[Sig – 13 years] → starts around the beginning of Chapter 40

"Morning, Aunt Rachel," I rub my right eye as I exit the hall. "Whatcha doin'?"

She's putting stuff out on the one of the kitchen counters, but I stayed up really late last night and am taking a bit to wake up. I'd normally probably know immediately what's going on, but I'm still too asleep.

"Making breakfast," she chuckles.

I look at the counter to see how obvious that should have been. A half-used package of bacon, an open carton of eggs with only four left, a half-used can of biscuits, and some dishes. Definitely should have been obvious.

"They oven's finished preheating," Aunt Rachel tells me as she pulls some bacon strips out of the package and lays them on the skillet that's already on the stove, the sweet sound of sizzling filling the air. "Why don't you get biscuits on the tray?"

"Alright," I say.

I pull apart the biscuit chunks and put them on the baking tray, then get them in the oven and turn on the timer. There are only five biscuits left, and we'll eat all of that. While everything cooks, I grab jam from the fridge and put it on the table, then grab dishes for us.

After breakfast, I help Aunt Rachel do the dishes, then she sends me to my room to get dressed and ready to go. I change into a better outfit than just a pair of black shorts, including pulling on a green sleeveless shirt to go with the grey shorts I change into. Once I'm dressed, have grabbed the stuff for my pockets, and slipped on shoes, I meet Aunt Rachel at the front door.

Aunt Rachel drives us to a furniture store, where we start looking at stuff.

"You're not gonna try to do matching furniture for all of the rooms, are you?" I ask. "The kind where all of the furniture has to match, not just the stuff in each room?"

"No," Aunt Rachel chuckles. "Let's look at the stuff for the living room first."

"What about this couch?" I take off.

"Walk, Sig!" Aunt Rachel calls, and I slow down, then plop onto the couch once I reach it.

"Oooh! It's comfy!"

It's a big, green couch with very deep seats and cushions. I can't sit all the way back and have my knees bent, if my feet are on the floor with my knees bent on the edges of the cushions, the back of the couch is still at least a foot away from my back. And that's with it having thick back cushions. There's a love seat to go with the sofa, and an armchair, too.

"I'm not sure about for the living room," Aunt Rachel says. "But we can keep it in mind for the basement."

"What basement?"

"There's a basement."

"THERE'S A BASEMENT?"

"Volume, Sig!" She laughs. "I had a feeling you didn't notice. There's even a door leading out to the back yard from it. Know how it's sloped at the front and the deck leads straight onto it to the side but with a drop?"

"Yeah."

"You must have missed that there's a space under the deck," she beckons for me to get up. "There's a sliding door leading into the basement, which has an extra bedroom and bathroom, in addition to the utilities room and a laundry room. The rest of the space doubles as an extra living room with added space."

"Ooooh," I jump to my feet. "Gonna make that the guest room, then? I guess you need to use one of the bedrooms for an office, too."

"Was thinking of making it a rec area for you," Aunt Rachel tells me. "A living room with a big TV for playing games or watching stuff on. And the bedroom and bathroom down there for you, as long as you promise that you'll still come up and hang out with me sometimes when you're there."

"Of course!" I say. "But why not give it to the foster kid? I bet he'd be happy to have that whole space! I'm fine with just a bedroom!"

"Don't worry about that, Sig," she ruffles my hair. "Let's just get furniture picked out, alright? And keep an eye out for a coffee table for both the living room and for the basement."

As we look at different piece of furniture for the different rooms, a man who's not in the employee uniform approaches us. He's wearing khakis and a light blue button-up with short sleeves that's tucked in, a belt fixed around his waist, and black-and-grey sneakers on his feet.

"Are you Rachel and S.G.?" The man asks.

"Yes," Aunt Rachel gives him a suspicious look.

"I'm Derrick," the man holds out a hand. "Paul's coworker."

"Oh!" Aunt Rachel takes his hand. "Nice to meet you, Derrick. Paul didn't say how long you'd be free to help us for outside of this morning. Can we expect you until lunch, at least?"

