[Xander – 12 years]

  "Dad!"

  As soon as we went around to the front after putting the horses away (and after Aurum vanished), I saw him standing there, waiting with the other adults! He's here!

  "Oof!"

  "Sorry!"

  "You're fine," he chuckles as he wraps an arm around me. "Did you enjoy the campout?"

  "It was a lot of fun," I tell him. "But, um… we stayed up way past bedtime."

  "When's your bedtime?"

  "At-"

  "Xander," he says with the tone that says I need to look up, so I do and find him staring down at me. "What time did I say is your bedtime?"

  "Um… I don't remember. But aren't I supposed to be in my room by ten?"

  "And how often are you required to be asleep at a certain time?"

  "Um…"

  "And didn't I say that bedtime is flexible until the school year begins?" He asks. "That it can be adjusted based on what's going on?"

  "Um…"

  "You were camping with friends," he says. "And I'm assuming, not bothering anyone. It's fine if you stayed up, as long as you had fun."

  "A lot of fun," I nod. "And a lot of not being happy or feeling good. Anxious. I was feeling really anxious, 'cause I changed into swim trunks to join them in the lake and… I didn't like that. But then we were playing a game and I wasn't having fun, but then S.G. told me to try and not worry about the misses, but to celebrate when I do tag them. It was hard to do that, but I had more fun after. Then we played spotlight."

  "Spotlight?" Mr. Thompson asks before Trey can say anything. "In the forest?"

  "We do it all the time," Carter tells him. "It's not dangerous."

  "Yeah!" Knox nods. "And Xander even made a new game program to make it safer! Collin asked him if he could use the AR stuff to make a boundary so we know the limits of where to go, and even added in a mode to make it so we can see better without flashlights when we're not It."

  "You did that?" Trey asks.

  "Um… sorry," I look down again. "I should've asked first. But it was originally going to be just adding in the boundaries, so I didn't think it would be a problem. But that was a safety thing, so I started adding in some more safety stuff, too. Like an automatic alert to the rest of us if anyone got hurt and needed medical treatment, a list of who all is left to find for the one who's It, and an alert letting the last one still hiding know they won."

  "Also arrows on the ground leading back to the camp," S.G. says. "Once you're out or the game's over. It was super fun!"

  "You're not in trouble, Xander," Trey tells me. "It's not like you did anything illegal, you just set things up for a game to play. Like bringing out beanbags to toss."

  "Really?" I look up at him again.

  "Really," he says. "But maybe with a few more steps. And a little more technology."

  That makes some of the other boys snicker, and Trey pats my back a few times.

  "Xander?"

  "Yes, Trey?"

  "Are you okay?"

  "I-I think I am. why? D-did I mess up?"

  "No," he chuckles. "It's just that you're still hugging me, so I wasn't sure if you were okay."

  "S-sorry," I release him and step back as he releases me, too.

  "You're fine," he says. "I just wasn't sure if you were doing okay. You ready to head home?"

  "Yeah," I nod. "But, um… can I go to the mage district when we get back to Dragon Falls? And to the, um, other place?"

  "Sure," he says, then looks at the other boys for a moment before looking at me. "Did you want to invite them, too?"

  "Yeah," I look at the others, then at their dads and aunt, then at Trey. "But I don't know if they'll be back at about the same time. They got back after it last week."

  "We'll all be leaving at around the same time," Mr. Thompson tells me. "So we'll be arriving there at about the same time. Did you boys want to go visit the mage district, too? I'm assuming 'the other place' is where Xander's getting lunch?"

  "I'm getting lunch at the sub shop in the mage district if Trey lets me."

  "You can," Trey tells me.

  "Thanks," I tell him.

  "You're welcome," he says. "Are you ready to go?"

  "Almost," I look at Carter and his friends. "Bye, everyone. Thanks for helping with the game test yesterday, and for letting me join for the campout, too. It was a lot of fun."

  "No problem!" Carter tells me. "Anytime, Xander! And anytime you wanna do a collab, just lemme know and I'll see when I'm able to get over there! Or if I'm free when you're over here!"

  "It was nice meeting you," Knox tells me. "Thanks for letting me participate, it was fun."

