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When he'd walked through the door, the sound of a bell nearly deafened Isaac's ears.

When he steps through the door, everything hits him like a rushing tidal wave. He doesn't recognize everything at first, but slowly things start to come to him. That's the jungle gym and there's the hopscotch and he doesn't know why he's worried about some old hotel because it's recess. The door behind Isaac hangs open as his small feet send him running into the schoolyard playground, his lanky limbs bringing him further than the other kids with every step.

It's only when he gets to the middle of the yard that he realizes he doesn't see anyone he knows and Isaac starts to feel a tiny pit in his stomach that feels a lot like being scared. He wants Camden to come and play with him, but Camden has his own older friends and doesn't have time for a six-year-old like Isaac.

Cautiously, Isaac finds his way to the play area and sits down, hoping that maybe he can find someone to play with. After all, it can't be that hard, can it?

[Recess gathering post in the elementary school door! All ages, grades 1-8 welcome, whether they remember who they are or not]

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"He does that," Jon said, smiling a little. Ghost seemed to take an interest in the other boy then, looking up and tilting his head in a questioning manner.

"It's all right if you want to pet him?"

"Can I?" Isaac says quietly, his voice little and shaking, somewhat. The dog looks so big and like it could take his whole head off. "I'm Isaac," he introduces himself, hoping his voice doesn't tremble slightly when he speaks. After all, he's nervous about making new friends and he doesn't wanna mess it up.

"I'm Jon," he replied, just as nervous. It had been a long time since he made a new friend and other than Ghost, Jon wasn't very good at it when it came to boys his age. He mostly just wanted his brother.

"His name is Ghost. He's a direwolf."

Isaac doesn't know what a direwolf is, doesn't even know really what a wolf is supposed to look like. He rubs his other hand over his face, while his left hand is buried in all that fur, as if he can't stop petting him. "We don't have wolves where I come from," he says. "Dad says there aren't, but Mom says there's howling in the woods."

Secretly, he believes his Mom, but he'd never tell his Dad that. He gets scary when he yells and Isaac doesn't want to be yelled at.

"I like them," Jon said, "But they can be scary. But I'm going to raise Ghost to be perfectly tame and follow commands."

He was not like a dog, no, but Ghost did seem to understand a few minor commands already. "But someday he might be bigger than I am."

Isaac's a pretty small kid, so it doesn't take much imagination to think about a dog being bigger than him. Still, a wolf was a scary thing. "What if he decides he wants to eat you?" he asks, voice small as he stares up at the large thing. "If he gets hungry or mean?"

"He won't," Jon said stubbornly. "I am going to train him so he follows commands and only hunts when I say. I can do it, I bet." His father had told him that a wolf was not like a dog but Jon didn't care. He didn't think that Ghost would hurt anyone, much less himself.

"He likes you, I think."

Isaac blinks at the thought that something likes him. He pulls his hand away shyly, not sure why the dog would like him because he doesn't have food and he doesn't have anything, really. He's just petting him. "Really?" he asks, his voice small. "How do you know?"

"Because he isn't coming back to me yet," Jon said knowingly. Ghost was silent unlike most wolves and other dogs but he could make his feelings known with actions. So far, he seemed to like Issac more than most other people aside from Jon himself.

Isaac grins at that like he hasn't smiled in a while. He's been too nervous about not making friends or not doing well enough for his parents, but this is pretty simple and it makes him feel honestly a dozen times better than he normally does. "I really like him too. I wish we could get a dog, but Dad doesn't think my brother and I will take care of him."

At six, Isaac doesn't exactly have a comparison to know whether that's true or not.

"It is a lot of work," Jon agreed. "But I don't mind doing things for Ghost, I love him. If you love something, you should want to take care of it and it will be fun and not feel like work."

At least, it seemed that way to Jon. Lady Catelyn didn't seem to feel the same way.

"I really only have my brother," Isaac says. There's no pet, no hobbies, and no real thing in his life that he really loves. At least, not the way Jon is talking about. "But I would do anything for him." Isaac smiles weakly, not knowing if Camden feels the same.

"Mine too," Jon echoed. "Robb is the most important person in the world to me." There was nobody who understood him quite like Robb and he loved him more than anything.

"I have five siblings, though, not just one."

Isaac doesn't know what he'd do with so many siblings. It would probably get loud and noisy and he might not get as much attention as he wants. Still, he'd never be lonely, he knows that. "Do you like it?" he asks, when he's not sure how he feels about it and wants to know more.

"Sometimes. Sometimes I just want to be alone." Usually when that happened, he would just take Ghost and go out into the woods somewhere so it could be nice and quiet and without all the crowding and yelling of his family.

"Sometimes you can feel all alone even with a bunch of people."

"I just feel alone," Isaac says. "Camden's more popular than I am because he's normal. He's not quiet like me. He knows how to make friends." He finally lets go of Ghost, hands in his lap as he stares down at his fingers. "You're nice, though," he says.

"Being quiet is okay," Jon promised. "I'm usually quiet too." He very rarely had anything to say, especially when Lady Catelyn was upset with him. School was a chance to talk and be himself, he guessed, but even still Jon did not often have much to offer in the way of conversation.

"And people don't mind if you're quiet?" He's had teachers worried, his parents tutting because he hasn't been as loud as Camden. Isaac just doesn't really think he sees much point in being noisy if there isn't something important to get noisy about.

"There's a lot of us. Nobody really notices," Jon said, a little brighter than before. "Besides, what's wrong with just being yourself? If you're quiet, you're quiet."

Isaac shrugs, staring down between his feet. "I don't mind being quiet," he says, because it's not exactly his problem. "I have a brother who's more popular than me, though. He talks a lot and he's really popular with everyone and sometimes Dad thinks that I should be more like him," he admits, shrugging his shoulders.

"My stepmother loves my brother but she doesn't love me," Jon offered in exchange. It was not quite the same but sometimes he thought that rather than Jon be more like Robb, Lady Catelyn would just prefer Jon did not exist at all.

Isaac feels a sharp pang, not having meant to bring that up. "I'm sorry," he says, voice small as he stares at Jon. "I'm sorry she's mean," he goes on, slightly vindictive as he bites down on the word as much as he can.

"It's okay. You did not know," Jon said. He would not hold a grudge against someone who was unaware of the situation and said something hurtful. It was not something he talked about often, if at all, and Issac was a rarity in that sense.

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