[Luke – 13 years]

  There's something different about Xander right now. We finished eating lunch after his lessons and grabbed our stuff to leave and he just… shifted. There's a scowl on his face, something that I never thought I'd see, not like this. He's also standing a lot straighter, too.

  It's as if he's set aside his fears and anxieties because of something, something which is making him really annoyed. That kind of makes me nervous, because I'm already in a little bit of a bad mood because of Parker.

  To the point I was wanting to punch him back.

  "Everything okay?" I ask.

  "No," he looks at Parker and gets very close to him, standing on his toes so that their faces are barely two inches apart. "I don't know what has you so moody all week, but get your shit together before tomorrow or you are not going to get to stay for the dessert. You also won't get invited to participate in the game test. You kept being rude to Luke and I do not like that, do not want it while we're celebrating, and do not want it while streaming the test. Understand me?"

  Whoa. Parker's mood has been enough for Xander to notice, and it's bothered him. Tomorrow's the last day we're coming to the lessons with him, and Xander has been assuring us all week that there's going to be "a real good dessert" for it. It's probably just a cheesecake he really likes, but still.

  For Xander to be this blunt about his dislike of Parker's attitude, he must really not want Parker spoiling the mood.

  "Got it?" Xander asks a little bit harshly when Parker doesn't respond.

  "Y-yeah," Parker's face is bright red and he's looked away.

  "Good," Xander shifts back to standing on his feet rather than his toes. "Bye."

  "See you tomorrow, Xander," I tell him, then leave with Parker.

  It's not until after we're off the property and walking back towards our homes that either of us say something. Parker's face is still red and he's avoiding looking at me, while I just want my friend back – but I'm not willing to sacrifice anything over his personal feelings.

  I tell Parker everything, so I didn't think twice about telling him that Tyler and I were dating. Ever since then, he's been really moody. Xander was right about him being rude to me, too, including cutting me off when speaking a lot more, hitting me a bit harder than normal when letting me know I'm getting hyper, and just other small things. All of it has honestly bothered me but I was trying not to say something.

  With Xander getting annoyed and making the threat he did, though, I need to say something.

  "Parker…"

  "What?" He huffs.

  "Would you still be like this if I were straight and you weren't even an option for me?"

  He doesn't answer.

  "You're my best friend," I tell him. "No one's going to replace you there, not unless you decide we aren't friends anymore. I don't want to lose you as a friend, but at the same time, you cannot make me not have friends or get with someone just because you want to date me. You're not even allowed to date."

  Parker huffs again.

  "If I was allowed to date," he mumbles. "Would you have still said 'yes' to him?"

  "That's not a fair question."

  "But you know I like you."

  "And he asked me first."

  "But I'm not allowed to date!"

  "You also asked about if he'd asked me and you were," I say. "That's a loaded question, Parker, and you know it. Tyler asked me first. I like him, too. You want me to say 'no' just because you like me. This whole thing you're doing is honestly making me not like you, Parker. And you were doing this when I just viewed him as a friend, too. If some other cute guy makes friends with me, are you gonna do this? Get upset and moody just because we're friends? Your parents are right, you do have a jealousy problem."

  "But-"

  "No buts," I huff. "Xander's right. You need to get over yourself, Parker. I don't want drama in my life and you're bringing it in just because you want to date me. I can't be friends with someone who's petty and moody and a jerk."

  "I-" Parker stops walking and I stop and look at him.

  The look on his face makes me feel really guilty. He looks on the verge on crying and I know that I'm the reason behind it. But I really don't want to deal with his attitude. I'm already dealing with enough stuff as it is, like figuring out this whole "I'm apparently gay" thing, dealing with the fact that I have exactly two friends because everyone else finds me annoying, the fact that I'm not allowed to join any sports by their own regulations and so can only really be physically active by training or playing with friends… and other stuff.

  So there's no way I want to deal with Parker's crap. It really hurts, but it's probably for the best that I stop being friends with Parker. I don't want to lose a friend, but he's just too much. There's more frustration from dealing with him now than there is just hanging out and having fun or chilling.

  "Sorry, Parker."

  I turn and keep walking and when I get to the gate at home, I look at the guard.

  "Don't let Parker in if he asks," I order. "And don't let me know if he comes by."

  "Yes, sir."

  I head inside and up to my room, then kick off my shoes and flop onto my bed, pulling my lightning wolf plushy from New Frontiers of Zenzialtz against my chest as I curl up. Tears threaten to come out, and I don't try stopping them. I'm not that strong.