  "You're welcome," I say. "And please remember to fill out the feedback forms by the end of Wednesday, so that I can make sure to make any necessary changes or fix any issues that were found by Saturday's test."

  Everyone else says their goodbyes, then I leave with Trey.

  "Will you go to the campout next weekend, if there's one then?" He asks.

  "Maybe," I answer. "If I'm invited and it's allowed, I might. It really was a lot of fun, even if I was uncomfortable. No one did anything inappropriate to me."

  "That's good to hear," he says. "Want to tell me about anything else from it?"

  "Yeah," I nod. "So after we went swimming, Collin let me help him make pizzas in dutch ovens. They're cast iron pot-like things with little legs, and you can use wood or charcoal to heat them. We did wood from the fire. Then I worked on the program for spotlight, then we played it. After that, we had dessert, which was different cobblers Collin made in the dutch ovens, ice cream, and drinks. Non-alcoholic, though S.G. and Carter joked about getting beer and whiskey. I didn't think they were joking at first and asked them later and they told me it was just joking and they knew they weren't going to get any."

  "Was there alcohol?"

  "No," I tell him. "There was root beer, but that's not alcohol."

  "Okay," he says.

  "There were also s'mores," I tell him. "But I didn't have any with chocolate, just a little bit of white chocolate for some, but not most. And I ate a lot of cooked marshmallows on my own. A little bit after that, the others went back into the lake for a bit. When they were all calming down for bed, there were also some card games going on. And then we all fell asleep."

  "And did you enjoy it?"

  "Yeah."

  "That's good to hear," he says. "Were there any problems, other than your anxiety due to everyone being in swim trunks?"

  "Um…" I try to think. "Not that I can think of."

  "That's good to hear," he says. "You still seem a bit sleepy. Why don't you get some rest, alright?"

  "Alright."

  [Sig – 13 years]

  Xander's holding Trenton when he gets out of Trey's truck, his backpack on his back. We've all got our backpacks on as well, and are dressed in shorts and sneakers. As expected, he's wearing pants and long-sleeves in addition to his sneakers. Not that it stops him from looking cute, though.

  I shake my head, drawing confused looks from the others.

  "Nothing," I smile at them. "Come on, let's go over."

  We actually arrived here after Xander did, but he and Trey seemed to be talking about something, so we waited. When we reach Xander, he gives us a wave with one of Trenton's paws.

  "Hi, Xander!" I wave.

  "Hi," he says. "Sorry, Trey was telling me something and it took a little bit."

  "No worries!" I say. "You ready for this?"

  "Yeah," he nods. "Let's go."

  We walk down the street and greet some of the workers here, then greet Mr. Vincent at his fudge shop. All five of us try to get the right card, but only Connor and Xander manage it this time. Connor promises he'll share some of his with the rest of us, and Xander just stuffs his into his backpack without a word. Some of them looked really good, I might buy some another time.

  After we go through the whole street and Xander talks with most of the staff (and we get lunch at a really good sub shop), I stretch a bit.

  "What now?" I ask. "Since you're heading off to something else, Xander, we'll go do something else. You can join us when you're done, 'kay?"

  "I'm gonna go get cheesecake," Xander says. "I normally do that on Saturdays, if I'm allowed, but I wasn't here at that time and I was busy, too. Do you guys want to come with me?"

  "Sure!" I answer.

  The others agree, so we follow Xander to a restaurant I've heard about before. Those of us still shirtless make sure to pull on shirts before we enter, then we walk inside.

  Past the small entrance room they have, we're greeted by a friendly guy a few years older than us who looks kind of familiar. The name on his apron says "CAL", and I can't place where I know him from. All of the tables in here have booth seating, and it's arranged in a U shape with the two ends near the front, one of the ends being right up against the small room at the entrance to the restaurant. Inside of the U is another, smaller, one with more tables.

  It looks a little cozy, but also spacious enough to minimize problems if two workers are carrying food or trays down an aisle at the same time.

  Other than us and the teen behind the counter, there are only two others here, a pair of guys about the same age as Cal, maybe slightly younger.

  "Hey, Xander!" Cal greets Xander. "No Russell this week?"

