This was only the third time she'd ever been camping, but Sarah had already learned that the food tasted good. She wasn't sure if it was just being outdoors, or if it was the fire, or what, but even cheap hot dogs half-charred on a stick tasted amazing.

Everyone had brought something. There were hot dogs, potatoes, bags of cookies and chips, and more. Jacob had brought a Dutch oven that he used to make a cobbler. It wasn't complicated, he dumped in canned peaches, dumped a box of cake mix in, then poured some off-brand lemon soda over it all and put it into the fire for a while. Parker had chili in another big cast iron pot.

Those two struggled at first because there weren't any coals to cook with. They were used to fishing out mostly burnt wood to set under and on top of their pots, but the blue firewood hadn't made any. Sarah had shown Ashleigh and Samantha, and they'd gotten a kick out of the merry flames that reached into the air. Like before, the wood didn't snap and pop, didn't throw sparks up, and best of all it was smokeless. Everyone kept talking about how nice it was to crowd around the fire and not need to constantly shift around to keep smoke from their faces.

Sarah took that in stride, she'd never really dealt with smoke like that. They'd piled about as much wood as they could fit into the pit, creating a bonfire that made flickering shadows fill the meadow. Jacob finally just set the pot near the base of the fire, warning everyone they might end up with burnt or undercooked dessert. That didn't stop him from checking it incessantly, and as far as Sarah was concerned it was perfect.

The real star of the meal was a surprise to Sarah. Ashleigh had brought stuff to put on their baked potatoes. A lot of it was pretty normal, cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, bacon bits, stuff like that. But he'd also brought several tins of sardines packed in oil. He took one of the big prongs that they were using for the hot dogs, made a scoop on the end with tin foil, and cooked the sardines over the flames. Once they were good and sizzling, he'd carefully put a single fish on top of the baked potato before smearing on butter and sour cream and all the other stuff.

Alexa and Taylor refused to even try it, and most of the boys made it into one of their weird competitions, but Sarah thought the salty savoriness of the fish was the perfect punctuation that kept the baked potato from tasting boring. Samantha and Beckham seemed to agree with Sarah.

Once everyone finally started to slow down, conversations began to start up. They were mostly pretty standard, with lots of little questions about majors, siblings, or hobbies. Parker and Finn were arguing about a Transformers movie, and how it compared to other series. Sarah listened to the two of them, but she couldn't decide which one of them liked the movie more, or whether they liked it at all, or what.

She watched the flames while the chattering began to rise, and realized she couldn't see Alexa at all. The other girl was sitting opposite the fire from her. The wood and flames made it difficult to see Ashleigh and Taylor too. Sarah glanced at Finn, and he noticed her looking around and nodded at her.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Sarah wasn't quite sure what he meant with the nod but decided he'd given her a go-ahead. She didn't say anything, instead, she reached her hand out and pulled all the blue light out of the logs in the fire, shoving it into Cuddles. She left two small sticks near the bottom filled, but the rest began popping and crackling as they finally started burning for real. Everyone had stopped talking to watch her as she did that, but she still didn't say anything.

As though he'd been following her cue, Finn gathered up his own light, and he made a series of tiny and complicated patterns surrounding the fire as everyone turned to watch him. As the light began turning into power, a steady breeze fed into the fire from all sides. Finn kept siphoning more and more red light into his fans, and the flames in the fire leaped high into the night air.

Everyone was silent, and a few people scooted back as the fire gave off painful heat. Sarah sat still, enjoying the warmth on her face. The flames were roaring in the night, Finn's bellows keeping it burning hot and fast. In just minutes, even the biggest logs were burnt through and crumbled into coals around the little surviving logs at the bottom. Finn let his fans go out, and the quiet thundered through the night.

Sarah looked around, the fire still gave off plenty of light, more than enough for her to see everyone clearly. The trickle of flame and glowing coals made for dramatic shadows, but everyone was focused on the fire.

They were dirty, sweaty, and wearing old jeans, ratty sweatshirts, and broken-down sneakers. They were sitting in mismatched camp chairs that creaked and groaned when someone shifted their weight. They were all kids, not one of them could legally drink beer, but there was something almost religious that swept over them, looking at each other.

Alexa, Jacob, and Porter all glowed with green light. It was diffused through their body, although Alexa had a bit more light focused in her head and eyes than the other two. Sarah, Samantha, and Ashleigh all flickered with little bits of blue around their bodies. Ashleigh's boots were bright, and Sarah could see where his light had flowed around the steel caps set in their toes. Samantha's belt and other bits glowed with a bright light that contrasted with the fading light in her jeans and hoodie. Sarah dripped with light, not only had she illuminated her leather jacket, bracelet, and hiking boots, but she was wearing cotton sweats that shone in the darkness, and if someone bothered to look close they'd notice the light from the string of teeth in her pocket. Beckham and Taylor didn't shine in the darkness, but they were the two largest people in the circle, and they loomed from their chairs in the darkness.

Everyone was looking at Finn. He loomed too, leaning forward in his chair with set shoulders set and straight back. He was sitting farther from the fire than the rest of them, letting him see everyone all at once. A bit more red light gathered around his feet, and suddenly a white light flared up, illuminating him from below and casting his face into shadow. Sarah hadn't noticed before, but he hadn't dressed in his older clothes like the rest of them. Most everyone was in ratty jeans and shirts, or drowning in big rumpled hoodies. Finn was wearing cowboy boots, jeans that still didn't have any faded wear patterns or fray around the hems, and a button-down shirt that stretched across his chest.

He cleared his throat, meeting everyone's eyes, and smiled.

"Well, I guess we should get started," he said. "Thanks for coming, everyone. I'll make sure Austin and Kayla hear about what we talk about.

"But first of all, I'd like to call the first meeting of the Shining Fraternity to order."

Instead of solemn silence, at least two raspberries were blown, and a marshmallow sailed over the fire to bounce off Finn's head.