Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:53:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: ErastesTouch@aol.com
Subject: A Throw Away Kid, chapter 3

Throw Away Kid - by Erastes
Copyright 2012 by Erastes
Chapter 3 – Revealing Secrets.

Bryce started out by filling me in about the circumstances surrounding
his conception.  It was a story he'd heard many times when he was
younger, whenever his mother or grandparents would use it to try to
hurt the other during one of their arguments.  They obviously were very
eager to blame each other for what had happened and neither party
seemed to care if Bryce heard what was said, since their main intent was
to hurt each other.

It seems that Bryce was conceived as the result of a date rape, when a
former acquaintance of his mother's took advantage of her.  It seemed
that he wasn't too pleased when she didn't want to put out after he had
spent a bunch of money on their date, so he took matters into his own
hands.  Not taking 'no' for an answer, he forced her to the floor, placed
his hand over her mouth and then lifted her skirt and ripped off her
panties.  He used his free hand to undo his own trousers and release his
straining dick.  Then he forced her legs apart, so he could do the no-step
boogey, since he only cared that he got off.  After he dumped his load
inside her, he left her lying on the floor, sobbing her eyes out and feeling
shamed by what had just happened.  He never said a single word to her,
as he got up and disappeared into the night.

When she got home, she told her mother what had happened and then
she told her father.  Her parents tried to report the incident to the
police, but didn't have much success.  The fact that his mother had been
out on a date with this man and many people had seen them having a
good time together, it would be very difficult to prove the sex wasn't
consensual.  The case would essentially boil down to 'he said, she said',
and there wasn't much else she or her parents could do to prove it
wasn't what they had both wanted, unless they got him to admit it, but
that wasn't very likely.  After she found out she was pregnant, Bryce's
mother wanted to have an abortion, but her parents wouldn't allow it,
since it was strictly against their religion.  To spite her parents and get
back at them for not allowing her to have an abortion, his mother opted
not to put the baby up for adoption.  This meant Bryce was going to be
stuck in a home where he was neither loved nor wanted.

As an infant, Bryce was basically left in his crib or playpen for most of
the day, although he was fed, changed and bathed fairly regularly.  As
he grew older, he was expected to play by himself and keep out of the
way, a variation of the old theme 'children should be seen and not
heard,' but they actually wanted this kid to be neither seen nor heard.
He also learned quickly what punishment he'd face if he didn't do what
they wanted, when one day his mother became unhappy that he had
accidentally gotten in her way.  Furious, she grabbed a wooden spoon
from the kitchen and beat his back, butt and legs with it, which left
numerous bruises and welts covering those areas.  After that happened,
Bryce made certain that he never got in her way again.

There was, however, one other time he had managed to do something
wrong.  One night he'd had a bad dream and awoke crying hysterically.
The terrible visions he had just witnessed had scared him badly, but
unfortunately the noise woke his mother and she came storming into his
room.  She was determined to not only put an end to thus ruckus, but
she planned to teach him that she didn't enjoy being awakened in this
manner.  As she left her room, she managed to grab her hairbrush and
brought it along with her.  After voicing her displeasure at being
awakened, she told him she'd give him something real to cry about.  She
then proceeded to spank him with the hairbrush and then forced him
into the closet, where he spent the rest of the night.  He was still crying,
but this time he tried to do it as quietly as he could.  He couldn't
understand why he'd been punished for having a bad dream, but then
he realized that she hadn't even bothered to ask him why he was crying
in the first place.

Scared, in pain and totally alone, Bryce huddled in that small dark hole
until morning, when he eventually dared to let himself out of the closet.
He only did this after he finally noticed the sunlight filtering through
the gap under the door and felt it was safe to open the closet door and
get back in his bed.  He stayed in his room for the rest of the day,
because his mother never left the apartment.  He didn't even venture
out to get something to eat and his mother never offered him any food
or called him for a meal either.  Instead, he chose to remain out of sight
and remain in hiding.  He even peed in an old bottle that he found in his
room, so he didn't take the chance of running into his mother, which
might have upset her again.

