[Xander – 12 years]

"Good morning, Xander," Ms. Katie greets me as she enters the dining room area. "You're out here earlier than normal."

Was that bad? I know I came down even earlier than I did yesterday but maybe I shouldn't have. Neither Ms. Katie nor Mr. Trey were down here and I'm probably supposed to wait until one of them is down before coming out.

That was probably one of the rules Mr. Trey gave me when my memory was still not working right and I don't remember it because of that.

"Sorry."

"No need to be sorry," she smiles. "It's your home, so if you want to come out this early, you can. Trey doesn't mind."

I'm a fucking dumbass.

"Did you want to talk about your dreams?" She asks. "Did you have good ones?"

She wants to know about my dreams again? But they're so weird, why would she want to hear about them?

"I had some bad ones," I tell her. "Mr. Trey woke me up and helped me fall back asleep with Go Fish. Then I had weird ones."

"What kind of weird?" She asks.

"The weird kind."

Ms. Katie laughs and I realize that I probably misunderstood her.

"I was curious what the dreams were," she tells me.

Yeah, I misunderstood her. I'm so fucking stupid.

"Oh," I say. "Um… one of them was a pumpkin wearing a top hat and singing about muffins with machine guns. Is it okay to blame Greyson for that? He was singing about muffins shooting monsters, sometimes with machine guns, yesterday."

"It's more than okay to blame him for that," she chuckles. "What else did you dream about?"

"Dogs, turtles, and S.G."

"S.G.?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah," I answer. "He was playing with a dog and a turtle. It was really weird. I don't normally dream about people even when I have crushes on them and that's what makes it weird. And the longer the dream went on, the more dogs and turtles showed up! Eventually, S.G. was buried under a pile of them! That was so scary…"

"I can imagine it would be," she says. "Seeing one of your friends get buried under a pile of animals. What was S.G. wearing?"

Why does she want to know that?

"Black shorts and a blue sleeveless shirt," I answer. "Um… I'm not sure about shoes, though. I didn't look at his feet in my dream, probably because I don't like looking at feet in real life. That's just one of his normal outfits, though, so it's nothing special or weird."

I think he likes blues and greens.

"I see," she says. "What other weird dreams did you have?"

I tell Ms. Katie about my weird dreams from last night as she starts looking through ingredients to decide on breakfast.

"Ms. Katie?" I ask as she goes to pull something out of a cabinet.

"Yes?" She looks at me.

"I was going to ask Mr. Trey if it's okay if I get donuts at Ms. Heidi's bakery for breakfast," I tell her. "Um… that's part of why I came down here. So I could let you know. But I don't know when he normally comes down. If yesterday was a normal time for him, or early, or late… so I came down early just in case. And to let you know in case he's okay with it, so you don't make food for me if he does say I can."

"Oh," she says. "He's up right now, you can ask him if you want."

I look around but don't see Mr. Trey.

"He's still in his room," she tells me. "Most likely just scrolling through the news feed on his phone. You can knock on his door. Look me in the eyes, please. He won't be mad at you if you knock on his door to ask, I promise."

She's telling the truth.

"Okay," I say. "Thanks, Ms. Katie."

I get off the stool and head up to Mr. Trey's room, then hesitate. What if Ms. Katie was wrong? If she didn't know it, then it wouldn't make my power to know when someone's lying trigger.

But I can't know unless I try. Mr. Trey will probably beat me if I'm wrong, though.

"Just knock on the door, Xander," Mr. Trey's voice startles me.

Oh, no! I was taking too long and now he's probably mad at me for standing outside his door for however long I was… wait. How did he know I was here? His voice came from inside his room?

I knock on the door and Mr. Trey opens it, dressed in his pajamas.

"Katie let me know you came up to ask something," he tells me. "Then that you were taking awhile to come back down, so I assumed you were hesitating outside my door. You can always knock on my door, Xander. Even if it's the middle of the night. Okay?"

"O-okay."

"She didn't tell me what you wanted, though," he says. "What's up?"

"The ceiling."

"No," he snorts. "I mean, what were you wanting? You had a question, right?"

Stupid fucking me.

"Y-yeah," I nod. "Um… I was wondering if I could get donuts from Ms. Heidi's bakery today? I have money from my allowance and what I earned earlier this week, so I can pay for it myself."