  "Russell dumped me because he doesn't like that I'm really skilled with magic and magitech," Xander bluntly says, though he looks really mad. "So we're not friends anymore, either. He's stupid. These are some of my friends, though. This is S.G., and this is Connor, and this is Isaac. And then this is Sam. He's not one of my friends, but he's one of theirs."

  Sam looks really disappointed at Xander saying that. We kind of knew that Xander didn't see him as a friend because of what his great-grandfather said yesterday, but still. For Xander to out and say it isn't really good. It means he's serious about viewing Sam this way.

  Remember that even if Xander doesn't see him as a friend, he's still okay with him hanging out. That means that he might be open to the possibility of becoming friends with Sam.

  Right. That's what Mr. Richardson told us, when we mentioned it to him. I look at Sam, who still looks disappointed. He might need a reminder of what his dad said, so I send him a quick text while Xander talks with Cal.

  "Let me get you boys seated," Cal grabs some menus and silverware rolls, then leads us to the table closest to the door. "I know you know what you want, Xander, but let's give them time to decide, alright?"

  "Okay," Xander says.

  "I'll be back in a minute," Call tells us. "You can let me know your drink orders then, alright?"

  "Alright," we say as Xander pulls Trenton out of his backpack and sets the bear on his lap.

  Cal heads off to talk with the other boys here. I start looking at the drinks part, then at the desserts. I soooo want some appetizers as they sound good, but this is probably a desserts trip and it'd be weird if I was the only one eating an appetizer.

  "Hey, Xander," a voice says from beside the table, and I look over to see a young woman with "EMILY" sewn into her apron. "How're you?"

  "Hungry," Xander answers. "I'm still recovering from accidentally using up most of my mana Wednesday afternoon, partially because I used up a lot of it after that, too, to teleport back and forth between places like the workshop. Did you get tested? I was right, wasn't I?"

  She snorts and sighs. Tested for what? Did something happen?

  "I always go over to Adam's after I get off of work on Sundays," she tells him. "Matt usually isn't there, so things were fine. Then he shows up to do something – boy forgot what by the time he got home but figured he'd remember once he was inside so still came home; never remembered – and he stopped in his tracks. He looked at me, then he got closer and said 'I charge per hour per baby and by expected tasks. Three babies means triple the pay.'"

  "See?" Xander asks. "I was right. Wait. Matt can tell if someone's pregnant, too?"

  "Matt's a prodigal life mage," she says. "He could apparently feel their life forces inside of me. Adam decided to pay for a magic test that can give results much faster than a normal one and… yeah, I'm pregnant. It even confirmed what you and Matt said about it being triplets."

  "Greyson says-"

  "Greyson!" I exclaim. "That's why Cal looks familiar! He looks a lot like an older version of Greyson! Just one with less muscles."

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  "Cal's one of his older brothers," Xander huffs a little, then looks at Emily. "Greyson says that having twins and even triplets is normal in our family. Greyson's a twin, and my dad and Matt's and Adam's were… either twins or triplets, I don't remember. Also that Matt was a twin, but his twin died in the accident that killed their parents."

  "Yeah," Emily says. "But they don't like talking about it, so don't bring it up if you ever meet them."

  "I wasn't planning on it."

  "Good," she smiles a little. "So who are these young men?"

  "They're all boys, like me."

  "I know that," she chuckles as the rest of us do. "Friends of yours?"

  Xander repeats what he told Cal, including the bit about Sam not being his friend. He really shouldn't say stuff like that, it's kind of mean.

  "Well, I'll let you boys get back to it," Emily says. "I think Cal wants to take your drink orders."

  Cal takes our drink orders, with all of us except Xander ordering soda and root beer floats. Xander just orders a lemonade for himself, then we return to trying to decide on what desserts we want.

  "Xander?" Sam says after a couple of minutes.

  He looks really upset and bothered, and I don't blame him.

  "What?"

  "I really am sorry," he says. "I don't mean to upset you. It's just hard to remember your boundaries sometimes when I get into goofing off with the others. It's… it's hard to adjust. I'm not used to needing to think about that stuff. But I'm trying, I really am."

