[Xander – 12 years]

"Xander?" Mr. Caldwell's voice comes through the door, softer than it usually is. "Are you awake?"

I'm in trouble. A lot of trouble. A quieter voice definitely means he's even angrier than normal. I didn't tell him after he woke me up from my nightmares and had me move to the room I'm staying in, but he probably knows by now about me running in the house. His parents told me to and I didn't want to get into trouble for disobeying them but it was still very bad of me.

The door to the room opens and I curl up tighter. This is the point where he's going to beat me for sure so it doesn't matter what I do, that I didn't answer him and am hiding under the blanket. Only because Trenton is in my arms with me right now am I not freaking out even more and am just waiting for the beating.

After a few moments, there's a weight on the bed. Mr. Caldwell is probably climbing up onto it. He moves next to me and I tense up, ready for the beating.

"If you're worried about being disciplined for running around in the house last night," Mr. Caldwell says. "You're not in trouble for that, Xander. While running in the house normally isn't allowed, my parents were in charge, no one got hurt, and nothing important got broken. Would I have preferred that they had you run around outside? Yes. Would I have preferred that they ran by me what activities they were planning for you? Yes. Did you want to tell them 'no' because you aren't supposed to run in the house but were too scared of punishment to do that? Probably yes. You could have told them you didn't want to run and they'd have understood.

"I know you're not used to this level of freedom," Mr. Caldwell continues. "And are still scared of new things and punishment, Xander. It's okay. Just remember that it's normal to say 'no' if something makes you uncomfortable. If it's not important, then we can go with that. If doing something is important and you don't want to, we can try to work out something that makes you comfortable. There might be times where you have to do it anyway… but something like a game like that is definitely something you can say 'no' to, okay? If someone tries to force you to play a game that makes you uncomfortable, you can also always text me and let me know."

This is scary. He's just trying to make me trust him before he beats me for not saying no, isn't he?

"So I have one really important question for you," here it comes. "Did you have fun last night?"

This is a trick question, isn't it? I have to answer, too, because not answering is bad. But if I say I had fun, then he'll punish me for having fun by breaking the rules. If I say no, that would make me a liar and I don't want to be a liar because liars get punished really badly.

"Y-yes."

"Good," Mr. Caldwell says. "You had fun last night, no one got hurt, no laws were broken, nothing important was destroyed. Sometimes, rules can be put on hold for fun. If you want to play a game that involves running in the house, just ask permission first, okay?"

This is so he can reprimand me for asking to break the rules if I ever do. It's not like I'd ever want to play that sort of game… but if Grandpa and Grandma Caldwell showed up and wanted to play the scavenger hunt game again, then I might agree because it's fun. Even if I might get into trouble for breaking that rule again.

"O-okay."

"Cool," Mr. Caldwell says. "Also, you are not in trouble for passing out in the living room instead of up here, in your room. You were exhausted and didn't mean to. Even if you had, it can be allowed sometimes.

"Luke wanted to know if you wanted to come over to his house for a sleepover last night with him and Parker," he tells me. "But you were already asleep when we got here. He might ask you next weekend. It's okay to tell him no if you don't want to go. I promise that he'll understand even without knowing about your nightmares. The only person who ever agrees to a sleepover with him is Parker. He's aware that he can be a bit too much for others to tolerate, especially for something extended like a sleepover."

Why would Luke want a sleepover with me? I can only think of one reason and that scares me. I'm glad I was asleep when he came over, though why didn't they wake me up to ask? It's not like they care about my sleep.

"O-okay," I say. "W-wait."

I wiggle out of the blanket, only realizing once I'm out what I said. Now I'm really nervous, especially because Mr. Caldwell is still in his pajamas, which are just a pair of pajama pants and a grey t-shirt. I'm also still in pajamas, too, and it's a pair of green pajama pants and a matching pajama shirt with long sleeves and that buttons up, along with a pair of black socks.

And he's really close to me. Now I'm scared. This outfit is easier to take off than a shirt that pulls up. I need distance but I got out of the blanket with my back against the headboard of the bed. I can't get further away.

"S-sorry."

"For what?"

"F-for telling you to w-wait."

"You're not in trouble for that, Xander," Mr. Caldwell tells me. "You were wanting to ask me something?"