"You wanted to go through the district and talk with some of the workers?" He asks.

He's really good at guessing. Even Greyson would be wrong if he guessed something like that and he's the smartest person I know of. Then again, Greyson would probably mix up his dreams with reality and guess that I'm wanting to hunt evil spirits haunting the street or something like that.

"That, too," I say. "But, um… I also wanted to go to the place where I know Landon from. I was thinking and realized that maybe they're like the shops and think something bad happened to me and are worried about me. And unlike the shops, they probably don't know that I was in a boys' home so wouldn't have a way to find out I'm okay."

That's definitely the sort of place which would get concerned if one of the youth suddenly stopped showing up. One of the staff always pulls me into a private meeting if I don't show up for more than a month because they know I've tried killing myself before and they want to make sure I'm doing alright.

They all care a lot there, and not in the bad way. It's one of the places I feel most comfortable, too.

"Okay," Mr. Trey says. "You can do that."

"Okay," I look down. "I guess not telling you where it is means I-wait," I look at him again. "I can go? Without telling you?"

"Tiffany and I talked yesterday," he tells me. "And she said that there's a place you go to where you always seem happiest after leaving. She never could figure out where it was but they didn't mind that at the home since you seemed to have incredible luck in being safe while living with them, even if your life before wasn't so lucky. Since it seems to be a safe place and you've been going there for years, and it doesn't seem to involve anything illegal, then I'll approve it. Do you want me to drop you off at the donut shop?"

I'm really, really hungry, so I want to brave a question that might get me into trouble, since he asked if I want him to take me there.

"Can I teleport there?" I ask. "Or do I have to get driven?"

"You can teleport there," he tells me. "Make sure to restock on your snacks if you're leaving now."

"Okay," I tell him, then we both head downstairs. "Ms. Katie, Mr. Trey said it's okay for me to get donuts at Ms. Heidi's bakery. Also that I should restock my snacks first, so I'm going to change and get my backpack. But I wanted to let you know first so you don't keep waiting."

"Thanks," she smiles.

When I return downstairs, Mr. Trey and Ms. Katie are talking with Ms. Katie working on breakfast and Mr. Trey sitting on one of the stools at the counter.

"Mr. Trey?" I ask.

"Yes?"

Big question here from me and it's making me nervous, but I feel like it's really important for me to ask before I leave today for some reason.

"I'm starting eighth grade next month," I tell him. "Does that mean I'm old enough to date, or am I still too young?"

Mr. Trey and Ms. Katie both seem kind of surprised by that, but Mr. Trey quickly recovers.

"Let me ask you a question in return," he says. "What is 'dating' to you?"

Oh, I guess he wants to know what I mean by dating before answering my question. That's probably a good thing to clarify since I'm sure adults have a different meaning for it then middle schoolers do.

"Eating dinner together sometimes," I say. "But not as friends. Or going for walks or bike rides together. Well, I don't know how to ride a bike so not that bit for me. Maybe holding hands, but not required. Sometimes giving hugs but also not required. It's, um… doing stuff together that you'd do as friends, but you both like each other more. So you're not friends but boyfriends, but only if you've both decided on that. Right?"

"That's a pretty middle-schooler way of viewing it," Mr. Trey snorts. "There's a more serious version of dating, but you probably won't think about that for at least three or four more years. If that's what you view as dating, then yes, you're allowed to."

So there is another type of dating, but since he's not saying what it is that probably means I don't need to know. I'm fine with that, though.

"Is this about S.G.?" Mr. Trey asks. "I noticed you've seemed interested in him."

"It's not," I tell him. "I mean, I do have a crush on him, but I'm pretty sure he's dating Connor and Sam and Isaac are dating each other, but they're not telling me because we only really started talking recently."

"Didn't you think I was dating several members of my staff when we first met?" Mr. Trey asks.

"That was different!" I protest as my face heats up. Why did I tell him about that? "You brought me to your house and then started introducing me to people! Of course I was going to think one of them was your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife! With S.G. and Connor, and with Sam and Isaac, I can just tell they like each other. It's… it's… it's like with you and Ms. Katie!"

"We're not in love with each other," Mr. Trey quickly tells me.

