@queenofcrazy27 Some high school Jack Young excerpts!!
(AFTER MOVING INTO TEMPORARY FOSTER CARE)
Jack stayed home while Ryan and Lindsay took the twins and Drew to the park. The thought of talking with them while the kids weren’t around was exhausting, he’d been avoiding having to do so for the past two weeks.
Instead, he put earbuds in and grabbed his stick. Ryan had a lacrosse rebounder in the backyard from when Katie used to play, though Jack didn’t think he mentioned her playing in college. Why waste the money on something so big?
And why choose lacrosse over exy?
With his music blasting it was impossible to hear a car pull into the driveway, or someone shouting Anyone home? through the front door.
If he’d turn away from the rebounder he’d see a tall brunette watching through the kitchen window. She slid the back door open and leaned against the door frame.
When Katie was told that her parents had gotten a foster placement, she assumed it would be a kid. Singular, and under the age of eight. She wasn’t expecting three kids to drop in. And she surely didn’t think she’d ever share a wall with a seventeen year old boy.
Jack slammed his ball into the rebounder until he lost control of it, and threw his stick down as he turned. He wanted to go home. Where there was no rebounder, no father figure in the household, and no social worker invading his life and personal space. He didn’t want to say that he regretted his decisions, but that was before he was basically forced to do it. How was he supposed to know how his mother was doing without being there? He didn’t trust other people to help her get better.
Jack jumped at the movement in the corner of his eye. He ripped his ear buds out. “Who are you?”
She stood a little straighter but didn’t uncross her arms. “Katie. I’m Ryan and Lindsay’s daughter.” They’d told Jack and his siblings about their daughter, but he thought she wasn’t coming home until the winter. “Who are you?”
“Jack,” he said. Jack picked up his stick and put his ear buds back in, and scooped up another ball. He lodged it at the rebounder and jumped to catch it, then spun from the force of it and shot the ball again. He caught it and let it drop to the ground. Before he could pick up another he just barely heard Katie speak.
He took one ear bud out. “What?”
She raised her eyebrows. “You play at school?” He pursed his lips and nodded. “Cool. Wanna order food? I’m hungry.”
Jack glanced between her and the rebounder. “Is that allowed?”
She turned back to him where she had a hand on the door handle. “Is what allowed?”
Katie frowned to herself on the way inside. “Ordering food? Yeah?”
Jack sighed and followed her inside.
For the week that Katie was home, she made it her mission to befriend Jack. She didn’t have much else to do.
Jack didn’t take a liking to her until the third day she was home. He couldn’t sleep in the too quiet house in his too nice room. He wanted his bed at home.
So he tried sneaking out. And as quiet as he was, Jack still got caught.
Katie was in the kitchen on her laptop as he snuck down the stairs, and stood when he headed for the door. “What are you doing?”
Jack jumped and froze with his hand on the handle. He thought about it for a second, and decided he didn’t care to lie. “Going home for the night.”
She walked slowly towards him. “I’m guessing you’re not allowed to do that if you’re sneaking out… Poorly, might I add.”
He scoffed. “Whatever.” He yanked the door open and left.
Katie went after him. “Jack, it’ll take you forever like that!” She stood in front of him and held onto his bike handles before he could climb on.
“Move.”
“No. You’re gonna get yourself hurt.”
“Leave me alone.”
“No,” she grunted as he tried moving out of her way. “You’re gonna get in trouble, you’re gonna get your mom in trouble!”
He stopped at that and leveled her with a stare. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“Yes I do. Hello, who do you think their first foster kid was?”
Jack froze, surprised and suddenly more interested in what she was saying. “What?”
“I was only a baby, and got adopted a year later, but my birth mom killed herself when I was a baby and my dad just couldn’t provide for us, so he did some illegal stuff that got him locked up instead. He gave up his parental rights so I could have a normal life. It’s what your mom’s doing in a way, letting you guys stay here and be normal until she can get back on track.” She dropped her arms. Please don’t run.
Jack pulled his lips to a thin line. As inspiring as some may have thought, he wasn’t moved by her speech. He swung a leg over his bike and let it fall to the ground. He took a step towards the house, then swiveled around and pointed a finger at her. “We are not the same- You don’t know shit about me and my family. Don’t pretend that you do,” he said, and stomped back into the house- this time with no attempt at being silent.
(MOVING BACK HOME)
Jack was excited to move back home, but when they did he had a few realizations. The first, was that he felt like he was babysitting his mother, which she did not like. She was stable and steady, but he’d spent too long playing grown up that he didn’t trust her anymore. As much as he wanted to have faith in her, he kept thinking ‘what if’?
He kept worrying she’d forget to pick the kids up at school. Every time he saw her sitting on the couch his mind went right to the worry that she was depressed again, or that she’d lost motivation. When he was at Exy he wondered what was for dinner and then wondered if she made something- if she even remembered that Tristan was allergic to bananas. For the first few weeks he double checked that his siblings had snacks in their bags for school.
Secondly, he hated their house.
It wasn’t any different than when he left, only a little more cluttered. What was different was that he suddenly couldn’t stand his mother coming in and out of his room to use the washing machine. He wasn’t used to the creak of the floors upstairs anymore, nevermind the laundry, and hated that he barely had any privacy. He missed the roof outside his window at Ryan and Lindsay’s, and having Katie next door when she was home for breaks. He missed being able to lock the door during the day when he was in a mood and the big backyard with the rebounder, and that Ryan was good at math and helped him with his work.