When he heard her go to bed later that evening, he snuck out of his
room and went to the kitchen, where he found a box of crackers and a
jar of peanut butter/ He also grabbed a butter knife, so he could spread
a little peanut butter on each of the crackers before he ate them, and a
glass of water.  After taking everything back to his room, he used that
measly excuse for a meal to ease the rumblings in his belly, before he got
back into bed.

Bryce stayed awake all night, because he was afraid to fall asleep.  He
feared that he might have another bad dream and he certainly didn't
want to wake up crying again, so he took every precaution to remain
awake and prevent a repeat of the previous evening.  What a hell of a
way for a child to have to live.

Things eventually calmed down for him again and he was able to stay
out of the line of fire after that.  A few weeks later, however, someone
new showed up at the apartment and this man was supposedly a new
friend of his mother's.  This guy was skinny and kind of ugly, but for
some reason his mother seemed attracted to him.  The guy started to
spend most of his time at the apartment with them, and stuck around
even when his mother wasn't there.

After continuing this arrangement for about a month, the guy just
moved in completely.  His name was Maury and he seemed to have
taken special interest in Bryce, especially when his mother wasn't
around.  Bryce thought that Maury was only paying attention to him
when they were alone so his mother wouldn't get upset that he was
being nice to her bastard son.  Unfortunately, Bryce discovered later
that this wasn't the reason at all, but regardless of the man's intent,
Bryce kind of liked it that an adult was spending time with him.
Sometimes they would talk or Maury would sit with him when he
watched TV.  At first, this seemed really strange to Bryce, because he
was so used to being alone, but then getting this attention started to
fascinate him and became something he looked forward to.  It
eventually developed into an important part of Bryce's daily routine.

One night, Maury told Bryce's mother that he wasn't feeling well and
wanted to stay home, but she didn't want to do that.  Instead, she
decided to go out without Maury this time, since she didn't like the idea
of spending the evening cooped up in the apartment again.  Since
Maury didn't seem to object to her plan, she took off and left Maury
and her son alone in the apartment.

At first, Bryce and Maury only sat on the couch and watched television
together, but then Maury pulled Bryce onto his lap and began cuddling
with him.  Although he hadn't expected this and Maury had never done
it before, Bryce was enjoying the closeness.  Maury even began to rub
Bryce's legs in the process and Bryce thought this was really great.  He
couldn't believe that someone actually liked him enough to want to hold
him, so he melted into the guy's chest.

It wasn't very long after he did that when Bryce felt a hand slide under
the waistband of his underpants and he felt Maury's fingers playing
with his little wiener.  He had no idea if this was right or wrong, but he
enjoyed the attention and the feeling he was getting from it wasn't half
bad either, especially when his little thingy got hard.  For those reasons,
he let Maury continue doing these things to him.  He was just grateful
someone had noticed he was alive and wanted to pay attention to him,
for reasons other than to just beat the crap out of him.

This same thing seemed to happen every time the two of them were
alone, even though Bryce knew that Maury was having sex with his
mother nearly every night.  He knew this because he could hear the bed
squeaking and the headboard banging against the wall, but sometimes
he could even hear the two of them moaning in the throes of passion.
He knew about those kinds of things from the other kids at school, even
though he didn't have any friends of his own.  For some reason, the
other kids thought he was weird and not very friendly, so they didn't
have much to do with him.

Sometimes Bryce could hear the other children talking about things like
this, especially about what boys and girls did together.  He had also
heard some of the older boys talking about doing things with each other,
so he thought what Maury was doing with him was the same kind of
thing those boys were talking about.  It was because of this, and the fact
that he knew Maury was also having sex with his mother, that he never
tried to stop Maury from doing those things to him.  His silence,
however, complicated the issue and inadvertently encouraged Maury in
the process, which made him grow bolder in his actions.

Things went on like that for quite some time, and then one day Maury
started to do something different, something new.  This time he put his
hands down the back of Bryce's pants instead and started rubbing a
finger up and down his crack, but he also tried to stick the finger in
Bryce's butthole.  When Maury did that, Bryce tightened his anal
muscles, so Maury couldn't do it, but this only caused Maury to become
more insistent.

