[Luke – 13 years]

I jump up into the air and with an exclaimed "ha", spike the volleyball with a lightning-charged hand. Sparks decorate the light-and-dark blue ball as it speeds toward the other side of the net, slamming into the sand between the two opponents.

"Whoo!" I exclaim and charge to my teammate to chest-bump him, then turn to face them. "We win!"

After I arrived on this island yesterday morning, the four of us met each other for the first time and found that we shared similar interests when it came to fun things to do during summer break. As a result, we've been hanging out a lot and having a lot of fun doing various things. We've been playing volleyball for the last hour and my side finally scored our last point.

"That was cheating!" Emma, the only girl between the four of us protests. "You used magic!"

All us are around thirteen or fourteen years old and in just our swimwear. Emma's is a green that matches her eyes, and she's got her brown hair tied up in a ponytail for the game to help keep it out of her eyes. Though a pure mage, she's lean and fit from doing activities like this for fun.

"When was 'no magic' established as a rule?" I grin at her. "I never heard that. Did you, Colby?"

Colby, my teammate, is the youngest of us by a single month and has jet-black hair and bold blue eyes. He's only lightly toned and not too athletic, but he participated as much as he could to help us out. Sand is stuck to his brown-and-white swim trunks from his many crashes into the ground. His face is red from being out of breath and he's breathing a little bit hard as he tries to catch it.

"Never," he grins at me, then looks at Emma and Tyler. "When did we agree on that as a rule?"

"But we never said magic could be used!" Emma protests, her happy grin showing that she's doing so in good fun.

"How… are you… so fast?" Tyler pants, even more out of breath than Colby is despite having an even more toned build than I do.

Between the four of us, he's the only actual athlete and that's even with being a mage. His purple-and-black shorts look nice, his face is currently bright red through his tan, and his floppy brown hair is stuck to his face. He looks up at me with a grin, blue eyes full of energy.

"I was enhancing myself to try and get some of your hits but damn, those were hard!" Tyler says, having caught his breath a little.

"See?" I grin at Emma. "Even your own teammate was using magic!"

"I'll show you magic!" She exclaims as she summons an orb of water to throw at me.

It holds together as it passes through the net but bursts when I thrust a hand forward and fill it with sparks. Cast water like that is too pure for electricity and lightning to pass through ordinarily, but rules can be ignored when it comes to magic. I used the 'force' part of my lightning magic to break her sphere rather than the 'lightning' part of it.

This sends the four of us into a game of throwing spells at each other and wrestling around in the sand. It takes a few minutes for the four of us to calm down and rest on the beach as we try to catch our breaths.

"Anyone else here want ice cream?" I ask after catching my breath.

We all do so we get up and leave the beach, Tyler grabbing his volleyball as we go. Our slides and shirts are in bags we left at a picnic table in a grassy area close to where we were hanging out, and we grab those and continue toward the wooden walkway past that. None of us pull our shirts or footwear back on before pulling on our bags, though we do make sure to return our wallets and phones and stuff to our pockets. Sparks dance on my body as we walk to knock off the sand, then the others ask if I'll do that for them as well so I do.

The nearest stand for ice cream is about two minutes away by foot and we walk the whole way there, chatting about the differences in our schools. We're from four different parts of the country and our school experiences are vastly different.

"Vanilla cone with strawberries, fudge, nuts, and caramel," I order when it's my turn.

I pay and the worker makes the cone, then I step to the side so that Colby can place his order. We're ordering based on the volleyball game, so we get to go first. Once we all have our cones, we start walking along the road again as we talk.

"-but if you apply Nabdioak's theory of intertwined magic," I say. "You can find that it's possible for a magic to actually be charged with an aspect instead of just having it."

"Yeah," Tyler says. "But Nabdioak's theory hasn't been proven, so you can't just assume it would work."

"Oh, yeah, I know that," I say. "But think about it – if we find that his theory is right, then that would drastically change how magitech works. We can apply the theory of intertwined magic to the law of magical amplification and bolster an effect two, four, eight, even sixteen times! You do magic martial arts, right? Imagine being able to enhance your strength so you can move two times faster than you do now! Though that would, of course, come with the problem of needing to enhance your mind to keep up. But if you solved that, then your monster hunting future would be even better than it is now!"

