wwx in foster care
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It's a pleasant Monday morning when Evelyn gets the call from Darryl, her supervising social worker at the fostering agency. She answers right away, not sure whether to expect it to be about the training she's supposed to be speaking at on Wednesday or a new foster placement. If it's a new placement then she needs to think carefully about whether it's a good idea. Seven-year-old Lily (currently at school) has only been here for three and a half weeks, and while she's settling in better than she apparently did with her previous foster carers, she is by no means settled, and with her language delays she might be a target for bullying from children close to the same age, she certainly is at school. 

    "Evelyn," Darryl says - warmly, but with the tone that means he needs something from her. "Is now a good time?" 

"Yes." She's at home, she's just finished cleaning up the aftermath of Lily's morning at home (thank god Lily is at least behaving well enough in school now not to get sent home early most days), and she had plans for the afternoon but they were mostly non-urgent errands that can be rescheduled. "- Before you ask, yes, I do have two bedrooms free. But I'm not taking a sibling group and I'm hesitant on taking a child close to her age at all, she's - well, it's still hard going." 

     "That's fine!" Darryl says brightly. "It's neither of those. Fourteen-year-old boy. He's had a lot of moves, but I'm sure he'll settle with you." 

...Thaaaat is said in a tone of voice that makes Evelyn think there's a lot more going on. But at the same time, she always feels almost compelled to accept children whose previous foster placement has broken down, especially if it's happened more than once; they need stable homes even more than usual. "Right. I may have crossed paths with him, then - who's he been fostered with?" 

     - there's a noticeable pause. "You wouldn't know them. It's - a bit of an unusual situation - he's being transferred from the Social Services authority in Vegas, is the thing." 

"He what?" That's a seven hour drive from here. "God. Why? Darryl, are you telling me he's run out of foster carers who will take him in the entire city of Vegas?" 

     Darryl clears his throat. "It's not entirely that. He's - gotten himself in with a bit of a bad crowd, and I think they're hoping that moving him out of the area, to somewhere a bit quieter, will help break the cycle." 

And also no one in Vegas will take him, Evelyn thinks, this is breaking so many of the usual rules. "How does that even work? Doesn't he have contact with his birth family?" 

    Another throat-clearing. "Adoptive family, actually, and no. - I should start at the beginning. Wei Wuxian, he's Chinese - grew up in the US, though, he's perfectly fluent in English. His natural parents died when he was quite young, he was in foster care for a bit and then adopted, Chinese couple with two biological children. A year ago, it came out that his adoptive mother had been abusing him, quite seriously. All three children were removed, of course - there's a boy the same age as Wei Wuxian, and an older sister who was moved straight to a supportive living arrangement. Unfortunately, the two boys also had to be separated, and Wei Wuxian, well, hasn't been coping well. I think he took the worst of the abuse at home, though clearly there were also concerns about the siblings. Anyway, he hasn't settled." 

"....Because...? Darryl, he's fourteen, how badly could he possibly behave?" 

    There's the sound of a paper shuffling. "Alcohol, drugs, theft, refuses to go to school, and he's an absconder. Kept showing up at his sister's group home, apparently, when he wasn't disappearing entirely for days." Darryl puts on a cheerful voice. "But I'm sure it won't be as bad with you. The hope is to separate him from the peer group leading him into trouble. And he's apparently quite a bright boy - if he can get his life back on the rails, he could have a successful future ahead of him." Pause. "- I don't have anything down saying he's been violent or angry at home, the problem is what he gets up to when he's not at home. I'm sure he'll be lovely with Lily." 

 

Evelyn closes her eyes. 

She is not sure of that, and - given how messy paperwork and records can be - is not at all trusting that a lack of documented violent outbursts means there haven't been violent outbursts. She's definitely worried that this is going to be a complete nightmare and she's going to regret it deeply. Once she agrees to take him, she can't change her mind and throw in the towel when his behavior turns out to be just as stressful and exhausting as it sounds. He deserves better than that. But Lily also deserves a calm, stable, predictable home where she can eventually feel safe enough to open up about her past. 

Evelyn already knows she's going to say yes. This kid needs someone, just one person, to give him a chance. She's pretty ticked off with Darryl for putting her on the spot, but the last thing she would ever do is take that out on poor Wei Wuxian. 

"I'll take him," she says, resigned. 