  It hurts so much. He's my first friend, and I do like him a lot, but he's really stressful to be around lately. I don't want to stop hanging out with him, don't want to stop being friends with him. But I can't do it.

  Mom told me that if I do stop hanging out with Parker, it'd hurt. But she said it'll fade over time, especially as I make new friends. That it won't be hard as before because I'm able to be calmer and not ramble as much now, now that my mana's fixed. I really hope she's right, because it hurts so, so much.

  I already miss him.

  [Xander – 12 years]

  I don't want to go to the park, but at the same time, I do want to go the park. I did a lot of hanging out yesterday, though, which is why I'm unsure about what I should do. Hanging out with my friends is a lot of fun. At the same time, though, I don't want to play sports or stuff like that like they will.

  "Xander?"

  "Eeep!"

  "You're okay," Katie says. "You've just been standing in one spot, looking pretty deep in thought about something, ever since Luke and Parker left."

  They left? I must've zoned out when they did. I must've also moved a bit, since this isn't where I remember standing last. It's not much, but this is definitely a step or two away. I do that sometimes, taking steps without realizing it. Sometimes it's only one or two, but sometimes, I end up in the kitchen from my bedroom, staring at the container of strawberries until Katie startles me out of it.

  "S-sorry."

  "You're not in trouble," she says. "There's nothing wrong with it, I just wanted to see if you were okay."

  "Oh, um…"

  "Want to tell me what you were trying to decide?" She asks. "Maybe I can help?"

  She'll probably be able to give me good advice.

  "Yeah."

  We continue looking at each other.

  "Xander?"

  "Yes, Katie?"

  "What were you trying to decide?"

  "On if I should ask Trey about going to the park to hang out with S.G. and the others," I answer. "Even though I don't want to play."

  "They seem like they're fine with just hanging out with you," she says. "Even if you don't play. If you want, you can just sit and watch, or maybe read or do some magitech. And then, if you feel like joining in at all, you can do so. That way, you don't have to make up your mind immediately, and can just join in if you feel like it. How does that sound?"

  "I dunno… but maybe?"

  "Go ahead and ask Trey," she says.

  "Okay."

  "And your shoes are by the back door in the dining room."

  "Thanks."

  Trey gives me permission, so I grab my backpack and stick Trenton inside, then pull it on. I slip on my shoes, then leave the house and once I've gone past the gate, I teleport to a spot near the park, then ask Trey if I can do something else first. And apologize for going there before the park, but he says it's okay and I'm not in trouble.

  "Hello!" The girl behind the counter greets me when I walk in. "How can I help you today?"

  Is this the same girl who was here the other time I was here? I can't remember. And Trey said it's okay that if I'm asked immediately, that I can look at the board if I need to. I think he told me something else, but I don't remember what.

  Oh, good, they still have it.

  "May I please have a 30oz blueberry lemonade smoothie?" I ask.

  "Sure thing," she says. "That'll be $10."

  After I pay and receive my smoothie, I leave and teleport to the park. It's not hard to find S.G. and the others since all I have to do is look for people with a lot of the not-real fairies around them. The four of them are playing flag football with four other boys, and they're all skins today, instead of one team being shirts, the other skins. It is a warmer day, and their flags are colored so that's probably how they're able to tell who's on which team.

  I'm definitely not going to play that game. Even if there's no tackling involved, that's too much for me right now. Even if I didn't join them in swimming before or after the stream yesterday, it was still a lot.

  Can I sit at the table where their bags are? They'll probably be okay with it, but I'm not sure, so I sit at the next table over. There no one sitting at it and no bags at it, so it should be fine. I think.

  I sip on my smoothie as I try to figure out what to do now. In the end, I pull out my sketchbook and try drawing using the how-to-draw guide, but I'm really not that good. This is definitely going to take work. Eventually, I get frustrated and start trying to draw spheres and trying the shading tricks the guide has. That's easier, even if my attempts don't result in proper spheres. Circles are hard.

  As I draw, the others all greet me when getting drinks of water, but otherwise keep playing. Even the kids I don't recognize (or maybe it's don't remember, since I don't remember if I've seen them or not) greet me. They don't stop their game and just let me keep drawing, which makes me happy. If they ask me, I'll probably feel like I need to join and I don't want to do that.

  "Hey, Xander," a voice comes from my left, and I look over to find a boy and a girl approaching me.

  They've played with S.G. and the others before, and with me when I was playing with the others here. I don't remember their names, but I do remember that they didn't have bracelets before.

