Kit’s POV

Something was wrong with Roland, that much was easy to tell. The problem came when I tried to figure out what was wrong with him. 

I went back to the cabin not long after he left for his session, expecting him to meet back up with me after his session ended but after the first hour of waiting, I gave up on that hope. Eventually, dinner came around and he was still nowhere to be seen. I had gone looking for him, worried that maybe some kids had cornered him and he couldn’t get away but after asking around for a bit to no avail I assumed he was just having a long session with Andrew and was happy that maybe a breakthrough had happened. That happiness went back to worry when 10 rolled around and there was still no sign of him. 

I waited up for him as long as I could but eventually my own tired won out and I fell asleep without having the energy to change clothes or bother getting underneath the covers. 

The next morning Roland jumped at everything more than normal, his eyes darted around at random as if he was expecting someone to jump out and slap him, and he didn’t bother speaking a word to me. That last one wasn’t odd necessarily but I still expected to at least get a ‘hi’ as we walked to the cafeteria. 

I had tried to pick him out in the crowds in between classes but either he didn’t go or all of ours were too far away from each other. And of course, we still had different lunch periods so I didn’t see him then either.

By the end of the day, I wanted nothing more than to run to the cabin and at least get eyes on the kid to make sure no one had bothered him while he was already down but of course, I had my session right after my last class and I knew better than trying to skip sessions this early into my time at camp so I begrudgingly stomped my way over to the therapist cabin.

I have to hide my surprise when I stomped in to find Mary and Andrew standing behind the man’s desk seemingly holding a tense conversation without realizing I was there yet. 

“You realize this is an invasion of privacy right,” Andrew asked rather rudely as he glared at the woman in front of him. 

“It’s not an invasion if he had been warned about it prior to this happening.”

“Do I need to come back later,” I asked as I leaned against the trim of the door frame. 

“Possibly,” Andrew said barely above a whisper. Mary must have still heard him since she glared at him before slapping his shoulder harshly and turning her attention back to me. 

“No, you don’t need to go anywhere, this conversation involves you,” she said with a new smile as she faced me. Her voice was now gentle and more like the woman I had met on my first day of camp and not some school principal. 

“I think he was too far out of it to realize what he was agreeing to Mary. It’s a cheap shot to try and just spring this on him now, especially after how last night ended,” Andrew reasoned but Mary didn’t seem to care.

“He needs help Andrew,” she insisted.

“I’m not saying that he doesn’t but how is forcing help onto him going to affect him long-term?”

“How about you both tell me what going on and if it involves me I’ll decide what happens,” I said maybe a bit too harshly as I stepped into the room, letting the door close softly behind me. 

“Roland has agreed to take on a tutor for school,” Mary said a bit too excitedly. 

“He agreed while he was only half paying attention. And it wasn’t even agreeing, it was a nod with no verbal consent that I’m fairly certain was done just to make me stop talking,” Andrew countered with a light frown. 

“If he doesn’t start caring I’m not going to be able to let him stay here. Resources are spread thin as it is and plenty of people would enjoy having his bed if he gets kicked out. I’ve followed your suggestion and have tried to keep his cabin on bare minimum cabin mates but if he doesn’t start showing signs of wanting to be here I won’t be able to allow that much longer. We’re becoming cramped already.”

“He’s not doing good in school,” I asked even though I feel like I’ve invaded Roland’s private life. 

“Surely you know,” Mary sighed tiredly as she rubbed a hand down her face. “I’m sure you’ve noticed him not doing his homework.”

“Well yea but I figured he was doing his in class assignments.”

“He hasn’t done any schoolwork since coming here,” Andrew admitted bitterly. “At first I thought it was just because he didn’t want to feel stupid, he’s been living on his own for a while so jumping back into the 11th grade after years of missing out wouldn’t be easy for anyone but now I think he just doesn’t want to do it. We’ve already warned him that if he can’t keep up with the work he’ll be forced to leave and I think that’s just the option he wants at this point.”

“If he doesn’t want to do the work then what’s a tutor going to do? I can sit beside him and try to make him work all day but if he very simply doesn’t want to do it, there isn’t much I can do,” I point out. 

In all honesty, I loved tutoring back at rehab. I liked seeing the look on their faces when they finally understood what I was trying to tell them, I loved the one on one connection we got to have because of it, and I loved knowing I was helping them even when their teachers already gave up on them. However, that meant I knew when I was fighting a losing battle. If Roland didn’t want to do the work then it would only make him resent me and the work more. 

“That’s the problem that we are also running into,” Mary admitted. “We need to find a way to make him care and your file had mentioned that you had organized several study groups and tutor sessions before you came here. We thought maybe you would have better ways to maybe bribe him into it?”

“You want to bribe him into caring,” I asked, only hoping I could keep the judgment out of my voice. 

“Do you not think it will work,” she asked sadly. “I don’t want to make him leave and I don’t want to give up on him, he clearly needs help and we can give it to him but the state is only so forgiving. After last year they are paying more attention to us, if they find out Roland isn’t trying they are going to send him to jail for petty theft and give us three more kids to replace him with. It’s a better deal for them anyway.”

I didn’t like the idea of bribing him; it didn’t seem fair to him but I also didn’t want them to give up on him. He was a good kid, just not motivated. 

“Well, what does he like? I can’t really bribe him if I don’t have anything to bribe him with.”

“He likes fixing things,” Andrew said after a moment of hesitation. “But I’m not sure how that would be helpful. He hyper-fixates on it to the point where he doesn’t realize how much time has passed and gets very angry when you try to make him take breaks. I don’t see that being a sustainable bribe in the long term.”

“You just have to know how to use it,” I said as I rubbed my bottom lip. 

“You have an idea,” Mary asked hopefully, her entire face lighting up a bit too quickly. 

“I’m going to need help with it but I might have something,” I said, a million different ideas running through my head at once.

“Well, we can discuss this later then,” Andrew said a bit harshly as he glared at Mary. “This has cut into enough of Kit’s session, he doesn’t deceiver to have his time wasted on something that is not his problem.”

“I don’t mind,” I said honestly. “I like helping.”

“I’ll let you two be then,” Mary says, the relieved smile still covering her face as she walked over to the door and shut it softly behind her. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Andrew said, a light sigh on his lips. “I know Mary can be pushy without realizing it but if it’s too much for you, you don’t have to do it. It’s not your responsibility. This is a problem for the adults who are in charge of him.”

“I know. But I want to help. He doesn’t have any friends and I don’t want him to have to bounce around any more than he has to.”

I’d been there, being the ADHD foster kid that no one wanted was hard. I had gone to 4 homes in a year before I landed in rehab and it sucked. From the sound of it, Roland had it worse than I did. If I could keep him from making this worse on himself in any way then I would.

“Do you see yourself in him,” he asked as if sensing my train of thought.

“No,” I lied. “We’re too different.”

“In what way?”

He had the guts to run off. It was something I had always threatened to do but never went through with. He was braver than I could ever be. He found a way to change his situation while I only managed to make mine worse. 

“I don’t know,” I lied again.

This was the first ever chapter that I wrote entirely while streaming on Twitch! We had a lot of fun just hanging out and talking. If you want to hang out for the next stream download Twitch and use the link in my bio to be brought to my page. Also join the discord to get alerts for current streams!