"That's the spirit!" Anthony said, and he punched Shawn in the arm in a playful manner. Still, it felt hard. Like maybe Anthony didn't know his own strength. After all, he was a slightly older kid.

OOC: Shawn decides whether he liked or disliked being punched in the arm. No dialogue is necessary. Then Shawn decides whether he will allow himself to show those feelings to the group. If Shawn decides to conceal his feelings:

Shawn Rolls Composure + Subterfuge to do so successfully. Only 1 Success is needed.

Tiffany took another bite, and Shawn noticed a bit of the chocolate had melted onto her hand, the summer sunshine still blazing down from a cloudless sky.

"Nope." Tiffany said. "You don't convince me. I'm incovniced. He's weird. Good or bad, we don't know."

"That's not a word."

"Good and Bad are both words!" Tiffany shot back.

"ahhh..." Ralph gasped and at this point he started to cry a little from that slap on the shoulder or back, or wherever Anthony had playsfully hit him.

Shawn didn't mind being punched in the arm, even if it was a little hard. He grinned happily. Though that grin fell away when Ralph started crying. "Hey Ralph, wanna get some juice?"

"Yeah...*sniff*..*sniff*...juice." Ralph said, getting up and agreeing to go along with Shawn. The two separated from the group who was still very much interested in the moving van and speculating on what or who the newcomer was.

Ralph trolled alongside Shawn, shoulders slumped, one arm reaching over to the part on his body where Anthony had given him a rough jostle.

"It hurts." He said.

"All right, let me see..." Shawn didn't think Anthony's play hit would've actually hurt Ralph, but taking it seriously would probably make Ralph feel better. He kept up the conversation as he looked under Ralph's shirt sleeve. "What kind of juice do you want?"

There was a slight, reddish hue to Ralph's skin where Shawn looked, but there was no bruising.

"Orange juice." Ralph said in a grumpy voice.

The boys began to walk, Ralph slightly whining about how rough Anthony was.

"Oh wow, Ralph, you're pretty tough. There's barely even a mark. Let's get you some of that orange juice." Shawn walked with Ralph, trying to keep the boy distracted with happier thoughts. He tried to smooth things over with Ralph and Anthony, mostly by praising Ralph's obviously resilience and maturity as the reason Anthony thought he could get a little rough with him.

Ralph seemed to move on from Anthony, but his dour mood persisted. "I hate this place." He said as Shawn approached the front door.

"I hate Mom. I hate Dad. I hate being here. I hate my Rubba-sucky too."

"There's good stuff, too, though! We're here together, so it can't be all bad." Shawn tried to sound reassuring, friendly. He deliberately was trying not to think about how truthful he was being.

Into the kitchen, Ralph grumbling all the way. "I want my juice!" He complained and demanded at the same time.

Shawn was in front of the refrigerator. Mom was at the kitchen table the harvest yellow-colored phone held against her head with her left hand, right hand twisting the coord in tangles as she spoke with nervousness to whomever was on the other line.

"Oh." She said into the receiver, paying no mind to Shawn or Ralph and not even caring or noticing their presence. "....yes....why yes....uh-huh...yes....of course." She said, fingers still twisting the coord into a ribbon of a knot.

"Well I'm sure that Shawn can make it on those dates Mr. Bronstein....yes...yes he would be fine with doing whatever is necessary."

Shawn heard his name on the phone, and tried to listen in more closely, even as he went to fetch Ralph's juice to keep him quiet too.

"Yes....yes...uh-uh..Well of course...yes. I'm sure he would be happy to take the part....yes. He's a star you know, he just hasn't hit the right movie yet...yes...uh-huh...yes...Yes I understand that this is probably...yes...Well it's better to be positive about his career, don't you think?...yes...yes...OK, well, we'll be there tomorrow then."

Mom hung up the phone and rattles her nails along the table, drumming them anxiously. She didn't even look up or hear Ralph complaining about how he wanted the juice that Shawn was holding in the glass.

Shawn gives Ralph his orange juice, then goes into the fridge to get himself some apple juice. As he goes to get his glass, he's careful to make enough kitchen noise that Mom would definitely hear and realise he was there.

"Oh hi honey." Mom said to Shawn, the chair turning around and screeching. "There's my star. Why don't you come over here for a second?"

Ralph gulped down the juice with lugging sound, his throat moving up and down, the cords on the side of his neck straining as he tried to force the liquid into his mouth as quickly as possible without breathing.

But he stopped as Mom said that. He narrowed his eyes. His hand tightened on the glass, knuckles turning white, the glass shaking.

Shawn caught Ralph's change in demeanour, but he doesn't have any way to reassure him with Mom right there. So instead he goes over to Mom. "What's happening, Mom?"

"Well honey. You have an appointment with Director Bronstein tomorrow. You have to ace the part OK? You just have to." Mom was nervous.

"It's so important honey. It really is. I mean it really is important. It's everything. I know you're a star. And you know you're a star. And I know that Daddy doesn't think you're a star. He thinks that you being an actor is silly. And that you should be more focused on more practical things that make men, men. But we'll just have to prove him wrong."

"OK honey? We're going to prove Daddy wrong." Mom clenched her fist in determination.

Then she placed both hands on Shawn's shoulders and looked him square in the eye. "Daddy doesn't have a job right now, honey. So that means that he really isn't a man. So that means, sweety, that he doesn't get to say what is silly and what isn't. And if my baby boy wants to be a star, that that's what he's going to be."
Mom's voice sounded sweet and filled with syrupy honey as she spoke to Shawn in a way that adults phrase words to kids. But her seriousness was firm and determined. She meant what she was saying. Her eye's never left Shawn's eyes while she spoke.

The way Mom was talking about Dad made Shawn feel a little uncomfortable, but he didn’t show that on his face. Instead, he just looked determined. “I’ll make you proud, Mom.”

"Good." Mom said, letting her hands fall to her side. "Tomorrow, we're going to go and bring you to the set."

"It will be good. Honey. It will be fine." Mom said, voice not very convinced that things would, in fact, be fine.

"OK. Run along now. Be a good boy with Ralph and go play." Mom said, giving Shawn a kiss on the cheek.

"Okay Mom!" Shawn lets Ralph finish his juice, then grabs his hand and leads him outside. He's not entirely sure why, but he feels like he needs to do damage control with Ralph.

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Shawn: The Jealous Kind