[Sig – 13 years]

The recording session is done, lunch has been eaten, and it's time for more fun! We boys already took off our shirts after the recording session – especially Carter, whose shirt had started to stick to him from sweat – to enjoy the summer sun more. Now we're changing into swim trunks behind some rubble so the adults don't see anything as we change. Tate and Carter are going to bust out their water magic and we're going to use it to cool off while having fun.

They brought swim trunks with them because they were planning on jumping into one of the springs of Nine Springs once the recording session was done, but with three of us here, there's more that we can do.

"By the way," I say as we put our clothes at the trucks. "I didn't tell you guys the last couple of times we met, but I've been learning magic! Only air magic, though. My teacher says it's best to focus on just one type for now and while I wanted to learn water magic so I wasn't the only one left out on this sort of thing… I want to learn lightning magic more!"

"Really?" Tate asks. "What kinds of air magics can you do? My floating spell's air magic, you know."

"I do!" I nod. "And it's not much. I started working extra to earn more money so I could pay for the lessons after I came back from the ranch last summer. They're soooo expensive! You guys are lucky, having your parents teach you.

"Since I'm starting at normal mana values for a person," I tell them. "I can't do much. Just make some stuff float and stuff like that. Fill up beach balls, deflate them. Make small object float above my palm. Really minor spells. But I have doubled my mana capacity in the last year! So I'm hoping that once I get the techniques down, I can do a lot more!"

"What techniques?" Mr. Cox asks, and I look over at him. "How's your instructor teaching you? There's a right way and a wrong way to do it, and if you managed to double your mana capacity in the last year but you can only make small objects float, something's not right."

"Why?" I ask. "Isn't it like building muscles? I practice a lot, so it would make sense for it to double."

"Doubling in a year isn't actually that easy," he says. "Most people manage to raise their capacity by ten percent in a year of dedicated training. You either have a natural talent for building mana, or you're putting in an absurd amount of effort to learn spells."

"Just a few hours a week, even when I don't have lessons," I say. "That's all I can really do with my current capacity and abilities."

"So you have a natural talent for building mana," he says. "Though that can also come with a healthy, fit body. Even people who aren't from magic bloodlines can have some talent – like two ordinary people somehow having a genius of a child. So I'm curious about the techniques you're using to cast spells."

"How I cast the spells, not how I'm being taught?"

"The former will tell me the latter," he says. "And I want to know the part about how you start casting the spell, not the actual spell cast itself."

While that sounds a bit weird to hear, I know what he means. There are two steps to casting a spell: channeling one's mana and the actual spell itself. He's asking about the channeling part, or where I feed my mana into the spell formula.

"Ah," I say. "Um… air magics are light and fluffy, right? Since it's air itself that I'm wielding and creating? So I funnel the spell a bit like a tornado, starting wider and then shrinking it down to a point that releases or controls the air."

"Is that how your instructor taught you to do it?" Mr. Cox asks.

"Yeah."

"Buddy," Tate puts a hand on my shoulder, and my heart stops for a moment for some weird reason as I become extremely aware of the touch. "You're getting scammed!"

"Scammed?"

"Yes," Mr. Cox says. "Scammed. They may or may not be doing it on purpose, but that is absolutely the wrong way to teach someone."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Magic," Tate releases my shoulder and steps in front of me. "Is finnicky. It tends to do its own thing and we are really just its channels. But at the same time, everyone has a little bit of nuance that affects how they use magic. Some of those nuances make it easier to cast certain types of spells – what you know as a 'magical bloodline'. Nuances in my family's bloodline make it easier for us to cast certain types of mind magic such as shielding and telepathy, but also float and self-enhancement."

"Mine," Carter says. "Makes it easier for me to use water magics, and also self-enhancement."

"That's not all there is to these nuances," Mr. Cox tells me. "As Tate said, they also affect how you cast spells. Some of them can be passed from parent to child, but some of them are based on the person's own unique quirks. When I cast a spell to enhance my body's durability, the method involves infusing, for lack of a better word, my body with the visualization of the hardiness of stone."

"For me," Tate says. "It's more like I'm pushing my will to not get hurt into my body."

"They're both a form of self-enhancement magic," Mr. Cox says. "But they're cast in different ways because of our individual quirks."

"A better example's probably my parents and me!" Carter jumps up and down while raising his hands. "Yours isn't physical and just sounds weird!"

