[Sig – 13 years] → begins around the start of Chapter 36

"Morning, Aunt Rachel!" I greet my aunt as I make my way to the back door.

She's making breakfast right now; it looks like bacon and eggs, and maybe toast? Normally, I'd be more than happy to stop and wait for her to finish preparing it, but I've got other plans for breakfast. More delicious ones!

"Going somewhere?" She asks.

She probably figured that out since I have my backpack and bike helmet on. Why is she doing this, though? Mom and Dad are home now so it's not like she's watching me anymore.

"Yeah," I nod. "Gonna meet up with Connor, Sam, and Issac and get breakfast, then head to the park! See you later!"

"Hold on," she says. "Do your parents know?"

Ugh. Why does it matter? They don't care what I do, and they weren't even out here until probably five minutes ago, and they're both watching the morning news. As long as I don't cause problems, they don't care what I do.

"Mom! Dad! I'm going to the park!"

"Have fun," Mom says without looking away from the TV.

"Stay safe," Dad says without looking away from the TV.

"There," I tell Aunt Rachel. "They know. Bye!"

I head out the back door, a little bit annoyed. Why did Aunt Rachel want my parents to know? They really don't care what I do as long as I don't cause problems. Free-range parenting, or whatever.

I grab my bike and take it out to the front, making sure to lock the gate behind me, then hop on it and ride to the mage downtown district. Seeing Xander's flower crown yesterday made us all want donuts from there, even if there's really no point to eating food from that district unless I'm low on mana and need to recover it a little bit faster. It's all pretty good, though. The workers there know how to make good food.

By the time I reach the district, I'm almost not annoyed with Aunt Rachel any longer. I love her to death but she can be a bit weird and overbearing sometimes. It really doesn't matter if Mom and Dad know I'm leaving. I was hoping this would stop once they got home but it apparently hasn't.

The others will take a little bit longer to arrive since I live the closest to the district. Is Ms. Laney in? I think her shop should be open… she's putting out he sign right now!

"Hi, Ms. Laney!" I say as I reach her, hopping off of my bike. "How're you?"

"Not bad," she tells me. "What about you? You look a bit down, S.G. Want a crown?"

"Gonna be playing at the park after this," I tell her. "Thanks, though. And yeah. My aunt's staying with us while getting a house in the area. She's a bit more than I'm used to. But I mostly just wanted to say hi! Also that I saw the crowns you made for Xander and Trenton yesterday, and they looked pretty cool!"

"You know him?" She asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "He goes bowling at the same place we do on Tuesdays, at the same time. Started talking with him after he got his new home 'cause we thought he was being stalked 'cause he'd never been there with someone else before, but it just turned out to be his new dad. We even got him into our group chat! Well, we had to make a new one since it wouldn't let us just add someone for some reason. Mr. Caldwell was waiting for him at the park yesterday while he was here, and we were playing there, so we saw him after he left here. He's really cool."

"He is," she agrees. "Xander's been stopping by this street for years. We all got concerned when he stopped for a bit, but it seems he was just nervous about asking his new dad for permission."

"For years?" I ask. "Really? But he's averse to magic stuff and you're all… y'know, the mage downtown of the area."

All of the shops around here cater to mages and pretty much exclusively sell magic-based items. Even the flowers in this shop are magic, though the ones she uses for flower crowns aren't the useful sort of magic, they're just… magic.

"I don't think he's aware of that," she chuckles. "I think he was just going for a walk the first time he passed through here. I saw him looking a bit down and offered him a flower crown to cheer him up. Looks like your friends are here. You have a good day, alright?"

"Will do!" I salute, then turn around and head over to my friends, who are approaching.

"Hey, guys!" I say.

"Hey, Sig!" Connor and I do a half-hug, before I do the same with the others as we all greet each other.

"Ms. Laney said that Xander's apparently been coming here for years," I tell them as we walk over to the bakery, which already has a sign out on the sidewalk. "But she doesn't think he's aware that it's a mage-focused shopping district. I was just telling her that the crowns she made him and Trenton were pretty cool."

"They were!" Isaac agrees. "Those probably weren't his first ones. Do you think he likes them?"

"He definitely likes them," Sam gives him a light shove. "Xander looked so happy."

"Do you think she's got a fresh batch of donuts?" Connor asks. "I like 'em when they're still hot."

