[Xander – 12 years]

I'm still not sure about the eating thing, but Mr. Trey was very clear that I should make as much as I think I'll eat. He seemed to be upset that I was trying to say that it costs a lot of money to do that, though.

I understand this even less than I understand socializing. How does me eating as much as my body wants me to make it okay for him to not spend as much money on charity? He tried explaining it to me again, but I don't really understand the whole "money that I spend on charity is just extra money" thing.

Since I do feel pretty hungry, I make up a lot of snacks, and I make sure to ask Mr. Trey what he wants, too. He mostly wants popcorn and pretzels with cheese, so I make sure to do extras of those. Once we both have our initial snacks, I sit down in the usual spot for this, with Trenton to my right and Mr. Trey to his right.

"Do you know what you want to watch?" Mr. Trey asks.

"Yeah," I nod as I grab the tablet from the pouch on the back of the seat in front of this one. I'm not sure why the mesh pouch was put there, but it holds the tablet pretty fine. "A documentary on elementals. Um. Is that okay?"

"I'm fine with watching it if you are," Mr. Trey says. "Is this because of Tuesday?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I don't really understand the elemental… so maybe this can help me?"

"I'm curious about them, too," Mr. Trey says. "Go ahead."

I pull up the app I use to watch the documentaries on, then navigate to the one I'm looking for. There are so many types of elementals that this one is only for the basic four: fire, water, earth, and air.

As the documentary plays, I learn that people as a whole really don't understand elementals. Ones of the same type usually have some traits in common apart from being living masses of an element, but they also often have massive differences.

A common trait of fire elementals is that they like to live in places that are naturally hot, like volcanoes. That one made sense to me even before my brain got fixed. But something that surprises me is that most fire elementals like sweets. It's not just the one that comes here once a year to get caramels now.

Does that mean they learned about caramels from another fire elemental?

"Waitwaitwait!" I say after a shared trait between water elementals is said. "Pause! Pause! There! Paused!"

"What is it?" Mr. Trey asks. "Bathroom?"

"No," I look at him. "They just said that water elementals often blast each other in the face in greeting. But I'm not a water elemental? And it's apparently normal for a water elemental to start drowning someone, but not finish, when they don't want them nearby. Which means… they weren't telling me to go away? Just trying to greet me? But I'm not a water elemental, why would they blast me in the face?"

"Back it up a moment," Mr. Trey says. "In addition to meeting a fire elemental once a year… you've interacted with a water elemental?"

"Well… they blast me in the face when I get near," I tell him. "I just thought they were telling me 'no' when I was trying to explore some caves. So I stopped trying 'cause I didn't want to make them mad. I guess they were just greeting me the way they would probably greet other water elementals? But why?"

Even I wouldn't mistake someone for being a water elemental, and I'm stupid. A water elemental definitely wouldn't make that mistake.

"Where at?" Mr. Trey asks. "I don't recall any caves being in the area."

"In the woods," I tell him. "A little bit southeast, I think? There's a stream that flows off a cliff and into a small lake. Maybe a big pond? It's not really a big cliff, and it's more like a group of steps the water flows down. It's really pretty. But then there's a bigger cliff, and there's a cave in it. There are also some big rocks by the pond. Like, some are as big as me. And some are bigger. Some are smaller, too. They're not all big."

Now I'm really nervous.

"Um…"

"Yes?"

"Would it be okay if I went to the pond and apologized?" I ask. "I really didn't know they were trying to greet me! And I don't want them to think I was being mean!"

Mr. Trey is quiet for a few moments, and that makes me even more nervous.

"Okay," he says. "I take it you're wanting to go now?"

That's probably bad, isn't it? The sooner I apologize, the sooner we can probably avoid the elemental getting angrier at me for not greeting them back. It's been awhile since I was there, so it's probably been getting madder and madder, hasn't it?

"I mean… we can finish the documentary first?"

"That's not what I asked."

Oh, no. I'm getting into trouble! His tone is scary!

"Yes."