"I'm free all day," Derrick tells her. "So however long the truck is needed for, and I have a trailer as well. If you want it, I can help move things as well."

"In that case," she says. "Would you be willing to help tear out carpeting? I want to paint the basement today as well."

"Why paint the basement?" I ask.

"The walls are faded," she tells me. "The carpet's getting replaced as well, but that should wait until after the paint is done. We'll do that later in the week, once the paint's set. The furniture can get moved to another room while painting, and again when we're replacing the carpet."

"Oh, okay!"

"Let's finish picking out the furniture."

Aunt Rachel and I continue looking at the furniture, with Derrick giving his thoughts a little. Once everything's picked out, Aunt Rachel hands an employee the purchase tags she picked from the pouches at each one to an employee near the front.

"It looks like we have all of these in stock in our storage," she tells Aunt Rachel after scanning all of them. "Are you wanting to pick up now or later?"

"Now," Aunt Rachel answers.

"Okay," the employee says, then does a few more things on her computer, then Aunt Rachel pays and receives some papers. "If you head to the left of the building while facing it from the front, there's some loading bays toward the back. It will be a few minutes before they get everything moved out there, though."

"Can we pick it up in two trips?" Derrick asks. "So that they have more time to get it, or should we come back in a bit to pick everything up?"

"You can do two trips if you'd prefer," the employee answers. "They'll handle that back there."

We head outside and get into our cars, then drive to the loading bays. Aunt Rachel, Derrick, and I aren't allowed to do any of the loading once the furniture is ready, but the employees do take a look at the trailer and truck and grab pieces that they can get to fit into the truck. They're faster than we expected, and with some of the stuff being in boxes and needing assembly (the beds and coffee tables), we're able to get everything now.

"Do you have a key?" I ask as we're on our way to the house.

"Picked it up yesterday," Aunt Rachel answers. "And it's this street, I think."

Aunt Rachel turns onto a street, and the street to her new neighborhood is on the right a little bit down it. Once we arrive, I help her and Derrick bring everything inside.

"There's already power?" I ask as Derrick and I carry the couch into the living room.

"Utilities were turned on this morning," Aunt Rachel tells me as she follows behind us, not carrying anything. "So there's electric and water. Put that there."

Derrick and I get the living room filled up and the other upstairs stuff put away, then we carry the box of the bed pieces for my bedroom down to the basement. Aunt Rachel's already turned on the lights down here and opened the doors, and it looks so weird.

Not in a bad way. When one first goes down the stairs is a small room with another room off of it, which Aunt Rachel informs us is the utilities room. That small room it's off of is where the washer and dryer go, too, and there's a door leading off of it into the basement's main area. Derrick and I can't see it, though, since we came in through the sliding doors from outside.

Those are glass and dirty.

At the back of the room we entered in through are two doors, with the one on the left leading to the bedroom and the one on the right leading to the bathroom. Aunt Rachel's already opened the bedroom door, so we're able to bring the bed straight in.

"Paul mentioned," Derrick says to Aunt Rachel. "That the boys are spending the night here tomorrow and going to help with the back yard and stuff after?"

"Yeah," Aunt Rachel answers. "Either up in the living room or down here."

"The carpets look a little… dirty," Derrick tells her. "I know you mentioned replacing them all at some point, but it might not be a bad idea to get them cleaned before anyone sleeps on them. Unless the bed's getting assembled and they're all going to sleep on it?"

"That would be waaaaay too cramped!" I exclaim. "Two people on that, max! And there's gonna be four of us! Well, we could get all four of us on it, but it'd be too cramped."

Both of them laugh when I say that, and Aunt Rachel messes with my hair.

"Stooooooooop!" I pull away and start fixing my hair. "That's like, twenty times today!"

"Not even close," Aunt Rachel chuckles.

"My sister owns a carpet-cleaning business," Derrick tells Aunt Rachel. "Uses a magitech cleaner that mixes normal steam cleaning with something extra. Very effective, very fast. Won't fluff the carpets back up, but it'll make them pretty clean, and the cleaner dries it as well. If you want, I can give her a call and see if she's free. I doubt S.G. and his friends want to sleep on dirty carpets."

