Jon squinted softly through the shades of his aviators as his car sat on the street just north of the block Jordan lived on.  He stuck out like a sore thumb in the nice truck and knew that he was doing a horrible job of hiding, but he was doing what had to be done.
 
It had been a whole week since he had spotted Jordyn at lunch with his friends and he was damn near desperate to find her again.  He figured that living where she did, she most likely attended P.S. 112, it was a short walk from her home and he hoped today he could catch her walking back from school.
 
He had been sitting there for what felt like hours, because to be frank, he couldn’t remember for the life of him what time school got out.  Was it closer to one or two?  It was already three; surely he hadn’t already missed it?  Wait; was Jordyn still even in school?  It was the end of May, how long did the school year last?  Just when he felt like he had for sure missed his opportunity again, he spotted her.
 
She had a ratty backpack thrown over her shoulders and she walked with her head down.  It was warm out but she wore her same jeans she always wore and a dark orange hoodie as well as sneakers.  It looked like it had been a while since her hair saw a brush and the way her clothes hung off of her thin, bony frame still rubbed him the wrong way.
 
He started up his car and rolled forward slowly, lowering the window on the passenger side so she could hear him.  “Jordyn!”  He called softly, realizing it was probably a good idea to turn his stereo off.  Jordan stopped in her tracks, looking over at the truck curiously as she stepped close enough to see Jon driving.
 
“Jon?”  She asked, rearing her head at the sight of the man she hadn’t talked to in over a week.  “What are you doing here?”  She asked with wide eyes.
 
“I, uh, well I just wanted to see how you were doing?”  He asked more than stated, knowing that at the moment, he was very well reaching a [i]To Catch a Predator[/i] status.
 
“I’m fine, thanks.”  She nodded with reserve, eyes squinting from the bright sun.
 
“You… you need a ride home?”  He offered pathetically, knowing quite well that they could both see her house from here.
 
“I can walk.”  She said in a very matter-of-fact tone.
 
“Well… are you hungry?”  He asked.  “I know I’m starving.”  He added, knowing that from previous encounters with her, food seemed to be a popular subject.  Jordyn stood for a moment, looking rather hesitant at the car before making up her mind.
 
“Fine, but wherever we’re going, it better have air-conditioning.”  She said, tossing her backpack into the backseat before buckling up beside him.  Jordyn asked no questions as Jon began to drive back to his downtown apartment, trying to remember what he had to eat in his fridge.  She could eat a snack for now, maybe some popcorn, and hopefully he could get her to stay for dinner.   After seasons of practice, Jon could whip up a mean chicken parmesan.
 
“This is swank.”  Jordyn commented as they pulled into the underground garage of his building.  Jon laughed at her choice of words and tried to hide the immense smile that threatened to grow across his face upon seeing her tiny smile.  Jon gave a recognized nod to the doorman who eyed Jordyn oddly before they could step into the elevator.
 
“Oh, let me do it.  What floor?”  Jordyn asked, fingers poised in front of the buttons, looking up at Jon with those same, innocent blue eyes.
 
“Nineteen.”  He grinned as she excitedly pressed the button before stepping back, taking in the look of the clean, modern elevator that played smooth jazz softly.
 
Jordyn followed Jon into his apartment, hands enclosed tightly around the straps of her backpack; this was by far the nicest place she had ever been in.  And she was nervous, was this a good idea?
 
“Um, you got a place I can do my homework?”  She asked, looking around.  The rooms were elegantly decorated by at the same time very obviously masculine.  So far she had only spotted an entryway, a family room, and a games room with an expensive looking pool table.
 
“Dining room table okay?”  Jon asked, nodding her over as he stood in the kitchen.  He pointed to the other archway to reveal the table and she nodded as she dropped her backpack on the floor, pulling out a textbook and a notebook before flipping through pages and getting to work.  He watched her cautiously as he heated up the pan filled with oil and popcorn kernels.  His Mom always made homemade popcorn instead of the microwave stuff.  Real butter and salt tasted better than that artificial crap any day.
 
Jordyn’s stomach twisted and turned uncomfortably as she tried to focus on her history homework.  The popcorn smelled [i]so[/i] good and she honestly couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten.  She had no money in her school lunch account and the Fogley’s kept a keen eye on the food in their kitchen; she’d never see the light of day if she stole anything.  When Jon set the gigantic bowl of popcorn beside her on the table, it took all her restraint not to shove her face in it, but pluck a few pieces at a time to pop into her mouth.
 