"Mr. Trey," I say. "I know it's wrong to counter adults or tell them they're wrong or lying, but I was looking into your eyes when you said that. If you don't want me to know you're lying, that's really not something you should let happen."

Mr. Trey softly groans as he puts his head in one of his hands and Ms. Katie starts focusing on preparing my snack updates.

"I don't get why you two don't just date," I say.

"She's my employee," Mr. Trey says. "I don't date employees."

"If you fired her," I say. "She wouldn't be your employee anymore and could be your girlfriend. Then you could sit next to her when watching a movie. She could be a live-in girlfriend, too. She's already living here."

"Things are a lot more complicated than that," Mr. Trey tells me. "Let's circle back to you, though. If it's not S.G. you're thinking of wanting to date, who is it?"

"A boy named Russell."

"I don't know of any Russells," Mr. Trey says. "At least, not with you in context. You know a Russell?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I see him sometimes in different places. Like the park. And since I've been at the park once and might go again, that means I might see him again. And I really like him and I know that he likes me. And I don't really think I'm date-worthy, but if he wants to date me… I wanted to know if it's okay."

"And… how do you know he likes you?"

"He told me."

"He told you?

"Yeah."

Mr. Trey is quiet for a few very long moments, and that makes me feel like I did something wrong.

"You seem awfully calm about liking someone else," he says. "Or having someone else like you."

"I freaked out when Russell told me he liked me," I tell him. "But then Landon talked with me about it. Now, I know the difference between crushing on someone and being an evil asshole who deserves to have their head blown off."

Ms. Katie starts to laugh but quickly covers her mouth.

There are other types of liking as well, but it's hard for me to distinguish them from the evil kind.

"And how, exactly, did this Landon help you with that?" Mr. Trey asks.

"Well," I say. "He asked me if there was anyone I liked being around, who I sometimes thought things like 'this would be much more fun with them here' about even if it's just sitting. And before Russell scared me, he was one of those people for me. And he asked me about of questions about what I think of Russell and like about him, and about Nick, my roommate at the boys' home. It was a really long discussion, like, three hours. He asked me about different boys and girls and by the end of it, he'd helped me to understand that there's a big difference in the types of likes. Also that Russell probably meant in the crush kind of way, and that I probably had a crush on Russell. Well, Landon didn't tell me that bit, I figured it out on my own."

Landon is really good at helping me out. He's done that for a lot of the youth at the secret safe space. He's even helped me a little with dealing with what happened in my old foster home, but that stuff is just too scary and I'm still worried about it.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I see," Mr. Trey says. "Well, I want to meet anyone you date. Understand? So if you see Russell again and want to date you, you have to introduce him to me. Okay?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good," he says, then gives me a small smile. "I think Katie's done fixing up your snack refills. Let me know if you go anywhere else, alright?"

"Yes, sir."

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

[Sig – 13 years]

As I go to upload my "good morning" picture to the chat – something I've now learned is something the dads got the other boys to start doing as a way of being able to tell I woke up fine without being obvious about it – I realize that Xander's already posted to the group chat. While it's a picture, it's of his stuffed animals rather than him.

He's arranged some of them in a circle, as if they're having a secret meeting. That picture was at 5:07 this morning, so none of us were up yet. I don't think any of the others are up yet, either, since no one else has posted their morning pics.

I upload my picture and send a message.

[Sig]: Morning, Xander!

[Xander]: Hello, S.G.

[Sig]: What's up?

[Xander]: The ceiling.

That's followed by a picture of a ceiling, making me giggle a little. He can definitely be a dork sometimes.

[Sig]: I meant how're you?

[Xander]: Hungry. Going to get donuts at Ms. Heidi's bakery for breakfast.

She's one of the people I'm considering asking for advice about getting a proper magic teacher from and it is a Saturday. I've still got money leftover from my various jobs and from what Aunt Rachel paid me for the work on Wednesday, too, so I can definitely buy some donuts.

[Sig]: Can I join you? I want to go to the park after!

[Connor]: DONUTS!!!

That's followed by a picture of him in the bathroom, in the middle of brushing his teeth. He's got toothpaste foam all over his lips and his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth while he's flashing his phone a peace sign.

[Sam]: Dork.

He sends a picture of himself still in bed and looking pretty sleepy. He must've forgotten to silence his phone last night or put it on vibrate by accident, then gotten woken up by the series of pings or vibrations.