Tyler comes from a family of monster hunters who specialize in internal magic and close-range external magic. It's not often a lucrative job but Tyler's family is skilled enough with it that they can take on some pretty strong monsters. Guns are useful but there are monsters where guns are actually wasted when it comes to fighting. Especially against any stronger magical beast.

Whoever it is that pacified the griffins around where I live was very likely an extremely skilled mage, not someone who used guns to scare them into good behavior.

"That would definitely be beneficial," Tyler says. "I've actually tried that before. Making my magic have enhancement in it rather than just be attuned to it. Hey! Do you think that's why the Lumaria Kings are so powerful? Everyone's always wondered where they get their strength from and they're always so mysterious about it."

"Nah," I say. "They've had their absurd magical abilities for so long that if it was from combining Nabdioak's theory and the law of magical amplification, others would have confirmed it's possible by now. So that's definitely not the reason behind their power. I do think that it's possible for magic to be infused with an element rather than just be attuned to it, though. It would definitely explain why the stronger monsters of the world can perform seemingly impossible feats with their magics."

"Oooh, that's a good point," Tyler says. "I've never seen a dragon, personally, but I've heard that their size alone should crush them. They'd need to have some sort of enhancement and gravity magic active at all times. Not just that, but they'd need to use an immense amount of it as well, far more than would make sense for the level of magic that's been read as active in them. And their flight magics?"

"Yeah," I say. "Their flight magic has remained a mystery to everyone because in the rare occasions someone's actually managed to get a reading on it, the amount of mana active is far, far, far too low. It doesn't matter what type of flight magic it is, either. Even the cheapest of them would cost way more than a dragon spends to move something that large. But if a dragon's magic is infused with whatever aspect they use for it… then they might be able to get away with doing less for more. The problem that we're running into is that even the best of mage sight can't see magic that deeply. I've heard that even Adrian King can only see magical affinities within magic. So either this hypothetical scenario isn't possible or it is but requires a level of mage sight that even the oldest and most powerful mage in the world doesn't have."

Which would be impressive. I have some degree of mage sight as well thanks to having a strong bloodline, but I can't see how magic is attuned. Plenty of people can train themselves to see magic as well and it's not unheard of for people who suffered because of magic to train themselves into being able to see it so that they can better avoid it. Advancing past a certain point in one's training of magic also requires being able to use at least a basic level of mage sight.

"Adrian King is the head of the Lumaria Group, right?" Colby asks as I take a big bite of my ice cream.

Tyler and I have been talking so much that we still have plenty of our ice cream left while Colby and Emma are almost done with theirs.

"Yeah," Emma answers. "I think all of his descendants are born with mage sight that can see the affinities a magic is attuned to. Like, from birth. It probably explains how they're able to learn magic so fast."

"Right," I say. "My family actually sort-of knows one of them personally. He keeps teleporting into one of our labs and dropping down some cash before taking a power core. Nobody really wants to know what he's doing with the power cores… especially since he's only ten. About half the time, he drops off an empty power core or two, too, so we know he's actually going through them. Mom said she's contacted the family about it and got a message back from Adrian himself. Apparently, if the kid doesn't pay, we're to just bill the Lumaria Group for it and they'll deal with him not paying. He does pay every time, though."

"Speaking of the power cores," Tyler says. "If the theory can be proven and then applied to that magical law, it would benefit your family as well. If you can infuse the lightning mana in those cores with lightning magic, it would probably massively increase how effective they are. The question then would be how cost efficient it is. Would the payoff be good enough to make up for how much it costs to do that, or would it result in a loss?"

"Yeah," I lick up some of the ice cream that was melting onto my hand. "That's going to have to be something we look into. If it works, though, and is cost-efficient, then we could use it for sure. Even if it's not, imagine if we could do that to a person's mana! Infuse mine with lightning magic and bam! My spells would easily get far stronger and I could hold out for even longer when doing stuff! That lightning elemental wouldn't have pushed me into a draw, either…"

Amplifying my mana by infusing it with lightning magic would probably make my babbling and tendency to be hyper even more of a problem, but there are still plenty of things I could do with it so I think the trade would be fine.