The bakery opens at six, to allow for people heading into the office or whatever to pick up some stuff before going in. Chances are good that fresh batches will be getting made soon, but not right at this moment.

"She's been open for an hour now, so probably not hot donuts," I say as he opens the door to the bakery and I step inside. "But they're definitely gonna be-Xander! Hi!"

"Xander?" Connor asks as Sam enters.

Xander's standing near the counter, where Ms. Heidi is. He looks a little bit uncomfortable and has Trenton in his arms, along with his backpack on his back. His shirt today is a plain grey one that looks a little bit older, but he's in athletic pants that look fairly new.

Mr. Caldwell is here, too, but that's not as important. I wasn't expecting to see Xander here! This is a big surprise! He must have been craving Ms. Heidi's donuts after visiting the street yesterday!

"Hi," Xander's voice is small, his cheeks slightly tinted with red.

"You like the donuts here, too?" I ask as we all hurry over to him.

"Y-yeah," Xander nods.

"Xander?" Mr. Trey gently says.

"O-oh," Xander nods. "Um…" he shifts a little, then looks at me. "Y-you guys w-were talking a-about h-hanging out and g-getting donuts h-here… a-and it was i-in the g-group c-chat t-that y-you a-added-"

"Deep breaths, Xander," Mr. Caldwell gently tells him.

Xander nods, then takes three long, slow, deep breaths.

"Um…" he screws up his face for a moment. "R-right. You guys were t-talking about hanging out and g-getting donuts here, and, um… it was in the group chat t-that you added me to… so I was w-wondering if m-maybe I c-could join?"

"We were on our way to get breakfast near here when you guys were talking in the chat," Mr. Caldwell tells us.

"Oh!" I say. "Yeah, you can join us! We would've said if you weren't invited!"

"If we're asking in the group chat for hanging out," Connor tells him. "And we aren't just doing something like 'wanna come over, Sam', then it's for everyone in there!"

"O-okay," Xander looks massively relieved for some reason, then glances at Ms. Heidi for a moment before looking back to us. "Y-you guys can order yours first. I-if you know what you w-wanted. I-I don't mind."

"We need to see what's available!" Sam says. "You can go ahead and order!"

"I haven't decided yet."

We all look at the selections, then I pick out two chocolate-iced ring donuts, both of which have sprinkles on them, and a chocolate-iced long john donut, also with sprinkles on it. Connor gets a blueberry cake donut, a chocolate-iced ring donut with sprinkles, and a maple-iced ring donut with sprinkles. Sam goes with three with plain icing ring donuts that have sprinkles, which is really boring. Isaac picks out a jelly-filled donut with a sugar dusting, a cinnamon twist donut, and a cream-filled, chocolate-iced long john with sprinkles.

"Yeah, no, Xander, it's okay," Mr. Trey quietly tells Xander as Isaac pays for his donuts and accepts the bag from Ms. Heidi. "Breakfast at a restaurant would have cost us more than this and I was fine with that, wasn't I?"

Xander's worried about money? Whoa. If my dad were as rich as Mr. Caldwell, I'd never be worried about spending four-fifty on some donuts. Well, I'm not right now, either. Since Aunt Rachel paid for a good portion of what I needed for my computer, I've got plenty of extra cash.

"Y-yeah," Xander nods. "O-okay," he walks up to where Ms. Heidi is. "Hi again, Ms. Heidi."

"Hello again, Xander," she smiles at him. "What would you like?"

"Mr. Trey said the dozen is only fifteen dollars even though it's twelve and not ten?" Xander seems confused.

"It's a deal," she says. "You want to buy a dozen?"

"Y-yeah," Xander nods. "May I please have, um… what was it? Oh, um. three circles with maple icing, three rectangles with maple icing, three bear claws, and three strawberry jelly-filled with the sugar dusting, please. That's twelve, right? Three… four times… ew… twelve."

I don't think the muttered "ew" was intentional, but I really want to know what that was about. That's also a ton of donuts. Is he wanting to share, or can he really eat that much even this early in the day?

"Alright," Ms. Heidi says. "And for the last donut?"

"The… last one?" Xander looks really confused. "Did I mess up the math? I'm sorry. Um…"

"Xander," Mr. Caldwell softly says. "Your math was right. A lot of bakers do thirteen for a dozen."

