[Sig – 13 years]

There's a small tickling on my face, and I reach up to smack whatever it is away… only to smack my face with a hand full of something that feels like whipped cream. Sticking my tongue out, I lick some of it off… yup, whipped cream.

Though I got it on my eyes, too, so I avoid opening them as I sit up and lick my hand clean. Which one of them did this? Whoever did it managed to not giggle at all, so it's hard to tell. I almost want to say that makes it Xander, since he spent the night here after bowling last night, but he probably would've left already.

He really doesn't like missing his morning classes.

Even if he hadn't left, he wouldn't wake someone up with a prank. Connor's done the whipped cream prank before, though, so it was probably him.

"Gah!" Connor's voice sounds out. "Hey! Who whipped creamed me?"

Or not. Whoever it was, they got him to get his eyes, too, I'm sure of it.

As I wipe whipped cream off of my eyes (and eat it), I hear Sam and Isaac both smack themselves in the face. That's… all four of us.

"Aunt Rachel!" I exclaim.

"No, I'm Xander."

"Xander?" Isaac asks. "You pranked us?"

"Ms. Rachel told me to wake you up this way," he says.

"Do you have something we can clean our faces off with?" Connor asks.

"Yeah, I have wet washcloths," Xander answers. "Um… can you hold out your hand?"

We all do that and I find a washcloth wet with warm water placed in my hand after a few moments. I clean my eyes and take a look at Xander to find that he's already gotten dressed for the day. Rather than the pajamas he changed into for the sleepover, or the shorts he changed into after we all fell asleep (which I know about because I got up to pee during the night and saw that), he's in his normal clothes. Today, it's a pair of jeans and a dark green MountainStorm Gear long-sleeved shirt with the company's logo in neon green across his chest.

That's a nice look for him.

Crap. I've probably got bedhead since I need to get my hair cut soon.

"What did she offer you to do this?" Sam asks.

"A giant plate of cookies she baked."

We all laugh at his blunt honesty about it. Bribing him is not entirely out of the equation if someone wants him to prank someone. The offer just has to be good enough in his eyes, and the prank probably has to be something he doesn't think is bad.

But he'll do it.

"Do you have any of the whipped cream left?" I ask after I finish wiping off my face.

"The can's right there."

I grab it off of the coffee table and immediately start squirting more into my mouth. Connor grabs it from me and does the same, then Sam, then Isaac. We play with the whipped cream for a bit, then Xander lets us know that Aunt Rachel told him to wake us up for breakfast.

"Breakfast!" I shoot to my feet.

We hurry upstairs, where Aunt Rachel helps us get our faces cleaned up the rest of the way before we eat breakfast. There's a lot of it, with a breakfast casserole, waffles, sausage links, and a glazed fruit salad. Not with icing, but some sort of sauce they were cooked with. Cinnamon and honey, I think, and maybe something else.

Whatever it is, it's really good.

"Maaaaan," Connor says once breakfast is over. "I gotta go home. Haven't done chores since Friday since we've basically been hanging out all the time, so Dad wants me to get my chores done while he's at work today. 'Specially since we've gotta pack for the camping trip and be ready for Saturday's test."

Wait, I forgot I should probably ask her about the camping trip. I've never had to ask before so it didn't cross my mind until now.

"Oh, right!" I look at Aunt Rachel. "There's a-"

"I know," she says. "Paul already told me about the annual camping trip you go on with them. A week of camping, hiking, fishing, and other activities."

"Yeah!" I say. "Wait, was that him asking you for me?"

"It was," she chuckles. "And I'll be going this time, too. You'll need to make sure to pack a separate bag for that from the one for the weekend. We'll be leaving from there to go to the campgrounds."

"Awesome!"

Sam and Isaac also have to head home, so they do that, leaving just Aunt Rachel, Xander, and me. Xander's fidgeting slightly every now and then, looking a little bit uncomfortable. Does he not know how to say he needs to go?

"Don't you normally have your classes right now?" I ask.

