coming through?"

"Sorry. I just didn't know any of that."

The curiosity was still pretty clear in Hank's eyes, and Jamie sighed. This was why he didn't talk about his personal life when he didn't have to. "Attempted murder, okay? It's not a nice story, I don't want to talk about it, and I've been in foster care ever since."

"What about your grandmother? Doesn't she live somewhere around here?"

"A little bit south, but she's in a nursing home so they aren't going to let her have a kid." He wasn't going to bring up the d-word with Hank. "Can I get to the part of this story that actually matters?" If he didn't cut Hank off he'd come up with twenty more questions. People always did.

"Okay, sure," Hank said slowly, clearly biting back several of those questions. At least he was willing to do that much.

"So the foster parents of the month dumped me right before Thanksgiving. It's not—it happens. It's not a big deal. But I didn't have anywhere else to be so I ended up here, and then I ran into Alex, and neither of us was in a good mood."

"Oh. That would do it." He paused. "Does Alex know you're in foster care?"

"He does now. This is where things get kind of strange. I'm sort of staying with him for a little bit."

Hank blinked. "That's a joke, right? A really bizarre and not very funny joke."

"It should be," Jamie agreed. "But it's pretty much that or Kenny's floor until my social worker finds a new foster home, and Kenny's being weird lately."

"Like giving people black eyes?"

"How did you hear?" It explained why Hank hadn't asked before despite the fact that the bruising was incredibly obvious, but Jamie wasn't sure where Hank would have gotten the information. They didn't have a lot of friends in common.

"Tyler. I guess Caitie told Val who told him."

That almost made sense. "Right. Well, anyway, Alex's place is the better of the two options right now." He shrugged. "I figured that I should tell you myself since you'd figure it out eventually and then things would be even weirder."

Hank nodded. "Makes sense. Appreciate it."

He hesitated, and Jamie eyed him suspiciously. "What?" He did not want to answer any more questions, especially since he still hadn't said anything to Val or Tyler. Maybe he should just have told all three of them at once.

"Try to keep your mouth shut and not get suspended for life, okay?"

"That's pretty much my plan."