[Sig – 13 years]

"-but when you think about it, it's really just delicious," I say. "So who cares about all that 'note the hints of this' or 'do you taste that subtle this flavor' crap?"

Aunt Rachel and I are on the way to the bank since they should be open now, and the trip there to deposit the check led to us talking about rich people in movies and the whole 'five-star food experience' they have where they have to dissect the flavor on everything.

"Also," I add. "Ever notice how they always look for the subtle flavors in wine in movies and shows and stuff? They can't just appreciate the flavor, they have to look for all of its subtle flavors in order to appreciate it. Like, they can't have just the wine, it's gotta have other stuff, too. I've had wine before. Tried doing that whole 'so what are the subtle tastes' to it, and that just ruined it. Like, who cares that it was a little fruity and acidic? Can't something just taste good?"

"And when did you have wine?" Aunt Rachel asks.

"Only a couple of times," I tell her. "And it is allowed as long as I'm being supervised by someone authorized to do so and it's on private property. Mr. Thompson isn't my real dad, but he does actually have legal authority over me. Or did. I don't know if that expired with you being given custody. But he could act as a supervisor for that. It wasn't a whole lot, just a few sips. The dads've never let us have enough to even get a buzz when they let us have some, it's always just a few sips. And they never drink during that. Oh! That's probably important for you to know. I dunno if Mr. Thompson told you or not, but if they're drinking and we're there, we'll probably ask for some drinks. They're going to say no. That's just us goofing around, we know they won't let us. So don't like, freak out or anything when that happens, and I'm saying 'when' because it's gonna happen."

"Okay…"

She seems skeptical.

"Is that the bank?" I decide to change the topic and there's a perfect target for doing so.

"That's it," she says.

She parks, then we head inside. I don't have an account of my own, so we have to go to a computer near the doors and ask for an appointment. It takes a few minutes before one of the workers calls us to her office.

"The request said it's to make an appointment," she says. "Is that correct?"

"Yes," Aunt Rachel answers. "I made an account here a couple of weeks ago, and just gained custody of my nephew here on Friday. He then ended up helping out with something on Saturday and getting paid for it, so we wanted an account for him to use."

"Okay," she says. "I'll need your account information and ID, his ID, and something confirming you're his legal guardian."

We hand that all over, and the banker asks a few more questions.

"If you'd like a lower limit on permitted daily spending," she tells Aunt Rachel. "We can do that as well. The default is $500 per day."

"He probably won't often have that much in his account," Aunt Rachel tells her. "That should be fine. Is there some way to track his spending?"

"Aunt Racheeeeeel!"

"You'll have full access to his account," the banker informs her. "And you can set up notifications through the app for emails and texts to let you know things like transactions and account balance changes. Sebastian can do this as well."

"S.G.," I tell her. "I don't go by my first name in-person."

"Sorry," she smiles. "S.G. can do this for himself as well. We actually recommend signing up for it for minors – it makes it easier for them to know how much is left in their account, which can reduce overspending. And there's no overdraft on accounts for minors – the payment will decline if he doesn't have enough in the account."

"Okay," Aunt Rachel says.

There's a little bit more discussion, then the accounts are set up. A savings account and a checking account. The savings account gains interest, so money in it will increase on its own over time, though not by very much. I need a ton for that to happen. Then there's the checking account, which the debit card I'll be receiving is linked to. I won't be able to overdraw from the savings account if the checking account doesn't have enough, but that's fine by me. Most of what I do is in cash.

"Alright," the banker says once she finishes setting everything up and my debit card is printed. "Would you like to put some money into the account now?"

"Sig has a check to deposit," Aunt Rachel looks at me. "Did you think about how you wanted to split it?"

We discussed it during breakfast and she told me to think about it on the way here.

"Yeah," I answer. "So part of the reason it was so big was to pay for a night at a hotel, right? But I think it was actually for two nights. And you did stay at one both nights, even if I didn't. And I looked it up, and it looked like the rate was $150 a night at that hotel, so that's $300 to you-"

"That's your money," she says.

"Yeah," I say. "But he said it was partly to cover the hotel and some food. So that's what I'm doing. You're getting $300 for the hotel, and another $100 since you had five meals and that would've been $20 a meal, rounding. Plus gas money. So I want $450 for Aunt Rachel no matter how much she argues on it. That's a lot of money she spent."

