[Xander – 13 years]

"Do you have everything?" Dad asks as he sits across from me.

We're in my rec center, in the rec room in it. This could have taken place elsewhere on the property, such as in an office or the dining room or living room, but I wanted it to be at a table in here because it feels better to do this in here, I think. Our planning session occurred in here for the previous party at Dad's suggestion and I liked that.

Dad and I aren't the only ones in here. Trenton's sitting on the chair to my right, a wooden block set down to elevate him so that he can actually see the stuff on the table. Mom's putting down some snacks and drinks for us for while we work, but she'll probably sit beside Dad. Then there's Puffy, who's sitting on the chair to my left.

I'm not sure why a blizzard wolf wanted to watch this, but I didn't see a reason to tell him no when he asked. Dad hasn't commented about him being here, so I don't think it's an issue.

Since this is a post-breakfast meeting, Mom picked out some fruits and lemon cookies for the snacks, and orange juice and water for drink choices. I requested peach cobbler, but she said that can wait until after.

We're still in the house and it's in my rec center, so I'm also still in wolfkin form. I usually change out of it after breakfast here now, but I decided to stay in it for now today.

As for the stuff I was supposed to get ready, that includes my planning notes from the previous party, a new binder, some extra paper for it, and stuff to write with. I'm fairly certain I have everything I'm supposed to, but Dad asking that makes me think I don't.

"I… think so?" I answer.

"Okay," Dad says. "Before we begin the planning itself, let me ask you something: did you learn anything from your previous party?"

Did I learn anything?

"Was I supposed to write that up?" I ask. "S-sorry! I-I don't r-re-remember y-you-"

"Xander," Dad says. "Deep breaths. You weren't supposed to write an essay or anything, I just wanted to know if you did learn anything from the previous party you hosted. It's always good to look back and think on what you could have improved for next time. Not that you need to improve, but if there were any issues to fix, or things you realized during or after would have been better."

"Oh… um…" I think for a few moments. "Uh… my friends and their friends really like store-bought junk food."

Mom laughs for some reason, even though it was a serious answer. Luke was the only person at the party who didn't seem to go for the store-bought junk food. He exclusively ate the stuff prepared here.

"Anything else?" Dad asks.

While he's not laughing, I can feel that he's as amused as Mom is. Was there something wrong with what I said?

"Um… not having a strict schedule for it was good," I say. "It let me rest and get away from excess stimuli when I needed to without ruining things. And everyone seemed to enjoy the party, too. The feedback survey they filled out didn't have any complaints."

Dad stares at me for a few minutes.

"You had them fill out a feedback survey for your party?"

"Yeah," I nod. "Like what Grandpa Adrian wanted everyone to do during the beta testing. He said I could use the site for anything I wanted, back when he set it up. So I did that for the party. They all really liked the party, based on the surveys. They also liked the prompted crafting project."

"Prompted crafting project?" Dad asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "I realized that maybe a big group activity would maybe be a good idea, and the others said they were interested. So I taught them how to enchant wooden blocks into magic lamps."

"I think the word you're looking for is 'impromptu'," he tells me. "It's where you do something without planning, on the spur of the moment."

"Oh," I say. "Well, because everyone seemed to like that, and I know that Sig, Connor, Sam, Isaac, Carter, and Austin all have the lamps set up in their bedrooms rather than put out of sight, I want to do something like that again. Just not magic lamps, since that was last time."

"You had the stuff to make magic lamps in your backpack?" Dad asks. "Or one of your bracelets or pouches?"

"Yeah," I nod. "It was just enchanting pens and blocks of wood with light magics. I've got a bunch of enchanting pens in my bracelets, in case I don't feel like doing it directly, and in case I break them by accident."

"What about the wood?" Dad asks.

"Grandpa Adrian gave them to me and said I could do whatever I want with them," I tell him. "Those were the extras from me playing with them to see how they react to various light magic enhancements."

It was a good exercise in learning about playing with light magic. There's still a lot more for me to learn with them, but that was just for adding glows to items.

"Okay," Dad says. "So you're wanting to do another crafting session?"

"Yeah."

"The plans are also to head to Clarkson Autumn Farms to do some pumpkin-picking, the corn maze, and maybe hay rides?"

