[Xander – 13 years]

Whew. My second-cousins have finally left to return to Sweden, and my friends have headed off to go hang out at the park. It snowed a decent amount yesterday and they want to do a snowball fight with anyone else who shows up. I don't want to join in on a snowball fight, and I just want some time to relax and be quiet for a bit.

Once I've ensured everything is cleaned up, I let Dad know I'm leaving and head to the street, then teleport to the workshop.

Greyson's there when I arrive, on his back on a rolling board thingy, but mostly under the mega computer. His sneaker-clad feet and lower legs are all that's visible of him. He's in jeans and probably a white tank top, since he likes that as his "mechanic's outfit". It's something he doesn't mind getting dirty when he's working with enchanting fluids, especially if he's doing it upside-down like a weirdo.

Why not just remove the piece, update its enchantments, then fix it back into place? That seems like it would be easier to work on than doing it upside-down.

"Is that you, Xander?" Greyson asks.

"Yeah."

He rolls out from under the machine and sits up.

"How come you keep turning Osburc's voice off?" He asks. "Every time I come back from the academy, he's muted. I thought maybe he was misbehaving, but he's insisting that all he does is greet you and you mute him. So I was wondering what was wrong? Did he do something and is lying? I can't find anything in his records… and I can't find traces that he's editing them… but I might be missing something."

Greyson said it's okay to mess with Osburc, and all I'm doing is muting him so there shouldn't be any issues. It doesn't seem like my cousin's upset, just curious and maybe a little worried.

"I don't like his voice," I tell him. "It's creepy."

"Creepy?" Greyson asks. "But I made him sound like a normal boy, didn't I?"

"Yeah," I answer. "But it still creeps me out when he talks and I don't want him talking to me and he likes talking. So I mute him. That way, he won't talk to me again even if he forgets."

"Oh," Greyson says. "How come it creeps you out when he tries talking to you?"

"Because it does."

"Okay," he says. "I'll make sure to mute him when I leave, then."

"He's not muted?" I ask. "But he didn't greet me?"

"The system's off right now," he tells me. "I'm adjusting something in one of its more critical power systems, so I turned it off just in case. I don't want it leaking electricity or mana. Especially not raw mana… that can be corrosive."

Why would it leak electricity? Isn't he converting the whole system to be mana-only rather than converting mana to the electricity type used by most magitech which uses electricity? Oh, wait. If he hasn't finished converting it, which seems to be the case when I turn on my magesight, then there can be errant electricity if he does things wrong.

So it's better to turn it off when he's working on part of the main power function.

"Oh, okay."

"Can I ask you to take a look at it when I finish?" Greyson asks.

"I want quiet time."

"Okay…"

He seems really disappointed, but I do want quiet time. As he lies back down and rolls back under his mega-computer, I walk into my work station.

"Henry tried going in there the other day," he tells me.

"I know," I tell him. "I got a ping letting me know. But the wards worked so he wasn't able to enter. And he hopefully doesn't try again."

Trying to enter someone's personal space even after being warned not to was Very Wrong. Henry shouldn't have tried it and deserved worse, but Grandpa Adrian told me that was the limit of what I was allowed to put into the ward for now.

"I think he learned his lesson," Greyson tells me. "So he shouldn't, if I ever get pushed into taking him here again."

Even without Greyson saying it, I know he didn't want to bring his twin here. He really doesn't like Henry and would only let him into the workshop if he was pretty much forced into it for some reason. It's okay to bring Travis, though, because Travis is more than willing to help him test things out and won't mess with things he doesn't have permission to mess with.

"Okay."

I grab some stuff and start working. Trenton gets put on his chair and I swap to my magitech glasses.

Making stuff like phones and microphones isn't really my area of expertise, that's Greyson's, but I know enough from cleaning up ones he makes that I think I can make them. Accelerated time will definitely be used for it… maybe. I'll try making one without using too much accelerated time right now.

The difference between the phone I want to build and what Greyson can do is that Greyson lacks the ability to properly create a specific feature. It's a feature I want, so I'll need to do it myself.

