[Xander – 12 years]

  "How was your nap?" Katie asks as I come down for lunch. "Oh! You didn't switch back?"

  I always sleep in my wolfkin form now because I find it more comfortable. It seems to help me sleep better, too. I haven't had a single bad dream while sleeping as a wolfkin.

  But sleeping is really the only time I'm a wolfkin, other than right before and right after. Dad told me it's okay to go around the house and yard as one anytime I want, but I always feel weird about it when I go to change into regular clothes for a wolfkin.

  Right now, though, I'm feeling a lot more like a wolfkin than a human. Because of that, I decided not to change back to human form before getting dressed from my nap.

  Katie asking me about not switching back means I'm probably supposed to and must mixed up what Dad told me with something else.

  "Um… I can go change back if I have to…"

  "You don't," she says. "I was just surprised, since you've been pretty shy about showing others this form. I think only your dad and great-grandfather have seen it, right?"

  "And me," I say. "And also Carter. I used it both of the nights I spent at his a couple of weekends ago. He didn't comment on it until we got ready for bed that Saturday and just said he thought it was cool. Also that I was cute in it."

  "Carter likes you?" She asks.

  "Yeah," I nod and climb up onto a stool on the dining room side of the counter. "But you can think someone's cute without being attracted to them. Like, I think he's attractive, but I'm not interested in dating him. Or Connor or Sam or Isaac and they're all cute, too. But I don't feel like I want to date them. They're just friends, not crushes. And that's even with me having gotten to know them, and I don't know Carter well enough for me to be attracted to him, if he's even my type. I don't know if he is, I just know that Sig is and I like him a lot. And. Um. I'm feeling more like a wolfkin boy right now, not a human one. So I didn't change back before getting dressed. And-and it's unlikely for someone other than you to see me. Except maybe Quinn or Frank. They've probably seen scarier when they were in the magic special forces, though, so it's fine."

  "Two things," she says. "First one, you said you haven't gotten to know Carter, so you can't want to date him?"

  "Yeah," I nod. "Like, he looks really huggable and maybe kissable and stuff, but dating's not an interest with him for me. It's weird that he wants to date me without getting to know me, isn't it? But maybe he can get to know people easier than I do? I know I struggle with stuff like making friends and understanding others…"

  "Xander," she smiles softly. "I think you might be something called 'demiromantic'."

  "Demiromantic?" I ask. "What does that mean?"

  "You're only attracted to boys, right?" She asks.

  "Yeah," I nod. "Like, I can look at a boy and go 'whoa, he's super cute', but I never think that about girls. And I like looking at cute boys. And the only people I've wanted to date were boys."

  "Right," she says. "So that means you're gay, or attracted only to other guys. Demiromantic is an addition to that. The vast majority of people can develop a crush without having to get to know someone. There are people who can develop a crush on someone they just met, even.

  "A demiromantic can't," she tells me. "They have to get to know someone before it's possible for them to develop romantic interest in the other person, if the other person is their type. There are varying degrees of it, but if you don't develop crushes until after you've gotten to know someone, then you're probably in the category."

  I didn't know it was more than "attracted to boys, attracted to girls, or attracted to boys and girls".

  "Oh," I say. "Maybe. What's the other thing?"

  "You're feeling more like a wolfkin boy than a human boy?" She asks. "What do you mean by that?"

  "May I please have steak for lunch?"

  "Steak, potatoes, and mac-and-cheese?" She asks.

  "Yes, please."

  "Fries, wedges, or mashed?"

  "Wedges, please."

  "Grilled or stove?"

  "Grilled, please."

  "Want to help?" She asks. "It'll go a little faster with both of us, especially if you use your magic to help the seasonings penetrate the meat. But let's do most of the work by hand, alright?"

  "Alright."

  I get off of the stool and start helping Katie prepare lunch. My tail moves from side to side a little as we work, and I prepare two steaks rather than just one. All of the ingredients have magic to them, whether it's just because that's how they grew or because they're an actual magic variant. For the steaks themselves, they're mindwave cattle steaks.

