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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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"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.