"Maybe," Aunt Rachel says. "But you got invited to help out while we were already there. I was going to spend that money even before you were invited to help. Keep it for yourself."

That's not very fair.

"Since you'll be going back again," she says. "We can take the costs for the hotel and stuff out of that one. But not this one, Sig. Keep it for yourself, alright? You earned it."

"Alright," I say. "Then, um… $500 in the savings account. And… oh! I'm gonna need cash for the lesson tonight, so $100 in cash. Wait, I already have the cash for that. I think. Well, okay, yeah, $100 in cash. No, wait, make it $200 in cash. And then the rest in checking. So $500 in savings, $300 in checking, and $200 in cash, please."

I give her the check, but it turns out that I have to sign on the back of it and Aunt Rachel and I have to both show our IDs, even though the banker just saw them. She counts out the cash for me, then has me count it back so I can verify it's correct, then she gives me the receipt for the transaction.

"Also," Aunt Rachel says as we stand to leave after thanking the banker. "It might not all be available right away when you deposit something, Sig. Checks over a certain amount might have a hold on them. You probably won't have to deal with that for awhile, I think it's something like five grand, but you should know it for the future."

"Alright."

"Not all checks over that amount," the banker tells us, and we look at her. "Yours wouldn't have, if it was over the threshold. The hold is so our bank can verify or even receive the funds. That check has a magical seal on it – that's something the scanner I used checks for – that can't be faked and prevents the check from being altered. It's only on checks from certain companies and acts as a guarantee of funds. If a check has that seal, then we know we'll get the money from the issuer's bank."

"From the Lumaria Group?" I ask.

"Yes," she answers. "They like things to be done promptly, so arranged that. Our bank accepts the seal as we know that it can't be forged and the check can't be altered once it's placed, and it can only be placed by an authorized, monitored device."

Which Adrian King apparently brought out to a group of tweens and early teens.

"Oh," I say. "Huh. Didn't know that."

"They didn't tell you?" She asks. "They're normally good about that, so that those who help them out can be assured they'd have the funds immediately."

"Maybe because it was so low?" I suggest. "It was also an impromptu beta test, too, so they probably hadn't been expecting to need to pay."

Though it was Adrian King who gave us the checks, so I doubt it was that. He probably just felt the amount was low enough we didn't need to deal with the hold.

"Anyway," I say. "Thanks! Have a good day, ma'am!"

Aunt Rachel and I leave, and we head back home. Connor, Sam, and Isaac just want to take a chill day after spending the weekend running and swimming around, and Xander's in classes right now. I could probably go to the park and hang out with some random kids there, but I'll play the MMO instead. At least, long enough to see if any of my friends from it are online.

The moment I'm logged in, Sara's in voice chat with me.

"Dude," she says. "You are hella cute!"

"Thanks!" I say. "Wait, you know what I look like?"

"Are you kidding?" She asks. "I've played with you enough to recognize your voice anywhere, Sig! Plus, you did get called 'Sig', too."

"You saw my streams?"

"Just the Saturday one," she says. "But I saw the clips of you on Tuesday and Thursday!"

"You saw them?" I ask. "Wait, what clips?"

"Do you not pay attention to your own streamer account?"

"No?" I answer. "That's just me doing it for fun 'cause Aunt Rachel suggested it. What clips?"

"The first one was for that game you played on Tuesday," she tells me. "That first-person shooter, where you and that British girl were using grenades against a flying monster. I don't know that game, but it was apparently impressive and the clips of you two doing that went viral like crazy. Even the developer tagged you with it."

"Wait, really?" I start looking for the comment, and Sara sends me the link.

The developer really did respond to it, though I have to use a translator to know what they're saying since it's in English. Once I do and can read it, though, I can't help but laugh.

[TheEternalDuty]: Whose bright idea was it to give an Adamantite-ranked sniper-med grenades? Even language barriers can't stop him!

"Now, I don't know what that all means," Sara says. "But according to what I could find, Adamantite is the highest rank in the game, and sniper-med is a class?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I like playing sniper-med. First is what weapons I use, second is what skills I have. How'd they know what I normally play? Is that logged?"

"Probably," she says. "But if you're as good in that game as you are in this one, you probably get reported for hacking by salty losers. They've probably investigated you before and saw your matches and were like 'nah, he's just a league higher than we can rank because no one else is in it'."