     "Great! His current foster parents want him moved today, so we're looking for a duty social worker who can drive him over. You'll have a room ready by tonight?" 

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Wei Wuxian does not understand why, if he keeps running away to go live with Yanli, they are taking him to Reno which is the exact opposite direction from where Yanli is. He would not run away if they let him live with Yanli.

Instead of expressing this opinion to the social worker he glares at her in surly silence to express the extent of his displeasure

...

wow surly silence is really boring actually. But he refuses to let her win by making conversation so instead he stares out the window and contemplates how there is far too much Nevada in Nevada. 

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It’s a really long drive! Though at least they got confirmation someone in Reno would even take the kid, and managed an early enough start that they’re avoiding any particularly bad traffic and should get there before dark.

The junior social worker who drew the short straw for this expedition has never met Wei Wuxian before and is not exactly delighted about this assignment. (He won’t be able to make it back tonight even if the handover goes flawlessly and takes five minutes, though at least his supervisor promised they would reimburse him for a motel in whatever small town he manages to hit before crashing.)

He’s fine with sullen silence! He’ll put the radio on. He seems to listen exclusively to talk shows making political commentary.

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Wei Wuxian is unable to resist the urge to add his own political commentary.

He is a Communist, mostly because it seems to annoy adults the most.

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Getting annoyed would imply that he cares. The social worker is not going to say anything unless Wei Wuxian is advocating murder or something. Or using swearwords, that’s also not acceptable— you know what, does that seem like a battle he wants to pick half an hour into this seven-hour trek, no it does not. He occasionally makes “mmm-hmm?” noises but mostly focuses on the GPS, he’s never driven this way before and the highways are confusing.

An hour and a half in, they stop for gas. “Interested in going into polysci, are you?” he says to the kid in a pleasantly bland tone.

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"I'm a programmer," he says in a tone that strongly implies that he really wants to be saying "you are a pile of dog shit."

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Well, it doesn't contain any rude words and that's really as much as you can expect from teenagers in care. The social worker doesn't even blame Wei Wuxian for being snippy with him, obviously he's going to be upset about being moved halfway across the state, honestly he doesn't know what Social Services was thinking. The kid doesn't even seem that bad so far. 

"Good for you," he says. "I hear it's a great way to make a living." (He is absolutely assuming that Wei Wuxian means he did a summer program that taught very basic programming for teens, or something, he thinks that's a thing.) "I'll get you a snack from the convenience desk if you want, what would you like?" He needs another coffee, this is too much driving to get through on one morning espresso. 

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Evelyn, meanwhile, is back on the phone with Darryl. "You've got an entire six hours!" she's telling him. "I'm sure you can get me his file. Isn't Vegas supposed to be going all-digital? ...Just his school records would be a start, I want to call the local high school while they're still open, but if you can find contact info for some of his previous carers, I can call and ask about his interests." Which she needs to know in time to go shopping if she wants his room set up with appropriate decor. Sometimes you don't have time for that, but Evelyn was given, like, an entire eight hours of lead time, and she intends to use it. 

Darryl will see what he can do. 

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Darryl comes up with high school records! Wei Wuxian's grades are terrible. A closer examination shows that this is because he misses as many classes as he attends and never does his homework; when he shows up on test days he reliably gets a 100%, even if he showed up fifteen minutes late. 

Phone calls to foster carers reveal that Wei Wuxian is goth and also wears a lot of makeup and skirts whenever he can get away with it. He likes.... metal and Broadway, both at ear-splitting decibels, ideally at 2am. He likes... breaking into places that he is not supposed to be... shoplifting... pulling pranks... cardsharping other foster children and convincing them to bet their underwear and winning and then they don't have any underwear... He presumably has some hobbies that aren't also discipline problems. One of the carers says that he likes computers but adds that she ended up taking the computer away because he used it to talk to people twice his age online. 

One of the carers explains that Wei Wuxian spent ten days refusing to speak to her in anything except Mandarin and then says "good luck."

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Meanwhile--

"You're right," Wei Wuxian says. "Holding big corporations' computers hostage for cash is a great way to earn money. --I don't want anything." If he lets the social worker buy him food they will be WINNING. 

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Uhhhhhhhh wow okay he is not going to say anything to that but is going to make a mental note of it to add to Wei Wuxian's file. It's probably just bragging, right, this fourteen-year-old kid in care can't actually be a hardcore hacker? 