[Xander]: How long before you guys get to the donut place? I'll wait if it's not long.

[Connor]: Dork? DORK? I'LL MAKE YOU EAT YOUR WORDS FOR BREAKFAST!

[Sig]: The furthest any of us live is about 15 mins but I think Aunt Rachel is about 7. It'll probably take you longer even if you get driven, right?

Xander takes a few minutes to respond. By that point, Isaac's uploaded his "good morning" picture and the four of us are play-bickering with each other. What Xander responds with is a picture of the front of Ms. Heidi's bakery.

[Xander]: I'm already here. The other picture was the bakery's ceiling.

[Sig]: I can leave just as soon as I get ready to go!

There's no reason for me to wait so I change out of my sleepwear and get ready to leave. I check the stuff in my fun backpack and make sure there's an extra clean shirt in there for me to put on when I get to the bakery, then I fix on my helmet and head out back to get my bike. Just as I get to the gate, I remember that I promised Aunt Rachel to let her know where I'm going, even if it annoys me, so I hurry up the stairs to the deck and into the kitchen, where she's pulling out stuff to make breakfast.

"I'm heading to the park to meet up with the others!" I tell her. "Well, not the park first, we're going to get breakfast first, then go to the park. There's a mage district close by and while it's a little bit more expensive, their food's really good and Xander wants donuts from there. He's also already there, apparently, so I don't want to make him wait too long, or I'd be asking if I could eat some of the leftover pie from last night before I go!"

I give Aunt Rachel a hug, then hurry out and leave. When I arrive at the mage district, Xander's sitting on the sidewalk in front of the bakery, playing with Trenton. Well, he's just holding Trenton in his lap and moving the bear's arms forward in an alternating pattern, but he's also shifting his own shoulders as he does in a sort of sitting-dance.

His face… yup! That's a happy face for him!

"Morning, Xander!" I tell him as I hop off of my bike and put the kickstand down so I can let go of it, and he stops playing with Trenton. "Whatcha doing?"

"Trenton wanted to dance," Xander tells me. "But he can't move on his own. Ms. Heidi said it's okay for me to play with him in front of her bakery while I waited. She also said I could play with him inside while I waited, but I didn't want to do that just in case."

"In case of what?" I ask.

Xander thinks for a few seconds.

"You probably didn't check your phone while riding your bike here," he tells me. "But Connor, Sam, and Isaac all said their dads are making them do their chores before they leave, so they'll probably be an hour or so. They apparently didn't do their chores yesterday. My only chore is doing my laundry, but that's because I asked for that as a chore. Mr. Trey didn't want to give me chores yet until I was settled in more."

Aunt Rachel and I talked while we made the pies last night, and she told me I'll have to do some chores, but nothing too much until I settle into her house. Mostly just keeping my room, bathroom, and the rec room clean, but also mowing the lawns and helping with the pool. All stuff I was doing at my parents' house, plus the rec room and pool and I guess those are reasonable even if I don't want to. I'll be the one using them more.

"They can't come yet?" I check my phone and find that they all said that while I was on my way here. "Awww."

Maybe this is their dads punishing them for me blowing up at Mr. Thompson and they're going to get told they can't come for some other reason once they're done with their chores. That's not really fair at all, and it wasn't Mr. Thompson's place to talk to me about what happened yesterday.

"I'm going to get donuts now," Xander stands. "Sorry if you want to do something else, but I'm really hungry."

"Breakfast first!" I pocket my phone then pull off my backpack so I can pull a shirt on, then we enter the bakery. "Good morning, Ms. Heidi!"

"Good morning, S.G.," she says. "Good morning again Xander, Trenton."

"Hello," Xander says, then looks at Trenton for a moment before looking at her. "He wants me to tell you that he says 'hello' again, too. Only S.G. was able to come right now so it's only us getting donuts."

"What do you boys want today?" Ms. Heidi asks.

"You can order first," Xander tells me.

"I haven't decided yet," I tell him. "You can go if you already know!"

"Okay," Xander steps up to the counter. "Hi, Ms. Heidi. Is it okay if I order now?"

"Sure!" She answers as I start looking at the choices.

