Roar of Dragons

[Xander – 12 years] → begins around the same time as Chapter 35

"Xander?" Mr. Trey knocks on my door, his voice soft. "Are you awake?"

I get up and walk to the door to open it; Mr. Trey looks dressed as if he's ready to go somewhere. Take me back to the home for not being clear on why I say my brain doesn't need fixing anymore?

"Good morning," he says. "I was thinking we could go out for breakfast today. Before you try to worry over the cost, I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't okay. I've given Katie the day off, so we won't have be having something she's making. There's a pancake place I think you'll like. It's not as good as Katie's pancakes, but they're still good."

If he's really okay with spending the extra money…

"Okay," I tell him.

"Go ahead and get ready to go," he tells me. "Bring your backpack and if you want, Trenton."

That doesn't sound very good. He's definitely returning me to the home now.

"Okay."

He leaves and I get ready to go, then head downstairs. Mr. Trey's in the kitchen and beckons for me to come over.

"Here," he says. "Just in case we end up out for awhile, I packed some snacks for you. Some fruits, some veggies, and some cookies. Also some lemonade and some milk."

"S-sir?" What's this about?

"You tend to eat a lot," he says. "So I figured it might be best if we let you have some snacks to take with you, too. That way, if you get hungry while we're out doing stuff, you can grab a snack. You don't have to eat if you're not hungry, but it's there if you get hungry. Sort of like the food here in the house. This is just in case we do other stuff after breakfast instead of coming back here."

Does that mean that Mr. Trey wants to do other stuff, but is waiting until after breakfast to tell me? Or during breakfast?

This makes me even more nervous, but I put the snacks into my backpack, now understanding why he wanted me to grab it. Once they're all in the bag, Mr. Trey and I get in one of his cars, and he starts driving us to wherever it is we're going.

"Judging by that noise you made," he says as we near the shopping street that I was at yesterday. "Something caught your interest?"

"Oh," I say. "Um. Sorry. I didn't mean to make a noise."

"It's fine," Mr. Trey says. "Want to share?"

"Oh," I say. "Um… S.G. and Connor and Sam and Isaac were talking in the group chat. They're craving donuts and are gonna go to Heidi's Donut Shop. It's a bakery that makes donuts. They're all getting ready to go now, and then are gonna play at the park after."

It's not even seven yet but I guess they really want donuts.

"The one on the street you were on yesterday?" Mr. Trey asks.

Oh, right. Ms. Johnson told him about the street.

"Yeah."

"Do you want to hang out with them instead?" Mr. Trey asks. "You can if you want to."

"They didn't invite me."

"Did they specify who was invited?"

"No."

"Did someone post in a group chat asking if anyone wanted to go get donuts and hang out at the park?" Mr. Trey asks.

"That's…" I check my phone. "Yeah. S.G. said he was craving donuts, then Connor asked if he wanted to get some, then S.G. said sure, then Connor asked if anyone else wanted to go. Sam and Isaac both responded, and Sam asked if everyone wanted to hang out at the park after."

"Then it sounds like you're included in the offer," Mr. Trey tells me. "Since they didn't specify anyone specific or that you weren't invited. If you're unsure, we can head there now and if they don't want you join them… then we can get donuts for us. I'm curious about the ones there since you seem to like them."

"They're very good," I tell him. "And they have that special taste that makes them even better."

"Mana?" He asks.

"Maybe?"

"That group of businesses cater to mages," he tells me. "So they're probably made from magic ingredients."

"It is?"

"Tiffany mentioned it while we were talking," he says. "She said she was surprised they were so generous, especially to a non-mage. I did a little bit of research and found that it's generally a good group, most of whom are old and retired from the jobs they did most of their lives or children of those who did that. They run the shops more for the fun of it than to earn money."

"They're all very nice," I tell him. "The mean workers usually aren't around very long."

"That's good," Mr. Trey says. "You want to stop in, then?"

He'll really be okay with me not going to breakfast with him if S.G. and the others are okay with me hanging out with them?

"I-if that's okay?"

"Sure," he says.

Mr. Trey takes me to the bakery, then we head inside. S.G. and the others aren't here yet, but Ms. Heidi comes out of the back shortly after we enter.

"Oh!" She smiles. "Hello, Xander!"

"Hello, Ms. Heidi," I say as I approach the counter. "This is Mr. Trey," I look down at Trenton for a moment, then back to Ms. Heidi. "Trenton wants me to tell you that he says 'hello', too."

