Oliver and Tanya
London was about 5 hours ahead if Oliver had worked out the time zone right. Leroy had given him permission to ring, so now he was trying to find the nerve to call.
"You plan on staring at that thing all day?" asked Tanya, noticing him. "Or are you actually going to pick it up and dial?"
Oliver looked at Tanya. He was supposed to pretend she was his Mum? Thanks but no thanks. No one's mother dresses up and looks that good in leather.
"I guess I'm going to pick it up and dial," he said.
Oliver picked up the phone and tentatively plugged in the phone number. It rang a couple of times and he was sorely tempted to hang up when it was picked up.
"Hello?"
Oliver couldn't say anything.
"Hello?" the voice repeated.
"Uhh, hi," Oliver said, jerking himself awake. "Mum?"
"Oliver?"
"Yeah, it's me."
"Oh my... where are you? What are you doing? Are you okay?"
"I'm with Uncle Leroy. In America. I'm fine."
"Oh, honey, I've been so worried."
"Well, there's no need to be any more."
"Are you... are you coming home?"
"I, uhh, I wasn't planning on it. Uncle Leroy's been teaching me to control my powers," Oliver went on excitedly. "I haven't be lighting fires when I've lost my temper and stuff any more! And I'm meeting lots of other aliens and mutants and other weird people. I have a foster cousin named Tate - she's really cool. And I'm also living with a woman named Tanya, she's Uncle Leroy's err... friend."
"Friend?"
"Yeah, really, they're friends," Oliver couldn't help but grin.
Tanya gave him an unamused look and went off on her own business.
"I see. Have you been making many friends?"
"Yeah, lots of friends online, anyway. Uncle Leroy moves around a bit. But don't worry, I am still doing school. In fact, I've been doing better at school than I was at home. We just moved to a new place. I haven't had much of a chance to meet anyone yet, but I start school tomorrow."
They chatted for a while longer - Rowena couldn't help but feel a little sad that he was enjoying himself so much away from them. She missed her son a lot. Then the phone was passed on to Jason and Duke and Miette.
Sam didn't want to talk to him.