[Xander – 12 years]

After staring at my reflection in the toilet bathroom mirror for a few minutes, I leave the bathroom and locate my backpack from the boys' home. I grab the hair scissors that are in it and take them to the toilet bathroom, then grab a change of clothes and bring them to the bathing bathroom, putting those on a shelf in here. After making sure the towel in here is a fresh one, I go to the toilet bathroom and pull the scissors out of their sleeve.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Small locks of hair fall around me as I start cutting my hair. It's not a full cut, just a trim back to an appropriate length. My hair was starting to get too long and I don't want to get into trouble. I know I'm not good at this but I can at least do it well enough that I won't get into trouble and no one comments about the bad job I do. With me cutting it myself, I don't have to bother a proper hair cutter to do the job and they won't be disgusted by having to do it. Or by me flinching around because I really don't like being touched, especially from behind.

I do my best on the job and once I finish, I pull off my shirt and pants and shake out the hair, then do the same with my socks before sweeping up all of the clippings. Those are dumped into the toilet bathroom's trash, then I put the scissors back into their sheath and put those away and put my dirty clothes into the hamper for them.

Hopping from one foot to the other, I try to focus myself, then quickly finish getting undressed and hurry to the bathing bathroom so I can shower off the rest of the hair pieces. There's no one else around to see me but it still feels uncomfortable.

As I scrub my hair, a lot of brown water comes off. Was I really that dirty? I could've sworn I showered after playing with the other boys yesterday. Though considering it's me, I probably just think I did.

Once I'm scrubbed clean again (weirdly, the brown water only happened when washing my hair), I make sure to towel off as thoroughly but quickly as possible and hurry to get dressed. Much better. Now all I have to do is-

"No!" I cry out when I see my reflection in the mirror in here. There's an anti-fog magic on it so it's already clear. "No, no, no, no, no! How! Why! Bu-it-no-I-"

I can't get my thoughts out, my brain becoming all scrambled. This is bad. This is very, very, very, very, bad. I'm going to get into so much trouble and I don't even know why it happened!

"Xander!" A loud voice comes through the bathing bathroom door. "Deep breaths! Xander, take deep breaths! In… out… Xander, breaths! In… out… in… out… in… out… Good, good… can you open the door? Get dressed if you still need to."

I'm still panicking a little but at least I can think clearly again. Since I'm already dressed, I open up the bathing room door. Delaying this will only make things worse, I'm sure.

"What happ-" Mr. Trey cuts off when he sees me. "You washed out your dye? I take it you were trying to go without but don't like it now that you've done it?"

"I-I didn't mean to!" I tell him. "I just cut my hair and was washing the clippings out and thought the brown water was 'cause I was extra dirty for some reason and hadn't showered after hanging out with S.G. and the other boys yesterday but then after I got dried and dressed I saw my hair was free of its dye and I don't know why and I'm really sorry and I'll put it back in and-"

"Xander," Mr. Trey says and I stop. "Thank you. You're not in trouble, Xander. That's the same shampoo you normally use, right?"

"Y-yeah," I nod. "It's supposed to help make sure the dye doesn't wash out but maybe it got swapped or something? I… would ask the dork if he did that but he'd probably say something weird again. I'm really sorry, Mr. Trey! I know it's bad to stand out and that's why I dye it and I'll dye it back up and-"

"What would 'the dork' say?" Mr. Trey asks.

"Um…" I try to think. "He says that the reason my roots start showing is because the hair dye can't stick to me that well because I'm too… awesome or powerful or something like that. It changes a lot. But it's really just 'cause my hair grows out. And he says that I don't need dye at all 'cause my hair would be whatever color I want it to be, but that's obviously a lie because that's a weird magic and I don't know it. So he'd probably say something like it washed out 'cause I don't want my hair dyed, but I do 'cause I don't want to stand out! Plus, I looked it up and that sort of thing doesn't happen, so it's definitely him mixing up his dreams with reality again! I'm really sorry, Mr. Trey! I only have the touch-up kits right now though so I'll need to buy more of the dye itself! Please forgive me!"