I'm not sure why they're called "Autumn Farms", since they operate all around the year. It's weird, and I couldn't find anything on their website about it. The person I talked with on the phone also didn't know why.

"That's a bad name when they're using a straw bales."

"That's the plan, right?" Dad asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "We meet here at four-thirty. Then, I teleport us to Clarkson Autumn Farms at four forty-five. I've already contacted the farm and asked about our group, and they said it's not an issue even though I don't have exact numbers yet.

"The hay ride is about twenty minutes," I say. "And the corn maze is supposed to last about that long. Picking out pumpkins shouldn't last longer than that, either. It'll be best if we go in different groups for the maze and picking, but they said they can have up to twenty people on one hay ride. Unless we have more than that, we can be all on one hay ride.

"If we do three groups," I continue. "And factor thirty minutes for each activity, that's an hour and a half. So I figured, we could go until seven, then come back and do the pumpkin carving. But… maybe factor in seven-thirty as a potential later leave time, just in case."

Dad's mentioned before about factoring in "just in case" time, to account for unexpected factors. Since the farm probably has other activities aside from those three, this should give plenty of time to do all three of the bigger activities, walk around, and participate in other activities.

"Carving the pumpkin might take an hour or so," I say. "Maybe less, for people doing simpler designs or using magic. Most of them were still up way past midnight, so doing the pumpkin carving after we get back shouldn't be an issue."

"What about dinner?" Dad asks.

"The farm said they have refreshment stands," I tell him. "And I was thinking of preparing pizza and stuff in advance, to save on time. That way, we can eat for half an hour or so, then do the pumpkin carving. Then after that, everyone can go off to do their own things until it's time for the crafting project. Then those who want to do that can come do it."

"With pumpkin carving," Dad says. "You've already got a crafting project. A second one might be a bit too much."

I didn't count the pumpkin carving as one since it's related to holiday stuff. Looking at the times for things and what it really is, however, means it makes sense to include it as crafting.

"Okay," I say. "So no other crafting stuff, then."

"Why don't you write down the planned stuff and the schedule for it," Dad tells me, so I do that. "Now, what do you want to do for the gym? Leave it open so they can play basketball or something, or have it set up again?"

"I was thinking," I say. "But I could maybe do a big foam pit? Or a big ball pit? The others really seemed to like the ones in the maze. I was reviewing the footage of it after the party ended and they kept wrestling in them. They said in the surveys they really liked them, too."

"Which did they seem to like playing in the most?" Dad asks. "Based on the video footage, that is."

"The foam pit," I answer. "But it was also more difficult for them to move around in. I'm not sure if I should do a big foam pit or a ball pit, or both. But if I do both, I'd need to make sure it's set up so their things can't go too far out and return if they do. That would keep them from getting mixed up."

"Why don't you do a foam pit taking up the full court this time," Dad suggests. "And save doing a large ball pit for another time? If you want something extra for the pit, you can shrink it on one side and turn that side into a jumping platform. You could add a trampoline, too."

"So a jumping platform and a trampoline," I grab a blank piece of plain paper and a pencil, then look around for a few moments. "Oh. Ruler."

I pull a ruler out of my bracelet, then make an outline on the paper to represent the gym's available space. That's the space with the bleachers put up against the wall. There's ten feet of space between the basketball court and the bleachers when they're out, or one hundred when they're in. The room itself is one hundred twenty feet in length.

If I leave a five-foot walkway on each side of the room, that means there's a space one hundred ten feet by ninety feet to work with.

"A foam pit isn't a bad idea," Dad says. "But if you want a massive one like that, even with a jumping platform or a trampoline, you might want to break the zone up a bit. And if it's meant for playing in rather than just jumping into, you'll want to use the foam blocks that are a little smaller. They'll be easier to move around with. Not as much as a ball pit, but still easier."

The smaller blocks have a lower weight per volume due to a different material makeup. That's probably specifically so that they're easier to move while buried in.

"Okay," I note down to use the smaller foam blocks. "Break it up a little… um… like with dividers?"

"You could," Dad says. "But that wouldn't do much to make it more fun. What do you think would help make it more fun for them?"

"Lasers."

"And how would a laser maze work in the foam pit?" Dad asks. "The foam blocks would block them, wouldn't it?"

