[Xander – 12 years]

Trey doesn't say anything as he lies down beside me on the living room floor. He doesn't say anything after lying down, either. That's fine, though. If I were in trouble, he would've said something for sure.

I don't remember doing anything to get into trouble, but there's always the possibility that I did.

Does he like just relaxing like this? It feels nice to do this and he sometimes joins me and says nothing for awhile. I don't think he's able to relax for as long as me, though, because he always ends up talking. Before he does, though, is nice.

"Xander?" Trey says after a little while.

"Yes, Trey?"

"I know you're wanting to take a break from socializing this week," he says. "But did you still want to do your Tuesday baking stream?"

That would require talking to chat, but at the same time, it's Tuesday. That means it's baking stream day. Skipping that is bad. I was already planning on asking if we could go to the store to get the stuff for it because there's no way I can skip it. Not unless I'm not allowed to do it, but I think that would only happen if I misbehaved.

And I'm fairly certain I haven't.

"Yeah."

Trey doesn't say anything for another minute.

"Do you want to get ready to go and buy the stuff for the baking stream?"

Is it already that time? I must've been relaxing a lot longer than I thought.

"Yeah."

"Go on and do that, then."

Five minutes later, Trey, Katie, and I are in the SUV and on our way to the store. When we arrive, the nice cashier lead lady from when I was here with my friends is at the front desk.

"Hi," I wave to her.

"Hello," she waves. "Are these your parents?"

"No," I answer. "This is my foster dad, and this is Katie. We're getting stuff so I can bake a massive lemon cookie with blueberries."

"Is that what it is?" Trey asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "And there will be one for me and one for you and one for Katie."

"You don't need to bake us each one," Trey tells me. "We can't eat as much as you."

"It's okay to save the rest for later," I tell him as I grab a shopping cart. "They can be broken up and put into a stasis box, too, for extra life."

He mumbles something about that not being what he means, but since he doesn't say anything else, I don't ask about it. If it were important, I'm sure he'd tell me. I do really want to know what he means, though. Should I ask? But that'd be questioning adults, so I'm not allowed to.

We head deeper into the store to start grabbing the things we need. When we reach the aisle with the flour and sugar and stuff, there's a boy with his mom in the aisle.

The other boy looks to be about my age and has a lean build, blond hair, green eyes, and a summer's tan. He's wearing MountainStorm Gear clothes, a pair of silver shorts and a light blue sleeveless shirt that has the logo in the color of the other. His sneakers match them, too, being light blue with silver accents.

While he's really cute, he's also familiar for some reason. I try not to stare as I try to figure out how I know him, though, because that'd be very rude. So instead of doing that, I start grabbing bags of flour. I can't remember where he's from, which means that I've probably seen him at the park. He does have a lean build, so he probably plays outside a lot.

Why do I feel so nervous? I shouldn't be feeling nervous right now, even if I can't remember why he seems familiar to me. Wait. This isn't how I feel when I'm nervous, which means that these aren't my nerves. They're his, aren't they? If he's nervous, then something must be wrong. But he wasn't nervous when I walked over, he got nervous while we were both getting stuff off of the shelf.

"Hey! Excuse me!" The boy calls out to me, his anxiety increasing even more.

"Oh, sorry," I say. "Am I in your way?"

"No!" He grins at me. "You're Xander, right? Russell's friend?"

"Russell and I aren't friends anymore," I state. "You know him?"

"Yeah!" He says. "I was at Youth Group when you went! We haven't seen Russell since then, though. Well, he doesn't come very often anyway. You're not friends anymore?"

I don't want to go through the whole explanation, but there's a really simple one that I hope works.

"He's a big dummy."

"Aw, that sucks," he says. "It was fun hanging out with you then!"

"Oh, right," I remember him now. "You played charades and Bird, Fish, Beast. Um… I don't remember your name, though. Sorry."

That's awful, too. He remembers my name, but I don't remember his. Though it's also confusing, because I'm very certain that what I'm feeling are his emotions. He isn't just feeling nervous about something, he's also feeling super giddy for some reason and that feels weird to me.

I really need to figure out how to stop feeling other people's emotions. It only makes me even more confused about things than I already am.

"I'm Austin!" He says. "It was fun playing with you last time! Are you gonna come again?"