"Gotta be good to play high with my combo," I say. "I like how fun it is, too!"

"The way you and Lexi worked together was pretty great," she says. "Especially since you two don't speak the same language."

"Yeah!" I say. "We've matched together as teammates and opponents before, and she's probably the only other player I can probably work with! Everyone else is too much of a scrub. What about the other clip? You said there were two!"

"Well, that one wasn't a full clip," she says. "It was your conclusion of the battle against the Lord of the Phantasm Chasm. Dude. What the heck? I went and watched the full battle and holy crap, Sig! You're insane!"

"Aunt Rachel told me more about the gear and difficulties after," I snicker. "That was apparently insanely good."

"So good," she says. "The official dev account posted a meme about it!"

"Wait, really?" I ask. "Lemme see!"

There are apparently a lot of memes of my fight. The official dev account's picture is of my character standing in the chasm with the body of the Lord of the Phantasm Chasm behind him and text beneath him. "No time for armor, only killing!"

Okay, so some people would probably think that's dumb, but I find it funny as heck.

Looking through the comments and memes, some people are calling the whole thing fake, which is annoying. I genuinely went in blind and killed that thing on my own skill.

Lame-os.

"Just wait 'till those haters realize I ain't fake," I say. "Their heads will explode! And speaking of exploding heads, wanna hunt some monsters with me? I need some claws for a quest."

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

[Luke – 13 years]

Parker looks exhausted and is pulling a Xander, just floating in the pool while breathing heavily. I want to send an attack his way, but I think he really is worn out now and can't play more. That kind of sucks, especially since he's taking up space in the pool and so is reducing how much space Tyler and I have to horse around with our magic.

After having to deal with not goofing off in a pool for Xander's lessons before lunch, I'm doing it now with my friends. Especially since Tyler and his dad are leaving soon for another hunt and I'm not sure when we'll get to see him again.

"Luuuuuke," Parker groans.

"You're in the way," I continue manipulating the water so that he drifts out of the middle of the pool. "You can float there and be mostly out of the way of attacks. Actually, you know what? Here, lemme try something!"

I gesture with my hands and try to shape the spell I want. It's a modification for another spell, mixing in a few aspects of others. Also with a small reminder from myself to strip out the lightning aspect of my mana.

Which is part of why I want to keep roughhousing with water magics. It's helping me get used to stripping out the lightning aspect from my mana on the fly.

When the spell completes, a wall of water forms on that side of the pool, sectioning it off. The wall itself is pretty thin – only about two inches in thickness – and the water itself appears to be still.

"That should absorb any water that slams into it and send it back into the pool," I tell Parker through it as he gives me a glare. "That way, our attacks won't fly through! If I cast the spell right. And your drifting won't let you come through it as there won't be enough force from just that to let you go through, so you should just bounce off and drift back over more."

"That's a pretty nifty barrier," Tyler says. "When did you learn it?"

"I just made it!" I puff up my chest. "Modified a lightning-based version of the spell for it! And now it's time for you to go down, Tyler!"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

We return to using water magic to attack and try to restrain the other, though all in good fun. That means neither of us are really going all-out on this, though we do still conjure and manipulate a ton of water for it. When I bind him up with cords of water, he's able to break out of them when he actually tries, and my water bullets don't carry near enough force to even bruise him.

Naturally, he's not able to actually hurt or restrain me even if he tried his hardest due to the vast difference in our mana and the strength and resiliency of our bodies, but he still holds back as well.

"Hahahahaha!" I laugh as I let his small swarm of water darts pepper my shoulders, neck, and face. "Such inferior attacks as this can't-oh, joining us, Parker?"

Parker's just drifted through the barrier.

"No."

"Okay!" I use my magic to send him back to the other side. "Guess I was wrong about the barrier? Here, lemme strengthen it."

Once that's done, Tyler and I resume our play. I have to send Parker back through the barrier and strengthen it three more times, then give up on making it so drifting alone won't let him through it. How that's working, I can't figure it out.

I could probably ask Xander and he'd be able to just go "oh, it's because of whatever-it-is", but he's not here right now. He's probably taking a nap in his own home; I'm not paying enough attention to my electric sense right now.

Since I'm giving up on strengthening the barrier, I just keep sending Parker back through when he drifts over to our side. It starts becoming more frequent, and I turn it into a game with Tyler where I have to shield Parker from Tyler's attacks as I send him back to the other side.