"Wait!" Emma stops walking and I turn to find her staring at me with wide eyes. "The rumors of you fighting a lightning elemental are true?"

"Mostly," I say. "I didn't kill it like the rumors claim. It was more of a draw between us… and it was a weaker lightning elemental."

"Do you have any idea how insane that is?" Emma asks. "You fought a lightning elemental! And survived! Not only survived, but got into a draw with it! Even for the Lumaria Kings, that's not really something that can be done! I'm pretty sure only a few of them can manage it! You've gotta tell us about the fight!"

"Yeah!" Colby exclaims. "How did that happen?"

"And how did you get into a draw with it?" Tyler asks.

I tell them about my fight with the elemental as we finish our ice cream and make our way to a nearby performance being put on by some of the islanders, a show about the island's history and how the original settlers of it had to battle hellhounds to survive.

"Can you imagine fighting hellhounds?" Tyler asks after the show ends and we start making our way to a nearby restaurant. "I heard they tone down what a hellhound really is and that they're more terrifying than you'll find in any documentary."

"I can't," Emma shakes her head. "It's a good thing we've got high-tier hunters to take care of them on the rare occasions when they show up."

"I did find a documentary that has a more detailed and accurate depiction of them," Colby says. "Apparently, their bodies are made out of lava and darkness, which makes it really hard to hurt. You have to be good at water magics to kill them."

"Or just really strong," I say. "I can blast one to bits unless it's a royal hellhound. Those would probably take me a few more hits."

All three of them turn their gazes to me.

"What?" I ask.

"You say that as if you've actually fought a hellhound."

"Last summer," I nod. "I was helping out with some rescue efforts after an earthquake and a giant dog made out of lava and darkness attacked me. I shot it with lightning in a panic and found out later it was a hellhound when people were asking around about if anyone knew who killed it."

"I need more information," Tyler says. "Come on! What was it like? How big was it? Was it really burning with green flames?"

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

[Xander – 12 years]

"But if you have to cook it first, then how does it not get soggy or dried out when you bake it?" I ask. "That doesn't make sense to me."

Mr. Trey and I are currently on our way to the bowling alley for bowling tonight and he started asking me my thoughts about tonight's dinner. Lasagna was the main dish, along with garlic bread and salad for sides and I had strawberry lemonade to drink while Mr. Trey had tea.

While I don't know why he likes to ask me what I thought about meals as it doesn't seem to be so that they can avoid the foods I like and force me to eat ones I find disgusting, I do my best to give my thoughts. That way, I don't get into trouble for lying or omitting information.

"I'm not sure," Mr. Trey tells me. "I know how to cook, but I don't know the finer details of things. Did you ask Ms. Katie?"

"Yeah," I answer. "She said she doesn't know, either. That makes lasagna weird to me, though. I did like it, though. Ms. Katie's lasagna is better than the lasagna that they buy at the store to make at the boys' home."

"Did you have fun helping her make it?" Mr. Trey asks.

"I did," I answer. "I was scared to cook the meat but Ms. Katie promised she'd help me so I could learn how to do it right. And I got to help layer the lasagna. But I liked making dessert more."

We haven't eaten dessert yet; it's currently on my lap and gripped tightly to avoid dropping it when Mr. Trey makes a turn. He asked me to call the bowling alley to see if we could bring it in and Lena said that while they ordinarily don't allow outside food or drink, they do make exceptions sometimes and would ask her boss. After putting me on hold for a few minutes, she came back and gave me an answer. Because of how good and loyal of a customer I've been and how I always buy food when I come, she said they can make an exception for me this time.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Dessert is triple-berry pie with homemade ice cream. I didn't touch the ice cream machine but Ms. Katie taught me how to make the mix for it, which was really fun to do, and I helped make the pie as well. Or the pies, since we made several of them.

