[Xander – 13 years]

Whoa. Last night was apparently exhausting enough for even me to sleep in. Rather than it being five in the morning, it's just-after nine. At least, if my time-check magic was correct. I teleport my phone to my hand and check the time and confirm that it's 9:03.

No one else seems to be awake right now, except for Trenton. Trenton doesn't really sleep, though, even if he goes to bed with me. So it doesn't count as him having woken up already as he's always awake.

I move my blanket off of me and sit up, then stretch a little, my tail stretching along with me. Sig's on the other side of Mr. Leviathan, still snuggling him and sleeping quietly. Everyone's sleeping quietly, even Berry. I don't know why but I was expecting Berry to be a noisy sleeper.

Should I switch back to human form before the others wake? They all saw me in wolfkin form for several hours last night, though, and I want to stay in it until at least breakfast. Now that I'm not tired anymore, however, I feel a little uncomfortable being in a wolfkin form around others. And changing back to human form would give me an easy excuse to change into pajamas. I slept in just shorts, like almost everyone else (some of them sleep in underwear for sleepovers, but they're all under blankets and no one was naked so it's okay).

After taking a few moments to debate, I decide to stay as I am until after breakfast. Or at least, to try to. I might not last that long. They all already know that they must be wearing at least shorts when they leave the sleeping area, I made sure to tell them before bed.

I put on my glasses, fix the blanket on Mr. Leviathan and Sig, and carry Trenton over to the lounge area of the rec room and set him on one of the armchairs, then I grab my backpack and bring it over. Even if I have stasis bracelets on, I still keep snacks in my backpack. That's where the snacks Mom gives me go.

Trenton gets sat on my lap as I eat a few pieces of cantaloupe, but I put the container away when I notice Berry waking up.

"Morning, Xander," he yawns as he approaches, sniffing the air. "Do I smell fruit?"

"Yeah."

"Cantaloupe?"

"Yeah."

He looks around, then shrugs.

"Hey, do you have any flower pots?" He ask.

That seems random.

"Why?"

"I wanna prank the others."

Oh, dear. Grandma Lily warned me that he likes pranking people. She also assured me that he doesn't try to upset people, that it's things he's sure they'll find funny right away after and generally won't ever get upset about. If they don't, it's generally something they're just like "eh" about after.

He likes having fun, not annoying others.

"What kind of prank?" I ask.

It's still best to make sure he's not planning something mean.

"Turn into a small version of my real self," he answers. "I can fit in a flower pot if I do. If I do that, they'll think I'm just a decorative plant they missed last night… then I can startle them when I start talking!"

That seems harmless.

"Okay," I say. "Yeah. The dork gave me some for some reason. No soil, though."

Which makes him giving me the flower pots make even less sense. He also didn't give me any flowers or other plants to put in them. There was zero explanation given, just "Here!" and he teleported away after.

Though I did enchant them to make them sturdier, just in case I ever found a use for them. This seems like an okay enough use for them, even if it's very temporary. I really don't have potting soil, thoguh.

"That's fine!" He says. "I can make some."

I pull a flower pot out of one of my bracelets and examine it. It's a two-gallon clay pot with no decorations.

"Is this big enough?"

"Yup!"

"Want me to decorate it first?" I ask. "I ain't that good, but I could probably come up with something. And I can use temporal acceleration to do it quickly."

"Nah," he says. "Once I'm in the pot, can you put me on the table by you?"

"Okay," I say, and he starts transforming.

His shorts and underwear falls away as his body shrinks and turns into a plant. By the time the transformation finishes, he looks like a small shrub with flowers with their petal coloration the same as his hair in human form. There are vines woven into his branches going up vertically and a pair of branch-like antlers sticking up out of his head. Roots protrude from underneath him, but they seem to be legs, like how the shrubs who work for Grandpa Adrian are like.

Seeing him in his real form is a lot different from sensing it. When I sense Grandma Lily's form, she doesn't have the antlers. Her flowers are also solid in color rather than fading with the darker stripes and her vines are woven horizontally rather than vertically.