Maybe building a microphone, transfer setup, and speaker set first would be better. If I can get those to work fine on their own, then they can be implemented into phones and other devices. There's still the question of if it would transmit properly across things like the internet, but at least if it's on a phone, that might not be necessary.

After an hour and a half, I think the system is ready for testing.

"Kweh," I say into the microphone, then put the small speaker to my right ear and let it play.

"Kweh."

Hm… no, that was wrong. What part of it did I mess up? I set the speaker down and press play again, watching the magics as it plays a "Kweh" to me. I record another "Kweh" on the microphone and watch its magics, too.

Something seems to be wrong on everything, but I can't quite tell what. I make some adjustments to the microphone, then do another recording and play it on the speaker. The recording part was a little bit better, but not the playback part. It'll be tough to tell what's working and what's not, but that's what trial and error is for.

Even for someone who can perceive nearly all forms of mana and magic, some things just aren't clear. When it's something completely new and has to be recorded, transferred to another device, and then played back, that makes it even more difficult to figure out.

"Xander?" Greyson asks after about an hour or so of my trial and error.

My cousin's pulled off his shirt and was holding it out in front of him to examine it. The look of concentration he had on his face until he said my name and the feeling of it I got from his mind suggests he was deciding whether it's salvageable or not. Enchanting fluids and other stuff are splattered all over it, and some even got onto his jeans.

"Want to try making a cleaning solution with some fat I got from my hunting trip with Grandpa Adrian?" I offer. "He said the cleansing properties in it makes it useful for soaps. I don't know how to make those, but I know you make some. It might help with the fluids."

"No, that's fine," Greyson says. "You can keep them. I'll just throw it away. I can easily get new ones, and I can even use my allowance for it now instead of money I took from a mob! Well, not my allowance, my 'allocated budget' for stuff I do here. But that's just an additional allowance, right?"

No, that is not right. But I suppose it could be, if he would just use regular allowance money for this stuff if that was enough.

"Anyway," he says. "I was just wondering why you keep going 'kweh'? You were doing it in normal time originally, but then you switched to accelerated time. I think it's, like, a hundred times normal time? At least, that's what it seems like based on how fast you were moving."

"A hundred and thirteen times," I say. "And I'm speaking in magic, so you can't understand the full thing. It's better to use the same thing over and over for consistent results, right? Once I figure out how to get a microphone to properly catch magical speaking, the speakers to transfer them, and a way to properly relay them to each other, then I can use variation. But I need to get the process down first."

"Magic speaking?" Greyson asks. "Like when you try describing magical processes to me and it just comes out as weird sounds?"

"Because you can't perceive what I'm saying correctly," I confirm. "Most nonhuman species use technology and phones mostly when dealing with humans. This is especially true for species like dragons, whose language is magic. So they can't actually talk that way. They communicate through other methods, such as asking species which can travel a lot faster than them to deliver them. Like when Grandpa Blaze went around and told a bunch of different nonhuman societies about yesterday's barbecue."

That was just Grandpa Blaze deciding it would be fun to invite them over, rather than him delivering messages. Pure phoenixes like him don't generally deliver messages for others, they can just be really fast. So can unicorns, which are even faster if the phoenix doesn't cheat.

Unicorns apparently deliver messages all over the world for others since they can move extremely fast.

"Oh," Greyson says. "Hey! Did you like the griffin I brought to it? She's super friendly! That's the one I sent you a picture of over the summer."

"I didn't talk with her," I tell him. "But she seemed nice, and the little ones Grandpa Blaze and Grandma Celeste brought seemed to like her."

None of them were heavy on the phoenix side. My grandparents apparently don't use too much of Grandpa Blaze's species in the mixtures even when they use a significant amount of his power and affinities. The spatial/temporal magics aren't included too much, but his normal phoenix magics are.

They do that because of the whole resurrection thing. Not that most of his descendants can resurrect… most of them are much too weak to have even a single resurrection.

So even the ones which resemble birds aren't too much phoenix.

