[Sig – 13 years]

"Sig?" Aunt Rachel asks as I enter the house.

"I was gonna shower and get changed," I tell her as I take off my shoes. "That's why I haven't put my shirt back on yet. I'm all sweaty and gross."

It's extra hot outside today so I'm nearly dripping with sweat now. A shower is an absolute must before I do too much else.

"Not that," Aunt Rachel says. "It's just that this is the third time you've done mowing in the last week, and you did some dog sitting yesterday as well. Is that normal?"

"Well, yeah," I answer. "Gets me extra spending money for snacks and games and stuff! I'm upgrading my computer's graphics card, too. Those are a bit expensive. The one I've got my eye on is five hundred dollars. It's not the best, but it's good enough. Gotta get it replaced before my current one goes kaput and I finally have enough saved up!"

When accounting for me having other money put aside for things like games and snacks and bowling and stuff. If we include that money, then I have more.

Aunt Rachel stares at me for a few very long seconds. That makes me uncomfortable and I don't know what to do, so I switch topics.

"By the way," I say. "Mom and Dad wanted to know if you'd be okay with buying groceries so that they can stay on vacation another week, returning next week instead of this one. They said they'll pay you back. I don't know why they didn't just ask you. Oh, and Mr. Thompson said he'll pick me up at about three to take me to the laser tag place."

Aunt Rachel once again stares at me for several long seconds. I'm now even more uncomfortable and don't know what to do about this.

"You can bet your butt that I'm going to get paid back," she tells me. "Did you want to go on vacation with them, too?"

"Not the kind they go on," I shake my head. "If I'm going on vacation, then I want to go camping or to theme parks! Their vacations are super boring, especially since it's just them and me and they like different stuff. Besides. I've got plans. It's almost the Fourth of July and Mr. Thompson's always got a cool barbecue for it. I wouldn't have gotten to go camping with Connor and his dad, and I'd not be able to play laser tag with my friends and possibly Xander. He hasn't told us yet if he's gonna play or not."

"Alright," Aunt Rachel says. "Go take a shower, Sig. You smell like grass clippings."

I head to my room and empty out my pockets. As I pull out my phone, I shoot Xander a text.

Sig: Know if you're gonna join us for laser tag?

I put my phone down, then grab a change of clothes and a towel and head to the bathroom to take a shower. When I return, Xander's responded.

Xander: I'll tri to b ther.

"Awesome!" I jump up in the air a little in excitement.

I was worried that Xander didn't want to hang out with me again after the three days I helped out with his classes just because he seemed overwhelmed, but it seems like he's okay with it.

Sig: Cool! See you then!

Xander: Kan I col u?

He must want to ask questions about it but isn't sure he'd be able to do so clearly with his bad spelling. I let him know he can and he calls immediately.

"Hey, Xander!" I say as I answer the phone. "Did you have questions about laser tag? You just need to be in shoes you're good with running around in and clothes you'll be comfortable in! It's fifteen dollars for one game, twenty-eight for two, and forty for three. Doesn't cover the costs of any food."

"N-not that," Xander says. "Um. W-would your friends be okay w-with knowing I live with a rich person?"

"They'd be amazed," I tell him. "But I promise they aren't the kind of guys who'd make fun of you or try to get you to pay for stuff for them. Why?"

"O-oh," he says. "Um… Ms. Katie's going to start making lunch soon. Um… she and Mr. Trey wanted to know if I wanted to invite you guys over for lunch and hanging out before laser tag. S-swim trunks can be worn or brought. U-um. You guys can s-swim if you want."

That sounds like Xander won't swim with us but he's okay with us swimming without him. I'll let the others know, but we probably won't swim unless Xander swims as well.

"Isaac just got back a few minutes ago," I say. "Want him to come over, too, or just me, Connor, and Sam?"

"H-he can come," Xander answers. "Mr. Trey said the dads and your aunt could come as well, but we need to know h-how many total are coming s-so Ms. Katie c-can prepare an accordion. I-I'm not sure what an accordion has to do with lunch but I'll probably wear headphones during it. I'm not sure what numbers have to do with it, either."

