“Really, wow, weird,” I said, knowing full well that soccer was known as football to the majority of the world. “What’s that?” I asked, squinting down at the small charm hanging from his grimy neck.
“Oh, yeah! Alex brought it for me last night, it’s awesome! He said it would make the voices go away, and it did!”
“Really? You can tell already?”
“Yeah, because it’s not just the voices, all the noise is gone too!”
“Wait, noise? What noise? You’ve never said anything about noise.”
“Because I didn’t know. It was just noise. Not loud, like it was far away, you know? But it was all the time and I thought everyone heard it. But now it’s gone and it’s so quiet!”
“Wow, that’s great, Ry,” I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t choked up.
My God, this may actually work…
I casually turned away looking for a distraction and found a large black folder with the school’s green emblem on it sitting on the bedside table. “What’s this?” I asked, picking it up and taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
“A folder with some stuff about the school in it. It was sitting there when I got here last night.”
Flipping through it I found a pamphlet with a list of courses, a guide to building hours, a student policies handbook, and random other informational items. Thankfully, one of these items was a campus map, which I folded up and stuck in my pocket, having already gotten lost twice trying to re-find Ryland’s dorm, which Chloe had pointed out to me.
“Why weren’t you at breakfast?” Ry asked me, as I sat down on the edge of his bed.
“I slept in.”
“Too bad, it was great! Except for the porridge. Have you ever had porridge? It’s really gross!”
“So… you like it here?”
“Yeah, it’s great! Did you know they have a rock climbing class? How awesome is that?”
“Yeah, that sounds cool.” This was definitely not the Ryland I’d expected to find this morning. Where was the shy introvert, who was afraid to talk to other kids? Was this all a show? That seemed unlikely. He’d barely even looked at me since I walked in; too busy changing his shirt, digging through his suitcase, and arranging his collection of action figures on the shelf below the window. But come on, I told myself, there was no way he could have changed that much overnight. “Ry, are you sure you’re not just–?” but I was cut off by a knock at the door.
“Ryland? You ready?” a boy’s voice called.
“Yeah, come in!”
The door opened and two boys walked through. “We gotta hurry or Clancey’s team will get the best spot!” the taller of the two said.
“Who’s that?” the shorter boy asked, pointing at me.
“I’m–”
“That’s just my sister,” Ryland informed them. Then, turning to me, added, “We’ve got to go, but I’ll see you later, OK?”
Well. I see how it is…
“OK, sure.” I stood and walked out into the hall, knowing a get out when I heard one. I turned back to say goodbye, only to see the door was already being shut behind me.
Just my sister? Just my sister? Oh yeah, I was just the sister who flew to the other side of the world, just to make sure he wasn’t locked away in some nut house!
…little punk.
I knew I shouldn’t be irritated, but I couldn’t help it. OK, maybe it wasn’t irritation per se, but that seemed like the best word for it. Calling it “hurt” seemed way too sentimental and clingy. And honestly, I had no business feeling that way, in any event. Wasn’t this what we wanted; for Ryland to finally have a normal life with friends? Exactly. So, it was stupid for me to be bummed that he might suddenly not need me so much anymore. Stupid – and counterproductive I might add – as the main idea of all this was for me to leave him here and go home. He was supposed to stop needing me. He was supposed to be learning to do things on his own. Ergo, the lump in my throat was entirely uncalled for.
Entirely.
Not wanting to go sit alone in my room, I decided to make use of my new map and take an impromptu tour of the campus. I had hoped to spend the morning exploring with Ryland, but it was still nice to have a chance to walk the grounds and get to know the place that he might soon call home.