Somewhat annoyed, Maury told Bryce to just relax and he'd enjoy it,
but Bryce was scared and didn't want to continue this new game.
Although he hadn't objected to what they had done before, Bryce didn't
think this was right.  Eventually, and over Bryce's objections, Maury
managed to force one of his fingers into Bryce's hole and it hurt him a
little.  Bryce told Maury this, but Maury didn't seem to care about that
and just kept doing what he wanted.  After a while, Bryce's rectum
began to adjust to the intruder and it didn't seem to hurt as much any
longer, but that didn't make Bryce like it any more.  From his previous
experiences though, Bryce knew it wasn't wise to go against an adult, at
least not if he didn't want to face the consequences, so he just tried to
relax and think about other things while Maury did as he pleased.  That
helped a little, but not much.

After that, Bryce tried to stay away from Maury as much as he could,
but the older man sought him out just the same.  The apartment was
small, so no matter where Bryce tried to hide, Maury always seemed to
be able to find him.  Whenever he did, Maury would do those same
things to him, but it was happening more frequently and the sessions
seemed to last longer.  This kept up until Maury suddenly decided to
change what they were doing.

One night, Maury unexpectedly pulled Bryce's pants all the way off
before he began, and not just down.  Then he started using two fingers
at a time, not just one, and Maury was getting more aggressive toward
the little boy.  The added finger hurt Bryce again and stretched his little
hole even further, while possibly even tearing him a bit, but Bryce
didn't dare say a word to Maury about it.  He was too afraid of the
reaction it might draw, if he objected to what was being done to him.
No one ever listened to what he had to say anyway, so why should he
even bother to complain?  He knew it wouldn't do any good, so he just
resigned himself to let this happen.

Maury would finger-fuck him like this for many, many minutes, and
continue to slide those digits in and out of the boy's opening, but Bryce
never understood what pleasure Maury got from doing it.  After Maury
finished doing this to him, Bryce would pick up his clothes and go to his
room.  Then, he would try to stay away from Maury for as long as he
could manage, while enjoying the solitude of his bedroom.  This,
however, didn't protect him completely or keep him from being the
object of Maury's desires.  Whenever Bryce's mother went somewhere
alone, Maury would drag Bryce out of his room to join him, so he could
do those things to him again.  Finally, the inevitable happened, when
one evening Maury took their activities to the next level.

After Maury had dragged Bryce into the living room with him, as he
normally did, he removed Bryce's clothing and began working two, and
then three, of his fingers up the boy's behind as they watched TV.  After
they had done this for a while, Maury made Bryce lean forward, which
at the same time moved Bryce slightly off of Maury's lap, when Bryce
heard Maury unsnap his own pants and unzip them.  When Maury told
him to sit back again, Bryce could feel something new touching his
opening.

Startled and scared, Bryce turned around and gave Maury a horrified
look, but Maury told him to just relax and it would be no different than
when he used his fingers, but Bryce wasn't convinced.  He tried to jump
off of Maury's lap and bolt from the room, but Maury was prepared for
something like that to happen.  When Maury felt Bryce attempt to get
away, he grabbed the boy by his shoulders and held him in place, while
all the while telling him that he'd beat the crap out of him if he tried
that stunt again.

Bryce considered this warning for a moment and decided that he might
as well give in.  He figured this wouldn't hurt as much as a beating, so
he calmed down and Maury positioned the tip of his penis so it touched
Bryce's puckered hole.  Bryce was wondering when Maury was going to
make his move, when Maury suddenly tightened his grip on Bryce's
shoulders and forced the boy's body downward, at the same time
thrusting upward with his hips.  Bryce felt a jolt of pain as that man-
sized tool was thrust all the way inside him in one fell swoop, and he
cried out in agony.  Maury immediately clamped a hand over Bryce's
mouth and told the 'little brat to shut the fuck up,' but Bryce's
continued to whimper, as the tears streamed down his cheeks.

Maury was considerate enough to wait at that point and gave Bryce's
anus time to adjust to the intrusion, but then he moved his hands down
to Bryce's waist.  After grasping Bryce's firmly about the hips, he began
lifting the boy up and down, as he pulled him off and then impaled him
again on his erection.  Maury told Bryce to help out and do some of the
work himself, while encouraging Bryce to lift his body up and down on
his penis.  Bryce did as he was told, figuring it would be better that way,
and he felt Maury's penis sliding in and out of him, while rubbing
uncomfortably against the lining of his intestinal tract.  Bryce was numb
now, at least from the neck up, and he tried to think about other things,
so he wouldn't have to concentrate on what was happening to him.