  They're little bracelets I've seen people wear before, other kids at school and stuff. Theirs are flat and only made with blue and orange threads, with his having a diagonal pattern facing the opposite direction of hers.

  He's wearing his on his left wrist, while hers is wearing hers on on her right wrist. Those are the wrists closest to the other, and I think that's on purpose. I can tell they like each other a lot. Both of them have on their backpacks, while he's not got his shirt on. Almost all of the guys at the park are shirtless today, probably because of the heat.

  There's no way I'm doing that. I kind of want to go home because of how many of them there are. But we're also in public, so I don't think anyone will try to do something to me. I think.

  "Hi, um…" I try to remember their names. "Eden and Kacy?"

  "Ethan and Macy," Ethan chuckles. "Nice to see you again, Xander."

  "Hello again."

  "You like drawing?" Macy asks.

  "No," I answer. "But I want to get better at it since it might help me with magitech and enchanting and stuff. And with making games."

  "We saw your streams," she says. "That's a pretty cool game. You made it by yourself?"

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Not entirely by myself," I tell her. "The others helped test it and give me ideas for what to improve, and I used some stuff from Greyson's database. Like the zombies. They came from his database, then I gave them hitboxes and stats and rewards for killing and stuff."

  "Still," she says. "That's pretty cool."

  I don't know how to respond to that.

  "Are those bracelets new?" I ask. "I don't remember seeing them."

  "They are," she says. "We made them earlier. They're friendship bracelets. We got bored and bought some floss earlier and made them."

  "Floss?" I ask. "But that doesn't look like floss."

  "Not dental floss," Ethan tells me. "Craft floss. It's used for crafts."

  There's more than one kind of floss?

  "And you make them if you're friends with someone?"

  "That's just their name," Macy tells me. "Some people make them just for fun, because they like the way they look. There are a lot of different patterns you can do."

  "Oh."

  So they like the way the bracelets look and just wanted some. Maybe.

  "You two made matching ones?" I ask.

  "Yeah," she answers. "A lot of friends make matching ones, if they make them. Or ones which compliment each other."

  "Some people will just make them and give them to their friends, too," Ethan adds. "We made each other's."

  "Oh," I look at their bracelets again for a moment, then fidget. "Um. Can I ask you something?"

  "Sure," they both respond.

  "So you're both going into eighth grade, right?" I ask.

  "Yeah," they answer.

  "So, um… are you two dating?" I whisper. "Or do your parents not let you date yet?"

  They both give me startled looks.

  "What makes you think that?" Ethan asks. "That we're dating, I mean."

  "You made complimentary bracelets," I answer. "And I'm a natural empath, but it mostly works for strong emotions, ones aimed at me strongly, or when it's a mutual one. And you two like each other. So if you two like each other, and you made complimentary bracelets, and they're on the wrists that'd be together if you were holding hands as you walked… and every time I've seen you two, you're together…"

  "Oh," his face reddens a little, as does Macy's. "I guess we do go everywhere together, huh? And, uh, yeah. We are."

  "Okay."

  "We're going to see if they'll let us join in on their game," Ethan tells me. "Is it okay if we put our bags here?"

  "At this table?" I ask.

  "Yeah."

  "I don't own it."

  "But you're sitting at it," Macy says. "It'd be rude to just drop them off and not ask."

  Really? But why would my opinion matter on it?

  "Oh," I say. "Um… sure."

  They put their bags down, then tell me to have fun sketching before going to join the others, who do let them join in on their game of flag football. Sam grabs another pair of flag belts from his backpack at the other table for them. Once they're on, the game resumes.

  I don't want to keep sketching. Doing spheres over and over again is boring and I want to do something else. Maybe I can try making a bracelet? People will probably think I'm dumb for wearing one, but I want to make one.

  Okay. That's what I'll do. But first, I need to ask Trey.

  He texts back when I ask and says it's okay to go to the store, so I teleport back to the mage district and to the crafts shop. Not the art shop, since that's for stuff like drawing and painting, but the craft shop, which is most other forms of art, I think. It's not a massive shop, but they might have craft floss.

  "We do," Mrs. Catherine answers when I ask. "I heard you bought some art supplies. Wanting to try something new?"

  "Um… I learned about friendship bracelets," I say. "And that that's just the name for them, they don't to be for friends. And I looked them up on my phone before asking my foster-dad if I can get the stuff for them, and some of the designs look cool. And I want to try wearing some. So I was wanting to get the stuff for those."