I have two of the pies we made on top of a one-gallon tub of ice cream, which is what's on my lap. There's a freezer sleeve around the ice cream container to keep it frozen, and I can't feel the cold at all through it which I think is really neat. The pies are in glass pie dishes, each within a little box container that preserves their state. On top of those is a quart-sized container of vanilla ice cream with a freezer sleeve around it. On the seat beside me sits a bag of toppings with plates, forks, two ice cream scoops, and two pie knives inside.

The boxes for the pies are really expensive and Mr. Trey is letting me use them to bring dessert to the bowling alley. Because it's putting the food in a stasis so that it keeps its heat but doesn't continue cooking it, the magics used to make it are really difficult to perform and require rare resources. I didn't want to risk damaging or losing them but he said it was fine.

"Ms. Katie let me sneak-eat some of the filling for the pies," I tell Mr. Caldwell. "While we were filling them. It wasn't me sneaking since I asked, but she called it sneaking so I think it was supposed to be sneaky?"

"That's just the way it's referred to when you take a small bit of it while making it," Mr. Trey tells me. "It's not really sneaking, it's just a way of referring to it. Did you like the filling?"

"A little," I nod. "Ms. Katie said that flavor will be different once it's baked, though. So I wasn't doing something bad?"

"No," Mr. Trey answers. "When making something like that, there's usually enough that you can 'sneak' a taste of the filling without it affecting the final product. Katie would have told you if you were eating too much or if sneaking a bite would mess with the finished product."

"Okay."

We stop talking as Mr. Trey just pulled into the bowling alley lot and I don't want to distract him as he parks. It would be really bad if I try keeping the conversation going and he gets into an accident trying to park. I don't really know how to continue the conversation, either. Mr. Trey led most of it.

Once he's parked, we get out of the car and I make sure to grab the bag that has the bowling shoes I use in it and pull that on before picking up the desserts and the bag with the rest of its stuff inside. Mr. Trey is trusting me to carry this all in and I do my best to bring them in very carefully and pay attention to where I put my feet as best I can to avoid tripping.

"Hello, Xander!" Lena greets me when we reach the counter. "Whoa! That's a lot of dessert stuff! I thought maybe you were bringing a cake or something when you asked."

"Not a cake," I tell her as Mr. Trey opens up the top box. "Pie and ice cream. But I didn't think it would be right to bring it for us and not you and Chris and maybe other employees you share it with, since it's not normal to do this. And you two are really nice to me. So we made an extra pie and some extra ice cream."

Mr. Trey sets the pie he pulled out on the counter, then grabs the quart of ice cream and pulls it from the sleeve so that he can set it beside those.

"Xander also wanted to thank you guys for being nice to him," Mr. Trey says and I nod so she knows I did. "Are you guys able to accept this? Xander didn't think about it, but I know that a lot of places don't allow gifts."

"Yeah," she answers. "We can take it. Thank you, Xander!"

"Thank you for being so nice to me," I tell her. "Can we please rent a lane for two hours? We don't need to rent shoes. Oh, um… my membership card is in my wallet so I can't show it."

I managed to clearly and loudly ask rather than the quieter one I usually do. Mr. Trey asked me to give it a try tonight instead of him asking, though I think I might have asked too loudly. I hope I didn't, so I don't get into trouble.

"That's fine," she smiles. "We know you're a member and I know it doesn't expire until right before Christmas."

"Okay," I say. "Um… if the boys who usually go on Lane 18 want to be on Lane 19, can they? I want to share the pie and ice cream and stuff with them but it'd be strange if they were two lanes over."

"Sure," she says. "I'll let them know."

"Thank you," I say.

Mr. Trey finishes dealing with getting the lane rented, then we go over to the concessions area so we can play our food orders. It takes a few minutes for us to get to the counter since there are a few other customers in front of us and one of them takes a long time to make his decisions.

"Hey, Xander," Chris greets. "Lena said you called and asked about dessert and I see ice cream and something else. I take it you'll be skipping on dessert from us tonight?"

"No," I answer. "There's a different dessert I want to try here since I have ice cream. Um," I look at Mr. Trey. "Mr. Trey can order first."

"Could I please get the nachos and cheese combo?" Mr. Trey asks. "With jalapenos on it, along with an order of onion rings, a ten-piece of honey barbecue wings, and unsweetened ice tea. For dessert, I would like the normal sundae for dessert."