"Yeah," Berry says when I mention this, using his roots to walk over to the flower pot as I set it on the floor. "We have sexual dimorphism – that is, there are differences between male and females aside from the reproductive parts."

"I know about those," I tell him. "It gets mentioned in a lot of the documentaries I watch. Humans are sexually dimorphic, too."

"Cool!" He says. "I wasn't sure if they were or not. Girls of my people have solid-color flowers, two arms, seven legs, and no antlers. Guys of my people have fade-color flowers, four arms, nine legs, and antlers! And of course, there's the vines difference you mentioned."

"You have legs?"

"My roots!" He wiggles them. "There are nine main ones. And my arms!"

Four branches suddenly poke out of his leafiness, each one with smaller branches at the ends, resembling five-fingered hands. Four of them.

"You have four arms… and nine legs… that's so weird."

"Not as weird as having two arms and two legs!"

"Aren't mammals all four-limbed?" I ask.

"Yeah, but mammals are weird."

"Plants can be weird, too."

"Technically, I'm a mammal," he tells me. "We have reproductive parts, like mammals do, though our women lay seeds once they're formed and fertilized. Those seeds then sprout into new ones of us. But when you consider that platypuses lay eggs, the whole 'live birth' thing isn't a strict rule."

"What's a platypus?"

"An aquatic mammal which lays eggs," he answers. "Lady Lily mentioned them when I was little. They apparently live down in Australia. That's too infested with monsters and demons and was by the time people started to cross the water to get there, even by land bridge, so I'm not surprised you don't know about them."

The reason the ancestors of most people around here were able to settle in North America in ancient times is because the monsters and magical beasts weren't too strong yet. The growth of magic's strength on Earth started near the South Pole, as far as historians and researchers can tell. It slowly spread up northward, so somewhere like Australia became more dangerous sooner than places like up here.

That's before the increase in Demon Rifts down there.

The increase in the magical power of the native beasts was a process which occurred over tens of thousands of years, and while Australia couldn't be inhabited seventy thousand years ago, North America's upper parts could be about twenty thousand or so year ago. But only the upper-upper parts of it.

That's why our settlements never went much further south than they have. Magical beasts and monsters were just too strong beyond that point by the time people made it here. It was Grandpa Adrian's teachings which let people settle as far south here as they did.

Though it also varies on some continents. Africa has a kingdom taking up its northern stretch, more south than Kenzibri reaches in North America.

But Australia? They say that everything wants to kill people in Australia, and Rifts and Demon Rifts are far more common there.

That's probably why there's a secret research facility studying them there. It's no doubt got massive security measures to keep it safe.

I'll have to see if there's a documentary on platypuses, but there might not be if it's something in Australia.

"Can you move me onto the table?" Berry asks.

"Sure," I move him onto it as he retracts his arms and manipulates the soil he'd conjured so that he can hide his roots/legs. "So you're a mammal, not a plant?"

"We're technically both," he answers as I teleport his shorts and underwear to his backpack so that they're not just sitting on the floor. "But we consider ourselves a people and stuff, and we do reproduce sexually rather than through pollination and just forming and dropping seeds."

"Okay," I say. "Oh. I think someone's woken up."

Berry goes quiet and I watch the area for sleeping in. It's sectioned off a little with shelves to get privacy, though it was big enough for all of us to sleep in comfortably, without being too close to each other. Dad suggested maybe putting some bunk beds in there but I didn't like that idea.

Maybe a future expansion could be a dorm room-style room, with a bunch of beds for sleeping on inside? But I'm not sure Dad would allow another expansion so soon, this one was partially as a birthday present.

Someone's breathing changed over there, which is why I think someone woke. After a few moments and some fabric rustling from a blanket being pulled off and maybe from shorts being pulled on, they come out of the sleeping area. It's Carter, and he yawns as he approaches.

"Mornin', Xander," he says as he joins us. "Mornin', Trenton."