"I'm r-really not in t-trouble?" I make sure to look in his eyes for this.

Even though it scares me, I want to make absolutely certain. If I'm in trouble, then it will only make the punishment worse. But if I'm really not in trouble, then he probably won't beat me for looking him in the eye.

"You're not," Mr. Caldwell says. "It's okay to ask me to hold on while you shift into a better position."

"I-I mean about last night."

"Oh," he says. "No, Xander, you aren't. There are times where the rules don't have to apply and last night was one of them. You had fun, right?"

"Y-yeah."

"That's what matters here," he says. "You were safe, you were happy, you had fun, and nothing and no one got broken or hurt."

My body wants me to do something that my brain really says no to and now I'm starting to get really confused and worried. Also scared. Very, very scared. I don't know why my body wants me to do this when it also hates this.

In the end, though, the urge wins me over and I scoot forward a little. Mr. Caldwell gives me a weird look that I think is curiosity but might be confused. Then I scoot forward again so that I'm right in front of him. This is a bad spot. I move to his side and he starts to turn to face me.

Reaching over and leaning forward, I wrap my arms around him in a hug. Mr. Caldwell tenses up for a moment and I start to get worried that he's going to beat me for it. Especially when he starts to wrap an arm around me as well.

He doesn't, though. Mr. Caldwell just hugs me back. This is really uncomfortable but at the same time, it feels nice. Like he does care about me. After a few seconds, he rubs his hand up and down a few times, then pats me. That's really uncomfortable but I think he's trying to comfort me.

"S-sorry," I say once I back up a little.

"No need to be sorry," Mr. Caldwell tells me. "I was just surprised, since you don't like touching and a hug is a lot of touching, and because you don't trust me and aren't comfortable with me."

"M-my body wanted me to."

I'm surprised he didn't do something else while I did that. It's not like I could resist him and being scared doesn't do much to protect me. Mr. Caldwell could definitely have turned on the privacy ward on my room so no one could hear anything in here but he didn't. Maybe… he's not going to hurt me in that way.

My body really wants me to do that again. I give in and let my body do it because it doesn't seem like I'm going to get into trouble and even though I was uncomfortable, it felt good. Mr. Caldwell returns the hug again, not saying a word.

Why do I feel so safe?

"Want to go down for breakfast now?" Mr. Trey asks once I stop hugging him. "Or want to get changed first and meet me down there?"

Meet him down there… that means he'll leave for me to change, right? But I don't really want to get changed right now and it sounds like he's offering me that choice. My body wants me to be a little bit lazy.

"B-breakfast."

"Alright," Mr. Trey says. "Let's head down there."

Mr. Trey and I get off of my bed and go downstairs, and when the dining room comes into view, I see Grandma and Grandpa Caldwell in there, both still in their pajamas. That both surprises me and scares me a little.

"Morning, Xander," Grandpa Calldwell greets me.

"Good morning," Grandma Caldwell greets me. "Did you sleep alright?"

Did I sleep alright, not did I sleep well? Other than the nightmares, I did sleep alright so that's an easier question to answer.

"M-mostly."

"They stayed the night," Mr. Trey quietly tells me. "Though they had on the soundproofing enchantments at my suggestion, so they don't know you had nightmares and were screaming. I didn't tell them about your nightmares, either."

"T-thank you."

I don't know why I said that but it felt right, like he had done something nice for me.

"We're doing omelets and bacon for breakfast," Mr. Trey tells me as he gestures for me to take a seat at the table. "Katie's using a different bacon from before and trying out something with the omelets. If you try them and don't like them, she'll make you pancakes and sausage, okay?"

"O-okay."

I take a seat in the spot I normally sit in, which already has silverware at it. While we wait, Mr. Trey talks with his parents about something to do with his company, I think. Ms. Katie finishes preparing breakfast and begins serving it a few minutes later. In addition to the omelets and bacon, there's a bowl of yogurt with granola and small pieces of fruit and some blueberries, orange juice, and milk.

Just as I expected to happen, I don't like the bacon or the omelet. The bacon did have something in it that tasted good, but it wasn't enough to make the bacon taste good. And Ms. Katie put pieces of breakfast sausage in my omelet for some reason and while I liked that a little, the egg ruined the taste.