  "Did Trey say he was coming home?" Katie asks upon realizing I'm preparing two.

  "No," I answer. "But you never eat with me. And I asked Dad and he said it's okay for you to eat with me. It ain't like you'll be cooking more while I'm eating, and all of the food will be on the table. That means your work is done until I finish eating. And I don't like it when you eat separate. I know you've got to for other meals since you prepare more food and stuff for when Dad and I want more, but not this time. So you get a steak, too."

  "Xander?"

  "Yes, Katie?"

  "Thank you for the consideration," she tells me. "I'll take you up on that offer. In the future, though, you should check with me first. What if I'd already eaten? Or were going to use the food for something?"

  "You always eat after us," I tell her. "And I'm the one who bought the steaks. The amount of seasonings and potatoes we have also suggests they're just here, not specifically set aside for other things. But I guess if you had plans to eat with someone else… okay. I'll try to remember that."

  "Thank you."

  We continue making lunch, and Katie lets me do most of the grilling. She doesn't like her steaks as rare as I like mine so I have to account for that when cooking. Thankfully, she guides me on what to do so that I don't mess up.

  After we eat lunch, I help Katie with the dishes, then go to my classroom to pick out the packets for today. Each packet is just two sheets of paper, the first one both-sided and the second one only the front. I pick the geometry packet since that seems easy and then an earth science packet because I don't think rocks would be too difficult.

  Back in the dining room, I work on the worksheets. The geometry one is just as easy as I expected. It's on figuring out the area of different shapes, and that's mostly just multiplying the two sides by each other. There's nothing on triangles for some reason, so they must have a special case. It's rectangles and circles and cylinders.

  The packet expands on the geometry lesson from the packet I did yesterday, which was mostly just teaching me the names of different shapes and how to know what they are.

  When I get to the last page of the geometry worksheet, it wants me to solve for the areas of shapes that are more difficult. The first one looks like a square that has a smaller rectangle sticking out of the side of it. That means I need to figure out the area of the smaller rectangle and the bigger square separately, I believe.

  But how? I don't like how long the side with the empty spot is on either of those. It's missing and there's no measurement on it, which means I can't figure it out!

  No matter how many times I look at it, nor look through the small lesson section, I can't solve this! Dad said these are supposed to be solvable.

  "Katie?"

  "Yes, Xander?"

  "Um… do you think Dad'll be mad if I can't finish a packet?"

  "Why do you think you can't?" She asks.

  "Because, um… I don't have all of the information," I tell her. "It's not in the packet, even though it's supposed to come after the last one."

  "What's wrong?" She comes out of the kitchen and walks over to me.

  "These problems," I say. "They want me to solve areas without giving me all of the side lengths."

  Katie looks at the problem for a moment.

  "Xander," she says. "How long is the other side of the rectangle?"

  "Um… it says four units."

  "And what defines a rectangle?"

  "A rectangle is a shape with four straight lines," I answer. "Two pairs of parallel lines that connect at right angles. This makes it so that each pair of opposite sides are the same length."

  "So if the side opposite of the missing one is four units," she says. "That means the missing one is…"

  "Oh," my face heats up. I'm so fucking dumb. "It's four units…"

  Katie returns to the kitchen to do whatever it was she was doing in there, and I finish working on the packet. Her being in there is a little distracting, though. She normally watches TV or does something elsewhere if she's not working and I don't think she's working at the moment.

  I do my best to not get distracted by all of the noise she's making by opening and closing cabinets and looking in various places.

  The science packet teaches me about different rock types, then asks me questions to see if I learned the information. It doesn't seem to matter that the answers are in the packet, as long as I don't use my phone or computer to look them up.

  That makes this easy. Mostly. I still need to figure out which type of rock the rock is based on the description or picture. Mr. Wilson will grade it and then let me know what I got right and wrong in the next science lesson, too.