As he kept lifting up and down, so Maury would finish and leave him
alone, Bryce kept telling himself it would be over soon.  While he was
enduring this activity, Maury would say things to him like, 'you're tight,
boy' or 'you're even better than your momma,' but Bryce tried not to
hear a word he said.  After a few minutes of this action, he heard Maury
begin to moan, like he would hear him do in the bedroom when he was
having sex with his mother, and then Maury jammed his cock all the
way into Bryce's ass.  This hurt Bryce even more, because Maury's dick
was further inside him now than it had ever been before, and then he
felt something warm filling his insides.  Bryce's naïve mind told him
that Maury had just peed in his ass, and that made him feel sick to his
stomach.

After Maury stopped his movements, they stayed motionless for a
minute or two longer, while Maury enjoyed the lasting effect of his
orgasm.  After coming down from his sexual high, he reluctantly helped
Bryce get off his cock.  Eagerly, Bryce jumped up, happy that it was
over, but then Maury told him to lay face down on the couch.  Bryce
wasn't sure why Maury wanted him to do this, but he knew he'd better
comply.  As Bryce got into that position, Maury reached over to the
coffee table and grabbed a box of tissues, so he could clean both of them
up.

Maury wiped the white goop off of himself first, and then he wiped
Bryce's rear-end.   Bryce looked at the tissues as they were thrown onto
the floor and noticed that some of them had some red on them too.
Even though Bryce didn't know what it meant, it was obvious that he
had bled a little when he'd been fucked, but hopefully the damage
wasn't too severe.  After Maury finished cleaning the boy up and Bryce
had put his pants back on, Bryce ran back to his bedroom and stayed
there for the rest of the night.  He knew in his heart that he didn't ever
want to see Maury again.

Ironically, it was just a couple of weeks later that Bryce's class was
given the 'Danger Stranger' and sexual abuse presentation.  His teacher
told them they should tell an adult, like a parent, teacher or policeman,
whenever someone did something to them that they didn't like or if
someone touched them in an area that would normally be covered by
their bathing suits.  Bryce considered this information for the rest of the
day and all through that night.  He wondered if he should actually tell
someone what had happened to him and risk a beating, or remain quiet
and let it happen over and over again.

The next day he made up his mind and let his teacher know what had
been going on at his house, and not just about Maury either.  He also
told his teacher about his relationship with mother and how she had
been treating him.  The teacher had a tough time believing what he had
to say, but she took him to the principal's office and had him repeat his
story.  After hearing what Bryce told him, the principal called the
Department of Social Services and the police.  Later that same day,
Maury was arrested and Bryce was taken out of his home.  Maury was
later convicted of child molestation and sent to prison, but not until
after Bryce had to tell a judge and a bunch of other people, whom I
assumed were the lawyers and a jury, about what had happened to him.
He was kind of embarrassed about having to do this in front of a bunch
of strangers, but he was very brave and did what he needed to do.
>From there he went into the foster care system and a whole new phase
of his life began.

The foster home that Bryce was taken to was really quite nice.  The
couple was probably in their early 30's and had decided to take in a
foster child because they, for some reason, weren't able to have children
of their own.  They had tried for several years to conceive, but were
either unsuccessful or the pregnancy had ended badly, so they put their
name on a waiting list to adopt.  Unfortunately, they learned it would
take a minimum of four years to get a child that way, so they signed up
as foster parents in the interim.

The couple thought if they got into the program first, they might be
assigned a child they liked and who was available then maybe they
would be allowed to adopt that way, thus speeding up the process.  They
were hoping for a baby or toddler to begin with, but that was not to be,
and it was Bryce who was delivered to their doorstep and introduced as
their first foster child.  Although Bryce was only a first grader at this
point, it was still a disappointment for them not to get an infant.  They
did accept him, fearing they might not be assigned any more foster
children if they refused the first child brought to them, so they
welcomed him into their home, while hoping for a newborn on their
next placement.

