Shadow is away attending classes at the high school but Gerald has Maria stay home. He will keep her home for the rest of the week before sending her to attend classes. This will give her some more time to calm down from her emotions and to also give the school time to assemble her class schedule. Gerald also allows for Maria to wake up at her own pace today.

Gerald is in the kitchen, making pancakes, eggs and sausages. He wants to make a decent meal for Maria since she hadn`t eaten all day yesterday. To his surprise, Maria is actually awake early. She stands in the doorway to the kitchen, clutching her hedgehog plush. her large, blue eyes look solemnly at her grandfather. Gerald smiles and gestures to a chair at the table,"Have a seat, Maria. I`m getting breakfast ready for you."

Maria quietly says "thank you" and proceeds to the chair as requested by Gerald. As she takes her seat, Gerald brings over to her a full plate of food and a glass of milk. Then he brings over margarine and syrup along with eating utensils,"There you are."

Maria shyly gives her grandfather a small, polite smile,"Thank you, grandpa..."

She picks up a fork and starts with slowly eating her sausages. As she eats, Gerald takes a seat at the table, sitting across from Maria,"I`m getting you set up with your new school. But you won`t have to attend any classes this week. You have had a rough time. I`m giving you some time to rest up. Tomorrow though the school have your class schedule made up and ready. You will have to go to the main office to pick it up."

As Maria finishes her breakfast, Gerald goes on to explain a few things about what will be happening. He recommends to her to not wander the city by herself and to have at least another person with her. This area isn`t overly dangerous but it does have some questionable people wandering around: safety in numbers. A lot of areas are close by to this house, such as a shopping centre, grocery store and several other place. Maria would be able to walk to any of these places should she want to go. He also notes to Maria that her current room is temporary. He will be moving her to a larger room once said room is cleared out so it is recommended that she doesn`t unpack much.

The day will get spent with Gerald giving Maria a tour of the town, showing her the shops and restaurants. Maria tries to use this time as a distraction from her sorrow. It will take some time for her to get to know everything and the best way to do that would be to wander the area herself. But for now, she will just observe.

It is late in the night before Shadow comes home again. Maria is already up in her temporary room and Gerald is in the living room, reading over some news articles on his tablet. As Shadow enters the front door, Gerald looks up from his tablet at Shadow and removes his reading glasses,"Late again?"

Shadow gives a quiet, haughty "hm", acknowledging the old scientist speaking to him but not wanting to engage in conversation. Gerald looks at the digital clock on the coffee table which reads the time as 11:45pm. Gerald looks at Shadow again who is entering the kitchen like usual when he comes home,"You know I could have used your help today."

Shadow heads straight for the fridge and pulls out another soda bottle. As he twists the cap off, he can hear Gerald calling to him from the living room,"I need that room cleared out so we can move Maria in there. But I can`t do a lot of the heavy stuff, I`m too old for that. I want Maria in there as soon as possible so she can have some decent room."

Shadow pauses for a moment, holding the cap in one hand he just twisted off the soda bottle being held by his other hand, seemingly lost in thought. His change in behaviour doesn`t go unnoticed by Gerald. Gerald tilts his head to the side, straining to see Shadow in the kitchen,"So you will come home tomorrow right after school and help, right?"

Shadow continues his silence, quietly manipulating the bottle cap with his fingers. Then finally he puts the cap back on the soda bottle, securing it, then placing the bottle in the back pocket of his pants. He opens the fridge door and pulls out the orange juice carton and pours some into a cup. He puts the orange juice carton back in the fridge and picks up the cup. Shadow exits the kitchen and begins to ascend the stairs.

Watching Shadow, Gerald gives a hopeful smile. He places his reading glasses back on and resumes his reading.

Shadow arrives upstairs and this time purposely stops by Maria`s room. The door isn`t completely shut this time, it is open by a bit. Shadow silently walks in and heads to the bed where he sees Maria sitting. She seems preoccupied with staring at her hedgehog plush and preening it`s fake fur with her fingertips. Shadow stands beside her and lowers down his hand holding the cup of orange juice, offering it to Maria. Maria notices this and turns her head to the cup. Her eyes follow up Shadow`s arm, tracing it back to his face.

He looks down at her with a serious expression on his face but one that is less harsh than what he has been giving Gerald. A friendly smile draws on Maria`s face,"Shadow, right?"

Shadow gives a single nod of his head. Then his hand lifts the cup a little, redirecting Maria`s attention to his orange juice offering. Maria takes the cup from him with both hands and she smiles up to him,"Thank you."

"You`re welcome."

Then Shadow turns around and exits Maria`s room with Maria watching him go. She finds mild amusement in seeing the soda bottle sitting in his back pocket.

Once he is gone, she looks down at her cup and sees the orange juice inside. She smiles again and takes a sip of the orange juice. Nice and cold, pulp free and loaded with potassium. Maria looks to her door where Shadow exited out of.

He has clearly already gone off to his own room but Maria is intrigued. They had never met before or spoken to each other but yet he didn`t stick around to chat with her? Maria`s smile drops. She was under the impression that he was interested in meeting her, which prompted her to mail him a photograph of herself a few months ago and she wrote a note on the back of it. He never responded now that she thinks of it. Does he still have the photograph? Or did he just throw it away? Did he even look at it?

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