He missed not worrying about his siblings schedules and if they had everything they needed. Their car was left with his mother, since it was in her name, but Jack missed knowing he’d have a ride home from his Exy games because Ryan went to every one.
He wanted so badly to be normal. To have a normal family again and a father figure who cared, a mother figure who never had him worrying. He didn’t even realize how much he did worry about stuff until CPS forced him into Ryan and Lindsay’s home in the first place.
The third realization he had was that his relationship with his mother was practically ruined.
The love was there. The care was there. But Jack caught himself being irritated and annoyed with her more than he cared to admit. She was awkward around him because she was trying to make things up, or he was awkward around her because they both knew he was the one who called CPS. And on top of it all, after having a period of normalcy a part of him hated her and his father for robbing him of that, despite knowing that it wasn’t her fault she had a mental disorder. Just like it wasn’t either of their faults that his dad was a dick.
It didn’t take him long to recognize this, but when he did he hid out in his room for the most part. It took him two weeks of being home to take a different route home from Exy practice.
Lindsay opened the door with surprise and took a step outside to hug the sweaty athlete. “How are you, sweetheart?” She pulled away with her hands on his shoulders. “How's being home?”
He caught himself smiling, but not because of her questions. It just felt normal, being there. He hated himself for preferring it.
“It’s alright. Kinda weird.”
She nodded and opened the door wider to follow him inside. “Can’t imagine. Does your mom like her job?”
He followed her into the kitchen where she was prepping dinner. “Did you have foster kids before us?”
She turned. She wasn’t quite frowning, but there was a pull between her eyebrows. “One other before you guys. Why?”
Something about the way Jack stood in her kitchen made her guide him to sit at the table. She sat across from him. “Jack,” she said softly. “What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing bad, it’s just…” He put his face in his hands and huffed. “I fucked up everything, it feels so weird living there, now.”
“Why, honey?” She moved to sit beside him instead and put a hand on his back. “Jackson, look at me.” It took him a second, but he eventually pulled his head up and looked at her. “You did nothing wrong. You kept your siblings safe, and as a result your mom got healthy again. What feels weird about living there?”
He shrugged, shaking his head. “I don’t… It was just easier here. I feel like I’m always worrying if she’s gonna fuck up again or go down the rabbit hole. I love her, but just being around her knowing she fucked up so bad makes me… like… angry, or something.”
She hummed. “Is your therapist still covered by insurance?” He nodded. “Will you start going again, then?” He opened his mouth to argue. “I know, but these are things she can answer and help you with. I’m not gonna tell you this whole back and forth transition is easy, it’ll probably suck for a bit, but you have people at your back. Me and Ryan are always close by, too. Don’t think just ‘cause you don’t live here anymore means we don’t care about you guys. I love you like my own, no matter how much you absolutely reek.”
Jack laughed a little and jostled her shoulder with a hey.
“Use us, please, Jack. Mom needs babysitters, someone needs a ride somewhere, or you just wanna come over and hang, whatever.” She gave hum a pointed look. “Okay?”
Feeling better, his lips quirked up. “Kay,” he mumbled. He watched her stand and let her shake his head and kiss the top of it. “Are you staying for dinner?”
“What is it?”
“Chicken kabobs, mashed potatoes and corn.”
“Do I still have to set the table if I technically don’t live here?” Lindsay laughed. “I’m technically a guest.”
“Uh, yeah, no. Go shower first, I’ll even leave the table empty just for you.”
He nearly hopped over the bannister jogging up the stairs, and took them two at a time until he reached the top. Katie’s door was cracked open, so it was easy for him to shove his way inside and jump on her bed, jolting her phone from her hand. “Ew! Get the fuck off, you smell like death!”
Jack rolled on top of her, to which she screamed under her blanket and faked gagging noises. He sat up after enough torture and stood. “Miss me? When do you go to school?”
Katie glared at him. “Two weeks. It boggles my mind how early you guys start Exy.”
“Just summer sessions. Tryouts are next week, then we’ll start scrimmages and stuff for real.”
She hummed. “Have you heard from any schools yet?” Jack’s smile faltered just enough for her to notice. “We’ll figure it out.” She shot him the least pitying smile she could manage and watched him walk down the hall to the bathroom.
The next time Katie asked about college scouts and Exy recruiters, it was when she was home for winter break. Except then it wasn’t because she had faith in these big fancy schools, but because she was waiting desperately for a call from David Wymack. Not to her, but to Jack.
David Wymack was the coach of the Palmetto State University Foxes, a Class 1 Exy team that hadn’t deserved the title until this year. Dead last every season since they were formed because the coach recruited athletes who had no chance of going anywhere else. It wasn’t the fate she necessarily saw for Jack, but considering the schools that had come to watch him pulled out because he needed a full ride they couldn’t offer.
With Kevin Day and this new Neil Josten on the line, though, the Foxes had been the talk of the Exy world all season. Katie didn’t know enough about Exy and couldn’t follow a game other than if the ball was going in the right way, but she knew this much: Kevin Day was the best of the Exy world, Jack had the background to qualify as one of these Foxes, and David Wymack was looking for strikers.