"I'm not friends with Russell anymore."

"Don't need to be!" He says. "Anyone can join us! Don't need to be a member of the church or friends with someone in the group, you can just come!"

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "It's just an activity for youth run by the church. There's a bit of church stuff at first, but then it's just hanging out. And we welcome anyone!"

"Oh."

"Yeah," he nods. "Oh! You said you go bowling on Tuesdays, right? Dad and I are going bowling tonight, at Silver River Bowling Alley! We'll be there at, uh…"

"Seven-thirty," his mom says.

"Seven-thirty!" Austin tells me. "If that's the one you go to, want to bowl with us?"

There's a lot of hope in him. Why can't I figure out how to turn off this power? And why does he feel hopeful about me bowling with him? We really don't know each other all that well.

"Xander?" Trey asks, and I look at him. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Um… please hold on," I tell Austin. "Trey wants to talk to me."

"Okay!"

Trey and I walk a little bit away from him while Katie stays by the cart. Now I'm nervous, because why would Trey want to talk with me all of a sudden when I get asked to hang out? I must've done something wrong but don't know what it is. Or this is where I start getting into trouble for having friends.

It could definitely be that.

"You seem like you're unsure about how to respond," Trey tells me, his voice quiet. "Do you want to decline bowling with him?"

That's not at all what I thought he wanted.

"I'm… not sure," I tell him, keeping my voice low as well. "He was nice at the youth group thingy, I remember that. But why does he want to hang out with me? And why does he feel so nervous and giddy and hopeful? I want to turn this power off but I can't and now that I know about it, it feels like it's just a lot worse. Or maybe I'm just getting stronger…"

"He's feeling nervous?" Trey asks.

"Super nervous."

"Ah," he says. "Ignoring what you're feeling from him, what do you want? Do you want to bowl with him?"

"Um… I don't know."

"What does your gut say?"

"That it's okay to bowl with him," I say. "And he's got a blessing from the gods, so I know he's good person. That doesn't mean he's not dumb, 'cause Russell has one, too, but he's dumb. But why would he want to bowl with me? We barely know each other."

"Maybe he wants to get to know you better?" Trey asks. "He could be thinking that he wants to be friends with you. It's something kids do – they might think someone could be friends with them, so they hang out and see if they become friends. Do you want to do that? Give hanging out with him a try and see if you two can be friends?"

"But I already have a lot of friends."

"Would S.G. say he has enough friends?"

"Sig is popular, though."

"And would he say he has enough friends?"

"He'd say you can never have enough friends."

In fact, I'm fairly certain I've heard him say that at least twice. But Sig really is popular, so it's okay for him to have a lot of friends.

"That applies to you, too," Trey tells me. "You can have a lot of friends if you want, Xander. So do you want to hang out with him and see if you two might become friends?"

"Um…" I look over at Austin, who's talking with his mom while bouncing a little. "Yeah. He seems like a nice guy."

"Alright," Trey says. "Do you want to bowl with him?"

"But we start at eight," I tell him. "So we'll get there later. And we might bowl for longer, too."

"If you want," he says. "We can let them know when we ask about bringing dessert about Austin and his dad, and ask if they can be put on Lane 19. I was going to have you let them know that S.G. and them won't be there tonight."

"Why?"

"Since they usually assign the boys to Lane 18 so that there's space between," he says. "Or Lane 19, more recently, so they can hang out with you. This way, they know the expected group won't be there."

"Oh."

That makes sense.

"Alright," Trey says. "Why don't you let Austin know?"

"Okay," I walk back over to the cart and Katie. "Um. Austin?"

"Yeah?" He looks at me, still bouncing a little.

"We do go to Silver River Bowling Alley," I tell him. "But we usually get there at about eight, so we'll show up after you. But if we bowl on neighboring lanes when I arrive, then we can talk and stuff. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah!" He grins. "See you tonight, then! Bye, Xander!"

"Bye, Austin."

Austin and his mom walk off, and I continue grabbing the stuff I need to bake the giant cookies for today's stream. There's not a lot in terms of ingredients, but it's quite a lot in terms of quantity. A three-foot-wide cookie takes a lot of flour, for example. This is especially true because I make sure it's scaled.

