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The suit itched, yet Chase felt naked in his natural skin. But, Gemma insisted that he look his best, and like himself. The courtroom door swung open. The familiar forms of his parents emerged.

Chase was hit by dreadful remembrance.

"Good riddance, monster, you're her's."

Chase smiled. He was free.

>> "Accident. Don't run with scissors."

Chase shuddered sympathetically-- that was stupid. Everyone knew you ran with the blades pointing down, that way if you did trip, you only gave yourself a black eye. Chase figured that he wouldn't have to tell a big kid that, though. Since Locke had opened up the avenue of what had happened, Chase chanced a question.

"How old were you?" Chase breathed. It was all just pieces to the puzzle-- becuase, normally, little kids were given those cheap, plastic scissors, before graduating to all-metal with rounded tips. So, either Locke had been a misfortunate and not-so-intelligent older kid, or someone else had been dumb enough to give a younger Locke a sharp pair of scissors.

>> "A human shifter? Pretty cool business you've got there Chase. You could be your own best friend if you wanted to."

"I guess," Chase agreed, taking what Locke said in the most literal sense of the statement-- he could look literally be his own best friend. He couldn't understand why he'd want to, but it was indeed a possibility. The two of them went into the complex, and Chase followed Locke towards the first door, which had a green man on it. Chase stared at the door decoration crossly.

>> "Ready for your first stop? Knock on the door, and when they open it say Trick or Treat. Oh and hold out the bag. Easiest way of getting candy and a classic. Can't go wrong."

"'m ready," Chase agreed, nodding his head quickly. He grabbed the bag in preparation, moving the fake, plastic scythe aside. He glanced towards Locke for reassurance, before leaving his side, knocking on the door, and returning. Inside, he heard someone shift, and approach the door of the apartment-- Chase held his breath, glancing towards Locke once again, so that he could mimic him.

>> "Uh, yeah, I can't see things right, so when my mutation kicked in it helped me out. I can see things when they touch the ground. So I haven't learned how you touch the ground."

Of course, the first thing a kid does when someone says that they can't see right, is that they look straight into the other's eyes. In this sense, his curiosity was shameless. He hadn't really looked at Locke's face up until now-- Chase was shy, and Locke still intimidated him. But, compelled by his inquiring mind, Chase found tge guts to look Locke dead in the eye.

One of his eyes was white and unfocused, while the other was blue. It was rude to stare, so Chase didn't. And, he was either too shy or too polite to ask any questions, even though he was full of them.

"And you Kid Death? Care to share what you do?"

Chase tried to recall Miss Gemma's word for it, before chirping, "Oh, that's easy-- I'm a human-shifter. At least, that's what Miss Gemma calls it."

>> “Orange Soda is powerful like that; if you want some juice or tea, they’ll switch it out for you.”

Chase shook his head a tad stubbornly. No, he was going to be like the big kids-- tea tasted like nothing, so he didn't like it much (yes, he'd had tea), and juice was yet another baby drink. Chase was wordlessly insistent upon doing as the big kids did. At least, when they were around. He took another sip of the soda, just to show that he'd meant it, before returning to his plate of food.

>> “Hmmmm, I don’t think you will have to get a job. Maybe they will give you chores or a responsibility. If there is tuition I should be up to it.”

Chase wasn't familiar with the word tuition, either-- but it sounded pretty serious. And, by the way Agnes had tilted a curious gaze towards Aedus, it wasn't something that people always. His face didn't color this time, but his eyes were still swam with a rosy, pink warmth and uncertainty. He didn't deserve any of this, and yet Aedus was offering it-- it had already been established that, in this short time, Chase had taken a liking to this guy, perhaps the quickest that he'd ever attached to any one person. He smiled, dropping his gaze to his plate. The boy had half a mind to go with the man, but stranger-danger still told him no... at least he had the option, would have the key by which to remember that there was someone there for him.

"Th-thank you, Aedus," Chase murmured in heartfelt gratitude. Even though he had no idea what tuition was.

Agnes cleared any concern of that, however--

>> “No, no, there’s no tuition. You don’t have to pay for a thing, Chase. It’s all completely free and at your disposal if you want to use it. The mansion, the staff, they’re all just there to help you, to give you a shot at a good life. Maybe there’s a chore or two but they’re only there to help, honest. No strings attached.”

So tuition was money. Well, it was good that there wasn't any tuition, because Chase would have definite complexes about having someone pay for his education. One meal out was one thing-- housing and education was something else entirely.

