Lost And Found (Dadvid. AU)

Part six

As the week continued, Max started to get more comfortable with both the new school and David. David was still as overbearing as ever, but the 10-year-old was starting to get used to it. The only time he had gotten in trouble was for falling asleep in Math class, but honestly, who could blame him? Math was boring. 

     If Max was being honest with himself, he liked his new life. Before, he had spent most of his time hiding from adults, and now he didn't mind being around David. He was a pretty good dad, and had even managed to get Max on a schedule of sorts. It didn't always work out, but for the most part Max's life had settled into a routine. 

     Now, by no means was he an angel. Max still refused to do somethings, like doing his homework. There was a fight nearly every night about the matter, and Max had even tried lying to David about doing it in class. But the camp man knew Max, and saw right through his lies. Dessert was now on the line, and Max caved pretty quickly when it came to sugar. No way was he going to miss out on that.

     Getting ready in the morning was a whole other challenge. Max refused to brush his hair; there was simply no brush that could part the curly tangle. So David eventually gave up. He was happy if Max put on clean clothes and brushed his teeth in the morning. Some mornings Max would forget, but David's gentle reminders always set him back on track.

     Max still hadn't told his two friends, Nikki and Neil, about his current situation. He had a feeling that they were getting suspicious, but try as they might to sneak around, they wouldn't find anything. Still, the boy knew he would have to tell his friends sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to be this soon.

     Lunchtime, on Thursday, was when the bomb finally dropped.

     Max wasn't paying attention to the chatter of his two friends, but suddenly Nikki turned to him. "Is David your dad or something?" She asked bluntly, clearly curious. "Nikki!" Neil's face went red, and he practically shouted at her. This was clearly not how he intended on asking. "What? We were going to ask him anyways!" Nikki pointed out.

     While the two bickered, Max stayed silent, his mouth full of the sandwich David had lovingly packed for him this morning. What was he supposed to say? 'Oh, yeah, my parents didn't care enough to pick me up so now I live with David.'? Yeah, no. Max knew he would never live that down.

     "Anyways." Neil spoke again, shooting Nikki a look that clearly told her to be quiet. "Since Nikki brought up the subject, is David your dad? That would explain why your parents never showed up to Parent's Day; they were already there." Max swallowed his bite of sandwich. "Hell no. David is not my dad, and he'll never be anything more than an impossibly overly happy camp counselor." Max snapped, the lie catching in his throat. He took an overly large bit of sandwich to cover the small sound.

     "Then why are you going with him after school?" Neil pressed, his brow knit with concentration. "That is a bit suspicious, you know." Max rolled his eyes, trying to pretend he didn't care. "He just gives me rides home because my parents work late." He said in an offhand tone. It wasn't really a lie, when Max had lived with his parents they had never been on time to pick him up from anywhere, ever.

     "Oh." Was Nikki's response. "Why didn't you just tell us? It's not that big of a deal anyways." She added, bored with the conversation now as she focused on her lunch. "Didn't think you needed to know how I was getting home everyday." Max muttered, turning his eyes back to remainder of his lunch.