"Hello, Carter," I wave Trenton's right paw. "How'd you sleep?"

"Good, you?"

"I slept in a lot later than normal," I tell him as he plops onto one of the couches, the one perpendicular to my chair, with the table Berry's on between them. "Even for days I go to bed late. Oh. Someone else just woke up."

It turns out to be Tate, who joins Carter on the couch.

"Did you have happy dreams last night?" Tate asks. "Carter and S.G. both said that was a happy face you had last night, after you fell asleep."

"We said content," Carter corrects him. "He looked content."

"Close enough," Tate shrugs.

"Yeah," I nod. "They were really good. My first dream was of me soaring through skies as a dragon. And I'm really glad Grandpa Adrian learned I was a dreamsage 'cause I had no clue. He gave me a guide on how to use my dreamsage powers, including how to avoid others' dreams from affecting mine."

"You're a dreamsage?" He gives me a bewildered look, a touch of jealousy in his mind.

"Yeah," I nod. "Though I didn't know until last week. Grandpa Adrian's book has let me learn how to avoid letting other peoples' dreams affect mine, so my dreams were my usual ones last night instead of affected by everyone else's here. Which is really good when considering there were twelve other adolescents… five of whom are fourteen. So it was better that it was my own dreams."

"Fair enough," he says. "Didn't think I'd ever get to meet a dreamsage, they're pretty rare."

"Grandpa Adrian's one," I tell him. "And since my bloodline was kind of boosted because of my grandparents, it's only natural that I'm one. Greyson's one, too, but a lot more experienced. He's also a dreameater. I haven't eaten anyone's dreams, though. Or even been in anyone else's dreams. I didn't even know I was a dreamsage until last week, when Grandpa Adrian mentioned it."

"It's still pretty cool," he says. "Anyway! Is there something to eat, or do we gotta wait for the others?"

"Mom said to text her once I'm ready for her to make breakfast for everyone," I tell him. "And she'll come, but everyone's gotta be decent. Apparently, she thought some people were going to be sleeping naked but why would people sleep like that in a sleepover? And the sleeping area is sectioned-off and a little out of view from the kitchen, so even if someone does get up and doesn't want to be seen in their underwear – for those who slept in just them like the two of you – they can get shorts on without being seen by Mom."

Though now I'm regretting my decision to not change into pajamas. They're not too close to me, but still. I can still change now, though, but I decide to try and hold out a little bit longer.

"Oh, cool," he says.

"By the way," Carter says. "I noticed that Berry wasn't in the sleeping area, but he'd gone to bed with everyone last night. Did he leave?"

"Still here," Berry responds, causing both Tate and Carter to jump.

"Jeez!" Tate looks at him. "I'd wondered if that was you since I could feel a mind, but fuck! Startle a guy, why don't you?"

"It's why I did it!" Berry snickers.

"Is that what you really look like?" Carter asks.

"Sort of," Berry answers. "I'm actually about three feet in height at my real size, and my limbs are more obvious. But putting myself in a pot like this lets me pretend to be a plant until people get close and bam! They get surprised by me talking."

"Understandably," I agree as Berry giggles. "Grandma Lily warned me that he likes to play pranks, but he's agreed to not startle me."

"It's fun if people can laugh immediately after," Berry says. "Without getting angry at all! Lady Lily would pluck off my leaves and petals if I were to play pranks which upset others! That's why startling people like this is fine! By the way, how did you like my transformation yesterday? That was my first time! Lady Lily taught it to me since I'll be around human people a lot!"

As opposed to the people who are his own species. I'm not sure why they'd want to change into human just to interact with us, it's not like I'd transform into a plant just to interact with them.

Though I might figure out how to turn into one (or ask Grandpa Adrian or Grandma Lily how) so that I can see what it's like to be one. I am part-their species, anyway.

Oh. No one's told me the name for their species.

"You did good," Tate tells him. "You're kind of cute. If that's representative of how you look to others of your kind, I'm sure you're popular, right?"

