0.07 Academics

Day 1 of school. Dustin is nervous, 'Drea' is excited. There's no way to run from anything anymore, they have to move forward. He doesn't want her to have an episode in class, but he doesn't tell her that. He's not sure she even knows when she's having one.

Meghan manages to make Dustin even more nervous by immediately accepting an offer to study at a classmate's house after school. That classmate is a boy.

He calmly tells Edvin Oss-Valquist where he can go for his 'study time'.

"You're cousin's funny." Edvin remarks. "Ready to go, Drea?"

His prep school speech is ignored and Meghan is mad at him again. Not his day. She leaves to visit Edwin's house.

Meghan doesn't understand what upset him, but normal kids in school normally study at each other's houses after school, so she's going no matter what. Besides, Edvin has a crazy high homework stat, so she knows she's going to learn a thing or two.

Pretty sure that she'll have no idea how to get back to his cousin's place after school, he decides to wait for her to come back, and plops unceremoniously down on the pavement to do his homework where everyone can see how he feels about this recent development.

“You sure you're cool with this?” Edvin asks on the bus on the way back to his place. She perches on the edge of her seat and nods once, feeling nervous but excited.

“Lead the way,” She tells him, and he smiles at her. His hat looks pretty good on him, she thinks, trying not to worry about leaving Dustin behind. She might make a second friend today if everything goes well.

Eugene celebrates the kids being out of the house by pouring a couple more ounces off the keg and drinking by himself. He used to party a lot back in college, and it makes him miss his frat buddies. His wife would rather stay inside and read a book, after all.

Meghan feels like she messed something up though when her new friend retreats upstairs without a word, leaving her standing alone in the kitchen. She settles down to work on homework and try not to imagine that the mangy- mutt of the house is going to scratch her and give her typhoid fever or something.

Edvin never comes back downstairs. Baffling, maybe he had to go to the bathroom and he fell in.

Meghan does get to meet his mom Josefin and her first impression is that he has a caring mother who can isn't afraid of anything (plus, a researcher doing something scientific!). It makes a great impression.

Until she goes and does this. Dustin would love her.

Freaked out, Meghan leaves and decides to finish up her homework back at the Sparrow place, which as it turns out is right across the street from the Oss'. Nobody bothers to see her to the door on the way out.

Three hours later Dustin gets a call and Eugene confirms that Meghan made it safely back (also where the hell are you at?). He was reading back at the school library, just in case.

After having a little time to reflect on it, he knows he overreacted earlier. It's just, it can't be wrong to be concerned for her, so he tries to put it out of his mind. It was his choice to wait here, after all. He'll head back home when he's ready to. He's... totally not sulking about it.

Neither one of them say much of anything to each other...for the rest of the night.

The morning is equally awkward (and not only because Lize keeps forgetting to dress like other people are in the house). Dustin feels like he's either holding Meghan back or she'll get in over her head and because she's being stubborn and so is he, he can't bring himself to say anything about it. He hates feeling ditched, but more than that it bothers hims that he was bothered by it in the first place.

It would make more sense if he could just be happy for her, it's not easy trying to make friends in a new place.

He breaks the ice and asks her if she had any questions on the lessons from yesterday. She did: so they work through the last few problems on the homework together.

It's surreal. Just a month ago they were working together to figure out where their next meal was going to come from and talking about everything, now he's unsure how to even start a conversation. They'd never really argued so maybe they're just inexperienced at solving misunderstandings?

He doesn't say anything when she decides to wear whatever she wants to class that morning, but he resolves to deck the first kid who makes a negative comment about her lack of shoes. Which she probably won't appreciate, but oh well in advance.

Time passes, and despite all concerns, they settle in.

The cookbook, Eugene, the cookbook! Use. The cookbook! You're supposed to be smart!

Poor guy just wanted his wife not to have to worry about chores like dinner for once so she can get off her now pregnant feet.

 ...Who are you talking to? Maybe Meghan's lackadaisical habit of saying everything she thinks out loud is rubbing off on the rest of the household. He misses Lize's cooking right about now though, but he's not going to bother her. There's a pint of ice cream in the freezer with his name on it.