“So, History.”  Jon said, pulling up the chair kiddy-corner to her, looking down at the textbook that brought back haunting memories of his own childhood education.
 
“Thrilling.”  Jordyn replied as Jon also sat down a cold glass bottle of Coke beside her pencil case on the table.
 
“Wow, it’s already three-thirty, I can’t believe elementary school gets out at three.”  Jon remarked, looking at his watch.
 
“Excuse me, but I am in [i]sixth grade[/i], not elementary school.”  Jordyn was quick to correct him, waving her pointer finger in the air before she reached for more popcorn.
 
“Sixth grade.”  Jon nodded.  “So you must be, what?  Twelve?”  He asked, tilting his head as he tried to keep the conversation from getting too heavy, not wanting to overwhelm her with too many questions at once.
 
“Eleven.”  She responded, smiling as she flipped the page, knowing she was close to being done.  Sure, these notes wouldn’t be due until next week, but Jordyn would never let herself fall behind.  She did all she could of her History before pulling out her math workbook.  She hated math, she absolutely abhorred it and she was pretty bad at it to boot.
 
Jon could tell Jordyn was getting frustrated with her math as he texted both Adam and Patrick to tell them the good news about Jordyn.
 
“So what are you working on?”  He asked, seeing that she had a steady stream of popcorn going into her mouth every few seconds.
 
“Long division.”  She grumbled lowly at the problem, resting her head in her hands, thinking that if she stared at the problem on the page hard enough, it would either A. solve itself, or B. disappear from sight.
 
“I remember long division.”  Jon said, perking up a bit.  Jordyn glanced over at him for a moment, wanting to laugh at how excited he looked, but didn’t want to embarrass him.
 
“Well then, by all means…” She turned the book towards him, pushing a pencil beside it.  Jon rolled his eyes, seeing way too much of his little brother Davey in this girl.  Always wanting the result without putting in the work.
 
“I’ll show you how to do it, I won’t [i]give[/i] you the answer.”  He insisted, pushing the book back to her as he stood from his chair.  He walked around to the back of her chair, placing his big hands on either side of her book as his chest enveloped her.  Jordyn closed her eyes for a moment, forgetting how nice it was to be so close to another human being.  His body heat warmed her thin body and she could hardly focus as he explained the problem.  It was almost enough for her to miss [i]people[/i] again.
 
Surprisingly enough, Jon actually seemed to know what he was talking about and they finished her two pages of work in little under forty-minutes.  Just to be safe, they did the problems with a calculator to check their answers and they were both rather pleased with the results.
 
“Any other work you have to do?”  He asked, glancing at his watch again, wondering when she usually ate dinner so that she wouldn’t get hungry.
 
“Just some reading, but I am going to be doing that on [i]that[/i] couch because it looks pretty comfy from over here.”  She pointed to his plush, leather loveseat placed in front of his monstrous plasma.  He laughed and nodded and figured that he could wait a bit before starting dinner, but he couldn’t just sit in his family room and watch her read.  Even [i]that[/i] was a step too far.
 
“Hey, so do I need to make a phone call or something so no one puts out an Amber Alert for you?”  He asked.
 
“A what?”  She asked in reply.  She was eleven, of course she wouldn’t know what an Amber Alert was.  Jon scolded himself mentally.
 
“Can I call anyone to let them know you’re here?”  He asked, rewording himself.
 
“Uh, whatever makes you happy?”  She asked in reply, looking at him oddly as she clutched her school-issued copy of [i]Where the Red Fern Grows[/i] to her chest.
 
“I mean, your parents?  Your grandparents?  Does someone need to know you’re staying here for dinner?”  He asked.  Jordyn’s usually bright and curious eyes turned dull at the word and he knew he hit a sore spot.
 
“No, you don’t have to call anyone.”  She mumbled quietly, opening her book and pulling her knees up to her chest before digging her face into the book.  Jon frowned and for once in his life felt awkward in his own home.  He couldn’t very well just go into his room and watch TV, he didn’t want to desert Jordyn in the apartment, but she needed her space.  Only a few moments passed before he heard a very staged cough.  He looked up from where he leant against the granite countertop in his kitchen to the family room to see Jordyn already looking at him.  “What’s this word?”  She asked, pointing into the book. He quickly got up from the counter and crossed the room in long strides before peering down at the book.
 