  Once I finish, I put the packets away, then grab my backpack and Trenton and locate my shoes.

  "Ready?" Katie asks once I've found my shoes.

  "Yeah," I answer.

  "Alright," she says. "Let's go."

  I follow her to the door to the garage, then pull on my shoes and get into the car with her. It's Tuesday, and that means it's baking stream day.

  "I was checking while you did your packets," Katie tells me as she drives. "We'll need to buy some more cake pans for what we're doing today. That won't come out of your budget, though, as they can be used for stuff for the household."

  Oh, so that's what she was doing in the kitchen while I was doing my homework.

  "I could go to the workshop and make them," I tell her. "Greyson's machines allow me to do that."

  "I know," she says. "But don't, alright? I probably would have bought them anyway, to make your birthday cake."

  "It'll really be that big?" I ask.

  "It will," she says. "You said you want to invite a lot of people over."

  "Well, yeah… but that doesn't mean they'll come," I say. "Why would they come to my party?"

  "Because they're your friends," she answers. "And friends usually go to their friends' birthday celebrations if they don't have other plans."

  But… it's a celebration for me. I'm still not sure about this, but Dad and Katie keep insisting it's fine. They say that my friends like me a lot more than I think they do and try to point out that Sig even accepted my request to be boyfriends as proof. While I know that things are different now, I still find it hard to believe people would actually want to attend my birthday party.

  "Can I ask about something else?" I want to change the topic because we're not going to agree on this.

  "Sure."

  "Dad keeps getting awkward and not answering," I say. "But when I spent the night at Carter's a couple of weekends ago, something really confusing happened."

  "What was it?" She asks.

  "Mrs. Martins got pregnant while eating dessert Sunday after lunch," I answer. "And with twins. But she wasn't… doing the thing. She was just eating dessert with us. Nobody there would tell me and they all got kind of awkward, and then Dad just gets awkward and uncomfortable. But I really don't understand it, and I was told to not look it up online, to ask Dad. But how can she get pregnant just eating dessert? And with twins? And how are the twins not identical if they appeared at the same time?"

  "Oh," Katie says. "I can understand why they'd get uncomfortable. Trey, too."

  "And you," I add. "I can feel it."

  "Yes," she says. "It's a bit uncomfortable of a topic. They'll cover it in Health in high school. To put it in simpler terms, though: conception doesn't happen immediately. It's not a guarantee for a woman to get pregnant just because of the act. Things have to align right as well, and if they do, it can still take a day or more for the egg to be fertilized."

  That's basically the same thing I was told at the Martins', but it's still confusing. I guess I'm not going to learn the answer for now unless I look it up.

  "As for the twins thing," she says. "The simple answer is that identical twins require them to originate from the same embryo, which then splits. Fraternal twins start from separate eggs. That's as descriptive as I'll get on this topic. Does that answer your questions?"

  "Only sort of," I answer. "How come they told me not to look it up online?"

  "Because pictures would possibly show up."

  "Ew!"

  Katie laughs.

  "Health class in high school gets a bit more descriptive," she tells me. "And it does include some pictures. But you've got a year or more before that. I believe it's a freshman class."

  I don't ever want to do that. If I'm still being home-schooled at that point, I'll do my best to skip that lesson and never do the packets for it.

  For the rest of the ride to the store, we discuss what I'm going to bake. Katie makes sure I have my list and that everything we'll need is on it, too.

  Then we arrive at the store and begin buying things. As we do, I hear a couple of people whispering. Everything seems even louder than normal and that's really uncomfortable.

  "Is that a tail accessory?" One asks. "It's moving around. Same with the ear accessories. Why'd she let her son wear those? It's weird. He's too old for dressing up like that."

  "How did they get his normal ears to be hidden?" Another asks. "That's going too far with the costume."

  I look around trying to figure out who they're talking about and… spot my tail.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Fuck!" I exclaim.