"Not scientech lasers," I say. "Magic ones. I can probably make them so that they ignore the foam blocks. It might require accelerated time in order to manage before the party, though, since I'm also doing other stuff."

"How would the players see them?" Dad asks. "They'd need to be wearing the magitech glasses, which wouldn't be fun for wrestling around, especially not in a foam pit."

"Oh… um… okay, no lasers."

"Any other thoughts on how to make the foam pit be more than just a massive pit of foam blocks?"

"This side here can be trampolines," I section off one side of the area for the pit and write down what it's for. "And this corner here," I section off a corner on the opposite end. "This one can be the jumping platform."

"Only a corner?" Dad asks as I write down that box's purpose. "Not even half the width?"

"Yeah," I nod. "Only a quarter should do, right? It wouldn't need to be as large, and it would let them jump into the pit on two sides. Though maybe if I put it in the middle, it could be three sides?"

I erase the corner and make a box in the middle.

"There," I say. "Now they'll have three sides to jump off of to get into the pit. Or they could use the trampolines, or climb onto the walls and jump in from the sides and the rest of that end."

"Alright," Dad says. "Well… those were already included in what I was saying. Aside from those, can you think of anything else to add to the pit to make it more fun rather than just a massive pit? Since the plan for it is to be sleepover again, there might be hours of people wanting to play in it. But not if it's just the big pit to jump into, even with flips and stuff."

"Oh… maybe if we put tunnels in?" I ask. "Would need to pad their outsides, just in case. Then they could kind of play hide-and-seek in there. Maybe? I would need to get wood, screws, and padding for that, then, so we can build the tunnels."

"Okay," Dad says. "Don't fill the entire thing with tunnels. Do maybe just five or so shorter ones. And another thing you can do if you'd rather not get that built would be to include foam dodgeballs. They can throw them at each other and try to get the balls. The foam pit would add an extra level of difficulty, but that seems like something a fair few of your friends enjoy."

"Sig and them and the Autumn Realm crew would probably find that fun," I agree. "Okay. So let's do that instead. I don't want to have to figure out the dimensions for the tunnels."

"You can always ask for help with that, you know," he says.

"I know," I tell him. "But I asked the security guards for help with designing the maze last time. I don't want to ask them for help for two parties in a row."

"It would be better to get someone who does carpentry and construction than a security guard for building stuff," Dad tells me. "But if you don't want to do that, that's fine as well."

"I don't," I tell him, then note down the addition to the foam blocks pit. "Okay."

"Alright," Dad says. "Now that your planned activities are determined, what is it you do next?"

"Um…" I try to remember what he told me last time. "Food?"

"Close," he says as Mom smiles a little, both of them feeling amused. "You want to make a list of how many people are invited to the party. If no plus-ones are allowed for it – that is, not bringing anyone not invited – then that will be the maximum amount of people to expect."

"And if others are allowed to invite others to come," I say. "Then expect more. And tell them to bring additional snacks. But it's better to have a good idea of how many there will be at the maximum, to properly plan out dinner, snacks, and breakfast.

"Okay," I say. "So I'm going to attend, and I want to invite the same eighteen people who showed up for the last party. I also want to invite Jake, since he's apparently good friends with Sig and Connor, and kind-of good friends with Sam and Isaac. But he doesn't know them that well? I think they're good friends, though. So that'd be twenty people with just us. But I also want to invite Thomas, since he and Sig are apparently becoming friends. At least, they text a lot. And my gut's saying two more people I don't know about from Sig's friend group… so that's twenty-three. Right? Yeah, twenty-three."

"Most of these are either your friends or S.G.'s friends," Dad says. "Are there friends of other friends you'd like to invite? Or is it just for S.G.'s?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Most of his friend group's friends are his friends," I say. "He makes friends really easily, so inviting someone who's one of their friends likely makes it one of his friends as well. I was thinking of also inviting a boy that Austin and Nate are friends with, though. Maybe. I haven't met him yet, but Austin said they would try to convince him to go to Youth Group either this week or next so that I could. There's also another boy from the Youth Group I was thinking about inviting. He only shows up sometimes. If we include both of them, plus the gut feeling for two more, that'd be twenty-five people."