"You're right," Mr. Cox snorts. "Why don't you tell him?"

"So my mom," Carter says. "When she uses water magic, she casts it as if gathering rain together within her mana, then unleashing it into the spell she wants. My dad says that for him, it's more like he visualizes diverting water from a river. For me, however, it's more like there's a mist and I pull some of it away from the rest and gather it together as I shape it into the spell."

"So each person's is different?" I ask. "So that's just my instructor's way of doing it? She said it's how all air magic is done."

"It probably is for her," Mr. Cox says. "But no, it's not how everyone does it. I know a few wind spells, and they follow my quirk of 'infusing with some trait of the magic'. What we've all shared is our general trait that's shared between all of the spells we cast. There are smaller nuances to them that are more difficult to describe."

He points at my chest.

"If you've managed to double your mana in a year," he says. "And you're practicing your magic every week, then it might not be difficult for you to find your nuance. You're likely already familiar with your mana flow."

"A little bit," I nod, then glance at Tate and Carter. "Is it okay if I give that a try? I'm really super curious now."

If my instructor's been teaching me wrong all this time, then I might be able to make better progress on my casting if I figure out the proper way for me to cast.

"Sure!" Tate says. "I wanna see you cast your first spell properly!"

Now I don't want to mess up this, so I close my eyes and focus. I can sort of sense my mana, which fills my body. It's been a few days since my last use of it so I'm all the way full right now. Tonight was going to be my next practice session if I don't do a sleepover.

"Try to channel your mana," Mr. Cox tells me. "Don't try to shape it into a spell, just try to push some out of your hand. If you can feel your own mana well enough, you'll be able to spot how it wants to move. Guide it through that pattern."

"Okay," I nod.

"Since you don't have a magic bloodline," he says. "It won't want to be shifted into any particular form of magic. Don't feel discouraged if it just wants to be shaped but not into any particular type, okay?"

"Right."

I probably would have been a little unhappy if it didn't want to turn into wind or lightning magic, so it's good he reminded me I don't have an affinity for magic itself.

After about a minute of letting a small bit of my mana flow out of me, I feel the way my mana wants to flow. It doesn't want to be a small vortex of wind within me. It's more like it wants to surround me, like a bubble or a gale. If I had a water affinity, it would probably be like if I were completely submerged in a pool. For air magic, it would probably be like it wants to surround me like a tornado.

If this is the right way for me to make my mana flow, then casting it into a wind spell won't really show anything. Except maybe some shifting of my shorts and hair. Maybe if I were to tweak the air-generation spell just a little into another one that I looked up, I could show it well. My instructor scolded me for trying to focus on too many magic types when just learning.

"Eep!" I exclaim as something cold touches my skin in several spots, causing me to open my eyes and jump as well. "Cold!"

"Did you just make snow?" Tate giggles.

"I did!" I exclaim. "Wait! I did! I made snow! Jeez, that was cold!"

The snow's already melted in the summer heat so I can't see it, but they saw the snow so I know it worked!

"Aunt Rachel!" I jump up and down a little. "Did you see that? I cast a spell more properly this time!"

It was so much easier than my normal casts, too!

"I did," she says. "That was pretty neat, Sig."

"It was, right?" I nod, then look at Mr. Cox. "Thanks for helping me!"

"That wasn't quite wind magic," he says. "I take it you've looked up other types of magics before?"

"I did," I nod. "And it's like my mana wants to surround me when I use it. I'm not sure how well that'll work for most spells, though…"

"That's where a proper instructor comes in," he says. "They can help you learn how to cast spells which seem to go against the quirks of your casting. Pare down the scale of your magic surrounding you to, say, just your hand. I don't really know the mages down here that well so I won't be able to give recommendations on a proper instructor here, though. Sorry."

"It's fine!" I tell him. "If I'd known that my instructor wasn't a good one before now, I would've asked some mages I know if they knew a good one. There's a mage district I go to in town sometimes, and they're all pretty cool folks. I'm sure one could give me a recommendation for an instructor. Though I probably won't be able to do even every two weeks like I am with my current one… she just gives basic lessons and charges three hundred an hour. That's a lot of mowed yards and dogs sat just for one hour."