School is interesting though and a lot happens. Dustin, wanting to give his friend space, decides to sign up for shop class, and later on a sports club. She gets help with homework at her after school study club and eventually gets up the courage to join others in debate.

There are field trips peppered with nagging moral lessons...

Freak outs...

Even unlikely friendships. Turns out Edvin's a pretty nice guy, Dustin admits begrudgingly. He graduates soon though so he'll be out of Dustin's hair. And he has a girlfriend too, so it's not like he was interested in "Drea" that way in the first place.

Dustin puts what he's learning in shop to good use, he's always been good with his hands so it becomes a quiet hobby, improving things for his cousin's family now that there's a baby on the way. It feels like one of the few ways he can repay them for being so generous.

There's an overall feeling of excitement in the air. Meghan wonders if her parents were so excited to have her, or if their baby wasn't normal, would Gene and Lize still be so happy? She hopes the everything will go well, and is probably more worried about it than either of the soon-to-be-parents.

Dustin sees her stress and takes her out to the park for some hotdogs, kinda like old times. They make up, but it's not as if they were fighting.

“I just want you to know that I'm still here for you,” He tells her, taking her hands. “I'm not trying to ignore you, it just seemed like you could use some space...” His words trail off in uncertainty. He has no idea if space is what she needs or not.

“Thanks. School's been... a lot of fun. I mean there are people who I don't like, and people I like. But mostly I'm just glad I can keep up, you know? It means a lot to me that you stayed, I was really worried I'd be by myself again.”

“I'll be here.” He says again. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

They do all of their homework together, after that.

And old habits die hard.

Seriously you guys, what the heck...? Weirdly none of their classmates care that they sometimes get the urge to live like hobos on the street.

The next morning before school Dustin explains again how unbelievable it is that Meghan does so well academically. “Not that I'm saying it's weird because she can't do it, I just think it's amazing! She has an opportunity to captain the debate club, for a Sophomore that's unheard of! Think of all the smart prep school kids that she's making feel pretty stupid about now, that a 'home-schooled' kid is showing them up and excelling like this.”

“Are you the prep school kid in this scenario?”

Dustin laughs. “More like me and half our class, she's just brilliant and even the teachers don't know how to handle the way she asks questions. So many people look up to her now and she has no clue about it.”

Eugene gets to the heart of the matter pretty quickly. “It's obvious you really like her Dustin, why don't you make a move?”

“On my cousin?” He feigns horror. "What would our grandma Jeanette say?!"

Gene rolls his eyes at the feeble dodge. “It's not like you to overthink things like this. If you like her, just tell her that. If you think she's doing well, tell her that, too. She could probably use the encouragement.”

Dustin sighs, leveling with him. “I know... I know! I do like her. She just... she's different from everyone else, both more fragile, and stronger. I don't think she needs me around sometimes and then it seems like we're really close again. It's so confusing. And with what she went through I just don't know what she wants. We're close as friends, best friends even, but ...I want more and that seems so unfair. She's just experiencing so much for the first time it's not right to put pressure on her like that. I mean, what if it makes her uncomfortable and she becomes unhappy staying here, what would she do then?!”

Eugene smiles into his juice. “You're still overthinking it. You just need to ask her and see what she says, right?” He claps his cousin on the shoulder. “Good luck, I'm in your corner.”

“Thanks.” Dustin mumbles, wishing it were that easy. He had no intention of saying anything to Meghan though, it was hard to think of telling her his feelings. Impossible, really. What if she felt like she HAD to say yes, because of what he had done for her? Knowing that he was overthinking things didn't make him feel any better about it. “I'm just going to focus on my studies for a while.” He reasons.

____________________________________________________________________________

Right. So everybody's doing well, and despite Dustin's casual nature there's somebody he wants to take seriously. Having never been serious before in his life, he's got a long way to go to figure himself out.

As for Meghan, she's pretty preoccupied with everything that she's learning so Dustin's correct in thinking it's too early to ask her out or whatever. Hopefully for his sake he doesn't wait too long though!