"It was probably 'accordingly'," I tell him. "That would make more sense."

"Oh," Xander's quiet for a few moments. "Yeah. Probably. Um…"

"I'll ask the others and let you know," I tell him.

"Okay."

"Bye!"

"Bye."

I hang up, then quickly text the others to let them know that Xander's inviting everyone over for lunch and hanging out before laser tag. Since the adults are invited, I go back out to the living room. My aunt's currently flipping through the channel guide on TV to see what's playing.

"Hey, Aunt Rachel," I say. "Xander's invited us all to hang out for lunch and stuff before laser tag and said that we could invite the dads and you. Do you want to come?"

"Xander's the boy with anxiety you were telling me about, right?" Aunt Rachel asks.

"Yeah."

"No," she answers. "If one of the other dads won't pick you up, then I'll drop you off, but you have fun. The less people who are around, the happier he'll be, right?'

"Yeah!" I nod, then text Connor back to let him know that his dad can pick me up.

He'd already texted back and said his dad wanted to know if he should pick me up or if my aunt was going to take me. Connor responds, then I text Xander to let him know we can all be over for lunch and to ask what time. After all of that's arranged, I thank Aunt Rachel and let her know I'm going to get ready to go.

"If this lasts until we have to head to the laser tag place," I tell her. "Then Mr. Thompson's going to take me there after. If not, then we'll all head to Connor's to hang out until it's time to head over and his dad'll take me."

"Alright," Aunt Rachel says. "I'll get some work done while you're away."

"Alright!"

I get ready to go (swim trunks and a towel go into a backpack), then wait until Mr. Thompson arrives to pick me up. Connor's in the backseat, while Isaac and Sam are heading over with Isaac's dad, though Sam's dad is riding with them.

"By the way," I tell Connor. "I know I said it in the group chat, but be careful of Xander's anxiety. He's got lots, especially about his living situation."

"I told the other dads already," Mr. Thompson says. "So they'll talk to Sam and Isaac on the way over. Connor, remember how Xander gets jumpy when people are around him?"

"'Cause something happened in his past," Connor says. "Before we met him. He gets scared easily. I know I need to not be as hyper, don't worry!"

We know our energy can be too much for other people and already try to mind it if others are getting bothered. This isn't really anything new to us at all.

"It's not just that," Mr. Thompson says. "Xander's foster father, Trey Caldwell, is a wealthy man and has a rather large house. At the moment, Xander is still adjusting to living there and isn't quite sure he fits in. It's surprising to me to hear that Xander's asking more than just Sig to come over. Mentioning how big the house is, how rich his new dad is, or drawing attention to it at all will probably trigger his anxiety. It's better to not draw attention to his new home's size or richer features, nor to his new family's wealth."

"Yeah," I nod. "If Xander doesn't mention something directly, it's better not to."

"How big is the house?" Connor asks.

"It has a big outdoor pool," I tell him. "But the swimming lesson was at the indoor pool."

"They have two pools?" Connor asks in shock.

"And the indoor one is enchanted to avoid the loud echo," I giggle a little at his expression. "Also, we probably won't be going upstairs. I don't think Xander's comfortable with it."

"What's upstairs?" Connor asks.

"His bedroom," I answer. "But all three days I was there with him, he always hesitated at the bottom of the stairs and mumbled something about 'but I need to put these in the office so they don't get lost'. Oh, yeah! His bedroom has a huge closet, a separate room for a toilet and sink and for a bath… which is actually a bath and a shower separated so that the shower is for washing and doesn't affect the bath for bathing. And he has his own office and his computer? I looked up just the bits I could see and Connor! It's worth, like, fifteen grand! I'm pretty sure it's a gaming computer, too…"

Mr. Caldwell really wanted to make sure Xander could game if he wanted to.

"Jeeeeeeez!" Connor exclaims.