"Can you look me in the eyes?" Mr. Trey asks. "You're not in trouble for the dye washing out. Whether you dye your hair or not, I don't have an issue with it. If you wanted to dye your hair green, I'd let you as long as you paid for it with your allowance."

"I don't want to dye my hair green," I tell him. "I don't want to stand out, either! 'Cause standing out is bad and gets me in trouble!"

"I take it that when you say 'standing out'," Mr. Trey says. "You're referring to how blond your hair is?"

"Y-yeah," I nod.

"If it's because of what your previous foster home did," Mr. Trey says. "Remember that they were in the wrong about a lot of things, Xander. Luke stands out all the time for worse reasons than his hair being as eye-drawing blond as it is. Do you know what he would say to your old family if they tried to treat him like that because of his hair?"

"Probably a lot of things," I answer. "He talks a lot. A lot. I'm sorry! That's really mean to say!"

"Luke knows he talks a lot," Mr. Trey tells me. "He tries to work on it. If you tell him he's talking too much for you, he'll most likely stop and apologize. As for what he'd say to them… he'd likely ask them why it matters that his natural hair color is so bright. It doesn't, Xander."

"But-"

"Let me ask you something," Mr. Trey says. "Xander, do you like hiding your hair color?"

"I like not getting beaten for standing out."

"That's not what I asked, Xander."

I should have known that wasn't going to work. Stupid fucking worthless piece of shit.

"I don't like dyeing my hair."

"Then don't."

"But-"

"If your reason for dyeing your hair is because other people don't like your natural hair color," Mr. Trey says. "Then there's no real good reason to do so. Okay?"

I'm still not so sure about that but Mr. Trey is more smart than me.

"O-okay."

"Now," Mr. Trey says. "You cut your own hair?"

"I-I'm sorry! I should have asked permission first! They let me do it at the home and I didn't think about it or I would've-"

"You're not in trouble," Mr. Trey says. "Are you the one who normally cuts your hair when it's time to trim it again?"

"Y-yeah."

"Look me in the eyes," Mr. Trey says. "Thanks. You do a good job at it. It looks good, like a professional did it. With your problems gripping things, that actually makes it impressive. Why don't you finish your stuff, then come down when you're ready for breakfast, okay?"

"O-okay."

Mr. Trey leaves, then I pick up the used towel and put it in the hamper. I then go to the toilet bathroom and look in the mirror. Maybe… maybe I'll not dye it again for a few days, just to see what Luke and S.G. and Connor and Sam and Isaac say. If they make fun of me or something for it, though, I'm definitely going to dye it back as soon as Mr. Trey lets me.

When I spot the note on the mirror, I remember that there's other stuff I'm supposed to do.

"I'm stupid, I'm ugly, and I'm worthless," I tell my reflection. "But I'm not as ugly as before… I think. Look," I lift up my shirt and poke my ribs. "They aren't as visible anymore. So I'm putting on weight and getting healthier. That's good, right? Though I don't have abs yet so probably not really that healthier. But it's still a good thing about me."

At least, I think it's a good thing. I drop my shirt back down and look at my reflection again.

"I was very brave yesterday," I tell my reflection. "I think that counts as a good thing about myself. I'm normally very scared, right? So being very brave is a good thing. Um… what's a third good thing about myself?"

The updated note says to try and come up with different things each time, though I kind of ignored that for the bad things. There are too many of those. I really want to try for the good things but I can't think of anything else that's different from yesterday's. Though I can also only remember one of yesterday's…

"I can help make baked goods that other people like," I nod. "S.G., Connor, Sam, and Isaac liked the pies I helped make yesterday. There. That's three."

I return to the bedroom and climb up onto the bed and pick up Trenton and hug him until it's time to go down for breakfast. When I arrive, Ms. Katie is putting food on the table and Mr. Trey is reading something on his tablet.

"Mr. Trey?" I ask.

"Yes?" He looks at me.

"W-why were you in the room?"

"When you were panicking?" He asks and I nod. "I wasn't. I was still in my room when you started – you were loud enough the wolf monitor was picking it up."

