Can't I Fit In Anywhere?

Chapter 91: Slight Panicking

Getting a good night's sleep could do wonders for a person's energy level when they wake up in the morning. That was a complete and utter lie, Ryan discovered through his life.

No matter how many hours or how little hours of sleep he gets, he always ends up tired. So imagine his surprise that when he woke up to an alarm blaring next to him, he didn't instantly want to go back to sleep. It was like the sleep god finally looked down upon him and gave him energy when he awoke.

It instantly put him on edge.

Still, he scraped up the want to get out of bed (just because he was wide awake didn't mean he wanted to leave the warmth of his covers), and began the morning process of getting red.

Since he was stuck wearing his hoodie for the past 'two' days, technically one here, he ended up just tossing it into the laundry bin. Ryan wasn't in the mood for his other common outfit, plus it was forecasted to be getting colder than usual with Autumn coming up. The non-hoodie outfits were for warmer days only.

Pulling a hoodie out of his closet, since he has a boatload of them, didn't take much. It was just the blue and black one that was his favorite. Although he wouldn't be surprised if Tina stole some since she's been here.

Tigers are a cat, and cats tend to really not care if something is yours or not. Apparently dragons are more like cats too, if Fiore curled up in a pile of fallen hoodies said anything.

Considering all his hoodies were hung up at the time, it didn't take that much brain power to figure out she pulled them off.

At least she didn't move too far.

Last night when he arrived at his dorm, he was too exhausted to really give anything too much brain power. So Ryan introduced Mr. Oinkers and Fiore, who seemed to not really care about the other's existence thankfully, and headed to bed.

Only to realize that he had to make a bed, more of a nest, for her. Grabbing a few spare blankets, Ryan plopped them at the bottom of his closet and curled them into the shape of a nest.

He already planned on finding something high up, since the book did say that her type tended to sleep at high elevations.

Sighing at the loss of some clean hoodies and a few unimportant shirts, Ryan slipped on the random hoodie chosen.

Fiore realized what was going on and wanted up, so Ryan picked her up and slipped her into his pocket. She seemed happy about it being one whole pocket instead of two, if her poking her head out of both sides and crooning was any indicator.

He fed Mr. Oinkers and as he ate Ryan pulled down a few books for him to read (maybe he should inform Uni about him?). Pulling a can of tuna out was easy, and popping the can open was easier.

The smell of tuna seemed to draw Fiore out of his pocket as she climbed up to his shoulder, before jumping to the counter. No, he didn't have a mild heart attack, thank you.

So as the two animals ate, Ryan got his food, some toast, around. Something quick and easy that he can take with him.

He nearly choked on his toast when he realized that so far, each animal he has had so far, he didn't adopt them, they chose him and he went with it.

Finishing breakfast, Ryan scooped Fiore up and plopped her back into his pocket once more, wished Mr. Oinkers a good day and study (since he knows he does not own a college English book and another book on quantum mechanics), and proceeded to leave.

He ran into Aaron on his way to the lab, and after a quick punch to the shoulder and a few death threats, they parted ways. Ryan with a new bruise and Aaron with a promise of a midnight explanation. Judging by the dark bags underneath his eyes, Ryan figured insomnia was rearing its head.

That and the fact it was 6 in the morning and Aaron never got up at that time. Who in their right mind would willingly get up at that time with no need?

The rest of the trip was easy, thankfully he ended up gaining a total of zero new bruises after Aaron. That didn't help the uneasy feeling that sunk into his stomach, making him regret eating anything.

The final door swished open, and he was met with the sight of two people. Petra and a slightly familiar lady. Something tickled the back of his mind that she should look familiar.

Blonde hair cascading down off her shoulder in waves and a pair of rectangular glasses resting on her nose was the thing that clicked it into his mind. Riley Linwood, his social care worker.

"No." He found himself blurting out. No way in hell was he moving to a new house.

"Ah!" Petra blinked. "You're here."

"I'm not leaving." Ryan shook his head. "I kept my end of the promise, why are you moving me again?"

"Ryan, were you not informed?" She sent a look to Petra.

"The bus arrived late at night. Reason for the midnight email."

Bus? What- Oh Ryan realized. He was gone, so Petra had to come up with some lie.

"Oh..." Linwood pushed her glasses up with the back of her hand, the other gripping a clipboard. "I wish this wasn't the case..."

"What?" The pool of dread moved around. "What's going on?"

"On a trip to...town," Riley sighed. "Your guardian, Woodland, ended up getting into a fatal car accident. She was considered dead by the time she got to the hospital."

No.

No... No... No. No no no nononono. nononononononono!

"You're lying." Why was his breath shaky?

She only shook her head sadly, and went to say something else, but Petra seemed to cut her off.

"Ryan, you need to calm down."

Calm down? He was moving again! He was going to have to leave his friends and the school and oh god Tori and he didn't want to leave!

Ryan wanted to stay! He had a home and they were just lying and everything was fine. He won't have to worry about what to do with Mr. Oinkers and Fiore when he is forced to move schools and everything will be a-okay!

Ryan didn't want to go anywhere! He wanted to stay at the school and laugh with his friends and finish the competition and only worry about when the next assignment was due. He wanted to stay and finish trying to befriend Aaron completely and get him out of his shell. He wanted to take Tori into town to that botanical garden that recently opened since he saw the post and thought she would love that! He wanted to go take more walks to that lake with Tori and maybe try ice skating since she said in passing that she enjoyed it. He wanted to explore the area more with Tina like they did when everything was okay and he didn't have to worry about being forced to move again or placed in another home! He wanted to find an odd looking tree lying around the woods. He wanted to stay! He wanted to finish explore the woods to the west and-

Black swallowed his vision whole and the last thing he saw was the dark sky slowly lightening up.

---

That seems like an issue, hm?

In other news, the end of the book is slowly creeping forwards. Just saying, lots of plots won't be finished because of how it ends. It will make sense when it happens.

Not sure how many chaps though. Just know I can end it nearly anywhere, just not right now. Ryan needs to be in the school and you know, not in the woods passed out!

In other other news, I got a job! Yay, I get to be a productive member in this screwed up society! Ugh.

So chaps might come out even more sporadic then before. I'm just trying to save up money to buy a car and then save even more as I search for a cheap apartment or studio. I hate being an 'adult'.

Who ever looked at me and sees an adult has something messed up going on.

Anyways, I'll leave you with this cliffhanger!

See ya peeps!