"Not today."

So they must've gotten canceled for some reason.

"Ah."

"Hey, S.G.?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to go to Nine Springs?" He asks. "And. Um. Maybe show me some of the spots you like to play in there?"

That's unexpected, but it'll probably be a quieter hangout time for us. And I'll get to show Xander some awesome things!

"Sure!" I answer, then look at Aunt Rachel. "Uh… we'll be totally safe! I promise!"

"You can go," she tells me.

"Awesome!" I say. "Lemme go change real quick!"

"Okay."

Five minutes later, Xander and I are on our way to Nine Springs, me on my bike and him on his hoverboard. How he can stand wearing a long-sleeved shirt in the summer heat, I don't think I'll understand. Sure, the breeze as we ride feels nice, but it feels even nicer in short-sleeves, a sleeveless, or even shirtless. Well, he'd probably get uncomfortable with the backpack straps, since I know their texture isn't the greatest, and I am used to it.

But he could still wear something like a sleeveless shirt. A lot of those have a nice texture.

When we reach Nine Springs, I have to slow down due to the more uneven terrain of the damaged road. Navigating through the ruins and rubble, I lead Xander to my favorite swimming spot here. It was formed partially be a sinkhole, partially by a section of road that got torn out during the fighting against the monsters.

Water from rains eventually filled it in and while it's not crystal clear, it's still kind of clear. I've never gotten sick from swimming in it, at least.There are even some aquatic plants growing on the bottom of the pond, poking up through the sand, mud, and clay that makes up its bed.

The whole thing is a decent bit bigger than the pond we swam at on Sunday, and it actually partially goes under what used to be a flower shop. About ten feet of it does, though the shop itself seems pretty sturdy, and the water in that part is deep enough that we may sometimes climb up on top of the building and jump in.

"Not always, though," I assure Xander, who paled when I mentioned the jumps. "Sometimes, we'll just jump in from the ground outside. Or inside. It's still decently deep in the part that goes inside. And all of the glass has been cleared away by… someone. Probably kids who played here before we started coming here."

I show Xander a few more of my favorite spots to play, including the best section to pretend to be demon hunters and the best spot to freerun and other similar things. I also show him a couple more of the ponds that formed here, before ending up back at the first one.

He also keeps doing something on his phone, which is odd. The others aren't texting the group chat that much. Maybe his dad's wanting him to keep him updated and Xander misunderstood? Mr. Caldwell's probably trying not to make Xander feel embarrassed and so hasn't let him know what he really meant.

"Hey, Xander?" I ask. "Do you want to swim for a bit? I know it's a lot more open than you're comfortable with, but it's just the two of us. Someone might show up, since this is a spot people come to play. With that big alarm last week and most people not knowing it was you accidentally doing it, though, chances are slim someone'll be out here."

"I don't want to swim," he tells me. "But I don't mind if you do. No skinny dipping, though, please."

This again?

"I won't!" I tell. "But, uh… where did this come from? You wanted to make sure we weren't going to on Sunday, too."

"I heard some teens like skinny dipping," he says. "That they either just like being naked, or they like the thrill of doing something 'risky'."

Oh.

"I've only done it a couple of times," I admit. "And not when there was a risk of someone else seeing. And I know it makes you uncomfortable, so I wouldn't do it around you even if I wanted to do it."

"Okay," he looks a little more relaxed, then turns around.

"Why'd you do that?"

"So you can change into your swim trunks."

"Oh!" I say. "I was just gonna go inside and do that out of view."

I quickly change into my trunks, then run and jump into the water. It's only as I do that I realize that Xander said he wasn't going to swim, too. Crap.

"Hey, Xander," I turn around and face him again. "Uh… what are you going to do while I swim? I can get out and we can do something else."

"I didn't say I won't," Xander tells me. "Just that I don't want to. Um. Is it safe to turn around now?"

"Yeah, I've got my trunks on," I tell him, and he turns around. "So you're going to swim even though you don't want to?"