  "Alright," she says. "Do you want a book with a guide for different designs? And we sell little stands that you can fix the loop or knot onto, so you don't need to use something to hold it down."

  "Yes, please," I answer. "And, um… what colors do you have?"

  "I have standard and premium," she answers. "Each made from magic cotton rather than normal. Standard is $1, while premium is $1.50. The premium is a higher quality and the cotton is naturally the colors they are rather than dyed, so the selection is a little bit more limited, though we still have a wide variety of them. However, them not being dyed also helps them resist fading over time, so their colors last longer.

  "Those prices are for buying them individually," she tells me. "You can buy them in packs, and that'll come at a small discount. Depending on which one you want, I have different sizes of packs. Both in ten, twenty, twenty-five, thirty-six, and fifty, and the standard in one-hundred. Those packs come with each skein being a different color."

  "Um… what's a skein?"

  "A loosely coiled and knotted length of thread," she answers. "Or yarn, if you're using that instead."

  "Oh, okay," I say. "Um… can I see the pack for the premium? The big pack?"

  "Sure," she opens up a drawer on the wall behind her and pulls out a few packs, then sets them on the table. "I have them in three varieties for the fifty-counts. This one here is standard colors, and you can see that there are lighter and darker ones. This one is pastels, and this one is more earth tones. Some of the shades can be very similar to each other, but using them together can create more depth. They may match with other colors differently, too."

  That's beyond my ability to think about.

  "How much are they?" I ask.

  "They're $70 each," she answers. "So that's a $5 discount. You're essentially getting three and a third skeins for free with it."

  "Um… okay," I say. "May I please have three of each? And one book and three stands? Um… actually, I need to ask Trey first, since I think that goes over my daily allowance on my card and he'd need to up the limit for today. Is it okay if I wait to see if he lets me?"

  "Sure," she answers. "The total for the skeins is $630, while the book and stand are each $5, so that will be $650."

  "Okay," I pull out my phone and text Trey.

  [Xander]: The total for the stuff I want to get is $650, Mrs. Catherine says. That's more than I have in cash on me unless I go into my savings, and I don't want to do that. But it's also more than my daily limit on the card. Is it okay to ask if the limit can be raised for today so I can buy them? It's a lot of floss and it's premium magic floss, so I can go to a normal craft store for cheaper stuff if not.

  [Trey]: You're buying in threes, aren't you?

  [Xander]: I only want one of the books. But there are three fifty-packs of the skeins, with different color sets, and I want to buy three of each in case I mess up lots. And three of the stands, in case I accidentally break them.

  [Trey]: You've kept under the $250 daily limit since receiving the card – I upped it to $2,500. I'm trusting you to be responsible.

  [Xander]: I'll do my best. Thank you.

  He must be expecting me to be really hungry and want to eat out before coming back home today. But does he really think I can each that much food for dinner that it'd cost me nearly $2,000? Though I suppose he might have also just tried to increase it to what he expected the dinner bill would be, and maybe some snacks, but they only go from $1,000 to $2,500 for the limits, so he had to up it to that. How that whole thing works, I don't know. It may even just be from $250 to $2,500.

  I'll definitely do my best to not spend too much money.

  "Trey said I can pay for it," I tell Mrs. Catherine.

  "Alright," she smiles. "Let me grab that stuff for you."

  After I pay for the stuff and put it all into my backpack, I return to the smoothie shop (after checking with Trey if it's okay again) to get a second smoothie for myself. I finished the first one already so I want a new one.

  They're really good.

  Crafting stuff ready and a new smoothie acquired, I return to the park and sit back down at the table where I was before. Ethan's and Macy's stuff is still here, but since they asked me if they could put it here, I think that means it's okay for me to sit back down at this table even with having left for al little bit.

  I open up the book on the different styles of friendship bracelets, then pull out some floss and start making one. The first one I try to make is called a chevron, which is just a bunch of Vs. I alternate dark green, light green, and gold for its colors. The pattern calls for four colors, but it says I can do it with a different amount and I don't like the number four.

  That's why there will only be three game tests, and then a "release version" that's just us playing it.

  Carefully… carefully… carefully… there we go. This is easier than I expected, but I still take my time to make sure I do it right. Even if it feels like I'm using time magic to accelerate myself, I know I'm not. I'm taking my time, focusing hard, and even moving a lot slower than I can think to make sure I don't mess up.