So she makes me some sausage links and blueberry-banana-sprinkle-gummy bear pancakes. Ten sausage links and six pancakes in a stack. Rather than syrup, I'm offered a choice of syrup or a cream cheese icing. I want both but end up picking syrup… for the first batch of pancakes.

Since I'm still hungry after the first serving, Ms. Katie makes me a second batch of pancakes and sausage and offers me the choice of syrup or icing so I go with icing.

"You can put away quite a lot of food," Grandpa Caldwell says. "Are you a mage, too, Xander?"

"I-I don't know magic."

"Not a deliberate one," Mr. Trey tells his dad, though I'm not sure what that means. "I do think Xander has a spell running at all times, however."

He's told me that before but I really doubt it.

"That thing where you can tell if someone's lying, Xander," Mr. Trey says. "It's a form of magic. Some people have magic that runs actively at all times. So you aren't a mage as you can't use magic, but you do have some."

The dork's told me that too but I'm still not so sure about it. I can sense magic and I don't feel any getting used when I detect if someone is lying. Then again, the dork's always trying to tell me that this or that about me is because of magic or that this or that would happen if I wanted it to because of magic. What he says can't always be trusted to be grounded in reality instead of his dreams.

"I know a few people who teach magic," Grandma Caldwell tells me. "Would you like to learn-"

"No!"

Everyone goes quiet when I exclaim that and I realize really fast what I did.

"S-sorry for interrupting and telling you no!"

"Xander," Mr. Trey says. "You can say 'no' when that's the answer to a question. You're not going to get into trouble for saying 'no', okay?"

"O-okay."

"Now," he says. "This isn't the first time you've reacted negatively to being asked if you want to learn magic. You said you didn't want to when I offered and Luke asked me if I knew why you didn't want to after he asked and you turned him down… do you want to tell me why?"

"I-I don't want to be a cash cow," I say. "I'm not even a cow! I don't want to be milked again!"

"Milked again?" Grandpa Caldwell asks.

"Hold on," Mr. Trey says. "A cash cow for using… Xander, did your previous foster family try to make you learn magic and say they wanted you as a cash cow?"

"Y-yeah," I pull my feet up onto the seat and hug my knees against my chest as tears start to fill my eyes and blur my vision. "They said that I'm obviously one of the big Kings and so I'm gonna be real good at magic and be their cash cow and they got mad that I wasn't learning that easily and I'm really sorry but I don't want to be your cash cow Mr. Trey, I really don't!"

Mr. Trey lets out a breath that sounds really aggravated.

"Xander," he says. "I do not see you as a cash cow and if those people hadn't disappeared, you can bet I'd have a few words for them."

"One of 'those' Kings?" Grandma Caldwell asks. "Why would they think that? Because you're blond?"

"His last name is King," Mr. Trey tells her. "But he's not one of the Lumaria Kings, probably just the son of someone whose last name was that because they wanted to pretend a connection. I wish the home he was in had changed it to make things easier but if I'm allowed to adopt him once enough time has passed and he wants it, then we'll get his last name changed to Caldwell then.

"Xander," Mr. Trey says. "I'm fully aware that you aren't a Lumaria King. Even if you were one, I wouldn't try to force you to use magic to make me money. That's wrong and inappropriate. If you want to learn magic, then you can. If you don't, then you don't need to. If, however, you do decide to learn magic, just let me know what type you want to learn and I'll find you a teacher for it. What you do with it is your choice, as long as you aren't doing stuff like breaking the law. Okay?"

"O-okay," I say. "But I still don't want to learn."

"And that's fine," he says. "Learning magic isn't a requirement. Can you tell me what sort of spells they were trying to get you to learn?"

"Um… dim shell spells."

"Dim shell?"

"Stuff like teleporting and making magic pocket spaces."

"Dimensional," Mr. Trey tells me. "It's called 'dimensional' and that's a high-level type of magic."

"Lumaria Kings learn them easily," I tell him. "And tempo rawr spells."

"Tempo rawr?" Grandpa Caldwell asks.