"Go get ready to go," he tells me. "And if you want to, grab your swim trunks and a towel, too. They may be okay with you swimming so if you want to, you can."

"It's really okay?"

"It is," he says. "Elementals are strange beings, and if I'm being honest here, I would like to meet one. We can finish the documentary later."

"Okay," I say, then hurry and finish eating the snacks I currently have before taking Trenton up to the bedroom. "I'm going to leave you here, okay? You don't like getting wet and I'll probably get blasted in the face if they're not too mad at me. Or they might soak me because they're unhappy. Okay?"

Trenton seems okay with that, so I get ready to go and meet Mr. Trey down in the kitchen, where he's on the phone with someone. There are snack containers set out on the counter, sort of like the ones he had me take earlier.

"-barbecue on Tuesday," Mr. Trey is saying when I get close enough to hear. "Hey, it looks like Xander's ready to go, so I'm going to let you go now. Thanks for the help. You, too. Bye."

That must have been about his own plans for Interception Day, and whatever they are probably affects me.

"Here's some snacks for you," Mr. Trey tells me. "Since it's going to involve a bit of walking, you'll probably need refueling a bit. I included some trail mix in there as well, for an easier snack while walking."

"Trail mix?" I look for which container has that.

"No chocolate," he tells me. "It's not pre-mixed. I mixed it myself and it has raisins, nuts, dried banana slices, dried apricot pieces, and butterscotch chips."

"Oh," I say. "Thank you."

"Go ahead and put them in your bag."

As I do that, Mr. Trey frowns, which worries me a little.

"S-sir?"

"I just realized something," he says. "But while backpacks do often hold more than they look like they should… Xander, is there magic in your backpack? The amount of stuff you had in it yesterday was more than I expected, and you've got a whole towel in there now and it didn't look like it when the bag was closed."

"Oh," I say. "Um… yeah? Enchanting isn't being a mage, right? It's just being an enchanter. So Greyson's taught me some stuff. He tried teaching me how to expand space like he did for his backpack. Only, I'm not so good at it so it's not too much bigger. And I didn't get the other enchantments right, so I can't just reach in and grab whatever I want without looking, I have to use it like a normal backpack for that. And it doesn't eliminate or lessen the weight, either. But maybe now that my brain's all fixed up, I could learn to do it better? My backpack's starting to wear out, too. There are little holes in the bottom, at the corners. So I could probably buy a new one and try enchanting it better. If… if that's okay? I can buy it with my allowance. I've got money saved up."

"You… can make an enchantment like that?"

I don't understand his expression.

"It's just a simple one," I say. "And not very well done."

"Simple?"

"Yeah," I nod. "It's only a slight expansion of the space. Greyson's backpack can hold, like, five griffins in it. And he won't feel the weight, and he can just pull out whatever he wants after reaching in, regardless of where in the backpack it is. And it's not like my puzzle spheres, either."

"Your puzzle spheres?"

I look through my backpack until I find one of the two in it, then pull it out.

"This," I show it to him. "It's probably the only complex set of enchantments I've done, and I'm not even sure I did it right. Like… I tried basing the formula for how it changes based on the positions of some celestial bodies like the moon, the sun, a few planets, and a couple of comets, but also on the positioning, shapes, rotations, and stuff of each piece, and on the number of dragons within nine hundred miles. But that's really complicated and as we both know, I'm not very smart. I… I don't think I managed to make it work based on the pieces. And how would it even detect dragons? Those are apparently mythical. And then there's the positions of celestial bodies… how would it detect stuff so far away? But I guess I at least managed to make a puzzle. Greyson's managed to solve it a couple of times."

"That's… impressive."

"Yeah," I nod. "Like… how could you solve a puzzle made by a dumbass like me? It's apparently so badly done that it takes him a long time to figure it out, too. I'm not sure what the actual puzzle animal rhythm is-"

"Algorithm?"

"Maybe," I say. "I'm not sure what the actual one is, but it's apparently so bad that it takes a supergenius months to figure out. But at least he likes it enough that he changed their batteries? I'm not sure what I did for a power source when I made them, but it shouldn't have lasted this long. So he had to have changed the batteries in all of them at some point, probably to something more efficient."