In other words, it's not as thin as the normal-sized cookies, it's thick as well.

After I buy everything I need, we return to the house and get things set up, then I change into a good outfit for the stream and make sure to put on my streaming glasses. Trey and Katie get ready to moderate my chat, and I take some deep breaths. My streams all have around five thousand or so concurrent viewers, according to the analytics, which I don't think is very much.

But at the same time, I already have over one million followers, which is confusing. They're probably not real accounts; I've heard about bot accounts. If I really had that many followers, then I'd definitely have a lot more viewers.

Even having this few viewers is a little scary, though. So many people to see me if I mess up.

"Are you ready?" Trey asks.

"No," I answer. "But… I should start. I'm going to run late if I don't."

I take another deep breath, then begin the stream.

"Hello, everyone," I greet chat. "I'm X-Xander, if you didn't already know. But since you're here so fast, you probably do know as you most likely came from a notification for being a follower. Huh? Am I sponsored by MountainStorm Gear? No. Why?"

[KalebSlays]: Because ur always wearing it in streams

Is he a monster hunter? That's probably why he has "slays" in his name, because he slays monsters. Unless it's just slaying stuff in games? I guess it could be that, too.

"I like the way their clothes look," I tell him. "And they're kind of comfy, too. They don't have long-sleeves that have cooling enchantments on them, though, so I have to use a spell to keep myself cool when out in the sun, like right now. Most of my other clothes are plain and cheap, and don't look great for streaming. So I wear MountainStorm Gear clothes for streaming instead. I just saw someone be creepy. Don't be creepy. I'm not Sig, I'm not gonna stream shirtless. Oh. Thanks for banning them, Trey. I was gonna do that. Anyone who gets creepy gets banned."

[GarbledGargle]: are you a black belt?

"Am I a black belt?" I read off the message. "You ask that every Tuesday. No, I'm still a white belt. My new instructor says I'm good enough that I might pass the test at his martial arts studio, but I'm not testing for it yet. I'm still new."

I continue talking with chat until fifteen minutes have passed, then I begin making the cookies. They're the lemon cookies with blueberries that Katie and I make sometimes, drizzled with cream cheese icing. Even though it's my first time baking them to this size, they come out perfect. At least, they look perfect.

Their taste is just as good as always when I take my first bite. Oooh, it's so good! Chat mostly talks with themselves while I eat the cookie, though I do try to talk with them a little. Mostly, I focus on eating the cookie because I already spent fifteen minutes socializing with chat at the start.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Thanks for watching, everyone," I say once I finish eating the cookie. "There probably won't be a stream on Saturday, since the beta test is over. Next Saturday – not this one but the one after – will have another stream for the game, though. That stream is for the release version of the game. Once it ends, you'll be able to order the AR glasses, console, and accessories via Xanson Technologies, and they'll be available in stores the following Monday, two days later.

"I can see a couple of people being confused," I say. "So you're probably new to my streams. I'm the Chief Magitech Engineer for Xanson Technologies, a company my great-grandfather – Adrian King – set up to manufacture and sell stuff that I and a certain second-cousin of mine create. I've built an augmented reality gaming system, and three of my streams have been beta tests for the game and the system. The reason I'm able to see chat no matter where I'm looking is because of my glasses – I'm sure you noticed how they look stylish. They're augmented reality glasses.

"And as I was saying," I say. "It'll be officially released soon. I've been given the okay to announce the prices for it. For the augmented reality gaming console, it'll be $500. For the augmented reality glasses, they'll be $2,000. For the release games – I think that's what it's called – they'll be $50 each. Hm? Yeah, games. There'll be five games on release, including the zombie shooter that I've been streaming. The guns will have differing prices based on which one you're getting, and they'll be usable for three of the games.

"Oh," I say. "Also, if you're wanting to play in a group, the only thing everyone needs their own of is the glasses. When multiple people are playing the same game together, they all link their augmented reality glasses to the same console, so you only need one console. And since you only use one console, that means you only need one game card, to go into it. I'm not sure if that's been clear, so now you know."

I think that's everything I wanted to mention.

"Alright," I say. "Thank you all for watching, everyone, and I hope you have a good time! Bye!"

