There were four other cars pulled up to the tree line. They weren't quite at the same gap where Alexa had parked before, but it was the same meadow. There were a few tents already up too, one was glowing blue and caught Sarah's attention immediately. When Alexa turned the car's engine off and the girls got out, Sarah heard talking coming from the cluster of tents.

Jacob, the boy Sarah had met at the burrito place, came racing towards them, accompanied by another guy who also glowed green. The second guy was wearing long dreads that flailed the air behind him as he ran, and Sarah assumed this was Parker. Both of them practically jumped at Alexa, engulfing her in a hug with audible thumps when they crashed into each other.

"This was such a great idea!" said Jacob. "Letting loose out here is just amazing! Way better than just messing around in empty lots."

"And I finally get to meet everyone," said Parker, turning away from Alexa and waving. "Sarah, right? I've heard about you from Jake. I guess I've got you to thank."

"Nice to meet you," Sarah waved back. "And I didn't do anything, you don't need to thank me."

"Sure," said Parker and Jacob together, both smiling at Sarah.

"Come on down, I'll introduce you both to everyone," said Parker as he shook his blond hair out of his face.

"Just a second, I'll grab our stuff," said Alexa.

She and Sarah walked around the back of the car and pulled out their bags. Parker and Jacob scuffled a bit, trying to insist on carrying the girls' stuff, but Alexa just shoved them out of the way and dumped everything into a big-wheeled canvas wagon that Sarah had picked up. The wagon rattled its way towards the campsite, and the two green boys followed it sheepishly.

"Dummies," said Alexa with a smile.

"They're, uh, happy," said Sarah.

"For sure, it's nice being around people who want to be around, you know?" said Alexa.

"Makes sense," said Sarah, walking down the trail to the others.

From what she'd heard, most of the people here were about the same age. Kayla was the youngest they'd heard about, and she wasn't coming. Austin was the oldest and probably wouldn't show up either. According to Finn, he'd been noncommittal. Something about working weekends too often. Everyone else was either in high school or else in the first year or two of college and was excited to be there. So far, Finn was the only one in their group who'd actually met everyone on Sarah's list.

There were four people standing in a little cluster around a big black carry bag that glowed with blue light. They made an oddly balanced little group. A Hispanic boy and girl with a pretty clear family resemblance towered over another pair. The shorter pair were each pale and a little disheveled looking, and all four were focused on the tent between them.

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"Nah, it's easy, try it, I really don't get why you're worried," said the pale girl. Now that she was closer, Sarah thought the girl's very short brown hair had once been a page boy cut, but it had grown out long enough to lose its shape. Sarah could see bits of blue filling her clothing, a lot of it concentrated in a belt made of little square panels.

"Because it's plastic, and I watched you do yours," said the boy she was talking to. He was as pale as the girl, although his skin was marred by some rather bad acne. "You had to refill it like three times, and it's tiny and I don't have a sink yet."

"You mean that belt?" asked the tall boy.

"Yes, I mean her belt," snapped the short boy.

"What's it made of?" asked Sarah, interrupting the argument. "It's really cool."

The siblings jumped, hearing Sarah speak up, but the other two just straightened up and gave Sarah perfunctory little smiles. "Horn, from water buffalo," said the girl. "It was my grandfather's, he got it from a trip somewhere and gave it to me. It's handy. I'm Sam, by the way."

"Sarah," she gave her name with her own little wave.

"I like your bracelet," said Samantha. "I'm guessing you use it like the belt?"

"Probably, but he's handy sometimes too," said Sarah. The last few inches of Cuddles' tail unclasped and waved as well. "It's nice to meet everyone."

With that cue, the others introduced themselves. Sarah already guessed who they all were, by process of elimination. Ashleigh was the smaller boy, he had the same magic Sarah did, even if he wasn't wearing anything that shone like her or Samantha. Samantha and Ashleigh were both wearing loose clothing in darker colors, although Ashleigh did have a metal bracelet on his left arm. The two taller kids were Beckham and Taylor.

"So what's going on?" asked Sarah once introductions were done.

"Samantha was showing off," said Ashleigh. He glanced at Sarah's little cart and lifted his lip a little. "I guess maybe it comes naturally."

Samantha held a hand over the bag, and the blue light that had filled it gathered into her left hand before transferring it into her belt. "Fine, you can set it up however you'd like."

"I will, thank you," said Ashleigh. He picked up the bag and trudged away from where everyone was grouped together.

"I'm glad not all you blue types are so snappy," said Jacob.

"Be nice," said Alexa. "He'll loosen up. Sarah was the same way. He just needs to be a bit more adventurous, that's all."

Parker nodded. "He's epileptic. Or they thought he was? Anyway, I think he's knocked himself out a few times since he noticed me glowing green in class. He's nervous. And I think he's mad he didn't hear about the thing about carrying extra space. You never mentioned that to me, Alexa."

"Well, it didn't matter to you. I didn't realize you'd run into someone on your own," said Alexa. "I guess I should have."

"Don't feel bad," said Samantha. "No one told me either, but it made sense after I burnt myself that first time. He could have figured it out if he wanted to. Hey, Sarah, wanna see the tent thing?"

"Sure," laughed Sarah. She pulled her and Alexa's tent out of the wagon and heaved it into Samantha's arms.

Samantha immediately dumped it on the ground and filled the bag and its contents with blue light channeled from her belt. Ashleigh had been right, it was clearly pretty finicky. The super thin polyester fabric seemed to fill immediately, and Sarah could see it lose light even before it started moving. It quickly unfolded itself and stretched into shape. The poles clacked and slithered through the catches sewn into the fabric, and in a moment the tent was fully set up. The whole time Samantha had been hovering, paying close attention, and keeping it all topped off. At one point, one of the poles lost power and picked the whole tent up as it suddenly snapped straight, but Samantha got it under control fast enough.

"Lucky," said Taylor. "All we can do is set stuff on fire."