After their initial disappointment wore off, they did warm up to Bryce
and made him feel welcomed and treated him fairly well.  It was
evident, however, that Bryce had sensed their initial lack of enthusiasm
and partial rejection of him when he arrived, so even though his foster
parents became more loving and affectionate after that, Bryce wasn't
ready to forgive them for that slight.  Over the next few months, things
improved and they seemed to warm up to each other.  The foster
parents did their best to make Bryce feel comfortable, and he was
beginning to put the past behind him.  They were also starting to take
Bryce to local parks and on occasional other outings, like to the zoo, and
they even took him to visit some of their relatives, which began to make
him feel like part of the family.  He was really starting to feel accepted
now, but then something unexpected happened, something that no one
could have predicted.  His foster mother suddenly became pregnant.

At first it wasn't a big deal, since his foster parents were afraid to
celebrate too soon or announce this fact to others.  She had already lost
babies during the first and second trimester, so when she reached her
seventh month they began to tell everyone they knew about their good
fortune.  The biggest surprise was not that she was pregnant, but that
the ultra-sound had revealed that she was carrying twins.  Suddenly
Bryce lost his importance to the family and all the talk was about the
babies.  He was moved out of his bedroom and placed in a smaller room,
because he'd been told that the larger room would be needed for the
two cribs.  Slowly, Bryce began to slip back into some of his old habits,
such as keeping to himself and staying in his room, because he was
convinced that he wasn't loved or wanted any more.  As the days passed
and the due-date grew nearer, Bryce received even less attention, but it
was only going to get worse.  After the babies were born, identical twin
boys that were three weeks premature, he felt totally abandoned.

Suddenly, Bryce was in the way again, no matter what he did.  He only
wanted to help and he wanted to hold the babies, but he was told not to
go in their room, not to get near them and he was only allowed to see the
babies at arm's length.  The twins were also very demanding and not
even on the same schedule, so one or the other was up almost
continually throughout the night.  This meant their parents weren't
getting much sleep, as they tended to the twin's needs.  The wife took
most of this nightly abuse, since she realized that her husband had to be
fresh and alert for his job, so she got up three out of every four times
that the babies cried.  By morning, the last thing she wanted to do was
get up and feed another child and then get him dressed and ready for
school, especially if the twins happened to be sleeping at that time.  It
wasn't very much longer before Bryce's world came crashing down
again, when a social worker showed up at the home to take him
someplace else.

Bryce's caseworker tried to explain to him that it wasn't his fault and
that he had done nothing wrong, but her words seemed to fall on deaf
ears.  She tried to convince him that this move wasn't because they
didn't want him, but instead that it was due to the fact that taking care
of the babies tired the parents out and they didn't have the energy or
the time to look after another child.  This didn't mean very much to
Bryce, and he just accepted it as another example that he wasn't wanted
or loved.

Bryce did, however, refuse to let anyone see any emotion coming from
him.  In fact, he hid his feelings so well that it led everyone to misjudge
and wrongly evaluate his level of acceptance and ability to cope with
change.  They continued to define his adjustment using adult standards
and attempted to explain his apparent resignation by using logic and
other psychological jargon, rather than understanding the emotional
response of a young boy.  This caused them to misdiagnose his level of
self-worth and his emotional stability before sending him to live with his
next foster family.  Unfortunately, this was done without any counseling
to help him cope with the trauma of being ripped from another home
and he was merely dropped in a new environment.

Since he'd learned to internalize his feelings and fears, Bryce went to his
next family in stoic compliance, neither shedding a tear nor offering a
smile.  This was just something he did, like going to school when it was
in session, so everyone either misread or overlooked the pain and
feelings of rejection that were welled up inside of him.

His next home was not as nice as the first, even though there were
several other children there as possible playmates and confidants.  This
was a long established foster family and Bryce was their fourth foster
child, at least currently.  Over the years this couple had taken care of
more children than they could count and, in fact, they couldn't even
remember the names of all the children who had lived there.  Even
worse, they wouldn't have recognized those children even if they ran
into them on the street.  This was merely a warehouse type of foster
home, one where they took in any and everybody offered to them, be it
for a day, a week or however long the child was scheduled to stay.

