[Sig – 13 years]

"Oh, crap!" I exclaim.

"What?" Everyone looks at me, though Xander's the only one who doesn't ask that.

He just looks a little scared. Me exclaiming that probably startled him.

"Sorry," I shift my snacks onto Connor, then hop up. "My aunt just texted me. You guys keep playing, I gotta go ask the dads something. Back in a minute!"

I hurry out of the theater room and out to the back deck, where the four dads are still hanging out. Ms. Katie's doing something in the kitchen and it smells delicious.

"Dads!" I say. "It's past three-thirty! Aunt Rachel just texted and asked if everything was okay since I'd said we'd be there at three-thirty and it was a bit past that. She apparently realized I hadn't been given any money for food so she went there to drop some off for me so I didn't have to use the money I've saved up. We're all running late!"

"We went to tell you boys it was time to get ready to go earlier," Mr. Richardson tells me. "But you were all pretty into the game so we decided to let you guys go. Even if you boys miss the four slot, you can still get in two or three games if you still want to do laser tag today."

"Trey's invited us to stay for dinner as well if you guys want to keep hanging out with Xander here," Mr. Thompson informs me. "We can do laser tag another day."

"If your aunt wants to come over for dinner as well," Mr. Caldwell says. "You can invite her over. We just need to know by around five or so so that Katie can prepare enough food."

It's pretty awesome that he's got his own chef to handle making all the food.

"Okay," I say. "I'll go ask the others."

That's a bigger relief. I just thought even the dads lost track of time. They do that sometimes. Now that I know it wasn't just everyone losing track of time but the dads not wanting to interrupt our fun, I hurry back to the theater, where the others are still into the game.

Isaac's encouraging Xander to try going with the blue stones for the puzzle he's on. There are three guardians watching the path and all three have to be appeased for the villagers to pass through. To appease the guardians, a gift has to be made and sent. There are a number of items which can be put into the gift, but each guardian wants a different gift package. Each gift package can have between three and five items in it, and the hint points toward one item for each guardian.

When the gift is made, it's sent to the first of the guardians that has yet to be gifted that round. Once all guardians yet to be appeased have been given a gift, one to three villagers attempt to pass through. If they attempt to pass by a guardian that hasn't been appeased, it kills them and the guardian gives an indicator of how much they like or dislike the gift. If the gift appeased the guardian, the villagers continue past them.

For this stage, it's mostly trial and error and guesswork on figuring out what appeases each guardian.

"Hey, guys," I say once Xander finishes the gift. "It's… almost four. The dads said they didn't want to interrupt our fun, but we can still head to the arena after this game is done. Or we can do laser tag another day and stay for dinner, if everyone's cool with that."

"S-sorry," Xander says. "I-I didn't mean to make you l-late for-"

"It's cool," I grin at him. "We were having so much fun we lost track of time! We can do laser tag another day! So! Mind us hanging out a bit more for more games?"

"N-no."

"Awesome!" I say. "So everyone up for staying for dinner?"

That's a unanimous "yes" from everyone, so I take my seat once more. I'm sitting to Xander's right since Trenton is to is left, while Connor is sitting behind me, Sam to his left, and Isaac to his. As soon as I sit down, Xander hesitates a little.

"Um," he looks at me, then shifts a little.

"Did you mean you didn't want us to stay?" I ask.

"T-that's not what I meant," he says. "I-I'm okay with this. B-but, um… did you want to do the controls? I-it's only been me for hours…"

"We don't mind!" I tell him.

"Yeah!" Isaac says. "It's a team effort so it doesn't matter who's controlling and since it's your game, it's your honor!"

"O-oh," Xander looks down at the controller. "O-okay."

"Did you want to give up the controls for a little bit?" I realize. "Your hands are probably getting tired, yeah? You mentioned you don't really play games."

"Y-yeah," Xander nods.

"Here," I reach over and Xander quickly puts the controller in my hands.

Then he hops up and goes to the concessions area. It wasn't just that his hands were tired… he was probably wanting more food. I guess it wasn't as easy for him to play and eat as it is for us.

