Author's Note:

I am in severe emotional distress over Day 6.

This helped some.

It's still utterly ridiculous I'm sorry but WE GOT A NEW CHARACTER

There were police at school the next day. None of the flashing lights or caution tape or anything - in fact, if he hadn't had a good deal of experience with police he might not have even noticed them to begin with. He did, though, and the unmarked cars were the first things he saw stepping off the bus in the morning. Sergio figured the immediate instinct to leave - and quickly - was residual habit and he managed to get into the building without looking like he was ready to make a quick escape.

He wracked his mind for any reason there might be cops, anything he might have done to breach his probation or just piss someone off. Granted the latter happened pretty often whether he tried or not, but they didn't usually arrest him for that. He'd actually been pretty damn well behaved recently - kept to curfew, put up with all the checks, didn't go outside his radius...and when Otis came he came alone.

Once there was a pause in the flow of incoming students, Sergio paused for a moment in the hall and knelt down. He made some effort to make checking the anklet look like tying his shoes, but it probably wasn't too convincing. The small light was still on, and it definitely looked like it was working as it always had, so it wasn't like they'd have come for that. As much as he would never admit it out loud, the routine here had gotten comfortable, and he wasn't eager to be shipped off again somewhere else.

Casual. Didn't do anything wrong, no reason to be jumpy.

He didn't like cops. But still, he could act normal despite knowing they were around. Sergio made it to his locker without incident and started sorting through books while keeping an eye on the hallway. He was more and more convinced that, whatever they were here for, it wasn't him. His schedule was well-known, and they'd have confronted him already if he was the target. Once that was an established thought, though, the curiosity set in.

He was halfway to his first class before deciding to act on that curiosity. An abrupt 180 in the middle of the hall would've looked strange, and an excuse would be needed eventually. Sergio slowed just enough so that the flow of the crowd just parted around him as he rolled a few ideas around. It was pretty simple to set on one; excuses were something of his specialty.

"Hey, uh...Haven." It was a bit of a relief when the boy addressed turned - at least he got the name right - and Sergio pulled on a bit of a grimace. "I've gotta run to the nurse. You mind telling Mr. Anderson?"

Haven looked a little startled that the weird new kid was talking to him, but he nodded jerkily and Sergio was striding off toward the office a second later. He could drop by the nurse, get an Advil or something, and get a quick look at what was going on. Everything happened in the office. If there were cops at the school, that's where they'd be.

He half expected to see guards or something outside the door. There were none, logically, and the secretary barely looked up when he went in. He didn't expect to see Anana sitting on the bench outside of Sutton's office. She was watching the opposite wall but he could tell she'd noticed him. Sergio hesitated, glancing over at Adrian's door before he went to sit on the other end of the bench, unconsciously straightening the leg of his jeans.

"You get in a fight already?" she asked, and he frowned a little. She still wasn't looking at him and he turned away himself after a moment.

"Here for the nurse."

"Right." Anana scoffed lightly. "Don't think you gotta take a number. He's not exactly busy."

Sergio ignored that, arms folding as he leaned back against the wall. "Saw the cops were here."

"Yep."

Well this was getting nowhere. He wasn't entirely sure how long he could get away with this particular excuse. The blunt approach seemed quicker. "Any idea why the cops are here?"

Anana shot him a look - the same calculating look he'd seen a few times before - before she leaned back as well and turned to watch the ceiling. "They're talking to Toluk. Gonna bring Miksa and Hatake in at some point."

"Why?"

"Thought you didn't get involved in family issues." Her tone sounded almost bitter and when he glanced over she was still pointedly looking away. After a pause she sighed softly and shook her head. "My little brother was stolen. They looked, didn't find him, presumed him dead. Now he turns up out of nowhere fourteen years later, so yeah, we're gonna get the cops involved."

Well that made sense, in a way. Not like he would ever willingly get cops involved with anything, but it made sense. "So Daniel's still being..."

"An uncooperative ass about it? Yeah." Anana gave a weak laugh, running a hand through her hair. Sergio realized at that point that she didn't just look frustrated - she looked downright exhausted. It was hidden pretty well but he'd seen enough of her normally and read people well enough to tell the difference. "You'd think that'd just be even more proof they're related, really, but he's been..." She trailed off and shot him an odd look. "Dunno why I'm telling you this. We're handling it. You can keep on avoiding everyone, like you're good at."

He tried to think of some way to respond to that with little success. Sutton's door opening made both of them start a little and Sergio couldn't help but tense when a detective shot him a look. Anana stood, grabbing her bag off the floor. She had taken a step toward the door before pausing and turning enough to give him another considering glance-over.

"Anyway, you're not exactly the helpful type, right?"

The detective was saying something to her quietly when she followed him back into the office, and Sergio could see a decent number of other people already in there before the door closed. He was left in the quiet and it took the secretary giving him a questioning look to get him moving again. He stood and crossed the room to Adrian's door, knocking twice before stepping inside.

Adrian barely glanced up and raised one finger, his eyes on his laptop. Sergio shut the door behind him and managed to catch a few lines of whatever was on this time - "...go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over." The sound shut off suddenly and the man leaned back in his chair.

"Hey, uh...Sergio, wasn't it?" That got a quick nod in reply and Adrian grunted. "What's the problem?"

This was the only problematic part of his excuse. He managed to keep from shifting around - that just looked even more guilty - and shrugged once. "Just a headache."

The look he got then was scrutinizing and Adrian rolled his eyes. "Uh huh. Got a test first hour or somethin'?"

"No, I was..." Whatever he said at this point wouldn't be convincing in the slightest, and he sighed. "Just wanted to see what the cops were here for."