"Yeah, no, that is a scam," Tate says. "Three hundred an hour? And she doesn't teach properly? She's got no clue what she's doing. Talk to one of the mage shop owners you're good with and I guarantee that you'll get a much better instructor at a much better rate!"

"Oh, um. Okay," maybe I should have done more research on magic instructors before starting.

"Whatever it is," Aunt Rachel tells me. "You'll still need to do some work to pay for it, Sig. That's too expensive of an extra for me, okay?"

"That's fine!" I tell her. "I always pay for my own stuff, remember? Tate! Carter! Let's go!"

Tate, Carter, and I run into a grassy section which is part of a park. A run-down park, but a park. The equipment might still be safe to play on but that's not what we're doing.

Carter conjures three-inch spheres of water and shoots them at Tate and me, and we do our best to dodge them. He doesn't keep controlling them after he shoots them, so there's no moving them around to make sure they hit. If we do get struck by one of the spheres, we run outside of the 'zone' we're imagining exists, then charge back in. Our goal is to tackle Carter while his goal is to keep us from getting him.

Dodging the water shots is really fun, though he does manage to hit me quite a lot. It takes a few minutes, but I manage to tackle him before Tate does, letting out a yell as I slam into him. We hit the ground laughing.

"Same as last time?" I ask as we get back to our feet. "I don't think I could conjure water like that. Just a small bit of snow around me, and that took out a good chunk of my mana, too, so no way could I keep it up."

All of the past times we played like this, things were a little bit different when I was It due to me not being able to make orbs of water. Instead of me trying to hit them with water magic, they had to try and keep their water orbs away from me, within a few restrictions. It had to be at chest- or head-level for me the entire time, they had to maintain control, and they only got five orbs total. If they lost all five orbs, then the other one was the new It. Moving their orbs out of the same level as my head or torso would also disqualify that orb and they would need to cast a new one.

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The level of my head or torso when fully standing, so me jumping or ducking doesn't change the requirement. That would be too complicated.

"Yeah!" Carter says. "And we're a lot better since we played this in September! I can move around more while keeping control, so you better watch out!"

"You watch!" I grin. "I'll get you again!"

I go to the starting spot for the one who's It, then count to ten. Tate and Carter take up their positions, and once I reach ten, they conjure three-inch orbs of water. Carter only conjures one while Tate casts two.

Weird. Isn't Carter the one who'd have better control? I want Tate to be the next It since I want to tackle him, too. Make it even!

I begin chasing after their orbs, Tate and Carter both doing their best to keep them out of my reach. Tate manages to maintain two orbs while moving around and moving them around, but he gives up after losing two of them to me charging head-first into them and a third one to just dropping it. I guess he was stretching his abilities to show off, which was pretty cool!

Carter's pretty cool, too. He manages to keep his orbs away from me a lot more easily, and I end up taking Tate out instead, so Carter resumes his spot as It. His shots of water are pretty fast, including his casting speed. Tate's a little bit slower and his orbs don't go as far, but they're still fun to try and avoid when it's his turn as It.

Running into the water, getting hit by the water, dodging the spheres, and tackling each other is really fun. Them being faster and having more stamina than me doesn't really give them too much of an edge for this as my reflexes are actually better than theirs so I can dodge more easily, even if they can get closer to the other when trying to tackle the one who's It.

So as long as I do a good job of timing my evasions, the playing field's pretty even.

We keep the games up for about half an hour, each round lasting about two or three minutes, and by the time we're done, we're all exhausted. The grassy field we're in is pretty muddy and we've got a decent amount of mud on us in addition to being soaked all the way from the water. We've even got mud covering our feet and halfway up our calves now!

"Hold on, boys," Mr. Cox says as we approach, gesturing with his hands a little. "Stop right there."

"Why?" We ask together.

A shadow covers us and we look up to see water stretching over us, then it drops down and soaks us more. Also washes off the mud, too!

"That was awesome!" I exclaim. "Do it again! Do it again! Please?"

"Alright!" He laughs, then gestures with his hands again and creates another span of water to drop on us. "Are you boys ready for ice cream? Mr. Fuller here has some in his cooler."

"Yeah!" "Ice cream!" "Of course!"

"Sig," Aunt Rachel says as Mr. Fuller opens up the cooler he's got sitting on his tailgate. "The dads and I spoke a little before they left and we were talking about maybe going up to the ranches as a group. Me, you, them, and the other boys."