Mr. Trey is letting me share the entire pie and ice cream with the S.G. and his friends.

"We can do that," Chris says. "And what about you, my man?"

My man? I don't understand that but it was definitely directed at me.

"Um…" I look up at the menu.

I'm still allowed to order as much as I think I'll eat and even with the dessert that I know I'll be eating, I'm feeling extra hungry today. The same thing happened yesterday, after I woke up from my nap. I took another after S.G. left today and woke feeling starved. Even after I ate dinner, I still feel really hungry.

"May I please have two burger combos with no mustard," I look at Chris and try to maintain eye contact. Mr. Trey says that eye contact is important even when I'm scared. "Two combos of the nachos and cheese, two pretzels with cheese combos, two orders of onion rings, two orders of mozzarella sticks, a ten-piece of honey barbecue wings," we had wings for dinner yesterday and I found that I like honey barbecue so I want to try theirs, though I've apparently had them with Mr. Trey before and didn't remember. "And funnel cake, the one with the strawberry topping, please. Oh, and lemonade for all of the drinks, please."

"Sure thing," Chris says. "Want some of it now or for us to deliver it over time?"

Mr. Trey handles the rest of this, then we go to Lane 20 and Mr. Trey puts the dessert stuff we brought onto the table. We change into our bowling shoes and set up the lane, then start playing. The first batch of the food we ordered arrives while we're playing our second frame, so I start eating more.

"Hi, Xander!" S.G. greets me as he and the two friends who are here this week arrive. "Lena said you wanted to know if we'd go to Lane 19?"

It's Mr. Trey's turn to bowl, which is probably why he greeted me then instead of waiting until he was all the way over here. I'm in the middle of taking a bite of a burger, though, so I wait until after I finish chewing and swallowing to respond. Responding while having food in my mouth would be extremely rude and I don't want to get into trouble or give them more reasons to not want to be around me.

"Yeah," I nod. "We brought pie and ice cream to share with you guys and it would be weird to do that when we don't have any tables close to each other."

I declined the offer to bowl with them tonight as they would probably want even more interaction and I'm scared I would get scared by that. But this should be safe. That's why I asked Mr. Trey if I could buy the stuff to make pie to share. A good pie needs ice cream to go with it so while Ms. Katie was helping me pick out the stuff, I asked her if we could get ice cream as well. That was when she suggested we make it, so we go the stuff to do that, too.

Today has been a very good day and I'm really happy with it.

"Oh, cool!" He says. "Conner! Text your dad and say we'll do it."

Conner texts his dad and it's my turn to bowl so I do that. By the time I finish getting a strike, Lane 19 is on and ready for them to use. They go to get their food orders first, though, so it's a little bit before they're bowling.

"Lots of conversation or little conversation?" S.G. asks me as I eat some more of my food.

"Huh?"

I have zero clue what that means.

"Are you up for lots of chatting or not much?" He asks. "We want to know so that we don't accidentally overwhelm you."

"Oh," that's really nice of them. "Um. Maybe little."

"Okay!" He says. "We'll keep that in mind! And let us know if we're getting too loud for you, okay?"

"Okay."

Even without Isaac here, the three of them are still pretty hyper and it starts to bother me. I'm a little scared to say something because it's nice having other people be friendly with me without worrying about trying to earn my trust and saying they're bothering me might make them not want to hang out anymore. Then Mr. Trey lets them know that they're being a bit too rambunctious for me and they calm down after I nod to confirm when S.G. asks.

"Sorry!" S.G. tells me. "We didn't eat a lot of sugar before coming but we do tend to get hyper after hanging out together for too long."

"Um… okay."

We continue bowling, and the other boys talk to me a lot. They also keep starting to get hyper but then calm themselves down after looking at me. I was starting to think that suggesting neighboring lanes was a bad idea but I like that they're trying to be considerate. I'm not really used to that sort of thing, but I still feel like it's wrong and I should have been considerate and not suggested it. This is confusing me and making me uncomfortable.

At about 9:40, I realize the time and that I still haven't served the pie. Mr. Trey told me to try to do it rather than ask him to, so I open up the box and carefully pull out the pie, then use the pie knife to cut it.

