Save him
Andrew started playing the guitar in middle school. It was a perfect reason not to go back to his foster home; the teacher, Mrs. Higgins, also always brought food cookies or cupcakes.
The guitar basics were relatively easy to learn for Andrew. With his memory, he only needed to see the notes and figure out what their finger positions were, and he would never mix up the notes - what Andrew needed to work on was everything else. But twelve-year-old Andrew found that playing the guitar was practically therapeutic, especially when Mrs. Higgins handed him an electric guitar to try out and watched as Andrew began to experiment. Mrs.Higgins knew that the boy had some behavioral problems, it took a whole staff meeting to figure out if he should even be allowed to take part in Band, but Higgins fought hard on the idea that music could help the boy, but listening to the music that Andrew was making? It was loud and angry and painful. She knew that something was wrong in this boy's life.
Mrs. Higgins was hesitant on what her next steps should be, even with all of the behavioral problems the school had refused to call in a psychologist for him, she knew that the school would just brush off her concern.
So, she decided she will go to her husband.
...
“Ana, I’m home,” The cop called out as he threw his keys in the bowl next to the coat rack.
“Dinner’s almost ready,” His wife yelled back, “Go get cleaned up,” and in about thirty minutes, the couple was sitting across each other, eating dinner.
“How was your day?” Phil asked as he began to scoop up a bite of mashed potatoes
“That’s actually something I want to talk to you about,” Ana said, placing her fork down - Phil noticed the sudden change in her demeanor and put his fork down also.
“What is it?”
“I have this student, Andrew Doe, and something is wrong. The other teachers think I’m ridiculous, but I can hear it! I can hear it in his music. There’s so much pain, anger, desperation,” Ana declared, “Can...Can you look into it? He’s in foster care, so he’s already in the system.”
“I’ll look into it, of course,” The cop nodded; he has learned over time that the woman had terrific instincts and to listen to what she says. “But if you thought something was wrong, why didn’t you refer him to my program?”
“I thought about it, but I noticed he had a bit of an issue with the male teachers, especially, which is another reason to check him out.”
Phil looked at his wife, took one last bite of his mashed potato before he stood up and brought his plate to the sink “I’ll be back, I’ll do the dishes when I get home,” and with that, the man walked out of the apartment and made his way to the police station.
“Phil, you’re back?” A detective, Sophie, asked from their desk.
“Yeah, I have to do something,” Phil said, sitting down at his desk, entering his ID and password.
“What are you doing?” she asked, walking over to Phil. Bothering the male, procrastinating logging in all of her paperwork.
“I’m worried a kid is in danger,” Higgins said as he typed in Andrew Doe in the database, along with their town’s name.
“Andrew Doe? He’s not in the PAL program” Sophia said
“No, he’s one of Ana’s students,” Phil hummed as the boy came up, born November fourth and left in the hospital. The boy was definitely troubled, he was in his twelfth foster home, and he was only twelve.
“Oh, he’s with the Spears’. My little brother was friends with their son, Drake” Sophia scrunched up her nose “Kid always kind of creeped me out. There was just something wrong about him, you know?”
Phil turned his chair around to face her “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, man. As I said, he was my little brother’s - who is nine years younger than me - friend. I didn’t exactly spend time with them,” Sophie shrugged and walked back to her desk.
Phil stared at his computer. Sophie was one of the youngest ever to become a detective and was known in the precinct for always being right - much to her coworkers' annoyance.
“Drake Spear, huh?” and soon, the man was looking up the Spear family's foster history. No kid stayed there long, in fact, Andrew is their most extended foster kid.
Higgins got up and made his way to the other room and up to an empty whiteboard and began to write the little facts he knew.
Angry
Pain
Desperate
Children don’t stay long at the Spears
Sophie’s distrust in Drake Spear
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to convince Higgins that Andrew Doe needed to get out of that house, but there wasn’t much to do.
The man sighed and decided to go back home; he had to talk to his wife.
....