This is a "they know I was always fine and Mr. Cox and the Martins were concerned about me and wanting to make sure I was fine, but we're still not completely sure and don't want you there without us" sort of thing. I'm sure of it.

Aunt Rachel probably didn't want to go up there just the two of us, but it'd be weird for one of the dads to come up with me but not his son. Then it'd be weird for just two of the four of us to go without a good reason for the other two to not go. So it probably turned into a group vacation thingy as a result of that.

That doesn't matter, as all it means is that I get to go up to the ranches again, and probably for longer than a day!

"Seriously?" I ask.

"Seriously," she answers. "We'll need to sort out the 'when', since their schedules aren't that flexible and they still want to do their annual camping trip with everyone – and yes, I'm fine with you going on that – but we'll be renting some hotel rooms as a group, with one for you boys."

"Can I stay at Tate's?" I ask. "That's where I stayed when I spent the week there."

"Can he?" Tate asks as soon as I finish speaking.

Even he wants me to!

"Please?" I ask.

"We'll have to see," Aunt Rachel says. "We can talk about that more later, but maybe towards the end of the trip."

"Yes!" I tackle her for a hug. "Thank you, Aunt Rachel! Thank you thank you thank you!"

"Sig!" She laughs. "You're getting me all wet!"

I tilt my head down and start rubbing it against her, since my hair's definitely going to still be holding water. That just makes her laugh more as she tries to push me away.

"Go get your ice cream, Sig!"

----------------------------------------

[Luke – 13 years]

"Hey, Mom," I poke my head into her office. "I'm gonna stop here for today. I've made good progress on the generator, so it'll probably be ready for production and sale by the end of next week."

Today was really good for cleaning up the magitech and enchantments, but it's nearly two-thirty in the afternoon now and I've been working since six in the morning with only brief breaks for food. Breaks my parents made sure happen because I was a bit too into my work to remember on my own.

Finishing up for the day now is probably better or I might be here not just the rest of the day, but all night, too!

"Alright," she says. "Are you heading home?"

"Maybe," I answer. "Xavier's going to take me there, but I might see if Xander wants to go shopping. I really wanna do try finding a new outfit style, I just don't like this one anymore."

"Good luck," she says. "And remember not to push if he says 'no'. There weren't classes because he was overwhelmed, so he probably will."

He'd probably decline even if he weren't, but it doesn't hurt to try!

"See you tonight!" I tell her.

"See you," she says. "Love you, sweetie."

"Love you!" I wave, then head downstairs to Xavier's car.

He takes me to Xander's house, and the guard at the gate calls in something, then lets me through after getting a response. At the front door, I'm greeted by Frank, the head of Trey's personal security.

"Xander was taking a nap," Frank tells me. "So he's up in his room now. If he doesn't answer when you knock, he's likely still asleep so don't push."

"Yes, sir!" I salute, then head up to Xander's room and knock on the door.

I can feel Xander's electrical signals and they're located in the location I'm pretty sure his bed is, so he probably is asleep. Since I sometimes stay in bed after waking up, I wait a little bit just in case Xander does that, too.

After about thirty seconds, Xander's electrical signal shifts a little, then again, then again. It's just moving to the side, but then it moves up. He's awake!

I don't know what Xander does but it takes him a full minute after getting up to get to the door. When he opens it, he's wearing shorts and a t-shirt that's on backwards. Not one of his usual long-sleeved shirts but a regular short-sleeved one. Trenton is clutched against his chest while he gives me a sleepy-but-confused look.

Oh! He was putting on a shirt and that's why it took him so long! Though I guess he's sleepy enough that it took him a minute to actually do it.

Wait, he sleeps wearing just shorts? That seems so unlike him. I thought he slept in full pajamas, including long sleeves and even socks, too! He must be really comfortable when he's alone, then.

"Oh," he rubs an eye. "Hi Luke. I was taking a nap."

"Did I wake you?" I ask. "Sorry! I didn't mean to knock that loud! It was supposed to be softer in case you were still asleep, since Frank said you were taking a nap. Do you want to go clothes shopping with me? You don't have to buy anything, I just want to go clothes shopping but I don't like going by myself. It's always good to have a second opinion! Parker's in a bad mood for some weird reason and doesn't want to hang out so I why are you putting Trenton in front of your face?"

"Because saying someone's noisy is rude."

