Yulia woke up to the smell of something wonderful. She quickly got out of bed and hurried to the kitchen.

“Good morning!” she stated happily as she hopped onto her stool. “What’s for breakfast? It smells really good.”

Alex turned to her and smiled. “These are called pancakes. But you aren’t getting any until you wash up. Do it quickly or they will get cold.”

Yulia groaned and slid from her stool. She would have dragged her feet, but her stomach growled, reminding her that she was really hungry. So she quickly cleaned her face and hands. Yulia didn’t know why Alex made her do this before eating every morning. She had to shower right before classes anyway.

When she returned to the table, there was a plate with two big tan circles on it and a bottle of some red stuff off to the side along with a yellow stick of something. “What’re those?”

“Pancakes, artificial butter, and fruit syrup.”

She grimaced at the artificial butter. That didn’t sound like a food she wanted to eat. “Can I just have the syrup?”

“It’s your breakfast,” he stated.

She took the small bottle and poured a generous portion over the pancakes. They didn’t look like any cake she had ever eaten before, then again, the only cake she ever had was at Markus’ last birthday party. Sarah and Claire said it had been a really good cake, so that was the measuring stick she used to judge these pancakes.

The pancake was warm and fluffy and the fruit syrup was sweet and delicious. It wasn’t as sweet as the cake at Markus’ party, but she decided it was good in a different way. She was about to tell Alex so before she remembered not to talk with her mouth full. Yulia quickly chewed and swallowed the bite she had taken. “It’s really good, Alex!”

“I’m glad it turned out ok. I wasn’t sure if it would with me having to swap some ingredients out.” Yulia nodded along as he spoke. Alex got like this sometimes. He would go on about some subject that she didn’t understand but she didn’t mind. She would listen and nod attentively so he didn’t feel bad.

It was the least she could do since Alex always listened when she talked, and she knew she talked a lot.

“Anything interesting going on in class today?” Alex asked as he cleaned up the dishes.

“Umm… Oh, we’re doing arts and crafts today. …What are arts and crafts?”

Alex chuckled. “Those are like the pictures you drew with the crayons. Or they could be paintings or other things.”

Yulia smiled at that. She liked drawing. “Did you ask them to do arts and crafts, Alex?”

“I may have suggested something like it a few months ago. I’m glad to see they are implementing some of my suggestions.” Alex looked at his watch. “You better hurry and finish up your breakfast so you can wash and get dressed or you could be late.”

She quickly finished the food and gave Alex a sticky hug. He groaned at that, which caused her to giggle as she ran into the bathroom.

***

“Sarah, Claire,” Yulia waved as she hurried down the hall.

Her friends stopped to wave back at her. “Cutting it close today, what kept you?”

“Alex made me a really tasty breakfast. Something called pancakes. It was really good.”

Both girls nodded at that.

“Pancakes are really good,” Claire declared.

The three of them walked into class together.

Arts and crafts were fun. She liked the watercolors the most, but it was hard to paint with them. She didn’t feel so bad when she saw all the other kids in her age group having similar issues with the paints. At least she hadn’t gotten them all over her like some of the younger kids had. She hoped Alex didn’t have a bunch of angry parents yelling at him for introducing such a messy activity to the children.

“What are you two doing after class?” Yulia asked.

“My parents have chores for me. Why? Do you wanna help out?” Sarah smiled sweetly.

Yulia just snorted. “No way. What about you Claire?”

“Same. I’ll be free tomorrow though.”

“Alright, I’ll see you two tomorrow.” She waved to her friends as she rushed home.

“Alex!” She was surprised to see him home, usually, he didn’t come home until it was time for the evening meal. In those cases, she would either hang out with her friends, explore, or visit him at his workshop.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Not with your friends today?”

She shook her head. “They were busy.”

“If you’re free, I have something you could help me with.”

She nodded. “Ok. Can I bring Dog?”

“The more the merrier,” he replied happily.

Yulia followed Alex as he took her to the atrium where most of the people lived. It was pretty much on the opposite side of the facility from Alex’s workshop. While she liked to explore the hallways, she didn’t often come down this way because there were too many people for her liking. It was fine if Alex was with her though.

He stopped at a few places and spoke with a few people, sometimes he reached into his belt and handed out those little metal cards in exchange for something like food or other items that would be dropped off at their home or his shop at a later time.

It was rather boring, but she did her best not to look bored.

Alex chuckled softly. “Not finding this all that interesting, I take it?”

It seemed she wasn’t doing a very good job. She shrugged, “It’s fine, I guess.”

“Uh-huh. Well, we’re almost done. How about we go past the playground on the way back?”

She would prefer to go there with her friends, but going with Alex was nice too. She nodded happily.