I end the stream, then let out a big breath, swap to my regular glasses, and clean up my stuff from the stream. Once that's done, I lie on the floor of the living room with my arms and legs spread out again.I just need to relax now.

Trey joins me on the floor, not saying anything as he lies down. It's at least ten minutes before he breaks the silence between us.

"Xander?"

"Yes, Trey?"

"You seem like you're trying not to fall asleep," he says. "Do you need a nap?"

"I'm trying not to."

"You can take a nap if you want to," he tells me. "You don't have anything you need to be doing."

"Okay," I say. "Then I think I'm gonna take a nap. Did, um, did you like the cookie?"

Even if I think they came out perfect, that doesn't mean Trey and Katie did.

"I did," he chuckles. "It was pretty good, Xander. Go take your nap."

"Alright."

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

[Greyson – 10 years]

"Hey, Greyson," Cal says. "Watcha working on?"

I've got stuff spread out on the living room floor while Papa watches TV on the couch. Henry's in his room, still grounded, and Travis is out with friends right now. Dad's at work, and he'll be there until closing. Cal just got home from work and is currently taking his shoes off at the door.

"A robot," I answer.

"You're not at your workshop?"

"Papa made me stay home today because I complied with his instructions."

"You asked Travis to be a test subject yesterday," Papa says. "I told you last week that you weren't allowed to ask your brothers to be test subjects."

"I did not ask him to be a test subject," I say. "I told him I wasn't allowed to do that, then explained that I wanted one. Then, he volunteered to be one.Therefore, I complied with the directions I was given."

"He kind of has a point there," Cal says. "You weren't fully clear that he wasn't allowed to use us as test subjects. You know he'll find loopholes if they exist. Anyway, once I change into some shorts, want to show me your robot, Greyson? Or will it not be ready by then?"

"I might be ready," I tell him. "But I'm not accelerating my personal time out of protest."

"All that's doing is making you quieter," Papa says. "And is making you take longer."

"And drags out how long you have to sit there with me working on a robot nearby," I say. "Making noise as you watch TV."

Though it doesn't seem to bother him at all. Maybe because I've tried to do it quietly instead of noisily?

"Is it going to explode?" Papa asks.

"Not this time."

Papa rolls his eyes, and Cal heads to his room. When he comes back out, he's in a pair of shorts, and he lies on his stomach on the other side of my stuff.

"So what's this robot for?"

"It's a robot," I tell him. "It doesn't need to be for anything."

"Of course, of course," he says. "What are you working on for it right now?"

"These are the runes that will control the right arm," I answer. "If you look right here…"

I explain to Cal what I'm doing as I work on the robot and once it's done, I use the controller to move it around and make it do martial arts moves. Cal watches as I do this, then I let him use the controller for a few minutes.

"This is pretty cool," Cal tells me. "Does it cast any spells?"

"No," I answer. "Papa said I couldn't do that this time."

"I didn't want him making it throw fire in the house," Papa tells him. "He's done that a few too many times for comfort recently."

"I've never set anything on fire with my robots here," I say.

"Maybe not," Papa says. "But you've had them use fire too much for comfort, Greyson. I don't want to risk it."

"I always ensure there is a zero percent chance of something catching on fire unless things go severely wrong."

Papa sighs.

"Anyway," he says. "I told him to restrict it to not having spells it casts. That got us into a debate on magitech and the magic in them… but it seems he understood the restriction. And now that it's done… are you ready to make dinner?"

It seems my attempt at taking so long that he forgot about that failed.

"Ugh."

"You agreed to make dinner today," Papa says.

Because lasagna was on the schedule for it and Papa didn't feel like making it. But it's on the schedule, and we already missed the first time it was on the schedule for this past week. Missing it twice is extra bad so I asked him to please not change the schedule again.

Which means that I have to be the head chef for making it tonight.

"I know," I teleport everything back to my room. "But it's lasagna. I need to use telekinesis to eat it properly."

"You use telekinesis to eat lasagna?" Cal asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "How else do you keep it from sliding around as you try to cut it?"

"I just cut it with the edge of my fork and let it slide if it does," Cal says.

"That's because you're weird."

"Papa uses a fork and a knife."

"He is also weird."

"Come on, Greyson," Papa says. "Let's make dinner. And no magic."

"I'll help," Cal says.

