Chapter 6

Chase walked into House's classroom, where they were meant to be serving detention, a good five minutes late. Allison and Foreman were already present, sitting next to each other on the front row and looking awkward, as if they had already tried and failed to find any common ground between them. Chase couldn't decide if he was surprised or not; although Allison was almost painfully nice to everyone and did seem the sort of person to make senseless small talk, Foreman really didn't seem the type. The only time Chase had really noticed the teenager's presence in his class was after House made his friend walk out. Before then, he'd simply been like a sullen, intimidating shadow at the back of the classroom.

Chase swept a gaze around the classroom, noticing their teacher was suspiciously absent.

"Where's House?" Chase asked.

"Right behind you."

Chase leapt a foot in the air in shock.

"Jesus Christ," Chase exclaimed, rubbing a hand over his heart as if the surprise had actually hurt him.

He turned to see his Biology teacher leaning casually against the door frame, a smirk playing on his lips as he fixed Chase with his bright blue gaze.

"Gregory House, actually. Jesus Christ is just a stage name."

Chase shot him a withering look before walking into the classroom and taking the seat next to Cameron with a half-smile in her direction. House followed, striding to the blackboard at the front of the room and picking up the chalk before beginning to write. They craned to see what that was, but he was blocking the words with his back carefully, leaving all three of them confused.

"What do you guys usually do in detention?"

Taken aback by the question, none of them answered.

"Come on, simple question. How do you think you can be doctors if you hesitate?"

Cameron and Chase glanced at Foreman in surprise; they didn't really know him at all but he'd never really come across as the studious sort. House looked over in time to see what was taking them so long and caught the looks.

"Aw, you can get into med school with a criminal record," he reprimanded, shaking the chalk at Chase and Cameron in reprove before turning to Foreman. "Don't let it stop it pursuing your dreams, man."

House dramatically threw a fist into the air, head bowed, to punctuate his sentiment.

Foreman had no answer except to glare at his teacher.

"How did you find that out?" he asked grimly, ignoring Cameron's wide eyes.

"I did a little morning reading."

"You read my file?!" Foreman asked, standing up.

House rolled his eyes, resuming his scribbling on the blackboard.

"Sit down," House said dismissively. "I read all your files."

"What?" Cameron shrieked as Chase groaned and leaned forward to rest his head on the desk.

"You're acting as if it's some big privacy violation."

"It is," Cameron protested, clearly either ignoring or not recognising the sarcasm. "Does Mrs Cuddy know-"

"Her?" House asked, surprised. "No, she probably wouldn't have gone for it. Why, do you want her to read your files? Yours was kind of boring."

Allison sighed, realising arguing was futile and Foreman returned to his seat glaring. Chase remained slumped over the table.

"Anyway, if you kids aren't going to play nicely, I'll answer my own question. You guys do lines in detention, right? Or just sit there and repent? Chase could give us a few pointers on that, I'm sure."

Bastard.

"That's not in my file," Chase said, not glancing up.

"Have you read it?"

Chase didn't answer.

"Anyway, things are done a little differently with me. We're going to try a bit of problem-based learning. I'm going to show you how I can know that stuff about you without reading your files. Then, you're going to have a go."

Chase didn't like the sound of that and reluctantly straightened. House moved from the board so they could see what he had written.

It wasn't long before Cameron spluttered in indignation, reading down House's list of 'symptoms'.

"You think I 'worry excessively' about my 'petty problems'?"

House smiled at the board, obviously regarding this idea as a bit of a stroke of genius.

"I call 'em as I see 'em."

Cameron crossed her arms.

"Foreman, how do I know Cameron's boring from this information?"

Cameron turned sharply to glare at Foreman, daring him to speak. Foreman rolled his eyes.

"I'm not playing your games."

"Either you answer or we move onto you."

Foreman paused for a second.

Checkmate.

"If you're so preoccupied by minor problems you possibly don't have any major ones," he said reluctantly, staring at the board rather than at Cameron's kicked-puppy expression. "And the obsession over appearance thing could mean you have the time and money to spend on yourself. Alternatively, you could just be a teenage girl who gives a damn about people around her."

House heard the defiance in his voice, but still counted it as a victory.

"I never really believed in that altruism thing, but the first bit was passable. Want to play again?"