"Some phone designs and stuff can transmit telepathy," I tell him. "That's how Grandpa Blaze uses them, usually. But I was thinking, what if I made phones and stuff which can do magic languages? Then all people can have a way to communicate with tech. But it's not so easy to get the transmission system down. There's more to it than just sound… I guess I'll need more than seventy hours of work on this. It's also nearing lunch time, so I'm gonna go do my walk through the mage district and get some subs. Good luck with whatever you're doing."

I start putting things away. It's better to clean up my station before I go than leave it a mess.

"Thanks!" Greyson says. "Before you go, can you teach me the shapeshifting spell?"

"Not if I don't want to get into trouble," I tell him. "Grandpa Adrian said that you're not allowed to learn it right now."

"Aww…"

"He said that you have to get older and more mature," I tell him. "So once you're older, then you can learn it. And he told me to tell you if you asked that if you try and learn it from anyone I taught it to, he'll seal the memories of it in you."

"Aww…"

"That just means you'll get to learn it eventually," I tell him. "Maybe once you're thirteen, or even twelve."

"Aww…"

Greyson goes back to examining his shirt. By the time I'm done cleaning up, the ruined shirt is gone and he's wearing a fresh, clean one. He's also back underneath the mega-computer, but I think he's working on a different part from before.

"Bye, Greyson," I say.

"Bye!"

[Xander – 13 years]

Indoor trampoline parks are huge. The building itself is massive-looking just from the outside. The parking lot isn't too full, either, so it's probably not very busy.

Austin, Nash, Nathan, Gabe, and Marty are all waiting outside of Austin's parents' car when Dad pulls up. Accompanying the five of them are all of their dads. While I like hanging out with Sig and the others, I have other friends and I want to hang out with some of them normally, too. This isn't a normal hangout, though.

Today is Austin's birthday, so he's having a birthday party. The invite didn't say I could bring a plus-one, though, so Sig didn't come with me. He wasn't invited so I couldn't bring him. It was okay to come with my dad, though, since he's my parent and it's normal for some parents to stick around for a party, to keep an eye on their kid.

Not a requirement, not at our age, but it's still normal. Though this party also needs to have a legal guardian, because they have to sign paperwork for us to do anything other than hang out in the party zone. The trampolines and other activities have a risk, so they have to sign liability waivers and stuff. Because of that, the dads for each of the six of us are attending. The dads will sit at their own table, though, rather than with us boys.

"Are we late?" I ask. "I thought the invite said it's at three?"

"We're fifteen minutes early," Dad tells me. "They just arrived early, that's all. If we were late, they'd probably be inside already."

He's being truthful, but what if he is wrong?

Once Dad parks, we get out of the SUV and join Austin's group. The other boys are all holding their presents for Austin… should I pull mine out of the stasis pocket I'm storing it in? Yeah, I'll do that. A green gift bag with blue tissue paper appears in my hands, and a little bit of amusement enters into the minds of my friends.

"Are we late?" I ask, and a feeling of exasperation comes from Dad.

"Nope!" Austin answers. "Dad and I showed up early to make sure everything was good for the party! Nash and Mr. Redmont showed up in case we needed help, and the others just got here a minute ago! We can go in now, though! They're not busy, so it's alright to start a little early."

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"Okay," I say.

We make our way into the trampoline park, which really is huge, especially when considering no spatial magic is involved. There's safety magic on a lot of the nets and around the trampolines, though.

"Hello!" A young woman greets us almost immediately. "This the whole group, or will more be coming?"

"Just us!" Austin tells her.

"Alright!" She says. "There are some rules everyone has to read through and sign, and the parents have to sign stating that you'll abide by them, along with liability waivers."

Austin's dad is paying for all of us for our visit here, and that includes for using the trampolines section.

We're each given a copy of the rules. They're not too complex or anything and fit on a single sheet of paper. It's mostly about behaving in a safe manner. There are designated trampolines for doing tricks and stuff like that separate from ones for just doing jumps on.

Most of the rules are related to the trampolines and while I don't plan on jumping at all, I still read through them. Just in case.

Once everyone's signed, the lady asks us if anyone needs grippy socks. We're required to wear them on the trampolines, for safety purposes. They're not mandatory wearing outside of here, but they are here since they make us likely to slip. The fewer accidents there are here, the better.