"Is that all?" Dad asks.

"Is that too many?"

"You've got plenty of space in the rec center," he tells me.

"Oh," I say. "Um… I wanted to invite Macy again. And also Amelia, she's Thomas's girlfriend. That way, it's two girls invited. Since Macy's parents weren't comfortable with there being just her in a group of almost twenty boys, that should be fine, right? It's two girls instead of one."

Both of my parents seem to feel really amused at this. Mom's trying not to smile, while Dad's got a neutral expression on his face.

"They'll probably still say 'no'," Dad tells me. "Let me explain why this time, though. You're all kids in puberty, and that causes hormones to go crazy. It's also when a person's libido – their sex drive – starts increasing. You're all at the age for that, and it's a worse issue for strong mages, too.

"Even without that last part," Dad continues. "Her parents were concerned that one or more of the boys who pressure her into having sex. This is especially true with her boyfriend being there."

"My boyfriend was there and nothing sexual was even hinted between us," I say. "I think? And why would the concern just be the boy pressuring? What about the girl pressuring? Don't girls start puberty a year or so earlier, on average? Ain't girls just as capable of pressuring others as boys?"

I've seen that happen, where a group of girls pressure another girl (or a boy) into doing something. Both sexes can definitely pressure people into something. It's not a sex-exclusive action, peer pressure is just a people thing.

"That's beside the point," Dad says. "The point is that they're concerned that sexual activity would happen, so they don't feel comfortable letting their daughter participate in a coed sleepover or an unsupervised party, especially before the age of sixteen."

"Coed is both sexes, right?"

"Right," he says.

"Oh," I think for a few moments. "So is that why I'm not allowed to have a solo sleepover with a boyfriend until I'm fourteen and have dated them for at least three months, but it's okay to have a solo sleepover with someone who's not my boyfriend? Like when I spent the night at Carter's after Russell broke up with me? We weren't dating, so it was fine."

"Well, no," Dad says. "That was different, as is the rule. The rule for solo sleepovers for you is more because of your own comfort level. My concern is that if you're alone with a boyfriend, you'll feel more anxiety than if you're in a group or with someone who's just a friend. Waiting until you're fourteen is because some of your anxiety will have likely faded by then. Three months is just so that you're more comfortable in the relationship.

"When it comes to you and sex," Dad says. "Well, I trust you'll keep in mind everything we talked about when we talked about it and puberty. And that anybody who tries to pressure you into sex has no idea what they're in for."

"What does that mean?"

"That you're not going to have sex when you're uncomfortable with it," he states. "And if someone tries to force you into it, what are you going to do?"

I take a deep breath, then let it out.

"Since I was told I'm not allowed to incinerate them with a flame breath," I say. "I would punch them in the face, knock them out with a spell, call the police for them attempting to rape me, call Frank, call you, then wait for the police to arrive."

"Why Frank first?"

"Should it have been Quinn?"

Mom laughs at my question, but I'm not sure why.

"Back to the original discussion," Dad says. "Do you understand why Macy's parents declined now?"

"Only slightly," I answer. "How come Mr. Michaels and Mr. Richardson let Sam and Isaac go to group sleepovers? Wouldn't they be concerned about sex, too?"

"Probably," Dad answers. "But they also knows their sons and trust them, and probably feel comfortable letting them go to sleepovers as long as there are others around. This is true even when there are strangers, and possibly because of you."

"Me?"

"If you're in charge of a sleepover," he says. "They can trust it'll be a safe one."

"How?"

"Because of the way you are," he says. "It's why they also feel comfortable sending their kids to a party you're hosting. They know you won't let in drugs or alcohol or things like that."

"Oh… but because Macy's parents don't know me, they don't feel comfortable?"

"And also because of the opposite-sex thing," he tells me. "The other dads know you well enough to know you won't invite anyone who you don't believe will behave. Macy's parents have never met you, so they can't come close to knowing you that well. Even if they trust Ethan, they don't know what the other boys might pressure him and her into."

"Oh…" I try to think of something. "I don't want to exclude Macy but if coed parties are a concern and coed sleepovers are even more of one…"

"Here's an idea," Dad says. "The streamer orbs – if your great-grandfather is willing to set up a way for an exclusive feed, we can use those. We can set it so that an orb is following Macy around, and Amelia would get one if she comes. Their parents would be able to access the feed for their daughter at any time, allowing them to view it live. They could also go back to any part of the stream.