"O-oh," I say. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Mr. Trey says. "Why don't you have a seat? Breakfast is ready."

I sit down and examine today's breakfast. It's sausage patties between two halves of a biscuit (Mr. Trey's has egg on it as well), hash brown patties, and a syrup-glazed fruit mix with chopped nuts. Mr. Trey also gets bacon with his breakfast, and I think he even has slices of it on his breakfast sandwich. I'm served four hash brown patties and four of the breakfast sandwiches at first, but ask for more once I'm done with those because I'm still hungry.

Though it still makes me scared to ask for more food when I'm still hungry, Mr. Trey keeps encouraging me to eat until I'm full at most meals we have together. I haven't gotten into trouble for eating a lot yet so I don't think I will. There's always the chance that he's still trying to earn my trust before beating me, though.

Once my stomach says it can't eat anymore, I stop and thank Ms. Katie for breakfast, then excuse myself so I can get ready for classes. Trenton is coming with me today, so I retrieve him from the bedroom when I grab the school backpack after waiting and brushing my teeth. Back downstairs, I go to the kitchen to put in today's snacks into the bag. Ms. Katie already has them on the table by the time I reach the dining room again so I can do that easily.

Mr. Massey isn't here yet so I go into the classroom and move a purple beanbag chair to the right of the one I normally sit on and set Trenton on it, then put the school backpack on the ground between it and the green beanbag chair I normally use and sit down. I'm in here really early today so I pull out my homework and review to see if I can remember things.

Luke and Parker arrive after about a few minutes and as soon as they enter, Luke starts staring at me. He hates me being blond, too! No! I should have asked Mr. Trey if it was possible if we could get more of the dye so I could make my hair look brown again!

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

[Luke – 13 years] → Starts during Xander's PoV

"-which didn't make any sense," I tell Parker as Mom pulls onto the street. "I thought I'd cleaned up all of the magical static… which is a weird thing to say, if I'm being honest. I didn't even know that was possible but it apparently is. When I tried looking it up, all I found were theories on magical static existing. No actual articles based on fact."

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?" Parker asks before sipping coffee.

"Being addicted to coffee probably isn't healthy for you since you're still growing," I tell him. "And I did and yes, I made sure to drain my mana before leaving the house. This isn't my normal babbling. It's just… this is a really confusing thing. How is magical static even a thing but no one knew about it?"

"I contacted the Lumaria Group about it," Mom tells me. "Adrian himself called me back and wanted to know what you were doing when you encountered it."

"It's news to Adrian King, too?"

"No," she answers. "According to Adrian, only two people on Earth have ever actually encountered magical static before: himself and the teleporter who keeps popping into our facilities. Adrian called it 'mystic miasma' rather than 'magical static'. He also said it's nothing to worry about and it should dissipate on its own."

"It's nothing to worry about?" I ask.

"His exact words were," she says. "And I quote 'the only time mystic miasma is a concern is when it reaches an extremely high concentration, which isn't possible on Earth unless someone deliberately concentrates it down. I'm also fully capable of sensing such a high concentration anywhere on Earth'. According to his estimates, the mystic miasma you came across while working on that project last night should have dissipated by now."

"Did he say what happens if it becomes too concentrated?" Parker asks.

"Yes," Mom answers. "And he clarified that there are also only two people on Earth capable of actually concentrating it that much so there's little concern in telling me. It seems that if mystic miasma become too concentrated, it effectively becomes a magical nuke about one hundred times the power of the one the US used in testing during World War II."

We didn't make a magical nuke, it was a mundane one. The US and Canada wanted to make sure that if someone tried to draw us into the war, we'd be able to put a stop to it pretty fast without needing to rely on Adrian King. Another country happened upon the testing on an uninhabited island and… well, the war ended within a month out of fear that we were planning to get involved.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"How often do you talk with Adrian King?" Parker asks Mom.

"Not very often," Mom answers. "While he oversees his various companies, it's others who do most of the communications between his companies and others. The same goes for how we run our company, though Adrian is a lot more mysterious. For him to contact someone directly is rare. It does seem he's interested in what happened to cause you to encounter the mystic miasma. That's something for another time. We're almost there."