These parents fixed meals for the children, often using the cheapest
items they could buy, and they made the children help with all the other
chores.  All of the furniture in the house was very old, although semi-
clean, and the mattresses on the children's beds had seen more use than
a cheap hooker.  There was also a discernable pecking order among the
foster children, with the oldest or most aggressive being at the top and
the youngest or weakest on the lowest rung of this social ladder.  Bryce
soon learned that he filled the bottom-most rung, so now he had even
more bosses than before.

Once again, he retreated to the solitude and protection of his room,
although he had to share it with one of the other children, but he found
it easier to entertain himself than to fight for love or attention.  Oh, he
did try to make friends with the other children and attempted to see if
his new foster parents might take an interest in him, but he was quick to
sense their rejection.  He also discovered he wasn't big enough or strong
enough to stand up against the older or larger children, but he also had
limited social skills, due to the fact that he'd hardly ever had anyone to
interact with.  This drastically limited his ability to attract friends and
the other children often considered him as being dumb, boring or
immature.

He was stuck in an unending cycle of failure.  He couldn't get friends
because he didn't have any social skills and he couldn't build his social
skills without any friends to interact with.  It wasn't completely bad
though, because Bryce learned how to wash the dishes, do the laundry
and how to sweep and mop the floors, as well as how to make his bed.
It's not that he had to do all of the chores, and he didn't become
Cinderella, but the kids had to share the responsibilities.  He did do
more than his share, however, because of his size and demeanor.  The
others found it easy to take advantage of him and they often forced him
into doing some of their chores as well.  It may sound as if I'm saying
that tongue-in-cheek, by saying that having to do all of this wasn't all
bad, but those were skills that would help him in later placements or if
he were lucky enough to get a chance to be on his own.

Bryce was at this particular foster home for more than a year, before
the husband was diagnosed with cancer.  The doctor explained that he
would have to operate and remove as much of the cancerous growths as
he could, before sending him for radiation treatments, which would
eliminate the problem areas that couldn't be taken care of surgically.
After discussing what this would entail with his wife, they decided that
they wouldn't be able to handle having the kids around during his
surgery and follow-up treatments.

They understood that there would be times when both of them would be
required to be at the hospital for extended periods of time and this
would take a lot out of them.  They also realized that neither of them
would be in the mood or have the strength to deal with a bunch of
rambunctious children during this time, so the wife called the
Department of Social Services.  She informed them about her husband's
medical condition, and that they could no longer care for the children.
She told them that they had a little over a week to find new homes for
everyone and the caseworker told her she would do what she could.

When the foster parents broke the news to the children later, the other
three were very upset, but the news didn't have much of an effect on
Bryce.  He didn't feel any particular attachment to any of these people
anyway and he hadn't made any friends here.  He also wasn't very fond
of the rundown state of the house, but he did wonder what his new
home and foster family would be like.

While he waited to be removed from there, Bryce also came up with a
new way of distracting himself from this situation, by imagining that his
father was going to come back for him and whisk him away to a better
life.  Even though he had never met his father and didn't even know the
man's name, he began to build this image of him in his mind.  He began
to think of his father as some kind of savior who was going to love him,
take care of him and rescue him from his cold and lonely existence.  He
became Bryce's fantasy knight in shining armor and Bryce was
convinced he would show up one day and suddenly make his life better.

At first this was just a harmless distraction, which took him away from
his everyday woes, but over time it became an obsession and Bryce
began to forget that this person was just someone he had created in his
mind.  When the day came for the children to be moved to their new
foster homes, Bryce told the other kids that he wouldn't be there for
very long, because his father was going to come get him and take him
away from all this.  Of course, the others didn't believe a word he said
and began to give him grief about it.  They teased him that he didn't
even have a father, but Bryce stood his ground, even though there was
not a shred of truth in his boast.  Instead, he told them that his father
loved him and he was going to come back and take him away from all of
this, so he could care for him, as a father should.  The other kids just
laughed and continued to tease him about it.  The also began to call him
names, but it didn't faze Bryce in the slightest.  In his mind, this was the
truth and he had convinced himself of that, so now he just had to wait
for it to happen.