"M-maybe," he answers. "If-if you all promise to not try and roughhouse with me."

"It's just me, Xan-"

"FROM ABOVE!" A voice shouts from above, then there's a massive splashing sound as something hits the water behind me.

There's enough force in the splash to send me forward a little and just as I manage to catch myself, there's another shout.

"VICTORY IS MINE!"

Then another impact into the water, and I'm knocked forward again.

When I turn around, I find Tate and Carter grinning at me like the lunatics they are, both in swim trunks.

"You guys are here?" I ask. "Victory will be mine! Wait!"

I look at Xander, then at Tate and Carter, then at Xander, then at Tate and Carter. Crap. He really seems uncomfortable right now so I want to get out of the pond to play with him, but at the same time, the rest of us just got in the water. There's no way he didn't know they were here, either, so he must have intended on bringing me back here to go swimming if I hadn't suggested it.

Wait.

"Hold up," I look at Xander again. "You knew they were here?"

"Yeah."

"We told him on Sunday!" Tate says, and I look over to see him grinning. "He's been telling us where you two were so that we could avoid it!"

"That's why you've been on your phone so much!" I exclaim, and Xander's face turns a little bit red. "I thought you were telling your dad everything!"

"Trey told me to be careful of monsters and to not be afraid to teleport everyone away if something really strong showed up," Xander says. "But that I don't have to tell him every time I go to a different part of the ruins, as long as I'm in the same general area. And we have been, mostly."

"And you've known since Sunday?" I ask, then look at Tate and Carter. "Wait, you guys knew you'd be here today?"

"Dad was planning on making another delivery," Tate tells me.

"And I wanted to do another freerunning thing here," Carter says. "Oh! And I got approved for monetization yesterday! That's news! So I can earn money from my videos now. Also got approved for it for my streams, on Monday. So now I can do ads on my streams."

"That's awesome!" I exclaim.

"It is!" He nods, then looks at Xander. "You gonna join us?"

"M-maybe in a bit," Xander pulls off his backpack and starts pulling stuff out. "I'm gonna work on the orb for a bit."

The orb Xander pulls out is similar to the one he uses to scan an area for the game, though also a little different. It's still a foot in diameter, but it also looks like a normal steel alloy rather than some dark green metal.

Since he apparently wants to hold off on joining us, I start goofing off with Tate and Carter. We roughhouse and wrestle, and they use their water magics to attack each other and me.

"Hey, S.G.?" Carter suddenly asks after dumping a giant orb of water on me.

"Yeah?"

"You can probably learn how to do water darts. Wanna?"

"Sure!"

For the next twenty minutes or so, Carter and Tate teach me the very basics of water manipulation and creation, as well as how to create darts of water to shoot at people. It uses a decent amount of mana, and my control with it isn't the best now, but I do my best to hit them when we resume playing.

"Hey, Xander?" I swim to the edge of the pond when we take a break from the game.

"Yeah?" He looks up at me.

"Whatcha working on?"

He had a massive look of concentration on his face while doing something with the orb, and now he has a look of uncertainty.

"Does it look like an iris?" He asks as he turns the orb around. "I, um… may have cheated and used magic to make it circular."

There's a blue ring on the part of the orb he's showing us, with a black center.

"Yup!" I answer.

"Definitely!" Carter answers. "Wait! Is that what I was asking about?"

"Yeah," Xander's cheeks turn a little pink. "Um… it should work fine."

"What'd you ask him about?" I look at Carter.

"That scanner orb he used for the game zones," Carter answers. "I asked if he could use something like that for streaming, too. If it could follow a person. I wasn't meaning make it in, like, three days, X! That's gotta cost a lot!"

"Uh…" Xander scrunches up his face. "Lemme see."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He starts tapping away on his laptop, which is sitting beside him. He's also muttering about materials, costs, and "what the heck is the Greyson surcharge? That's gotta go" as he does.

Something tells me he had his little cousin make something to help him calculate costs, and Greyson added in something weird.