Everyone else already has some snacks but we still wait for Xander to return… which starts to take a little bit. When I look over, Xander's putting more popcorn in the makers, more pretzels to heat up, and is checking the cheese sauce.

"Want us to wait for you?" Connor calls over to him.

"Y-you can play," Xander says.

"You sure?" Sam asks. "We can wait if you want us to so you can help."

"Y-you can play," Xander repeats.

We go back to trying to solve the puzzles while Xander finishes refreshing the snacks and assembling his, then he returns to his seat and starts snacking. He's quiet as he eats, only offering his thoughts on the solutions if we prompt him. Partway into the next game… I notice that Xander's fallen asleep.

"Can I be honest about something?" I ask the others after noticing this.

"What?" Connor asks.

"I think it's actually a good thing Xander fell asleep."

"That sounds mean," Isaac says.

"Yeah, I know," I say. "But think about it… doesn't that mean he feels comfortable and safe with us? And we're all just in swim trunks and he's clearly shy about himself, we're kind of loud and noisy and that seems to trigger him, and he's not used to this much interaction with others. And he's just… fallen asleep right here."

Doesn't that mean he feels safe and comfortable? That makes me happy and seems to make the others happy as well.

We go back to playing the game, up until about five. Xander sleeps right through and ends up grabbing his teddy bear at some point but otherwise doesn't do much. Apart from when he mumbles something about "too many gummies makes stomachs ache", anyway.

At around five, we finish the game round we're on and decide to head to the deck since we don't know when dinner is other than I had to let them know about Aunt Rachel by this point. She decided not to come over so I let Mr. Thompson know already.

"Xander," I poke him in the arm. "Xander. We're going back outside. Xander?"

Xander eyes snap open and he shifts a little, then sighs.

"Animation struggle," he states in a more clear, strong voice than I've ever heard him use. "Ten more minutes and recovery will be enough."

Then he closes his eyes again and Connor, Sam, Isaac, and I look at each other.

"What… was that about?" Sam asks.

"No clue," I say. "I guess he just talks weird when he's tired. I think that means he wants us to wake him up in about ten minutes. Let's get the dishes taken care of!"

We gather up our dirty dishes and head to the kitchen, where Ms. Katie is currently setting different items out on the counter.

"You can leave those on the table," Ms. Katie tells us. "Thanks for bringing them down."

"You're welcome!" I say. "Xander kind of fell asleep while we were playing and he said to wake him up in a few minutes."

"Did he say that before falling asleep?" Ms. Katie asks. "Or did he fall asleep and then say that after getting woken up?"

"After getting woken up," I tell her. "He said something about ten more minutes being enough. Also something about 'animation struggle'. I guess he's having a good dream."

"He'll wake up on his own," Ms. Katie tells us. "I'm going to grill burgers for dinner. Do you like them plain or seasoned?"

"It depends on who's making them!" I say. "The dads usually season them differently from each other!"

"We usually like them with a little bit of seasoning," Connor nods.

"Okay," Ms. Katie says. "What about cheese? Want cheeseburgers or plain? We have different options, so go ahead and say it. I'll let you know if we don't have it."

"I like American!" Sam answers.

"Cheddar!" Isaac says.

"Provolone or Swiss," I tell her.

"Pepper jack," Connor says.

"We have all of those," Ms. Katie says. "We'll also be doing onion rings and fries, both straight and curly. Any preferences?"

We'll eat all of those so we tell her so, then offer her help. She declines but tells us we can help carry the things outside once it's ready. Before that, however, she finishes pulling out the stuff she was pulling out, then gets to work.

First, Ms. Katie washes her hands, then she opens up several packages of ground beef and dumps it into a large glass bowl. She adds seasoning from a few shakers to the meat, then starts mixing the meat with her hands.

"This is to get the seasonings mixed in," she says. "I'm not sure if this is how your dads do it, but this makes sure the seasoning gets in good."

"Yeah," Connor says. "They do the same thing when they make the patties. If they're using the store-bought patties, though, they just shake it on."

"A good strategy," she says. "Hello, Xander. Did you enjoy your nap?"