His next foster family lived in a trailer park and they had a biological
daughter, but no other foster children.  She was about two years
younger than Bryce, but at least she was friendly.  However, Bryce was
told that this was only a temporary placement, since this couple was
only certified as emergency home, which could be used until another
qualified family became available.  This fact didn't seem to bother him,
because he was convinced that his knight in shining armor was coming
to take him away from all of this.

Not only had he been forced to change homes, but he also had to change
schools when he moved here, but this was actually a lucky break for
him.  It wasn't that the kids here treated him differently or any better
than at the other school, but there was another 'geek' like him who was
willing to be his friend.  At least now he had someone he could hang
around with.  The other boy was just as excited about having a friend as
Bryce and they soon became inseparable.  In addition to playing with
his new friend and sitting next to him in class, the two of them would
watch the other children and slowly learned how they interacted with
each other.  The pair would also watch the types of things the others did
together, so gradually their social skills began to improve.  When that
happened, they made a new friend, who was another 'outcast' at the
fringe of the school social hierarchy.

Bryce began to like his new home for several reasons.  First, he had
made friends at school and the couple's daughter was being really nice
to him too.  Second, when he came home from school he didn't have to
start doing chores and was actually allowed to go outside and play with
his foster-sister or one of his two friends, if they could get permission to
come to his place.  This was actually Bryce's first taste of behaving like
a kid and he was beginning to enjoy this new experience.  There was
only one problem, and that was the fact that he had forgotten this was
only a temporary placement – an inevitability that would hit him
squarely between the eyes sooner than he wanted.

The cold reality of this situation came crashing down on him one
afternoon after the phone rang.  His foster-mother took the call, which
it turned out was from his caseworker, and after she hung up, she broke
the news to Bryce.  She did it gently, by walking over to him and
wrapping her arms around his chest first.  Then, she told him that he
was going to be leaving there in a little while.  He wanted to know why,
and she tried to explain it to him, but then she took him to his room and
helped pack up his belongings, because his caseworker would be coming
by to pick him up in about an hour.

Bryce was crushed and quickly asked if he could call his two friends, so
he could tell them what was happening.  He didn't know if he'd still be
going to the same school after this move, so he thought he should let
them know, just in case he had to go to school somewhere else.  It was
one of the most difficult things he had ever had to do.  All of them tried
to remain hopeful, seeing none of them knew for certain what was going
to happen, but secretly they all had their doubts and suspicions.

After he got off the phone, Bryce also went through a tearful farewell
with his foster sister, because she also couldn't understand why he had
to go and wasn't taking it very well.  Finally, he said good-bye to his
foster mother and told her that he appreciated the fact that she had
been so kind to him, even though they never had a chance to get to know
each other very well.  One thing he did know, however, and it was that
he would miss her gentle ways and caring touch.  He also told her to
thank her husband for him too, since he figured he'd be gone before her
husband arrived home from work.

When the caseworker arrived, she loaded his things into her car and
then drove him across town to his new home.  This place was pretty
much like his first foster home.  It was another older couple that lived in
an older home, which was randomly cluttered with older furnishings
and an assortment of other items.  Bryce soon discovered that he was
their third foster child, all of whom were boys, so he hoped he would be
happy here.

To his delight and amazement, Bryce hit it off with the younger boy, but
he also got the impression that the older one was going to be a problem.
In fact, it didn't take very long for him to discover that his hunch was
correct.  Almost immediately, this kid started bossing him around and
acting more like he was the foster father, rather than just one of the
kids.  He did this to the other boy too, but it didn't seem to bug that boy
as much as it did Bryce, maybe because he had already become
accustomed to it.  The older boy automatically made decisions about
what they were going to do or what they were going to watch on
television, whenever the foster parents weren't around.  Bryce soon
discovered that he didn't mind this kid's choices, but it was just that he
didn't like being told what to do by someone only a couple of years older
than himself.

