Day 8.
Sean and Owen are both the main focus so we split this into two parts.
Sean and Owen's Christmas Part 1 by yobshabob
"Please, Owen? You've got to help me escape the holidays with my parents!" Sean Green gripped his roommate's lapels, shaking him for emphasis. Owen looked annoyed, but he didn't care. Besides, what twelve year old had lapels?
"Listen, Sean." Owen disengaged his jacket from his roommate's hands and tried to straighten the creases. "You should count yourself lucky to have a home in which to celebrate." He glared at Sean and tried to will him to do as he was told. "Your parents aren't even that bad."
Sean rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. "You don't understand. It's Christmas, and instead of presents and decorations, it will be 'Why aren't you studying?' and 'I expect more from you, son.''" Sighing, Sean flopped back onto his messy bed in his half of the dorm and laced his hands behind his head. "It's more pressure, and I can't take it anymore."
Sean pulled a pack of cigarettes out from beneath his mattress and toyed with it, just barely refraining from taking one out. "I'm taking college courses, and basically guaranteed to start medical training next year, but all they want to know is why I'm not already doing neurosurgery!"
Owen picked up a dirty tee and placed it in the laundry basket before smoothing out the comforter and taking a seat beside his best friend. "Sean"--he plucked the cigarettes from his roommate and tossed them in the trash by the window-- "we have to make them see that you're more than enough genius for any family." Sighing, he straightened the knot in his tie and looked over at his friend. "Fine. We'll do the mission, but I don't want to hear any more complaints when it comes to your parents until well after the New Year." Sean bolted upright with a giant grin on his face. "Got it?"
Shaking his head like one of those ridiculous bobble head dolls, Sean nodded and leapt from the bed. "This is fantastic!"
As Owen watched his partner do a little jig in the middle of their shared space, he prayed he hadn't made a huge mistake.
***
"Now we wouldn't usually put boys your age out on an assignment at Christmas without backup, but this is important." Mr. Chochran looks down his nose at Sean and Owen and shakes his head. "Phillip Roberts vouched for you two, and it's on his recommendation that I'm not arranging some kind of supervision for you."
Owen adjusted his glasses and stood straighter. At almost thirteen, he was eye to eye with Mr. Chochran, and was definitely in line for another growth spurt soon. "Sir, we have completed every mission put before us, and are the youngest graduates in Charleston. You have no reason to worry."
Mr. Chochran examined the boys before him with concern. He would have rathered wait until after the new year and send in at least seven boys, but time was of the essence, and this job needed to be done specifically at Christmas. "Okay, gentlemen. Here's what we know." He handed a file to each of them, and motioned for them to take a seat. "For the last three years now, the Charleston home for boys has been the recipient of a generous donation of Christmas presents for the kids, but each year, in the morning, the presents are gone, and no evidence is left behind." He shuffled through the papers on his desk and pulled out an enlarged photograph. "Last year, two boys were injured when they interrupted the thief, and somehow, neither of them have any recollection of their attack." He handed the photograph of the boys to Sean, who frowned when he saw the damage. "We're concerned that this is escalating, and are afraid that it might happen again, posing a risk to these kids."
"I gather we're going in undercover to find the thief and keep the kids safe?" Owen looked across the desk at Mr. Chochran with a steely gaze that had him suspecting the kid was already planning the next twelve moves.
"Yes, Owen. The Charleston Home for Boys is a safe place for young gentlemen who don't fit into normal foster care, but it's rough. Are you up on your certifications?"
Sean smirked and slung one knee over the armrest of his chair. "Of course we are, Mr. C. We practice with the elevens on Tuesdays, and with the fifteens on Wednesdays."
Mr. Chochran raised an eyebrow at the young genius, impressed. The fifteen year old's combat class was advanced, and wouldn't go easy on anyone. They were all dealing with hormones and kept trying to one-up each other. "Very well. Ms. Anderson will drop you two off just after dinner tonight." He dismissed them with a nod and hoped he wasn't making a huge mistake.
***
"If we're arriving after dinner, we need to look like hard cases, Owen." Sean eyeballed his best friend's suit and shook his head. "How do you want to play it?"
Owen paced in their room, a habit he had when devising a plan. Sean flopped back onto his bed and began tossing a baseball while he waited.
"I think we should go and drop in on the next combat class available. A few bruises would help sell it, and it couldn't hurt for the refresher." He started unknotting his tie and sighed. "I'll need to borrow some clothes, Sean, but please, make sure they're washed."
Sean popped up from his bed and started rummaging through the pile of clothes next to his empty hamper. Tossing an AC/DC tee shirt to Owen, he grinned and pulled out his favorite pair of ripped jeans. "Are we off the street?"