  "Language, Xander," Katie says.

  "Zrebzialan."

  "What?"

  "You did a language check."

  "No," she says. "I was telling you to watch your language. No swearing."

  "I forgot to turn back into a human before we left!"

  "I know," she says. "But you seemed pretty comfortable as a wolfkin, so I decided to not say anything. If it makes you happy and comfortable, then it makes you happy and comfortable."

  "But-but people are whispering about me!" I tell her. "They're saying it's weird and that I'm too old and they think I'm dressing up and-"

  "He heard us?"

  "Yes, I heard you!" I look at them. "It's rude to talk about other people like that! And I'm not dressing up! It's a real tail and real ears and I don't have human ears because I'm currently not human! I'm a wolfkin! Wolf! Kin!"

  "Xander," Katie says. "Let me handle this," she looks at the pair of customers who were talking about me. "This is Xander King, a great-grandson of Adrian King, the very man who taught him how to use the spell which allows him to shapeshift like this. By having an issue with him shapeshifting using that spell, you're having an issue with Adrian King himself. And if you'd bothered to use your brain for even half a second, you would've realized that the ears and tail were likely real. Also, even if he were simply dressing up, he's not causing any problems so his behavior is fine."

  Katie stairs at the pair of customers for several long moments, and they decide to quickly walk away.

  "Katie?" I ask once they've left.

  "Yes?"

  "Can I go to the restroom?"

  "Is it so you can shapeshift back to a boy and change your pants?"

  "And underwear."

  That also has a tail hole, and there's no way I won't change out of that if I don't have a tail. They're only for when I'm a wolfkin and it'd be uncomfortable without the tail.

  "No."

  "But-"

  "Xander," she interrupts me. "The reason you want to change back is because you feel like you're being bad by being a wolfkin, right?"

  "They-"

  "Did your great-grandfather say it's fine?"

  "Yeah."

  "Is he the man who secretly controls the world from the shadows?"

  "No."

  "Pretty sure he does."

  "He doesn't control the whole world," I tell her. "Not everything. Sure, he has a lot of influence on other continents, but most of what he does is in North America. And it's not really a secret. I don't get why people keep saying that."

  "The most powerful being on Earth says it's okay," she tells me. "And his word is, essentially, law. That means that if someone has an issue with you being a wolfkin boy when you feel like it, then the issue is on them, not on you. You're very well behaved and you're not causing problems."

  "But you went off on them because of me."

  "That was my choice over their behavior," she says. "If S.G. could turn into a wolfkin, what would he do?"

  "What does that have to do with me?" I ask.

  "Just answer the question, Xander."

  "Um… he'd probably go as a wolfkin all the time," I answer. "Especially when doing videos, just because he'd find it funny or… um, 'cool', as he says. I still don't understand why other kids say that instead of 'awesome' or 'nice' and stuff."

  "Okay," she says. "So your most popular friend would have no issue being it, because he's not worried about others being annoyed by it, right?"

  "Yeah, but-"

  "But nothing," she says. "You think others wouldn't have an issue? S.G. doesn't care. What would he say if he knew you wanted to be in this form but were scared others would think you were being bad?"

  "He'd say that they're dumb," I answer. "I think he wants to see me in this form. And that he's jealous of Carter. He sends me a picture every night when he goes to bed, and again when he wakes up. And if I let him know I'm taking a nap or got up from a nap, he sends me another picture. He even did today, once he had his lunch break."

  My nap was short and he had his lunch while I was helping make ours.

  "He's probably curious about what you look like as one," she tells me. "And he's right: if they have an issue with you being in wolfkin form, then they're dumb and are thinking things that don't matter. You're not misbehaving, Xander. You're allowed to be in that form if you wish. Now lift that chin up and let's get the things we need."

  "Alright…"

  I don't want to stay in this form any longer, even if it's comfortable and I'm still feeling really like a wolfkin boy rather than a human one. That could be just because I am a wolfkin boy right now, though.