It didn’t take Alex long to finish up what he was doing and they took the long way back to the playground. If she had to walk the whole way, she would have been exhausted. But Alex carried her most of the way there. Every time they walked through a doorway, she tried jumping up to touch the top of the frame. She didn’t worry about falling, Alex caught her every time she came down. And he didn’t even scold her about how dangerous it was after the first few times.

As they entered the playground atrium, she found the place rather quiet. It was always quieter now that the Hawks were gone, but you could usually hear a few kids playing. There was nothing today.

She tried to get a better look as she stood atop Alex, but he picked her up and placed her back on the ground. She was about to pout when she heard some noises.

“I wonder what that could be?” Alex said.

The pair of them approached the park from the opposite side. As they rounded a bend, she was greeted by tons of people.

“SURPRISE!” they all yelled as one, making her jump slightly. “Happy birthday, Yulia!”

Alex chuckled next to her. “What, did you forget it was your birthday?”

She actually had forgotten. Well, she knew it was coming up soon, but she didn’t know the exact date.

Yulia could see her friends Claire, Sarah, and Markus as well as the other kids from the orphanage and the classroom. Even that mean older boy Charlie was here, but he didn’t look very happy to be here. Yulia could feel herself start to cry. They were happy tears, but she didn’t want to cry in front of her friends, so she quickly blinked them away.

Alex gave her a gentle push. “Go play and have fun.” He pointed off to the side where some weirdly colorful thing sat. “That’s a bouncy castle. Just make sure to take your shoes off before going inside and have fun. Happy birthday, Yulia.”

Yulia turned to Alex and gave him the fiercest hug she could manage before hurrying to join her laughing and giggling friends. Dog gave a happy bark as he chased after her.

The bouncy castle was interesting. But she quickly grew bored of just bouncing off the floor, so she started trying to see what would happen if she bounced off the walls or fell to the floor. She found she could bounce back to her feet if she did it right. That made it more fun, and soon everyone was trying to copy her.

Some were better at it than others. The little kids seemed to enjoy it far more than the older ones. Probably because they could bounce much higher when someone else fell down next to them.

After the bouncy castle, the kids moved on to a very serious game of tag. The tag rules from Petrov Station had taken off on Eden’s End but this game was slightly different. As the birthday girl, she got to start as the tagged. Once she tagged someone, she couldn’t be tagged again until everyone playing had been tagged once. So instead of just tagging the first person you saw, or trying to tag the same person back, you had to plan ahead and try to corner your target. You could work together with the person that was it, or against them.

She had to admit, the kids from Petrov had the advantage when it came to this version of tag. They had been playing a similar version of it their entire lives, so they were much more experienced. Yulia was a master at the game, preventing the last person from tagging her until they were called over for food. Even if she wasn’t the fastest or tallest kid in the group. Using the stuff she learned from working on Alex’s puzzles to her advantage, she was able to plan out her route in advance, keeping the other kids from cornering her.

The food was awesome. Alex had made something called a chicken nugget. Yulia was pretty sure a chicken was a bird of some sort, but there weren’t any birds here as far as she knew. It tasted a bit like the soy patties, but she didn’t mind. In fact, she was having more fun than she could ever remember. Markus’ party had been fun, but Alex had pulled out all the stops for hers.

After the food came the cake. It was something called angel food cake and it was topped by fresh strawberries and something called whipped cream. Everyone oohed and was awed at that. It was rare to get fresh fruit. Most of it was freeze-dried or powdered so it would last longer. She learned that in class. The cake and fruit were delicious.

After that came the presents. Yulia hadn’t seen so many presents in her entire life. She thanked and hugged every person who gave her one, even Charlie. The mean boy turned beet red when she hugged him, which was weird but he was a boy. Did that make it normal since boys were weird? She shook her head, that was a question with no answer.

When everyone had given their gifts, Alex leaned down. “Did you have a good time?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

He laughed softly and ruffled her hair. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. You may be wondering where my gift for you is. It was a little too big to bring along, so I had some people set it up at home.”

“Is that why you made us take the long way?” she asked. Alex only smiled and winked.

The party was amazing, but by the time it was over, her feet were dragging. Alex had called up all of his remote carts to shuttle people and the other kids home so they wouldn’t have to walk. She was a bit jealous of that. She wanted to ride on the carts too. But Alex simply carried her since their home was much closer.

When they arrived, she pushed open the door to see what Alex got for her. She wasn’t expecting the printer, so she was a bit confused.

“Now you can make anything you want… within reason. Tomorrow is the weekend, so I can help you set it up and show you how to work the design program. It’s a simplified version of the one I use.”

Yulia wasn’t sure what she would make first, she had so many ideas. She gave Alex another big hug before running over to look at the printer. Her enthusiasm didn’t last long, mostly because she fell asleep a few minutes later.