Tate, Carter, and I look at each other, and I can tell that they're trying just as hard as me to not laugh. Carter wasn't asking Xander how much it'd cost, he was meaning that when he'd asked Xander, he was just curious about if it was possible. Actually affording it would probably be a little bit much.

"Gonna have to tell Greyson not to mess with the program Grandpa Adrian made," Xander mutters before looking at Carter. "All costs factored in, the streaming orb would cost $500 retail. A lot more than a normal microphone or camera, but those don't have all of the capabilities of this orb. And most aren't magitech."

"They sure ain't!" Carter agrees. "I've seen some magitech cameras that run upwards of two hundred, and some magitech mics that run about a hundred and fifty. But ain't seen one that can float around and follow you on its own!"

"And it should be able to make a decision on when to switch for a better view," Xander adds. "If you're using more than one camera. And if you're using the augmented reality glasses, you can even have it switch with that, and control it from there."

"That's awesome!" He says. "And you just casually carried something worth that much in your backpack?"

"I have my hoverboard and augmented reality glasses and all of the other stuff for the testing in it," Xander says. "Plus backup glasses and sunglasses, just in case. And, uh… probably a thousand dollars' worth of sweets? Maybe more?"

His face turned a little bit redder when he admitted the food bit.

"So having the materials to make something like this isn't a big deal," Xander says. "Plus, I have really strict security enchantments on it."

"Yeah," I nod. "It creates a barrier if someone tries to touch it, so you can't move it. We discovered that when we changed tables while Xander was off doing something else and wanted to move his bag so it wasn't sitting by itself."

"I changed it so you can do that," Xander tells me. "But only if the intention is to move it for a good reason, not 'I'm moving it' with the intent to move it to something like someone's car or home because they're actually stealing it. It's… a lot more sophisticated than that, though. It can tell the real intention and react accordingly. Oh, but it's just a barrier."

"What if someone tries teleporting it?" Carter asks.

"There's a barrier for that, too," Xander says. "Um. Anyway. The orb is done, so it's ready for you to use if you want. But, um. No rush. You don't have to stop swimming or anything."

"Huh?" I look at Carter. "Oh! Right! You said you wanted to do more freerunning!"

"Yeah," Carter says. "We were just waiting for Mr. Cox to let us know he was ready for us."

"He's been ready," Xander says. "He told me a bit ago that I could let you know whenever I was ready."

That's probably not what he meant, but I guess Mr. Cox isn't used to Xander taking things pretty literally.

"What did he say, exactly?" I ask as I try not to laugh.

"Um…" Xander pulls out his phone and checks it. "He said 'y'all can come over when you're ready'."

All three of us giggle. Xander misunderstood the "you're" in that, though it's not an issue. We were having fun, and I'm glad we got to hang out this long before Carter's stream.

Wait. When Xander quoted Mr. Cox's text… I never noticed it before, but Xander's got a little bit more of a twang than we do. We're semi-rural out here and have a little bit of a country twang, but Xander's is stronger than ours. It's not quite as strong as Carter's and Tate's, but if someone told me he grew up near them, I'd believe it.

How come Xander's got more of one than we do? Didn't he grow up around here? Something to wonder about another time. There's something more important I want to ask about right now.

"Alright," I look at Carter. "Is it okay if I watch you do your thing, as much as I can?"

"Watch?" Carter grins at me. "We asked your aunt if she was okay with me teaching you proper freerunning for it. Oh! Xander, you didn't answer if your dad gave you permission or not."

"Trey said I could if I wanted," Xander tells him. "But I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with it. Especially the higher parts."

"You don't have to go high!" Carter tells him. "I just like to! That's one of the things Mr. Cox was doing! Making sure there was a lower section, since you're even more of a starter than S.G. is!"

"You asked Aunt Rachel?" I ask as Carter gets out of the pond.

"Yeah," he answers. "Since I was gonna be over here again, I figured, we could do another collab! If you wanted, of course. So I asked your aunt, and she suggested we keep it a secret until it was time."

