That distrust hit Seth in the chest as hard as a defibrillator and made him want to try to reach this kid, if possible. In the past, he’d been reluctant to meet Aiyana’s students or teach at the school because he was afraid of what he’d see. He was terrified of the inevitable empathy, didn’t want to feel those hard emotions. And he didn’t want to be reminded of his own childhood. It was difficult enough to leave his past behind.

But art had helped him so much he couldn’t avoid wanting to share it as a coping skill with others who might be struggling, especially because he saw so much of himself in this boy. Although he’d been tall, even at that age, and not nearly as underweight as this small boy, he’d been just as angry, just as disillusioned and just as scornful of adults. The ones who’d really mattered had let him down.

“Your chess set is impressive,” he told Jaden.

The boy said nothing, just stared down at the hole in the toe of one tennis shoe.

“Have you ever had any art classes?”

He glanced up. “Who would pay for those?”

“What about in school?”

He dropped his head again. “I was always grounded. I hardly ever went to school.”

Seth handled the cool gadget the boy had fashioned out of cherrywood into one of his pawns. “What made you go with steampunk?”

He shrugged.

“You have genuine talent, Jaden, and I’d love to work with you. Are you interested in being part of my class?”

“It sounded like fun in the beginning,” he mumbled. “That’s why I made the set. But...what’s the catch?”

“There is no catch,” Seth told him. “We’ll explore what you’re good at and how you can get better. That’s what we’re all here for,” he told the others, who were looking on.

“But...you’ve already made it,” Jaden said, surprising Seth by engaging him again. “Why would you teach kids like us?”

“Because I went to this school, too, and it helped me a great deal.”

Jaden’s gaze shifted to Aiyana, who was standing near the door. “You went here because Ms. Turner’s your mother.”

“No. My birth mother gave me up for adoption, and I didn’t exactly thrive in the foster system. That’s how I came here.”

“Does anyone thrive in the foster system?” one of the other kids said under his breath and several snickered.

Seth ignored the comment because he was trying to make a connection with Jaden. “A lot of my foster parents were good people. But I was pretty angry, and I wasn’t behaving the way I should.”

“So Ms. Turner adopted you after you came here?” someone else asked.

His mother must’ve made that clear to the student body at some point. “That’s right.”