"Probably means 'temporal'," Mr. Trey tells him. "Dimensional and temporal magics are high-level, even for Lumaria Kings. Very few of them actually know any. One clear sign of a Lumaria King is their healing rate – even the weaker ones heal pretty fast compared to others and strong ones among them can heal severe wounds fairly easily. A weaker one can heal a broken bone in about a week or so."

Which is a clear sign that I am not one. It takes me longer to heal than others, not faster. Are the others really high-level spells? The dork knows both and I know he's a Lumaria King even if he avoids answering the question when I ask.

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Ain't any other type of human I know of that can heal in under three days having blown off his jaw. I'm still not entirely sure why the dork ate an exploding muffin he made… he claims it shouldn't have exploded but I'm not so sure.

That's another reason to hide that I know the dork – because he's a Lumaria King. Not only does he break the law all the time but if people knew I'm on good terms with a Lumaria King, then they'd probably want to try and use that connection to get stuff out of him. Especially since he's super smart and very good with magitech.

Then again, they would probably think I'm lying or imagining being on good terms with a Lumaria King. Sometimes, I wonder that, myself. How could a worthless piece of shit like me ever be friends with someone so amazing? It really could just be hallucinations but I don't like thinking on that too long because then it'd just mean there's more wrong with me.

"I did try learning other spells," I admit. "Um… sound and self-enhancement. After… after being put into that home. The wing home. It was, um… suggested to me. And I tried but failed."

Really badly. The dork claims I succeeded but I definitely didn't. I'm still weak and easily broken and I can't amplify sound. Sound is a bit more complex of a magic, I think, but self-enhancement should have been easy. I looked it up and found that nearly all mages learn it as an early spell.

"Sound and self-enhancement?" Mr. Trey asks. "Tiffany didn't mention you'd taken magic lessons."

"Well… she doesn't know," I hug my knees even tighter. There's no way out of revealing the dork, I guess. As long as he doesn't ask me to prove the dork's existence, I can still not get confirmation that he's just a more complex hallucination of mine. "I didn't tell her. I know it was really wrong to hide it but I didn't want her to think I was trying to pretend to be one of the Lumaria Kings. But it was from someone who knows. H-he suggested that I learn how to enhance my body so that it's tougher to hurt and to make me stronger so I can break free more easily if someone-if someone-if someone… And how to amplify sound so that if someone tries to kidnap me, I can scream really, really loudly to get peoples' attention. Well, I later found out that he just wanted to hear me roar like a dragon for the sound one and only said the scream thing because he knew it'd get me to try but I still thought it was a good idea. I can get my mana to move but that's it. I don't have any talent for magic and I don't wanna learn any."

The dork was really disappointed I wasn't roaring like a dragon. At least he let me wear noise-reducing headphones when he demonstrated it to me. That would have been really scary otherwise.

It was really scary anyway, since I could feel the roar vibrating my lungs and even the ground was shaking a bit. If I could fully hear the roar… I definitely would have been a lot more scared.

"Oh," I remember another. "I also tried learning telekinesis. But from the internet, not from… the mage. Finding directions was easy on that 'cause it's a basic spell most mages know. I wanted it in case I was struggling to untie my shoelaces but I've never had to deal with that again so I guess it's okay I couldn't learn. But I really don't want to learn magic. Not anymore."

The dork said that wanting to learn to untie shoelaces using telekinesis when I'm traumatized by magic learning and failures is called 'on a whim', but I'm not sure he's right about that.

"Well," Mr. Trey says. "I'll never try to make you learn magic, Xander. The choice is yours and if you ever do decide you want to, just let me know, okay?"

"Okay."

That ends the topic there and I'm glad for it. We finish breakfast soon after and I go up to the room I'm staying in to wait until it's time to brush my teeth. Since I have a little bit of time before that, I changed into proper clothes, then go to the office attached to the room and boot up the PC.

I know Mr. Trey said I can use the computer for a lot of things, but I haven't really done that yet. There's something I want to do, though, since they made us do it at the boys' home and having not done it since arriving here bothers me.

Once the computer is on and I've figured out how to open up the spreadsheets, I start making one to track my allowance spending. Back at the boys' home, they issued out sheets that were already prepared for that sort of thing every week for us to fill out, and it would go into our allowance file. Ms. Johnson said it was to help us keep track of what we're spending and learn to be responsible, but I think it was so that they knew what we were spending or money on…

"Oh."