"Hello, Trenton," she smiles at him, then looks at Mr. Trey. "Hello, sir."

"Hello," Mr. Trey says. "It's nice to meet you. Thanks for taking care of Xander all these years."

What does that mean?

"He's a sweet kid," she tells him. "We all got worried when he suddenly stopped coming and were going to contact the home after the holiday if he hadn't been back by then, to see if everything was okay. Finding out he's getting adopted was a big surprise to us, and we're happy to hear the news."

They were going to contact the home? Who's "we"? Ms. Heidi's the only employee of this place, isn't she?

Mr. Trey and Ms. Heidi talk while I look at the donuts, though that gets interrupted when Connor opens the door and S.G. walks in.

"Xander! Hi!" S.G. stops whatever he was saying upon seeing me.

"Xander?" Connor asks as Sam enters, then Isaac enters and Connor does after him.

This is weird. Why do I feel weird? Uncomfortable? Yeah, that's it. This is where I find out whether I fucked up or not.

"Hi."

"You like the donuts here, too?" S.G. asks as the four of them quickly approach.

"Y-yeah," I nod.

"Xander?" Mr. Trey says, his voice a little quiet.

Is that supposed to be a reminder?

"O-oh," I nod again. "Um… 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. Trey says.

I take a long, slow, deep breath, just like he's taught me to do. After my third one, I try again.

"Um…" what was I saying? "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. Trey tells them.

"Oh!" S.G. exclaims. "Yeah, you can join us! We would've said if you weren't invited!"

They really would've? So I guess it's okay, then.

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

"O-okay," that's a big relief. I didn't fuck up. They'll probably want to order first and Ms. Heidi is waiting for sure. "Y-you guys can order yours first. I-if you know what you w-want. I-I don't mind."

I don't know what I want yet because I was mostly just looking at the donuts.

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

"I haven't decided yet."

I go back to looking at the donuts, and they do as well, then start placing their orders. They're each ordering three donuts, but I feel hungrier than that.

"If you want to get a lot," Mr. Trey quietly tells me. "You can. They have a dozen for fifteen dollars here."

"But isn't that only for ten?" I ask.

"It's a deal," he tells me. "A discount for buying a bigger amount."

"Oh," I say. "C-can I really get a dozen? I'm really hungry but it's a lot of money."

"Yeah, no, Xander, it's okay," Mr. Trey seems upset. "Breakfast at a restaurant would have cost us more than this and I was fine with that, wasn't I?"

I upset him for mentioning the cost, didn't I? He really seems okay with the extra cost.

"Y-yeah," I nod. "O-okay," I walk up to Ms. Heidi is. "Hi again, Ms. Heidi."

"Hello again, Xander," she smiles sat me. "What would you like?"

"Mr. Trey said the dozen is only fifteen dollars even though it's twelve and not ten?" I hope Mr. Trey doesn't get too upset with me for double-checking this.

It's really confusing.

"It's a deal," she says, and I think that means the same thing that Mr. Trey told me. "You want to buy a dozen?"

"Y-yeah," I nod. "May I please have, um… what was it?" I've forgotten what I wanted, haven't I? Wait, no, I remember. "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, even numbers. "Twelve."

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

"The… last one?" I thought I counted right. "Did I mess up the math? I'm sorry. Um…"

"Xander," Mr. Trey says as I start looking at the displays again. "Your math was right. A lot of bakers do thirteen for a dozen."

"But that's not twelve?"

Buying donuts is too confusing!

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

"Oh," I try to think of something. "Maybe an apple fritter, please? Is that counted as a donut?"

"It does for the dozen," she answers as she adds an apple fritter to the bag. "And that's thirteen! That'll be fifteen dollars."

Wait. Am I paying for this or is Mr. Trey? He wasn't very clear and… he's handing me some cash. I guess he's paying but I'm the one giving her the money. I give the money to Ms. Heidi, who gives me the bag with my donuts and a receipt.

"Have a good day, boys," she tells all of us.

Is she counting Mr. Trey in that?

"Have a good day," I tell her as the others all tell her goodbye, too.

We lave the shop and Mr. Trey beckons for me to step to the side for a moment.

"Let me, Quinn, Frank, or one of the others know if you feel unsafe," he tells me. "Or when you're ready to be picked up. Don't be afraid to tell the other boys if you don't want to do something or if you're getting uncomfortable. If they're as good of kids as they seem, they'll be okay with that and respect your boundaries. Okay?"