"Oh, very!" Berry responds, his leaves shaking a little as he does what I think is a nod. "My da says I'll likely be very popular once I'm older and fully grown! We can get up to about nine or ten feet in height and he's sure that with how many flowers I already have, I'll really have bloomed by then!"

According to what Grandma Lily told me, their people grow more flowers as they go through puberty. They also start growing berries, which is why he decided to name himself that. He grew his first berry yesterday and is hiding it under his leaves.

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The berries are apparently an expensive snack, but he wants to save his first berry as it's special.

"By the way," I whisper to Tate and Carter. "He's butt-naked. They apparently don't make clothes which fit for his people."

"Why wear clothes when we've got our own leaves?" Berry says. "I mean, you don't ask wolves to wear clothes, do you?"

"I was just letting them know," I tell him. "Clothes for your form would be hard to wear, anyway. Or even design, I think. Would it just cover all of you? Or be designed to accommodate your branches and stems and other bits?"

"That's a good question!" Berry says. "I dunno."

"Can you see in that form?" Carter asks. "Or are you stuck having to use some… other sense?"

"I've got eyes," Berry says. "Hold on, lemme move my leaves. See? Eyes!"

I can't see them from this angle, but I've already seen them. They showed me this form yesterday, when they introduced us.

Berry's eyes resemble green gems set into his main stem, and they can see through his leaves. In fact, his leaves act as a sort of filter for his passive magesight, restricting how much he can see with it.

My magesight isn't inherited from Grandma Lily, though. My magesight is a dragons', which sees far more than my great-grandma's people can. Dragons can see pretty much any and all magics and magical energies, while their people mostly see mana itself, and not all of them, just most of the more mortal ones. They can't see magic at all, and only sense certain types of it.

As for his mouth, it's still hidden under his leaves. It's mainly used for eating, but his people learned how to speak as they advanced from beasts to people. They're omnivores and part of their diet includes meat.

"That's pretty cool!" Carter says. "They look like gems!"

"They are!" Berry responds. "They're a form of plant mana crystal. When we die, they can be used to fertilize the land. Well, they don't always wait until we die to come off, and they aren't always used as fertilizer when they do. One of my friends' grandpa lost one of his eyes in a fight against a wolf. He had it cut into smaller gems and turned into a necklace for the human woman he fell in love with."

That seems to confuse Carter and Tate for some reason. That seemed like a pretty simple statement to me, though. Nothing hard to understand about it. Magic crystals get used in jewelry all the time.

"By the way," Carter seems to decide to shift topics. "You referred to Xander's great-grandmother as 'Lady Lily'? Is she an ambassador for your people or something?"

"She's one of us!" Berry says. "Married Magus Adrian a looooooong time ago! Though they only decided to reproduce in recent times. Long before I was born, obviously, since I'm only thirteen, too."

"She's… one of you?"

"A plant person," I say. "Their queen, actually."

"I-wait," Carter stares at me. "She's a plant who turns into a human, too?"

"Yeah," I nod. "And she and Grandpa Adrian eventually decided to have kids. But with her in human form, so that they'd be born with human forms. And they used their magic to restrict how much of their mana influenced their children's base mana capacities, which is why we ain't all born with absurd amounts of it. Well, I was, but that comes with having a sun dragon queen for a grandma, a phoenix king for a grandpa, and a unicorn queen for a grandma."

That seems to confuse them even more.

"I think I missed a chapter," Carter says. "Can you go back and explain that?"

I tell him about what Grandpa Adrian and I learned last week about my parents' ancestry. I do leave out the bit about my birth parents still being alive, and how I'll resurrect a limited number of times and have apparently already done so once. That's more information than I want to share with them right now and it's not relevant to the rest.

"…and so I apparently have a horse for a cousin," I finish.

"Solaris is your cousin?" Carter asks.

"Yup."

"That is… wow," he says. "And Aurum's your uncle? No wonder he likes you, you're family!"