"Make sure to put on your apron," I tell him. "You don't always use your apron but you need to when cooking, okay? So wear your apron."

"I'll wear my apron," Cal promises.

Cal, Papa, and I get ready to start cooking, then we prepare dinner. It's lasagna, salad, and garlic bread with some cheesy garlic bread. Since I didn't want us to change the schedule again, I do most of the work while Cal and Papa help me. Mostly, Papa just tells me not to use magic anytime I go to use it while Cal actually works as an assistant chef.

"Greyson?" Cal asks.

"Yes?" I look at him.

"Why are you making peanut butter sandwiches?"

"It's peanut butter and jelly," I correct as I hold up the half I'm holding. "See? That's grape jelly, Cal. Not peanut butter. It's a completely different color, shine, texture-"

"Greyson," Cal says. "Why are you making sandwiches?"

"Henry's grounded from dinner and so gets PB and J," I answer.

"And did Papa say that?" Cal asks. "Or did you decide this on your own?"

"Henry bit Greyson," Papa tells him. "Greyson did punch him in response, but we had a talk about that."

"Anyone would panic if they're bitten out of nowhere," I say. "He's lucky I realized in time and didn't hit him with my full strength. His head would've burst and while I'm good at healing magic, I'm not that good. Anyway, here are his sandwiches. You take them to him."

"Why me?" Cal asks.

"He bit me," I say. "He's lucky I even bothered making his sandwiches."

Cal rolls his eyes, then fills a cup with water for Henry before taking that and the plate to Henry's room. When he's grounded like this, he eats in his room, too. Dad says it'd be too cruel to make him eat at the table with us when he's not eating the same stuff as us.

I think that that'd be a fair punishment, but I'm overruled by him and Papa. It would definitely be an incentive to behave, if he has to sit through us eating delicious food while he gets boring stuff.

After dinner, I help Cal make dessert, which is a triple-layer chocolate cake. Cal's feeling fancy today! I thought it was just going to be something like cookies or brownies, since that's the normal dessert.

"Greyson?" Cal says as we ice the cake.

He's feeling mischievous, which has me really curious, so I look at him. Just as I do, he bops me on the nose with some frosting, causing me to let out a small squeal of surprise.

"Hey!"

"Gotcha," he grins, then laughs. "You're not going to manage to lick it off, Greyson! Your tongue's not long enough!"

It doesn't stop me from trying, but he's right and I ultimately fail to lick if off, so I wipe it off with a hand and then lick it off of that. Once we finish icing the cake, Cal lets me eat the rest of the frosting from the bowl, and I make sure to lick it clean. Cal's chocolate frosting is the best! It's like with the candies he makes – I know the recipe, and I've tried to make it myself, but something Cal does when he makes it causes it to taste way better than any other.

And no matter how much I try to figure out what his trick is, I can't.

"Greyson," Papa chuckles as we put the cake (and a tub of ice cream) on the dining room table. "You've still got some frosting on your face."

"I know," I tell him. "It'll come off later, don't worry. It's a good thing we made a big cake. Travis just got home."

"Travis won't eat that much," Cal says.

"His friends are here, too," I say. "Travis probably wants to know about doing a sleepover or something."

That's the usual reason the whole group shows up with him when we don't know in advance.

Travis enters the house with the four friends he's hanging out with, all of them sweaty and shirtless from playing out in the sun all afternoon and is that honey I'm smelling? Their backpacks seem a little bit sticky, too.

"Why do I smell honey?" Papa asks.

"The bear that's throwing balloons filled with honey is back," Travis answers as if that's a common, everyday occurrence. "Papa, can I spend the night at George's? Oooh! Cake!"

Don't just move on from that. There's something very important that you just said!

"There's a bear throwing balloons filled with honey?" I ask.

"It was in the news the other day," Cal says. "Pegged a bunch of kids with the balloons before running off into the woods."

"Huh," I say. "The ninja haven't told me about that. That's weird."

The ninja normally let me know about weird things going on that I don't hear about through other methods. This one was even in the news, too, and I apparently didn't hear about it. They probably didn't tell me after assuming I'd hear about it from the news or one of my brothers.

"Hi, Greyson!" One of Travis's friends, George, says. "Did you make the cake?"