I'm not so sure about that, but I guess I'll try.

"Okay," I say.

"Here," he hands me some money. "Thirty dollars, to get you something to eat if they want to get lunch after the park."

Money?

"But-"

"The only condition is that you give me the receipt and change from lunch," he tells me. "Now go have fun, okay?"

"Okay…"

Mr. Trey heads to his car and I join the others, who waited for me.

"You guys can ride your bikes to the park," I tell them. "I can catch up to you there."

"Nah," Connor says. "We always walk our bikes after getting donuts. Let's walk!"

"Oh," my face heats up. Stupid me. "Okay."

We walk to the park and once we reach it, they put their bikes and backpacks at a table.

"We're going to go buy some milk," Sam tells me. "The shop right over there sells bottles of it. If you don't have money, I can pay for it! Don't worry!"

Why would he do that?

"I've got milk in my backpack," I tell him. "Um… I can watch everyone's donuts? If… if you'll trust me with it?"

"Sure!"

They put their donut bags down, then tell me that they'll be back in a few minutes. I wait for them to return before starting to eat. There's a trash and recycling can set nearby, and we throw all of our trash in there, making sure to put everything in the right ones.

"Um…" what if they get upset with me and don't want to hang out anymore. "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?" I think that's it. "And football… I'm not sure about that one, but I'll keep score if you want."

Now that my brain's not broke anymore, I shouldn't even struggle do to it without a scoreboard.

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

"Soccer ball," Connor shows me the ball in his backpack.

"Football," Sam says.

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

"Um…" so many choices, and what if I say something they don't want to play? 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 pulls out a disc, then the four of them teach me how to make it spin. They even teach me some different throwing techniques for it. I'm really bad at throwing it and trying to not throw too hard results in me throwing it too weakly, but trying not to do that causes me to throw it too hard.

None of them complain about that and even start playing with me. I'm really bad at this but they still do their best to catch the disc when I throw it in their direction. I do my best to catch the disc, too, and even manage to eventually grab it before it hits the ground.

"Nice catch!" S.G. exclaims, then starts jumping up and down with his hands up. "To me! To me!"

I throw the disc toward him and he shouts and rushes and jumps to catch it, but misses because I threw it too fast by accident. Isaac manages to get the disc as S.G. does some sort of roll as he lands, springing to his feet with his fists in the air.

"Perfect landing! Ten out of ten!"

"Sorry!" I didn't mean to throw it that hard!

"For what?" S.G. pulls off his shirt for some reason and throws it to the side. "Half the fun's trying to catch the disc!"

"Catch this!" Isaac throws the disc, and the game continues.

When the game stops so we can catch our breaths, we return to the table to get drinks. They pull water from their bags while I pull lemonade from mine, along with a few grapes. I hope they didn't see me do that because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share. Mr. Trey said they were for me.

Isaac pulls off his shirt, too. Are we supposed to be doing that, or is it just that they're hot? I'm glad I went with one of the magic shirts today, since I don't want to do that. Though it does remind me that even though my brain is fixed up, I'm still not healthy. I still don't have abs yet.

"Want to learn how to play with a hacky sack?" Isaac asks after we've rested for a few minutes.

"Um… what's a hacky sack?" I ask.

Isaac puts the disc into his bag and pulls out several small balls that look like they were crocheted with smaller threads. They sound like beanbags when they move.

"When playing with them," he tells me. "The goal is to keep them in the air using just your feet and knees. No hands. You can do it alone or in a group. We like to play it in a group."

"Ooh! It's super fun!" Sam exclaims.

He's being really loud… but I'm scared to say it. They all got noisy during the disc game and I didn't say anything because I didn't want to stop and they'd probably make me.

"I-if you guys want to play it."

"It's if we all want to play," Connor tells me. "Unless you want to sit out and rest a bit?"

"N-no," I shake my head. "B-but I don't know how to play with it."

"Do you want to learn?" S.G. asks. "We can teach you!"

"S-sure."

Isaac lets me pick which one I want to play with, so I go with the one that's black and green, then they all grab hacky sacks and start showing me some kicks with them. I practice and try my best to follow their advice, and even manage to start kicking it once or twice before missing.

"Let's kick one in a circle," S.G. says as I start to do two hits more consistently.

