After a very brief versation with Mr. Stratford, I spent the whole day taking advantage of the videos that the hospital library had on its shelves. I was so absorbed trying to capture everything that happened in the videos and paying attention to the expnations that the surgeons gave, that if it weren't for Neil reminding me of the time, I probably would have left the hospital te again.

  Returning to House's office, I found the man also preparing to leave. "Look who's finally here," House said falsely surprised. "Has your marathon of b movies ended?" he asked sarcastically while grabbing his backpack.

  "I wasn't watg b movies," I defended myself. "They are surgical procedures."

  "Same b thing," House said disiedly.

  "Sure, because soap operas are much more iing," I sarcastically replied to him.

  "I'm gd you uand," House said with an exaggerated smile. "Look, kid, this has been fun and all, but I have to be somewhere else, you know, doing things," he tinued quickly as he walked out of the office, avoiding any response from me.

  Gathering my things, I followed House, who had been intercepted by the pregnant woman from the previous day's sultation, presumably her husband. She seemed nervous as she spoke to House, obviously silently pleading with him, possibly to maintain some lie.

  Seeing House's exasperation at the unpleasant versation, I walked calmly towards the hospital exit.

  In the emergen waiting area, at the reception desk where Mom and her colleagues work, I said goodbye to the other nurses while helping Mom carry her things to her car. "See you at home," I said as I closed the passenger door of Mom's car after puttihings inside before walking over to 'Debbie'.

  The day tinued and ended with the retive normalcy of every day: some time with my siblings separately, family dinner, and exerg in the garage with Bob and Gabe.

  The day, just like the previous day, as soon as I arrived at school, I was the subject of looks and whispers among my cssmates, obviously discussing what had happehe day before.

  Ign the looks of the people I passed, I walked quickly, trying to keep my expression pletely ral as I headed to my locker.

  So the day went on, during csses, although my petition with Sheldon remained smooth, answering each teacher's questions without a problem, I could sense a certain degree of pity when, especially the female teachers, gave me the floor to respond.

  Having noticed these sudden expressions of pity that the teachers threw at me every now and then during css, I couldn't help but notice them in many more people now. While for the male popution of the school, I could sense a shared feeling of disbelief directed at me, the expressions of the women in general matched those of the teachers with a certain degree of pity.

  In the cafeteria, I could still see this strange phenomenon happening. "There are many girls worried about you," Kat, sittio me again, said discreetly.

  "What?" I asked, taken by surprise by her sudden statement.

  "Yep," Kat said amusingly, "if you feel like all the looks yetting are too much, try to imagine a bunch of teenagers repeatedly asking you how you mao go out with the 'perfect' PJ Dun to try it out for themselves," she sarcastically tinued.

  "At first, I expihe real reason we were at the mall that day, but after the tenth question, I found it funny to i situations," Kat expined.

  "Wait, what?" I asked again.

  "Oh yeah, one of them thinks my dad pays you to go out with me," Kat said, amused, taking a sip from a juice box.

  "Oh, Kat, e on," I had enough with a rumor spreading about me at school; I didn't need another, let alone one where it seemed like I rostituting myself.

  "At least it's better than what the guys think of you," adding to the versation, David, who was sitting in front of us, said.

  "They think I'm crazy or stupid," I said, trying to guess.

  "Yeah, they don't uand how you cheated Regina Gee into..." David was saying, suddenly falling silent as he remembered Kat was there.

  "I have a name, you know?" Kat ironically asked.

  "Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to," David ologizing. "aken," Kat interrupted him calmly.

  "So, your dad pays me, huh?" breaking a small awkward silence geed by David's embarrassment, I asked Kat.

  "What?" Kat asked defensively. "It's funny even to think about it; my dad hates you for some reason," she affirmed with a small i smile.

  "Oh, really?" I asked, imitating her i smile. "Funny you should say that. Yesterday your dad stopped me at the hospital to talk to me; he had something very iing to tell me about you," I said before biting into my lunch apple.

  "What?" Kat asked this time surprised.

  Ign all the questions the teenager had about my versation with her father, lunch tinued without a that caught everyone's attentiina and her friends never made it to the cafeteria again.

  With some ges, including the decrease in attention drawn in the school hallways and Regina awo friends reg the table in the ter of the cafeteria for themselves again, the days passed.

  pleting the 'assigs' that House had left me, the small notebook that I now also carried with me everywhere served as a record of the things I observed about people.

  With the first 'assig' House had given me, I had practiced a lot my observational skills regarding visible symptoms of a person, shifting the focus from merely medical symptoms to really anything about a person it articurly difficult, at least for first few days and the first dozens of people observed, but as I paid attention to every little thing, the wradually became easier.