"But that's not twelve?" Xander looks even more confused now.

"It dates back to ancient times," Ms. Heidi tells him. "Consider it a bonus."

"Oh," Xander thinks for a few moments, but still looks confused. "Maybe an apple fritter, please? Is that counted as a donut?"

"It does for the dozen," she tells him as she takes his bag of donuts to where the apple fritters are to add one to it. "And that's thirteen! That'll be fifteen dollars."

Xander looks at Mr. Caldwell, who hands him a couple of bills. Xander checks them, then hands them to Ms. Heidi, who gives him a receipt and the bag.

"Have a good day, boys," she says.

We all tell her bye and leave, then Xander says goodbye to Mr. Caldwell and joins us in walking toward the park. Xander told us we could ride our bikes and he'd catch up to us at the park, but we don't ride our bikes after getting donuts, just walk them.

There's a shop near the park where we buy milk at, though Xander says he has some in his backpack and decides to stay behind when we go to buy ours. I guess he's still a little bit sleepy. Once we return to the park, we all sit at a table to eat the donuts. Xander… really eats the entire baker's dozen he bought.

"Um…" Xander says after we throw our trash away. "I've never really played at the park before, so I dunno what to do… but I've seen you guys playing basketball. And soccer, I think? And football… I'm not sure about that one but I'll keep score if you want."

"We don't play for points," I grin at him. "Just for fun! We all bring stuff to play with. Like, I've got a basketball in my backpack."

"Soccer ball," Connor opens up his to show it.

"Football," Sam says.

"I've got a disc, some hacky sacks, beanbags, and more," Isaac says. "It's whatever we all feel like playing. What do you feel like playing?"

"Um…" Xander thinks for a few seconds. "Um… I don't know? I'm not really sure the rules for any of them… and I know I was taught in school and stuff for soccer and basketball, but it… didn't stick. Disc is the one you throw around, right? With the spinning? How do you get it to spin?"

Isaac opens up his backpack and pulls out the faded, once-dark blue disc, then we teach Xander how to make it spin and some different throwing techniques. His aim is pretty bad and he tends to either throw too hard or too light, but it's still fun to try and catch his throws when it's his turn.

"Nice catch!" I exclaim when Xander catches the disc for the first time, that one thrown by Isaac. "To me! To me!"

Xander takes a couple of steps as he performs his throw and I guess he's trying to compensate for having thrown too lightly last time because the disc flies fast.

"IgotitIgotitIgotit!" I exclaim as I rush to where it's going and jump to try and catch it, but miss and land on the ground as the disc continues flying. Instead of just landing, though, I make sure to shift it into a roll so I can spring back to my feet. "Perfect landing! Ten out of ten!"

"Sorry!" Xander squeaks.

"For what?" I ask as I pull off my shirt; it's getting warm out here and we're moving around a lot. "Half the fun's trying to catch the disc!"

"Catch this!" Isaac shouts, having already retrieved the disc.

"Got it!" I try to catch it, only to miss.

Connor catches the disc and throws it toward Sam, who doesn't manage to catch it but does quickly get it.

We play for a little bit more, then stop to catch our breaths and drink some water. In Xander's case, it's lemonade from a bottle that was in his bag and a few grapes from a container. Isaac peels off his shirt, having gotten a bit hot as well, and drops it with mine by our stuff.

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Once we've all rested for a few minutes, we offer to teach Xander how to play with a hacky sack. Isaac always has a variety of them, in the crocheted design, and we let Xander pick which one he wants to learn with. He picks the green and black one, which doesn't surprise me, then we all pick out ours and start showing him.

At first, Xander is pretty clumsy with the kicks even with the tips we show him, but it takes him less than ten minutes to be able to consistently make contact with the sack. He's not good at aiming the sack with his kicks, but he can manage one or two contacts before it's lost.

That's really impressive.

"Let's kick one in a circle," I suggest once Xander seems to have gotten the hang of it, and he starts to go to the table that has our stuff. "You don't want to play?"

"I'm not good."

"So?" I ask. "We all start somewhere!"

"Yeah!" Sam says. "In fact, one of the first rules to it is 'don't apologize for a bad kick'! It's so important that it comes before the rule about not hogging the bag or that you retrieve it if you kick it away from the group by accident!"