"Okay," I say.

"Don't discuss the mystic miasma or Adrian King with Xander," Mom tells me. "He's so far above Trey that it would only freak Xander out to know that I've interacted with him."

"Okay," I say. "Parker! Do you think Xander will like the cookies I made? He seems to like sweets."

"You made cookies?"

"Last night," I nod. "It's another swimming day and I'm not sure how he's going to be after what happened on the first one, so I wanted to make him something he'd like in the hopes it helps him be calmer."

Since I wasn't here for his swimming lesson last week, I'm not really sure how things will go. It's possible that me forcing him into the water like I did two weeks ago has him not wanting to be anywhere near a pool with me around.

"Based on the last time you baked something," Parker says. "It's probably a disaster and Xander will think you were trying to poison him."

"What? Hey! It wasn't that bad! And I've practiced more since then and can actually bake stuff now!"

Parker just giggles and I realize he was only joking so I poke him in the side.

When Mom pulls in front of Trey's house, Trey's waiting outside for us for some reason. Mom gets out of the car to see what's up as Parker and I get out.

"Melody," Trey says. "I remember you mentioning that there's a ten-year-old who sometimes teleports into one of your facilities and takes power cores?"

"Yes," she answers. "Has he done something to your company?"

"No," Trey tells her. "I wanted to ask you something about him. Luke, Parker, Xander's already in the classroom."

"Go on," Mom tells me. "I'll see you later, Luke."

"Bye, Mom!" I tell her, then Parker and I go inside and enter the classroom…

Where there is a giant green dragon sitting against one wall. Holy cow that thing is huge. It's nearly as tall as I am and I can totally see Xander sitting underneath it. He's not right now as he's on his favorite beanbag with a purple one beside it but I'm sure he's done it at least once. That thing is huge! And looks super cuddly!

"Whoa!" I exclaim and rush over to it and try to sit under it. "Hey! It really can be sat under! Parker, look!"

Parker sighs.

"Luke," he says. "You probably should have asked first."

"Oh!" I pull out from under the dragon. "Sorry, Xander! Wait! You washed out the dye!"

Xander's hair is its natural platinum-blond now, so it matches his eyebrows. In my personal opinion, he looks way better with his natural hair color than the brunette he was attempting to pass as before. Not that he looked bad before, this just suits him more!

"I-I didn't mean to," Xander looks down at his lap. "It happened while I was taking a shower. It just… all washed out."

"Well, I think you look great with it like this!" I tell him. "I mean, you looked pretty cool with it brown, too, but this suits you! By the way, have you heard of mystic miasma before?"

"Luke," Parker groans. "What did your mom tell you, like, two minutes ago?"

"It's super scary stuff," Xander answers before I can respond. "I don't like how it feels when it's nearby and it usually takes a few hours to dissipate."

"Wait," I say. "You know about it? I was going to tell you about the theories on it that are on the net, though they call it magical static."

"Um…" Xander shifts a little. "I know someone who knows how to make it happen. He says he tries to avoid it when he can because the temptation to turn it into a bomb is too strong and he wants to avoid the notice of Adrian King."

I have no idea how to respond to that. If it came from someone else, then I'd suspect them of lying. This is Xander, though. I might have only known him for two weeks but I'm very well aware that he hates lying because he's worried about getting into trouble. He either really does know someone who knows how to make mystic miasma or he believes he does. If he does, then that means he knows the teleporter?

How did they meet?

Putting that aside, Xander's acting a little bit different than he has before. There's something… different about him today. Very different, but I can't put my finger on it.

"Did you have a good weekend?" I decide to change topics because this is probably safer than trying to figure out how to respond to his answer.

"I had fun," Xander looks anxious. "Mr. Trey and Ms. Katie played a game with me on Friday evening, and Mr. Trey took me shopping on Saturday and for lunch. Yesterday was a really scary day, though. But it was also fun."

I… think Xander thinks he had to tell me about his weekend when I asked if he had a good one and that's why he's telling me so much.