“So?” Ana asked as Phil walked through the door.
“He needs to get out of that house,” The man said, sitting down at the kitchen table again, looking over to see that his wife already did the dishes.
“What did you find out?”
“I think it might be the son. Drake Spear? Sophie knows him, and she said that there seemed to be something wrong about him” Phil sighed and ran his hands down his face “I don’t know what to do because even if the boy comes clean, then what happens then? He’s just going to be thrown back into the system, and God knows what would happen to him then.”
Ana sat there quietly, then stood up to make tea. “What about...”
“What?”
“What about David?” She asked turning to her husband
“David? David who? I know about four David’s, you’re going to have to narrow it down.”
“David...God, what’s his last name? Ummmm,” Ana trailed off before yelling, “Wymack!”
“David Wymack? What about him? I haven’t talked to him since college.”
“He and his wife are foster parents, remember? We saw them at your high school’s ten-year reunion?” Ana reminded him
“Crap, you’re right, but I don’t have his contact information.”
"He's a coach at that college; the website will have a way to contact him."
Phil hesitated, but he needed Andrew out of that house as soon as possible. Phil looked up David and quickly wrote him an email asking David to call him because it was urgent and left his contact information. Not ten minutes after the email was sent, Phil gets a call from a South Carolina number.
"Hello?" Phil answered as he was finishing up her tea.
"Phil, hey, it's David," A voice said over the phone.
"Hey, so I know this is random and kind of a big ask, but are you still fostering?"
"Um, yeah. Me and Abby are still fostering. We don't have any at the moment, though, why?"
Phil took a deep breath and prayed that this would work "Okay, listen, my wife has got this student, and I need him out of his foster house it's not safe, but I don't have anything on them at the moment, but I need an out for this kid, and I know that you are a good guy and Ana mentioned that you foster."
"Not that I'm saying no, but why can't you guys take him?"
"I would, but Ana's mom is in the hospital right now, and then she's going to come live with us. We won't have a room for him."
" I'll talk to Abby; we're currently on summer break, so I'm sure we can fly over and talk to the kid with you. How urgent is this?"
"The person I'm worried about is in the military, but I don't know when he'll be back, so I want to do this as soon as possible."
"Alright, I'm going home right now, so I'll talk to her when I get there."
"I know this is a big ask, especially since we haven't talked in years so, thank you" Phil sighed in relief, feeling a little bit of the weight on his chest ease off.
"This has nothing to do with us; it's about a kid in danger."
"Still, thank you, anyways."
....
It took two days for Abby and David to arrive in California and meet Phil at the middle school.
"Hi, how are you?" Abby said as she and David reached Phil at the front steps in front of the school.
"Stressed," Phil said, then walked into the school and walked with the other two to the band room "So, the school day just ended but the band and chorus have an end of the school year concert soon so Andrew will be here practicing with the rest of the school band."
"Right, he plays guitar," David nodded.
"He's great too," Ana said, surprising them.
"Oh, hi!" Abby smiled "It's been so long! How are you."
"Thankful for you guys, truly," Ana smiled at the nurse.
"Nonsense, I could never say no to helping a child," Abby shook her head.
David made a noise of agreement and wrapped his arm around his wife's waist "So, how are we doing this?"
"So, this is happening completely underneath the school's nose, meaning this can't be done in the open. So, I'm going to have my student teacher take the kids to the cafeteria to get some drinks, and I'll tell Andrew to stay behind, then we can talk to him. I was thinking Phil, and I can go in first and then introduce you guys. He's a very guarded child, and he won't react well if he feels bombarded. We're going to have to handle this delicately. He also seems to have some sort of an attachment to his current foster mother, just a warning."
It was fourteen minutes after Ana and Phil walked into the room that Phil came to the door and invited David and Abby in.
"Andrew, this is David and Abby Wymack. They are friends of mine, and they are also foster parents."
"And we would love it if you would come and live with us" Abby smiled at Andrew and noticed that the boy was still holding a guitar, his fingers white from him holding onto the neck of the guitar.