"I'm going home," Parker gets out of the pool after the fourth time.

"What?" I ask. "Come on, Parker! Stay! I wanna hang out with you after Tyler leaves! He's getting picked up in like, twenty minutes!"

Parker doesn't respond and just heads inside. He's in a mood again for some reason.

"What's up with him?" Tyler asks as I dismiss the water barrier I'd created.

"Dunno," I say. "He doesn't like me hanging out with you for some reason."

"He doesn't like me?" Tyler asks.

"For some reason," I shrug. "Dunno why, you're pretty cool and've never done anything wrong to him. He just… unreasonably dislikes you. I think it's puberty, don't worry about it. Let's go back to playing."

"Alright," Tyler looks a little lost but as I raise my hand to send a giant orb of water at him, a look of realization fills his face. "Oooooh!"

"Huh?" I ask. "What's up?"

"I think I know what's going on," he looks towards the house. "With Parker, I mean."

"What's that?" I ask.

"Um… not sure I should say."

"What is it?" I swim over. "Come on, Tyler, you can't just say you know and not tell me! I wanna make things better between us! I don't get why Parker's not happy with me hanging out with you! It's not like it's taking time away from hanging out with him."

And even if it was, Parker doesn't have a monopoly on my time. He's my first real friend, though, and I don't want to lose him. I love hanging out with him and being around him, and he's a pretty cool guy. If there's something I can do to keep him from getting too upset and ending our friendship, I want to.

"I just don't get why he doesn't like me hanging out with you!"

Tyler seems to wrestle with whatever it is and if he should tell me.

"Come on, Tyler!" I gently poke him in the chest. "If it were one of your friends acting mean just because you're hanging out with someone, you'd want to help them, wouldn't you? Come on!" I poke him again. "Come on!"

I keep poking him and saying "Come on" until he gives in.

"Remember what Parker said on Thursday?" He asks.

"That he wishes he were born a lava elemental?"

"When did he say that?" Tyler snorts.

"When we were getting ready for bed."

"Luke," Tyler rolls his eyes. "I wasn't here for the sleepover, remember?"

"Oh, right," I say. "Your dad doesn't allow you to spend the night with others. What're you talking about, then? I just remember Parker mentioning he wants to be a lava elemental."

"Parker says he has an issue with jealousy," Tyler says. "Didn't like admitting it and seemed pretty annoyed when he did."

That dumb thing?

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Know how I asked if you two were dating?" Tyler asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "Still don't understand why you'd think we would, though. We're both guys."

"Because you two act pretty close," he says. "And you two have a tendency of leaning into or bumping each other and stuff. And you two sit pretty closely if you're sitting beside each other, like in a booth in a restaurant, like how my parents did before my mom died. And it's like, I dunno. Just a lot of little things, I guess. I just keep expecting the two of you to hug or kiss."

"Oh," I say. "No, Parker and I are just close friends."

"I think he likes you, though."

"I like him, too."

"Not like that," Tyler groans. "Ugh. You're dense as a rock sometimes, and he's the one with the rock magics! Luke, I mean like you. Like, he wants to date you. And I think he's jealous of me because of you wanting to spend time with me."

"Even if he could have feelings for a guy – which I think is just strange, since we're both guys – why would he be jealous of you? 'Cause you get to go hunting monsters all the time? I didn't know he was into that sort of thing."

"That's not what I mean," Tyler groans again. "He's got a crush on you, Luke. And he's jealous of me… probably because I'm better at magic and fighting than him and am stronger than him, too, and that I actually get to regularly show off my skills fighting magic beasts. So he probably sees me as superior competition."

"Oh," I say. "I still don't understand how two guys can crush on each other, though. Are you sure that's what's going on? Because it just sounds strange."

"Argh!" Tyler groans again, then leans forward and sinks into the water, making bubbles in the pool with his mouth.

Then I find myself being pulled under by an invisible hand on my legs. A yelp escapes me before I react and send a current at Tyler, and the two of us return to playing… but not for very long. Parker runs into Xander once he leaves, then the two of them talk for a minute. What causes me to stop playing is Xander coming in with Parker.

"Hold on," I tell Tyler. "Hold! Hold! Parker's coming!"