"Yeah, no, I definitely don't want to sleep on this," I say.

The carpet looks a little grimy.

"How much will that cost?" Aunt Rachel asks.

"Don't worry about the cost," Derrick tells her. "Consider it a housewarming gift."

"You don't know me," Aunt Rachel says. "And you're already letting us borrow your help for today."

I'm pretty sure he finds her attractive. While I'm not saying she should start dating him or whatever, she should totally take up the offer he's making.

"Aunt Rachel," I poke her in the side. "Just accept the free carpet cleaning."

"Alright," Aunt Rachel gives in. "I'll accept if she's willing."

Derrick pulls out his phone and calls someone, receiving an answer almost immediately.

"Hey, Trace," he says. "Are you free to do a cleaning right now? No, not mine. You remember Paul, right? One of his son's friend's aunts is moving into town and I'm helping her and her nephew move furniture in, and the carpets are… gross. She's planning on replacing the carpets, but it might be better to have them cleaned so they're good until then. No, I'll pay. Thanks!"

Derrick gives his sister the address, then lets us know that his sister will be here in about fifteen minutes. Since that's on its way, we hold off on bringing the basement rec room furniture down, but Derrick and I bring down the desk and chair for my bedroom, since those are in boxes and can be moved easily.

"They're here!" Aunt Rachel calls down the stairs while I'm telling Derrick how I think I want the rec space arranged, since Aunt Rachel told me I can have some extra stuff down here due to the size.

"They're?" Derrick looks at the stairs. "Come on, S.G."

We head upstairs to find a woman about the same age as Aunt Rachel and Derrick entering the house with a couple of machines that look like steam cleaners, along with a guy who looks about sixteen or seventeen. He's got brown hair and green eyes, just like Derrick and his sister do, and is dressed in sneakers, shorts, and a sleeveless.

"Thought you were working today, Hunter?" Derrick asks.

"I am," Hunter tells him. "Aunt Tracey wanted some help with a couple of houses this morning and I was off from work so I offered to help. We'd just gotten everything loaded back up from the last house when you called her."

"Oh," Derrick seems surprised by that. "Rachel, S.G., this is my son, Hunter, and that's my sister, Tracey."

We all greet each other and introduce ourselves, then Aunt Rachel suggests they start with the basement's two carpets. They vacuum first, then run their cleaner machines over the carpet. The entire process for the two rooms takes about an hour, and the carpet looks so different. It was a sort of ugly brown color before, but now it's just a time-darkened tan.

"Jeez, that was filthy," Hunter says as he dumps the very dirty water that collected in a basin in the machine down the drain. "You're moving in?"

"No," I answer. "Aunt Rachel is, I'm just helping out. And I get my own room – that's the one you just cleaned. The bathroom looks clean, but I think I'm gonna give it a good scrubbing later."

"Good idea," he chuckles as he starts rinsing out the basin in the tub. "You excited for your aunt's move?"

"Heck yeah!" I answer. "The basement's big room's gonna be a rec room for me and my friends to hang out in! And there's a pool out back! We have to clean it and get some parts replaced, but then we'll be able to use it!"

"That's cool," he says. "Dad's been talking about moving somewhere with a pool. We actually looked at this house – Dad put an offer in for it on Thursday but got outbid."

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"Seriously?" I ask.

"Yup," he grins. "He didn't want to spend more on it than what he'd offered because of its state, so he didn't put in a new bid. Small world to get asked to help someone move into it!"

"Very small world!" I agree.

He puts the basin back into the cleaner, then pulls out the other one and fills it up.

"Time to do the other rooms," he says.

While he does that, his dad and I move the basement furniture into the basement, then assemble the furniture for my bedroom. With both of us working, we manage to finish it in about an hour and hour and a half even though there are four things (bed, desk, dresser, and chair). There's no mattress for the bed, but we're picking those up later.

"Lunch is here," Aunt Rachel pokes her head into the room while Derrick and I are arranging the furniture. "Come on up!"

Derrick and I finish placing the bed's frame down where I think I'm going to keep it, then head up to the living room. The carpet in here looks lighter in color now as well, and much, much cleaner, too. Food's spread out on the coffee table, where Tracey and Hunter are sitting.