That's how they know about my savings, isn't it? I never thought about that before but I did put into the sheet that I put some of the money into savings and how much. Mr. Trey must have known already how much I had saved up when he came to help me count it out because I'm sure he was given the allowance file.

Setting up the spreadsheet is a bit hard for me, especially since I'm not really that good at spelling and its in-built checker apparently can't understand me, so I decide to ask the dork as he always seems to know what I'm trying to ask.

[Xander]: hao du u spel 'alaowins'?

[Ultra High Jumper]: Allowance

[Xander]: Toetool?

[Ultra High Jumper]: Total Balance

[Ultra High Jumper]: Are you trying to make an allowance spreadsheet to track your allowance activities?

[Xander]: Yes.

[Ultra High Jumper]: Please hold.

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean so I wait. He says it a lot when he wants me to wait but never says what it is he wants me to hold. One of these days, I'll be brave enough to ask him.

After about ten minutes, I receive information from the dork on how to access an email account that I think he created for me. He tells me to do it on the computer so I do, and once I let him know I have it open, an email pops up and he tells me to download the file on it, then walks me through how to open it.

6/18/2023

6/25/2023

7/2/2023

7/9/2023

Snacks

Games

Movies/Shows

Clothes

Hobbies

Savings

Other

Total Spent

Allowance

Starting Balance

Total Balance

Ending Balance

Starting Savings

Total Savings

That's really simple and easy to use, I think, though I'll definitely need to use a calculator a lot to work on it. It seems that there's more to this spreadsheet than I thought, however, as the dork starts sending me a bunch of longer messages, so I decide to wait until he's done to respond and thank him as I read through them.

The dork is giving me instructions on how to use the spreadsheet better, which I'm glad for. I'll probably need to write it all down so that I don't have to keep going to his texts to keep track of it, but at least I have it.

[Ultra High Jumper]: You can add in more rows if you come up with other stuff, just inform me and I shall walk you through it or generate a new chart if you wish. Also, the columns that start with a date are for the week starting on that date, not for that date and that date only.

[Ultra High Jumper]: To get "Total Spent", just do =SUM() and between the (), click on the Snacks box for that column and drag down to the Other box. Doing so will highlight them and give you something like =SUM(B2;B8) and once you hit "ENTER", it will add up all of those boxes together.

[Ultra High Jumper]: Put your Allowance into the Allowance box.

[Ultra High Jumper]: For the Starting Balance box, add the Ending Balance of the PREVIOUS week to the Allowance from the CURRENT week you're on.

[Ultra High Jumper]: For the Total Balance, type in = and then click on the Starting Balance for the CURRENT week, type the minus sign -, and then click on the Total Spent box for the CURRENT week. So you would get something like =B11-B9. Hit ENTER and it'll subtract your spending for that week from how much you started with.

[Ultra High Jumper]: That will tell you how much you have leftover after you've spent your allowance.

[Ultra High Jumper]: For the two Savings boxes at the bottom, put in your Total Savings from the PREVIOUS week for the CURRENT week's Starting Savings. For the first week, simply put in the amount you have saved up at the start of the week as your Starting Savings. Then in the Total Savings, do = and click on Savings, use the plus sign +, and then the Starting Savings for that week. You would get something like =B7+B14. Hit ENTER and it'll add the two values together to get your Total Savings.

[Ultra High Jumper]: Also, don't forget to use a calculator if you want to change values. So if you buy food on Monday and then again on Wednesday, use a calculator to add up your current Snacks box and how much you've spent, then put that number into the snacks box.

[Ultra High Jumper]: If you want to be more of a normal person, I can generate a new spreadsheet that has the amounts you spend going from left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom. Means you only scroll down when adding in new weeks rather than scrolling further and further right.

[Xander]: This iz fin thaynk u.

[Ultra High Jumper]: Anytime!

[Xander]: Are u reel?

[Ultra High Jumper]: There is a 0.13692% probability that I am, in fact, not real but a figment of imagination created by the hopes and dreams of others. However, I am not entirely certain of how accurate that estimate may be and may have went low. In addition, it is entirely irrelevant as even if I am a figment of imagination created by the hopes and dreams of others, I am still quite capable of interacting with real things. Therefore, I count myself as real.