"Xander?"

"Yes, Mr. Trey?"

"If it takes a supergenius months to figure out," he says. "Then it's probably that it's complicated."

"Or broken," I stick the puzzle sphere back into my backpack. "Greyson can be stubborn like that."

I finish putting the snacks into my backpack, then Mr. Trey and I leave the house.

"Mr. Trey?" I say as we get in the truck, which he's picked for some reason.

"Yes, Xander?"

"S.G. and his friends are asking if they can meet us there," I tell him. "I told them what I learned and that I was gonna go apologize, and they said they wanted to meet an elemental… that seems like a bad idea, but at the same time, I feel like it's okay? It's… like my gut is saying 'they can come'. And that's even though they were going to go laser tag. I told them that they wouldn't have time for laser tag but they said it's okay and they can go another day."

They're really willing to not go do what they were wanting to do just to visit an elemental?

"I can't imagine no one's ever gone swimming in the pond before," Mr. Trey tells me. "So I don't think the elemental is malicious. They probably don't normally show themselves to people, so it's probably okay for your friends to join us. That may make them shy if there's something different about you that makes them want to greet you, so they may also not show up."

"Does that mean I can tell them it's okay?"

"Yes," he answers. "Though one of their dads will probably want to come with us, for safety reasons."

"Safety reasons?"

"In case someone gets hurt on the walk," he tells me. "Better to have two adults than one."

"Oh," that makes sense.

It takes me a few moments, but I figure out how to let S.G. and them know where to meet up, and Mr. Trey has me give him the directions. As Mr. Trey drives, Isaac says that his dad's going to take them.

Since I only really remember the path from the boys' home, I can't really tell Mr. Trey where to turn until we're getting close to it. That doesn't seem to bother him, though, which makes me a little bit happy. It means I'm probably not getting into trouble.

Rather than stopping where I usually leave the road to start walking, Mr. Trey finds a business to stop at, after checking that it's okay to leave the car there for a bit. He tells them that we're going hiking in the woods and… I don't pay attention to the rest because S.G. and his friends show up then, getting out of Mr. Michaels's truck.

"Hi, Xander!" S.G. waves as he approaches; they've all got their backpacks again, and even Mr. Michaels has one. "It's out this way? You used to walk here?"

"Yeah," I nod. "Um… it was usually when I could do things all day and not be in trouble. So I'd leave after breakfast and then get home a little bit after dinner, usually."

Reaching just this far takes a lot of time when walking, but since we all rode in vehicles, it was a lot faster.

"If everyone is ready," Mr. Trey says after talking with Mr. Michaels for a few minutes. "Then let's head out."

It takes us almost an hour and a half of walking to reach where the water elemental lives, but no one seems bothered by that. S.G. and his friends even take a lot of pictures as we walk. They all have little bags of trail mix, too, though theirs has chocolate in it so I'm glad they don't offer me some. I don't want to offer mine because it's meant for me and I don't know how long it will last.

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"Oh!" Sam exclaims as we near the pond. "I can hear the water!"

"Yeah," I nod. "We're getting close. It's… this way. We went off the path a little."

"There's a path?" Isaac asks.

"In my mind."

"Ah."

Not long after that, we can see the bigger rocks and the waterfall. Just as the other boys start to shout something, a huge blob of water shoots up out of the pond (which is still out of view) and blasts a huge shot of water at me.

Even though I was prepared for it, I still yelp a little. The other boys shout and duck behind trees as the water slams into me, making me stumble back a little. A pair of hands firmly grabs me from behind, keeping me from falling. At least he grabbed my sides and not my shoulders, but that's still scary, too.

"I don't think they're mad," Mr. Trey says as he quickly lets go.

Now I'm soaked, but I expected that. Mr. Trey startled me a little, though, and I have to take a few moments to calm down the panic.