  "I know."

  He knows that Sam isn't meaning to but still doesn't like him? That doesn't seem really fair. I mean, sure, Sam's crossed his boundaries, but it's all been accidents. If someone crossed one of my boundaries by accident and I knew they were trying not to do it again, I'd just forgive them.

  I want to say something, but I don't know what. The others seem uncomfortable. By the time I even figure out half of what I should say, Cal's returned.

  "Xander," Cal says after we're all given our drinks, and Xander looks at him. "Can you explain to Sam why you're okay with hanging out with him even after he's violated your boundaries and upset you?"

  How did Cal know about that? He was in the back when Sam tried talking with Xander about it. And what does it matter, anyway? Xander apparently doesn't like Sam over things he knows were accidents.

  "I don't want to because he's mean and takes my food and stuff," what? "But Trey said I should give him more chances, because people make mistakes and they should be given more chances. But he also said that doesn't mean I should just accept Sam as a friend, just that I should let him prove he's really trying. That I can still try to keep some distance. That's why I didn't want Sam to sit on this side of the table or directly across from me. So he won't accidentally kick me and I can move my food away faster if he tries to take it. And Trey said that if Sam does prove that he's trying to respect my boundaries now, then that means I can make another friend."

  So he doesn't like Sam, but he's accepting hanging out with him because it means they could become friends in the future. That's… a lot better. It's like what Sam's dad told us. And I think it means that even if Xander doesn't like Sam, that he doesn't think Sam is a bad person.

  Which is a big relief. Or maybe not… he called Sam mean. So he's not actually trying to give Sam a chance, he's just doing what he was told. Dammit.

  "I don't know how long you guys have been hanging out with Xander," Cal says. "But one thing about him, from what I've been able to tell, is that he's a bit like one of my little brothers. He'll answer a question directly, but might leave out the rest of the information that isn't a direct answer."

  "Well, yeah," Xander says. "It's not part of the answer. And I know that people often want more information, but it's hard to tell when those times are or aren't. Also what other information they want. So I answer the question. If they want more information, they can say. I don't know why everyone else has to be so complicated. I'm not reading people's minds just to know what they actually want to know, they need to use their words. They have mouths."

  Oh. That's… fair. The dads even told us that Xander probably doesn't realize when he should give more than just the direct answer. So that's kind of our fault for not remembering.

  But at least it means he doesn't fully hold a grudge against Sam… even if he does seem to target him a bit more in games. At least it's not maliciously, it's just things like a bigger splash when he jumps into the water.

  "And now that that's done," Cal says. "Are you boys ready to place your orders?"

  We are, so he asks Xander what he wants.

  "May I please have the blueberry cheesecake with the strawberry cream cheese drizzle?" Xander asks.

  "I didn't see that on the menu?" Isaac looks at the menu.

  "It's a special menu," Cal explains. "Only trusted, special customers can get it. Xander, do you want a slice of it?"

  "No, a whole one, please."

  Can he eat a whole one? I believe it.

  "Alright," Cal chuckles. "Anything else?"

  "Three orders of onion rings and three orders of mozzarella sticks, please," Xander answers. "And that's all for me. I don't know what they want."

  Something tells me those appetizers are all for him, but at least I won't be the only one ordering appetizers. That means I can order some fine.

  "And you?" Cal asks me, since I'm the one next on this side of the table.

  "Can I please have some fried pickles and the supreme nachos appetizer, without the olives?" I ask. "And the deluxe brownie dessert? Thanks!"

  Xander scoots a little bit further away from me.

  "There won't be any on your plate, I promise," Cal snorts, then returns to taking orders.

  When our food arrives, we find that Xander must have been really hungry. He goes through basically all of his food in almost as much time as it takes me to eat mine. And I share my appetizers with the others, so I'm done even faster than if I ate them all by myself.

  "What now?" Connor asks as we walk down to the parking lot, with everyone but Xander stuffing their shirts back into their backpacks now that we'll be under the sun again. "To the park, or home to get some sleep?"

  "What about swimming?" Sam asks, and we all look at him. "What? There are more than a few great spots that are free."