After we eat, Tracey leaves while Hunter stays to help us out some more. We all head to the store to buy paint. For my bedroom there, I go with a medium blue color, and a darker grey for the main part of the basement and a light grey for the trim.

"And it really does that?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "Since the walls aren't as bright, it'll help make the stuff you're watching on TV contrast better. But it was only a suggestion, S.G., so if you want something different, go ahead. It's not like it's my house."

"Oh, no, I get that!" I tell him. "I think it'll be cool! We can add color with the carpeting! And the furniture we got for the basement is green, too!"

"Just to make sure," Aunt Rachel says. "But are those the colors you want, Sig? I'm on a limited budget even with how much I'm spending on this, so we're not gonna repaint if you change your mind a month from now."

"I'm positive!" I tell her. "And if I want to change the color and you'll let me, then I can pay for it with money I earn from stuff like yards and dog-sitting and stuff!"

"Alright," she looks a little bit uncomfortable when I say that for some reason, but quickly hides it. "Let's take those to the desk. I've picked out the colors for the rest of the house. While they're mixing it, we'll pick out the appliances. I checked them while you were downstairs, and they're not exactly in good condition and I'm fairly certain the fridge is a fire hazard."

I want to know why she didn't seem to like me saying that I could pay for it if I wanted to change the color later, but it's probably going to be another time where she tells me not to worry about it. Or where she says she's fine with it and it was just something else that crossed her mind, or something.

"I'm thinking about getting a mini-fridge for the basement, too," Aunt Rachel says. "So you can keep some drinks down there."

"Ooh! That'd be cool!"

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

[Greyson – 10 years]

"Greyson?" Cal approaches. "What are you doing?"

"Making a shock ball."

"Before getting to that," he seems a little annoyed as he sits down. "Why are you in your swim trunks?"

I'm currently sitting in the grass in the back yard while wearing my favorite pair of tan swim trunks with golden stripes on the sides and white swirls weaving through them. It's a very nice day out today, so I'm working on the shock ball out here instead of inside. The parts and tools for it are spread out on a golden bath towel to keep them clean.

"Because I want to go swimming," I tell him. "But I'm not allowed to swim in the pool without supervision, Dad told me to stay home today and not go to the secret base, and Papa left to take Henry to his therapy appointment. So I'm imagining I'm swimming right now while I work on this and waiting for Papa to return."

"I hope you're not imagining swimming with that in the fantasy," he points at the shock ball.

"That would be stupid," I tell him. "It's not complete yet."

"Greyson…"

"It's designed to deactivate the shock while within three inches of a solid object."

"Water's a liquid."

The magitech formation I'm doing won't stop for liquids. I forgot to account for that.

"That is another reason it is not going into the water," I tell him. "I need to make sure the enchantment for turning off when near solids is stable before I add in another factor. While I don't have to account for things such as dust particles in the air, the liquid-detection formation will notice the water in the air and react to that."

Cal goes quiet and contemplative for a seconds. He seems to be more interested in my magitech now than he was before seeing my workshop, and it has me curious. Maybe his interest has been piqued now that he's seen what magitech can be like?

"It's not like you to stay here when you want to do something and are told to stay," he says.

"If I leave when I'm told to stay," I say. "Dad and Papa will make me put on that evil outfit. If I refuse, or if I don't return when they summon me, they'll contact Grandfather Adrian, and having my mana sealed as punishment will delay my work on the betterment of the future of humanity."

"Your mega computer?"

"Yes."

"What's so special about it?"

"It will change the world."

"More than that, Greyson," he says. "What's it going to do? Why do you need such a powerful computer?"

"It's not the strength of the computer itself," I tell him. "But what it's going to be used for. I've already gotten the preliminary stages finished, so I can technically run it. I'm still optimizing some of the enchantment matrices, and there's the issue of the power supply. Because of that, I can only do brief tests of the system, which is further delaying my ability to optimize things and see what adjustments need to be made. The computer will need to run for several days straight just for the first proper testing phase, and probably several weeks or even months for the final one."

