"So. Did you like your old school?" Sandy was determined. He had started noticing that the more he talked, the less scared Ryan looked. At least, that was what it looked like to him. But since Ryan was still virtually mute, it was all he had to go on. He heard a mumbled and saw a shrug out of the corner of his eye. He decided to push his luck by asking the young boy to clarify. "What?"
They pulled up to a stoplight and Sandy resisted the urge to turn and stare at his son. If there was one thing he knew he knew, it was that Ryan did not like him staring at him. Sandy had been playing with acting casual and looking in the opposite direction of Ryan and catching glimpses of the boy only when he was looking away. It seemed to be working fairly well.
"Um, sort of. I've always… um, kind of liked school." Sure it was forced. Sure every statement sounded like a question. Sure they were nowhere close to having a real conversation, but when Ryan spoke more than two words in a row, Sandy could pretend like they were.
"Yeah? What's your favorite subject?"
"English?"
Ryan was still trying to figure out what his future held, but was also trying to not think about it. His… the guy, Sandy, seemed incredibly harmless. As relaxed as Ryan was letting himself get around the man, he would not let himself call him his father. Even in his head. He wasn't his father. The entire situation probably wouldn't even last much longer. He would be back off to his father or his mom or maybe even foster care soon enough. He was trying to find the balance between getting so attached that he would be upset when his life inevitably crashed again and being able to look back fondly on some memories of that one time he stayed with those weird, nice people.
They all talked too much, except for the little one. She mostly just did whatever she wanted, away from everyone else. Sure, she interacted with the rest of the family like Ryan assumed normal little kids did, but she seemed independent. She seemed to like to spend time by herself. And her family seemed to respect that. It wasn't like when he was little and Trey dragged him around town or when his mom called him a freak with no friends. They just seemed to let her do her own thing. Ryan wondered what that kind of independence was like.
Then he realized he was jealous of a tiny girl and rolled his eyes at himself. Staying with people who never seemed to scream or beat each other was turning him soft.
Sandy pulled into the school parking lot, just as he had with Seth a hundred times before. But this time was different. This time, Sandy felt different. As much as he was trying to be casual, he was still walking on eggshells with Ryan. He never gave too much thought to what he said to Seth. Well, of course he gave some thought to the important stuff. But he never sweated the everyday stuff. Seth knew when he was joking or when he was exaggerating. If Sandy said something really stupid or snippy because of a bad morning, chances were that Seth would forget about it about the second he stepped out of the car, if not before. But with Ryan, he wasn't sure exactly what effect his words were having and he wasn't going to chance anything.
Ryan walked across the parking lot. He barely had to hobble anymore. It made him feel better, being at his best, physically. Of course he would never try to do anything to stop Sandy if he had tried to hit him, but it just still made him relax a little more. He was also a little grateful that Sandy had gotten out of the car to walk to the school with him.
He had been worrying about being able to find where he was supposed to go and who he was supposed to talk to since he had gotten such little direction. He just kept picturing a scenario in his head where Sandy dropped him off in a random parking lot and drove away leaving Ryan to aimlessly walk around a school he had never been to before looking for a person whose name he probably wouldn't even remember by then. He had also pictured multiple scenarios in which the doors were locked; it had started to rain in one of those.
Ryan wasn't really limping anymore, but he was still walking slowly. Was that because his knee hurt or was it because he really didn't want to go inside? He had said that he liked school. What was his other school like? Did the size of Harbor scare him? Or the intimidation of taking the tests? Sandy began to wonder how Ryan was really going to do on them until he saw a familiar face. He smiled out of instinct, but then froze on the inside. What was he going to say?
"Hey, Mr. Cohen!" The smiling girl stood before them.
"Hey, Marissa! Have you met Ryan yet? I'm assuming not since these guys never go outside." Babbling seemed like the best tactic. And it seemed to work.
"No, we haven't met. Are you going to Harbor?" Sandy glanced down at Ryan to see him glancing up at himself.
"Yup! We were just going inside to meet Dr. Kim."
"Cool. I'll see you around then."
"See ya." Sandy noticed Ryan watching her walking away. He was probably more comfortable around girls than he was around Sandy. That was a new concept. He wasn't a bad looking kid. Neither was Seth, but Seth was never one for people his own age. He wondered if Ryan had had a girlfriend in his old town. Or friends.