  He's referring to in the woods. It's not like we don't do that all the time, but…

  "We just spent a good part of last night swimming," Isaac gives him a playful whack on the back of the head.

  "Yeah!" Sam nods. "I kind of want to go swimming again for a little bit in the woods here. There's just something a bit different doing it here than there."

  "Can't argue with that," I say. "I dunno what it is, but it feels different, swimming at the lake there. Sure, let's go swimming! You guys?"

  "I could do with a nap," Isaac says. "But yeah, I guess I can get some swimming in first."

  "Sure," Connor says, then we all look at Xander.

  "Just us?" Xander asks. "Does that mean it's in the woods somewhere?"

  "Yup!" I answer. "There's a good spot near here that we go to sometimes. Since we don't have our bikes, it'll be faster."

  "So others might be there?"

  "We almost never see anyone else," I tell him.

  "And no skinny dipping?"

  Were did that come from?

  "We won't skinny dip!" I tell him.

  "Okay."

  "So you'll come?"

  "If Trey lets me," Xander pulls out his phone and texts his dad.

  By the time we reach the parking lot, Xander's been given permission to go swimming with us, so we let the dads know and head off. Strangely, Sam pays more attention to his phone as we walk than to our conversation. I want to ask him about that, but maybe later. When Xander's not around, since I think he's just upset right now.

  The pond we're going to has basically no "clear" space around it – the trees grow right up to the edge. The undergrowth isn't dense or anything, though, so we can just put our bags and stuff on the dirt.

  As for the pond, it's a little sizable, stretching anywhere from around twenty feet at its narrowest and up to thirty at its widest, making it big enough for the five of us to play in comfortably. It also only goes to about four and a half feet in depth for a good part of it but gets deeper in just the right spot for jumping. The northwestern edge of the pond has a small cliff that surrounds it, which slopes downward until it's even with the rest of the ground and the pond as well.

  From that cliff, which is about six feet in height, is a three-foot-wide waterfall, and the base of that is about ten feet in depth in the water. It's perfect for jumping off of and into, and we love doing that.

  Something we all do once we've changed into swim trunks. I'm there first and jumping into the water, then move back to make room for Sam, who's up next. To the surprise of all of us, Xander even gives it a try, though he lets out a panicked squeal after running and jumping in.

  "Nice!" I exclaim once he comes back up to the surface, and he quickly swims over to us. "That was awesome, Xander!"

  "Yeah!" Isaac exclaims. "Next time, try and make the splash even bigger!"

  [Xander – 12 years]

  "You want me to do what?" I ask.

  Is Sam serious? I'm looking him in the eyes, but he didn't say anything that could be a truth or lie, he just told me to dunk him. If I do that, he'll get mad at me.

  He pulled me aside after we all played for a little bit and this was his request. We're still in the pond. This has to be a trick. He knows I don't like him so he's going to trick me into dunking him and then use that to try and get the others to not like me and not invite me to hang out anymore.

  "Dunk me," Sam repeats.

  So he does want me to dunk him.

  "Why do you want me to dunk you?" I ask.

  "There are some rules to dunking people," he adds.

  That only makes me more suspicious, even if he's being honest.

  "It's something most people just… know," he tells me. "But Dad said you might not know because your brain works differently. Dunking someone isn't something you do for the purpose of holding them down or drowning them. The purpose of it is to try and get their head underwater, while their goal is to try and stop you from doing so. But it's for fun, not for serious. So once you have their head under, you let them break free. And you don't use all of your strength for it. Dad said it might be easier for you to understand this if you're told it and are able to practice it. I don't really understand how you can't just not know this, but since Dad knows kids' brains, I figure, he probably knows what he's talking about."

  How is any of that something people just know? That doesn't make any sense at all.

  "And… you want me to practice it on you?"

  "Well… no," he admits. "But I figure, maybe if you were able to practice it and learn how it works, you'd be okay with joining in. You always look like you want to play with us but are also scared of doing so. And since I accidentally dunked you before… it's only fair you can practice dunking others on me."

  He's being honest about this.

  "And you're not gonna be upset if I mess up and accidentally hurt you?"

  "Nope!"