  Once we buy everything, we return home and I change my form and clothes in my bedroom, then return to the deck where we'd put our purchases. I make sure everything is ready for the stream and that I'm wearing my streaming glasses, then begin.

  "Hello, everyone," I say. "I know there won't be a lot of you as school's in session now, but I'm still doing my baking streams. But we'll talk for a bit like usual before beginning, so people can show up."

  [GarbledGargle]: are you a black belt?

  "Am I a black belt?" I read his message. "No, I'm not. And you showed up earlier than you usually do. I'm still a white belt, I haven't tested up yet. I'm probably not taking an advancement test for awhile."

  I talk with chat for fifteen minutes, then begin the actual stream content.

  "Okay," I say. "So for today's stream, I'm not going to bake just an oversized treat. Instead, Katie's going to walk me through making a fancy cake. It's going to be big, though, which is why we've got a lot of flour and stuff. The first step is just making the cake itself. I know how to do that, and it's going to be a lemon cake. As you can see over there, I don't have boxed cake mix. I'm making it from scratch, including the lemon flavor."

  I mix up the batter and pour it into the different cake pans Katie has me prepare. A regular oven takes too long for the time slot I've set aside for the stream so I use magic to perform the actual baking process. Magic also cools the cakes so that they can be worked more easily, simulating a blast chiller but with temporal acceleration.

  Once those are finished, I begin mixing up the mainfrosting for the cake. It's blueberry frosting, but with varying levels of purple. There's also a separate strawberry frosting that I mix up and a separate lime frosting as well. I make a few other colors as well, with one or both of those flavors, but transmuted with magic to change their colors to the ones I want.

  Katie begins guiding me after this part, though she doesn't do the work herself. Following her instructions, I cut and shape and put together the cake. The strawberry frosting is used between the layers of the cake, while the purple frosting is spread onto part of. I mess up a lot, but Katie just talks me through how to smooth out the frosting.

  With the varied purple colors, I'm able to create some tone and additional details to the cake as well. I mess up a lot with that but Katie teaches me how to conceal or even remove them without making it look like a mistake happened at all. More frosting of other colors is spread onto other parts of the cake.

  That's not all there is to the cake, though. From mixing the batter to putting on the frosting takes about an hour but there's more to do. This is the most fancy cake I've ever made and two hours just isn't enough if I have to do everything the normal way. That's why baking and cooling was done through magic.

  Well, and because it's more convenient.

  [TinaStrikesFast]: THERE'S MORE???

  [PandaSoul31]: it already looks finished!

  A lot of chat seems surprised there's more even though we haven't gone through all of the ingredients set out on the ingredients table yet. I know we don't always go through everything, but there's just way too much left for it to be that.

  "Yeah, there's more," I say. "We're adding in more details and stuff."

  "For that," Katie says. "We'll be making different candies for it."

  "That's right," I say. "We're making the candies, not using store-bought stuff."

  Katie begins teaching me how to make them. She isn't demonstrating this as she goes so I have to follow her instructions without seeing it. That makes it a little bit more difficult than doing the same thing for the cake did, but I manage to finish decorating the cake with approximately fifteen minutes left out of the two hours I set aside for it.

  "And done!" I say. "Here it is, everyone! A dragon cake, complete with a candy hoard!"

  I didn't really want to do a dragon cake because what if others took it the wrong way? But Dad insisted on me learning how to do a fancy cake like this from Katie for the afternoon, if I skipped classes. That way, my viewers could also see me learning during a stream during school hours. He also assured me that making a cake like this is not lying or trying to trick people, and said that if anyone thought that, then they're just being dumb. If they say it, then they're just being mean.

  Katie also said that the whole purpose of fancy, shaped cakes like this isn't to trick people but to create a work of art with food.

  I'm still confused by that but that's two different people who were honest when they said it. Art food is really weird, though. Why make it look pretty instead of focusing on making it delicious?