"Hi!" I wave to the water elemental as I approach after calming down the panics, and the blob of water does a sort of jiggle as the other boys peek out from behind the trees. "I'm sorry for not greeting you back before! I thought you were telling me to go away!"

"I would surround your head with water for thirty seconds if that were my intention," their voice enters my head.

"Whoooaaa," the other boys say in unison and start walking up with me.

"I only just learned that that's how water elementals tell people to go away," I tell the elemental. "I didn't know that blasting with water is a greeting between water elementals. But… I'm not a water elemental, so I'm not sure why you do that to me. Is… is it okay to ask?"

"It is an acknowledgment."

I'm not sure what that means, and I'm not sure if it's okay to ask.

"Acknowledgment?" S.G. asks. "Of what?"

"Of him," the elemental answers.

"What does that mean?" Sam asks.

"That I am acknowledging him."

"That is what that means," I whisper to Sam, and the other boys snicker.

"I can't imagine some random teens haven't found this pond before," Mr. Trey says. "But I don't remember hearing about a water elemental here."

"Nor have I," Mr. Michaels says.

"Others come, from time to time," the elemental says. "I do not mind so long as they clean up after themselves."

"Does that mean we can swim here?" Isaac asks.

"It does."

"What are you acknowledging about Xander?" Sam asks.

Rather than answering, the water elemental shoots out six more blasts of water, striking each of the others in the face. Then, it turns itself into a star shape before dropping back down into the water.

If I had to guess, the water elemental is acknowledging my apparent skill with magic, since I apparently have been keeping myself alive through it. With my soul apparently stapled to my body.

Or it's acknowledging me as being really strong, even though my mana's mostly tied up in keeping me alive. Or was tied up in doing that, and is now just tied up to continue supporting those spells for awhile.

"Let's go swimming!" S.G. exclaims, then pauses and looks at Mr. Trey and Mr. Michaels, cheeks turning a little bit red. "Uh… we didn't put on swim trunks before coming out 'cause we weren't sure if the elemental would let us swim and hiking in them for awhile gets a bit uncomfortable.. They're in our backpacks. We, uh… didn't expect any dads to come all the way out with us."

They didn't expect any dads to come out, and there's one dad and a foster dad. That's a big difference.

"Paul mentioned that you boys sometimes go swimming in ponds and lakes around and outside of town," Mr. Trey says. "Though I'd imagine that it's usually at one closer than here."

"Yeah," S.G. nods.

"You talked to Dad about us going swimming?" Connor asks.

"While Xander was getting ready," oh, so that was Mr. Thompson he was on the phone with?

Why were they talking about barbecues? Stupid Xander, it's not your place to question.

"I was… asking him for advice," Mr. Trey says. "I wasn't too sure how to handle this, and he said that you boys often go swimming at ponds and lakes around and outside of town. But I can turn away for you to change."

"Since we're not too close to a business or home or something like that," Mr. Michaels says. "That's why there are two adults here. It's a bit too far for our comfort."

"Sort of like when we go hiking when camping," S.G. says. "Except when there's only one dad on the trip."

"Right," Mr. Michaels says.

"Xander?" Mr. Trey looks at me.

"Yes, Mr. Trey?"

"If you want, I can hold up a towel to block the view of you while you change. I'm assuming you didn't bring just a towel?"

"It's really uncomfortable," I tell him. "But I put on swim trunks before we left. They're under my pants."

The others were right about how uncomfortable it is, and I can't wait to get out of my pants so I'm in just the swim trunks.

"Oh," he seems surprised. I thought I was supposed to do that? "Okay, then. I'll be turning around now."

Mr. Trey and Mr. Michaels don't just turn away from the pond, but they walk a little bit away as well. The other boys all quickly change into their swim trunks, then run to the pond and jump in. That was so noisy… and they stay noisy.

After a few minutes, I strip down to my swim trunks, then approach the pond. They're taking turns jumping off of one of the bigger rocks and into the water.

My breathing starts to quicken as panic begins to fill my mind as I try to think about how to get into the water and join them.