  By paying attention to every little thing like the small hand movements someone made while talking to another person, the small tics like toug their hair every so often, or the dire each of their feet pointed during a versation, each time showed me how easy it was to dis someone's mood just by paying attention.

  Even in my own versations, studying the behavior of my friends was an easier task than studying strangers. David, Geie, and Brock were like open books once I had dised certain points to sider when studying them, even Kat once I had enough versations with her.

  The only different one was An.

  On Friday after practi the locker room, I was sitting on one of the beying my shoeces while trying to study An from the er of my eye as he was calmly talking with one of our teammates.

  As always, An had a surprising ability to stay still during a versation, both his hands a alointing towards whoever he was talking to, no involuntary movement or bustion of attention to other things.

  After finishing his versation with our teammate, as always bidding farewell with a small nod and a small smile that I could at least dis as fake, An walked over to where I was sitting.

  "Stop," he said quietly, leaning slightly towards me and taking a seat beside me.

  "What?" I asked, puzzled by the suddenness of the question.

  "It's funny when you do it to other people, but it feels weird to be watched all the time," An expined as he began to dress. "I've seen how you do it, and I see how quickly you're improving, but it's not going to work with me," he tiying his shoes.

  "I don't uand what you're talking about," I said, for some reason lying; strangely, it felt weird to be caught.

  "Oh, you know," with a small smile that I could internally firm was genuine, An said, "obviously, you 't see yourself, but when you lie, you make a small movement with your 's almost imperceptible, but it's there."

  Standing up after tying his shoes, "yood, and it seems like you have a natural talent, but it's still not enough," An said, giving my shoulder a small pat before walking away again with a genuine smile.

  The day, Saturday, as I had promised Gabe st week, I po have a 'siblings day', so early in the m, before either of us could have breakfast, I asked them to get dressed to go out after inf my parents.

  "So where are we going?" Teddy asked from the passenger seat of 'Debbie'.

  "PJ said whatever I want," Gabe, excited, said from the back of the car. "How about we go to the ic store first?" the excited boy asked.

  "I remember telling you that we'd do something Teddy wants to do too, buddy. Later, you and I go to the ic store," I remihe kid.

  "Okay," defeated, Gabe agreed.

  "Thank you," relieved, Teddy said in a whisper.

  "Well, our first stop is some breakfast," I said, feeling a bit hungry. "How about some pancakes?" I asked.

  "Yes!" Gabe excimed excitedly again from the back of the car.

  "Yeah, that's fih me too," Teddy said, shrugging her shoulders.

  After several hours at the restaurant, talking with my siblings about anything that was on their minds, I paid for our breakfast before we headed out again. "So what do you want to do now?" I asked when we were inside 'Debbie'.

  "How about going to the mall for shopping?" Teddy asked hopefully this time.

  "No," Gabe excimed immediately with displeasure, "shopping is b," he tinued.

  Ign Gabe, Teddy, widening her eyes obviously as a tactic to silently vince me, asked again.

  "You heard him, it has to be something you both want to do," I quickly started the car, avoiding my sister's pleading eyes.

  "How about the arcade? My friend Kevin says it's a fun pce," Gabe said.

  Seeing Teddy with doubt, I received from the teenager a not-so-sure nod before accelerating the car out of the breakfast restaurant's parking lot.

  After asking for dires from someone oreet, we arrived at a colorful pce with neon lights c practically every spa the front facade.

  Ihere were many maes with various video games, scattered everywhere. "You're supposed to give me moo ge it," standing in front of me ihe arcade, Gabe said, stretg his hand, "okay, little one," I said, taking out a five-dolr bill that was quickly snatched from my hand by aed child who immediately ran to the store manager, a teenager surely several years older than me, who also seemed obviously tired.

  "Do you want to py something, Teddy?" my sister, beside me, was unusually quiet, staring fixedly at something or specifically someone in the distance.

  Following her gaze, I saw a small group of teenagers possibly the same age as her pying with a mae to measure strength behind a punch.

  "Who is he?" I asked, leaning towards her, managing to surprise her and therefore withdraw her attention.

  "Who?" nervously, she quickly asked, "nobody," and answered on her own, "it's nobody," she tinued, "did you see that? It's a water shooting mae. I'm sure I beat you," pointing to one of the many maes in the arcade obviously trying to divert my attention from the group of teenagers, she said.

  "Yes, I don't think you beat me, but before, if you don't mind, I'll probably go and talk to him," taking a step towards the group of teenagers, I said, feigning disi.

  "No!" Teddy excimed quickly, grabbing my arm.

  "Then who is he, and more specifically whie of them is he?" I said again, teasing my sister.

  "He's nobody," she answered again, avoiding my gaze.

  "I ask," I said again, pretending to take aep, I wouldn't really do anything if Teddy didn't wao; I wouldn't embarrass Teddy, at least not that much.