  "I'm not good at telling when to stop doing stuff, though."

  "I'll do my best to not get mad and to just tell you."

  This still worries me, but I think I asked everything I can. Wait, no, there's another.

  "And you're not gonna try and get me into trouble with anyone for it?"

  "I won't, promise!" He says. "It'd be dumb to, since I asked you to do this and offered to let you practice on me."

  "Okay," I fidget a little. "Um… how do I do it?"

  "There are some different ways," he says. "You can swim underwater and grab them from below and pull them down, you can grab their head and pull it down, or their shoulders… you can tell when someone's lying when you're looking in their eyes, right?"

  "Yeah," I nod.

  Though lately, it's not always when I'm looking them in their eyes. I can sometimes tell even without that.

  "One way that Sig loves to get dunked," he keeps his eyes fixed on mine. "Is when someone comes up behind him, jumps on his back, and either tries to push him down by leaning forward, or by leaning back to pull him that way."

  That would be a lot of touching. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do this. Especially since we're all in just swim trunks. Maybe I should've gotten a unitard for when I'm swimming in ponds and lakes. Though I don't think I could handle it even with that, since everyone else would still be shirtless.

  "Why don't you try just pulling my head under?" He asks. "And remember – as soon as I try to come back up, you let me. Don't hold me down."

  This is really scary. Maybe this is a bad idea, but what if backing out is an even worse one? I don't know what to do, so I try to pull his head under.

  "With a little bit more force, Xander," he snorts. "You're not gonna be dunkin' anyone like that."

  But dunking people is Very Bad, isn't it? At least, when I do it.

  "Sorry…"

  "Just put your hand on top of my head," he says. "And push down. I'm not going to resist, okay?"

  I try again, and it takes a few more tries before he tells me it was too much force. I apologize for that, then he has me do it again, but with less force. It takes a few more tries for me to figure out how much to use, mostly with Sam's help, then he has me do it a few more times after that.

  "Are you bending your knees?" I ask.

  "Yup!" He answers. "It makes it easier to get dunked. That's something you should do if someone dunks you – bend your knees. Oh, and if you don't want to get dunked, just say 'don't dunk me'."

  "Why not 'no'?" I ask.

  It's bad to tell people "no", but it also means what he said, doesn't it?

  "Because when playing with others," he says. "We sometimes go 'nonononono' for stuff like that, and it's not really us saying 'no'. So we probably won't think you don't want to get dunked if you just say that unless it's pretty clear. So 'no dunking' or 'don't dunk me' will make it easier for us to remember. Can you try that? Dad said to suggest it."

  "Um… I can try."

  "Alright!" He says. "Now for the underwater dunking, where you come up from under the water and try to pull someone down."

  This one is even more confusing than the last, but Sam helps me learn how to do it properly. The same with pulling or pushing on someone from in front, like from their shoulders and head. Then he shows me what it's like when the other person is resisting for play, which is… really hard to understand.

  It really seems like he doesn't want me to when he resists, but he's honest when he tells me that it's fine and he's just playing. But how do I know if someone is actually resisting?

  "Alright," he says. "Now for the next one… is it okay if I dunk you? So you can see what it's like and know when it's just pretending? I promise I'm only doing it for play and not to hurt you, so you can see what it's like, okay? You've gotta take a breath and hold it during that and the moment you're ready to come back up, push back against my hand. Okay?"

  I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this.

  "O-okay."

  Sam dunks me and I panic for a moment, but I try to force myself into calm. Luke's held me underwater a lot more securely than this, and it only lasts a moment. Sam really does release me the moment I try pushing back. Then, I have to catch my breath and calm down a bit, because I started pushing back when the panic started getting too much for me.

  We try this a few more times, and I realize that I can also just… back up underwater and his hand slides off my head. Or if I move my head to the side. Then he shows me some of the dunks from the other positions.

  "See?" He asks. "That's dunking and how we do it. And it looks like the others are distracted. Remember how I said Sig loves getting dunked by someone jumping on his back and doing it that way?"

  He was honest when he told me that, too.

  "Y-yeah," I've got an idea of where he's going.

  "If you sneak over there and dunk him like that," he says. "I'll buy you a five-pound bag of candy when we go back into town."