"Family doesn't always like family," I say. S.G.'s parents certainly don't like him. "But apparently, unicorns in general love me. I don't know why they would, I'm just me."

"What's not to love about you?" Berry asks. "You're smart, cute, kind, considerate, and absurdly powerful. All things which make you likable!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

"By the way," Tate says. "Y'all can reproduce with humans if you take human form? Since Mrs. King had children with Adrian King?"

"Yeah!" Berry answers. "I mean, our bodies are shifted into human ones, so it can do all the same stuff a human body can. That also comes with their needs, to a degree. Like, if we were weaker, we'd need to go to the bathroom like you humans do."

"If… you were weaker?" Carter asks. "What do you mean?"

"Uh…" Berry thinks for a few moments, then turns and looks at me. "That was never actually explained to me. Do you know?"

"Mana regulates some things in your body," I tell Carter and Tate. "You know how it stimulates our body a bit the more we have? Like how a normal mage's healing is a little bit better than an ordinary person's? Even if it's just a tiny bit even when they're powerful? Or how their senses are a little bit stronger the more powerful they are? Or how their tissues develop sturdier and stronger in just the right way to make them stronger and more durable, yet their body seems the same as a normal person's?"

Something they both should know for sure considering how strong they are as mages. Even if they don't interact with people with typical levels of mana very often, they should at least still know the differences. I'm sure they learned about it in school.

My healing is abnormal, but it comes from my phoenix and sun dragon ancestry. Grandpa Adrian's told me that the healing factor increases slower the more powerful one is. That it requires an exponentially higher amount of mana for the same level of healing increase as it goes up.

I should only heal about three times as fast as an ordinary human, not in seconds or even minutes for severe injuries. Even Greyson's speed is abnormal for some reason and he doesn't have the excuse of having a magical beast in the two generations before him like I do.

Grandpa Adrian says he checked just in case.

"Well," I continue. "That stimulation also affects some regulation. It's the reason mages don't produce body odor after about a thousand units, and why they produce a faint scent of something around them, like mine being berries and vanilla sugar cookies.

"It doesn't prevent us from needing to sleep," I tell them. "But it does eliminate our need to use the bathroom. I think that's at about the point at which one's mage-scent is at their strongest, or about a thousand units."

Though that's when we actively have that much normally, which is why I still had the need for it until recently. But I no longer need to go to the bathroom now that I'm no longer at concerningly low levels of mana.

"I'm not sure if Dad's figured out that that's why I haven't needed to replace the toilet paper in my bathroom yet," I add.

"Okay," Tate says. "Uh… setting that aside for the moment, back to my question. Berry, y'all can really reproduce like humans in human form, even if your normal reproductive method is different? Wait. Do y'all drop seeds, or do they come from your berries, or is it through cuttings, or… uh… how does that work for your kind?"

Why are we back on this topic? We'd gotten away from it! Though I guess it's because he's fourteen.

"Well," Berry says. "If we take on a human body, that means our body's a human, even if it has some… other influence from its mana. So our child would be half-human and half-us, but born the human way. And we might be plants in our real forms, but we're also animals just like humans. And we actually have a lot of the same functions as animals, including the reproductive ones. You just can't see my reproductive parts because they're covered, much like how you cover your own with clothes."

"Huh," Carter and Tate say at the same time.

If he hadn't already mentioned it to me, I probably would've as well.

"And our berries do have seeds," Berry says. "But they just grow regular berry bushes rather than create more of us. And in case you're wondering, we're a sexually dimorphic animal, like humans. There are physical differences between males and females."

This conversation has made me a little bit uncomfortable, so I want to redirect it away from reproduction stuff. I know Berry's last comment was away from that, but still. I might be thirteen now, but I'm not like other teens. I'm not okay talking about this even among kids my own age.

At least it was just a "yeah, we're animals and so have the parts and reproduce like them and not plants" and not actual descriptions. That would've been even worse. But it really is time we move away from the topic.