"I do," I answer at the same time Austin and Gabe do.

"Okay," she says. "What sizes are the rest of you?"

Dad, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Erickson (Gabe's dad) all have grippy socks as well, so it's only Nash, Nathan, and their dads who have to get some. We're reminded that once we cross the red line on the floor, only grippy socks are allowed for guests. Staff are allowed to wear sneakers, but their sneakers are special and won't damage the trampolines while having good grips for them.

After everyone who doesn't have grippy socks is given some, we head over to the trio of tables set up for Austin's party. Green plastic tablecloths cover the tables, and there are some blue and green balloons floating, strings keeping them tied down to centerpieces. Plates, napkins and other things are set out on one table, which also has a big cake on it.

"Boys," Mr. Baker says. "Take these bracelets. They let the staff in the trampoline areas know you're allowed to be there. And you're each able to get a combo from the concessions stand, though we'll also be getting pizza in about two hours."

"Alright!" Nathan and Gabe say.

"Okay!" Marty says at the same time.

"Cake and ice cream first?" Austin asks.

"Sure," Mr. Baker says. "You can do the presents during that if you'd like, too."

"Let's do that!"

We all set our presents down at where we'll be sitting, then get drinks. There are large bottles of soda for us to choose from, though there's also a pair of drink dispensers, one with lemonade and one with water. A bowl of ice lets us choose whether we get a cold drink or not, and I choose to get lemonade and just chill it with my magic. The taste test I give it after pouring a little for myself is enough to know that if ice melts in it, it won't be very tart anymore.

The cake is moved in front of Austin after he sits, and fourteen candles are lit for him. They're arranged around the brown bear decorating the cake, though the rest of it is done in green and blue icing. The candles are green and blue, too. His favorite colors are pretty nice.

I don't join in on the singing, but no one looks at me badly for it. At least, they don't look at me when I don't. Once the song is done, Austin blows out the candles, then grins.

"I want the bear's head!" He tells his dad.

The cake is pretty big, and the bear's whole head would probably be something like nine normal slices of cake. Austin doesn't have a whole lot of mana in capacity and he's not missing a lot, so I don't think he'd be able to eat that much cake in one sitting. Or he's just really hungry and might be able to, or might just be wanting to save some for later.

"Not the whole head," Mr. Barker snorts. "Which part do you want?"

"All of it!"

"Some."

"Aaaaaaaall!"

"Soooome!"

They negotiate into Austin getting the face, but not the surrounding parts of the head. The other boys all want a part of the bear as well, but I ask for just a corner piece. It's a vanilla cake with strawberry icing in the middle, but regular vanilla on the outside. Vanilla and chocolate-mint ice cream options are available as well, and I go with vanilla.

Thankfully, they use different scoops for the two.

Most of the other boys use the vanilla ice cream for root beer floats and eat the chocolate-mint ice cream with their cake.

"Alright!" Austin says. "Marty! Present!"

Marty hands Austin the gift bag from him. After pulling out the tissue paper, Austin pulls out a card for a digital download for a video game.

"Sweet!" Austin says. "I was gonna use birthday money to get this if I didn't get it!"

In addition to the card, there's a bag of chocolates in the gift bag, and Austin tries a piece before receiving the present from Nash. His dad moves the gift bag and tissue paper out of the way so that he's got space, and the presents get moved onto the dads' table.

Nash's present for Austin consists of a movie of a t-shirt with things relating to theater and acting on it. Gabe's is the same, but a different movie and t-shirt.

"We went shopping together," Gabe tells Austin. "So that we made sure we didn't get you the same thing again."

All of them, or just Gabe and Nash? I wasn't invited to such a trip, but I guess that makes sense since I'm only a sort-of friend for Gabe. Nash and I are friends, though. At least, I think we are. So it was probably just the two of them. Maybe?

"Cool!" Austin says. "Okay! Nathan! Your present!"

Nathan gives him the bag and Austin opens it up, then grins as he pulls out a blanket with a bunch of different phrases on it relating to theater. There's also a movie, again different from the others'.