"I'm sorry for falling asleep on you guys!" Xander exclaims as we turn to face him. He looks ready to cry. "I tried to stay awake but then I just… fell asleep! I'm sorry!"

"It's cool!" I say. "We all need naps sometimes. Did you have a good dream?"

"Um," Xander scrunches up his face. "It wasn't a nightmare? But I don't remember it. I don't normally remember my dreams."

"You talked a little," Sam says. "The only thing I caught was something about too many gummy bears making your stomach hurt."

"That's very true," Xander nods. "But I'm not sure why I'd say that. I'm really sorry for falling asleep while we were playing!"

"It's cool," Sam says. "Seriously. We fall asleep on each other all the time!"

"I fell asleep on someone?" Xander looks at me. "Sorry, S.G.!"

"Not that kind of 'on'," I giggle. "Ms. Katie said we're doing burgers, fries, and onion rings for dinner."

"There will also be mac-and-cheese, salad, and fruit," Ms. Katie says. "And I've prepared something for dessert as well."

"Okay," Xander shifts a little and looks at us.

"Let's go back outside!" I suggest. "We can play out there until it's time!"

We all head back outside and play around in the yard. It's not until Ms. Katie and the dads bring out the stuff for making dinner that I remember we offered to help with that. Oh, well!

Xander doesn't run around with us but we manage to figure out that he'll play hide-and-seek so we switch to that. He's also scarily good at hiding so we don't see him again until we're called to the deck to eat. Wherever he hid, it was close enough to the deck that he beats us to it.

"You had a really good hiding spot," I tell Xander once we're there. "Where'd you hide?"

"In the pool toys shed."

"You fit in there?" I ask. "Isn't it cramped?"

"Very."

"Damn," I say. "That's cool! No wonder we couldn't find you!"

Ms. Katie's putting out dinner so we sit at our table and start serving our sides. Xander helps himself to just the normal fries, and they come in both seasoned and unseasoned. The rest of us grab some of each type of fry and as we do, Mr. Caldwell informs us that the fries are home-cut, not store-bought, so they may taste different than we're used to.

"They're really good!" Isaac tells him, then looks at Ms. Katie. "Thanks, Ms. Katie!"

For fruit, there's diced pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew. Xander only grabs the last two but he helps himself to a lot of it. I help myself to a little of each.

The burgers, onion rings, fries of all varieties, salad and dressing, and mac-and-cheese all taste awesome. I've never had food that tastes this good before, not even at restaurants.

"Where'd you learn to cook?" I ask Ms. Katie. "This is really good!"

"Super good!" Connor says, and Isaac and Sam add their agreement to it.

"A little here and there," Ms. Katie tells us. "Some experimentation on my own as well. Trey hired me awhile back, when he as at a busier time for his company, but I've been to a few different states and countries and studied in them. Though I made sure to tailor dinner to what some thirteen-year-old boys would like. No eighty-dollar seasonings in the burger."

"There are eighty-dollar seasonings?"

"There are even more expensive ones," Xander whispers to me.

"Whoa."

"Yeah."

We finish eating dinner, then help Ms. Katie take the dishes inside. After that, us boys play cards for a little bit before taking showers to wash off sweat before going back to play in the pool for a bit before all of us except Xander leave.

Just as with before, Xander uses his dragon floaties and we shoot each other with water guns. After everything we've already done today, we're a bit too exhausted to stay in the pool for more than thirty minutes. After that, we get out and eat dessert, which is strawberry cake with real strawberries in it and a mix of lemon and strawberry icing, and we're given a choice of ice creams to eat with it though I go with the mint chocolate chip, chocolate chip, strawberry, and vanilla because I can get four scoops.

When it's time for us to leave, we take proper showers and get dressed, though Xander doesn't shower with us. I think he's too nervous to do that with all four of us here instead of just me since it involves changing and he's really shy about that. He does rejoin us after, though.

"Thanks for inviting us over!" Isaac tells Xander as we're heading to the door. Xander's back in a dark green long-sleeve, blue jeans, and black socks and he's hugging Trenton against his chest. "Was that the same pie from Tuesday? The berry one?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"No," Xander answers. "That pie was all eaten up on Tuesday. The triple-berry pie tonight was the same recipe but a different pie. Might have been made a little bit different. I don't think I measured exactly the same."