"He is?" Tyler asks. "But he left?"

"Ran into Xander and now they're both coming," I say. "I wanna find out what's going on."

We wait for Xander and Parker to arrive, except they make a detour to the changing rooms. When they come out, Parker's back in his trunks, even if looking grumpy. Xander's in his trunks as well, looking shy, anxious, and rather nice. I noticed it early, but he's starting to get decent muscle definition, probably helped by the high amount of mana he now holds. It does help to build one's lean muscle more easily, in addition to how much stronger it makes one's body.

"Hi, Xander!" I wave. "You wanted to join us?"

"No," Xander answers. "But Parker insisted you'd be okay with it even though I said we should ask."

"That makes a whole lot of not-sense," I say. "You didn't want to join us but you came? And you can join us! I don't mind! Tyler doesn't, either! Right, Tyler?"

"Right," Tyler says. "Though my dad's gonna be here soon, so I can't play for too much longer. And I can't use too much more mana if I want to be at full before leaving for the next hunt tomorrow."

"Asking the mana fairies might help," Xander says.

"What mana fairies?" We all ask.

"I said that out loud?" Xander's face flushes red. "Sorry. Um. Is it really okay for me to get in the pool? Or were you just saying that because I was already changed? Parker really insisted it was fine."

He doesn't want to talk about the mana fairies. Are they one of his hallucinations? He's still doing that even with his brain fixed? I want to ask about them, but my parents were very clear that I'm not to ask him about his hallucinations. That was something they told me about back when I first learned about Xander and was given all of the rules regarding how to act around him.

"It is!" I tell him. "I love hanging out with you, just like with Parker and Tyler! You're pretty cool, Xander!"

"I'm currently 96.8 degrees," Xander tells me. "So I'm actually slightly-above perfectly-warm, since my normal temperature is 96.7 degrees."

"What?" I ask while Parker and Tyler give him confused looks. "You know your body temperature?"

"Yeah," Xander nods. "Greyson said I should try learning how to tell what it is all the time so I can tell if I'm coming down with something. I figured out a spell to use instead that just tells me what I am. So I'm not cool, I'm perfectly-warm."

"Not cool?" I ask, then snicker along with Parker and Tyler. "Xander, it just means you're pretty awesome."

"Oh, right," he his face flushes a little. "So I really can join you?"

"Yeah," I answer. "But how come you want to swim with us? I thought you'd be done with it after earlier."

"I don't," Xander lowers himself into the pool. "But Parker insisted."

Xander probably felt like he had to join us or we'd stop helping him with his lessons, or something.

"Parkerrrrrrr!" I groan.

"I didn't insist," Parker says.

"You said 'Xander, come with me'," Xander says. "And 'just change, already, Luke doesn't care and he'd be really happy if you joined us'. That's insisting."

"That's not how I-"

"Parker," I roll my eyes. "You're in a bad mood. You definitely came off as insisting. You didn't have to come if you didn't want to, Xander. You can leave, if you'd prefer. And I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Do you want me to leave?" Xander asks.

"Nope!" I say. "But I won't mind if you do, I know you don't like me 'cause I'm a bit too energetic! I'm used to it from everyone! Hey! Parker! Tyler says that reason you don't like him is 'cause you're jealous of him and see him as a rival. Is it true you have a crush on me? How does that work? We're both guys."

"Luke," Mom says, having come out as we spoke. "You can't just say stuff like that."

"Why not?" I look over. "I wanna know what's up. And I really don't understand it."

"Why does you both being boys matter?" Xander asks. "Two boys can like each other. And you two aren't dating? I thought you were."

"You and Tyler both!" I say. "How can two boys like each other? That doesn't make any sense."

"The same way that a guy and a girl can like each other," Xander answers. "If it's someone you want to spend lots of time with, and you like texting a lot, and get happy just thinking about, and want to sit right next to, maybe even with your arms touching, then you might be having a crush on them. And if you both feel that way, you start dating. That's just where you do all of that still, but as boyfriends. And you maybe invite them to when you're hanging out with other friends. It's not like adult dating, which is a lot more complicated.

"And some people have crushes only on guys," he continues. "Some only on girls, and some on both. But not on every guy or every girl. Just some. Like me. I'm never going to have a crush on you. You're way too noisy. But Russell isn't. He's usually calm and he's really nice, and I like him a ton. And even in a way where I want to sit right beside him, maybe with our arms touching, and I like giving him hugs when we see each other. He gives really good hugs, too.