Oh. I guess he's getting bored of waiting for me to be good enough for this. It's probably time for me to take another break, anyway, so I start to walk to the table.

"You don't want to play?" S.G. asks.

Well, yeah, but why would you want to play with me?

"I'm not good," I tell him.

"So?" He asks. "We all start somewhere!"

"Yeah!" Sam agrees. "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."

"Uh…"

This is so hard! And confusing! They're really okay with me joining them even though I'm bad at it since I only just started learning? I know they say that hanging out like this is a group activity and they make decisions together, but it's so hard and confusing!

But I do want to play with them. And they all seem actually wanting to play with me. And Mr. Trey keeps saying…

"Okay," I nod. "Let me make sure Trenton's okay."

I walk over to the table, where Trenton's been watching us from.

"Are you doing okay?" I ask him. "You're not getting scared, are you? Oh, okay. Um… I don't really understand the rules but I'll try my best."

He's apparently enjoying watching us.

I return to the others and we form into a circle, then start kicking the sack. It's kind of fun, but I'm worried that I'm going to kick S.G. or Sam by accident because we're all kind of close.

"S-sor-"

"No apologizing!" They all say at once.

No apologizing. That's a rule, and a really confusing one to me. I don't get why I'm not allowed to apologize for messing up here, but I want to follow the rules so I nod to them. Then I retrieve the ball. A couple of more times, I start to apologize, but I manage to stop starting to apologize for failed kicks or bad kicks.

Connor doesn't even get mad when I accidentally hit him in the chest with the hacky sack. In fact, he does a sort of chest-bump to it and then catches it with his left foot and kicks it up, then kicks it with the side of his left foot and sends it toward Isaac.

That was so cool!

After a few more passes between players, Sam passes the sack toward S.G. and Connor, but I can't tell who it was meant for. It doesn't seem they can, either, as they both go for it, which results in S.G. kicking Connor.

"Sorry!" S.G. grins at Connor.

"Just for that," Connor's grinning in a not-mean way. "I'm not kicking it to you for at least five passes!"

So he's not upset about getting kicked? It's probably just because they're friends, but maybe it's not so bad if I accidentally kick someone while trying to get the sack. And it means that I can apologize for an accidental person-kick, too. That's good.

Especially because I do that a few minutes later, accidentally kicking Sam.

"S-sorry!" I apologize. "I-I didn't realize I got that close!"

Before I can add that I thought I'd backed away a little, Sam starts talking with a big, friendly smile.

"It's cool!" He tells me. "I've nearly kicked you a few times, too! I think we're all a little too close!"

He really isn't mad at me! I can tell because I'm looking in his eyes and he doesn't seem like he's upset and he was honest when he said "it's cool", which I'm pretty sure is another way of saying "it's okay"!

We space out a little bit more than we were before and return to playing for a bit.

"I need another break," I tell the group after missing the ball sack the… I lost track of how many times, this was too fun. "I'm feeling a little tired."

"Alright!" Isaac says. "Let's all take a break, then!"

"You don't need to," I say. "I just need to rest a little."

"It's fine," Isaac says. "I need some more water, anyway!"

We return to the table and get some drinks, and Connor pulls off his shirt. He's all sweaty and even pulls a small towel from his bag to wipe some of it off with. I guess it's just that they're hot and not that we're required to. Unless there's something that determines when someone pulls one off? That's two who've done it after a game ended.

Socializing is hard!

When they're not looking, I try to sneak out some baby carrots and a cookie. It's a lemon cookie and it tastes really good. I feel bad for not sharing, but Mr. Trey didn't say I could.

"Hey, Xander," that sounds like Parker and when I look over, I see that it is Parker. Along with two mean-looking boys. "How's it going?"

That's asking me how I am, right?

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

There. I covered all of it, right?

"Why are you talking like that?" One of the mean-looking boys says, and he looks really annoyed and his tone wasn't very nice.

Talking like what?

"Hey!" S.G. exclaims. "What's wrong with how he talks?"

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

"He talks weird!" The mean boy says. "It's weird!"

"You're weird!" Sam says before I can even try to figure out how I talk weird. "Xander's fine!"

Am I really?

"Hey, Xander!" Isaac says before I can figure out how I talk weird. "Greg's on our school's bowling team."

"You are?" I look at the mean kid. If he's on the bowling team, then does that mean he's better than S.G. and his friends? Mean kids like him shouldn't be good at stuff, that's just not right. "What's your average?"

