Freedom

11

Gabriel had enjoyed the bubble he and Sam had been in while Sam was on vacation. Notching much had changed after the kiss, except that Gabriel now had a permanent spot in Sam's bed at night, which he didn't mind at all. He found that he slept much better when he was cuddled up with his moose.

Now that Sam had gone back to work this week, Gabriel decided he needed to double down and study for his GED test. Sam had, of course, been right when he said that there were not many jobs he could get without it. He was scheduled to take the test in two weeks at the library. He poured over the words and problems in his study book, jotting down equations and answers in a notebook.

He was surprised that he actually remembered learning most of this in his freshman and sophomore years. He hadn't been the best student, but that was more because of his home life than what he actually knew. Gabriel was a smart kid, and now he was very grateful for that. He flipped to the back of his book and began running through the practice test with a timer to see how he did.

When he finished the last question, he glanced down at the timer on his phone,  grinning when he saw that he had an extra five minutes. He checked his answers, his grin growing when he only missed 3 questions. He suddenly wasn't worried anymore. He was excited to take the test and get it over with.

He heard the door unlock and bounced out of his room, almost tackling Sam to the floor when he walked in. Sam caught Gabriel around the waist,  leaning against the door frame to stay upright.

"Well, hello to you too."

Gabriel beamed up at him, laughing softly.

"I'm going to kill this test!"

Sam smiled down at him, kissing his nose quickly.

"So that's what you've been doing all day?"

Gabriel nodded, dragging Sam into his room to show him his answers.

"And I had extra time!"

Gabriel was so proud of himself. He couldn't stop grinning as Sam flipped through his answers, seeing how many he had gotten correct.

Sam ruffled his hair, chuckling at his excitement.

"I told you that you could do it."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. The moose is always right."

"It's about damn time you learned that. Good job, Gabe."

Sam hugged him tightly, laughing at how Gabriel was physically bouncing with happiness. Sam loved how easily excitable Gabriel was and how when he was excited, he couldn't contain it. He was so much like a child in that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Times up!"

Gabriel groaned, putting his pencil down and closing his answer book. He had finished all the questions with about twenty minutes to spare, and was convinces that he had to have answered some of them wrong if he had that much time left, but he hadn't been able to find which ones. He was convinced he had failed. He gathered his things, taking the booklet up to the Procter and turning it it.

"When will we know if we passed?"

"Tomorrow morning. The computer will grade the tests tonight."

Gabriel nodded, walking outside to where Sam was waiting in the car. He was silent as he climbed in.

"How did it go?"

"I failed. I had to have failed. I had to.much time left when I finished, I tried to find the ones I got wrong, but I couldn't figure it out. I'm going to fail, and I'll never be a functional adult."