"It was really good," Isaac tells him.

"It was!" I agree. "If you want to bowl with us on Tuesday, let us know before then, okay?"

"Um… okay," Xander says.

"Thanks for inviting us over," Sam says. "It wasn't laser tag but it was still fun!"

"Y-you're welcome," Xander mumbles as he looks down at Trenton, his face and ears red.

"It was fun hanging out with you," Connor tells him. "By the way, next Tuesday, we're doing a barbecue at my place. You and Mr. Caldwell and Ms. Katie are all invited if you guys want to come and don't have other plans."

"O-okay," Xander says. "Y-you guys have a good night."

"Night, Xander!" I tell him.

We say our goodbyes, then leave.

"How was Xander?" Mr. Thompson once we're on the way to my house. "When you boys were alone, I mean."

"A lot more relaxed than I thought," I admit. "I thought he was just going to watch us swim or something since he's really shy about his body. But he changed into his trunks and joined us and without a shirt, too! That was a major surprise! And then he stayed that way when we went to the theater, and even fell asleep! I really want to know how Xander went from really uncomfortable to comfortable like that. I mean, it's a good thing, right? But still! It's weird! Not in a bad way! It just makes me wonder what happened!"

"Well," Mr. Thompson says. "If something has happened since Wednesday to make Xander more relaxed and comfortable, then that's a good thing. We'll see on Tuesday if he's just having a good day today or if something's really changed. You've still got time before bed. Got any plans once you get home?"

"Video games!"

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

[Xander – 12 years] → starts toward the end of Sig's PoV.

Once I close the door after the boys have left, I let out a massive sigh of relief. This was extremely stressful and it was really hard to not show it. I started slipping up after my accidental nap.

It wasn't that I was lying about being calm, it's that I was trying to keep myself calm. Mr. Trey told me to try to focus on the good things to do that and it worked. Though I did feel bad they didn't get to play laser tag today.

"You did good, Xander," Mr. Trey tells me and I look over to see him give me a small nod. "I'm surprised you didn't put a shirt on when you went in to play games in the theater."

"N-none of them did," I tell him. "And I-I didn't want to s-stand out. I tried the t-thing you told me. T-the happy thoughts thing. It kind of worked. But then w-we got focused on the g-game and I s-sort of f-forgot."

The game required too much thinking for me to be nervous once we really got into playing it and trying to solve the different stages. I was a lot of nervous when I wasn't too focused on the game, though. Some of the happy thoughts I tried to focus on to calm myself down were that the other boys didn't comment about how skinny I am or seem disgusted by my looks, but also that they were including me in having fun and helping me with the puzzles in the game as if I was one of their group.

That really helped me.

"Well," Mr. Trey says. "I'm glad you were brave today, Xander. Did you have fun?"

"I-I did," Xander nods. "And they were all really nice. They even invited me to hang out again even though I'm stupid and worthless and weak and not fun to hang around."

"If you weren't fun to hang around," Mr. Trey says. "They wouldn't have invited you to hang out with them again, would they?"

"I-I guess not."

"Do you want to get your reward tonight?" He asks.

I can't tell if this is a trick question or not. Either I answer honestly and he gets mad that I want to get it when it's so late in the day or I lie and say I'm fine with waiting but then get beaten for lying. It's better to be honest and not get beaten for lying so I decide to go with that.

"Y-yes, please."

"Alright," he says. "Why don't you find your shoes and get them on? Are you taking Trenton with us?"

"N-no," I answer. "He's tired and wants to sleep."

"Okay," Mr. Trey says. "Go put him to bed."

I nod, then head upstairs and put Trenton on the bed in the room I'm using, then I go to the closet and open it to look at my reflection in the mirror on the back of the door. After staring at myself for a few moments, I pull up my shirt and look at my ribs. They aren't as visible as they were before Mr. Trey took me here.

That's not something I know because of my own observations and memory. Whenever I get examined, they always take pictures of me because of how skinny I am and they weigh me, too. Mr. Trey says it's to monitor my growth and is acting as potential evidence if needed.