"Yeah!" I nod. "But like your dad and I said, it's better not to draw attention to this sort of stuff with Xander. It'll just freak him out and I think he just wants to hang out and have fun before going to a crowded… oh!"

"What?" Connor asks.

"I think… Xander wants to hang out with us," I tell him. "But is nervous about going to a place as crowded as a laser tag place would be. This is probably his hope at a compromise or something."

"I suspected that," Mr. Thompson says. "There are a few different potential reasons for it; however, it means that Xander's at least interested in hanging out with you boys. Make sure to have fun but behave, okay?"

"Yes, sir!" We salute to him.

The rest of the ride is mostly Connor and I poking each other and wrestling a little in the back seat until Mr. Thompson tells us to stop. When we arrive, Sam and Isaac and their dads are waiting at their car, talking. After we all join up, I go up to the door and knock on it. Xander opens the door a crack and looks at all of us, then closes it.

"Huh?" Connor asks. "What was that about?"

Xander opens the door all the way while muttering something about 'wrong way'. Well, he also swears at himself but I'm not repeating that. I guess he accidentally closed the door?

"Hello, everyone," he peeks at us a little from behind the door. "Y-you can come in."

"Hi, Xander!" I greet him as I enter and my friends all greet him as they enter as well.

Xander's wearing jeans and a dark green long-sleeved shirt that I haven't seen him in before, his socks black and new-looking. Tucked against his chest with his left arm is Trenton, his stuffed bear.

"Mr. Trey and Ms. Katie are in the kitchen right now," Xander informs us. "They're talking while Ms. Katie works on lunch. It's going to be kebabs. Some have chicken, some have beef, and some have both. Also veggies. Then there's mac-and-cheese, mashed potatoes, and salad for a side. Lunch is going to be a little while but we can play a game or something."

"Can I say hi to Mr. Caldwell and Ms. Katie?" I ask.

"Yeah," Xander nods. "Come on, everyone."

Xander leads us to the kitchen, where Mr. Caldwell is peeling potatoes and Ms. Katie is cutting vegetables for the kebabs.

"Hey, boys," Mr. Caldwell greets us as Xander peeks onto the counter to look at a trio of pies sitting on it.

Why are the pies sitting on the counter bordering the dining room instead of the further one? There's more space here for prep work than elsewhere. None of the pies look baked, either.

"Hi, Mr. Caldwell!" I wave to him. "Thanks for letting us come over!"

"No problem," Mr. Caldwell says. "Xander doesn't want to play laser tag but wanted to hang out with you guys so we came up with this. He did say he still wants to go to the laser tag place, though, so we'll go over with you boys. They haven't been baked yet, Xander. Katie's going to put them in the oven after we go outside to start grilling."

"Oh, right," Xander's face turns bright red, then he looks at me. "I helped make these."

"Helped?" Mr. Caldwell asks. "Xander, you did all the measuring, mixing, and you even rolled the crust and put it and the filling in. All Katie's doing is handling putting them in the oven and taking them out. Be a bit more proud of your work."

Xander's face turns even redder but he looks pretty clearly happy, in his minimal-expression sort of way.

"All I did was follow Ms. Katie's directions," he mumbles.

"And you did so very well," Mr. Caldwell tells him. "Why don't you take them outside? The other boys, I mean."

"Y-yeah," Xander nods, then looks at us. "C-come on. We've got stuff outside."

Xander leads us outside and gives us a little tour of the back yard. I've already seen the small peach orchard but it's the first time the other boys have seen it. Until now, they were definitely thinking the same thing I did before visiting the first time – that the peach trees in Xander's pictures were from an orchard near his new home.

"Um…" Xander looks at the pool once we gets back to it. "If you guys want to go s-swimming, you can. S.G., you know where the changing room is. You can show them there if you want. I'm going to go do something and will be back… s-soon. Do you remember where the pool toys are?"

"I do!" I answer. "Are you going to swim with us?"

"H-have fun in the p-pool," Xander says. "B-back in a little b-bit."

