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Sodapop Patrick Lane, emotionally and physically abused in multiple homes. Very skittish and prone to running away. Fifteen years old.
Ponyboy Micheal Johnson, neglected and physically abused, severely malnourished. Trouble eating full meals and most times nonverbal. Twelve years old.
Darry sighed as he skimmed over their reports. Their social worker had contacted Darry a couple days ago, only saying that there were some kids who had been through a lot of homes and needed help and that they needed a more permanent fix for them. Today was the day he would talk to them and see which one he was willing to foster, and it was hard especially when seeing their pictures, then to now, and noticing the effect of the system on them both.
"Now, Mr Curtis-"
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Just Darrel is fine."
"Darrel, I want to just give you some tips and precautions when you meet these boys. Sodapop is really wary around adults, he was abused in almost every home he's been in and the longest he's spent in a home is about a month. Ponyboy is a bit more open around people but he doesn't speak often, he's heavily malnourished so there will be more paperwork on his needs and getting the right nutrients." Darry simply nodded as he took in the information. "Alright, that's all I wanted to tell you! I'll send Sodapop in first." Then she left, leaving Darry to nervously second guess if he was really qualified for this.
Sodapop was nervous. The feeling wasn’t new to him, but this was. Whenever he had to go to a new home, it was a woman coming in and saying how much they really wanted children or him just being dropped on their doorstep so they could get the check every month (which was never spent on him). So for his new possible parent to be some young guy, who should probably be in college, fostering kids out of the goodness of his heart? Yeah, it was weird.
What made it even weirder was the inviting smile the guy shot him as he was sent in. "Hello, I'm Darrel. What's your name?" The guy had dark brown hair and tan skin, but not naturally. More like he was out in the sun a lot, maybe a farmer or something. He had really light blue eyes, almost like ice, they were hardened but in a way soft when looking at him.
Soda had to resist his eye roll, the guy definitely knew his name. But he guesses it's nice to speak for himself for once. "Sodapop." The following silence is loud and awkward as they both hesitate on what to say next.
"How about you tell me some things about yourself? Favorite color, a nickname you wanna be called, any hobbies?"
Soda was a little confused on why the guy was asking, most of the times the people will just sit in silence and assume that he'll immediately warm up to them. "Uh- Soda is fine. I like all colors, and I like taking pictures and making short films. Not that they're good but y'know.." He trailed off when he figured he might start talking too much.
Darrel only smiled, which made him feel all weird and warm inside. "That's- That's really nice, Soda. You can call me Darry if you'd like, and I like to cook and play football." Darry answering the questions himself made him feel a little better. But their budding conversation was cut off when Ms. Meredith came back in and it was time for him to back to his room.
Darry was nice. But Sodapop knew it wouldn't stay that way, especially when the man found out how annoying he could be.
Ponyboy felt indifferent. He liked that word, neither good or bad; mediocre. He was meeting yet another foster parent, it had only been two weeks since he was sent back from his previous home, and he had been there for three weeks, his longest time so far. All he was told that it was a young man and was willing to foster him, he hoped the man read his report because he was too tired to speak today.
Pony walked in and the man had a inviting look on his face. "Hi, I'm Darry. You're Ponyboy, right?" Pony simply nodded and directed his eyes to a spot on the wall behind Darry's head. "I read your report and it said that you're not very talkative most times, are you willing to speak with me a little today?" Ponyboy couldn't help but feel guilty as he shook his head no and turned his gaze downward to the man's button up shirt, it was black but he was missing two buttons at the top. It made him look more chill, more real.
"That's alright, I'll just ask some questions and if you feel like answering just nod or shake your head." Pony could feel the corners of his mouth twitch up but didn't form quite into a smile.
Darry smiled, though. "Do you like to read?" Pony nodded enthusiastically.
"What about writing?" A so-so motion with his hand.
Darry seemed to ponder his next question. "Do you have a phone?" He nodded and showed Darry. It was an iPhone XR that Ms Meredith had bought him, he only really uses it for wattpad and YouTube and occasionally tiktok although most of their taste on books was horrible. Ponyboy decided that Darry wasn't all that bad, he was nice about him not talking and seemed to care at least a little about his hobbies. Darry was about to ask another question before he was cut off by Ms Meredith coming in.
Darry sighed but looked back at Pony with a smile. "It was nice meeting you, Ponyboy." Pony smiles and nods his head response before following Ms. Meredith out of the room.
"Okay, Darrel. Now that you've read up and talked a little bit with each boy, who would you like to foster? I know it can be a hard decision with both of their backgrounds and ages but I assure you that they are good kids."
That wasn't even the part that made it hard for Darry, he couldn't get their innocent, young smiles out of his head to make a decision. Sodapop was already a teenager and could go down the wrong path if he just grew out of the system and no one to care. Ponyboy was only a couple months from being thirteen and at that age no one would want him, especially seeing all the trauma the kid went through. If he had to pick between them he would feel forever guilty for the kid left behind.
"They are good kids...would there be any way I could foster both of them?" He asked, choosing to listen to his heart instead of his brain telling him that he didn't know how to provide for two kids (without including the four he had back home).
Darry had never seen someone look so shocked in his life. "Sorry, excuse me. It's just...people hardly want to foster them, much less both at the same time. But if you are serious about this, it would require twice the amount of paperwork and another inspection for two boys."
"That's fine. I just couldn't leave them here.." She smiled at his response before getting up and handing him papers and folders. She excitedly began to explain all the rules and the things they would need. Darry sighed and tried hard to ignore the questioning going on in his head. Could he handle taking care of these boys?