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

That doesn't make sense, especially since I can tell that he's being honest.

"Really?" I look at S.G. and his friends. "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," S.G. shrugs. "We play for fun!"

They do?

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

"Yup!" Isaac grins at me. "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!"

I have no clue what that means.

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

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

"Will you please talk normally?" The mean kid snaps.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Parker snaps at him. Oh, no! Parker's getting upset because of me! "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!"

I really talk different? How come no one's told me? I don't want to talk different!

"Hey, Xander!" S.G. pokes me on the arm, causing me to jump in fright before I realize it's him. No panicking. No panicking. No- "Sorry. Wanna race to the trees? Last one there's a rotten egg!"

Racing sounds more fun than being around a bullly.

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

"It's a figure of speech," S.G. tells me. "It's just for fun!"

Oh. Stupid brain. It's not broke anymore, but it's still not smart.

"Oh," I think for a moment. "Can I be a cheesecake when I come in last?"

Parker's friends start making even more mean comments about that, even calling me stupid. I was just trying to go with using figures of speech for fun. What am I doing wrong? How mad is Parker going to be at me for making him fight with his friends? I'm not trying to screw up, I'm sorry!

"Well," S.G. says as Parker snaps at his friends again. "It's supposed to be something bad, that you don't want to b."

"Oh," that makes more sense, since it's for coming in last. "What about an unripe banana?"

"Okay!" S.G. grins. "Last one there's an unripe banana! Readysetgo!"

He takes off running before I realize that he was starting. That's not fair! I wasn't ready yet! I start running after him, doing my best to catch up. He was probably just trying to make sure I lost and I don't care if he gets mad at me if I come in first… not after I actually manage to get ahead of him.

But then I forget to slow down when I reach the trees and trip over my feet.

"Xander!" S.G. exclaims, putting on more speed than he was doing to reach me sooner. "Are you okay?"

He's offered me a hand to help me up and he really seems concerned. Maybe he wasn't trying to be mean with not giving me time to get ready for the race?

"Yeah," I answer, which is true. There was pain, but only for a moment, so now I'm mostly just embarrassed and wish I could hide. But I don't think that's what he was meaning, so I'm pretty sure the answer is true. "I think I tripped on my feet. I… forgot to slow down before stopping."

"You cut your cheek," he says as Connor, Sam, and Isaac reach us. "Let's go to the restroom and get that washed."

"Your hands, too," Sam says. "You scraped them up."

I did? I look down at my hands and find blood on them, along with some scratches.

"Oh."

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

They do that, too? There's no need for them to use their stuff on me, I can use mine.

"I've got that in my backpack," I tell him. "I… think I'm fine, though."

It doesn't hurt anymore.

They walk with me to the restrooms and I wash off my hands and my cheek, finding that the wounds are gone. Oh. Right. I heal really fast now that I've got plenty of mana stored up. I'm not building up a lot more of it like I normally would since those spells are still active, but I've got plenty leftover form the mana potion that Greyson gave me.

"But where'd the blood come from?" Isaac asks after noticing the cuts are gone.

"I healed up."

"That fast?" Isaac asks.

"Yeah," how do I get out of revealing that I apparently am a Lumaria King? "Um… I guess I'm not the unripe banana?"

Please work!

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

Phew! Distraction successful!

We return to the table with our things at it and Parker's there alone, without his friends, and looking very unhappy. He's really mad at me, isn't he? It's all my fault he got into a fight with his friends!

"S-sorry," I start to apologize to him.

"What?" Parker frowns. Oh, no! He's really upset now! "I'm not mad at you, Xander. They were being jerks for no reason. And now we aren't friends anymore."

He means him and them, right? Because we were never friends.

"S-sorry!"

"Not. Your. Fault," he huffs. "I'm tired of being put between my friends. First Luke, now you," what does that mean? "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'd rather hang out with me even though I made him break up with his friends? Wait.

"How does it sound fun if you don't know what it is?" I ask, which causes S.G. and his friends to giggle. "What? And do I really talk weird?"

"No," S.G. answers. "They were just being mean."

But then why were they saying that?

"I mean… yeah, a little," Parker tells me. "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?"

If he's really not upset with me, then I guess I am. But the thing about how I talk is still confusing me. I guess it's better to focus on trying to have fun, though, so that I don't ruin the day for everyone else even more than I already have. Are S.G. and his friends okay with Parker joining us?