Owen took the pants from Sean between his thumb and forefinger and nodded. A quick sniff of the garments helped him to relax a little, and he quickly changed his clothes. "Your shoes won't fit me, but I have an old pair of running shoes that we can probably scuff up."
Sean snorted and retrieved his cigarettes from the trash. When Owen frowned, he grinned back. "I won't smoke them if I don't need to, but we're bad boys, remember?" He pulled a cigarette out of the pack and stowed it safely behind his left ear. "We can't afford to get caught."
Pursing his lips, Owen kept his thoughts to himself and held the door open for Sean. "Whatever. Let's go."
***
By the time Ms. Anderson had dropped the boys off, the sun was setting and Owen and Sean looked exactly like what you'd expect if you pulled two kids off the street. They both goaded the teenagers in the combat class into some unfortunate beatings, but it made Owen look less respectable, and Sean less like a pretty boy. In a fit of madness, Owen had even let Sean at his hair with a pair of scissors, to make the cuts just a little less even.
"I run a tight ship, lads. There'll be no fighting, no drinking, and no smoking." The caretaker of the Charleston House plucked the cigarette out from behind Sean's ear and tossed it into the fireplace. "Breakfast is at six. If you're late, you don't eat. I'll expect all homework to be completed before any recreation time, and if I find you stepping one toe out of line, you'll be sent to the state home, where they're not as lenient as me."
Already in character, Sean snorted and rolled his eyes. "Right. You're just full of warm fuzzies and cuddles." Owen folded his arms across his chest and glared at the caretaker.
"Aye, compared to the concrete walls and rooms that are one step away from the cells at juvie." The caretaker handed each of the boys a book. "If you live under my roof, you study the Good Book. Bible study is after dinner, seven on the dot." He narrowed his eyes at their clothes and pulled a ring of keys from his belt. "I'll provide you each with two changes of clothes, one set of sleepwear, and church clothes that I expect to be pressed and ready Saturday night." He handed each of them a sealed package of clothing and locked the cabinet up before leading them down the hall to a shared room.
Four beds neatly lined the far wall, with two more bracketing the doorway. The foot of each bed had a small shelf just large enough to hold the bundle of clothes and a book or two. "Find an empty bed and deposit your things. Bible study starts in ten minutes."
With that, the caretaker left, and Owen and Sean shared a look. "Well that was fun." Sean tosses his bundle on the empty bed in the back corner and Owen unpacks the clothes onto the bed beside it.
"We're not here to have fun, Sean. We're here to do a job, at your request, mind you."
Sean tossed a pair of rolled socks at his friend and laughed. "I know. Seriously, though, I've never read the Bible. My parents are Buddhists."
Owen grumbled something under his breath and gently returned Sean's socks to the shelf at the foot of his bed.
***
The next three days were spent integrating themselves into daily life with the other boys. The ones who shared their room kept mostly to themselves, but the oldest in their room was one of the boys who was assaulted the previous year.
"What's Christmas like around here?" Sean was lazing around their room while the others were doing their homework on their beds.
Jack, the one who'd been attacked looked up with a bored face and stared at Sean. "What do you think? We're the forgotten ones. No one cares about us. The only thing that differentiates Christmas from any other day, is that we go to Church and get a marginally better meal." Finished with whatever he had to say, he lowered his head once more and concentrated on the open textbooks in front of him.
Leo, a slender boy about their age piped up from his bed by the door when it was apparent that Jack wasn't going to share anything else. "We're supposed to get presents, but someone always steals them." He stared at Sean for a minute. "Why aren't you studying?"
Sean shrugged and started drawing a human skeleton on his pant leg. "I don't wanna." Truthfully, the 'homework' set out for him was something he could finish in minutes, but he was cultivating a personae. "Why are you studying?"
Leo groaned and thumped his head back against the wall. "Because fractions are stupid and if I don't figure this shit out, I'm going to get kicked outta here." He sat upright and a slow grin spread across his narrow face when he saw Owen bent over his books. "But it's almost Christmas, and I think I'm going to make the new kid do my homework for me."
Leo launched himself at Owen, but found himself pinned by rather than pinning him. "Don't touch me." Owen growled the words out and glared at the scrawny kid with a frigid stare, and even Sean shrunk away at his tone. Sean leaned back and let things play out without interference. He knew Owen could handle it. "Get up." Owen had decided to be the silent, brooding one, and was playing the role perfectly. Leo scampered up when Owen released him, but was unable to get away, as Owen was blocking his path. "I think you'll be finishing my homework for me now." He stacked his books into Leo's arms and then stared at the kid until he scurried back to his bed. Sean shook his head and laughed as Owen reclined on his bed, continuing to stare at Leo until the homework was complete.