  "But I already got one," I tell him. "After the arm-wrestling."

  "Yeah," he says. "But I'll buy you another five-pound bag of it. And if Sig gets mad at you… then I'll make sure he knows it was my idea and I'll buy you a ten-pound bag of it. But I guarantee that he'll be happy if you do it and just think you're playing."

  That's a lot of money and he's being honest. If he's really that sure about it… should I try it? But no, S.G. probably will get upset with me. I'm not one of them, I'm just another boy who's hanging out with them.

  Though maybe Sam's not that bad. I'm not sure if I'll be able to remember all of this next time, but he did try to help me understand stuff a little. So he's a little bit better.

  Maybe he can show me that S.G. really is okay with it? Just in case he's actually wrong? Then, S.G. won't get mad at me at all if he doesn't actually like it.

  [Sig – 13 years]

  We overestimated how much energy we had left today and are talking about getting out and heading to someone's home to play video games or something. Sam's currently teaching Xander how to dunk someone and we're also doing our best not to pay attention to that because Xander looks ready to bolt over it. If he notices us watching, it'll probably tip his anxiety over the edge and he'll probably just teleport himself and his stuff away.

  How Sam managed to convince him to try… we figure it's because he knows Xander doesn't like him and so that would make him more likely to want to dunk him.

  "-though maybe we could get something on the way back?" Connor asks. "I've still got cash from last week's check, so I can get ice cream for us."

  Naturally, none of us have deposited our checks from yesterday yet because the banks aren't open today and we all went straight to hanging out again after returning to the area. But we all do still have money leftover from last Saturday's check.

  "Yes!" Isaac pumps his fists into the air as Connor realizes what he said. "Free ice cream!"

  "Wait! Hey! You buy chips!"

  "I'll get the sodas!" I say.

  Almost immediately after I say that, there's a sudden weight on my back as someone jumps onto it, their arms and legs wrapped around me. Huh. That doesn't feel like how Sam feels when he's on my back. Or Isaac or Connor, but they're in front of me so it couldn't be them, anyway.

  "Sam!" I exclaim as he starts pulling me backwards. "W-wai-aaah!"

  I make sure to inhale deeply before my head's under the water, though it's really hard not to laugh so I quickly surface. Sam releases me the moment I try to fight back and as soon as my head is back above the surface, I'm swiping my hand through the water to splash Sam… and get Xander instead, who looks completely confused and stunned.

  "Hold up!" I exclaim as I register that. "Xander? That was you?"

  "S-sorry!" He squeaks.

  "For what?" I ask. "That was awesome! I didn't even hear you come up behind me! Did you teleport behind me?"

  "No," Xander's trembling for some reason. "Sam said to sneak up behind you, so I swam underwater and used sound-dampening magic when I came up above."

  "That was awesome!" I tell him. "You pulled me back so easily, too! Do it again! Do it again! I wanna try and not get dunked this time!"

  Xander swims under the water, and he really makes no noise once he comes up behind me. The first indication that he did is when he's suddenly on my back, arms and legs wrapped around me. I try to lean forward to resist his pull, but he shifts with me and moves his weight forward, too.

  We both go down and he rolls off of me in the water, and I come up with a grin and a shout, fists in the air.

  "You didn't even manage it!" Sam laughs. "What are you cheering about?"

  "That Xander's dunking people!" I answer. "How much did you bribe him for it?"

  "I didn't bribe him," Sam grins.

  "He offered me ten pounds of candy of my choice from Mr. Roger's shop and another ten boxes of fudge of my choice from Mr. Vincent's," Xander answers. "Even more if you did get upset."

  Xander's blunt honesty about the bribe causes Connor, Isaac, and me to burst into laughter. There's no way Xander would brave something that makes him anxious unless there's some sort of incentive for trying. This is something we all have figured out, so it was obvious that Sam had offered him something.

  How much he had to offer, combined with Xander being willing to state what it took, is just too funny. But it got Xander to give it a try, and it was awesome.

  I hope this means we'll eventually be able to roughhouse with him like we do each other. It's always weird having to leave someone out of that when hanging out.