The rest of the morning was mostly fine.
Biology was Biology. Spanish I could follow. Math was exactly as straightforward as I expected. Nobody bothered me, nobody made it weird. I was just the new kid with the green hair and after first period people had mostly run out of things to say about that.
By the time lunch hit I was actually hungry.
I walked into the cafeteria and scanned for my foster siblings. Jesus was easy to spot, tall, sitting with a group of guys who all had the same athlete build. I was halfway across the room heading toward him when Vanessa appeared and grabbed my arm.
"Nope," she said.
"Nope?"
"Anchor Beach lunch system. Quick orientation."
She steered me toward the line.
"Charter school so the cafeteria is regular," she said. "But they actually cook here. Today is burgers and fries or the salad bar. The salad bar is genuinely good, which I know sounds like a lie but it is not."
"Burger," I said.
"Obviously."
I got my tray. She walked me toward a table near the windows.
"Your siblings," she said, nodding across the room. "You will see them at home. At school they all have their own thing and you only have one."
"One what."
"Do not play dumb."
* * *
There were three people already at the table.
The first one I clocked was the guy. Curly brown hair, the full kind that went everywhere and somehow looked good doing it. Big black headphones around his neck with stickers on the ear cups. Nike tee, chain bracelet on his wrist. Leaning back in his chair like he had never been stressed about anything in his life.
Next to him was a girl who had been watching me cross the cafeteria since I came in. Long dark brown hair, straight, diamond studs, brown eyes that did not miss much. White polo. The posture of somebody who knew exactly what she thought about everything and was deciding whether to tell you.
The third one was quieter in the way you notice. Long black hair, hazel eyes, small beauty mark near her mouth. Reading something, or pretending to, but she looked up when I sat down and clocked the green hair, the septum ring, then my face. She nodded once. Slow.
"Luke, Sarah, Rin," Vanessa said, sitting down.
Luke pulled one headphone cup away from his neck.
"Green Hair Sean. Already heard about you."
"It has been one morning."
"Small school," Vanessa said, and took a fry off my tray without asking.
They were cool. The conversation found its own level fast. Anime, music, the school, what was worth knowing and what was not. I told them about myself, the edited version, enough to be real without going full sad story. They laughed at the right things. Asked the right questions. Did not push where I did not go.
By the end of the main part of lunch I had all three of their numbers written on a napkin.
"We are going to the movies Friday," Luke said. "You should come."
"I have to ask first."
He nodded like that was completely normal.
"No problem. Just let us know."
* * *
After that the table split into smaller conversations. Sarah and Rin were talking about something from their last class. Luke had his headphones on one ear.
Vanessa turned toward me.
"Do you have siblings?" she asked. Like she actually wanted to know.
"A sister. Cierra. She is eight."
"Are you close?"
"Yeah. She is the smart one."
"Youre not?"
I looked at her.
"I am i think but she's smarter"
"She is in third grade and already thinking about college. It is just a fact."
Vanessa smiled a little. The kind that meant she was not going to argue but also was not convinced.
"I have a little brother," she said. "He is ten. Annoying but adorable"
"Yeah," I said. "That is exactly it."
We sat with that for a second. Comfortable quiet.
Then I saw Lena come in through the side door. She scanned the cafeteria, found me, and waved me over.
I grabbed my tray and stood up.
"I will be back," I said.
I was already walking away when I heard Sarah behind me, voice low but not that low.
"Why are you so interested in the new guy?"
I did not turn around. But I slowed down just slightly.
"I am not," Vanessa said.
"You have been asking him questions for twenty minutes."
Luke, without looking up from his iPod: "He is cool though."
"That is not the point," Rin said flatly.
"I am just being a good TA," Vanessa said.
The table laughed. I kept walking.
* * *
Art was right after lunch.
Mrs. Sims was already at the front of the room when I walked in. She was the kind of teacher who looked like she had been doing this for twenty years and still meant it. She held out her hand before I even introduced myself.
"Sketchbook," she said.
I handed it over. She flipped through it standing right there, not sitting down, not making it casual. Just looking. Her face did not give much away.
"Find a seat," she said, still looking at the pages.
I found one near the middle of the room. The girl next to me glanced over when I sat down.
She was cute. Natural hair pulled back, paint already on two of her fingers even though class had barely started.
"Hey," I said. "I'm Sean."
"Georgia."
She looked at the front of the room where Mrs. Sims was still going through my sketchbook.
"Where's yours?"
"Mrs. Sims has it."
"Oh."
She turned her own sketchbook toward me without me asking. I looked at it.
Everything in it was hyper-realistic. Portraits so detailed you could see individual hairs. A still life of a coffee cup that looked like a photograph. Even her abstract pieces had this quality to them, like reality was still underneath it somewhere, just rearranged. It was a completely different approach from mine. Mine was all line and style and emotion. Hers was like she was trying to capture things exactly as they were.
"This is really good," I said.
"Thanks."
She closed it. Conversation over for now. But not unfriendly.
About ten minutes later Mrs. Sims called me up.
She handed the sketchbook back and looked at me directly.
"I want you to go home tonight and make something new. Can be anything. Bring it back tomorrow. You are going to do that every day for a week."
"Okay," I said.
"But it has to mean something," she said. "Not just something that looks good. Something that means something to you. Understand?"
I nodded.
She held my gaze for a second like she was checking if I actually got it.
Then she waved me back to my seat.
* * *
After school I was outside by the front steps talking to Vanessa when my phone buzzed. Lena.
"Time to go," I said.
"Already?"
"There's a lot of kids. She is probably out front."
Vanessa walked with me to the curb. The minivan was already there, Lena behind the wheel. Through the window I could see Mariana in the back looking at her nails, Jude reading something.
"See you tomorrow," Vanessa said.
"Yeah."
I climbed in. The door slid shut.
"How was it?" Lena asked, pulling away from the curb.
"Good. Classes are cool. Art teacher gave me homework already."
"Mrs. Sims?" Lena smiled a little. "That is actually a good sign."
Jude looked up from his book and asked if anyone had been mean to me. I told him no. He nodded and went back to reading like that was the main thing he needed confirmed.
Mariana waited until we were two blocks away.
"Who was that?"
"Who was what."
"The girl you were talking to outside."
"My tour guide. She showed me around this morning."
"She is cute."
"Mariana," Lena said from the front.
"What? She is."
I looked out the window.
She was not wrong