"May I please have three circles with maple icing, three rectangles with maple icing, three bear claws, three strawberry-filled with a sugar dusting, and an apple fritter, please? That's thirteen for the baker's dozen, right?"

"It is," Ms. Heidi tells him. "That'll be $15."

Xander gives her money and she gives him his receipt and a bag with his order, then he steps to the side so I can step up.

"Three rings with chocolate icing and sprinkles, please!"

I pay and receive my donuts, then we start to exit the shop.

"Wait!" I exclaim, causing Xander to jump. "Sorry, Xander! Ms. Heidi! I found out that my magic teacher was scamming me and teaching me badly, so I wanted to know if anyone here could recommend me a good teacher who is, um… affordable for a boy my age?"

"Depends on what you're wanting to learn," Ms. Heidi tells me.

"Lightning magics!" I answer. "But also water magics, I guess? I've got some semi-friends and one of the ways they play is with water magic, especially when it's warmer out but they'll even use it for snow in the winter."

"Lightning is a bit more complex and takes more experience," she says. "But for water magics, Laney down the street does offer lessons at $100 an hour, rounded up to the hour. Air and fire magics aren't a bad choice either, and Roger uses both to make his candy. Same rate. Adriana at the bookstore teaches force magic, which is also a good one to start with. Same rate. That's everyone on this street who I know is currently offering lessons."

Whoa. That's a lot more than I expected, and they're all people I've talked with and have a friendly customer relationship with, too! And that rate is ridiculously low compared to my old teacher's!

"Thanks!" I tell her. "Xander? Do you mind if we see if any of them are willing to be my teacher for magic?"

"We can do that," Xander answers, though he gives his donut bag a wistful look.

I should make this fast. He's probably really hungry, and I know I am, too.

"Okay!" I say. "Come on!"

We leave the shop and head down the street to the candy shop. Everything's open now so we head inside, and Mr. Roger gives us a big smile when we enter.

"Good morning, boys," he says. "You look pretty happy today, Xander."

Even with Xander's face still being mostly neutral, he really does look happy compared to usual.

"I'm feeling happy," Xander tells him. "S.G. wanted to ask you something."

"Sure, sure," Mr. Roger looks at me. "What would you like, S.G.?"

"Ms. Heidi says you teach magic lessons?" I ask. "I found out yesterday that my current instructor was… not that great. She was teaching me how to use magic the way she uses it and charges $300 per hour on top of that. Some boys I know from up north were down here yesterday and they told me that was really wrong, and the dad of one of them taught me how to properly cast spells. How to find my own mana's quirks and how it wants to flow. But he couldn't teach me more than that."

"He knew enough to teach you the right way to cast spells, but not more?" Mr. Roger asks.

"Well," I say. "He didn't know how to help me adjust how I cast, I think. And he's from further up north, so he can't teach me regularly."

"I see," Mr. Roger says. "Well, he's right in that each person's got little quirks that affect how they're able to cast spells. What are you wanting to learn?"

"Lightning magic!" I answer. "Though I've been repeatedly told I need to learn more simple spells first."

"That's right," he says. "Unless you've a talent for lightning magic, it's a bit too complex for a beginner. I have lesson slots from six to eight in the evening on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays right now, and we can do either one-hour or two-hour. I can teach you several different ones which can give you a good foundation for eventually learning more complex magics. I mainly deal in fire and air, if that's what you're interested in."

"My old ones were usually at six," I tell him. "For just an hour, every two weeks. But Ms. Heidi says you charge $100 an hour, not $300 an hour like my current teacher? Or I guess old one, since I'm not going back. So if you do $100 an hour, I can probably do that every week if you're okay with that."

"I do," he says. "So Mondays from six to seven?"

"Yeah," I nod.

"Alright," he smiles. "I'll see you then and yes, Xander, we can arm wrestle if you want."

I look at Xander, who was fidgeting during the conversation while looking like he wanted to say something. Now he's giving me a nervous look.

"Arm wrestle?" I ask.

"Arm wrestle," Mr. Roger walks out from behind the counter and over to a table. "It's a deal I have with Xander. If he can beat me in an arm wrestle, he'll get three pounds of candy for free. If he can't, he'll either get a pound of candy that I pick out for him for free or he'll get a pound of candy he picks out, but he has to pay a quarter of the price."