Maybe they did all go shopping together…

Nash subtly gets my attention and gestures at his head. I frown for a moment, and he touches his lips, then towards the top of his head. Is he… wanting me to use telepathy?

"Is this what you're wanting?" I ask him.

"Yeah!" He answers, though it's not quite as clear as that because he's got regular thinking mixed in, even if he's forming words for better communication. "Whoa. This is so cool. Wait. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," I answer. "But only what you're sending over the link I made. You just gotta focus on it like you're doing to do that."

"This is cool!" He says. "Quick, before Austin finishes checking out the blanket. You seem a bit worried. Everything alright?"

"Did you all go shopping together for presents?"

"Yeah," he answers. "Oh! Is that what's bothering you? We were going to invite you, since we wanted to make sure no one got him the same thing. That happened last year. Nathan, Gabe, and I all got him the EXACT same things. But you were busy when we were planning for it, and we had a feeling it wouldn't be a problem for you. Not with what you got me and Nathan for our birthdays."

"Oh… when did you go?"

"Monday morning," he answers. "That's why we'd asked you if you were busy. You said you were gonna be doing a lot of pumpkin carving and other prep for Halloween night. And we didn't want to disturb that since we know you take it seriously."

So they were being respectful of me respecting the traditions and making sure no pixies were going to get into the house. It does feel like he's being genuine and even a little apologetic. I shouldn't have gotten upset at this, anyway. They've been friends for a lot longer than I've known any of them and they don't have to invite me.

But it seems like they wanted to, I was just busy.

"You didn't get the same thing as and of us did, did you?" Nash asks.

"No."

"Then it worked out!" He says. "And looks like you're up!"

"Xander!" Austin says. "You're turn!"

I give him the gift bag and he pulls out the tissue paper. The grin on his face and excitement and happiness he feels upon seeing what the first present is matches how he felt for the others. Not as much as the game that Marty got him – he definitely likes that one the most – but it's still as much as for the others' presents.

Okay, good. I was worried he might not like it. The main present is a leather bracelet made with pinkish mindwave cattle leather. Longevity enchantments were placed on it, and I decorated it with patterns of bears and theater masks, since I know Austin likes both of those. Domino masks and full face masks.

When using my pricing chart, it stayed within the budget Dad gave me for the present. He asked Mr. Baker what would be a normal limit for that so that it'd be easier for him to restrict me. There's a worry I'll try to gift someone something that is way beyond what the others are, and Dad doesn't want my presents to steal all of the attention. It also helps to know what's normal for presents, since neither of us really know that.

I'm a foster kid from a boys' home and he's a millionaire. Even if he grew up with humble backgrounds, that was a long time ago and times have changed. Neither of us are really in a situation to know what the present budget is for boys around my age.

So Dad asked Nathan's parents for his birthday, Nash's parents for his, and Austin's parents for his. It's a good thing he did, because we wouldn't have known what to do without that. Dad initially estimated they'd probably only get birthday presents around $20 in value from their friends, but they all do chores and stuff like how Sig used to do so they could have budgets around $50-$60 for buying presents for friends.

Though they don't do that much work too often, just when wanting to get a present for a friend's birthday.

Regular leather would have been fine for the present, but mindwave cattle leather brings the value higher and I know Austin likes how it looks. That's why I picked it over something else.

"Did you make this?" Austin asks as he notices the inside. "Hey! It even has my name on it!"

"Yeah," I nod. "And yeah. I put your name on it to make sure that if you take it off, it's still identifiable as yours. It has my standard longevity enchantments on it, plus something to make sure the imprints don't fade or get dents and stuff."

"I like it!" He puts it on his right wrist. "Thanks, Xander!"

Nash and Nathan both got leather wallets from me, but I felt like Austin would prefer a bracelet over that. Based on how his mind feels, that was definitely the right choice.

"And what's in here?" Austin asks as he pulls out the treat box, though I think it's to himself. "Ooh! Your strawberry shorcake cookies! And some stained glass ones! And snickerdoodles!"