He gets himself a coffee and, since they're exchanging words and everything now, asks Wei Wuxian if he has a favorite radio station. "Or you can maybe try to play a podcast or music from your own device. You'd have to figure out how to make it connect to the sound system, I have no idea, but it sounds like you're good at that sort of thing." 

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That sounds like the kind of thing that is LETTING THE SOCIAL WORKERS WIN. "No."

(Incidentally, he shoplifts some candy while the social worker is getting some coffee, but he's good enough at this that the social worker won't notice unless he's really good at this.)

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The social worker is not that good at this. The cashier also fails to notice. They can go back to talk radio, ideally for the rest of the trip and without drama? 

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Wei Wuxian cooperates with this plan for lack of obvious ways to not cooperate with it. 

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...Man, this kid really isn't that bad? The social worker is sort of struggling to figure out how he ended up with no foster carers in the entirety of Vegas willing to take him after his last (fifth? sixth?) placement broke down. He hasn't even raised his voice! Let alone announced he would scream the entire way unless they turned around and went back, and then DONE IT. 

From his perspective it's as pleasant and uneventful trip as a semi-consensual seven-hour drive that was sprung on him with thirty minutes' notice can possibly be. 

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- wow. 

 

Well, that's definitely - a lot - but Evelyn is finding that she sort of likes this kid already? He sounds like A Character. And "school non-attender with terrible grades who gets 100% on every test" is a much more promising starting point than "school non-attender who is relatedly multiple years behind their peers on all academic subjects." Though maybe it's not for the happiest reason – didn't she read about Asian parents being very intense about academic success, sometimes to an abusive level? (Is that racist of her to think?) ...Anyway, that's in the past, he's away from them now, and he's going to be with her and safe and she is determined to make sure he ends up thriving, like he deserves, even if it takes six months of misery first. 

 

Evelyn spends ten minutes on Google looking up "goth"-related topics and gives up in confused and mildly unsettled despair. ...God, though, if this kid is questioning his gender on top of everything else he's been through, no wonder he's having a hard time of it. Evelyn is not here to judge! She's not not vaguely uncomfortable about it, but being a foster parent involves a lot of being vaguely uncomfortable about a huge range of things and doing her best anyway. 

Lily likes Broadway! Well, dancing to very loud songs from Broadway musicals, they haven't exactly had a chance to go see any, and she's more into the Disney kind of musical, but Evelyn is definitely on board with playing Broadway loudly as a family activity. Shared interests! ...She is perhaps less okay with it being at 2 am. In fact, she's definitely not okay with that, because Lily needs her sleep. But the room she's putting Wei Wuxian in doesn't currently have a stereo player, and if he, uh, shoplifts one, then Evelyn feels like she has very reasonable grounds to confiscate it. 

He should clearly not be shoplifting! Evelyn knows people at just about all of the places he could possibly try to shoplift from, so hopefully it won't need to become a police matter. ....He really needs to not pull pranks on Lily or entice her into gambling, though. Especially not her underwear, god, Evelyn is personally pretty sure the poor kid was sexually abused. She has no idea how to tell Wei Wuxian to leave her alone in a way that isn't horrifically privacy-violating, though. Hopefully it won't be an issue because Lily's language delays and learning disability - and the fact that she's seven - seem like a major barrier to gambling-related games (and if she gets frustrated she'll probably just try to hit Wei Wuxian, which is obviously unacceptable behavior but might at least dissuade him?) 

Working with computers is a good hobby! ...Honestly, Evelyn would be a lot more worried about a girl aged fourteen talking to people twice her age online. Call her sexist - and it's obviously not necessarily a good idea for Wei Wuxian either - but fourteen is old enough to have some "streetwise" instincts, especially with his background, and if computer access is a reward she can offer him for good behavior (she doesn't like the word "bribe" but it's not entirely wrong) she isn't necessarily averse to that. 

- wow, refusing to speak anything except Mandarin is...actually pretty clever? (As, presumably, a strategy to punish his carer for some perceived unfairness, or just to express his general upsetness at the world). It sounds spectacularly frustrating but it's not - swearing or hitting or destroying household objects, and if it was the language spoken in his home it's hard to even call it rude or unreasonable. Hopefully Evelyn can just - get off on a better foot with him, somehow, and avoid it coming up - but if he insists on speaking Mandarin, well, she has Google Translate, right? And can probably scrape up an acquaintance who speaks it, if she puts in some effort. 