  When I finish the bracelet, I discover an issue with attempting to tie it on. Doing it one-handed is difficult… so I use telekinesis. That makes it easy to put it on and tie the knot. The bracelet doesn't feel bad at all, and it even looks good. At least, in my opinion.

  And S.G. would definitely say "it's your opinion that counts!" for something like this. While I doubt that, it still makes me feel good.

  I pull the bracelet back off and put some enchantments on it. Just because it's premium magic cotton, that doesn't mean it's fully resistant. It'll resist damage more for sure and I had to use my magic to cut the thread rather than the scissors in my backpack (I should've bought some that would work on it at the store), but I'm sure it can get damaged by other stuff. Like magic.

  So I enchant the bracelet to resist fading further, to resist damage, to stay clean, to be waterproof, to not allow bacteria growth, and some other enchantments. The full "standard set", as Greyson had noted in the system when I looked up enchantments for clothes. With me being as powerful as I am, using my own magic to directly place down an enchantment via spell imbuement automatically makes the enchantments extremely strong.

  Once the bracelet is enchanted, I tie it back onto my right wrist as I make a wish. From what I looked up, you're supposed to make a wish when you put it on for the first time. As long as I don't take it off apart from when necessary, then the wish will come true before it falls off on its own. That means that whatever I wish should be something that can take awhile to come true, but not forever. Coming up with something like that is beyond my intelligence, so I decide to cheat and just make a simpler wish.

  I wish I can stop being afraid all the time.

  I finish tying the knot as I finish the wish, then I start making more. This was fun.

  The next ones I make are candy-stripe, which are the diagonal ones like what Ethan and Macy have. I make five for the first set of them, each with five colors. All of them have gold, and the one I tie onto my right wrist has dark blue, light blue, dark purple, and light purple. The other four have dark green on them, but are missing one of the other colors except for gold. Each one is missing a different color.

  The first one – the one missing dark green – gets tied onto my right wrist, too. Since I'm supposed to make a wish, I do that for this one as well.

  I wish Sig, Connor, Isaac, and Sam really can be close friends with me like they are with each other, and that we can be close friends for a very long time.

  Then, I make another set of candy stripe bracelets. These ones each have gold and dark green, light green, and light pink, though they each are missing one of the three colors that aren't gold. I tie the one missing dark green onto my right wrist.

  I wish that Carter and Tate are willing to be friends with me and hang out outside of just stuff related to streaming, and that we can be friends for a long time, too.

  Now, I have three bracelets on my right wrist. That's a good number and while I don't want to wear four bracelets, there's one set left to make.

  Last but not least, I make a trio of zigzag bracelets. They have gold, light yellow, dark yellow, and dark green, but as with the others, they're all missing a color other than gold. They're all still flat, it's just a zigzag pattern for them.

  The book does have some that are actually zigzags.

  I don't really like the look of these bracelets, especially because the one for me is missing the dark green, so I decide to wear it as an anklet. That feels like a better place for it, anyway, since it's not like the others.

  I pull up my right pant leg and tie the anklet around my ankle. The wish for this one is hard to come up with. Really, really hard, but I do a lot of thinking on it before deciding on something to wish as I tie it on.

  I wish that if we keep hanging out now that classes are over, Luke, Parker, and I can continue helping each other, even if they're not my friends.

  With the wish made and anklet fixed onto my ankle, I pull my pant leg back down and put my foot back on the ground. There we go. Now it's out of sight. Mostly. I can still see it in my mind and that bothers me, but I'll try to wear it for now.

  Once I finish packing up everything except the remaining bracelets, I look at Luke. He's sitting at the table and was watching me for the last five bracelets I made. That's about twenty-five minutes, since it took me roughly five minutes to make and then enchant each one. Maybe longer, since I did a lot of thinking about what to do for that last wish.

  At least he isn't shirtless. Having someone staring at me while he's shirtless would really make me uncomfortable.

  "You like making friendship bracelets?" He asks when I look at him.

  "I discovered them today."

  He seems gloomy for some reason. And feels gloomy, too. I really need to figure out how to turn this thing off. That feeling awful when it's my own gloomy feeling. It being someone else's makes it even worse.

  "And it let me focus on just one thing," I tell him. "I had to focus really hard to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. There wasn't any room for anxiety, apart from being scared I was messing them up. But I didn't, so that was good."

  It'll probably be in my good things tomorrow morning.

  "That's good."

  "This one's for you," I give him the zigzag bracelet with the gold, dark yellow, and dark green.

  "Me?" He raises an eyebrow.