"Oh," Xander adds. "But I don't just crush on anyone. I don't know if I said that. It's only some guys. And you have to get to know them before you can start to go from liking them as friends to wanting to date them. You can't crush on someone you don't know."

"Wait," Tyler says. "Are you gay, or bi, or…?"

"I'm gay," Xander says. "I only crush on guys. Like Russell. He's super nice and I like hanging out with him. And getting a text from him makes me feel happy. And I like sitting right beside him. Not necessarily touching, just close. Maybe if I'm in a really good mood, we can touch. Maybe just our arms, just a little."

Xander nods a little, as if that last part is very important. I think it only is for him. Most guys I know wouldn't think twice about being squished up against someone if there's not room for being spread out. To someone who doesn't like being touched, though, that must be a really big deal for him to be okay with it with someone in particular.

"I know what crushes are," I tell him. "But I don't get it. You're both boys."

"Last I checked."

That makes Parker snicker as I hit my hand against my head.

"Xander," Mom says. "Luke is struggling to figure things out."

"I figured," Xander tells her. "But it's wrong for me to say that sort of thing. I don't understand why he thinks you have to be different sexes. Some people crush on boys. Some people crush on girls. Some people crush on both. Some people crush on men. Some people crush on women. Some people crush on both. It changes as you get older."

That last part makes me snort; the last four were all probably things he thought he'd thought, not said aloud.

Xander looks straight at me.

"If you really like someone," he says. "And you wanna spend more time with them, and you like texting them, and you like sitting beside them, and maybe hugging them when you see them, then you probably crush on them. Especially if you also think that they're cute or look good."

"That'd just mean I crush on you and Parker and Tyler," I tell him. "And I don't, we're all guys. Plus, you're the only people I can really hang out with, so it's natural I'd be happy hanging out with you."

Xander sighs.

"You'll figure it out one day."

That makes both Parker and Tyler laugh, and even Mom is suppressing one. What was so funny about that? This is really confusing and I don't understand it at all.

"This is just really confusing," I say. "Can we go back to the whole origin of it? Parker? Do you not like Tyler because of jealousy? You said you have issues with jealousy, and he thinks you're jealous that he's a better friend for me because he's stronger, more knowledgeable about magic, and gets to go hunting magic beasts. Or something like that. I think he called himself competition?But I think it's just 'cause he gets to go hunting monsters all the time and you wanna do that, too. If you ask your parents, I'm sure they'd find a way to let you go hunting sometimes."

"Why don't you boys return to playing?" Mom suggests. "Tyler has to leave soon and you're upsetting Parker, Luke."

"How is that upsetting?" I ask. "I'm just confused on this whole thing. He thinks Tyler doesn't feel jealous of him? Seriously? Come on! I bet Tyler feels jealous of him!"

"Nope!" Tyler says.

"Tylerrrr!"

"Come on!" Tyler says. "We really don't have much time before Dad'll be here to pick me up!"

He quickly swims toward me to tackle me, and Parker conjures some water darts to pepper him with. I really want some answers, but I guess no one's going to let me get them. This whole situation really does confuse me, though.

Xander avoids the roughhousing and just splashes around in one part of the pool as we roughhouse. I really want to know why he's actually joining us, especially after I told him that he really didn't need to. And why did Parker invite him to join us?

I ask that after Tyler's dad picks up Tyler, and it's just the three of us.

"I wanted to know if you could help me with today's homework," Xander answers. "It was really confusing me and I didn't want to ask Trey or Katie or the guards for help again. But-but, but not have you do it. I just wanted to ask for help."

Xander wanted to ask me for help with his homework? Yes! There's no way he'd do that if I still fully bothered him. He's getting comfortable with me now! Maybe we can be friends!

"Oh!" I say. "Sure! Come on, let's get cleaned up, then I can help you!"

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

[Sig – 13 years]

"Huh?" I notice something interesting upon arriving for my second magic lesson with Mr. Roger. "Hey, Connor! You're getting books?"

Connor's parking his bike in front of the bookstore right now.

"No," he answers. "Since I've got the money, I wanted a few lessons in magic. Came by earlier and asked if anyone here was offering. Mrs. Adrianna had a slot open for force magic at this time."

