If there are no objections Evelyn will smile pleasantly at them - and try to convey deep gratitude to the doctor via eyebrows, this is going much better than earlier - and then duck out. She mostly expects it to be fine as long as the two of them are together. They trust each other way more than either of them trusts Evelyn, anyway. 

"Do you want to be here together for all of this? It is usually considered a good idea to talk to everyone separately, so that you don't feel pressure to give an answer your friend thinks is cool."

"I will no be alone with you."

"I will not be alone with you also."

"All right. 

So these questions are about - things that you might get up to, while you're young adults, that you might not want your foster mom or anyone else to know about. Like drinking alcohol, getting drunk. Trying drugs that make you feel good. Driving a car without a license. Having sex.

And then there's some questions about ways people might have tried to hurt you.

Now, the rules are, if I learn about a crime someone committed against you and that you might still be at risk of, I have to tell your foster care team. If you tell me that Evelyn or someone else in your life beat you, I have to report that. If you tell me that your dead grandpa beat you, I don't have to report that, because he's dead and can't hurt anyone. If you tell me you are having sex with a boy you met on the internet, I have to report that, because he is committing a crime. If you tell me that you tried some drugs, I don't have to report that. 

I want to help you make safer choices. And I want to make sure no one is hurting you. But I don't want it to be a surprise if you tell me something and I have to let other people know. You can always ask me 'so, if Evelyn were to have been watching me in the shower, would you have to report that', and I'll give you a straight answer.

Does that make sense?"

"That make sense." She's confused by why anyone might think Evelyn watching them shower would need to be reported. Presumably she'd be doing it to make sure they were showering correctly? But the rest of it makes sense.

She only caught half the words but it sounds like Law, is what it sounds like, it sounds like someone who is trying to make sure they can avoid telling him things they don't want reported, even though he wants them to talk. Iomedae is still full of inchoate indignation about the 'is Iomedae a child' debate recurring but this feels like she's spent the last week underground and is abruptly reminded that the sun isn't just in her imagination. 

He could be lying. But - but at least he knows what lies to tell. 

"That best thing I hear since foster child," she says flatly. 

"Great. All right. Have either of you girls tried alcohol - wine, beer, hard liquor, things like that which they serve at bars and clubs?"

"Yes? Everyone drink a little beer or they get sick."

"Whenever travel, drink wine. Water cannot travel with."

"Okay. Thank you for telling me. In America it is illegal for children to drink alcohol. And the reason for that is that it can have big effects on your brain while your brain is still growing. It can make you make really bad decisions, hurt yourself or other people, get into lots of trouble. And alcohol is also addictive - people who drink it have their bodies change to learn they always need it. That - may be what you meant about how you have to drink beer or get sick?" Though her physical was really not consistent with this. "If you drink alcohol all the time, and you want to stop, you will need to go to a doctor or your body may die of withdrawal - the process of no longer drinking alcohol. 

Of course the smart move is to stop before you get addicted, and to not drink alcohol while your brain is still growing. 

"Well that is strange but it is easy to follow that law because in America there is water from hoses and I think that do not make you sick."

"- oh, did people where you were from use alcoholic drinks in contexts where the water is not clean? Yeah, that can be - not a great thing for your health but better than the diseases you'd get from the water. But in America, all the water is clean - from hoses, from the tap in your house, from stores you might go to or restaurants you might eat at - and you should do that, instead of drinking alcohol."

"I know being person drink lots is very bad. I not do that."

"Great. And if you ever notice that you are drinking even though you know it's very bad, and you want to stop, addiction like that is a health issue that we can help you with. You should make an appointment and we will try to help you safely quit alcohol - or any other addictive drug, because all of this also goes for other addictive drugs."

"I have not drinked beer after I went to America."

"How about other drugs? Sometimes people - especially if you are homeless, and it sounds like you were - will offer to sell you or trade you - weed, which is also called marijuana, or heroin, or cocaine, or other substances that - make you feel better, fix your mood, things like that."

"If I need to feel better I go to a doctor instead, because docting drugs are more expensive than pay a doctor. That is how at home, maybe is different in America and I should drink doctoring drugs?"

" - no. You should not. These drugs are not safe, and they will not - fix anything that is wrong with you - they will just make you feel very happy for a little while, and then after that either go back to feeling normal or get addicted and need the drug to feel normal. You should go to a doctor if you need to feel better."

" - what people make drugs that make you need the drug and not be happy with no drug. Why anyone take that drug. Why that legal? You have so many laws for things that do not matter!"

" - no, actually, those drugs are all very illegal. They just might get offered to you anyway, so it's important to know how they affect you."

"I will not take illegal drugs that make me want the drug and not be happy without it. That sound stupid."

"No argument here, but sometimes young adults do stupid things, especially if they feel like they're being treated unfairly, or like nothing they do matters anyway."

Iomedae thinks Americans might be uniquely stupid. They keep apparently doing stupid things no one else would even think of doing. Maybe people that stupid die as children in Taldor.

"Next question: sex. Do you know what sex is? I can get the dolls out."