  This cake used several rectangular cakes to make a "mountain". It's not a heavily-sloped mountain, more like a dragon already near the peaks, with the peak being only slightly rounded. Green frosting was used to make it look grassy, since I didn't want to do chocolate to represent dirt. Transmuting some blueberry frosting to green while retaining its flavor also ensure the flavors still match.

  The purple frosting was used for the dragon's body, with the variations used to give it depth and detail. With blue frosting, I made a river design flowing down the mountain, crashing down as a waterfall over one edge of the cake.

  Much like the differing frostings, transmutation was used to change the colors of a lot of the candy used to create trees, bushes, small boulders, and other details.

  Golden "coins" were created to act as the dragon's hoard, the pile held together with small dabs of frosting. Candy was also used to give the dragon teeth, horns, back and tail spikes, and wings.

  Rather than being upset with me for making a cake look like a dragon with a fake hoard, my chat seems to be really impressed. That's really confusing but I'm also really happy. If I were still in my wolfkin form, my tail would probably be wagging really hard right now.

  Though I still feel really wolfkin-like right now. I really want another steak.

  "While you guys admire that," I sit at a table and a giant plate with a three-foot-wide strawberry cookie with cream cheese icing drizzled over it appears in front of me. "I'm going to eat this."

  Katie looks over and I can feel her confusion. She seems to be trying to say something while indicating the cookie, but she doesn't say anything so I just dig in.

  [Sig – 13 years] → begins during Xander's PoV.

  "Good afternoon," Mrs. Flowers, my Culinary Arts teacher, says when the bell rings. "It looks like everyone is here, so let's get straight to things. Who here has heard of Xander King?"

  "I have!" I raise my hand up as high as possible without getting out of my seat.

  "Other than his friends," Mrs. Flowers amends with a chuckle.

  "Wait," I realize as some of the other kids raise their hands. "What does Xander have to do with this class?"

  "Hush, S.G.," she says. "You haven't been called on."

  "We can pretend I was!"

  "Can we pretend Xander hit you with a silencing spell?"

  "Oh, he would never do that!"

  Mrs. Flowers rolls her eyes.

  "I was originally planning on going over kitchen safety today," Mrs. Flowers tells us. "But Xander is apparently continuing his Tuesday baking streams. He began his a little before one and is still going right now. We'll watch him as he continues, and discuss during it and during tomorrow's lesson on kitchen safety some of the things he's doing."

  Xander skipping a second afternoon of classes in a row does not surprise me in the slightest, especially since he's baking instead. Baking is something he enjoys and those streams are pretty much hardcoded into his schedule now.

  It seems he's on the "decorating the dragon" cake stage as he's finished making and frosting the cake itself. The cake looks insanely good, and Mrs. Flowers explains to us that he didn't start off making it look that great. Ms. Katie guided him and walked him through how to make all of the adjustments for it.

  Now he's making hard candy and he's using magic to transmute the colors he doesn't have a suitable flavor dye for. None of us needed Mrs. Flowers to let us know that that isn't a normal process.

  Of course it isn't. Xander uses magic the way we breathe. It comes to him naturally and he's a walking library of magical knowledge that only grows every time he visits his workshop and looks at the database.

  Once the cake is finished, it looks so amazing that it would be a shame for him to cut into it to eat. There are definitely signs that it wasn't a professional who made it, but it doesn't look amateurish, either.

  After showcasing the cake for a few seconds, Xander sits down and pops out a massive cookie to eat. That was definitely not something Ms. Katie expected because she's so confused and surprised that she's at a loss for words.

  Which makes me snicker. This is Xander we're talking about. His Tuesday baking streams always have him eating a giant treat at the end. He probably prepared that without mentioning it because he assumed she'd know that he would still do it since it's part of the stream.

  Silly baker.