"This way," he says. "If they agree to letting their daughter attend, they can always check at any time to see what their daughter is doing and if anyone is doing anything inappropriate to or with her. Naturally, it wouldn't show them what she's doing if she's in certain states, such as changing or in the bathroom, but I'm sure it can be set up so that they can still know what she's doing even without video in those cases."

"The orbs' magi-intelligence system can be pretty descriptive," I tell him. "It can even appraise a person's urine and feces and do a medical analysis from a distance. I don't know why Greyson had that tech, but I added to the orbs just in case."

"Just in case of what?" Mom asks.

"I dunno," I answer. "But I've learned that 'just in case' is something you say when you don't have a reason but suspect there might be a use for the feature or item in the future."

Dad laughs a little this time, not just Mom.

"So if wanted," I say. "We can set it up so that it says what they're doing, where they are, and who they're with when it's not able to show them due to what it is they're doing. Do you think that'll get Macy's parents to agree to let her come to the party? And Amelia's?"

"No," Dad answers. "But we can propose the idea to see if they'll agree."

"Oh…"

What would it take to get Macy permission to attend. It feels like excluding her even though I want to include her. She's my friend, too. I want to invite her to my party.

"If the girls do attend," Mom says. "You'll want to have a separate sleeping area – their parents will want it."

"Oh."

I look over at the designated sleeping area. It can fit more than the twenty-five I've thought of, and more than even the twenty-seven it would be if everyone I wanted to invite comes. Depending on how we arrange ourselves, around thirty boys can squeeze in there. That would probably be uncomfortable, though.

Adding on some actual sleeping quarters might not be a bad idea.

"You want to ask for an addition to add in sleeping quarters, aren't you?" Dad asks when I look at him again.

"Yeah," I look at him. "With spatial expansion enchantments, we could probably make it not take up too much extra space in the yard. If that's okay. There can be a boys' quarters and a girls' quarter. There probably won't ever be as many girls invited to these things as boys, so we could do it like this."

I grab another piece of paper and draw a square, then make one quarter of it a square. An entryway is added to each, and I add in four square rooms on the left and right sides of the smaller square. At the back of the smaller square, I add in two rectangles.

"Is that the girls' dorm?" Dad asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "These eight rooms are bedrooms. This one's for toilets, and this one's for showers. Or maybe I should have a closet in the middle of those two as well? To store towels and extra stuff for the toilet and shower rooms.

"Then for the boys' wing…"

I make six rooms along the front-right wall, and nine along the front-left wall. The back wall gets a toilets room and a shower room. They take up the same amount of stretch along the back wall as in the girls' wing, but they come forward more. That's because there will be more boys there than in the girls', so more space is necessary to accommodate.

Rather than the extra supplies room for the boys' wing being between the toilets room and the showers room, it's at the corner in front of that, where it turns into the side wing. That way, there's more room to store things.

The right-hand protrusion at the back of the boys' wing is given six rooms on the top side and another six on the bottom.

"How many do you expect to fit into each room?" Dad asks. "Using bunk beds, you could do four, right?"

"Four?" I frown. "Yeah, but not with bunk beds. I was thinking a bed on each side wall, plus two more against the back wall, but parallel to the others. Then on the wall with the door, the front wall, there could be shelves or cubbies for us to put our backpacks and clothes and stuff. One set across from each bed.

"That's… twenty-seven rooms for the boys," Dad says. "Four beds per room – with or without bunk beds – would be over a hundred boys. Maybe shrink their sizes a little and do two beds per room?"

"But then I wouldn't be able to snuggle Sig with Mr. Leviathan," I say. "Since everyone needs their own bed, even if they share one with someone else. And it wouldn't be fair to Sam and Isaac, either, since they'd not be allowed to share a room by themselves, either. Or Connor and Jake. That's why it's four beds per room, so that we can each snuggle our boyfriend but have others present, so it's not breaking the 'no alone with boyfriend' rule."