Evidence for what, I'm not sure, but it makes me scared that they want to arrest me for something. Mr. Trey told me not to worry about it, but that's only making me worry more. I shouldn't focus on that right now, though, because it's making me upset.

This morning, Mr. Trey gave me those pictures and told me to compare myself to them.

In the pictures, my ribs are very clearly visible and can be counted with ease. Now, however, they aren't that visible. They're still visible, just not as visible a before. I also have a scale now to measure my weight.

At my last checkup, I was only 63lbs, which is really bad for a twelve-year-old boy, even one who's a little on the short side. Unless the scale is broken, I now weigh about 75lbs. I gained a whole 12lbs since my checkup around a month ago.

I drop my shirt back down.

Even knowing I'm not as ugly as I was, I was still really scared that S.G. and his friends would be disgusted by my looks in just swim trunks. S.G. never said anything when we changed and did swimming in the classes but he could have been more bold with his friends. Not with their dads and Mr. Trey around, but definitely when we were in the theater without adult supervision.

But they didn't. That makes me feel good. A little happy, too. I was able to hang out with other boys like a normal boy today. Not only that, but they invited me to hang out again!

I'm still scared they might betray my trust and hate me, but a part of me can't help but hope that they're being real.

I close the closet door and locate the shoes, then put them on and tie their laces. Mr. Trey is waiting for me by the front door so once I'm ready to leave, I join him and we go to his car. Once we're both buckled up, Mr. Trey pulls out of his property.

"Do you want to do the clothes first or the stuffed animals?"

There's got to be a right answer but I'm not sure which it is. It's clearly not the third part of my reward since that wasn't listed.

"S-stuffed animals?" I try to answer with the cheaper one.

"Okay," Mr. Trey says. "We'll do that first, then."

Mr. Trey takes me to a store and then to the section with stuffed animals. There's a huge variety of them here, and in all sorts of sizes, too.

"Remember," Mr. Trey says. "You can pick out up to four of them that you want."

"F-four?" I ask. "I-I thought it was three? D-did I mess up? I'm sorry, Mr. Trey! Please forgive me!"

"That's what I'd said yesterday," Mr. Trey tells me. "But I'd also said one for each boy. We didn't know Isaac would be here then, which is why I said three. Since Isaac was here, that makes four."

"O-oh."

"Don't worry about the price on them, either," Mr. Trey says. "This is part of a reward for a big thing for you, Xander. You braved hanging out with other boys just for fun and even went swimming in trunks and didn't freak out at all."

"I was freaking out on the inside, though," I say.

"Maybe a little," Mr. Trey says. "But you managed to keep yourself calm enough to not freak out on the outside, right? You did very good at that, Xander. And nothing bad happened, right?"

"R-right," I nod. "T-they were all really nice to me."

Mr. Trey suggested I try this since I wanted to hang out with them but didn't want to go to laser tag because there would be a lot of people there. Even though I really didn't want to go swimming with them and was scared they'd call me a freak because I can't swim good, I agreed to it.

As we were talking yesterday, he kept telling me that this would be a good way to see how they really felt about me. Then he promised to buy me clothes and three stuffed animals – I guess four, now – if I tried it and tried my best not to panic and freak out on them.

He was right. I really did have a lot of fun and the other boys were nice to me. The dragon floatie really helped me with the pool portion, too. I was still scared of drowning and getting into the pool, but the floatie was recommended by the dork with a guarantee it would keep me afloat and it did. Using it made me nervous that the other boys would make fun of me but they didn't.

Then when Mr. Trey suggested I shoot them with the water gun and see how long it takes them to ask if they could use one… I felt both scared and curious. It even made me want to giggle.

What really surprised me was falling asleep in the theater. I was scared to do that even though I was tired and I didn't want to be rude by asking them to leave so I could nap. The next thing I knew, I was waking up alone in the theater.

At first I thought they were gone, but then I went to the dining room and found them talking with Ms. Katie. That made me really happy for some reason.

"You had a lot of fun, right?" Mr. Trey asks.

"Y-yeah."

"Would you like to do that again?"

"Y-yeah."