"I want to stay with Cass," Andrew said, looking down at the guitar, loosening his grip and silently moving his fingers into notes.
Abby walked over and knelt in front of Andrew. "I understand that you want to stay with her, but Andrew, you're not safe - are you?"
"Everything is fine, Cass is nice. She's even coming to the concert," Andrew retorted, continuing his finger movement.
"Yeah?" David asked, kneeling next to Abby, "Is that why you're wearing long sleeves when it's eighty-five degrees outside?"
Andrew's hand movement stopped, and he meets David's gaze "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Do you know what Abby or I do?" Andrew shook his head no "Well, I'm a university Exy coach, and I believe in giving people second chances, so I've seen all types of self-destruction and self-harm is not a rare one."
"It makes it feel better, right?" Abby asked, "Does it give you...you a sense of self-control?"
Andrew hesitated but nodded.
"Andrew, you should not have to cut yourself to feel in control of yourself. You deserve to feel happy, safe, and in control of yourself, and that's what we are offering. We can add a lock on your bedroom door, get you some guitar lessons too - Mrs. Ana here says you are great."
"What about the concert? I have a solo," Andrew asked, looking over to Ana.
"We'll stay until the school year is over, of course," David promised.
Andrew was quiet again, moving his fingers on the guitar's neck, "Okay."
Everything happened quickly, Andrew was removed from the Spears' home that day, much to Cass's dismay and was staying with the Wymacks' at an apartment that someone was subletting for the rest of the school year.
Andrew had no clue what was happening with Drake, but Cass showed up at the school during lunch and begged Andrew to stop with the lies and tell the cops that he was lying - Ana called the cops to escort her out of the building and had David and Abby dismiss him for the rest of the school day.
Then it was the night of the concert, and Andrew was in the back with the rest of the students fiddling with his guitar. The band had stayed after school to get one last practice in, and he had no clue if Abby and David were actually in the audience, and he was afraid to look.
The past week that he had been staying with them had gone great, but he was always waiting for the second shoe to drop.
"They're here, Andrew" Mrs. Higgins smiled down at him "They're in the front row, and Abby has a video camera out."
Andrew fought off a smile on his face, "Okay."
After the concert ended, the students were released into the crowd so they could find their family.
"You did amazing, Andrew," Abby gushed and went to hug him but stopped herself - knowing that Andrew hated being touched.
"Ana was right, you're great at guitar" David grinned at him "I'm not going to lie, I was hoping to get you into Exy but with that talent of yours? You should stick with Band."
Andrew cursed his fair skin as he felt his face heat up at the compliments, they were ridiculous - he'd only been playing for seven months, he wasn't 'amazing.'
"So, we were thinking about buying you flowers, but we figured we should buy you something that would last, but it's at the apartment" Abby grinned bouncing on her heels a little
"I suggest we go home now so you can open your gift, and then we are going to meet Phil and Ana for dinner. Sounds good?" David asked the other two who agreed.
When they arrived at the apartment, Abby rushed to her and David's room and came back awkwardly, holding a large wrapped box. David grabbed it and motioned for Andrew to sit on the couch and placed it on the coffee table.
"Open it! Open it!" Abby told him, as Andrew sat in front of the box, pulling out her video camera and began recording again
Andrew slowly ripped through the wrapping paper to see a plain brown box. He looked at David and Abby before opening the box to see a guitar, a Martin LX1.
"And we're already looking into guitar lessons if you want some," Abby said.
Andrew stared at the guitar before lifting it and placing it on his knee. It was so new. It felt new; it looked new; it even smelled new. "Thank you," Andrew said as he dug his guitar pick from his pocket and gave the guitar a soft strum.
"There's a strap in the box too," Davis said as he looked down at his watch and made a hand motion so Abby would turn off the camera "Time to go. Come on, Andrew; you can spend all night keeping us awake with your guitar playing later. we've got dinner plans."