"No," he answered firmly, looking distinctly unimpressed with proceedings.

House made a show of looking at the clock.

"Oh, bad luck. Still fifty minutes of my company, I'm afraid."

"You said you wouldn't-"

"Talk about you?" House finished for him. "Well, at least now I can add 'gullible' to your list."

Foreman seemed to growl under his breath before assuming a similar pose to Cameron, arms folded and leaning back into his seat. House rubbed the board clean with one of his sleeves before hitting the chalk residue from it.

"This is why my classroom should have a white one of these," he remarked, nodding to the blackboard. "No offence, Foreman," he added as an afterthought.

"There's a board eraser on your desk," Chase deadpanned.

House looked over and found him to be right.

"Oh, you don't miss a thing do you?"

He did tip Chase a wink just to unsettle them all a bit further, but was rather bitter over messing up his blazer for no good reason.

Smart ass.

He returned to the board, writing up a new set of symptoms as Chase gave Cameron, who still looked upset, a sympathetic look: House was clearly out to humiliate them all.

After a few more seconds of scrawling, House revealed the board to them once more. True to his word, 'gullible' was present at the bottom and Foreman glowered. However, once Chase had glanced through the rest of his list, he believed Foreman had good reason to be angry.

"That isn't fair," Allison spoke up from beside him.

"Why not?"

"He wouldn't have told us that if he had choice, it's not right."

House rolled his eyes.

"His brother's in prison, it's not like he's dying or anything."

"We're not doing this," Chase spoke up. "I'm not analysing that."

"I don't need your pity."

Chase raised his eyebrows in Foreman's direction, surprised at the outright hatred in his voice.

"Um… sorry?"

"I know your type, okay? I'm from a bad neighbourhood and I'm still kicking your ass in this class, I'm no damn charity case."

House looked between the two of them, his gaze darting to Cameron who was sitting uncomfortably between them. This was fun.

Chase simply shrugged; still as intent on avoiding confrontation as ever, apparently, and leaving the room in a tense silence.

"Fine," House said sharply, startling them. "Onto Chase it is, then. Oh, sorry, I mean, onto someone. I think it might be fun to talk this one out."

Pieces suddenly started falling into place in Chase's mind.

"Is that what this is about?" he asked, laughing. "You can't stand not knowing this badly?"

House didn't even spare him a glance.

"Okay, so we have a hypothetical teenage boy… called Dace. Mom and Dad broke up and Junior lives with Mom. Dad is still rich as hell, probably pays a tonne of child support. However, riddle me this, despite that, why would Junior work until two in the morning on most evenings with a perverted boss?"

"Hey!" Chase cried.

"No, this is for the sake of education," House scolded, leaving Chase open-mouthed with indignation. "Be quiet."

"I swear to God-"

"I think you've done enough of that to last a lifetime," House quipped before turning to Cameron and Foreman, his face lit up in comic enthusiasm. "Seriously, the guy propositioned him right in front of me… and he sticks around. Anyone would think he liked the idea of-"

"Shut up!"

Chase didn't have to look over to feel Allison and Foreman's shocked gazes.

"Just shut the fuck up," he repeated miserably, knowing the damage was already done. "My dad is a bastard and doesn't pay us a cent; my boss is a jerk… happy? Is that what you wanted to hear? Was it worth all this to find out?"

Even House was beginning to feel a little uneasy at the look of betrayal on Chase's face and recognised maybe this wasn't the best way to press him for answers. He almost resented the nagging voice telling him that this was nowhere near the whole story and he still hadn't explained how he'd gotten those injuries.

He knew he should probably apologise, or at least change the subject.

"Does your mom know what you do?"

For a long moment, Chase just stared at him with disbelief and something else which looked a lot like hurt. Then, without a word, he bent down to pick up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He half-heartedly glanced at the other two, but when they only looked away, he let out a soft snort of reluctant acceptance.

Chase walked out.

House couldn't blame him.

A/N: *surfaces* woah, sorry this was so long in the works, real life took over for a while. Well, I say that but I'm posting this in the middle of the January exam period, so I have no idea what's wrong with me lol.

Anyway, hooray for the parallels! I actually got a differential diagnosis of sorts into a high school. It's really late so I have no idea how any of that reads; I hope it's alright in its unbeta-d version.

Thanks for sticking with it, guys.