"Are you intending on using it nonstop over a long period of time?"

"The expectation is that it will be used for that, yes," I answer. "I will also need to test its backup systems, fail safes, rollover functions, and so on. The goal is to design it so that it never needs to shut down, even while receiving major repairs, updates, or changes."

"Alright," Cal says. "And again, you didn't answer me about what the computer is for."

"To benefit the future of humanity."

Cal groans.

"You're keeping it a secret, aren't you?"

"There are companies with vastly more resources and brain-holders than me," I tell him. "I have just my one brain and body. If I leak even a small part of it, a bigger company with more resources may manage to make their own version of it before mine, which will diminish the public's view of mine and turn it into a copycat."

"Does Xander know?"

"I haven't told him because I know he'll tell me to stop."

"Greyson…"

"It's nothing evil, I promise!" I exclaim. "Xander just doesn't understand some stuff very well because of the evil god messing with his brain and I already know he'll misunderstand what the mega computer's purpose is for and tell me to stop! I've got to wait until I can demonstrate its safety and purpose to him before telling him!"

Cal groans again, then sighs and looks at the shock ball.

"Okay," he says. "Moving on. What did we tell you about making weapons?"

"It's not a weapon," I tell him. "I'm designing it very specifically to stop sparking once it's within three inches of something solid – that includes people. In theory. Let me finish this matrix and seal it back up, then I can test it."

"If it's not meant for use on people," he says. "Then it won't work on animals, right?"

"Humans are in the animalia kingdom.

"Other animals," he sighs. "Why are you making it?"

"To make a ball that goes all sparky while tossed around."

"And the reason?"

"To have a ball that goes all sparky when tossed around."

Cal stares at me.

"I think it'd be fun to toss around a ball that sparks," I say. "But I know that most people wouldn't be able to handle that, so I'm designing it to stop the sparks before contact so they don't get shocked."

Cal snorts.

"I don't have anything this evening," he says. "I'll supervise you while you swim. Let me get changed first."

While the rule is that we aren't allowed to swim without supervision, that only applies to us younger boys. Cal, on the other hand, is allowed to act as a supervisor for it, so it's within the rules.

Applying them to me for safety reasons is stupid. The pool is more likely to vanish before I'm at risk of getting hurt or drowning. Sadly, I must abide by the rule or I'll get punished, and I can't leave or I'll get punished. Refusing punishment means Grandfather Adrian steps in, and… I really wish Xander didn't ask me to acquire the power cores legitimately because of this.

But it'll make him happy and I don't want to upset the god.

I finish the part I was working on and seal the sphere while Cal heads inside, then I teleport the stuff for it back into my room while I wait for my brother to come back out. He doesn't go straight to his room but to Travis's first. Travis is feeling a little bit worse today than he was yesterday and so has been in bed basically all day.

Once Cal finally comes back out, he's wearing a pair of brown-and-green board shorts and is carrying a green bath towel, when he drapes onto one of the pool chairs. I move my towel there, but he tells me to hold on when I go to jump in.

"Help me get the toy bin," he beckons for me to follow him.

While I could just teleport the bin out here, I decide to follow Cal to the shed and lift one end of the pool toy bin while he lifts the other. We carry it over to near the pool, then Cal opens it up.

"Which do you want to play with?" He asks. "There's plenty in here."

"Um…"

There are little water balls, water guns, water torpedoes, pool balls, pool rings, and more stuffed into the box. Normally, I just like jumping in and splashing around, but I guess Cal wants to do something else. Fortunately, trying to figure out what I want to play isn't something I need to do.

"Leafy green boy is here."

"Stop calling him that."

"Cal2 is here."

"Greyson…"

"Kale is here."

"Why do I feel like you said that with a K instead of a C?"

"Because I did."

Cal sighs.

"Just because he goes by 'Cal', too," Cal says. "That doesn't mean you can play with his name."

His boyfriend's name is Caleb, but he's gone by Cal since he was little – long before he moved to the area and met Cal last winter. It can get confusing at times when people want only one of them.