"By the way," I say. "Do you know if there's a documentary on your people? I couldn't find one and was planning on asking Grandpa Adrian if there was."

"There shouldn't be," Berry tells me. "We might be people, too, but we're relatively unknown to humans. Not many know about us, even if we're native to this world, unlike the shrubs."

"The shrubs?" Carter asks.

"The ones who work in the farming facilities Grandpa Adrian runs," I explain. "They're immigrants from another world who are happy to have a safe place to just do their thing. They really like tending to plants."

"They also really like vending machines," Berry says. "They resemble us a little bit, but we're actually completely different species. It's kind of interesting that different worlds can form species which look the same, isn't it?"

"Not just that," my tail flicks a little. "Did you know? Humans are on other worlds, too. And wolfkin, and bearkin, and dogkin, and catkin, and so on. And some worlds have elves or fairies or dwarfs. Grandpa Adrian was born a human, but he's really from another world."

I've gotten clarification from him that it's fine if I tell people about this.

"Seriously?" Carter and Tate ask.

"Seriously," I answer. "He actually came to Earth as a refugee, himself. He just wanted some peace and quiet, and that's why he was found just living in the wilderness by your ancestors. When they drew near, he figured he might as well interact with the people of this world, just see how things go. Then realized they hadn't figured out magic yet and would basically get wiped out if they didn't learn, since Earth's magic levels were still rising somewhat fast in its youth and they didn't have weapons more advanced than spears and swords and bows and stuff."

With North America being worse than Europe and Asia since there were fewer people here for much longer. That resulted in fewer monsters and beasts being hunted and killed, which resulted in more of them breeding with each other.

If their numbers were culled early and regularly, it would've slowed down the growth of magic in the area as fewer magical things would be decomposing. Near society or in hunting grounds, the magic beasts would be killed and then eaten or turned into items. That takes away from the magic which gets put into the land, which slows down the increase of mana in the soil. That then slows down how much magic goes into the plants in the area.

Since nothing was really regulating it here? That gave magic time to spread and grow.

Unlike out east, where there was a decent population of people by the time magic started to be noticeably stronger in the area. That helped regulate it and keep it from growing stronger more quickly as the wild magic beasts weren't able to grow as strong as quickly and as numerous, either. They were culled regularly.

Now, things are essentially balanced out and the strength of magical beasts near society are relatively stable. The feedback loop of magic isn't working too well anymore as a result of that as well. That can change if stronger stuff from down south move north, but that has a very rare chance of happening.

It might, though, since the magic in the true wilderness down there does still grow stronger as there's no outside regulation force like near society. Hunting magic beasts also helps mankind in areas near their own settlements, too.

"So there are aliens on Earth?" Tate asks. "And your great-grandpa is one of them?"

"Yeah," I nod. "But he says the governments don't know there are others aside from him, and they only speculate that he's actually some sort of alien. He says that some governments actually think he's really a god who's decided to help guide Earth's development.

"Oh!" I remember something. "He told me when we were talking a bit more about his immigration here, but even though they don't have confirmation that it's possible for people from other worlds to come to Earth, many governments – especially major ones – actually have protocols for in case it happens."

"Really?" All three of them ask.

"Yeah," I nod. "In Kenzibri, it even includes differences in the protocol for if they're tourists or immigrants. That's how Grandpa Adrian worded it. He said the difference is based on if they're able to leave or if they're unable to or if there's a reason they're staying here long-term. And that it's because of the Rifts the governments have the protocols. Since Rifts let out living creatures, they believe there might be people on the other side of them one day."

"While only suspecting the most powerful mage in the world is an immigrant," Carter says. "Maaaaaan! I've dreamed about going to another world before."

"Oh!" I say. "That explains some of my dreams when we had the solo sleepover! You must've had a dream about going to another world. Explains why you showed up through a portal wearing a robe made of flames and water. That really confused me."

Tate and Berry start laughing as Carter's cheeks turn a little pink.

"Anyway!" He says. "Do you know how long it'll be before we'll get breakfast? Or can we get snacks before then?"