Xander hurries into the house and my friends look at me.

"Uh… I'm not sure what that's about," I tell them. "But I think Xander wants us to swim a bit. Come on! Let's go get changed!"

There must be some reason Xander wants us to go swimming and I want to know, but it's too much thinking. Since he apparently doesn't want to hang out immediately, we should just have fun while we wait for him.

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He was probably planning on inviting us over after lunch or something and Mr. Caldwell changed the plans on him. This must be him giving us the opportunity to swim without him while he does whatever he was doing.

I take Connor, Sam, and Isaac to the indoor swimming pool and its changing room. There's an easy-access door leading to it in the back yard so we don't have to go far. My friends are just as amazed as I am about this place, though they're less confused about Xander's behavior. They don't know that Xander's scared of drowning.

His behavior really confuses me, but I decide that if it's important, we'll be told. We change into our swim trunks and head back outside to play in the pool. There are a lot of toys to choose from and we go with pool torpedoes and inflatable pool balls and the little fabric balls that soak up water and sting when hit by them.

About five minutes after we start horsing around in the pool with the dads – including Xander's new one – watching from the deck and chatting, I notice Xander in the pool with us. He's dressed in his green swim trunks… and is in a dragon floatie. It's an inflatable black dragon with green markings and golden eyes, and he has a couple of matching floaties on his arms.

How did he get into the pool without us knowing?

Xander's just floating along in the pool, letting our horseplay's effect on the water drift him around. There's not even a slight look of terror on his face, which is really confusing after Monday's swimming lesson. Some nervousness, sure, but not terror.

"Hey, Xander!" I wave to him.

That's how my friends notice Xander's here and they all look over to him.

"Hi," Xander waves back, though he's currently mostly facing away. "Um… I don't know how to turn around in this thing."

"You can use your feet," I tell him. "That's really cool!"

"Mr. Trey bought it yesterday," Xander starts kicking his feet. "It's magic and won't pop unless something really, really, really sharp pokes it. And it's a dragon, so it's cool. Dragons are cool, right?"

"Dragons are very cool!" I agree with him. "You're swimming with us?"

"No," Xander says. "I'm floating. Oh. This is how I move."

Xander finally figures out how to turn himself and control his float and comes over to us. He still looks nervous and anxious, but I'm impressed. There was no scream or anything as he got into the pool, so we didn't notice it at all.

"That's a really cool floatie," Sam says.

"Mr. Trey bought it for me to use," Xander wiggles a little, something he does whenever he's trying to brave through his anxiety. "I can't swim good yet. I was never taught how before this summer so I'm still learning. A-and I'm not that strong, so it takes a lot of effort and energy. But this floatie lets me be in here with you guys."

Xander pats the floatie a little. There's no mention of his fear of drowning here so the floatie probably somehow makes it easier for him.

"Please don't throw the toys at me, though," Xander adds. "I-I'm not prepared for them. O-or heavy splashing. But I can try and bounce the ball with you guys."

"Let's do that!" I say.

Isaac's the one closest to the beach ball, so he grabs it and we space out and start bouncing it around. Xander's a bit clumsy with the ball but it's still fun to toss it around until he's done. He goes back to floating around while we play with the other toys.

At one point, I see Xander talking to Mr. Caldwell, who's crouched by the edge of the pool. Xander looks anxious and is holding something in his hands, but I can't make out what. He nods to Mr. Caldwell, who smiles and says something to him, then Xander starts turning around… with whatever he's holding hidden by the dragon's head.

I go back to tossing toys around with my friends and goofing off… then yelp when a blast of ice-cold water hits my back just as I jump up to hit the ball again.

"W-hey!" I turn around to find Xander holding a clear green water gun with silvery runes on it. "Xander's got a water gun! Evasive maneuvers!"

I duck under the water and swim away and when I pop back up, the other boys have all scattered around the large pool and Xander's looking uncertain. Mr. Caldwell whispers something to Xander, who nods and then shoots a stream of water at Sam.

