Chapter Text
Scout stood on the side of the gym, it was quite loud but he expected it from a group of 11 kids running around. A few kids were running around the gym playing tag, the rest streching or doing yoga. Mick and Pyro were also was off to the side of the gym. Jeremy walked over to sit beside them, to hopefully learn what to do. "Hey, soo... what do we do..." Scout asked, there was not exactly an information pamphlet when he walked in. Dr. Hale was busy watching over the stretching group, and there was a lady watching over the tag group. Scout still needed to learn the rules of the ward, but he figured he could ask the other two or find out tomorrow.
"Hm... well its gym, I guess you exercise, but... neither me or Py really like to play any games that involve being chased or chasing somebody... and I don't know I just don't find stretching enjoyable... sometimes Dr. Hale gives us a ball, and we toss it to each other, but that does not happen often..." Mick lamented. Pyro nodded. Scout looked back at the playing kids once more. Scout had never liked tag particularly, but after his brothers screamed at him and chased him out of the house, he hatted the game. Scout kicked his feet, and stared at the floor. "I mean if you want, we probably just could walk around, I don't think anybody would care." Mick suggested. Scout gave him a shy smile.
"So... you said you were from Australia! Whats it like over there? Are the evil koalas real, I think I saw em online one day... they're called drop bears, right?" Scout asked, Mick smiled. Pyro jumped giddily for some reason as the three began to walk around the walls of the room.
"Yeah! Real buggers they are! if ye ever see one! Hah! You better be runnin' for your life! I used to go to the forest with ma dad to hunt 'em!" Scout was enthralled with Mick's story of the "evil koalas' Pyro shook Mick, practically saying "go on! Go on!" Mick let out a hard laugh, and patted Pyro on the shoulder. "Okay, okay Py! Ill go on, well one day my dad and I found an old cabin in the woods! Uh, well we heard somethin' commin' from inside the thing, and so we decided to check it out! We found nothing and went home, I still kinda wonder what was in that cabin..." Mick trailed off, becoming oddly quiet. Scout had seen how Mick was shy, but this seemed strangely unnatural for the kid. Pyro and Scout exchanged worried glances. "Whats... Boston like?" Mick choked out, he clearly was hiding more of the story, but Scout was not going to push.
"Uh well, Its kinda rough, I was basically raised on the streets! My Mom cared... kinda, she never stoped my brothers from pushing me around, or messing with me. I joined a gang, sorta? At like tenish. They fought turf wars, but I was never super involved... Ironically the random teenagers that picked me up off the street were more like family than my brothers or mother really... A lota of teh folks in Boston smoke though, the cops came to my house a lot to reprimand my brothers... Uh Boston is really cool aside from that..." Scout said, he glanced over at Mick who had now collected himself, and looked extremely tired.
Pyro nodded, and looked at Mick, cocking their head to ask if he was okay. "Im okay Py, just brought back some bad memories..." Mick said melancholically. The three had now walked a lap of the gym, and Pyro sat down, it was quickly joined by Mick and Scout. "hey Mick, I won't push anything, but were her if ya need somthin brotha! I may have only known you for a few hours... but I think I wanna be friends!" Scout said, he smiled. Mick nodded.
"I wanna be friends too, I'm sorry I'm so... down, I'll be real, I went back to the cabin one night... and there was a man... I-I he- just- I don't- he grabbed me... and he..." Mick stuttered, a silence fell over the trio. Scout frowned, he had heard of kids being touched and broken by people, but had never known them directly. Scout wanted to reach out and give Mick a hug, but wanted to give him the space to breathe, and calm down.
"Hey, I don't know what your life is like, but I promise to help you feel better!" Scout promised, Mick gave him a shy smile. Pyro scooted over a bit to give him some space.
"Thanks... I think I want to just be able to relax for a bit, if you two want you can talk about whatever." Mick said, slowly moving into a ball like position. Pyro moved over to sit beside Scout. Scout was happy to pick up a conversation with Pyro, and cut the tension. Pyro listened as Scout went on about the cool stuff in Boston, and how growing up there was so crazy. Scout smiled happily as he saw that Mick began to cheer up and paid some attention to Scouts rambling.
Maybe staying here won't be so bad, after all I have these guys with me!