"Are you glad you followed my suggestion?"

"Y-yeah."

"Good," he smiles. "Now pick out four stuffed animals."

"O-okay."

This part of the day makes me nervous but Mr. Trey is encouraging me to do this. I don't want to make him mad by picking out expensive ones but at the same time, he's telling me to pick whichever ones I want.

I look through the different stuffed animals here and pick out one wolf stuffed animal, but get two of them. They're normal wolves, not the special ones that Luke got me versions of. The next one I pick out is a black dragon stuffed animal. The fourth and final one takes me awhile to pick out. There are several that I want, but the one I really want is probably too much. It's a green dragon that's as tall as I am and positioned in a sitting pose. Sitting between its legs would probably be very comfortable. "You keep looking at that one," Mr. Trey comments. "Is that the one you want for the fourth one?"

"Y-yeah," I answer. "B-but it's two h-hundred dollars."

"You did a very big thing today," Mr. Trey tells me. "You challenged yourself to go far outside of your boundaries and did your best to stay brave through it even when you were most scared. It was an immense leap of faith and a very big deal. Don't worry about how much it costs, Xander. If that's what you want for the fourth one, then that's what you're getting."

"O-okay."

The dragon is too big for me to carry so Mr. Trey picks it up and puts it into the cart, then we go to the register so he can pay. After that, the stuffed animals are put into the back seat of the car and Mr. Trey drives me to another store. This one is a clothing store and it makes me nervous.

"Remember," Mr. Trey tells me. "You can get up to five hundred dollars' worth of clothes. Pick out any you want."

That's a lot of money and he already spent a lot on stuff for me at the toy shop. It's the same amount he promised me yesterday.

I'm still not sure why he offered me so much for trying to brave my way through a very scary situation but I don't want him to get mad at me for trying to reduce how much I get. This situation makes me scared, too, but I'm also really tired and don't have the energy to try and figure out how to get out of it safely.

At first, I only look at the clothes a little as I try to figure out which ones I might want that I'm sure won't make Mr. Trey mad at me. Then I realize they all have nice textures. All of them. They're a little bit more expensive than the clothes I normally wear or which Mr. Trey bought for me to use, but they all feel nice. Every single one I rub.

I like this place.

Before I really realize it, I have a bunch of different clothes picked out, including new socks and underwear, a new pair of shoes, and several new pairs of pants and shirts. As much as I want to stay with shirts that have longer sleeves, I do pick out two shirts that have shorter sleeves. Maybe I can wear them when hanging out with S.G. and his friends at someone's house. But not outside. Wearing those might make them more willing to be friendly with me than wearing a long-sleeved shirt would.

I really liked hanging out with them.

"I need to go to the restroom," Mr. Trey tells me while I'm looking at the clothes I've picked out and trying to do the math on the prices. "Are you okay with waiting for me here?"

This is where he reveals he's just tricking me and is abandoning me, isn't it? Then the employees are going to accuse me of shoplifting and have me arrested and put in juvie and no one will believe me. But I can't tell Mr. Trey that or he'll beat me for accusing him of lying.

"I-I'll wait here," I tell him.

"Okay," he says, then leaves.

Not even thirty seconds after Mr. Trey leaves, a police officer walks up to me. Here it is. Just as I suspected!

"Hello," the officer says. "My name's Jessica. What's yours?"

"Is there a reason you're talking to him as soon as I walked away?"

I jump and look at Mr. Trey, who's standing only a few feet to our side, arms folded over his chest and looking very angry. Oh, no! What did I do? I wasn't shoplifting, I swear!

"If you have questions," Mr. Trey says. "You need to do it properly. The fact that you waited until after I walked away to approach indicates you were waiting for such an opportunity. I will be filing a complaint with your supervisors."

"Y-"

"No," Mr. Trey interrupts. "I'm not done yet. I know exactly why an officer was called and I know exactly why you were trying to see if you could get him alone. Did it ever occur to you or those workers that he may just be an anxious kid? And that there may be a legitimate reason for me to be spending a lot of money on him?