"Cal made it," I say. "I helped."

"So it won't explode?"

"No explosions," I nod.

"You can spend the night at George's," Papa says. "Do you boys want a slice of cake before you go?"

"Yeah!" They exclaim.

Like I said, it's a good thing Cal made such a big cake. Even if everyone else gets a slice, there will still be enough for me to get half, if Cal and Papa let me. Though they won't be able to sit down to eat without getting honey on things.

Should I put down barriers to protect the furniture? Yeah, I'll put down barriers. That'll be easier than having to help Papa and Cal clean things up after. But subtly, because Papa doesn't seem concerned about having honey-splattered boys sitting at the table.

Okay, the barriers are set, and now it's time for me to get a giant slice of cake!

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

[Xander – 12 years]

"-and that's Austin there," I say as we near Lane 20.

Austin and his parents are at Lane 19, though it looks like his mom's just watching. There are only two players on the TV for the lane.

Austin's wearing the same outfit he was wearing earlier, but with rented bowling shoes instead of his sneakers. It's his turn as we walk up, and he manages to score a 6 for the frame.

"Hi, Xander!" Austin waves.

Just as with earlier, he's feeling anxious about something. That's making me feel anxious. I really hope it's nothing bad and it's not like he's being abused and he's scared he'll get into trouble. That would be really bad.

"Hello, Austin," I say.

"That's a lot of stuff," he comments.

"Yeah," I nod. "There's a pie and ice cream and a bag of toppings."

"They let you bring in outside food?" He asks. "I thought that wasn't allowed?"

"I order a lot of food at the concessions stand," I tell him. "Enough that it comes over in batches. So they let me bring in some dessert, too, since they're already making a lot of money from me."

"Also because you're a long-time regular customer who's very well-behaved," Trey says as I put the containers and bag on one of the tables for our lane. "Go ahead and put your name in."

We already ordered our food from the concessions stand, since I didn't want to leave this stuff here without someone watching it. I trust Sig and the others not to mess with my stuff and to make sure no one else does, but I don't know Austin and his parents well enough.

I put my name into the computer for our lane, then change into my bowling shoes. Trey puts in his name and changes into his bowling shoes, then we begin our first frame.

"Whoa!" Austin exclaims after I finish my turn. "You really do get strikes! You mentioned that at Youth Group!"

"I do," I nod. "I didn't at first, but I tried really hard to get all of the pins and now I do."

Is it lying to not mention that I didn't know how the game actually worked and only wanted to get all of the pins because I didn't like leaving any up? I don't think it is since that's not important to my response. At least, as far as I'm able to think about it.

"That's really cool," Austin says. "I don't normally bowl, but I got a thing for two games of it free."

"They have those?"

"Yeah," he nods. "For doing the summer reading program at the library in Lakeview. The thingy's good for a couple of months, but Dad suggested we go today, since we're not back in school yet."

It's my turn to bowl, so I do that, and Austin bowls at the same time. He only manages a 5, and that's between both turns in his frame, so he takes longer than me.

"A summer reading program?" I ask. "What's that?"

"A thing where you read some books and fill out some forms to prove you did," he answers. "And you can get some rewards and stuff. Like the voucher for a free lane for an hour. It also comes with a free meal here."

"You got nachos," I say.

That's what he's been eating from, while his parents both have burgers they're eating.

"Yeah!" He says. "What'd you get? You said they have to bring it over."

"Chris is coming now," I wave to Chris. "Hi again, Chris."

"Hey, little man," he says as he puts the food down on the table. "Here's the first part of your order. The second will be out in about fifteen, does that sound good to you?"

"Fifteen?"

"Minutes."

"Oh," I say. "Um… yeah. I'll probably be done with all of this by then."

"Want me to bring it out in twenty instead?"

"Twenty minutes?" I ask, and he nods. "That sounds better."

"Okay," he says. "Good luck, little man, and enjoy!"

Chris heads back to the other side of the bowling alley, and I take a bite from one of my burgers.

"That's a lot of food," Austin says. "Oh, right! You did eat a lot at Youth Group, didn't you? It's because you're a strong mage, right?"

"I use a lot of mana," I say. "Like when I was streaming earlier."