All three of which I've noticed between Youth Group and my parties that he really likes. I didn't want to give him just a bracelet since it's such a small gift, so he got a treat box as well. The same went for Nathan and for Nash for their birthdays.

"Yeah," I say. "There are thirteen of each in there."

"Sweet!" He says. "I'm gonna try one, then let's head to the trampolines!"

For the most part, I just watch them play on the trampolines. They try doing some flips and stuff, but they're more of theater/drama boys than athletic boys. That doesn't matter to them, though. Their minds are filled with enthusiasm even when they fall.

In one section, they try playing Tag on the trampolines. I don't really understand the point of it, but they're definitely having fun.

"Not going to join them?" A worker monitoring the area asks me.

She's not the same one who we met at the entrance, since that one is monitoring the entrance right now. Her job is taking payments, making sure the paperwork is signed, giving grippy socks to those who need them, and so on. This employee's job is monitoring this section of the trampolines to make sure everyone is following the rules.

"I'm not planning on it," I tell her. "I'm just here to support Austin since it's his birthday. I don't like trampolines."

"You've got your own trampoline socks, though?"

Mine are green and grey rather than bright orange, so it's easy to tell that they're not from the trampoline park even without looking at my feet. Just looking in my direction would be enough to notice they're my own.

"I have trampolines at home," I tell her. "But I don't really play on them. It's mostly sometimes my friends. Coach Adam's tried getting me to use them, but I tell him 'no'. It's okay to tell him 'no' for that even though he's my PE coach."

"If you're worried about getting hurt," she tells me. "The nets are enchanted, as are all of the pads, and some other stuff. It's a little bit pricey, but it helps us ensure people are safe. It's almost impossible to fall onto the concrete here. There's also cushioning magic on the mats under the trampolines in case something breaks. We do thoroughly check all of the springs, mats, nets, and so on regularly to make sure they're not wearing out, too. Most trampoline parks do fine without the enchantments, but we wanted to make extra-sure, so we've got them. And you can do smaller jumps if you're not comfortable with bigger jumps."

"I know about the enchantments," I tell her. "Though not all of them are good. The trampoline over there, the cushioning enchantment on the mats has worn out and is only working at about thirty percent strength. And the safety enchantments on that trampoline are breaking down."

"What are you talking about?" She asks, confusion filling her mind.

"The enchantments," I tell her. "And they're all so flawed, too. That's normal for enchantments put by other people, though. But it's bothering me a lot. Y'all should really get a professional out here to check and fix the enchantments that need it. That spring there is missing the strengthening enchantment most of the springs have… oh, you can't see it 'cause it's under padding. Well, it's missing the enchantment. It looks like there's residue from one, though, so it probably wore out."

"I'm not-" she begins.

"Xander can perceive mana and magic," Austin says, having joined us a moment ago. Well, sort of. He's on the trampoline so he's on the other side of a net, and he's bouncing lightly for a few more moments before stopping. "He's literally seeing the enchantments on everything here. Xander? Are there any which aren't safe?"

"Um…" I look around. "I ain't too sure since I dunno how to tell for regular trampolines. But other than that one with its bad cushioning enchantment and that one with the safety enchantments breaking down, they all seem mostly fine other than inefficient enchantments. But I think it's okay to jump on those, too, since the nets will catch you, the foam over the springs protects you from hurting yourselves on those, and you're unlikely to need the cushioning on the mats underneath the trampolines."

"Cool!" He says, then looks back at the employee. "Look up the name 'Xander King' if you don't believe me about him. It's pretty public knowledge. He's kind of a big deal," Austin faces me again. "We're gonna move to the longer trampolines and try to do some races. Wanna join us?"

He asks me that anytime they change what they're doing.

"No," I answer.

"Okay!" He says. "Let us know if you do! You gonna move to those trampolines to watch?"

"Yeah."

"Cool!" He says. "Come on!"

The others exit that trampoline set and move to the longer ones, then do their races. I watch them as they do, and the employee who was trying to chat with me seems to get very nervous and uncomfortable. Why she's nervous, I don't know, but it's really annoying. It's a very strong feeling and I don't want to have to suppress my empathy. It doesn't feel good to do that too much.