"Xander is my foster son," Mr. Trey tells her. "He moved into my home from the Blue Wing Boys' Home on the second of this month. The reason he's fidgety isn't because of me but because he's not used to having a lot of money spent on him. Xander, could you please put in your ear plugs? The red ones."

He must not want me to hear what he's saying next. I pull out the small plastic case with ear plugs in it and open it up, then remove the red ones and put those into my ears. Mr. Trey says something to me but the red ones block out all sound so I can't hear him. That seems to satisfy him, then he starts talking to the officer.

Whatever they're discussing, it seems to only make Mr. Trey agitated and that scares me more. He's going to take his agitation out on me, isn't he? After the officer lets us go… but she's probably going to arrest us and claim I was trying to steal because Mr. Trey seems to be making her mad. Another officer shows up, this one male, and he starts arguing with Mr. Trey as well.

Then Mr. Trey takes a deep breath, says something, crosses his arms over his chest, and stares at the officers. For a very long time. His gaze is intimidating and it's not even on me. They both talk but he doesn't respond to them. That's going to get him into a lot of trouble and then they're going to get mad at me and beat me for it!

Ms. Johnson, Mr. Evanson, and a man I've never seen before and who's wearing a suit all arrive. Mr. Evanson and the suit-wearing man join Mr. Trey while Ms. Johnson beckons for me to come over with her. I'm not sure what to do but Mr. Trey gestures for me to go with Ms. Johnson when I look at him so I do.

She takes me to another part of the store and gestures for me to sit on one of the chairs here so I do, then she sits in the seat on the other side of the one to my left. I can't see what Mr. Trey, Mr. Evanson, the suit-wearing man, and the officers are doing and I don't remove my earplugs in case they're loud. This has me really scared, though. Is Mr. Trey sending me back to the home?

About fifteen minutes pass before Mr. Trey, Mr. Evanson, and the suit-wearing man join us. I can't see the officers, but Mr. Trey has the cart of clothes in it, and they're all bagged up in the store's bags. When they reach us, Mr. Trey gestures for me to remove the earplugs.

"Sorry about that, Xander," Mr. Trey says as I put them back into their case. "I wanted to say some things I knew would bring back some bad memories for you. How are you feeling?"

"S-scared."

"Sorry," Mr. Trey says. "You're not in trouble, I promise. The workers thought I was doing something really bad to you and was buying you clothes as a 'payment' for it. They called the police and the officers were… not listening very well."

"I wasn't stealing, I promise!"

"I know," Mr. Trey says. "They were thinking it was me doing illegal things, Xander. You're okay. You're not in trouble. Though I was surprised to see you two here, Tiffany."

Mr. Trey looks at Ms. Johnson when he says that.

"One of the other boys' birthday is tomorrow," she says. "He's taken to jogging and likes the MountainStorm Gear brand so we stopped here to pick up a present for him while doing some other shopping for the party. It seems the universe wanted to put us in this place at the right time to help you out. Was everything taken care of?"

"Under threat of legal action," the suit-wearing man I don't know says. "It's fortunate they knew you two already, that helped Trey's case. If stuff like this happens again, do you have an issue with us using you as a resource? I have a feeling it might occur again."

"Until Xander is legally adopted," Ms. Johnson says. "He's still one of my boys. We can act in an official capacity and vouch as needed. Even once he's adopted, if things get that far, we will still do so for awhile."

"Thank you," the man says.

"You have earplugs now?" Ms. Johnson asks me.

"Y-yeah," I nod. "Mr. Trey and I were shopping yesterday and I saw them and they were expensive."

I mixed up my words and didn't say everything I was meaning to say and now I need to figure out how to fix this. Why am I so stupid?

"Xander wanted to buy them," Mr. Trey tells her. "But didn't bring enough money with him. It was stressing him out because he didn't want to ask to come back to the store after going home yesterday. I asked him what was wrong and he said he wanted to get those but didn't have enough money on him as he'd only brought what was left from his allowance. They're a set of magic earplugs and cost a decent amount. The red ones block out all sound, the green ones block out loud ones, and the blue ones block out any that isn't the human voice. He thought they might be a good idea for swimming or when out shopping if things get loud. I told him he didn't need to pay for them… he still tried repaying me once we got home. I think that's what he was trying to say."