That leads to Xander trying to hit us with streams of water and us swimming around to try and avoid the blasts. Xander floats around the pool a bit to try and get better shots at us and it really seems like he's having fun. I want to splash back at him but remember that he'd mentioned not doing that. It would probably freak him out and make him think of drowning. Thankfully, Connor, Sam, and Isaac seem to remember that as well.

Trying to avoid Xander's blasts is pretty fun and it's while we do this that I realize he's got a pair of green earplugs in. He's probably had them in the entire time, I just didn't notice. They must be to help him if we get loud. I know that there are some types of earplugs that cancel out louder noises but not quieter ones.

"Alright, boys," Mr. Caldwell eventually calls out. "Lunch is ready!"

We get out of the pool while Mr. Caldwell helps Xander get out of the pool and out of his floaties, then we all head up to the deck for lunch. Two of the tables are setup for eating, with the dads at one and us boys at the other. There are pitchers of water, tea, and lemonade, along with several two-liters of soda.

After lunch, we play Rummy for a little while, then Ms. Katie brings out dessert. Peach pie, triple-berry pie, and ice cream! All made by Xander, though he's insistent on making sure we know all he did was follow Ms. Katie's directions and she's the one who dealt with putting things into the oven or ice cream machine and turning those on.

Even some of the toppings were made by him, though, which is even cooler. He's adamant in making sure we know he did not make the chocolate syrup.

"Do you like baking?" Sam asks Xander as we eat dessert.

"Ms. Katie does the baking," Xander tells him. "I just help her prepare the stuff to bake."

"That's part of baking," Mr. Caldwell tells Xander from the adults' table.

"Oh," Xander says. "I like eating some of the stuff that's made by baking. Do you guys want to play another round of Rummy?"

We play a few more games of Rummy to finish off our desserts and a few more, then we all return to the pool.

I get to see how Xander enters the pool this time around, which involves first making sure the floaties are securely on him, then closing his eyes and shuffling forward while muttering to himself something about 'magic floatie'. When he reaches the edge of the pool, he takes a deep breath, covers his mouth and pinches his nose with his right hand, and jumps. A small squeak comes out of him before he hits the water, but the floatie keeps him from actually sinking down into it, only his waist and below entering the pool. Then he releases his mouth and nose and takes a deep breath, then turns around so Mr. Caldwell can hand him the water gun.

"A-again?" Xander asks us.

"Yeah!" I exclaim. "But we're a bit more hyper now that we've had some extra sugar in us!"

"T-that's okay," Xander says as he refills the gun. "Mr. Trey said it's okay for me to be hyper."

I'm not sure what that means but I think Xander's trying to say that he's a little bit more hyper right now, too.

We start horsing around again with Xander attempting to shoot us with his water gun. The earplugs are back in and once we're sure Xander's not going to freak out too much, we don't hold back our hyper as much as we were earlier. In addition to Xander shooting us with his water gun, we splash each other as well though I try not to splash Xander since I'm sure that might not be something he's comfortable with yet. We can still have fun without that so it's not necessary.

"Hey!" Sam calls to Mr. Caldwell after a bit. "Can we get water guns, too?"

"Was wondering how long that would take!" Mr. Caldwell laughs. "They're in the storage there if you want."

We hurry out of the pool to get water guns, then jump back in and start blasting each other with them. Xander makes quiet happy noises and bounces a little as we do this and seems to really enjoy it even when we blast him with jets of water – as long as we avoid his face. That seems to make him panic a little so we stop aiming there.

He's fine with us shooting the rest of him, though, and more of his body is exposed than ours since he's in the floatie. That's more than enough space for us to blast with the icy water. I'm pretty sure the water guns are enchanted to cool the water in them since every blast is icy.

"Whew," Connor says as we wear out a bit, the four of us floating on our backs while Xander floats in his dragon floatie. "That was fun, Xander. Thanks for inviting us over."

"Thank you for coming," Xander says, then pauses for a moment. "I had fun, too. Um. When do we need to leave for the tag laser?"