  "Yeah," I nod. "Since you aren't coming to my classes anymore after tomorrow, since you're going on your father-son camping trip next week, and we aren't doing the classes the week after so I've got a break before school. So I probably won't see you again after tomorrow."

  "What's it for?" He asks. "How come it's missing the light yellow the one you put on has? The other one has it, too."

  "The light yellow is for you."

  "Huh?"

  "I'm dark green," I say. "You are light yellow, and Parker is dark yellow. And then gold so that there's three. And mine's missing dark green, because it's mine. And yours is missing yellow, because it's you. And Parker's is missing orange, because it's his."

  "Parker and I aren't your friends," he says. "You don't see us that way."

  "Yeah," I nod. "But Ethan and Macy said you don't have to make them with or for friends. And I didn't want to make you something expensive as thanks for help with my classes."

  Luke snorts, but still looks gloomy when he does.

  "Thanks," he says, then lifts his right foot up onto the bench so he can tie the anklet on around his ankle.

  "And you're supposed to make a wish when you tie it on," I add.

  Luke nods and ties it on, then lowers his foot and looks at me again.

  "Parker won't be coming tomorrow," he says. "Or to the test on Saturday. We're not… I told him we can't be friends anymore. He's been really mean about me being friends with Tyler, and then that Tyler asked me out and I said 'yes', and… yeah. I'm just tired of it and don't want to deal with it anymore."

  Then I'll need to stop by and give Parker his anklet at some point.

  "Okay," I say. "I don't think I've seen you at the park before."

  "I went for a walk," he shrugs. "Saw you here and… dunno. Then saw you… that wasn't magic you were using, was it?"

  "I enchanted all of them."

  "Not that," he shakes his head. "I mean, you were moving super fast. But it didn't seem like it was magic."

  "Really?" I ask. "But I was being careful, and it was definitely slower than my thoughts."

  "Yeah, but-" Luke starts, then cuts off and snorts. "Never mind. Anyway, I'm gonna go back to my walk. "See you tomorrow, Xander."

  "Bye."

  Luke leaves and once he's gone, Sig and the others come over. Not just his smaller group of friends but the bigger one, all of the boys who were playing with them. Some of them are wearing pinnies and pull them off when they get to the table. They switched to kicking a soccer ball around and was using the pinnies to differentiate the teams, since only Macy was wearing a shirt.

  The ones not in Sig's friend group go to the other table to grab their things and put the pinnies down, while Sig's close friend group come to mine, along with Ethan and Macy.

  "You made those super fast," Sig tells me. "They're really cool."

  "Not that fast," I tell him. "I was concentrating really hard so that I'd make them right. Also, I made ones for you guys. If you put them on, make sure to make a wish. The book says that if you make a wish while tying the knot, and then only not wear it when necessary and put it back on right after, your wish will come true by the time it falls off on its own. Oh, and I enchanted them all so that they're not gonna break that easily and won't get dirty or gross. Also so they won't snag on stuff."

  "That's cool!" Sig says. "Do we get to pick?"

  "No," I hand him the one missing dark purple. "This one's yours, because it's missing dark purple," I hand Connor the one missing light purple. "And you're light purple," I hand Isaac the one missing light blue. "And you're light blue," I hand Sam the one missing dark blue. "And it doesn't have to be to friends, so you still get one. You're dark blue. Those just seem like colors you guys like."

  "And you're dark green?" Sig asks.

  "Yeah," I nod. "I like dark green."

  "Who's gold?" Isaac asks.

  "No one," I answer. "That was just so there's not an even number of colors on them."

  "What about light pink and light green?" Connor asks. "I saw you making those, too. And the yellow and yellow, but you gave one to Lucas Gates, right?"

  I've already put the others away, so they're not out on the table. That means he really did see them… was he looking over while I was working on them? Why? And I don't want to answer about light green and light pink. Those are for others, and I don't want it getting spoiled that I made them.

  "Yeah," I nod. "He's light yellow and Parker's dark yellow. We aren't friends, either, but they've been helping me this summer so I wanted to make them for them. Anyway, I got distracted by this, but I'm actually kind of really hungry. Sorry for not hanging out properly, but I think I'm gonna go get something to eat."

  "We'll probably still be here when you're done," Sig tells me. "Come back if you want to! And if we're not here, you can still join us wherever we're hanging out."

  "I'll think about it," I tell him as I pull on my backpack. "Bye, Sig. Bye, others."

  "Bye!" They all respond.