  "No," stopping my arm again, Teddy said, "okay, fine, he's Ryan McCarthy," again embarrassed, Teddy admitted.

  "And who is this Ryan?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  "He's the one in the ter," seeing his shoes, Teddy admitted.

  Ryan, in a nutshell, looked quite like Regina in the ing parts. His friends, although they seemed funny around him, always stood by his side and seemed instinctively to seek his approval after saying something befhing pletely. From his clothes and shoes, the teenager obviously came from a wealthy family, and from his attitude after his friends hit the mae, he didn't seem to care about hiding his pt for those he saw as inferior to him.

  "I don't like him," I said, turning towards the teeore attendant.

  "Why not?" followieddy quickly asked.

  "Just a feeling," I said as I arrived in front of the attendant, handing a bill for ge; being close to the other teenager, I noticed other things that I hadn't noticed from a distance before.

  His face was full of badly treated ae marks; he had obviously greasy hair, and I could perceive a smell that after living so many years in Los Angeles, I could reize anywhere; he clearly wasn't tired.

  "Look, if we mao get a thousand tickets, we win a stuffed whale," I said, pointing to the shelf behind the arcade attendant.

  "What kind of feeling?" annoyed, ign me, Teddy asked again, standing by my side.

  "He doesn't seem like a good guy, Teddy," I expined calmly to my sister, silently thanking the attendant and walking to one of the maes.

  "How could you know, you don't know him, you only saw him for a few seds," exasperated Teddy said as I ied a into one of the maes in the arcade, specifically the mae Teddy had seen earlier.

  "Yeah, that was enough for me," I replied again as I shot a stream of water into the open mouth of a crocodile.

  "You 't just see someone for a few seds and decide you don't like them; you have to get to know them before you judge them," offeeddy said.

  "You're right," finishing my turn, I said, turning to my now annoyed sister and handing her a , "I'm sorry," I tinued, nodding towards the game.

  Shaking her head, Teddy ied the , getting ready to shoot as well.

  While my sister was focused on the game again, I g the group of teenagers, studying the so-called Ryan before f a plete idea in my head.

  It seemed to be his turn to hit the mae's ball, rudely shoving one of his friends aside, he positioned himself beside the mae, rotating on his hip and quickly striking the mae, waiting with his chest puffed out for the numbers on the mae to finish ging before turning to his group of friends with an arrogant smile and wide-open eyes, he seemed strangely ecstatic after achieving a strong hit on the mae.

  Approag one of his friends, Ryan with two sps to the other teenager's face said something that obviously affected the beaten teenager before moving on with his ente behind him; yeah, I definitely didn't like him.

  "I told you, look at my score and weep," excitedly Teddy said, pointing at the mae.

  "Darn it," exaggerating my rea, I said, annoyed, "take the tickets; let's find a mae where I beat you," I tinued before moving on to another equally iing mae.

  "We probably won't find one in this state," arrogantly Teddy said after tearing off the papers the mae had spat out.

  "We'll see," I said, putting another into another of the maes, equally arrogantly.

  After a few more maes, Gabe arrived with a bunch of tickets in his hands, wearing a big smile. "Hey, squirt, did you mug someone on your way here?" taking the incredibly rge amount of papers from the younger boy's hands, I asked.

  "No, you just have to climb the basketball mae, there's some kind of sensor in the hoop, and if you quickly pass your hand through it, it ts as if you scored, I broke the mae's record, and it gave me all these tickets," shamelessly, Gabe said with a big smile, possibly not uanding that he cheated or simply not g.

  "Did anyone see you?" I asked, gauging his rea.

  "Nope," proud of himself, Gabe replied.

  Obviously, he knew what he was doing.

  "Cheating is only for people who doubt their abilities, therefore, for cowards," I said, shaking his head, "never cheat again, Gabe," I said seriously to the boy, fortunately managing to make him look ashamed of his as.

  "Well, we have o , Teddy, do you want to use it on something else?" I asked my sister, who disiedly shook her head, apparently already bored.

  "Okay, then it's my ," I affirmed, and immediately Gabe put on an offended expression for not having been asked, "don't cheat ime," interrupting any excuse he might give, I handed all the tickets to Teddy, who quickly started s them.

  Being the st , I decided, why not, to use it on a luck mae, a big wheel with only one lever; without expeg anything, I ied the and pulled the lever. "Really?, a luck game, these are s, you never win anything," unbelievingly, Gabe said.

  "Well, Gabe, it was the st , and the—" I was saying, but a bunch of sirens and arms cut me off. Turning to see what was causing suoise, I saw that the wheel had nded on an incredibly small spot with the word "jackpot" written along it. "You woedly excimed Gabe, running over to where the mae tinuously spewed out tickets.