"Oh, neat!" I climb out of the pond, too. "I'll still have to ask to double-check. She'll get super mad if I don't."

Which is dumb, but I don't want her lecturing and grounding me over her own dumbness.

I reach for the towel I'd pulled out of my bag only to find my entire body instantly dried. It's not as if the water pulled off or anything, the water itself just vanished.

When I look at Tate and Carter, they both look just as shocked as I do.

"S-sorry," Xander says. "I meant to ask first, then do that if you said yes. But my brain got all mixed up and I did it first instead."

"That is a really neat spell," Carter tells him. "Can you teach me later?"

"I-I can try," Xander says. "B-but I might be a bad teacher. Unless I used the sensory loan spell, you probably wouldn't be able to understand me."

"The what now?" All three of us ask.

"Um… I don't know it's official name?" Xander looks uncertain. "It didn't have one in Greyson's system. And was flaws. Majorly. But I fixed all of the flaws. It lets you let someone else have the same type of senses as you do. It's not really loaning, since you keep your senses, and it's not really borrowing since they aren't using yours. It just… temporarily lets them have the same senses as you. Kind of. If that makes sense."

"It does!" I say. "That's really neat! Wait. You know a spell like that?"

"I looked in Greyson's database to see if there was a spell that'd make it easier for me to explain what I'm talking about when I talk about what magic is doing," Xander says. "Did that on Monday when I went to his workshop to work on stuff. Since you guys keep getting confused when I try to describe it. It seemed easier to make it so you can sense magic the way I do so you could understand… but that's just a backup plan in case I can't come up with a better one. A way to make me explain it better."

"That's still cool!" I tell him. "Hey, I'm gonna change my shorts now."

Xander turns around, and Tate, Carter, and I get changed, then the four of us head over to where Tate's dad is waiting. By the time we reach him, Aunt Rachel's confirmed that they got permission from her to teach me proper freerunning and that I can be in his stream, and even that I can stream, myself. As we walk, I also make a request of Carter about what to call me during the stream.

While he's used to calling me S.G. from our interactions, I want to be called "Seb" as a streamer. There are reasons I stopped going by that name in-person, but I think it's fine to go by it as a streamer.

"Shirts on, boys," Mr. Cox says after greeting us.

"I'm already wearing a shirt."

"He was referring to us," I laugh a little. "He knows you've already got one on."

"Oh," Xander's face reddens a little.

We set our backpacks down and pull on shirts, then Xander sets up the orb, which begins floating in the air at about eye-level. He also hands the three of us augmented reality glasses, and this confirms that he's keeping the pair each person uses separate. They're each in a case with a name on it, and the one he gives me is from the case with mine.

"Hi, everybody!" Carter waves. "I'm out in the ruins of Nine Springs again, and as you can see, I'm with some others! Tate's off to the side, and you'll notice that he's not got the camera and hey! It really shifted!"

That last part was directed to Xander. We can see the stream video in a small window in our vision – one that doesn't show up to our viewers – and when Carter mentioned Tate, the view shifted from the three of us to Tate and his dad.

"That's good," Xander nods. "I wasn't sure if I programmed that right."

"You did!" Carter says. "Back to introductions! Next to Tate is his dad, and back to us! I'm here with Seb and Xander this time!"

"Hi!" I wave.

"Hello," Xander says.

"So today," Carter says. "I'm not going to do one of my usual videos – or streams. I know that normally, I do a lot of freerunning, a little bit of martial arts, a bit of magic, some horseback riding, barrel racing, and stuff. Seb does freerunning on his own, but not on a bigger level just 'cause it's not fun to do it alone and his friends aren't into it."

"Yeah!" I laugh. "They panic a lot if they see me doing the jumps and stuff, so I usually save it for when I'm alone!" I laugh a little again. "It's not as if they haven't seen me fall twenty feet out of a tree and come out with just some scratches and bruises."