"You want to give it a try?" Isaac asks. "We can do something else if you don't."

"Um…" Xander thinks about it for a moment, then nods. "Okay. Let me make sure Trenton's okay."

Xander goes to the table and talks to his bear for a moment, then joins us again. We play with the blue-and-green sack that Sam had used for solo play, the others dumped back into Isaac's bag. The circle we form goes Xander, Sam, Isaac, Connor, and me when going clockwise. A few times, Xander starts to apologize after a bad kick, but catches himself after the first time that we remind him there's no apologizing.

"Sorry!" I exclaim when I accidentally kick Connor while trying to get the sack after a pass from Sam, one which Connor also went for, neither of us managing to get it.

"Just for that," Connor swipes the sack from the ground before I can grab it. "I'm not kicking it to you for at least five passes!"

For some reason, Xander seems to relax after that… which is confusing but I guess he was worried about accidentally kicking someone? It doesn't matter, though, so I return to playing without thinking on it more.

"S-sorry!" Xander apologizes to Sam after accidentally kicking him. "I-I didn't realize I got that close!"

"It's cool!" Sam grins at him. "I've nearly kicked you a few times, too! I think we're all a little too close!"

We space out just a little bit more because he's right, we were probably too close to each other. After that, the game continues until Xander wants to rest a little. We all hydrate and Connor pulls off his shirt, then grabs a small towel from his bag to wipe off sweat with. With it being summer and us moving around a lot (some of those kicks required us to run to catch), we're all getting a bit hot. I'm surprised that Xander looks as cool as a cucumber with his long-sleeved shirt and his pants.

Xander opens up a container with baby carrots in it and eats a few of them before returning it to his backpack. Another container is pulled out, from which Xander grabs a lemon cookie.

"Hey, Xander," a familiar voice says, and we all look over to see Parker approaching us along with his friends from DFMS. I've never liked those other boys and really hope they keep their mouths shut. They seem to like ruining people's fun. "How's it going?"

"Hi, Parker," Xander says. "I'm not sure. But I'm having fun. How are you?"

"Why are you talking like that?" Greg asks.

"Hey!" I say. "What's wrong with how he talks?"

He's having fun! That's awesome! I was worried he wasn't enjoying it because he's not looked happy as we played.

"Yeah," Connor says. "Xander talks fine!"

"He talked weird!" Greg states. "It's weird!"

"You're weird!" Sam says. "Xander's fine!"

"Hey, Xander," Isaac says before anyone else can say something. "Greg's on our school's bowling team."

"You are?" Xander asks Greg, though he still looks upset by the jerk's comments. "What's your average?"

Oooh! I know what Isaac's doing! We've learned over the last few weeks that Xander can't help but be honest about his curiosity and confusion when he's more relaxed, even if he's uncomfortable. It can be a little bit annoying, but Isaac's probably trying to show Xander that the other kid's all talk.

"I score a 137 on average," Greg boasts. "I'm one of the best in our age group!"

"Really?" Xander gives us a confused look. "Don't you guys score around 250-275 on average? That's what the TV says when you play. Are you not on the team?"

"Nah," I say. "We play for fun."

"Even though you do, like… um… loads better than the team's best in our age?"

"Yup!" Isaac says. "And you do even better than us, Mr. Always-Strikes! So don't listen to that idiot. You talk fine, he's just jealous of our mad skills."

"No way do any of you score over 200!" Greg says. "Even the best kids on the team can't do that!"

"But that's what the screen says at the end of their games," Xander says.

"Will you please talk normally?" Greg snaps.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Parker snaps at him. "Just because he talks different, that doesn't mean you can be rude to him! He's not even doing anything wrong, he's just having fun with his friends!"

Xander talks different? It looks like he's getting upset by this and I've never noticed something different about his speech.

"Hey, Xander!" I lightly poke him in the arm and he jumps. "Sorry. Wanna race to the trees? Last one there's a rotten egg!"

"But I don't want to be a rotten egg," Xander says.

"What a freak," Alan, Parker's other friend, says.

"It's a figure of speech," I tell Xander. "It's just for fun!"

"Oh," Xander thinks. "Can I be a cheesecake when I come in last?"

That prompts more comments from Parker's friends, who are arguing with him while I semi-distract Xander.

"Well, it's supposed to be something bad," I say. "That you don't want to be."