  Mrs. Flowers talks with us about a few of the things Xander did that she didn't mention while he was creating the decorations, then the bell rings and it's time to go.

  My lanyard and shirt go into my backpack once I leave the building, Connor and Sam doing the same as they join me at the bikes.

  "Guys," I say. "Xander still did his baking stream, but it was an educational one for him this time. Ms. Katie was teaching him how to make a dragon on a mountaintop for a cake. And at the end… he pulled out a giant cookie he'd already made, and it was soooo obvious Ms. Katie hadn't known about it or expected it!"

  That makes both of them snicker for a moment, then I take a selfie to send it to Xander.

  [Sig]: Out of school! On way to meet w Isaac then head home!

  [Xander]: I'll try to be there by four.

  [Sig]: Cool! See ya then!

  Xander's message is soon followed up by a picture of him posing beside the cake, but he looks really awkward. Is he trying to do what he thinks I would do with a cake like that?

  If so, he should smash someone's face into it after removing the hard bits. Maybe his own face, taking a giant bite out of it at the same time.

  "Xander says he'll try to meet up with us by four," I say. "So he's probably going to take a little bit of a nap. Alright, let's go meet up with Isaac!"

  After we meet up with Isaac, we head back to my place, where Aunt Rachel is putting out snacks. Judging by the fact that there are cherry tomatoes in the set, Mr. Thompson probably contributed to today's.

  "How was school?" Aunt Rachel asks.

  "It was great!" I answer. "Mrs. Flowers is apparently a fan of Xander's, so we got to watch his stream while she told us about some of the techniques and processes he used."

  "What about the rest of you?" Aunt Rachel asks.

  After we spend a few minutes telling her about our day, we grab the snacks and head to the deck to work on the homework we've already been assigned. The teachers must really be trying to prepare us for high school because it's more than we received on the second day last year.

  Not that it's hard. I studied the text book a couple of years ago and already know all of the material. As I'm a fast reader and can write neatly even while writing cleanly, I'm able to finish everything in about ten minutes.

  Our school follows a general guidance with regards to homework issued by Adrian King that he recommends all schools follow. It's pretty well-known that he issued it so that students don't have their entire free time taken up by school work. He wants to make sure we still have plenty of time to do our chores, go to work if we have a job, hang out with our friends, and just have free time in general.

  The guidance is that a normal student shouldn't need to spend more than ten or fifteen minutes per hour of instruction in a class period for the homework for any individual assignment received per class day they have to complete it.

  So if a student only has, say, Honors Algebra on Mondays and Thursdays and they receive an assignment on Monday due on Thursday, and they have classes lasting an hour and twenty minutes, then it shouldn't take longer than around fifteen to twenty minutes for them to do the assignment.

  That's for normal students. I put in a lot of effort to make sure I know plenty of things. I used to think that if I was at the top of my class or even smarter than my class, my parents would pay more attention to me. It didn't work but that doesn't mean I don't still try. If it were possible for me to graduate high school without attending a special academy, I could probably do it.

  Maybe then they'd care about me?

  "Hey, Sig," Connor distracts me. "I'm stuck on this one."

  "Already?" I lean over and look. "It's the first day of learning, you've gotta do better than that! What aren't you getting?"

  I help Connor with the problem, and the others as they need it. They don't need much as it's still fairly simple stuff, and they all finish their homework within thirty minutes.

  Xander most likely won't be here for another ten minutes, so we start tossing a football around the yard.

  "I got it I got it!" Connor shouts as he jumps for the ball.

  "Ha!" I tackle him to the ground and we end up rolling for a moment. "No ball for you!"

  "And that is exactly why I'm not joining," Xander's mumbling draws our attention and we look over to see him on the deck, Trenton in his arms.

  That was definitely said to Trenton. The reason Connor and I could hear it was because we're close to the deck. Maybe a little too close, the ball might hit the house if we're not careful.

  "Hi, Xander!" I say.