"We are," S.G. tells me. "So if you don't mind, then yeah! We could even group up into teams for something!"

I'm not good at team games.

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

Please don't be mad that I don't really understand socializing and playing games.

"We can throw the disc around some more," Connor tells me. "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?" I whisper to S.G.

"Yeah!" Connor answers.

Well, I guess I didn't need to ask S.G. specifically, he was just the closer one.

"Um… basketball and soccer and football are all bumping things, right?" I'm not sure I want to play those, but I can sit out and watch if they want to.

"Bumping things?" S.G. asks.

"Yeah," I nod.

"What that's-"

"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," I say, which is true. "I'm tired. If you guys want to play those, I can watch."

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

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

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

They even brought cards?

"I don't know very many games," I tell him. "Mostly Go Fish. I think I was taught something else, but I don't remember."

"Then let's do Go Fish!" Connor sits down, and the others all do as well.

Hoping that they're like Mr. Trey and don't mind if I'm good, I play as best as I can. They don't even seem bothered that I keep getting right guesses or when I remember what card someone has that I also have.

"Man, you're good!" Isaac exclaims after the fifth game. I've won all of them. "What's your secret?"

Is this so he can decide how mad to be? It's better to be honest regardless, so that they aren't mad at me for lying.

"Um… I was mostly guessing."

"Wait, hold on," Parker holds up a hand. "You were whupping our butts at Go Fish by guessing?"

He's mad!

"S-sorry!"

"Dude!" S.G. exclaims. "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?"

They all probably want to do something else. I'd rather keep playing… but we've played five games already.

"Um… what do you guys wanna do?" I ask.

"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 we 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."

This doesn't sound as bad, though I'm not too sure about having people run up to me and grab stuff that's on me. At least there's no tackling.

"And if you fumble the ball," S.G. tells me. "It's cool. 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."

There's really no tackling?

"No tackling?" I ask.

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

Maybe I can give this try and see if I'm okay with it. They all want to play it and I do want to play with them.

"I-I can try," I tell them. "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.

He grabs the football and we move away from the table a bit, then they teach me how to hold and catch the ball, and how to throw it. I flinch a few times when the ball comes toward me, but manage to stop doing that once we're passing it back and forth for a bit. They're all tossing it to me so I can practice catching, then I'm throwing it to one of them to practice throwing. I mess up a bit, but they just give me some help instead of getting mad.

They're really being nice. I'm really not used to this but it feels good. This isn't even the first time. All throughout this hangout, and when we talk at the bowling alley, and when we hung out at Mr. Trey's house last weekend… it doesn't even feel like they're forcing it. This is just… how they are, isn't it?

"Hey, guys!" Someone calls out. There's a boy and a girl our age approaching; it was the boy who spoke. "Can we join you?"

"Sure," S.G. says, then looks at me. "You cool with them joining us? They're pretty cool people."

If S.G. and his friends think they're okay, then maybe they are? I'm not so sure. But I don't want to tell them they can't hang out with their other friends.

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

"He's someone's cousin?" The girl asks.

"Probably," S.G. shrugs, and I really don't know what he means by that. Does he know? "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 smiles at me. "Nice to meet you, Xander! I'm Macy! I prefer volleyball, but don't mind football!"

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

"Um… hello," I greet them.

That's a safe greeting, right? Since I don't know whether or not it's really nice to meet them?

"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 says.

He and Macy join the semicircle and join us for me practicing, which I find weird. They just… accepted it and joined us? And Ethan's even giving me some tips for catching and throwing that the others didn't know.

"I-I think I'm ready," I tell them after a few more minutes. "If… if you guys think I'm ready enough?"

"Sure!" Ethan says. "You're doing pretty good for someone who's just started!"

"And it's all for fun, anyway," Isaac tells me. "So it's okay to make mistakes."

"Let's do shirts-versus-skins," Ethan pulls off his shirt. "Since half of us are shirtless, that makes picking the teams easier."

I guess that's one way to pick teams that doesn't rely on who likes who more. Though Ethan pulled off his shirt just to pick the team he's on… and nobody is going to convince me that having abs isn't a sign of being healthy. Football players are healthy, right? They need to be to play right. And he's got abs.

Sam pulls out belts with strips that are the "flags" on them from his backpack, four of which have two blue strips and four of which have two green strips. Shirts are green, skins are blue.

The game begins and it's just us running around and catching and passing the ball and pulling flags. I'm not good at any of it, but I still try my best because it's kind of fun.