"Oh," he thinks again. "What about an unripe banana?"

"Okay!" I say. "Last one there's an unripe banana! Readysetgo!"

I take off running and Xander quickly starts running, too. Connor, Sam, and Isaac are just a little bit behind us, and Xander actually manages to pull ahead of me. Stopping when he reaches the trees… proves a little difficult and he ends up tripping and falling.

"Xander!" I put on the most speed I can to reach him more quickly, then help him up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he answers. "I think I tripped on my feet. I… forgot to slow down before stopping."

His face is bright red. Aw. Now he's super embarrassed and… wait, that bit of red isn't from his face being flushed.

"You cut your cheek," I say. "Let's go to the restroom and get that washed."

"Your hands, too," Sam says, he and the others having reached us. "You scraped them up."

Xander looks down at his hands.

"Oh."

"We've got first-aid kits in our bags," Connor says. "Dad makes us just in case. We can put on some antibiotic ointment and sprays."

"I've got that in my backpack," Xander examines his hands. "I… think I'm fine, though."

We still go to the restrooms with him when he cleans off his hands and his cheek… and there aren't any scrapes? Xander seems only mildly surprised by that.

"But where'd the blood come from?" Isaac asks.

"I healed up."

"That fast?" Isaac asks.

"Yeah," Xander answers. "Um… I guess I'm not the unripe banana?"

Man does he have his priorities straight!

"Nope!" Sam grins. "I am, since I came in last! Let's go back to our stuff!"

When we reach the table with our things, Parker's sitting there without his friends, looking rather aggravated.

"S-sorry," Xander apologizes to him.

"What?" Parker asks. "I'm not mad at you, Xander. They were being jerks for no reason. And now we aren't friends anymore."

"S-sorry!"

"Not. Your. Fault," Parker huffs. "I'm tired of being put between my friends. First Luke, now you. I'd rather hang out with cool people than deal with that. Do you guys mind if I join you for a bit? I dunno what you're playing, but it sounds fun."

He finally made the right choice! Those boys are massive jerks and not people good guys like Parker and us should hang out with.

"How does it sound fun if you don't know what it is?" Xander asks, causing the rest of us to giggle. "What? And do I really talk weird?"

"No," I answer. "They were just being mean."

"I mean… yeah, a little," Parker says. "But don't worry about it. Different people talk in different ways and you can still be understood just fine. They were just being jerks for no reason. So. Cool with me joining you guys?"

"We are," I tell Xander when he looks at us. "So if you don't mind, then yeah! We could even group into teams for something!"

"S-sure," Xander nods. "Okay. Um. What next? I don't… really understand the rules for this."

Rules for what?

"We can throw the disc around some more," Connor says. "Or play with the hacky sacks again. Or play beanbags, hide-and-seek, tag, kick a soccer ball, shoot some hoops, throw a football… lots of choices!"

"Shooting hoops is basketball, right?" Xander whispers.

"Yeah!" Connor nods.

"Um… basketball and soccer and football are all bumping things, right?"

"Bumping things?" I ask.

"Yeah," Xander nods.

"What's that-"

"Oh!" Sam exclaims. "You mean where we bump into each other? Not really deliberately most of the time, but yeah! It can happen."

"I… might need to rest a bit," Xander says. "I'm tired. If you guys want to play those, I can watch."

Why would he-ooooh. Right. Us running close to him while playing one of those might freak him out, and he's offering to rest a bit so that we can do that without worrying about him if we want to play one of those. He does look a little bit tired, too.

"It doesn't have to be one of those," Isaac tells him. "It's whatever we all want to play! We're hanging out together!"

"I do need to rest a little," Xander tells him. "So it's okay. You can play something I don't want to and not worry about that."

Taking a few minutes to rest right now isn't a bad idea. We have been running around for awhile already.

"We've got cards!" Sam gets into Isaac's backpack and pulls out a deck. "We could play a game with them!"

"I don't know very many games," Xander says. "Mostly Go Fish."

"Then let's do Go Fish!" Connor sits at the table, and we all do the same.

Sam pulls the cards out of the box, then shuffles and deals five to each of us, including Parker. It only takes a few games for us to realize that Xander is damn good at this. Is he counting cards? I don't really know how that works so I'm not sure if that's what he might be doing. But he's got something helping him out.