Bryce was also in a new school district again and had to attend another
elementary school in a different part of town.  To his dismay, he had
trouble there right from the start, but it wasn't with the other kids, but
with his schoolwork.  Having jumped around between so many different
schools, he hadn't had any continuity in his instruction, so now he was
struggling to keep up.  At his last school, he had been taught reading by
a whole-word method, but now he was required to learn phonics, which
was completely foreign to him.  That wasn't his only problem, though,
because this school used a hands-on, concept oriented approach to
teaching, as opposed to the look, listen, and learn approach of his
previous schools.  He did have one advantage however, and that was a
teacher that had taken an interest in him.

This teacher offered to work with him before school, during his lunch
hour, and also for a brief time after class ended, if he was willing to put
forth the effort to catch up.  Of course, Bryce jumped at that idea,
seeing he never spent much time with his classmates anyway.  Bryce
loved getting all of this personal attention from an adult, so he showed
up whenever he could and for as long as possible.  He was actually
spending time with an adult who seemed to care about him and was
trying to help him.  No one was screaming or telling him what an awful
person he was.  This was great!

This extra attention eventually helped him to catch up to the others, by
filling in all of the academic gaps that had occurred, due to his constant
moving around.  Before long, he had not only caught up, but he was
doing above average work.  Since she had been so helpful and nice to
him, Bryce wanted to get to know his teacher better, so he could thank
her for all of her help.  The problem was, she no longer wanted to spend
as much time with him now, since he had caught up and his grades had
improved.  This confused Bryce.  He thought that if she liked him when
he was doing poorly that she'd like him even more if he did well.  He
just couldn't understand why her attitude had changed toward him, but
he continued to keep his grades up, in hope of winning back her
admiration.

Bryce also managed to make a couple of new friends in his class too, and
the one boy wasn't even a 'geek' or a 'loser.'  Bryce didn't know why
this kid seemed to like him and was so friendly, but the boy always
seemed to pick Bryce to be on his team during P.E. or when they went
outside for recess.  Bryce was smart enough to know that he wasn't a
very good athlete, so that couldn't be the reason the boy kept choosing
him, and the kid was always friendly and talked to him at other times
too.  Soon, Bryce quit his trying to figure out the 'why' and just started
to enjoy the friendship that this boy offered.

This boy's name was Greg and they began to talk a little, as they got to
know each other better, but Bryce was almost afraid, or maybe just
ashamed, to tell the boy that he was a foster child.  What he didn't
realize was that it didn't matter to his new friend.  For some reason,
Greg already knew this, probably because Bryce had told where he
lived and then realized that those people always took in foster kids.
Bryce was kind of relieved when he found out that Greg knew, so he
didn't have to try to keep it a secret any longer, and he was thrilled that
it didn't seem to matter to his new friend either.

After they had discussed this information, Greg had a surprise of his
own and told Bryce that he had been adopted.  At first Bryce didn't
want to believe him, thinking that he was making this up to make him
feel better about being a foster child, but Greg insisted that this was
true.  He even told Bryce that he could even come over and ask his
parents, if he wanted proof.  Bryce figured that if he was willing to let
him do that then he must be telling him the truth, so he never
questioned this fact again.

Over time, the two boys continued to grow closer and they even
included the third boy in many of their activities, but the two of them
bonded together more with each other than they did with the other boy.
They did, however, vow that they would never leave the other boy out of
their escapades completely, since Bryce remembered what it had been
like for him, but they would also make sure they had time for just the
two of them to do things alone, in addition to the times when they were
all together.

When Greg asked Bryce if he wanted to come over to his house the next
afternoon to play.  Bryce told him he'd have to ask his foster parents
first, but he assumed they would let him.  He knew they allowed him to
do other things that his other foster parents hadn't, so when he got
home he asked his foster mother if he would be permitted to take
advantage of this opportunity.  Before she gave him permission, she
wanted to know where this kid lived.  When he explained that he just
lived a couple of blocks away, she told him it would be fine, but he'd
have to be home in time for dinner.  Bryce agreed and was all excited
about this prospect.  He was so excited that he could barely eat that
evening and it took him forever to fall asleep later that night, something
he hardly ever had a problem doing any more.  All he could think about
was how Greg would react when he found out Bryce could come over
and what they'd do when they got there.  It was like a dream come true
for him.