"He likes it," I say. "Also, he probably didn't bring swim trunks, so either we can just swim naked, or he can borrow a pair of your shorts."

"I'll loan him a pair of my shorts," Cal says. "No swimming naked, Greyson! You're too young for that! What if some creep sees you?"

"I'd noticed them before they even arrive," I say. "He's parking now. And they'd find out what I do to people who touch little boys in inappropriate ways."

"Greyson," Cal's voice is stern, then he huffs. "Don't get in the pool until I'm back."

"Yes, sir!" I salute.

Cal shakes his head as he heads back inside, and I track him as he goes to the front door to let in his boyfriend, then they head to his room. After just a few minutes, they come out with Kale wearing a pair of Cal's board shorts, these ones the reverse of Cal's, with green being the primary color and brown being the secondary. Much like Cal, Kale is slim in build without much tone to his muscles.

They should build muscle so they can punch through walls. That would be pretty cool.

"Hello, Kale!" I wave to him.

"Hey, Grey Boy," Kale waves back. "Cal said you're staying home today?"

"Grey Boy?" Cal asks.

"It's what he calls me," I say. "Kale! You pick what we're playing in the pool! Oh. Travis is coming out."

"He is?" Cal asks. "And since when are you two friends?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I thought he was going to the bathroom, but he's passed it up. Maybe he's delirious?"

Travis comes out back, dressed in plain shorts and a faded white t-shirt. He's a little on the pale side and his holding his stomach a little.

"Cal," Travis comes over, sounding like he's either about to cry or about to puke. "My stomach's hurting really bad."

Travis gets sick a lot. His natural regeneration rate is close to a normal person's rather than a Lumarikang's, so it's easy for him to get sick. Actually, I think his immune system is a little bit worse.

"How bad?" Cal frowns as he reaches out to feel Travis's forehead. "Does it get worse when you touch a certain spot?"

"Do you wanna join us in the pool?" I ask.

"Greyson, not now," Cal says. "This is serious."

"I am, too," I nod. "If you were feeling fine, Travis, would you join us in the pool?"

"Maybe," Travis says. "But I feel really bad. Cal, can we go to the hospital."

"Hold on," I say.

"No, Greyson," Cal sighs, then looks at Kale. "Mind watching Greyson while I take Travis to the doctor and ask Dad to meet us there?"

While Cal asks Kale that, I lift up Travis's shirt and place my hand against his tummy.

"That tickles," Travis mumbles as I leak some of my mana into him. "What are you doing, Greyson?"

"Oh, you have appendicitis again," I say. "That explains why you're feeling bad."

"What?" Cal asks. "Okay, we need to go-"

"And now you don't."

All three of them stare at me.

"Now we have four people to play in the pool with!" I say. "Travis, go get changed! I wanna play the shark!"

Travis looks at Cal.

"The pain is gone…" he says. "I still feel a little queasy, though."

"That should fade in like, five minutes," I tell him. "Maybe ten."

"Hold on, everyone," Cal says. "You said again?"

"Yeah," I nod. "He had it last year. About this same time, too. It's why he wasn't feeling good right before Interception Day last year. But I cured him the morning of because he wouldn't be able to go to the fair if he was sick and not being able to go to the fair isn't fun."

"I am… so confused," Kale says as Travis lifts up his shirt and examines his stomach with a small frown probably wondering if there's something wrong with him for getting appendicitis twice. "I know you're always complaining about the Grey Boy doing his own thing with magic and magitech, but medical magic?"

"Yeah," Cal sighs as Travis pokes where his appendix is, probably only knowing it because of the pain. "We recently learned that Greyson studies medical books, and with how good he is with magic, it really shouldn't have surprised me that he can do proper medical magic. I thought it was just to heal himself…"

"My natural regenerative rate takes care of that," I tell him. "I'm incapable of getting sick and can heal from nearly anything short of a lethal wound. Now! Let's get in the pool! I wanna be the shark!"

I teleport to the deep end and jump in, pulling my knees up to my chest while I'm in the air. Once I'm in the water, I let myself sink down to the floor of the pool, then adjust so my feet are flat against the bottom. Ready, I push up, rocketing up to surface. Cal and Kale are still over by Travis, though they're looking in my direction.