"Man, you're good!" Isaac tells him after our fifth game. "What's your secret?"

"Um… I was mostly guessing," Xander says.

"Wait, hold on," Parker says. "You were whupping our butts at Go Fish by guessing?"

"S-sorry!"

"Dude!" I say. "That's freaking awesome! I wish I could get that lucky with guesses!"

"You wanna keep playing?" Connor asks. "Or wanna switch to something else?"

"Um… what do you guys wanna do?"

"You wanna try football?" Sam asks. "We don't do tackle football. We're probably not even playing it right. But we play flag football and divide into teams, and you toss the ball around. We all wear belts with strips called 'flags' on them, and the goal is to get the ball by pulling a flag from a belt on the person with the ball, but only if they're on the other team."

"Yeah," Isaac says. "Don't pull a belt from the same team."

"And if you fumble the ball, it's cool," I say. "Just grab it and keep running. Sometimes we play with goal spots marked out, sometimes we just keep throwing the ball and running around until we're ready to change games. But we don't usually play for points."

Xander's breathing increases a little as he thinks and that's when I remember that he probably doesn't feel comfortable with this sort of thing. Someone running up to him might freak him out. Before I can figure out what to say, Xander speaks.

"No tackling?"

"No tackling!" Parker says. "Just running around, but the opposing teammates might get close to you if you have the ball."

Xander shifts a little in his seat, then nods.

"I-I can try," he says. "But I don't promise to be good. And I don't know how to properly throw a football. Um. Can I learn?"

"Sure!" Connor answers.

We teach Xander how to throw the football, with us passing it back and forth with each other a few minutes as he gets the hang of it. He's got some pretty good hand-eye coordination, his main problem is actually getting to the ball when trying to catch it and his aim when throwing it. The game wouldn't be as fun if we don't have to chase after it, though.

"Hey, guys!" Some friendly voices call out, and we look over to see a couple of our classmates walking over. "Can we join you?"

It's Ethan and Macy, a footballer from our middle school and one of the girls from the volleyball team.

"Sure!" I say, then look at Xander. "You cool with them joining us? They're pretty cool people."

"Um… if you guys are, then I guess that's okay?"

"He someone's cousin?" Macy asks.

"Probably," I shrug. "This is Xander. He goes bowling at the same place we do so we've been seeing him for awhile. We started hanging out a few weeks ago. He's a cool dude and only bowls strikes! But he's not good at sports. He's practicing throwing and catching the football right now, then we're gonna play flag football. He's gonna be going to school with us; was living in Hidden River until the start of June, but's in Dragon Falls now."

"Oh, cool," she says. "Nice to meet you, Xander! I'm Macy! I prefer volleyball, but don't mind football!"

"Ethan," Ethan introduces himself. "I play football for the school. Nice to meet you."

"Um… hello," Xander says.

"We're passing the ball to Xander," Connor tells them. "Then he's passing it to one of us. That's why we're in a semicircle like this."

"Cool," Ethan and Macy take up spots, then we resume passing the ball back and forth.

Ethan gives Xander a few tips on catching and throwing as we do this, then once Xander's ready, we divide up into teams. Since three of us are already shirtless, Ethan strips off his shirt and we play shirts-versus-skins, with the shirts having green flags and the skins have blue. Sam brings a set of ten flag belts with the football, so that we can play in teams of up to five.

Xander panics a few times when people go for his flags, but soon stops as he really gets into this.

"To me! To me!" I call to Ethan, who throws the ball over to me.

I run around Macy and go to throw the ball to Connor, only to feel a tug at my belt as a flag is pulled off.

"Ah!" A surprised exclamation sounds out from behind me as I turn to find Xander there. "I… got a flag?"

Parker cracks up laughing as I try to figure out when Xander got behind me. He was by Isaac a moment ago, wasn't he?

"How did you get over here so fast?" I ask.

"I ran?" Xander looks confused. "Was I… not supposed to?"

"He started running over as soon as Ethan threw the ball," Isaac laughs. "I tried to block him off but he's fast."

"Oh," I say. "Here, Xander! Your turn with the ball!"

I give Xander the ball and he returns the flag to me so that I can stick it back onto my belt. We all go to our starting positions, then resume playing. Xander still seems a bit uncertain, but I see him manage his speed demon act a few more times. He falls when he tries to maneuver away from someone and takes a few moments to get back up, but doesn't look like he's bothered by it. I'm so glad he's having fun, it's more fun when we're all enjoying the game.