"If you're worried about drowning," the water elemental's voice enters my head, and I get the feeling the other boys can't hear it. "Rest assured that I allow none to drown here."

"Really?" I whisper.

"I've never allowed anyone to drown here," he responds. "Removing water from lungs is a simple matter for me."

That makes sense. He's a water elemental, water is his domain.

"And you do that for anyone who would drown?"

"Yes."

"O-okay."

I'm still really nervous, but hearing from a water elemental that he won't let me drown is a lot more reassuring than hearing it from Luke or Coach Evan or Mr. Trey or Roderick or Mr. Quinn.

Should I try to jump in like the other boys? The way they're shouting and stuff is different from the way that I do… but maybe I can manage it? Especially if the water elemental isn't going to let me drown.

I slip a little as I try to climb the rocks, and I pick a smaller one than the one they're jumping off of. That one's too high for me. Far too high. Way too high. Can't do it.

Once I'm on the rock, I try to go to the edge but find my legs unwilling to let me. This is too much. It's a bad idea.

"Have you ever jumped like this?" Sam asks me. He's up on the other rock while the others are in the water. I shake my head. "Take a deep breath, close your eyes, pinch your nose, and… jump!"

He jumps straight off the rock and into the water, but he doesn't pinch his nose. He also doesn't take a deep breath until he's in the air.

Are those directions supposed to be for people who are new at this? Does it make it safer? Okay.

I take a deep breath, close my eyes, pinch my nose, and… jump! A small squeal comes out of me but not a scream. I make sure to not stop holding my breath, pinching my nose, or keeping my eyes closed. But then I end up staying underwater almost until I run out of air and as panic starts to set in, I push myself up and let go of my nose, taking big, deep breaths as I open my eyes.

Too much panic. But not too too much. It's not broken. But I'm in the water.

Whoa. Was that some sort of non-magic magic? I don't think it was actual magic.

"Please give me a little bit," I ask the other boys when they start to approach. "I need to… wait. To wait."

"So you can swim without floaties now?" Isaac asks. "I just remembered, but you were using floaties last time."

"I could swim without floaties," I tell him. "But not like a fish. I was told that that should be by the end of the summer. The floaties were so I don't drown."

"But if you could swim, why would you drown?" Isaac asks. "And we were all there, too! We would make sure you wouldn't!"

I wasn't looking in his eyes so I don't know if that's the truth or not, but I really need to wait more because my panic's still here.

"Drowning is scary."

"Drowning is-" Isaac starts to ask something.

"Are you scared of drowning?" Connor asks, and I nod. "Ooooh. No worries! We won't let you drown! And if you go, like, three feet that way, your feet can touch the ground and your head will be above the water!"

They can? I go three feet over and when I straighten my body, find that my feet really do touch the bottom of the pond, and the water only goes up to almost my shoulders there. That's a little bit better. It's a big depth difference, too, since my feet weren't touching the bottom to keep my chin above the water just three feet away.

S.G. and the others go back to playing and once I think my panic's calmed down enough, I try to join them. It's a little bit of tag, but they also wrestle with each other and try to dunk each other. A lot of the play involves coming up behind the other boys and touching their backs and shoulders (usually grabbing and sometimes trying to dunk each other), but I don't like that. I do try to not say anything, though, because I really want to play with them.

Then Sam forgets for a moment that I don't want to drown and starts to dunk me. He apologizes after, but I still get out of the water. My panic is back too much and I need a break.

"Xander?" Sam gets out of the water, too. "I really am sorry. I forgot."

"I know," I tell him. "I just need a break. I might be fine after that. You can keep playing. Don't explode."

"I-wait… 'don't explode'?"

"Yeah."

"Xander?"

"Yes, Sam?"

"Why would I explode?"

"Because… wait. You're not the dork."

Why did I say "don't explode" as if I'm hanging out with the dork? Greyson usually needs a reminder when he plays with certain things. Or in general. We went bug-catching in April and he still found a way to make explosions.

"I'm really not upset," I tell Sam. "I just need to let the panic calm down. Then I can try again. I know you didn't mean to."