"I saw it!" He says. "I had to ask if anyone knew your handle, since you didn't mention it before, but I remembered after we talked that some of them had said you streamed. That was a huuuuuge cookie you baked!"

"It was delicious."

"It looked it!" He says. "Time magic uses a lot of mana, right? And you can use it just to bake? That's pretty awesome. What's your favorite thing to bake?"

"Pie," I answer. "Especially peach pie. I like it when I pull off the peels and they go pwp! Hold on, I've got a video of me doing it."

I pull out my phone and pull up one of the videos of me peeling the peaches, then show it to Austin. He giggles a little while watching it for some reason. Sig and the others did, too, so I guess it's funny? I don't get it.

"How do you get them to pull right off?" He asks once I stop the video.

"We blanch and shock them," I answer. "It's where you briefly them in boiling water, which loosens the skin, then you immediately transfer it into an ice bath so that it stops the cooking process. Then, the skin should easily slip right off when you pull. We also wash the peaches and make a very small X with a knife on the bottoms of the peach. Washing them so they're clean, and the X makes it easier to pull the skins off. And it's my turn to bowl again."

I bowl, then Austin takes his turn as I eat more of my burger. He talks a lot, but he's nowhere near as hyper as Sig and the others. The nervousness that he was feeling when I arrived fades as we bowl, which is a relief. I guess maybe he thought I'm not actually that good of a person or something but now he thinks I am.

Or something. I don't know. I don't know his thoughts so I can't know for sure what was causing his nerves, I just know that I'm glad he's not feeling them anymore.

"Austin," I say once he finishes his food and is nearing the end of his second game.

"Yeah?"

"I'm not done with my food yet," I tell him. "But if you want a slice of pie and some ice cream, you can have some."

"Really?" He asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "I usually share with my friends, but they're not here, and you seem nice. And we are sort of hanging out."

"What kind of pie is it?" He asks as I open up the box.

"Apple," I answer. "And it's vanilla ice cream."

"Cool!"

"It's very cold," I nod. "It's in a freezer tub that uses magic to keep it frozen. The ice cream, I mean. The pie is in a stasis box so it stays fresh, which means that it's still hot."

For some reason, my response makes Austin giggle a little. That's confusing, but I give him a slice of pie and a couple of scoops of the ice cream instead of thinking about it. Then, I return to bowling.

"Hey, Xander?" Austin asks as he's getting ready to leave once he finishes his second game.

"Yes, Austin?" I look over at him.

"Wanna exchange numbers?" He asks. "You're pretty cool and I want to hang out again."

"Um… okay," I pull out my phone and he pulls out his, then we exchange numbers.

"Send me a message," he says.

"A message?"

"Yeah," he nods. "It'll make sure we've got each other's numbers right!"

"Oh," I'm not sure what to send.

In the end, I decide on sending him a sticker. The chat app we use lets us upload our own and I commissioned some for me to use. I haven't used them before, but they're stickers that use the artist's rendition of me. I sent her some pictures for it, with Trey's permission. The sticker I use to send to Austin is me giving a wave with "HI" in bubble-like text beside him.

"That's so cool!" He says. "Is that supposed to be you? It's really neat!"

"I commissioned them," I tell him. "My other friends all have stickers for chat, and I wanted some, too. So I looked for an artist who had a style like theirs and commissioned from her."

Though I haven't used them in the chat with Sig and the others yet. I get really hesitant when I think about it and then end up not every time.

"That's really cool," he says. "Let's hang out again sometime! Oh! You should come to Youth Group tomorrow! It was fun having you there before!"

Should? Is this one of those cases where it's not actually "should" as in "have to", but as in a suggestion? I think it is, but I'm not sure.

"Um… can I think about it?" I ask.

"Yeah!" He says. "Just show up if you want to! It's at five every Wednesday! I hope I'll see you there! Bye, Xander!"

"Bye, Austin," I wave, and he leaves. Once he's gone, I look at Trey. "I'm all socialized out."

"That's fine," Trey chuckles. "I'm surprised you managed as much as you did, with you wanting to take a break from it this week. And don't feel like you have to go tomorrow just because you were invited. It's okay to stay home if you'd prefer."

That's good to know. I really don't think I'll want to socialize more tomorrow.

"Okay," I grab my bowling ball. "It's my turn again."