Yeah, I like changing the topic when I get uncomfortable, too.

"Mom said she's on her way over here," I tell him. "So she'll be here shortly. By the way, Grandpa Adrian's taken me to his homeworld before. Ain't anyone on it as they all died off, but he's taking care of it anyway. The part of it I saw was really nice."

They stare at me with shock in their minds for several long moments, and it breaks only when Mom arrives.

"Everyone decent?" She asks as I look over to her.

Her view of us is mostly obscured by the seats, so she can only tell that we're shirtless at the moment. I guess she's just wanting to make sure I was honest, even though I do my best not to lie.

"We're all in shorts," my tail flicks a little. "I'm trying to push through the discomfort right now."

"You can get dressed," Carter says. "No one's making you."

"I'm making me."

"If it gets too much," Mom says. "No one will complain if you change."

"I know," I say. "I just want to try and get through it. This is a discomfort I know I can put up with so I'm trying. But… I ain't sure I'll ever be ready to do it out at like the park or whatever, like everyone else. Just while swimming here, or stuff."

And my abs are defined well enough to mean that I'm healthy now, too. There's still room for additional definition, but it's good that I'm finally healthy. Now to stay that way.

"Alright," she chuckles. "I'll start on breakfast now. Make sure everyone else knows to be decent before they come out."

"No one's naked," I tell her. "You said that that's what you meant by 'not decent'. But I told everyone that they should put on at least shorts before they come out of the sleeping area. So they'll be even more decent, by that definition. But that's because I didn't want to be uncomfortable even more."

"Alright," she chuckles. "So it's just you three awake right now?"

"Us four," Berry says, causing Mom to jump, which causes Berry to shake in his laughter. "Good morning, Madam Katie!"

"Someone else is getting up," I whisper. "I'm gonna help Mom make breakfast, too."

Berry wiggles a little before turning still, and I greet Austin as he exits the sleeping area. Mom and I start working on breakfast in the kitchen, which consists of hash brown patties; sausage links; pancakes with a choice between banana, blueberry, strawberry, plain, or my special ones; sauces for the tops of the pancakes; and fruit salad. I mix the pancake batters and help make the toppings, and I also make the fruit salad. Carter helps us cook, and I make sure he puts on an apron and washes his hands before he starts, just like Mom and I did.

By the time we're done cooking, everyone else has woken up.

"No bacon?" Connor asks. "Or eggs?"

"No," I answer. "I bought all the breakfast stuff so y'all only get options I like. Dad tried telling me I should get stuff that others might like, too, but I pointed out that this stuff is also liked by others. That's why there are fried apples as a side or pancake topping even though I don't like them. We could make them with the stuff we were going to be using, anyway, so I didn't need to buy additional ingredients, just a little bit more of ones I was already getting. And I ain't gonna spend my money on eggs if it's just for eating them. He gave up after those arguments and some other stuff."

Namely, him forgetting that I absolutely will not touch chocolate unless I have to. I think that helped me convince him to not have me include stuff I don't like more than anything else.

After breakfast, everyone else starts leaving. Berry leaves first, but he's just gone to the peach orchard to digest breakfast. Mr. Martins and Mr. Cox take their sons and the other boys from their area for the drive back home, then Austin and Nathan are picked up by Nathan's mom.

"Xander?" Nathan asks as they're saying goodbye.

"Yes, Nathan?"

"I appreciate the gift bags," he holds up the gift bag for party attendees; they apparently didn't fit in everyone else's backpacks. "But, uh… how come there's, like, fifty cookies in it?"

"Seven bakers' dozen," I correct. "That's ninety-one. And there are that many in it because that's how many I put in it.""

"Xander?" Dad gives me an amused look.

"Yes, Dad?"

"I didn't check what you put in the gift bags," he says. "Is that all you put into them? Ninety-one cookies?"

"And the boxes they're in and the tissue paper to cover them."

"We should probably be more specific next time," Mom tells him.