"It was scary but fun?" I ask. "How? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"I invited S.G. and his friends over to hang out yesterday," Xander tells me. "I was supposed to ask on Saturday about coming over yesterday but forgot but Mr. Trey didn't punish me for being bad. We did a lot of hanging out and even played a game together. A video game. We also did stuff in the pool, but I wasn't swimming. I was on a floater. They missed their laser tag stuff but said it was okay."

Xander went swimming with people and it wasn't for a class? I'm curious about that because I really don't think he's over his fear of drowning. It does sound like he enjoyed it, and his face even looks more… happy, I want to say? I'm not sure but it's definitely not his normal or scared face.

While I'm happy Xander had fun yesterday – he really needs it – it bothers me that he didn't invite me to hang out. Going swimming and playing video games is a lot different from watching a documentary and a lot more fun.

"You were swimming with others?" I ask as I take my seat and Parker sits beside me in his.

"It was scary," Xander nods. "Very scary. Hello, Mr. Massey."

"Sorry for running late," Mr. Massey says as he walks to his desk. "There was a car accident in front of me and it delayed my arrival a little."

Class begins and goes as has become the norm for Xander's classes, starting with a quiz and then a small refresher before the first lesson. When it comes time for our brief break, I show Xander the cookies that I made.

"They're butter cookies," I tell him. "I asked Dad to help me make them."

"Okay," Xander starts pulling out snacks from his backpack.

Chips, crackers, cookies, milk, pretzels, fruit, and baby carrots. I pull out the snacks and donuts I brought and Parker pulls out his snacks. We share them as Mr. Massey begins the next part of the lesson.

I doodle a bit during the class and when it's over, Xander puts his stuff up in his room and we head to the pool to change out for the swimming lesson.

"Hi, Coach Evan!" I greet the coach as Parker and I leave the changing room, just as Xander is arriving.

"Hello, Luke," he says. "Please do not repeat what happened last time."

"Yes, sir!" I answer.

A problem with that promise comes up not even minutes later, after Xander has exited the changing rooms. Rather than wearing his trunks today, he's wearing his trunks over his full-body swimming suit.

I guess I really do make him uncomfortable… except that what he just asked me has me confused on that, too.

"What?" I ask Xander.

"Please?" He asks.

"But… you want me to hold you and cover your mouth and nose and jump into the pool?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I don't have the floatie."

"Huh?"

"The magic floatie," Xander says. "It makes me feel too safe. I can't overcome the fear if I rely on it. So I need to try and get through it. But running and screaming terrifies me too much and I'm scared I'll drown if I'm not being held."

Xander is definitely voicing things better now… something else had to have happened over the weekend other than just him hanging out with people (and not inviting me).

"But you're okay with me holding you and preventing you from getting free and breathing?"

"No," Xander answers.

"I'm confused."

"But it's better than trying to courage myself into it. I used up most of my brave yesterday and it needs to recharge."

I'm not going to pretend to understand that but I know what Xander's asking me to do so I agree to it. We go to the deep end of the pool and Xander closes his eyes, then I walk him forward before wrapping one arm around him to hold his arms down and the other is used to cover his mouth. I walk him forward a little bit more, then tell him to inhale deeply. Once he's done that, I pinch his nose and force us off the edge and into the water.

Just as he did last time I was here for this, Xander struggles against me and I can really feel his strength magic working against me. It's stronger than last time and I enhance my own strength a little just to be safe. Once Xander's calmed down, I release him.

"You okay?" I ask.

"My panic is all wore out."

I'll take that as a 'yes'.

"Thank you, Luke," Xander adds.

"You're welcome."

"I'll let you rest a few minutes," Coach Evan tells Xander as Xander starts to float on his back. "Then we'll start today's lesson."

"Okay," Xander says. "Thank you."

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

[Xander – 12 years]

"Bye, Luke," I say. "Bye, Parker."

"Have a good day," Parker tells me.

"Bye," Luke says.

They leave and once I'm sure they're gone, I go to the kitchen, where Ms. Katie is cleaning up from lunch.

"Ms. Katie?"

"Yes, Xander?" Ms. Katie looks at me.