"Probably around three or so," I tell him. "What time is it?"

"Um…" Xander looks around. "I don't see a clock. Maybe about one?"

Is it really only one? It's felt like longer. We got here around ten-thirty but it feels like it's been four or five hours, not two and a half.

"Hey, dads!" I call over to the dads. "What time is it?"

The dads have moved from the deck to the yard and are sitting near enough to hear us and keep an eye on us but not close enough that we can hear their conversation other than their occasional laughs.

"Exactly one," Mr. Caldwell responds.

"We'll be leaving at about three to head to the arena," Mr. Thompson tells us. "So you boys have plenty of time."

"One… two… three… four… five…" Xander counts us. "Five boys. Um. If you guys are tired and want to rest before tag laser, want to play a game? Or we can watch a documentary or a movie. Mr. Trey suggested a game yesterday. I've never played it before. I don't really play games."

"What kind of game is it?"

"Uh…" Xander scrunches up his face in thought. "I-I can't remember!"

"Zevatris," Mr. Caldwell calls over. "It's a puzzle game with some math aspects as well. And you boys don't need to change back to play it in case you want to go swimming again before you leave, just dry off before heading inside.."

"Okay!" I stop floating and the others do the same. "Let's play that, Xander!"

Mr. Caldwell gets up to help Xander out of the pool and out of his floaties, then we all dry off using towels that I'm pretty sure are magic. They were sitting on a pool chair close to the pool and Xander told us we could use them. The reason I suspect the fluffy green towels are magic is because they dry us far more efficiently than our towels could. I'm fairly certain Xander didn't have these on Monday.

Just how much was put into making sure things were ready for the hangout today? Hopefully, it means that Xander wants to invite us over more. Not because it means we'd get to enjoy his new dad's wealth but because it means he wants to hang out with us more. Maybe I can invite him to hang out at my place later this week!

"Don't worry about cleaning up the pool toys," Mr. Caldwell tells us. "You can leave them in case you all come back to swim some more before leaving."

"Okay!" We respond.

Well, all of us except for Xander, who just nods.

Xander leads us all to the theater room, which impresses the others a lot. I'm still impressed by it and it's not my first time seeing it. There's something already playing in here, the lights dimmed a little.

"We can play it in here?" Isaac asks.

"Yeah," Xander quietly answers as he goes over to one of the seats. "Um. Under the screen, that black curtain is a screen. That's what Mr. Trey called it. It can be pulled aside in a few spots, and there are cabinets underneath. Do you guys want any snacks? There's popcorn, nachos, pretzels, ice cream, pudding, jello, and drinks. Soda and water and lemonade. No alcohol. Um. Mr. Trey said I have to use the machines if you guys want anything from them. But I can make up a big batch of popcorn and you can scoop it out. Or get your own cheese by pressing the button. Or pull pretzels from the warmer."

"You just have to be the one to set them up," Sam responds, keeping his volume low to match Xander's.

"Yeah."

"That's cool," Sam says. "Mr. Caldwell doesn't know us too well yet and you know how to use the stuff. It makes sense he'd prefer it be you."

"There are directions," Xander says.

"Wasn't there only one popcorn machine when you showed me this room?" I ask.

There are two of them now.

"Huh?" Xander looks at the popcorn machines, then back at me. "O-oh. Y-yeah, there was. It's so if I don't want buttery popcorn but someone else does, we can do both and not worry about making sure the order is correct. See? Buttery. Non-Buttery."

Xander pointed at the machines, which have large labels on them saying what they're used for. That's pretty neat.

"Trenton?" Xander asks just as quietly as we've been talking since entering this room. "Is it okay to stop it?"

"That's the bear, right?" Isaac whispers to me.

"Yeah," I whisper back.

"Thanks," Xander whispers, then picks something up and stops the show before looking at us. "Mr. Trey suggested bringing Trenton down here first, but I didn't want him to sit in silence. He usually just sleeps on the bed all day but this isn't the bed so he didn't want to sleep. He likes sci-fi, though, so I put on something he was interested in. Mr. Trey said it was okay."