"I do still feel a little bit sick," Travis tells Cal. "So I'm gonna go lie back down."

"Alright," Cal ruffles his hair. "Let us know if you need anything else."

He really will feel better shortly. The appendicitis was the source of him feeling sick and I cured him of it again.

After Travis heads back inside, Cal and Kale join me in the pool and we play some tag. It's pretty fun, but I want to be a shark, which isn't as fun with only three of us.

Fortunately, Travis only lies in bed for about four minutes before getting back up, and when he comes back out here, he's wearing his red board shorts! They have white on the bottoms of the legs and on the waist, and I like to think of them as Santa board shorts.

He walks around to the deep end of the pool, then takes a few hurried steps to jump in.

"Now that there are four of us, I wanna be a shark!" I say. "You all go to one end!"

"Alright," Cal snorts as Kale chuckles. "No using magic, Greyson! Let's keep it fair!"

They join Travis at the deep end, then all three of them try to swim past me. I manage to get Kale out but don't get to tag Cal and Travis as they pass. The shark has to stay in their own zone, so I can only try once they're in it up until they're out of it. Once he's out, Kale sits on the edge of the pool and watches as I try to get Cal and Travis out.

Without using magic, I can't just guarantee success, resulting in me not managing to tag either of them on their second pass. I get Travis on the third pass, though, so Cal gets to be a shark for the next game.

We keep playing for awhile, then split into two teams, with Cal and Travis on one and Kale and me on the other. All of our pool torpedoes are thrown into the pool, then we start racing to see which team can get the most. I want to use magic for this but that would be unfair and not very fun, so I just use my non-magical skills to try my best. A rule we put in place is that each person can only grab one at a time, and we have to set it on the pool patio, not throw it.

That gives an added challenge and slows things down a little, but it's really fun to try my best this way.

Since we have an odd number of torpedoes, there's not a possibility of a tie, either.

"Aw," Travis says once all of the torpedoes are out of the pool. "We lost by one!"

I must up my game.

"By the way, Cay," Cal says as I start blowing up a pool ball. "Greyson's going to a boarding school this coming school year."

He tells me not to call his boyfriend by other names when his boyfriend plays along with it, yet he has his own nickname for him.

"Really?" Kale looks at me.

"He is?" Travis asks.

"I guess you weren't feeling well enough to pay attention yesterday," Cal says. "Yeah. Our biological great-grandfather showed up yesterday. He has… created a deal with Greyson to add some oversight to what Greyson does but also make the way Greyson does his stuff more legal, as he's apparently been breaking the law a lot more than we knew. Including stealing bombs."

"It was the easiest way to acquire the explosive powder."

"How is it easier to acquire an explosive powder by stealing a bomb from a top-secret, high-security military installation?"

"The bomb was in a less-secure part of the facility than where they store the powder for making it was," I say. "In hindsight, that didn't really matter as the defenses on that room are still insufficient to stop my entry, so I could've just taken the canister. I shouldn't have based where I went on the security level for the storage."

Cal slams the heel of his left hand into his forehead.

"By the way," I say. "Papa's pulling into the driveway now. Henry's in a really bad mood."

He's always in a bad mood after his therapy appointments. Sadly, they aren't working on trying to fix his attitude. I hope he doesn't come out here. That would ruin everyone's mood for the fun we're having.

To my relief, he goes to his room, though the speed at which he moves seems to indicate he's stomping. Yeah, he's in trouble.

We all go back to playing, tossing the ball around, and Papa comes out after talking with Henry in his room for a minute.

"Hey, Cals," Papa says as he nears the pool. "Travis? You're feeling better?"

"Greyson cured me because he wanted to play shark."

"It's not very fun if there aren't at least four of us," I nod. "Plus, it was appendicitis again, and it's better to just cure that than let him be treated through conventional methods."

Papa doesn't seem to know how to react to that.

"I'm grilling brats for dinner," Papa tells us. "You staying, Cals, or going on a date?"

"Brats!" I pump my fists into the air. "Can I have four?"