"Ooh! Pie!" S.G. exclaims. "It looks like it's still hot."

"It is," I nod. "Um… the box is a really fancy stasis box that helps preserve the state of the stuff within. I don't think it fully halts it or anything but just… slows down change? I think it's some sort of time-based enchantment but I don't really understand it. Mr. Trey said he's had the boxes for years."

That's true, and I only added it because I think it will play down the wealth Mr. Trey has. S.G. promised not to tell them about how big of a house I'm staying in now or that Mr. Trey is very very rich so that they don't get the wrong idea about me. For some reason, people think that having something expensive but new means you're rich while having something expensive but for awhile means it was probably a splurge.

I don't feel comfortable trying to deceive like this because they'll probably think I'm lying when I'm not. Mr. Trey is the one who suggested I say it like this when I told him I was worried, though, so I don't think I'll get into trouble from him. It really isn't lying.

"So you brought two pies?" S.G. asks. "For us?"

"No," I shake my head. "Just one for us. The other one was for the workers 'cause most of them are always super nice to me. I brought a little extra ice cream for them as well. Do you want a slice?"

"Yes, please!"

I serve all three of them a slice of the pie and two scoops of the ice cream, then serve myself some as well. They start going through the toppings to fix up their ice cream, and I put sliced strawberries, nuts, slices of a banana, sprinkles, and caramel sauce on mine. We also have chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles (Ms. Katie paid for those rather than me because I refused to buy them), gummy bears, gummy worms, and cookie crumbles. The other boys go with those. Also with whipped cream.

By the time both my game with Mr. Trey and their game with each other is done, we've eaten all of the pie and the ice cream. That's in barely twenty minutes, and I didn't know it was possible for four boys who've already eaten a lot to go through that much food that fast.

"Sig said you're taking lessons in martial arts and swimming?" Conner asks as we're getting ready to go.

With only three players tonight, they played faster than they usually do and ended at about the same time that Mr. Trey and I did.

"Yeah," I tell Conner. "I started last week. I never learned how to swim and I'm really weak so it's a good way to help build up strength and get healthy."

He's probably wondering about coming over to do that stuff with me, too.

"But, um…" I shift a little, not sure how to word this in a way that won't make them mad at me. Or make them think I'm a freak or something. "S.G. is just helping out while the other boy who does is on vacation. He left for a surprise one on Sunday. And, um…"

I don't know what to say! Or how to say it!

"It's cool," Conner smiles at me. "I asked S.G. about it and he said that you just want another kid there so you aren't alone with adults and that's cool. If we were all there, we'd probably goof around too much. Do you like your martial arts lessons? That's what I wanted to ask about."

"Y-yeah," I nod. "They're teaching me how to defend myself if I get attacked."

"My dad's made sure I learned some," Conner tells me. "Same reason. You ever want to spar with me, go ahead and ask! Oh! Can I get your number?"

"Me, too!" Sam asks. "Can I get your number, too?"

"Um… why?"

"To text and chat!" Conner asks. "And if you want to hang out, you can just text and ask us, too! We'll sometimes text each other if we get bored and want to hang out, too, and you seem cool enough for hanging out with!"

I'm looking in his eyes so I know he's being honest with that, but I still can't help but feel suspicious. At the same time, part of me really wants to give them the number for the phone because when they weren't being hyper, they were pretty nice to talk with. That makes me conflicted inside, but I decide to give them the number and they give me theirs.

While I let them take pictures of me for their contact information for me, they send me pictures for themselves so I can set those for their contact information in the phone. Mostly because I tried taking pictures of them but the images came out blurry.

"Bye, Xander!" Sam says.

"Bye!" Conner waves.

"See you tomorrow!" S.G. waves.

"Bye," I tell all of them.

They leave to meet with their dads and Mr. Trey and I clean up and collect our stuff, then leave the bowling alley.

"Did you have fun?" Mr. Trey asks as we're on the way to his house.

"Y-yes, sir."

"Good," he says. "You looked like you were enjoying talking with them."