"Mr. Trey isn't here so I can't ask him right," I say. "But… did I upset Luke? He seemed really upset and he told me 'no'. I thought he wanted to hang out and I know he mentioned to Parker while we were in the pool that he doesn't know what he's doing for the rest of the day."

"I'm sure Luke wants to hang out with you," Ms. Katie tells me. "But he's not the type who likes to sit in one place and just watch something. If he's watching a movie, I'm sure he's also playing video games at the same time."

"But it's the only way to get him to be quiet for a long time," I tell her. "I-I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said that! It's really mean and-"

"It's okay, Xander," Ms. Katie says. "Do you remember what it is his parents do when he's running in the house and being too hyper for them to stop by calling out to him?"

"Um… no?" I answer. "W-was I supposed to? I'm sorry!"

"They shoot lightning at his face," she tells me.

"T-t-they do what?" I ask. "They hurt him? And it's not reported? B-"

"He's not hurt by it."

"It's lightning!"

"Luke isn't harmed by lightning," she tells me. "He's immune to all forms of shock and plasma and the impact itself is… well, I won't pretend to understand it. Luke himself has said this and he says it doesn't hurt. He's also able to ignore it if he wants."

"I-I'm sorry," I look at my socks. "I-I don't really understand h-how that g-goes with w-what I said."

"Luke won't mind if you ask him to be quieter," Ms. Katie says. "As long as it's not said rudely. If you said something like 'Luke, could you please be a little bit quieter', he'll be fine. Parker likes to pinch his ear or slug him in the back of the head to tell him to be quiet so he'd probably actually be happy if you politely asked. He knows he's noisy and that it might bother other people."

I'm not so sure he'd be happy that someone as worthless and pathetic as me asked him to be quieter or calm down.

"Want to make cookies?" Ms. Katie asks. "I was thinking of doing stained-glass cookies. They're usually made around Christmas time for the holiday but can be made for any time of the year. If you were planning on watching a documentary, we can make them after if you're interested. Or we can make them before and you can have some while you watch. Trey's already said it's okay."

Those cookies sound scary but maybe if we get it over with now, I won't have to watch the documentary all scared. It's always been safe to ask when I'm unsure here even if I'm scared it's not safe. I hope it's safe this time.

"W-why is there stained glass in the cookies?" I ask.

"There's not," Ms. Katie tells me. "It's just what we call them. Stained glass cookies are cookies with rock candy in their center. It makes people think of stained glass so they get called that."

"O-oh, okay," I feel stupid so I try to think about what I want to do instead of focusing on that. Mr. Trey says that should help me. "Before the documentary, please."

"Wash your hands and get your apron on, then," she tells me. "Want me to take pictures on your phone?"

"Yes, please," I pull out the phone and hand it to her.

I pull on the dark green apron they bought for me to use, then wash my hands. Ms. Katie pulls on her baking apron and washes her hands, then starts pulling out ingredients and dishes. Instead of pulling out one dish per ingredient and stage, she pulls out two. That's something she's done a few times and it means we're making separate batches.

Ms. Katie teaches me how to make these cookies as she makes her own batch, using that to show me how to prepare them. I do my best to follow each direction as closely as I can, though I get a little bit confused after the dough is mixed.

"You can ask," Ms. Katie says.

"Why are we rolling them up?"

"We're rolling them into logs," she tells me. "Divide it in half like I did, then roll each half into a log about the same size as I'm doing."

"B-but that's not how you make cookies, is it?" I ask. "S-sorry for questioning you."

"It's how some types of cookies are made," she tells me. "It's how we did the sugar cookies."

I've done this before?

"I-I'm sorry for forgetting!"

"It's okay, Xander," Ms. Katie tells me. "Everyone forgets things."

But I forget things more.

Ms. Katie shows me how to roll them up and wrap them, then we put them into a special fridge box that has magics on it to make them chill faster. The dough apparently needs to be cold for the next step.

There are a lot more dishes out than we needed to make the dough and that confuses me.

"While we wait on those," Ms. Katie says. "Let's make another type of cookie: strawberry shortcake."