The dork has a point. If he's able to interact with real things, then it doesn't matter if he's a hallucination of mine or not. What matters is that he is very nice to me and really helpful. I don't think I would have managed to figure out how to make this on my own and he's even told me a bunch of stuff about how to use it that I never would have.

At least he didn't go and just download it straight onto the computer and instead showed me how to do it… he keeps doing that with both phones I have. The one that I have in case I run away and the one that Mr. Trey is letting me use. Mostly with the newer phone, and it's some of the most random stuff ever.

I don't get why he thinks I should play a fruit attack game…

Now that I have the file ready for me to use, I figure out how to change the dates in the top row so that I can put in this week's stuff, including how much money I have saved up. While I could print this up here and just write on it like normal, I think doing it on the computer makes me feel more… I don't know the word. But it makes me feel… uh… now I can't think of that other word. Confident doesn't sound right but maybe that's what it is for the second one.

I save the file – that's something I know how to do already because I got into trouble at school a few times due to forgetting to save. Then the dork told me to just make it a habit of hitting CTRL+S when editing a document to save it once the file itself has been created and saved initially. That took me some time, but I'm in the habit now.

My allowance chart created, I get up and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, only remembering once I'm spitting out the mouthwash that I haven't done the morning comments Mr. Trey told me to do.

"Um…" I stare at my reflection after putting away the teeth-brushing stuff. "I'm stupid and I'm ugly and I'm weak. But I had a lot of fun last night and didn't get into trouble for it and… um… what's a third one? Oh. Someone wanted to invite me over to a sleepover. Even if it was Luke and he didn't invite me 'cause I was already sleeping."

But the fact that he wanted to invite me over counts as something good, I think.

The morning comments finished, I go back downstairs to find Grandma and Grandpa Caldwell dressed and preparing to leave. They tell me they had fun playing games with me last night and hope to see me again soon, then give Mr. Trey hugs and kisses before leaving.

"You seem to be in a better mood now," Mr. Trey says once his parents are gone. "That's good to see. Sorry for upsetting you during breakfast, Xander. I didn't mean to bring up your old situation. I wish I'd realized sooner that might be a problem you dealt with."

"O-okay."

"I'm heading to the store," he tells me. "I need a few things for my office here at the house. Do you want to come with me?"

"N-no," saying that feels really, really wrong.

"Alright," he says. "Have fun, then."

"C-can I use the theater room?"

"Go ahead," he says. "You aren't in trouble."

"O-okay."

I go to the theater room and explore it a little, then figure out how to set up the screen for watching stuff. Mr. Trey had a bunch of movies and shows already purchased on disc and ready for me to use if I wanted, but he also has a couple of streaming services I can use. The streaming service is what I'm interested in and after looking through to see what's available, I find what I was looking for: a movie about wolves.

"D-doc-dah-ku-dahkumentarree?" I try to sound out the word. "Dahkumentarree?"

That's a really big word but I know it's the one that means a movie or show that provides more factual information about things. This isn't me watching something for fun but to learn about stuff so Mr. Trey will probably not be mad at me when he gets back. I know I asked for permission to use the room, but I forgot to ask for permission to use the stuff in the room.

He did say it was okay for me to use everything in here on my first day here, but I'm still not sure. I am sure that my stomach is a little bit rumbly, though, so I decide to make use of the other stuff. If Mr. Trey really is okay with me using this stuff, then it should be fine.

When I go to examine the food choices for the snacks in here, I get reminded that there are signs on everything to show me how to use them. I want both popcorn and big, soft, warm pretzels with cheese sauce, so I set up both of those. For a drink, I ignore the soda choices and fill a cup with lemonade.

None of the cups in here are glass. They're all made of a hard plastic that I think has what's called a frosted design. Some are 'clear' and the others are red, like I've sometimes seen through the windows of some pizza restaurants. I'm fairly certain all of the cups were made of glass when Mr. Trey showed me the room. Did he swap them out for plastic in case I dropped them?

I'm not sure how to feel about that. It does make me relieved, especially since I've dropped glass cups before. They give me plastic ones for meals now so that I don't break more.