"They were a lot nicer than I thought," I admit. "Oh. I forgot to say that it's not all martial arts and swimming but there are other fitness and athletic things as well, so that there's more variety. That wasn't lying, was it?"

"No, Xander, it wasn't," Mr. Trey says. "It was simply forgetting to add something. Even if you remembered, it wasn't an important detail so omitting it wouldn't be lying."

That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure I was right about this and not believing something false this whole time.

"Okay."

"Do you think you'd want to hang out with them again in the future?" Mr. Trey asks.

"If they'll let me," I say. "But… maybe not for a long time. They scare me a little."

They did try to not be as hyper once they realized it was scaring me, which surprised me a lot. I usually have to separate myself from the situation so that the others don't have to change what they're doing but S.G. and his friends didn't seem to mind.

"Know how S.G. texts you about what he's doing or whatever randomly pops into his head?" Mr. Trey asks.

"Also pictures of stuff he's doing," I say. "Or, um… um…"

"Memes?"

"Yeah, those."

"You can do that with them," Mr. Trey says. "If you're worried about annoying them, try starting off with maybe once or twice a day, but remember how often they send you texts about stuff and consider that if they were annoyed with you doing it at least that often, it would be hypocritical of them."

I feel like I should know that word but my brain is struggling to remember it. While I could just blame it on being extra sleepy, it's probably because I'm stupid.

"Mr. Trey?"

"You want to know what hippos have to do with this, don't you?"

"Y-yeah."

"Nothing," he chuckles. "Being a hypocrite, or hypocritical, is when you tell other people that something is wrong or right but you do the opposite. This doesn't apply for if, say, it was something you said years ago as views can change. So if you used to steal in the past but stopped and reformed and say that it's wrong, you're not a hypocrite. If you're currently preaching that something like stealing is wrong and it shouldn't be done but you're also a thief, however, then you're a hypocrite."

"Oh, okay."

"You look like you're struggling to stay awake."

"S-sorry!"

"Don't be sorry," Mr. Trey says. "It was just an observation. If you fall asleep on the way to the house, I'll wake you up. Do you want me to keep talking with you so you have an easier time staying awake?"

He probably doesn't want to do that but wants me to stay awake so that he doesn't have to wake me up once we reach his house. I can try to stay awake on my own.

"I-I think I can do it."

"Okay," Mr. Trey says. "Before you pass out, I wanted to say one last thing to you. I noticed that you were keeping eye contact with Lena, Chris, and the worker who brought over our food as well as me. You looked anxious while doing it and like you wanted to run, so I'm very proud of you for managing that, especially since I only suggested you try and do it with S.G., Conner, and Sam."

…that was only supposed to be for the other three boys? Stupid me, forgetting that so fast after being told to do that. My apology for messing up never comes out though because I realize that Mr. Trey was complimenting me for managing it.

A compliment. That makes me feel really good, which is weird because I messed up. Now I'm all confused. I'm too tired to process this; I exerted too much energy today even with the nap I had. It's strained my brain and now I really need rest so I can think better again.

"Mr. Trey?"

"Yes?"

"If… if I fall asleep," I tell him. "I'm sorry and didn't mean to. And if I fall asleep, then I apologize in advance for saying weird things when you wake me up when we reach the house so I can go to bed like a good boy."

"What do you mean by 'weird things'?"

"I don't remember," I tell him. "But Nick says that if I get woken up when I'm really tired like this and can't stay awake and haven't rested enough – unlike on Friday night, when I'd managed to get some rest – I say weird things and then fall back asleep. I don't remember doing that, but I don't remember so good normally. But Nick was being honest so I guess I say weird things. So I'm sorry if I do. I don't mean to be a bad boy."

"Go ahead and get some sleep," Mr. Trey tells me. "I'll wake you when we get to the house, and don't worry. You did a lot today and interacted with others a lot more than you're used to, so I'll understand if you need the rest. If I can't wake you up, are you okay with me carrying to your room?"

That suggestion scares me but I don't think he'll be okay with me sleeping in the car. The only good answer to this is 'yes' and that scares me. But I didn't get in trouble for running in the house on Friday, so maybe this is okay.

"Okay," I say. "Thank you… and sorry. In advance."