Tenacity.

"A lot better than last semester. My brother found me a tutor and things are getting a lot easier." He glanced around the hallway, making sure it was clear before heading towards the door. "It’s a little weird, actually keeping up in classes.

"Oh wow, that's cool! I'm happy for you, Raul." He pats his shoulder. "How's everything with your family anyway? Are you..." He mulls over how he wants to phrase his next question. "Is it still weird for you to be back with them?"

"Obviously," he says with as he pats his friend’s bicep. He takes a second to fix his hair and then he takes a step ahead of Theo in order to lead the way. "How are classes?"

"They're okay, I guess. I think I'm going to like my theater class. How are yours?" He asks, following Raul out of the library.

"There is this new candy store opening downtown. You can have as much candy as you can carry out, for free. One of us can lift up to three hundred pounds." 

He laughs. "It's clearly me." He flexes his biceps a little. A brief chuckle over his own joke, then he finishes putting everything back into his backpack. "Okay, so, I'm ready to put this newly opened candy store out of business today." He slings the bag over his shoulder and looks expectantly at Raul.

"I feel like taking a break and finding something else to do. Who better to ask than you, my partner in crime?"

He stands up and starts collecting the things he unpacked. "Okay, sure. What'd you have in mind?"

"You look lost." He commented as he walked up behind his best friend. His hair was a mess, uncombed, and it was clear that he’d been asleep. Raul rubbed his eyes yawning, stretching up towards the ceiling. "You thinking about leaving?"

"Hey," He sits up, the chair now in it's proper position. "Uh, I dunno, why?"

"He’s busy and dealing with a lot and I don’t want to bother him."

"Alright then." He keeps eating is ice cream.

"I’ve thought about it, but I don’t think that is the best idea."

"Well, why not?" He asks. "If you don't want to talk about it though, that's cool too."

"Yeah," he says through a spoonful of ice cream.

He also takes a bite of ice cream. "I mean, okay, if you don't like it... Can't you just tell him?"

"He — I think Luciano lies to me sometimes to make me think that everything is going to be alright."

"Oh. That sucks?"

"The family is okay," he says glancing down at his ice cream. "Luciano says so anyway."

"Do you not believe him or something?"

His adjust his bag and nodded. “Let’s go.”

"Alright." They go through the process of getting ice cream then sit down. "Hey, so how're things with the fam anyway?"

"We should. Let’s do it."

"Heck yeah!" He slings his bag over his shoulder and closes his locker. "Ready when you are."

He pulls his phone to glance down at his phone. “I have a therapy session in two hours, but I’m free until then.”

"Oh man, we should totally get some ice cream."

He shrugs his shoulders and runs a hand through his hair, imitating his older brother. “I’m just smart, I guess.”

"True." He precariously shoves some books into his bag. "So, where're you off to?"

"Sixteenth president?"

"Wow, how do you know that and not me? I was the one who got an A in that class."

"Why do I even need to know any of this stuff? What good is knowing Abe Lincoln going to do me in life?"

"Which one is Abe Lincoln?"