"I don't want to do that," Xander says.

"And if we're lucky!" Carter says. "Xander might agree to learn a lot lower to the ground than we'll be doing it! And speaking of Xander, Xander, you wanna tell 'em about the orb?"

"Okay," Xander says, and the stream view switches to his perspective. "Oh, good, it worked. You guys can see the floating orb there, that's a new design based on the augmented reality glasses, the sphere used to scan an area for the zombie shooter game, and the AI one of my second-cousins made. It's a sphere which can be used to record or even stream things, and its AI allows it to track a person and follow them. This means that someone who's moving around won't need someone else to keep up with them – the orb will follow them around. And if they're doing something like freerunning, or playing laser tag, or something like that, it'll make it easier for the camera to stay on them."

"And that's awesome!" Carter says. "It also means you can get more than just our perspective when streaming! And its AI allows it to switch views when needed, or we can directly tell it to via our glasses. That's why it was shifting – it noted that we were wanting the view to shift, so it did on its own!"

"But it's a new program," Xander says. "So there might be errors. So we're gonna test it out here, but there's no guarantee there won't be problems."

"Yeah," Carter says. "Okay! Seb! Let's do freerunning! Xander, why don't you give your thoughts to your chat while we do ours? That way, you aren't just standing around with nothing to do."

"Okay," Xander says.

Carter and I start, and it consists of me following him and trying to do the same thing. Or at least, get to the same spot as him. It's pretty fun, trying to see if I can find another way to get to the same location but in a different way. There's not always a quick path to but that doesn't matter.

The goal of freerunning isn't to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, but to do it with style. Most of the time when I do a trick, it's really just a flip. Carter can do way more than flips, though, and even teaches me some, then has me try a section again.

By the time we return to Tate, Xander, and Mr. Cox, I'm a little out of breath and my hair and shirt are sticking to me a little from the sweat. But it was still incredibly fun, and I'm glad Carter was willing to teach me some stuff.

Even if he isn't out of breath at all. A little sweaty, but not out of breath. That's really not fair, but also probably a sign of just how different in stamina a stronger mage is when they're also physically active.

"Alright, Xander!" Carter says when we return to the others. "How did that look to you?"

"Scary," that was pretty evident to me, since he's clutching Trenton against his chest pretty tightly.

Convincing him to give it a try, even on the ground, might not be possible today.

"Yeah," Carter nods. "It can be a little daunting, but like I said, we'll do it closer to the ground. And you're a pretty strong mage, so your body's definitely a little bit tough."

"Not really," he says.

It's probably not publicly known that Xander was pretty low on mana until recently, even if his capacity is ridiculous. He told us about what he'd subconsciously been doing for years, and it's honestly mind-blowing. That kind of magic… damn.

I do my best not to think about it because of how insane it is, but he's probably doing it right now. Thinking about it, I mean.

"Xander," I say. "You've been training the past couple of weeks, so I'm sure your body's gotten tougher."

"Xander," Carter says before Xander can respond. "You don't have to if you don't want to. It's okay to be nervous about it."

"O-okay," Xander says. "I don't want to."

"Alright!" Carter says. "Then that's that! Let's end our streams here, yeah?"

We agree to do that, then give our chats our goodbyes and end.

"Alright," I pull off my sweaty shirt and Carter does the same for his. That feels so much better. "What now?"

"How about dinner?" Mr. Cox asks. "I brought stuff to grill."

"Barbecue?" Xander asks.

"Barbecue," Mr. Cox confirms.

"Is it Tate's sauce?"

"It is," Tate chuckles. "I mixed up some extra for you, too, so you can take some home with you."

"Oh cool, thanks," Xander says. "How much?"

"Free!" Tate says. "Come on, let's help Dad grill!"

As they walk over to Mr. Cox's truck, Carter looks at me.

"Once you catch your breath," he says. "Want to do a bit more? We'll have to stick close to here."

More running and jumping and flips?

"Yeah!"