"You can always tell me if I'm being noisy!" I tell him. "So anyway, I was thinking I could ask you to come with me instead! I know you don't like hanging out with me, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask! So what do you say? Want to go clothes shopping with me?"

Xander lowers Trenton and stares at me for a few seconds.

"It takes you a bit to wake up fully, doesn't it?" I ask.

"Sometimes."

"Parker drinks coffee to deal with that," I tell him. "But I don't recommend it. I'm pretty sure it's not good for youth. I read that it stunts your growth, too! When I'm feeling tired and it's taking me time to wake up but I need to wake up, I like to do martial arts to wake up! Or go for a run! You might see me going for a job in the mornings sometimes."

"I don't have a view of the street from this room."

"Oh! I guess you wouldn't!" I say. "Okay. Well, do you want to come? Or do you want to go back to your nap?"

"I need to ask Mr. Trey if I can go."

Xander closes the door. Well, it's to be expected he'd decline. I was making the offer just in case and-wait. Did he say that he needs to ask Mr. Trey if he can go? Xander's actually agreeing to hang out with me?

On a day he's feeling overwhelmed?

This is awesome! That means Xander's liking me enough now, right? I might be getting another friend!

Do I just stay here and wait for him? I'll stay here and wait for him.

Xander comes out of his room after five more minutes, now dressed in a green long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and black socks, and he has a new-looking backpack on his shoulders. Trenton is hugged against his chest.

"Is that a new backpack?"

"Yeah," Xander answers. "I need to find my shoes."

His shoes are located at the back door in the dining room and once he's pulled them on, we head to the car.

"Are you feeling better now?" I ask. "Mom and Dad said your classes were getting canceled because you were feeling overwhelmed. Apart from Wednesday's, which was because you were at a sleepover."

"The sleepover was done by the time classes would have started," Xander tells me. "I was helping clean a backyard. Mostly, I helped with the shed and then cleaning the siding for the house."

"Oh, cool!" I say. "Since there weren't classes yesterday and today, I helped out at work. Did some work on a bigger generator yesterday, then built a robot that uses a lightning sword and a lightning gun! Dad made a robot of his own and we dueled them, but I lost all three rounds. I might be a genius, but he has enough experience to know what I'm going to do and add in countermeasures! Today, I worked more on the generator you helped me out with!"

"You said it's optimization stuff now?" Xander asks.

He's actually interested in this?

"Yeah!" I nod. "So it's things like final tweaks to the alloy formula, making sure the enchantment lines are right, the formula used for the enchantment solution is right, seeing if there are places we can reduce the size of something or if altering the size by a little bit will actually boost it, ensuring there's no bad magitech or magic interference via testing and consistent use, and so on. We sometimes have to change the shape of something. Most of them are just minor things that could technically be ignored."

I go on about some of the stuff, Xander occasionally asking a question. We're at the clothing store I asked Xavier to take us to when I realize Xander's wearing a pair of green earplugs. He can still hear me just fine though, so I don't know what they're for.

We go into the clothing store and I start looking at different clothes. Xander seems really bored and doesn't give me much feedback even when I ask him directly. I think he's scared to say something looks bad, but it's so easy to tell when he doesn't like an outfit because he suddenly has a slight look of concern.

Very slight. I have to pay close attention to his face to actually notice. It's a nice face. I bet once he's older, he'll have a lot of people wanting to ask him out.

"What about you?" I ask after not finding any outfit types that I feel comfortable in, and I try on at least two dozen of them. "Can you think of something I might look good in?"

"Jeans."

"Aren't those for poor people?"

Xander looks at his legs and I get reminded that he wears jeans. Crap. That's probably going to upset him that I called him poor.

"But I can try on a pair!" I say. "Do you have any you recommend?"

"Um…" Xander looks around. "Over here."

He takes me to a jeans wall and points at some, and I examine them and pull out a pair. They're dark blue jeans with "boot cut" legs, whatever that means.

"Give me just a minute to try them on," I tell him, then we head to the changing rooms.

In the changing rooms, I change into the jeans and check my reflection in the mirror. Tuck in my shirt, too. It's a pink button-up right now and once it's tucked in…

I actually like this look. A lot. Xander was probably just going with what he knows, but I think I like the look of me in jeans and a button-up. How does that work? I'm not poor at all and these only cost $50.

