Sam shrugged. "My brother and I mostly take care of ourselves. My dad is... was... gone a lot. He's here, though," he added reflectively, as if it was something he needed to remind himself of. Which in a way, it was. He liked the fact that his father was here, and wanted to spend time with him while he was being nice and paying attention the way Sam had always hoped he would, but a part of him was afraid that it wasn't real-- that it was the magic that acted on this place-- or that even if it was real, it would end sooner and he'd end up disappointed again. "I don't really know how to cook, though. Mostly just heat things up."
But that was enough to survive. It wasn't as nice as having the homecooked meals he'd had at other people's houses, but it was enough. Food was one of the more minor things that he resented about his family's lifestyle.
He looked up at her, when she laughed. He was more used to people denying the existence of strange things like Pokemon, and if he'd still been his older self he'd have understood why she didn't get it-- why it was a game to him, but real to her-- except he hadn't been able to fully wrap his mind around the idea of other realities where fictional things existed. Or he hadn't, but now it was starting to sink in.
"You really think they're real," he said, and it wasn't quite a question. He was verbally piecing together the clues in her reaction, trying to understand it. "Where you're from, they just... exist? Everyone knows about them? They don't exist where I'm from, I don't think. I know about most of the things that most people don't think exist, and I've only heard about them in... it's a game, right? A card game?" Kids at his school had had those. Or maybe it was a video game of sorts. He really wasn't the most well-versed in popular trends, admittedly.