"See, honesty." The man wagged an approving finger at him and leaned forward on the desk. "I like that. Saw them come in myself - have to say, I expected it a lot earlier."

"Earlier?"

"Well yeah, they..." He hesitated, glancing toward the door with a frown. "Probably shouldn't be spreading it around, to be honest."

Sergio snorted, arms folding. "Who am I going to tell?"

Adrian considered that, then grunted. "Ah, hell with it, you're here already, and this place gets dull." He leaned a little closer, shooting another furtive look at the door. "Moment those two got here, knew there was gonna be something going on. Thought there had been some mix-up in the filing, that someone had put Daniel's picture in by accident. No problem there, y'know, just fix it once the kid gets here."

"Didn't work out that way," Sergio noted, and Adrian snorted.

"Not so much. Now we've got these detectives and cops and they're all eyeing Hiroshi because he adopted this kid years ago only to have his actual family show up."

"They thought he was dead." Sergio looked back at the door, remembering the exhaustion in Anana's face, the sort of bitter resignation. "She was telling me, they had a search but nothing happened and they just presumed him dead."

"It's a bizarre situation, to be sure. I like Hiroshi; he's a good enough guy, if a little..." Adrian pulled a face, wiggling one hand, "eccentric, maybe. But it's gonna be rough on everybody involved."

"What are they gonna do about it?"

"Hell, kid, I'm a school nurse - I don't know any of this legal crap." The sound of a door closing outside made them both pause and after a few beats of silence the man gave a noncommittal shrug. "All I know is I'm stayin' as far out of it as I can. Don't need any more problems on this end." Adrian glanced him over again briefly. "You gonna ask what you should do about it?"

That got a confused frown and Sergio shook his head. "Wasn't exactly planning on it, no."

"Good." Adrian leaned back in his chair again, arms folding. "I don't give great advice. Ought to get back to class - it'll start looking suspicious, staying this long for a headache."

He had a point there, anyway. Sergio sighed, standing again and slinging his bag over his shoulder, one hand tugging the leg of his jeans down. "Right. Well thanks for the...whatever."

"Life-saving medical help." The man tapped at his laptop's keyboard and the voices in the movie picked back up again. "Any time. Except, y'know, before eight or after five."

The closing door hadn't been Sutton's office – it didn't look like anyone else had come in and he could still hear the murmur of voices on the other side. The only other option was Harris's office, and that was pretty well confirmed when he spotted the counselor behind the desk and another boy hunched over it filling out some form that looked strikingly similar to the ones Sergio had dealt with when he first came.

He intended to slip out quietly. Not like there would be too many questions coming out of the nurse's office, but Sergio would prefer to avoid any human interactions he could, especially with a guy who he was pretty sure had his probation officer on speed dial.

It was just his luck, of course, that that didn't work.

"Sergio – good timing. Could you come here for sec?" Sergio stopped, took a moment to brace himself, and then turned on his heel and strode back. The new kid was just finishing the bottom few lines of the paper and Harris glanced up at the clock quickly. "You've got Spanish now, right? Mr. Anderson's class?"

At least he wasn't asking why he wasn't currently in Spanish. "Guess so, yeah."

"Perfect. As long as you're heading that way, you can take him along – that's his first class too."

Dammit. Sergio fought the urge to grimace, instead managing a slightly questioning look at Harris while pointedly ignoring the new kid. "Thought it was Cornell's jobs to give the tours."

"Sarah has a test." Of course she did. "And you're here anyway." Harris offered a rather tired smile, arms folding. "I'm not asking you to be friendly. Just show him the room."

It took some effort to manage an eye-roll that would express exactly how inconveniencing this all was, and then Sergio gave a grunted, "Fine," and spun on his heel, jerking his head toward the door. "C'mon, then."

The kid followed without question, crumpling the papers he held into his backpack. He seemed to be sizing Sergio up, so the favor was returned. About the same height, a mop of unruly brown hair, and skin tanned enough that it was obvious he was from somewhere with a lot of sun. He didn't seem too eager to talk and likely wasn't the type for conflict – at least he didn't look like the type of guys that Sergio knew were always up for conflict.

"So what's your deal?" Sergio asked after a moment. "This place hadn't met its quota for transfers or something?"

The smirk he got in return was a little surprising, and there was an immediate attempt at a reassessment as the new kid held out a hand. "Kyle. Kyle Sommer. You got a name?"

His accent was relatively pronounced, and Sergio frowned. "You from Texas or something?"

"Got a good ear." Hell, this guy was cheerful. "Born and raised, yeah." His hand dropped again, though he didn't look too disappointed. "What about you? Gotta have a name, right?"

There was some hesitation, but it wasn't like everyone around here didn't know his name already anyway. Not exactly a secret. "Sergio."

"Sergio," Kyle repeated, as if mulling it over. He nodded briskly and grinned, glancing around the hall. "Got any brilliant tips about this place, Serge?"

"Don't call me that," he said automatically, and then let out a scoff. "I haven't been here much longer than you, Texas. Not the best guy to ask."

"Pity. Seems like you know what you're doing."

Usually he was good at reading people. This guy was…stranger than he was used to. It was tough to pin down exactly what he was trying to accomplish.

"Yeah, well…" Sergio shrugged, more grateful than he'd expected when they got to the door. "I can tell you this is Spanish. That's all you need for the moment."

Kyle glanced up at the sign and did a quick survey of the area as if giving himself landmarks. The grin was still firmly in place when he looked back. "Well, I'll be sure to look you up if I need directions or somethin'. Thanks for the help, Serge."

It took Sergio a few moments before he managed to get himself to follow the guy into class, because what the hell, did he just wink at me?