Rowan nods, unsurprised.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I'm not sure I want it as a career, though, not when there are so many other interesting things out there."

She focuses back on her work for a minute, finishing the latest problem set. 

Sure, sure. Actual classwork.

"Your brother isn't in any of your classes?"

"I took all the AP options; he couldn't be bothered and thought they'd be too hard," Rowan explains, with a hint of smugness.

"He was right about most of them, but wishes he'd taken AP English like I told him to."

"Is it nice having a brother, or just annoying? It seems like it would be annoying."

"It's...annoying sometimes, but mostly it's nice," she decides after a few seconds of thought.

"Coming here when I didn't know anyone would have been a lot scarier without Liam, for example."

"Sounds like having a David."

Hey you there, student, can you answer this math? The teacher calls Rowan to the board.

Why yes, in fact, she can. 

Her handwriting on the board is perfectly neat, but a little too small to be clearly legible to the whole class.

She returns to her seat as soon as she is allowed. 

She can return as soon as she's explained her reasoning to the class.

Stiles has started texting someone, his phone barely concealed by his notebook.

Rowan stumbles through an explanation and hurries back once the teacher deems it sufficient.

She notices almost immediately that Stiles is texting and decides to leave him to it, rather than tell the teacher or distract him by continuing their conversation. Instead, she returns to her work, catching up on what the teacher started saying while she was walking back. 

Class continues in that vein, and soon enough, it's time to go.

Rowan, as usual, finds a corner of the library in which to wait for her brother.

Liam goes along to Art club. Is Matt in this one as well? 

Matt is indeed present.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Pretty good, thanks. Found out this morning I got onto the baseball team, so that's nice. You?"

He takes this as an invitation to sit next to Matt, and tells his brain to shut up, the guy's probably straight. 

"That sounds fun, yeah. They have a nice uniform. I'm mostly sticking to my strengths."

Art club is fairly loose. They can use whatever supplies are available, including the dark room, paint, and kiln.

Liam's been doing a lot of painting recently, might as well go for something else if he's got the freedom to choose. 

He ignores the part of his brain making the observation that Matt does photography, and decides to try out sculpture instead. It's surprisingly meditative despite his lack of practice, and after a while he gives up on trying to mould the clay into anything resembling reality, and just plays with it. Squeezing and rolling it thinner and thinner until it breaks in the middle, then squishing it back into a lump. 

He punches the lump, thoughtfully. It squishes. He does it again, turning it into a kneading motion so he can spread the lump out into a disk before squishing it together again.

Matt seems to find his approach fascinating, but he doesn't say much about it.

They pass their time working quietly, and then he's well and truly free to flee to his loving home.

Or prolong his absence, as he sees fit.

Much as he'd like to stay here a bit - or a lot - longer, Liam stops when he notices the clock getting too close to the time he needs to be collecting Rowan.

Packing the clay away neatly, since he didn't end up making anything he wants to keep, he helps clear up his area of the workspace before washing his hands and heading home. 

This week has gone by far too quickly. He can't wait for Monday. 

Students experience weekends of varying qualities, and then Monday arrives.

Rowan is raring to get back on Monday. She finished all her homework on Friday night and was consequently bored for the rest of the weekend.

In a complete reversal of the previous week, when she was practically hiding behind Liam as they walked up to the entrance, today she strides ahead, almost forgetting to wait for him. 

Liam isn't quite as excited to get back to school as Rowan, but that's not saying much.

He had a better weekend than sometimes; their dad was delighted to hear that Liam got onto the baseball team, and for a few days he could almost pretend that things were normal. Nothing Rowan's mum said had any effect on Friday night, so she spent the next two days sulking rather than attempting to drive a wedge between Liam and his father as usual. 

He puts all thoughts of his stepmother out of his mind for now; there'll be time to deal with her later. 

After a week here, he's learned the names of most people in their year, and greets them cheerfully as he walks in. 

They greet him too!

With varying levels of cheer.

Liam's morning is fairly quiet.

And so the week goes. Liam continues being friendly, but less overtly so than he was at first. Rowan continues to excel in her academic classes and struggle through improving in Spanish. Liam continues to be excellent at French and a little bored in half of his other classes. Liam tries out lacrosse and turns out to be on the terrible side of mediocre.

Finally, after Human Rights club on Tuesday, they get to come with Scott to the vet clinic. Liam has his sketchbook in his backpack, and plans to ask if he can take some videos on his phone. 

"Sure, Dr. Deaton doesn't mind. He's in the back taking care of the dogs right now."