"Probably," he snorts.

"Bye, Nathan," I say. "Bye, Austin."

"See you Wednesday?" Austin asks.

"Maybe," I answer. "If I do, then I'll see you then. Have a good rest of your day!"

"Thanks for inviting us!" Nathan tells me. "I had a lot of fun! And the marshmallow game was fun!"

"Marshmallow game?" Dad asks.

"They were launching mini-marshmallows at each other with a rubber band and trying to catch them with their mouths," I tell him. "I did not participate, but most of the others did."

Sig tied with Carter for being able to catch the most in a row. They tried to keep going until one won, but they ran out of marshmallows first.

"There were mini-marshmallows?" Dad asks. "I don't remember you putting that in the cart."

"Sig brought three packs of them."

"And we ate them all!" Sig exclaims while pumping his fists up into the air.

"See you at school Tuesday!" Isaac tells Austin and Nathan.

"See you!" They respond, then their parents leave.

I look at Dad again.

"Thanks for letting this expansion happen," I tell him. "It was really nice to have a big space like this for us to hang out in for the sleepover rather than the smaller gaming room in the house. That might be a decent size, but this gave us more space to spread out and do stuff."

"Glad you enjoyed it," he seems especially happy for some reason, based on the feel of his mind. "Just make sure you get permission for other parties here, okay? It might be your space, but you still need to get permission."

That's a given. It's my space, but it's his property.

"I will," I tell him, then look at Sig and the others. "Y'all have a good one. I don't think I'm gonna go to any of the holiday festivities this weekend so I might not see any of you again until when I see Sig on Tuesday for fitness."

Since Monday's a holiday, I don't have any classes then. They're also planning on being at the Labor Day Fair most of the weekend. I could probably go to the sleepover tomorrow, but I don't think I can handle another one so soon after my birthday one. Last night really was a lot.

"Alright!" They say, and I give Sig a hug.

"Thanks for inviting us," Sig says. "It was a lot of fun! Got a question for you before the dads want to go," Mr. Thompson and Mr. Richardson are here to pick up the four of them. "Will it be alright if I rent out the gym again for another video, once I've saved up more from mowing lawns and stuff?"

"If Dad says that's alright," I look at him.

"It is," Dad confirms.

"Did you use all of what was left from the testing on the necklace?" I ask.

"No," Sig answers. "I've still got some in savings, but I don't wanna use all of it, that's for special stuff. And since it takes three months to get paid out from streaming and videos and stuff, I've gotta wait for that. So I'm still doing mowing and stuff to earn some extra money."

"Three months?" That's not right. "It only takes three months for some payments. Earnings from the merch store are paid out on the first fifteenth of the month that's one-month after they're ordered. So between about a month and a month and a half for those. And ad revenue and donations and subs and stuff with verified payments – meaning there won't be any returns from chargebacks – are on the fifteenth of the month after. So you'll get the ad revenue and some of your subs and donos from viewers on Xanson TV on the fifteenth coming up."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I told Grandpa Adrian how said that waiting three months was unfortunate and his response was… uh… summarized 'I can make it happen faster without worrying about chargebacks' and so did. That's the summary of what he said, not the full explanation. He had some… words about the way other systems work."

Ones I don't want to repeat because they made my head spin a little. The simplified version I came up with is a lot better: Grandpa Adrian thinks it's dumb and has decided it won't affect our site.

"I can imagine," Connor snickers. "Considering all of the changes in how your site works and how he was involved in its creation, I'm sure he had a lot of influence."

"Oh, definitely," I say. "Anyway, y'all have a good one. Bye!"

"Bye!" Sig gives me another hug, then they all leave with the two dads.

I look at Dad, my tail wagging.

"Thanks for letting me have the party!" I tell him. "It was super fun! But I'm gonna go get dressed properly now. I'm really uncomfortable. Then, is it okay if I go to the workshop and work on some stuff?"

"Sure," he tells me. "Be back by dinner, alright?"

"Alright!"

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