I want that sort of deal, too, but I'm willing to bet I'll get turned down if I ask. Xander's getting special treatment, but the vibe I got when I mentioned him last week felt like he's probably a lot more close to the workers here than I am. They seem to like him a ton.

Xander does the arm wrestle with Mr. Roger and while he tries his best and has an intense look of concentration on his face, he loses pretty fast.

"Not bad," Mr. Roger tells him. "You did about the same as last weekend."

"I only had one fitness day this week," Xander tells him. "Tuesday was a holiday so I didn't have classes, and I was helping S.G. and his aunt on Wednesday. Thursday and yesterday, I was just feeling overwhelmed so I didn't have classes. Well, and there was a visit from Ms. Johnson and from my great-grandpa."

I know Greyson said they're Lumaria Kings, but Xander's actually gotten to meet his great-grandpa? That's awesome! Yesterday must have been their first meeting, since Xander didn't know he was a Lumaria King before.

Xander picks out the candies he's getting, and they're all chewy ones for some reason. I love sucking on hard candies and decide to buy a bag of them mixed with some chewy ones once Xander finishes. That's $20 for me while he only pays $5, which is a little bit unfair and I want to complain but I'd probably just annoy both of them.

I'm not on that good of terms with Mr. Roger, and he's probably got some sort of reason for offering this deal to Xander.

Even if it is unfair.

"Oh, and Xander?" Mr. Roger says as Xander puts his candy into his backpack, though he's still holding his donut bag. "Vincent's card game is once a week for anyone who plays it, so you can do it again."

"Okay," Xander nods.

"The card game?" I ask. "Oh! The fudge! Xander, can we try that before eating breakfast? I wanna try and win!"

"Okay," Xander nods.

We turn around and head down to where the fudge shop is and enter it. Mr. Vincent's behind the counter and he greets us with a big smile.

"Good morning, boys!" He says. "You here to challenge my card game?"

"We are!" I answer. "Xander, can I go first?"

"Sure."

I go up to the counter and Mr. Vincent gets his deck of cards, then he shuffles them and holds them up in front of him in a fan.

"Ace of Clubs," Mr. Vincent says the name of the one I always have to guess.

"Okay…" I examine the backs of the cards, then start pointing. "Once the dragon lets out its roar, all the demons slam to the floor!"

I pull out the card I ended up and turn it so I can see it.

"Ace of Clubs!" I exclaim. "I win!"

"Congrats," Mr. Vincent takes the card back and shuffles it. "Let's do Xander's attempt next, then you can pick out your fudge," he holds the cards up in a fan. "Alright, Xander. King of Diamonds."

"That one has a slight scuffing in one of the corners," Xander tells Mr. Vincent. "And that corner's the one that's visible today. It's this one right here. Though I didn't see the scuffing last week until I pulled the card out since it was a different corner that was visible, so last week's was just a guess."

"It does?" Mr. Vincent sets the deck down and takes the card, then looks at the corner that was visible. "You're right, it does. Well, you still got it right, Xander, so you get seven things of fudge as well!"

"But it's not really fair," Xander says. "It was cheating since it was marked."

"Cheating would be using magic to guess," Mr. Vincent tells Xander. "You were able to remember that the card had some scuffing on the corner and it was visible and you noticed it. That's both memory and luck."

The old man's smile widens.

"And the scuffing is there on purpose," he tells Xander. "Specifically to see if anyone picks up on it. There's a mix of luck in there on if it's the visible corner. Now that I know you've picked up on it, you'll be getting a different deck used."

"Oh," Xander looks uncertain, but I think I know what's going on.

Mr. Vincent isn't just playing a game with kids, he's actually testing us to see if we notice markings on the cards. That must be why he always calls the same card for the same kid. Each card in that deck must have some sort of marking on a corner.

"Let's get the fudge selections," Mr. Vincent says. "What do you boys want? It's seven each."

Xander and I look through the fudges and make our selections, then put them into our backpacks. We make our way to the park next, and I secure my bike to one of the bike stands, then take my things to a table with Xander.

"I'm going to go get milk," I tell Xander as he sits and opens up his backpack. "Want me to get you a thing of it?"

"I have my own," Xander says. "Thanks for offering, though."

"Okay!" I say. "Back in a few!"