Dad feels exasperated for some reason, then he starts thinking hard about something. I think that's what it means when I can feel deep thinking with a lot of concentration through my empathy.

"I'll say that S.G. is a reasonable exception," Dad says. "You're fairly comfortable with him and I trust him to behave."

"Trey-" Mom starts to say something.

"Later," Dad tells her.

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about it," Dad tells me. "You can do the extension for the dorms. I'm sure your friends were fine with sleeping on the floor last time, but they'll probably like having proper beds for it as well. Especially if a sleepover here becomes a recurring thing."

"Okay," I say. "It still wouldn't be fair to the other couples. Like Sam and Isaac. Or Connor and Jake. Or Ethan and Macy. Or Thomas and Amelia. Oh. It wouldn't be fair to the opposite-sex couples even if it was to the other same-sex ones."

"You don't have to snuggle Sig when you sleep at every sleepover," Dad tells me.

"What about this," Mom says before I can respond, and she grabs a piece of paper, a ruler, and a pencil.

She draws a rectangle rather than a square, then splits it in half down the long side. Or would it be down the short side? The split connects the two longer sides in the middle, rather than connecting the two shorter sides.

Then, she draws four bedrooms on each side of each half, at the front end. On the back end, she draws the closet/storage room, plus the toilets room, plus the showers room. Unlike me, she also sections out part of each of those, for sinks in the toilets room and a bench and cubbies in the showers room.

I didn't feel it was necessary to include those, but I guess it is.

Mom also sketches out four beds in each bedroom, along with the cubbies opposite of them.

"This might work," Mom says. "It's room for thirty-two kids in each dorm section, plus toilets and showers. Girls and boys still have to be separated, that's unavoidable. For couples of the same sex, a couple must have two roommates who are not in a relationship with each other. They also cannot be alone in a room together by themselves. So if you go to bed before Sig and he wants to go in there, he would need someone else to go in with him. Preferably one of your roommates, since someone else would have to leave after. If the other person wanted to leave the room, one of you two would need to as well."

That's not fully fair since Ethan and Macy wouldn't be allowed to share a room like Sig and me or Connor and Jake or Sam and Isaac. Thomas and Amelia wouldn't be allowed to, either.

"Another option," Mom sets the pencil down. "Which might make the other parents more comfortable, is if I'm supervising when teens of both sexes are present. Having an adult or two to supervise would alleviate concerns as well, since they know we wouldn't allow anything."

"Considering a decent amount of the boys present could accidentally kill you with their magic just when showing off," I say. "It might not be that reassuring to them. But maybe I could ask Grandma Lily? I'm the only person on the list of potential participants who's stronger than her."

"I'm not sure she'd agree to supervising," Dad says. "My company employees guards of both sexes. We could ask one of the women from it to supervise."

A security guard working as a supervisor would probably make people feel like they're being judged as potential problems. That's not good.

"That would probably make people feel uncomfortable," I say. "Oh. Maybe if I invited Carter's cousin? She lives in the area, and her mom does, too. I'm pretty sure that's on his dad's side, so she'd be pretty strong. Not as strong as Luke, but I don't think there are any human women stronger than him. That's why I suggested Grandma Lily. Can I ask real quick?"

"Sure," Dad answers.

"Okay," I type up a text and send it.

[Xander]: I'm planning a party for the Friday after this one, and it involves a sleepover. I don't like not including my girl friends when my boy friends are included, but Dad and Mom said it'd be hard to get permission to let girls attend a party with just boys, especially if there's a sleepover. But Mom was suggesting adult supervisors while there are boys and girls in the same area. Would you be okay with supervising? You're stronger than any of the kids I'm inviting, so that would probably reassure the girls' parents that nothing bad is happening.

[Xander]: Not sure what adult male to invite to do the same for the boys' parents. It would probably make sense to have several of them, too. But I don't know who else to invite for supervising for that with that much mana other than Grandpa Adrian.

Grandma Lily responds very fast.

[Grandma Lily]: I'd love to! And you know several dragons, unicorns, and phoenixes! I'm sure some of them would be willing to supervise, too. They all know how to take on human(oid) forms, too.

Oh. That's right, I do know other powerful people. I didn't know they could all take on human form, though, just some of them. I respond to her text, then look at Dad.