Xander does something on the remote and the lights turn up more. I want to ask Xander about that but it's probably better not to mention the fact that he put on a TV show for a stuffed animal. Mr. Thompson would probably reprimand me if he found out and say it was rude.

"What kind of stuff do you guys want to snack on while we're playing?" Xander puts the remote back down.

"Do you eat the popcorn plain?" Connor asks.

"I did yesterday," Xander nods. "But I also like it buttery or with caramel and sprinkles. Ms. Katie says it's better to do the caramel while the caramel is warm so Mr. Trey put a warmer in here for that."

"Ooh! Can I try that?" I ask.

Connor, Sam, and Isaac all want to try that as well, but we all also want buttery popcorn so Xander gets both machines going. He carefully follows the directions on both machines to set those up, then starts working on heating up nacho cheese. There's both a dispenser for it as well as something to actually warm it up. Xander has to pour the cheese into the dispenser once it's warmed up, but there's time before that so he gets pretzels heating up as well.

"I just remembered something," Xander says after putting the pretzels into the warmer for them. "You guys can use the soda machine. I didn't remember that one before because I didn't remember it's a machine. Sorry."

"Cool!" I say. "Can we do ice cream floats? Is that allowed? I saw root beer."

"What are ice cream floats?" Xander scrunches up his face in confusion.

"Ice cream and root beer!" I answer.

"Usually," Sam says. "You can do other sodas if you want but it's usually root beer. And called root beer floats."

"Oh," Xander thinks about it. "I don't think it's against the rules."

We assemble our snacks and Xander finishes setting up the stuff that he has to do for us, then assembles his own snacks and takes a seat beside Trenton. There's already a controller with the bear, and we all sit around them.

"Do you guys want to play first?" Xander asks as he uses the remote and controller to switch the screen over and set up the game. "It's one-person control."

"Single-player?" I ask.

"Yeah, that," Xander says. "We can play in rounds. They shouldn't take forever, Mr. Trey says."

"It's your game," I say. "You can play the first round if you want!"

"But you're the guests," Xander says. "Do you want to play first?"

We insist on Xander playing the first game so he does. He's just as lost on how to play it as we are, but the game is pretty easy to figure out as we go.

First, the player generates twenty-one 'villagers'. Then, those villagers go to the next area and the player has to get them across a river. To build a bridge, the player has to figure out which bridge parts are the stable ones. There's a riddle that we have to solve if we want some clues, but it seems to also be partially trial-and-error.

Every time a bridge is constructed, one-to-three of the villagers attempt to cross it. If the bridge is stable, the rest of the villagers cross over it. If it's not, then the bridge breaks and the villagers on it fall.

"With staves which only shine during day," Xander reads out the riddle. "Walk with that which glows at night alongside the seven which guide your way. Uh…"

Xander thinks about it for about a minute.

"D-do any of you k-know what that m-means?" Xander asks.

"Nope!" Connor answers.

"This game is harder than I thought!" Sam exclaims.

"How is that a clue?" Isaac asks.

"I think it is!" I say. "Look at the bridge outline: it has posts at both ends, a path, and walls. I think the first part, the staves, refers to the entrance and exit of the bridge. Since those are vertical. Then 'alongside' probably means the walls, so the middle part is the path itself. I'm not sure what the rest of the clues mean, though."

We spend another minute trying to figure it out and Xander starts testing out the different things we suggest. Slowly, all of the villagers end up dead and Xander looks ready to cry.

"Good first try!" I say. "This game really is a bit more difficult but I'm sure once we figure it out, we'll be bosses at it! Let's try again!"

Xander generates another twenty-one villages and sets them off, and the bridge's riddle this time is "With stormy pillars to guide you, walk with the eight alongside that which shines during the day". The options we have for parts are different this time as well.