  "I told you I'd find a mae where I could beat you," I arrogantly said to Teddy, who was also surprised, watg the seemingly endless line of tickets that Gabe was struggling to carry.

  After several mihe mae finished spitting out all the tickets it had to give. The amount of papers we obtained surprisingly equaled the number of tickets we already had.

  Carrying the pile of papers over to the ter where the teenager was now mung on chips with great pleasure, I asked the attendant, who simply poio a small mae oher side of the ter.

  After ting all the tickets in the mae with the little help from the teeendant, we mao get two prizes: the plush whale I had seen when we arrived and a small pstic ball gun that Gabe chose.

  "That was amazing! Did you see everyone's faces when we came with all those tickets?" excitedly asked Gabe, boung along the sidewalk.

  "Yeah, we're good at this," Teddy, also amused, said. "We have to e again!" excimed Gabe obviously.

  "Yeah, sure, we e again another day," I assured my siblings as we got into 'Debbie', "but it has to be on another 'sibling day', possibly in a month to make it a regur thing," I tinued, disappointing Gabe in the back seat of the car.

  "Not until a month?" he practically shouted incredulously from the back seat of the car.

  "It's just an idea, buddy," I said as I pulled out of the arcade parking lot.

  "How about ice cream befoing home?" I asked, already knowing the answer as I drove to the ice cream shop.

  "Yes!" Teddy and Gabe quickly said in unison.

  "Okay," I ented, amused, parking the car a few steps from the ice cream shop.

  After we all got out of the car and before we could reach the ice cream shop, Teddy suddenly stopped. "Isn't that Regina Gee?" she said, pointing to one of the publiches oreet.

  "Well, yeah, that's Regina," I said, notig aeenager sittih Regina, or more accurately, under Regina was aeenager, "oh my God, she's eating that guy's face," I said exaggeratedly, joking with my brother, who nodded with a mixed expression of disgust and amusement.

  The publidecy Regina was showing with her new, boyfriend? was especially surprising, following House's whole profile, it would be trary to the idea Regina was selling on her 'show' by yelling at me in front of everyohat or she simply didn't think beyond that.

  "Wasn't she yirlfriend?" worried and offeeddy asked.

  "You're right about that, she was," I said, trying to reassure the teenager.

  "Don't you mind?" Teddy asked incredulously, pointing to the couple, who were pletely indifferent to the world around them.

  "I mean, no," I really didn't mind. As the week went by, the few enters I had with Regina at school only ted everything House had described to me about her. Despite her pretending to be sad in front of a crowd, when there wasn't enough audience, I could tell her sadness was fake. In addition to this, I could also notice how the irls in school behaved around her. trary to what I thought before, it wasn't a strange kind of admiration; it was fear.

  "No, Gabe," Teddy said, snappi of my thoughts. Looking at my younger brother to find what he did, I caught him slowly l his oy with a mischievous smile.

  Immediately uanding what he did, I snatched the toy from his hands. "That's not okay," I said, showing a disappointed expression, although internally I was amused. The balls didn't hurt, much less from the distance we were at.

  The small ball Gabe shot served its purpose, separating the couple, searg for whatever hit them until they found the small ball on the ground a few inches away.

  Finding the projectile, the teenager, whom I had never seen before, searched for who threw it until he came to me, holding the psti, oh.

  I hadn't thought about it, quickly handing the gun bay brother, I smiled ily while the little boy, caught in his mischief, quickly ran into the ice cream shop.

  It seemed like the hormonal teenager wao stand up aggressively towards me, but surprisingly Regina stopped him. She was trying to hide her embarrassment; I could tell because unlike when we crossed paths in the school hallways, she sciously avoided looking in my dire.

  Being pulled by the arm, the teenager followed Regina in the opposite dire from where Teddy and I were standing, still sending me occasional hateful gnces.

  "That guy gave me a bad feeling," Teddy said.

  "I told you, that happens sometimes," triumphantly ughing, I told Teddy.

  ---Author Thoughts:

  As always, I'm not Ameri and not a doctor.

  Once again, a chapter with a time skip. The timeline I'm using for this first volume is practically the same as that of Young Sheldon, so you expect the chapter to also have a time skip (but when will this chapter be?).

  This chapter served to shoJ's development with what House wanted him to do of 'reading' people. Again, I'm not Sherloes or a detective, so all the BS you see about this topic throughout the novel will have to be taken as real.

  I must say that the fi with Regina in this chapter serves to introdu important character for another moment in the first volume. Obviously, it's the other teenager, but I feel like I didn't use the resource as well as I would have liked.

  With that said,

  I think that's all. As always, if you find any errors, please let me know, and I'll correct them immediately.

  Thank you for reading! :D

  PS: PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW.

  PS2: By the way, a few days ago was my birthday, I accept reviews as a gift.