Even if they are really noisy and shout a lot. And try to block my path, which I learn is in order to keep me from getting to someone and grabbing their flags. I'm supposed to do that as well, and my teammates don't get mad at me for failing on the times I try. I also almost never manage to throw the ball to one of them before someone grabs one of my flags, but no one gets upset with me.

People going for my flags kind of freaks me out a little, but I try my best not to panic because I don't want them to get upset. This is fun, too, so I want to keep playing as long as possible.

"To me! To me!" S.G. calls to Ethan at one point, and Ethan throws the ball towards him.

I want to try and get S.G.'s flag, so I run over as he evades Macy, slipping away from Isaac as he attempted to block my path. When I come up behind S.G., I make sure to slow down so I don't run into him and…

"Ah!" It's in my hand. "I… got a flag?"

I got a flag! I got S.G.'s flag! It's my first time grabbing one!

"How did you get over here so fast?" S.G. asks.

"I ran?" Did I teleport without realizing it or learning the spell? I don't think so. "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," S.G. holds the ball out to me. "Here, Xander! Your turn with the ball!"

I give him back his flag and the game continues. At one point, I trip over my feet and fall but get back up so I can keep playing. This really is a lot of fun and I'm glad they let me hang out with them. When a couple of other boys walk over and ask if they can join in, they're split onto the two teams and the one who goes to the blue team takes off his shirt.

No abs, so he's probably not fully healthy. But it's not really my concern, so I keep playing the game as best as I can.

Though I can't play for very much longer, as I'm really tired and am even sweating. Not from the heat, just from running around so much.

"I'm going to take a break, too," Parker tells the others.

Parker walks with me to the table as the others adjust the teams to keep playing.

"Xander," Parker says as we reach the table and I pull out some snacks. It's probably safe to eat them with him seeing, and I'm feeling really hungry. "Please know that I'm not mad at you. I don't like people being mean to others, especially not to my friends, and they've been mean to Luke before, and now they were mean to you."

"But I'm not your friend?"

"Well, I mean, sort of?" He seems about as confused as I am. "But it doesn't matter. I like you well enough, anyway. What they did was wrong, not you."

"Do I really talk weird?"

"Don't pay them any mind," Parker tells me. "They were just being jerks."

"But you said I do talk weird."

"A little bit different," he says. "But I doubt Luke's noticed, and I doubt S.G. and his friends have noticed. And it's okay to talk a little bit differently. It's not really how you pronounce things but… how you say them? I'm not sure I'm explaining it well. But it's really not a problem, so don't worry about it."

"Okay…" if he really says it's not a problem, and S.G. and the others haven't noticed, and Mr. Trey isn't putting me in a speech class again to learn how to talk right, then maybe it's not a problem. "Um… you live next to Luke, right? His other neighbor?"

"You want to know how I know S.G. and them?" Parker asks, and I nod. "I used to live near here. Mom and Dad have been doing the catering thing for a long time but never really saw a reason to move somewhere big and fancy. But then I made friends with Luke, so they decided to move us somewhere… fancier, I guess? They got a good deal on the house."

Parker helps his parents with catering, too. Even he earns money. Him, Luke, and S.G. all make money and they're not much older than I am. Well, I guess Luke's almost a year older than I am. But he's been working at his family's business for longer than a year.

"Catering makes lots of money?"

"Yeah," he nods. "But I think Luke only knows the earnings for mundane catering – non-magical catering. I get the impression that he thinks my parents make a lot less than they do. And I think he thinks they make the average salary for that… combined. Not individually. They make about a quarter of a million a year combined."

"Whoa."

"Yeah," he nods. "Most of their clients are mages, and the food that's served is usually magic. It tastes better, even if there's no added flavor. And it's for high-end customers, so the quality's even better. You spend ten cents on an apple and they'll spend thirty or forty."

That's… a lot of money. And magic in the food doesn't add a flavor, just makes it taste better? I'm pretty sure there's a special flavor in all of the magic food I've eaten. It goes with everything.

"And you help your parents?" I ask.

"Sometimes," he nods. "It depends on the event and what I do. My parents are just salaried. They figured that's better for them since they own the business, run it, and fill in when needed on top of doing some events themselves.

"Yesterday," he says. "They had to rush to help out with an event due to some of the staff not showing up. The actual shift started at three in the afternoon – but hors d'oeuvres weren't served until seven, dinner was at eight, and dessert was at nine-thirty. The event ended at eleven. The caterers didn't leave until one in the morning."