That's a lot better than I managed to say. It was mostly for swimming for today, which is why I didn't think he'd be okay with paying for them. The thunder headphones wouldn't work too well with water. I don't like things in my ears and they make me uncomfortable, but Mr. Trey still suggested I bring them with me when we go out to do stuff, just in case.

I'm glad I was able to take them out after only around fifteen minutes. After having the green ones in my ears a lot today, they really annoy me. It's bad for me to be annoyed so I hope Mr. Trey isn't upset with me.

"Y-yeah."

"That's nice," Ms. Johnson says. "Do you like them?"

"No."

"No?"

"Also yes."

"He doesn't like having them in his ears," Mr. Trey explain. "But he was willing to give them a try."

"Y-yeah."

"I see," she says. "Well, I'm glad you're settling in well, Xander. You're getting to get more clothes today?"

"It's a reward," I tell her. "I tried being brave."

"You were very brave," Mr. Trey tells me. "Do you remember the boys from the bowling alley, Tiffany?"

"That hyper group of them?" She asks. "Yeah."

"Xander went swimming with them today," Mr. Trey tells her. "I'd promised him I'd buy him some new clothes and toys if he braved hanging out and swimming with them. He used a floatie and didn't wear a water shirt."

"It feels weird," I whisper to Ms. Johnson. "The water shirt, I mean. I was really scared, but the other boys were really nice and friendly."

"That's good to hear," she says. "It sounds like you had a lot of fun."

"I did," I tell her. "They even stopped shooting me in the face without me asking and didn't stop playing."

"Shooting you in the face?" She frowns.

Oh, no! What did I do wrong?

"Water guns," Mr. Trey explains. "They were playing with water guns in the pool."

"Oh," she says. "They seemed like good kids when I saw them at the bowling alley. We need to finish our shopping, Xander. I hope you have a good night."

"Bye," I tell her, then wave to Mr. Evanson.

Ms. Johnson and Mr. Evanson leave and I sneak a look at the suit-wearing stranger.

"Xander," Mr. Trey says. "This is Johnathon, one of my lawyers. He's the one helping me with the stuff relating to your adoption and foster care, so I asked him to come over as soon as I noticed what was going on in case we needed a lawyer to get involved."

Lawyers are extremely scary.

"Hello, Xander," Mr. Johnathon says. "It's nice to meet you."

"H-hi."

"You two have a good night," Mr. Johnathon says. "Let me know if anything else comes up."

"Will do," Mr. Trey tells him. "See you."

"B-bye."

The lawyer leaves, then Mr. Trey takes me out of the store. He bought the clothes while I was sitting with Ms. Johnson, so we're able to just go. I still get nervous on the way out but no one stops us and accuses me of shoplifting, which is a huge relief.

Hopefully, nothing else happens tonight. All that's left as far as I know is to pick up a red-white-and-blue cheesecake from the Wolf's Dragon, then go back to Mr. Trey's place and get ready for bed.

"Sorry for scaring you," Mr. Trey tells me. "We can go get your cheesecake now if you want, but if there's something you want as an apology for getting you more scared, just let me know."

"I-I don't know how to make up for being scared!"

"Deep breaths, Xander," Mr. Trey tells me. "In… out… in… out… in… out… good, good. I wasn't saying you need to apologize for being scared. I was saying I want to make it up to you for scaring you in the store. Is there something you'd like for that?"

"Y…you want to give me something to say sorry for scaring me?" I ask. "B-but why?"

"Because I don't like scaring you," he says. "And it was clear you got scared from me. I'm really sorry for that, Xander, and I do want to make it up to you. You don't like hugs so I want to see if there's something else I can do."

"O-oh," I try to think of something that won't make him mad. "C-can I get two cheesecakes?"

"You can get two!" He laughs. "They might not have a second red-white-and-blue one, though, so you might have to get a different flavor. Is that okay?"

"Yeah," I nod.

"Alright," he says. "Then we'll ask them what they have when we get there. And Xander?"

"Y-yes, Mr. Trey?"

"If you want to eat some before bed, you can."