I head to the store where I normally get my milk when I get donuts here, then return to the table after buying some. I pull off my shirt and tuck it into my backpack, then dig into breakfast. Xander's already halfway through his donuts by the time I take my first bite, and he's done by the time I finish despite having four times as many donuts to eat.

Jeez, was he hungry!

"Hey, Xander!" I bounce as I remember something, then pull the puzzle sphere out of my bag. "Here's the puzzle sphere your cousin gave me! I didn't know if you wanted it back or not."

"Thanks," Xander accepts the sphere and puts it into his backpack, then pulls one with triangles for the pieces out. "Here."

"I wasn't trying to trade," I tell him.

"I know," Xander says. "You sent me that you'd solved it four different times yesterday, so I figured you really liked it. This is a new one. It's… not as complex. I made one for each of you, in case everyone wanted one. And it doesn't change its algorithm each time it's reset, so you'll probably get faster at it."

"That's fine!" I accept the puzzle sphere. "I think they're really cool! How does it work?"

Xander shows me how this one works and watches as I try to solve it. This one only takes me about three minutes, the patterns way easier to figure out than on the other sphere.

"Something else," I say once the sphere's solved. "Um… I probably shouldn't have, but I asked Greyson if you two were Lumaria Kings when we were talking yesterday. Something Mr. Cox said made me suspect it, and I knew you two were related…"

"Did you tell the others?" Xander looks worried.

"Nope!" I answer. "I didn't know if you wanted everyone to know or not and that's kind of a big thing. The dads have taught us all not to share big things about others without knowing if they want to or not. I just kind of forgot about that when asking Greyson."

"Does-does it change how you think of me?" Xander looks really worried now.

Oh. That's what he's worried about? That we're going to think of him different?

"Nope!" I answer. "You're still you, after all! The same dude I'm friends with already!"

Xander looks confused.

"Basically," I say. "It doesn't change anything about you! So why would I care? Though I bet if you learned magic, you could do some really cool things! Your cousin teleports around, right? I bet that would make it super easy for you to get wherever you wanted to hang out!"

I look around, then lean in closely to whisper.

"But don't worry," I tell him. "If you learn how to teleport, I promise I won't ask you to take me places with it. That'd be dumb and I like riding my bike places."

"Okay," Xander nods. "And yeah, Greyson teleports all over the place. He also uses other magics to get places more quickly. And… I did learn some magic. I can breathe fire."

That sounds awesome!

"Really?" I ask. "Can I see?"

Xander gives me a shaky nod, then gets up and takes a few steps away from the table. There's no deep breath like I'm expecting, he just opens his mouth and fire begins to stream out of it. It forms a jet that travels about twenty feet before fading away. He's angled his head up slightly so that the flames don't touch and burn the grass, which is really cool.

Five seconds pass. Then ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Sixty. Ninety. Whoa, whoa, whoa! How he is managing to breathe fire for so long without taking a breath?

"Xander!" I bounce in my seat when he finishes. "That was so cool! How'd you do that? Didn't you run out of breath?"

"It's called 'breathing fire'," Xander tells me. "But I'm not actually breathing fire, I'm just generating flames in a jet in front of my mouth. I'm not sure why they call it 'breathing fire'. So I could still breathe while doing that."

"They probably call it that because it looks like you're exhaling fire!" I tell him. "That was an awesome spell! And you learned it so fast? Whoa. Lumaria Kings really are a different breed."

Xander suddenly looks uncomfortable. Ah, crap. What did I say that's bothering him? Maybe he doesn't want to be associated with his family since he doesn't really know them? I should change the subject.

"Wanna throw a ball around?" I ask. "We can play with a hacky sack again!"

"Um…" Xander shifts a little. "I actually wanted to go somewhere else after eating breakfast, then maybe come to the park after. That… that was my plan before you all wanted to join me."

"Oh," I say. "Well, unless I decide to change my plans, I'll probably be here until lunch!"

"Okay," Xander pulls three more puzzle spheres out of his backpack. "Can you give these to the others? Do you think they'd like them?"

"Sure!" I answer as he pulls his backpack on. "And yeah, I think they would! Bye, Xander!"

"Bye."

I put the spheres in my backpack and when I turn to look at Xander again… he's just gone. He can really move when he wants to, can't he?