Oh, some a shot at a good life... that was what they'd meant by second chances... Such a thing was almost unfathomable.

"Well, I'm good at chores," Chase avowed, his gaze skilled colored by a hue of delight. He liked the way that chores made him feel useful. Chasee continued to eat steadily and, as his stomach begin to take-in more food, the dull pang of hunger became more apparent. He still ate slowly, but man-- he was really hungry.

"Why does it sting?" Chase demanded, in reference to the soda. He mopped up the spray with a napkin, lips pursed. His throat still burned, so Chase washed the soda down with some Chinese food. At least the food wasn't carbonated. Aedus answered for Agnes, and his answer didn't clarify much for Chase.

>> "Well, a second chance at having somewhere more stable, something to count on, I would think."

"Somewhere more stable than... what?" Chase asked shamelessly. They had been quite generous with answering questions thus far, thus Chase was becoming comfortable enough to ask more. Agnes tried to explain more thoroughly.

>> "Like Aedus said, Chase. It’s a place that will let you get the chances you didn’t get at home. I ran away from home and normally that would lead to some harsh decisions. To sacrificing the things I wanted. But the school gave me all the options back. I can go to school, I have a job, they’ll even help me get into college so that I never have to even think about my parents again, unless I want to. Not because desperation forces me to. Get it?"

Chase's brain had to play catch-up with his ears. Agnes had said a lot, so it took a little while to register what Agnes was saying.

"I need to... get a job?" he breathed, missing the point. Agnes sounded very accomplished, for an ex-runaway. She was in school, thinking about college, and she had a job, so that she would never see her patents unless she had, too. Well, Chase wanted to go to school, and he was afraid of seeing his parents. But he'd never thought of getting a job.

Chase smiled back at Agnes, returned to his food... Well, he supposed money had to come from somewhere.

Chase inclined his head at Aedus as the eight-year-old slithered into his chair and took a seat, listening as the older boy instructed him on etiquette. Chase absorbed it readily, nodding as if everything that Aedus was saying was actually making some sense to him. The waitor came over to get their orders on drinks-- Aedus requested root beer, Agnes requested orange soda. Chase wasn't a soda-drinker either, so he was kind of lost. At least orange soda sounded like it had fruit in it... so, Chase requested an orange soda, too. He didn't want to be the odd-man-out by requesting milk. Milk was for babies. Soda was for big kids. So long as he was around big kids, he was drinking what they drank.

Aedus guaranteed that they'd have a while there, so that Chase wouldn't have to scarf down his food. He then turned his attention to Agnes, so Chase took the opportunity to try out his chopstick prowess. Of course, he didn't get it, at first. He looked towards Aedus, towards his hands, and attempted to emulate how he held the chopsticks. Chase's hands mimicked them awkwardly, and he went to grab a piece of broccoli out of the brocolli beef, and one of the chopsticks clattered to the plate. Chase looked up shyly.

>> “So, the school you spoke of earlier, they have all grade levels there?”

He tried again, with the chopsticks, and when he didn't get it a second time, he timidly placed the chopsticks aside and reached for his fork. He was too hungry to bother, and too polite to spear his food with the chopsticks. Taking rather reasonable bites and pacing himself well, Chase began to eat as Agnes spoke. His ears didn't really perk up until she said his name, and he might have looked up in a startled way, as if the sound of someone addressing him as "Chase" was completely foreign. He looked up slowly, silenced by a mouthful of food.

>> “Chase. School serves anyone seeking help with their powers. From as young as Chase to…as old as 25, I think I saw. Many of the students there end up either staying for awhile or graduating and moving on into college. It pretty much gives people like me and Chase a second chance.”

It sounded like a big school. Chase swallowed his bite, "A second chance at what?"

Chase felt rather slow for asking, but his question was an earnest one. He hadn't been aware that he was given chances at anything. Was he so dense that he'd missed his first? Or had he messed up on the first chance without even knowing what he was being given chances at ? He stopped eating, taking a sip of his orange soda.

Chase winced at the burn, sputtering and nearly spitting the soda back out. He swallowed, eyes watering, and turned towards the older kids. How did they drink this stuff?! Chase's face colored in embarrassment, and he looked towards his soda. If its electric-orange coloring hadn't been something to go by, its taste sure was-- it didn't taste anything like an orange! It wasn't like orange juice at all!

"Sorry," he said lamely. Chase took a second sip of the soda, muscled through the burn, and swallowed without such occurence as the first time.