  "Hi, Sig," Xander says. "And Connor and Sam and Isaac. I put cookies and strawberries on the table."

  "Cool!" I say. "I saw part of your stream, my teacher for Culinary Arts was using it to show us some of the proper cooking techniques you were using. That dragon cake looked soooo good!"

  "It might taste good, too," Xander says. "I brought it and ice cream. In-in case y'all wanted to try it. The cake, I mean. Y'all already know what my ice cream tastes like."

  "Yeah!" I say.

  The four of us join Xander on the deck and he puts the cake on the table. It just appears there, making me think back to what Carter mentioned on Saturday.

  "Hey, Xander?" I ask.

  "Yes, Sig?"

  "Do your black bracelets have spatial pockets in them?"

  "Stasis pockets," Xander says. "They're like spatial pockets, but with a temporal stasis on them. I made them using the leather from one of the pocket hares I caught when I went hunting with Carter."

  "Carter said he wanted to ask you about commissioning something," I tell him. "Has he mentioned it to you?"

  "Yeah, back when I spent the night," Xander says. "I think he said he might after I finish my own. I was going to ask him when I see him Friday."

  "You're seeing him Friday?" I ask.

  "Yeah," Xander nods. "He said he and his friends were going hunting again and wanted to know if I'd join them. Grandpa Adrian said it's okay to make something for him if he asks."

  I really wish I could join in on that hunt, but they're probably hunting magic beasts and monsters. It's doubtful I'll ever be on the same level as the rest of them when it comes to mana, so I won't be able to participate in their hunts.

  At least I still get to go hunting! Mr. Fuller confirmed after my shooting practice on Sunday that I can join him and Hunter so I'm going with them on Friday. There's another kid in my grade joining us, the son of a woman his sister became friends with over the summer.

  "Good luck!" I tell him.

  "Thanks," he says. "Good luck on yours, too. Okay. Let's cut the cake. Um. First, though, Sig?"

  This is probably his hug request.

  "Yes?" I ask.

  "Can I give you a hug?"

  "Yup!" I hold out my arms, and he gives me a hug and I wrap my arms around him. "How were your classes?"

  "They were okay," he answers as he releases me, then pulls out a chef's knife.

  That timing is really funny and totally like Xander to not think about.

  "Whoa!" I hold my hands up. "I won't ask again! I won't ask again!"

  "What?" Xander looks confused. "But I don't mind you asking."

  "Xander," Connor snickers. "He's joking. He asked how your classes went and you pulled out a knife."

  "But it's to cut the cake," Xander turns to face the cake as Trenton floats onto his shoulder. "And he wasn't lying."

  Is he aware that he just implied he would threaten me with a knife for lying? I know he wouldn't, but that just made this funnier.

  "Because I wasn't," I say. "I was joking. There wasn't an intent to deceive you, Xander, it was just me goofing around. You pulling out the knife after I asked how classes went was just funny timing. Made it look like you were going to stab me for asking."

  "But I wasn't?" His face screws up in confusion.

  "I know!" I tell him. "That's why I was joking about it!"

  Xander still seems confused and decides to cut into the cake instead of continuing to ask, so that ends that discussion.

  The cake turns out to taste amazing, with the balance between the sweetness of the berries and the tartness/sourness of the lemon good enough I can't tell if it's perfect or close. I'm not professional, but I don't care.

  "This is amazing!" I tell Xander.

  "Yeah!" Isaac says. "And it looked amazing, too!"

  "T-thanks," Xander's face turns red as he shifts a little and looks down as the others compliment him as well.

  Once we stuff ourselves with cake and ice cream, we play cards and talk about nothing in general, then it's time for everyone else to head home. Even if we'll be meeting up for bowling in a few hours, the dads still want everyone home for a while before then since so much more of our time is used up during the school year.

  Xander gives me a hug before he leaves, then it's just me here. Well, and Aunt Rachel, but I don't know what she's doing. I'll check that, maybe she's making dinner.