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

[Greyson – 10 years] → happens during Sig's PoV

"Hand on the cart, Greyson," Papa says, and I put my hand on the cart. "Thank you. You have the list?"

"In here," I tap my head with my free hand. "I've organized it for optimal acquisitions during the shopping trip based on the current layout of the store, what they currently have in stock, and I also added in some things which no one else noticed we needed more of."

"Will you just talk normally?" Henry asks.

"Henry, stop," Papa says. "You promised to behave during this grocery trip and not antagonize your brother. Do you need me to extend your grounding?"

"But he always talks like a freak!"

"As I talk like myself," I say. "And I am not a freak, that means that I do not talk like a freak, I simply talk like myself."

"Yes, you do!"

"Henry!" Papa snaps. "What did I just tell you? You will find yourself grounded for longer if you don't behave! And Greyson?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for not being a jerk back."

"If I get grounded," I say. "Then I will not be able to work on my projects, and Grandfather Adrian has requested that I make changes to the functionality of my mega-computer. I finished them yesterday, but still need to test it out. I was planning on asking Cal if he would mind being my test subject, but he's at work this evening so I'll ask Travis next. I know he's been bored."

"No using your brothers as test subjects," Papa says.

"There are potential side effects," I tell him. "There's an 8.703% chance of dizziness, headaches, and/or nausea. There's also a 2.014% chance of fainting. However, those are the only potential side effects. I would test it myself directly, but I need to be on the outside in order to check that everything went well. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out how to do an avatar, so I lack the ability to be in two places at once."

It would be easier if I could just grab some mobster or a freak who hurts little boys, but Grandfather Adrian has explicitly banned me from using criminals. There's no risk of them sharing my secrets after since I feed them to griffins once I finish using them, but that's also apparently banned.

"On the outside?" Papa asks. "The outside of what?"

"The pod," I answer. "The multipurpose chickens aren't able to give me the sort of answers I need to make sure everything is displayed properly, even if I try using mind magic to look through their minds. Their vision is weeeeeeeird."

"Freak," Henry mutters.

"Henry Greyson King!" Papa's voice is stern. "Not another word out of you until we get back home, or you will not receive desserts until your grounding ends. Do you understand me?"

Henry huffs and looks away.

"I asked you a question," Papa says. "Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, fine," Henry huffs.

"And Greyson?"

"Yes?"

"It's two gallons of milk, right?"

We've reached the other end of the grocery store, where they keep the dairy products. Dairy on the back wall, then the breakfast and lunch meats and stuff, then the normal meats, with some other stuff that's kept cold. The freezers and fridges are at the front of the store, before the produce, and everything else is spread around the store.

"I added two more gallons to it," I tell him. "For a total of four."

"What do you need two gallons of milk for?"

"Cal asked me to make him some ice cream for the party he's going to on Friday," I tell him as he opens up the milk fridge and begins pulling out gallons to put into the cart. "And I want to make some for myself, too. So a gallon of milk for Cal's ice cream, and a gallon for mine. Don't worry, I'll pay for my gallon with my allowance. You'll have to ask Cal for the money for his."

"Your great-grandfather is sending us additional support," Papa tells me. "To help cover the costs of feeding mages such as what you four can be. This factors your own intake in, as well as snacks, desserts, and other treats. It also includes budgeting for magic ingredients."

"He is?" I ask.

"Yes," Papa answers. "This is after factoring in our normal food budget for you boys, so we're still expected to cover what we can. We can count the ice cream you make for yourself as part of that… if you agree to make some for everyone, too. Cal will still need to pay for what he takes to a party, that's extra."

"Let's make it five gallons of milk."

"Alright," he grabs another gallon. "And for the cream?"

We continue through the store, with me telling Papa what's on the list and Henry doing a lot of huffing. At least Papa was able to shut him up, he rarely succeeds and Henry ends up needing more grounding. It makes the trip… more pleasant. I would've preferred if he'd stayed home, since I can feel his attitude, but there's nothing I can do about that.