A couple of other boys join us for the game, though Xander only manages to last about five more minutes after that before he needs to take a break. Parker decides to take one at the same time, so we resume play after adjusting the teams again.

"And you're a hellhound's snack!" I stick my tongue out at Sam after intercepting a throw to Macy. "Whoa!"

Pete, one of the boys who joined us late, nearly grabbed one of my flags. I evade him and toss the ball to Ethan, who catches it in a jump-and-roll to show off.

Once those of us who've been playing here for awhile need a break, we end the game and rehydrate. Xander's munching on a strawberry cookie when we rejoin him at the table, though he's also got a container with cantaloupe slices in front of him.

"Isaac," Xander closes the container and returns it to his backpack. "Can I please play with one of your hacky sacks again? Is that okay? I want to try getting better at it."

"Sure," Isaac answers. "Want to play in a group again?"

"Um… that was fun," Xander says, then his cheeks flush red. "Yeah. I mean yeah, I do. If you're okay with that. Can we?"

"Sure!" Isaac answers. "Mind if we take a few minutes to catch our breaths first?"

"No."

"If you want to practice a bit while waiting, you can," Isaac takes a seat.

Xander gets up and plays with the same hacky sack he played with while practicing earlier, then we join him after a few minutes. Parker joins us for the game, as do a couple of girls I don't know but who seem friendly enough that we don't mind the addition.

"I'm hungry!" I say after we finish playing, then check my phone. "Oh! It's lunchtime!"

"We're gonna go get something to eat," Isaac says as he grabs his shirt to pull back on. "You guys wanna join us?"

"My mom's gonna pick me up soon," Parker says. "They haven't been home for meals much recently so we're doing a family lunch."

"Have fun!" I tell him, then look at Xander. "What about you?"

"Um… where are you going?" Xander asks. "To eat, I mean."

"Haven't decided yet!" Sam answers. "Do you wanna join us? What are you in the mood for?"

"Burgers."

"I want chicken strips," Connor says.

"Burgers," Sam says.

"Hot dogs," Isaac says.

"Grilled cheese," I say.

A variety of options, which leads to us discussing different diners and restaurants we could go to. Xander doesn't know vary many so it's the rest of us making suggestions. It takes us a few minutes, but we settle on a burger place that also does grilled cheese, melts, and other sandwiches. No chicken strips or hot dogs, but it's a compromise.

Once that's decided and everyone has their shirts on and things gathered up, we walk our bikes to the diner and lock them to its bike stand, then head inside and sit at a table. Sam and Isaac sit on one side of the booth while Connor, Xander, and I sit on the other, with me in the middle and Xander at the aisle.

"This was fun," I tell Xander after we all finish lunch and leave the diner. "We're gonna head to Connor's to play some video games. Want to join us?"

"Um… I want a nap," Xander says. "Sorry. Mr. Trey's on his way to pick me up."

"It's cool," I say. "You going to join us for laser tag today?"

"No," Xander shakes his head. "Sorry. I…" he takes a deep breath. "I don't think I could do something like that with so many people and stuff and noise and stuff."

"No worries!" I tell him. "Another time, then!"

"Oh!" Connor says. "Don't forget that we're having a barbecue at my place on Tuesday! It'll start at, like, ten or ten-thirty or something, and after, we're all gonna go to the fair. You wanna join us?"

"Don't have to be at both to go to one," Sam adds. "So if you want to do the barbecue but not the fair, that's fine. If you want to do the fair but not the barbecue, that is, too."

"Um… I'm not sure if Mr. Trey has plans," Xander says.

"Let us know, okay?" I say, and he nods. "Oh! That's Mr. Caldwell's car, right?"

Xander looks over, then back to us and nods just as Mr. Caldwell pulls up next to us.

"Bye," Xander says.

We all wish him a good day, then he gets into the car and we pull on our helmets and get on our bikes to head to Connor's. It's a shame he won't play laser tag with us, but I guess that's why he wanted to hang out with us this morning. I'm really happy he did, too! It means he really wants to be our friend and hang out with us!

"Race you to my house!" Connor exclaims as we go down the street. "Last one there's a rotten egg!"