Though Xander's more hesitant to try to send the villagers across the bridge, he does after a few suggestions about its formation from us. Soon, his anxiety over losing starts to really show and we eventually end up with only six villagers and a lot of questions from Xander asking how sure we are about our suggestions.

"Um…" Xander stares at the screen. "S-S.G.?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think… the 'eight' refers to the number of parts?"

"What do you mean?"

Xander gets up and walks up to the screen and points at the path portion's options.

"Look," he says. "Here. The Xes on this one, they're in four parts. This one has four in two layers, or eight. This one has eight in one layer. This one has seven in one layer. This one has fourteen small sections of stones. This one has six. This one has twelve, but six are shorter than the other."

"Oh!" I exclaim. "You're right! So it's a clue to how many parts there are to that section."

"That only narrows it down a little," Connor says. "Eight… there are… only four of them that have it. But how do we know which of the four it is?"

We continue making guesses and during our third attempt at the game, figure out two important things. First, 'day', 'night', 'storm', and other such things hint at the color of the material. Second, there are probably always four potential things that actually meet that requirement. Third and most importantly: the correct option falls a second after the wrong options do if the bridge isn't stable.

With all of that figured out, we manage to beat the first stage in our fourth game, though we only have eight of our villagers left. That's not enough to handle the next stage, which is choosing the correct paths to go down in a forest. All of the villagers travel down the one we choose, but one-to-three of them are killed as the group flees back if it's the wrong path.

That's also not the minigame we play in our fifth game when we reach the second stage again. This time, we have to pick the right cave to enter. There are seven caves and each one is numbered, and the clue is a math problem. The game's on the easiest setting so it's just basic math problems, or simple addition and subtraction.

However, we quickly learn that there's more to each cave entrance than just the number on it. Each one also has mushrooms, vines, and rocks at it and those can potentially be the thing that is the right hint. Figuring out the right cave takes us too long and we lose all of our villagers, so we start up another game.

As we continue to play the game, we manage to figure out the tricks to the first area – the bridge – and the tricks to the next three areas, which are always one of five possibilities. After that is a campfire as a 'rest area', then another bridge puzzle with a different clue setup and bridge design to figure out. Past that is another set of three puzzles out of five choices, then a campfire, then one final bridge before we finally get to the destination… which is just some fields.

Upon arriving, the sole surviving villager cheer and do a sort of happy dance, then we're sent back to the villager generation area.

"That… was… exhausting!" I exclaim. "And then it just dumps the villagers in an empty field? Are you serious?"

"And this was the easiest difficulty, too," Sam says. "Jeez! Doing math, playing with colors, testing hypotheses, process of elimination… this game really wanted us to use our brains."

"Thanks for helping," Xander says. "I don't think I'd have ever managed to do that on my own."

"We probably wouldn't have, either," Isaac tells him. "This game did not have any directions to let us know how to solve the riddles so a lot of it was just process of elimination and guessing and stuff. It would've taken ages to figure out."

"Now that we know how to use the clues," I say. "And what the different stages require, it should be easier to solve. It'll definitely get easier the more we play. Want to do another game?"

"Y-yeah," Xander says. "Do you guys?"

"Yeah!" We answer.

"You want to try this one on your own?" I ask.

"I found it more fun to d-do it with you guys," Xander says. "I-if that's o-okay."

"Yeah!" Connor says. "But first, I gotta go pee!"

As we played up until now, we kept refreshing our snacks and drinks and I realize that I've definitely had a lot of soda and need to pee, too.

"If you go out that door," Xander points. "And take a left, the next two doors on the left are bathrooms."

That's when we all realize that we've had enough to drink that we need to go pee, so we all take turns in the bathroom. When Xander finishes, he gets more snacks ready for us, though I think it's mostly me and him eating now. The others are eating some as well but I practiced magic a lot yesterday so I'm still recovering my mana and Xander… apparently just eats a lot. I mean, I already knew that, but still. It's a lot of food.

"Alright!" I say once we're all back in our seats. "Ready to play another game?"