Sam doesn't look happy to me, but he goes back into the water. I guess just me getting panicked upset him?

"Xander," Mr. Trey sits down next to me after I take a seat a little bit away from the water. He's been talking with Mr. Michaels while we played, though Mr. Michaels is staying where they were talking rather than coming over. "I'm very proud of you."

"What did I do?" I ask. "I didn't do anything good, did I?"

"You tried to brave one of your fears," he tells me. "And even admitted it to the other boys, which made it easier for them to try to not trigger it. I know you don't like being touched from behind, so you not freaking out when they did was also good. It was evident you were panicking, but you managed to calm yourself down. And when you realized you needed a break, you took one. You also didn't blow up on Sam for trying to dunk you, which was also good."

"But isn't that how it's supposed to be?"

"And what's normal for you?" Mr. Trey asks. "You usually freak out and panic. So the fact that you were able to not do so is a good thing."

"Oh."

"You're pretty comfortable with them, aren't you?" Mr. Trey asks.

"A little bit," I nod. "They've always seemed nice at the bowling alley… and they seem really nice now that we're talking and doing stuff together. And like… they try to be careful. And apologize when they get too much for me or do something that makes me panic, like Sam did."

Which is really weird. That's not normal, is it?

"They're good kids," Mr. Trey says. "The dad group is raising them well. They're a little rowdy, but they also try to respect others and their surroundings."

Should I ask what that word means?

"A group is rowdy if they're noisy and a little rough," Mr. Trey tells me.

"Oh," I think for a moment. "They're noisy and a little rough."

Like right now. They're dunking each other again while shouting.

Um…

"M-Mr. Trey?"

"Yes, Xander?"

"A-are you reading my mind?"

"No," he chuckles. "Whenever you don't know what a word means, your brow furrows and you look down, just a little. Like right now. Furrowed brows is… it's when your eyebrows go toward each other and down."

Mr. Trey demonstrates it… that's one of the looks he gets sometimes.

"That doesn't mean you're mad?" I ask.

"No," he chuckles again. "It can mean someone's mad with other expressions, but not always. It can also be something people do when they're trying to figure something out. When you're confused by something or trying to figure something out, you do it just a little bit, and you look downward. It's not easy to notice if you don't already know the sign, as your face doesn't change too much, but I've learned to notice."

"Oh."

There's quiet between us for a few moments, but the other boys are still really noisy.

"Do you want one of your snacks?" Mr. Trey asks.

"Um… but then the other boys would see," I tell him. "Do I share if they ask? Or should I go away a little?"

"The snacks are meant for you," Mr. Trey tells me. "You can share if you want, but they're for if you need or want something to eat. Paul promised he'd let the boys know not to ask, and Mr. Michaels assured me that he's made sure they know, too."

It's really all for me? I don't have to share? That's good. It means I've got food if Mr. Trey doesn't feed me. That's good. That's very good.

Why was he telling Mr. Thompson about the snacks, though?

I do want something to eat, so I move a little bit away from the pond so the other boys can't see me getting some food. I have to quickly stuff the containers back into my backpack, though, because the other boys get out of the pond and approach after I get a few bites in.

"Want to go check out the cave?" Connor asks.

"Yeah," I stand, then look at Mr. Trey. "Um…"

"Go ahead," Mr. Trey tells me after a brief look at Mr. Michaels. "But be careful, okay?"

"Okay," I nod.

"That goes for all of you," Mr. Trey says. "Don't do anything risky and be mindful of your surroundings. If something looks unsteady, don't try to knock it or anything."

"Yes, sir!" The others all salute to him.

"Come on, Xander!" S.G. says as they all start to walk off.

"Um…"

"Yes?" They look at me.

"It's that way," I point in a different direction from where they were going.

They giggle, then let me lead them to the caves. I brought a flashlight and they all brought some, too, but we forgot to bring them, so we return to the pond to retrieve them from our backpacks. Then we go to the caves.