“Briers.”  Jon read, restraining a smile as her youthful face scrunched in confusion.  He walked around to the other side of the couch and plopped down beside her, resting his arm across the back of the couch.  “They’re these tiny, prickly plants, about the size of a bouncy-ball.  They stick to your clothes and they can kinda hurt sometimes.  There were a few in our backyard when I was younger.”  He smiled at the memory.
 
Jordyn continued to read and she didn’t seem to mind that Jon was reading over her shoulder as well, to be honest; she kind of liked the interaction.  She never talked to kids at school, and she sure as hell never talked to the Fogley’s, so it was nice to talk to Jon.  She would occasionally ask him a word or phrase she didn’t understand and he would explain it as best he could.
 
Soon, Jon noticed that she had stopped flipping into the pages, and her body was leaning into his more than she had been before.  He craned his neck to see that her long, blonde lashes were lying against her soft cheeks and her breath had evened out gently.  She was asleep.  He carefully moved out from under her, resting a throw blanket over her small body as he made his way into the kitchen.  If he was hungry, he figured she must have been starving.
 
Jon was halfway finished with breading the chicken and making the marinara sauce when Jordyn walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes softly.  She had been asleep for the better half of forty-five minutes.
 
“Uh, sorry about that.”  She blushed sheepishly.  “I didn’t sleep so good last night.”  She finished, feeling as though she had to make an excuse for her little nap.
 
“It’s fine.”  Jon assured.  “You like pasta?”  He asked.  Jordyn looked at him for a moment before peering into the pain as the breaded chicken sizzled and popped in the extra virgin olive oil.
 
“I love pasta.”  She confirmed.  And boy, did she love Jon’s pasta.  Jon watched in amazement and she stuffed her face full of the pasta dish as well as the garlic bread as they sat at the same table they did homework at.  He inhaled deeply, not wanting to ask her about her life, but knowing it was something he had to do.
 
“So, the Fogley’s aren’t your parents.”  He confirmed the thing she had been telling him since they met.
 
“True.”  She nodded through a mouthful of pasta as she reached for her second Coke that night.
 
“Can I ask where your parents are?”  He asked, twirling the fettuccine noodles around his fork.
 
“False.”  She replied, taking a bite of her bread.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you or anything - I just wanted to know in case-“
 
“I don’t know where they are, therefore, I can’t tell you where they are.”  Jordyn finished, watching as the expression on Jon’s face turned into one she couldn’t quite read.
 
“You don’t know where your parents are?”  He asked, making it hard for Jordyn to keep her smart-alec comments to herself.
 
“The Fogley’s are my foster parents, Jon.  My parents put me up for adoption when I was born and no one ever took me in.”  She stated bluntly before focusing back on her dinner, the first real meal she’d eaten in as long as she could remember.
 
“I thought that couples wait for years to adopt?”  Jon asked, not realizing the hole he was digging himself.  “Don’t like ninety-eight percent of babies get adopted?”
 
“It’s fine though, I only have to stick it out with the Fogley’s for five more years, when I’m sixteen I can get emancipated and get a place of my own.”  She said dismissively, ignoring him as she put her tough exterior back up again while she cleaned her plate.
 
“Jordyn…” Jon trailed, at a loss for words.  Her parents abandoned her?  It was something he truly could not wrap his head around.
 
“I gotta get goin’ if I’m gonna catch the blue-line at seven.”  She announced, standing up from her chair and bringing her plate into the kitchen.
 
“Don’t be silly, I’ll drive you home.”  Jon said, standing from the table, mimicking her actions as she slung her backpack over her shoulder again.  He noticed that the knapsack was practically falling apart at the seams.
 
The drive back was uncomfortably quiet, but not quite as horrible as when he finally pulled up to the Fogley’s house.  He didn’t want to let her go, not back to those people.
 
“They.”  He cleared his throat, noticing he startled her with the volume of his voice.  “They don’t hit you, do they?  You can tell me.”  Jon insisted.
 
“Hit me?  No.”  Jordyn shook her head.  “They don’t exactly treat me like the Queen of England, but they’ve never [i]hit[/i] me.”  She insisted.  She could read him like a book; he didn’t want to leave her here.  If it were up to her, she wouldn’t be returning here, either.  “I’m a big girl, Jon, I can take care of myself.  Always have, always will.”  She recited before hopping from his passenger seat.
 
[i]But you shouldn’t have to.[/i]  He thought as he watched her disappear behind the house once again.

Notes

chapter 3 :)
thanks JBIceman for reading!