"That much?" I ask.

"That much," he nods. "We have to set up the tables, prepare the food, serve the food, wash the dishes, tear down – take down – the stuff. Also get everything to the location and bring it all back once it's over. That was a ten-hour shift."

"Whoa."

"This is a catering service that caters to high-end mages," he says. "Starting wage is $30 an hour. That's $300 for that one event. And that's for someone who just started working with the group. Someone in a normal, non-high-end catering service, might make $20 an hour after being there a year or two."

"Whoa."

"Yeah," he nods. "I get paid hourly when I help out rather than salary. Gets me cash to play video games and buy clothes and stuff."

That seems like a lot of work, and his parents let him do it, too. So S.G. does things like walking dogs and mowing lawns, Luke makes magitech generators, and Parker helps his parents with a catering service. There's no way I can do any of that stuff, but I'm sure there's something even a stupid boy with no talents like me can do.

"Oh," Parker says. "Hey, Xander? You said something to Luke last night that… and before you get worried, I'm not mad. Can you see affinities in mana? Like, magical aspects?"

"Sort of?" I frown. "And only when I use my magesight. That bit only started up a few weeks ago, and I think it's broke. Like, it says yours is like lava but you and Luke said that you just have an earth affinity."

"Actually," Parker scratches his cheek. "I have a lava affinity, but I've never told anyone. Not even my parents. And Luke was the one who told you, which is probably why you didn't realize it wasn't true. I'm not mad that you mentioned it to Luke, since you didn't know I'm not telling anyone and he told me the context for it. But would it be okay if I asked you not to mention it to others? When people find out that you have a special power or are a prodigy in some regard, they tend to put you on a pedestal and I don't want that."

"I-I can try," I tell him. "My memory should be better now since my brain's not all broke anymore."

"Your brain's not broke any more?" He asks. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, they're coming over," I put the container with cantaloupe chunks back into my backpack. It's just S.G. and his friends, the others are grabbing their things and leaving. "Isaac? Can I please play with one of your hacky sacks again? Is that okay? I want to try getting better at it."

Please don't be mad!

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

"Um… that was fun," I tell him. "Yeah. I mean, yeah, I do. If you're okay with that. Can we?"

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

They really do want to play with me more, and he's really not mad for me asking? I'm really happy about that.

"No," I answer, since I think this is a case where it's okay to say that.

"If you want to practice a bit while waiting, you can," Isaac tells me as he sits down.

"Okay."

I get up and play with the green-and-black hacky sack a bit, then the others and Parker join us, as do a couple of girls no one in the group seems to know. They're friendly, though, so everyone agrees to let them join us.

"I'm hungry!" S.G. says once we stop playing, then he checks his phone. "Oh! It's lunchtime!"

"We're going to get something to eat," Isaac pulls his shirt back on. "You guys wanna join us?"

Mr. Trey did give me some money so that I could.

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

"Have fun!" S.G. tells him, then looks at me. "What about you?"

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

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

"Burgers," I answer.

Everyone says what they want for lunch, and it comes out to be two for burgers, one for hot dogs, one for chicken strips, and one for grilled cheese. I don't know the restaurants and places they're discussing, but it seems like this isn't an "everyone has to want what they serve" thing because they pick a place that does burgers, sandwiches, grilled cheese, and so on. No chicken strips or hot dogs. Connor and Isaac don't seem upset by that, though, so I guess it's okay.

At the diner, I try not to eat quickly but I'm really hungry. We all get dessert after our meals, and I make sure to get a receipt and change.

Today was pretty fun, and it's barely noon. I hope the rest of today goes this well, though I decline when they ask me if I want to come to Connor's with them to play video games. As much as I'd like to hang out with them more… I'm tired and need a nap. I can barely pay attention to the conversation.

I decline going to laser tag with them today when they invite me. It'll probably be even noisier and busier than the park and I don't think I can handle that. They remind me about the barbecue on Tuesday after that.

Also about going to the local fair, but I don't go to those because they're too crowded and noisy for me. I don't know if Mr. Trey has plans, either, so I tell them that.

Mr. Trey couldn't have arrived at a better moment than this because I really am tired and could do with some sleep. I can barely pay attention to what S.G. and his friends are saying. After telling them bye, I get into Mr. Trey's car, buckle up… and fall asleep by accident.