The caves turn out to be a lot more boring than I expected, just a few small caves connected by a few tunnels. It's fun to explore, but kind of boring. S.G., Connor, Sam, and Isaac are having a lot more fun, though, and are even making their voices echo.

I cover my ears for that, but it's still pretty cool.

Once we're done exploring the caves, we return to the pond to swim in more. They don't try and dunk me this time, and it's mostly just things like them seeing who can hold their breath underwater the longest with me judging, or us playing a closed-eyed tag. I'm… not really happy with that last one, but I do my best to try it.

"Alright, boys," Mr. Trey says after a bit. "It's time to get heading back if you want to be out of the woods before dark."

I get out of the water as the others complain, but Mr. Trey and Mr. Michaels are firm on it being time to go so they all get out. We dry off and the adults turn around and walk off a bit so the other boys can get changed out of their swim trunks and into their clothes. Once he finishes, S.G. offers to hold up a towel to block me so I can do that if I want.

Once we're all dressed, we pull on our backpacks and I lead everyone back to the place where we met up at. By the time we reach there, the sun's starting to set, but hasn't quite set yet.

"I'm going to take the boys to get something to eat," Mr. Michaels tells Mr. Trey as we walk up to the trucks. "Do you two want to come with us?"

"Xander looks like he's ready to fall asleep," Mr. Trey tells him. "So unless he wants to go, we'll head home and get something to eat there."

"Xander!" S.G. exclaims, and I look at him. "Mr. Michaels is gonna take us all out for dinner! Wanna come with us?"

"Yes," I answer. "But I don't think I can handle that much more today. I just realized that I'm swaying a little. Sorry."

"No worries!" He says. "Have a good night!"

"Have a good night," I tell him and the others. "Bye."

Mr. Trey and I get into his truck, and he pulls out of the parking lot.

"You can sleep on the way home if you want," Mr. Trey says. "It's been a pretty busy day for you."

"Okay," I open up my backpack first.

It's better to get a snack before sleep because I'm hungry again and I don't know how long it'll be until dinner.

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

[Sig – 13 years]

"I feel really bad," Sam says on the ride to the restaurant.

"How come?" Isaac asks before I can.

"'Cause I freaked Xander out," Sam answers. "He kept flinching anytime I came near him after, too."

Oh. He's upset about that. Yeah, I guess I can understand it. Xander was avoiding being too close to him after, probably worried about getting dunked again.

"Keep in mind that Xander's a little different from you boys," Mr. Michaels says. "The way his mind works isn't the same, and on top of that, there's past experiences that affect him. He did tell you that he was okay, though, and he was trying. Yes, you did startle him, but he knows it wasn't on purpose. It's just going to take him time to be comfortable with you again. Don't try to force it, though. Just keep being the way you've always been and I'm sure Xander won't try to avoid being too close in no time."

"But being me is what made him uncomfortable!" Sam cries out.

"He got back in the pond again, didn't he?" Mr. Michaels asks. "And he still splashed at you some. He's likely just a little bit wary of you trying to dunk him again. All he probably needs is just a couple of swim sessions where you don't, and he'll be okay. He was still fine with hanging out, wasn't he?"

"I guess," Sam's quiet.

I know that I'd be upset with myself if I were the one who did that, too, and would need cheering up. There's not much I can think of to do in the car to help, though, which makes me feel bad, and Connor's looking kind of unhappy, too. Isaac, too, though he's in the front seat.

"Do you boys want burgers and shakes for dinner?" Mr. Michaels comes to the rescue. "It's getting late, but I don't think having some extra sugar will be a problem."

"Can we go to the shake place?" Connor bounces in his seat. "That one we went to last month? I can't remember its name, but it had the big flower-on-a-cow logo!"

"Oh, yeah!" I exclaim. "That place is awesome! Please?"

"Does that sound good to everyone?" Mr. Michaels asks.

"Yeah!" Isaac answers.

"I guess," Sam still seems down.

"Alright," Mr. Michaels says. "We'll go there, and if you boys are hungry enough, you can get two milkshakes each."

"Yeah! Two milkshakes!" I exclaim.