These ones are a little bit fun to make. Once the dough is ready, we make balls of it and press them into circles, then put a cream cheese filling into the centers and put another circle of dough on top and pinch the edges together, then lightly roll them into balls. I mess up the first few but Ms. Katie tells me that it's okay if they aren't perfect.

Once they're ready, we put them in the oven, then Ms. Katie pulls out the chilling dough and start cutting slices of it off. Those then have their centers cut out before being set onto trays lined with parchment paper. Crushed rock candy that Ms. Katie made while I was in the classes today are put into the centers. They're different colors and flavors.

Those are put into the special fridge box to chill again, then the strawberry shortcake cookies are pulled out of the oven. If I were doing this on my own, I definitely wouldn't have been done with the stuff for that part of the stained glass cookies before the oven beeped.

While we wait for the stained glass cookies to chill some more and the strawberry shortcake ones to bake, Ms. Katie teaches me how to make blueberry cookies, which are lemon-flavored but with blueberries in them. The stained glass cookies are ready for the oven when the blueberry ones are, so they're all put in at the same time.

"Why don't you try a strawberry one?" Ms. Katie asks me once the others are in the oven. "They should be cool enough by now."

I look at the trays of the cooling cookies and find one of the ones I messed up, then take a bite of it. It's really good. I like this cookie.

Ms. Katie lets me try the other cookies once they're finished, though the blueberry-lemon ones also get a cream cheese icing drizzle before they cool. Those are also delicious and while the stained glass ones taste okay, I don't like them as much as the other two.

"I can't see through them that good," I tell Ms. Katie after trying to look through the candy window.

"Real stained glass is like that as well," she tells me as she finishes putting the cookies onto two glass platters – one for the cookies she measured and mixed and one for the cookies I measured and mixed. "In some cases, it's even completely opaque."

"Oh."

"Why don't you take some cookies and go do whatever is it you want to do," Ms. Katie tells me. "I'll clean up here."

"A-are you sure?"

"Go ahead," she says. "Trey said it's okay to eat the food we bake together for fun, right?"

"It was supposed to be for fun?"

"It's supposed to thunder soon as well," she tells me. "The theater room has some extra soundproofing on it to help keep it from disturbing people outside of it, as long as the doors are closed. That also affects inside as well so you won't be able to hear the thunder. If you don't want to do something in there, remember that there are headphones all over the house for you to use, but I wouldn't recommend going outside."

"O-okay," I look at the platters of cookies. "I'll watch a documentary, then. Mr. Trey said it's okay. May I please have a plate to put some of the cookies on?"

"Sure," Ms. Katie says. "Take as much as you want."

I want the whole tray of cookies that I made both because I'm really hungry and craving sweets and because I don't want anyone else to eat them in case I screwed them up really bad. Ms. Katie transfers them all onto a plastic platter without me saying anything so I guess she figured it out without me saying anything.

"I-is it really okay?" I ask.

"It is," she tells me. "And if Trey has an issue with it, I'll be the one he talks to about it, not you. And he did let you eat an entire cheesecake right before bed last night, don't forget."

"O-oh, right," I say. "It was very good. T-thank you, Ms. Katie."

"You're welcome," she says. "Why don't you go do your thing now, Xander? If Trey's not home when it's over, you can tell me what you learned if you want. Just make sure it's on something you're interested in, okay?"

"O-okay," I say. "Thank you, Ms. Katie."

I make my way to the theater room as I try to decide what I want to watch. There are a few different documentaries that caught my attention when I was browsing them on Saturday. One is on grizzly bears, one is on a magic flying bear, and the last one is on turtles. I was hoping there's one on phoenixes but there isn't one. When I looked it up on online after asking Mr. Trey if it was okay, I found out that there's a lot of debate on if they're even real or not.

I guess I hallucinated petting one. That makes sense. Why would a creature like that even let me near it, much less pet it? It's way too powerful and majestic a thing.

Making a decision on this is hard though. Maybe preparing the other snacks for it will give my stupid brain more time to decide. Though that also means I might prepare too much or too little since the documentaries are different lengths.

I-I need help!