At least she's keeping her distance now, since that means I'm not feeling it as strongly as I would if she were continuing to talk with me.

"Hey, Xander," Nash plops down on the trampoline after about ten minutes of racing (sometimes with flip attempts). "Thinking about ways to improve and clean up the enchantments here?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I ain't gonna do that, of course, since it ain't my place, but it's giving me something to do other than watch y'all play. And I'd need to do some tests to make sure my formulas work, and then some tweaks and stuff."

"That's cool," he says. "Are you bored?"

"A little bit," I tell him. "But I'm also trying to guess who's going to win each race, and I'm finding that a good way to help pass the time."

"In addition to the enchantments stuff?"

"My mind is dozens of times faster than yours," I tell him. "So I can think about a lot of stuff in a really short amount of time, comparatively."

"Seriously?" He asks, and his shock is almost as strong-feeling as the employee's nervousness.

"It comes from being both a powerful, skilled temporalist and a dreamsage," I tell him. "Mind mages, time mages, and lightning mages, especially ones who use their magics a lot, tend to have faster minds than others. But our minds ain't mentally older, they're still like our bodies. So I'm still only thirteen, even in my mind."

"Huh," he says. "That's kind of neat. Must be great for tests! I've caught my breath, so I'm gonna get back to playing. Join us if you want!"

Nash returns to racing the others and after a little bit, they move to a sort of course. It has a series of trampolines set up at angles or at different spacings, and the goal is to make it across as fast as possible. Foam blocks rest underneath to cushion falls if someone fails.

I don't do the course, but I do keep track of how long each of the others take for each of their three attempts.

"So?" Austin asks. "Who won?"

"Gabe," I answer. "He was the quickest by one-point-eight seconds. And your dad was just told that the pizza's ready for us."

"Pizza!" Austin exclaims. "Come on, guys!"

We make our way over to the dining area and the tables where the dads are waiting. Mr. Barker was on his way over to the trampolines area, and laughs when he sees us.

"Do you have some sort of extra sense?" He asks. "They just brought the pizzas out for us."

"Xander heard them!" Austin explains. "So we came over! I think we're all ready for food."

"Well," Mr. Barker chuckles. "There's pizza, wings, and bread sticks. And you boys still have the basket meal you can get, too, so if there's not enough here, go ahead and get those."

Austin talks about the movies and game he got for his presents as we eat. He's really looking forward to watching the movies and playing the game and isn't sure what he'll do once he gets home.

"Thanks for coming, everyone!" Austin says once the party finally comes to a close. "I had a lot of fun!"

The others all say that they did.

"I did, too," I add, nodding a little. "Thanks for inviting me."

"You're welcome!" He says. "Aaaand I should've expected that. Thanks!"

Austin accepts the treat box I offer him, then I pull out the one for Nash, then the one for Nathan, then the one for Gabe, then the one for Marty.

"Uh… what are those?" Mr. Erickson asks.

"Treat boxes!" Austin says. "Xander does a lot of baking and sometimes gives his friends boxes of treats after hangouts."

"I hadn't meant to bake all of these," I say. "It just kind of happened…"

"Are they… all thumbprint cookies with icing centers?" Nash snickers a little after peeking into his box. "There's gotta be, like, three layers of them in here, too!"

"Yeah…"

"When did you make those?" Dad asks.

"When Mom and I were baking on Thursday," I answer. "I dunno why I did that, I just did. But. I did do different flavors for the icing for the centers. So there's vanilla, blueberry, and strawberry. Thirty-nine of each in each box."

"Goofball," Dad snorts. "Let's go."

"Bye, Austin," I say. "I hope I'll see you Wednesday."

"See ya!" He says.

I say goodbyes with the others, then leave with Dad. The party was really fun and I'm glad Austin invited me. And now that all of the celebrations and special events are over, it's time to get back to the regular schedule.

At least, until next weekend. Then there's my party, then it's the week of the Festival of Harvests. But we're getting a week of the regular schedule before then, which will be nice. It should help me mentally recover before the next celebrations.

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