This is so weird.

I change back into my regular pants, then go to the jeans wall and grab a few more pairs listed in my size, then try them on. One thing I've learned over the years is to always try on every pair of pants, don't just assume they'll fit right just because their listed size is mine.

"Alright, Xander!" I say after exiting the changing rooms wearing the last pair for me to check. "What do you think? How do I look? Does the outfit work for me?"

"Yes," he nods. "I think you look very nice in those."

"Cool!" I change back into my regular pants and take the jeans I tried on up to the registers. "I might change outfits against in another week, but thanks for helping me today, Xander! Parker usually does this, but he's in a weird mood for some reason. Wanna thump him but gotta wait 'till he's ready to hang out again."

"You're welcome," Xander says.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" I ask as we get into the car after I pay. "It's not time for dinner yet but we could get dessert or something."

"Ms. Katie's making a blueberry pie for me," Xander tells me. "So I want to go back to Mr. Trey's now. I have a question, though."

"Sure!"

"After classes on Monday," he says. "Can you show me how you make robots? Or does that take too long?"

"Sure!" I answer. "I'd love to show you how I build them! That's what I'd intended this past Monday, but we got side-tracked! Just a robot, or something like a remote-controlled car?"

"Whichever you prefer," he tells me. "Though I was hoping to compare your method to Greyson's and he likes doing remote-controlled cars and planes."

"I can do a remote-controlled car!" I say. "Can bring the stuff with me to the lessons so I can do it there, if you're okay with that!"

"Mr. Trey already said it's okay," he says. "I asked him when I asked about going to the store with you."

"Oh, cool!" I say.

"Also," he opens up his backpack and pulls something out of it, a sphere with triangular markings covering it. "Would you be willing to play with this for a bit and tell me what you think of it?"

I accept the sphere from him and examine it. The triangles all seem to be the same size, and they fit together nicely, with a seam around the center where only bottoms connect.

"What is it?" I ask.

"A puzzle sphere," he answers. "Simplified. Grip each half in a different hand and twist in opposite directions, and it'll reset the puzzle."

I do as he instructs, and the triangles begin to move. Some of them rise up a quarter of an inch, some of them sink down a quarter of an inch, and many of them rotate one hundred eighty degrees. That causes some of them to overlap each other as well, and the way they rotated and rose/sunk ensured that there weren't any pieces that smashed into each other. A faint blue glow emits from within the depths of the sphere as well.

"That's so cool!" I exclaim. "Where did you get this? Did your friend make it? Greyson, was it? How does it do all of that?"

"I made it," Xander says. "It's a puzzle sphere. The goal is to get it back to its starting state. The one where all of the pieces are fit together properly with no gaps. This is a simplified version, and the pieces can either go up or go down one level at a time, and rotate one side to flip it around. You can only move one piece at a time, and only in one way. Each time you move a piece, all of the other pieces will adjust in some way. The glow will get a little bit brighter if it was a wrong move, and a little bit dimmer if it was a right move.

"Once you get used to it," he says. "You should be able to tell how many moves it'll take if every move is a correct one based on the glow, as its brightness is determined by that. Or at least, should be. I'm not sure if I did that bit right, it's my first time trying to do it that way."

So it's sort of like a Rubik's cube? That's pretty cool!

"You made this?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "A simplified version of others. There's a pattern to how they move, and that pattern varies from reset to reset. Since I helped you with picking an outfit, can you help me with knowing if this works and is fun?"

"Sure!" I answer.

"Oh," he adds. "But be careful. It's made out of weaker materials and I know mages can be pretty strong. I didn't want it to cost more than $50."

"Sure!" I answer, then start playing with it.

The rest of the ride to Xander's place, I try to solve the puzzle. I manage to figure out some of the ways the pieces move but I'm sure there are quite a lot more for me to handle. Xander gives me a short goodbye before leaving, then Xavier takes me home.

Only once I'm in my room do I realize what Xander did. He didn't agree to come hang out with me because he's warming up to me. It was a plan of his to do an exchange of help, which he even slipped in a mention of when asking me for it.

I'm not sure if I should be offended or amused that he gave me the puzzle sphere at the start of the ride back. That was definitely so I didn't talk his ear off! But this thing is fun! I think I'm going to play with it until dinner and hope that once I get used to it, I can solve it much faster.