 

She decides against decorating Wei Wuxian's room in any particular scheme. And also against calling the school, because it sounds like Wei Wuxian's education needs might be...complicated...and she wants to have a conversation with him about why he's avoiding school, and figure out what he would need to want to attend. 

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Lily's school bus drops her off at 3:55 pm, and Evelyn's thinking time is disrupted by the presence of a very hyped-up seven-year-old tearing around the living room with arms outstretched making airplane noises, occasionally pausing to recount how they had ART CLASS and she drew the SUN. 

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...It's easy to forget how...much...Lily can be while she's not physically in the house, and Evelyn is abruptly questioning the life decision of inviting another troubled child in here, one with completely different needs. 

Though - her ever-optimistic side points out - it sounds like Wei Wuxian has the opposite pattern from Lily's. It's a common observation between herself and her fostering friends, that children will often behave much better, or at least differently, in one of 'school' and 'home'. While Lily was still with her birth family, she was by all accounts a nightmare at school - one of the main reasons why CPS was alerted in the first place - and likely because she didn't have that outlet at home, and school was where she felt safer and thus, almost paradoxically, where all of her suppressed feelings came out. Since coming to Evelyn, she's settled down fairly well at school, and Evelyn is trying to interpret it as a sign of trust that Lily is such a handful here.

Anyway, it sounds like Wei Wuxian isn't necessarily badly-behaved in his foster households, just constantly looking for outlets elsewhere. Which isn't not a problem, but does make it feel more manageable to prevent the two children from crashing into each other in destructive ways. ....Maybe. Hopefully. Evelyn is going to set that line of rumination aside rather than borrowing trouble before it even shows up. 

 

Once Lily has worked out some of her pent-up energy in the backyard, Evelyn sits her down with a snack and tells her that she has important news. "There's going to be another boy coming to live with us. A big boy, he's in high school. His name is Wei Wuxian." 

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Lily looks at her, nonplussed. "A...big...bwuvver?" she says eventually, clearly paying an enormous amount of attention to the words. 

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This child needs speech therapy so badly. "Yes, more or less. He's bigger, and while he lives here you're both my children. He's like you, Lily, he can't live with his own mummy and daddy anymore so he's going to come live here in our house."

Lily is staring at her with big eyes, her usually vibrating-with-energy body held still, and as usual Evelyn is very unsure how much of it she's taking in. More than you would think from how well she can speak her own thoughts, Evelyn thinks. 

"- But it's different for him because he had a brother and a sister before," she adds. "And he misses them a lot. So he might not want to have a new sister yet." 

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Lily looks baffled and slightly offended. "Wanna big bwuvver." 

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"Yeah. I know." Evelyn pulls Lily in for a cuddle. "I'm sure he's going to like you, because you're lovely." Lily needs her self-esteem boosted so badly. "But - it's scary and a lot for him, right?" She strokes Lily's hair. "Just try to remember that, okay?" 

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Lily is DUBIOUS but OKAY.

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And they can get through dinner (Evelyn texts the social worker for an updated ETA and doesn't hear back and is quietly stressed), and after-dinner cleanup, and a sliiiightly delaaaaayed Lily bedtime - teeth must be brushed and pajamas must be donned but Lily can watch cartoons for a few minutes (Lily is at this point absolutely not going to go to sleep without meeting her future big brother) - 

- seriously how long can it possibly take to drive from Vegas to Reno, didn't they leave before 11 am - 

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Look, the driving time according to Google Maps doesn't take into account bathroom breaks. Or the fact that highways are confusing. 

The social worker drives up with Wei Wuxian in tow at 7:35 pm. "Here we are! Your new foster carer is called Evelyn." Does he know any other facts about 'Evelyn', no, no he does not. Hopefully they'll be answered very soon by Evelyn herself. 

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Evelyn herself is indeed coming to the front door even before the social worker rings the doorbell. 

She's maybe in her 50s, wearing jeans and a sweater and house-slippers, with shoulder-length blonde hair that might be considered 'fluffy' or 'frizzy' depending on the charitability of the observer. She smiles and waves. "Should I help you carry anything in?" 

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