When I get told I have to stay home, I have to stay home. If I'm told I have to go grocery shopping with Papa, I have to go grocery shopping with Papa.

After going through the normal side of the store, we move to the side of the store with magic foods. It's not a massive section here, and not on the more perishable stuff like dairy, eggs, and meat, but there's still some. Like chips.

"I was thinking of changing tonight's dinner plan," Papa tells me. "Changing it to loaded nachos. What do you think, Greyson?"

"But… we were gonna do lasagna."

"Yeah," Papa says. "I know it's a big change, Greyson, and sudden changes stress you out. That's why I'm asking you now, instead of just letting you know when we get home and I have to start preparing it. I don't feel like having to deal with all of the steps involved in making it, then balancing when to put in the garlic bread after making that. And while we could just buy the stuff pre-made and frozen here, I don't want to deal with staggering the stuff. Loaded nachos will be easier to do. We can do it with all magic foods, so that you'll find it tastier. You can even help me cook if you want. And it's Wednesday, which means you get to make dessert after dinner. We can do that with magic ingredients, too."

But the dinner calendar at home says lasagna for dinner tonight. Nachos aren't lasagna.

"How come you always walk on eggs for him?" Henry whines.

"Henry Greyson King," Papa's voice is stern again. I am so glad it's not aimed at me. "We've been over this before. You know your brother's Autistic and isn't able to handle change the way you are. It causes a lot of stress for him. And I'm not walking on eggshells for him. Seeing if he's alright with it is a reasonable accommodation, especially since the rule is that if he's not okay with the change, then he has to make dinner, swapping his next turn with whoever's on the schedule for that day."

Oh, right. If we stick to today's scheduled dinner, then I'll have to do all of the cooking. Papa will help and supervise, but I'll still have to do most of the work. Which is worse? Making a food that I need to use telekinesis so I can cut properly when I eat, or help Papa make something that's not on the schedule?

I don't want to do either… but maybe I'll be fine when we get home.

"Can we do red rice with it?" I ask.

"Sure," Papa says. "And salad, too. Let's look at the magic food selections here."

"There's a better shop for magic foods close to the place where I get the magic meat," I tell him. "And we can get the beef from the butcher's. The stuff in those shops aren't mass-produced the way they are here. Smaller farms and stuff, and it's made in big batches by hand rather than massive ones by machines."

"Really?" Papa asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "And the butcher's got a delivery of mindwave cattle meat today. I was planning on asking if we could go there so I could buy some. I've still got some of my allowance left and it'd be enough to buy me maybe enough for a burger or steak. But if we're doing magic beef for loaded nachos, then we could use that."

"Isn't that at a higher premium than normal magic beef?" Papa asks.

"Mindwave cattle is a very special cattle breed," I say. "After all, mind magics are rare, not just among people but among beasts."

Papa contemplates something for a few moments, and I give him my best pleading eyes. He's already changing stuff on me when we're this near to it. Change like that is bad. Very bad. Having something that's extra delicious will make it easier to handle. I'm pretty sure, anyway. We've never really gotten magic foods before so I don't know if changing dinner to use magic foods will make it easier for me or not. I don't want to change it, but if I have to change it, then I want it to be as tasty as possible.

"What were you planning on making for dessert?" Papa asks.

"Fruit pizza," I answer. "We already got all of the stuff for it, but if we're getting magic ingredients, I want to get them at the other store. Theirs is better."

"We can do that," Papa says. "And we can get the mindwave cattle beef for the nachos, but under one, two-part condition."

"What's that?" I ask.

"You let Henry pick a second type of cookie pizza-type dessert to make," Papa answers, then looks at Henry. "But only if he can make it through the rest of the shopping trip without one more negative comment about his brother, complaint, or whine."

He's giving my brother a pointed look, and Henry's face turns red and he looks away with a small huff.

"Fine."

"Alright, then," Papa looks at me. "Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's go get checked out," he says. "And you'll have to direct me to where the other store is."

"Will do."