"Neat!" I say. "Oh, but I heard it usually takes a bit for people to figure out how to sense their own mana and use it, so don't be discouraged if you can't! You can always practice at home, too!"

"Yeah," he says. "Mrs. Adrianna said that, too. Hey, guys!"

Sam and Isaac just showed up, and they ride their bikes down to us, then stop.

"What're you guys here for?" I ask.

"Magic lessons!" They answer.

"Ms. Laney is going to teach us water magic," Sam tells us. "She said we could do them together since we're starting from the same base."

"Oh, cool," I say, then repeat my advice to them.

"Thanks," Isaac says. "Well! Let's get to our lessons!"

"Good luck!" I tell them, then bike over to the candy shop, park my bike, and enter.

After I pay Mr. Roger and we head to the back yard, he asks me if I practiced at all between the two lessons.

"Yup!" I answer. "I did some showing off of my skills on Wednesday as a sort of log thing, so I don't know if that counts, but I did some playing with my magic after that with my friends, then I did a little bit of practicing Thursday afternoon, and playing with it with some other friends Friday and Saturday evening."

"Alright," Mr. Roger says. "Can you show me the things we worked on last week?"

After inflating the small beach ball, I use air magics to pass it back and forth between my hands, then with Mr. Roger.

"Good job," he says. "Your control has improved a little," he hands me another deflated, small beach ball. "Blow this one up, then try to make both float."

That's pretty difficult on its own, but Mr. Roger helps me learn how to divert my focus and mana so that I can cast two of the same spell at the same time. It takes a bit, but I manage to make both balls float above my palms by the end of the lesson.

"Good job," Mr. Roger says at the conclusion of today's session. "Make sure to practice between now and next week if you want to continue seeing progress. Doing so will strengthen your abilities, make it easier for you to perform the magics you already know, and help you learn to cast new spells."

"Will do!" I tell him. "Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Roger!"

Upon leaving, I find Xander sitting on one of the benches lining the street, Trenton in his hands and his backpack beside him. He's manipulating Trenton so that Trenton's doing a little dance, his own shoulders moving in beat with it

That's so cute.

"Hey, Xander!" I say, and Xander looks over. "Trenton wanted to dance again?"

"Yeah," Xander answers, then suddenly turns his head. "The others are here, too?"

"Huh?" I look in that direction. "Oh! Their bikes! Yeah, they all wanted magic lessons. They'll probably be coming-there's Sam and Isaac!"

Sam and Isaac come over to us, and Connor exits and makes his way toward us when they're almost here. As they do that, Xander sticks Trenton back in his bag, then pulls out some boxes like what I see at bakeries.

"Here," Xander offers them to us. "It's a good idea to eat magic foods after practicing magic. If you stuff yourself with them, your mana recovery rate gets boosted."

"It does?" Connor asks. "How does that work?"

"Magic."

"Xander?" I ask, and he looks at me. "Uh… is there some sort of explanation that makes sense besides just 'magic'?"

"Oh," his face turns bright red and he looks a little angry. "Um… I don't fully understand it, but basically, stuffing yourself with food until you're full converts the extra food into a small boost to your mana generation. Like, it uses magic to turn it into a sort of energy that boosts it. And magic food works better for this. And I had lots of extra cookies made with magic ingredients, so I figured I'd gift you guys some so you could have them after practice. Well, it was going to be just for S.G., but since all four of you are getting lessons now, it's for all four of you."

"Thanks!" I accept one of the boxes and stick it into my backpack.

"You didn't look to see what kind it was?" Xander looks concerned.

"If you made 'em, they're sure to be good!" I tell him as Connor, Sam, and Isaac each check the boxes they take before putting them into their backpacks.

"That's not a guarantee," Xander says. "Okay. Now you all have the cookies. I'm going to go home now. Have a good night, everyone."

Xander vanishes, leaving all of us confused.

"I get the feeling he wanted to ask us something," I say.

"Maybe he wanted to ask you out?" Connor suggests. "But decided not to since we were all here?"

He was? Oh, crap. Then this was bad timing. That kind of sucks. Wait, no.

"He's not crushing on me!" I insist as my face heats up.

"Sure he's not," Connor snorts. "And I'm a pumpkin."

"You do look like you'd be tasty in a pie!" I say. "Sam, Isaac! Quick, get the pie tins!"