Very carefully, I bring the cup of lemonade over to the seat I've picked out and put it into the right armrest's cup holder. Then, I check on the food but they aren't ready yet so I wait until they are, then realize I accidentally heated up more of the cheese sauce than I'll need for two pretzels. I open up the bag of nacho chips and pour some into a bowl after putting in a lining for it, then drizzle the rest of the cheese on top. All of the food is placed onto a tray, then I go over to the seat and sit down.

Something feels off here and it takes me a moment to realize what. I get up and carefully set the tray down, then hurry up to the room I'm staying in without running and grab Trenton. He gets to watch the documentary about wolves with me.

Once I'm seated and ready, I play the movie and watch, eating as I do. I run out of food about twenty minutes into the movie but don't want to push my luck with Mr. Trey so I don't get up to make more. Unlike at a theater, I can pause the movie here in case I get up to go to the bathroom or if I want to make more food. It's also not a movie for entertainment so that also makes a difference in how Mr. Trey will react, I'm sure.

When the movie ends, I make sure to throw away my trash and take the dishes to the kitchen, where Mr. Trey and Ms. Katie are talking about peach cobbler.

"Hey, Xander," Mr. Trey says when I enter the kitchen. "Perfect timing. Have you ever had peach cobbler before? Katie was thinking of making some for dessert but wasn't sure if you'd like cobbler."

"Um… a long time ago, I think?" I answer. "I don't really know."

"Okay," he says as Ms. Katie takes the tray from me. "Did you enjoy the movie?"

"It was a da-da-dosumint… dasumentarree-"

"Dah-que-men-ta-ree," Mr. Trey slowly says.

"Dah-que-men-ta-ree."

"Documentary."

"Documentary," I say. "One of those. It was about wolves."

"Learn anything interesting?"

"Wolves are di-gi-ti-grade," I tell him, making sure to carefully say the word so I don't mess it up. "That means they walk on their toes. I didn't know that they didn't walk on their whole feets. Apparently, their paws aren't their whole feets. At least, that's what I understood from the do-do-docu-documentary. I could be wrong."

"Do you like wolves?" Mr. Trey asks.

Why is he asking me so many questions about the movie? Or is he just trying to make conversation? Should I try to show interest in his stuff, too? Is that what a good boy would do here?

"Y-yeah," I answer. "Um… did you already go to the store?"

"I did," he answers. "Didn't take me too long. Just needed more ink for my printer and wanted to pick up some extra pens as well."

"O-oh," I shift a little uncomfortably. "Um. Was it okay for me to use that stuff?"

"You mean the food from the theater room?" Mr. Trey asks and I nod. "Yeah, Xander. You're welcome to eat what's in there when using the room, that's why I have them in there. Just make sure to clean up any messes you make."

"I-I did," I tell him. "Um… thank you."

"You're welcome," he says. "You've still got time until lunch, is there anything you want to do?"

"Relax in the peach garden."

"Alright," he chuckles. "Go ahead and do that."

"Okay," I say. "Bye. Sorry and thank you."

I hurry off to go relax in the back yard before I get even more confused and scared, but I'm also happy. That documentary was really nice and watching it kind of made me feel like I was at the movies, something I've not been able to really do on my own before unless I wanted to use up a big chunk of my allowance and get crowded in with others. Not only that, but Mr. Caldwell really seems like he's okay with me using that room for watching documentaries, so maybe I'll watch more in there in the future.

Not movies and shows or playing video games, though. Only good boys should really do stuff like that. Bad and stupid boys like me should stick to educational things.

As I slip on my shoes, I think about S.G. He's sent me so many pictures since he left for camping, but he didn't send me any so far today. Should I have sent some pictures back other than the couple from me baking yesterday? That probably upset him and he won't want to talk with me anymore or let me bowl with him and Connor and Sam.

I still feel disappointed that he's not texting me anymore, though. It's already past ten in the morning so he's definitely upset with me. I don't know why I'm so disappointed about this. It's not like we were friends or that I was expecting friendship. Maybe I can try to save things by sending him a picture of… oh! The peach trees! He might like that. I'll do that, yeah.

A decision made, I finish lacing up my shoes and go through the back door so I can find a spot to relax.