"She said she'd be willing to supervise," I say. "And reminded me that I have other powerful relatives who might be willing, too. We could probably ask Aurum, Grandma Celeste, and Grandpa Blaze to help supervise as well. That way, the boys' parents can be reassured as well and there are two adults of each sex making sure everyone behaves."

"We can discuss the logistics of letting the party be coed later," Dad says. "Since we have a rough idea of ways we can potentially make it work, that's enough for now. So assuming both of the girls you want to invite come, or all three, if you're serious about inviting Carter's cousin, that would be twenty-eight kids if all show up, correct?"

"No," I say. "I want to invite Berry again as well, even though he might decline. And also Nick. He probably won't be allowed to stay up again, since he hasn't any of the times we dropped stuff off apart from the first one, but I can ask Ms. Johnson if she can give him the invite, if she allows him to attend. So that'd be thirty, if all invited kids attend."

"Alright," Dad says. "And what does that mean for planning?"

"Um… to factor in thirty-three people," I say. "Or ten percent more. But if we include the supervisors, that's thirty-four, which would be thirty-eight."

Thirty-eight rather than thirty-seven for rounding. Dad says it's best to round up rather than properly when it comes to stuff like this, just to be safe.

"But thirty-eight isn't a happy number," I say. "So thirty-nine."

"Alright," Dad says. "You have activities planned, and sleeping arrangements. Now it's time to plan out the food part. This is Katie's area of expertise."

Mom's not a caterer, but some of her training involved planning meals for big groups, and she's done that for parties Dad's hosted here before.

The first thing we plan out is the dinner portion of the food. Since there won't be time to make dinner at the party, that means I'll have to prepare it ahead of time. Pizza is a party dinner thing so I want to do that, especially since we'll be going to a sort-of festival before. Wings, salad, garlic bread, and cheesy garlic bread are all going to be included.

Mom suggests something less time-consuming to make, or to order the food. That will cut down on the amount of work needed for setting up the party, but I can just use magic to handle all of the cooking. The same goes for desserts and snacks, though I reluctantly agree to buy more junk food than I feel reasonable for the others.

They went through all of the store-bought junk food last time. Most of the homemade snacks as well, but all of the store-bought stuff. My homemade junk food got beaten by store-bought junk food.

Though I guess in actual quantities rather than percents, my homemade stuff beat out the store-bought junk food. But percentage-wise, it wasn't. They might have only eaten as much of my homemade stuff because they ran out of the rest.

"No, Xander," Dad says. "Don't include stasis pocket items in the party bags."

"Why not?" I ask. "You said to do more than just baked goods and a simple bracelet this time. Adding in candy and stasis pocket bracelets makes sense."

No one complained about the party bags in the feedback survey, so I'm pretty sure it's fine. The plan was to do a bracelet with wooden beads with carvings of pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, straw bales, caramel apples, and mugs of mulled cider. That would match the big event for the party, which is going to the pumpkin-picking festival.

"That's too expensive of a thing for that," he tells me.

"Not for me."

"It is for others," he says. "Party bags are supposed to be low-cost things, just fun little things to give them. I know you don't want to do the normal standard for an ordinary party of cheap things that are usually forgotten quickly, but stasis pockets are a big jump. Keep in mind that even a small stasis pocket at your pricing might outweigh what their parents earn in six months."

"Oh…" I try to think, then erase "stasis pocket" from the youth section of the party bag planning page. "What about puzzles? I could make new puzzle spheres or cubes to include."

Dad sighs.

"Try to keep their sale value under $50."

"Alright," I write down "puzzles" on the party bags for youth page.

"You forgot to remove the stasis pocket part from the adult party bag section," he tells me.

"I didn't forget," I tell him. "If it's a bunch of super powerful magical beasts coming, then the cost for them is definitely small. And Grandpa Adrian's said that including all people of Earth, not just humans, there are only three people who can make them when excluding him. So for them, it's probably just a practical and low-cost item."

Dad seems to contemplate something for a few moments before saying it's alright.

Planning out a party is really hard work, and it takes us almost until it's time to start making lunch to finish. Dad really wants me to include some decorations this time, so I have to decide on those as well, and that's even more difficult. It's the last thing we do before stopping the planning session.

At least the planning for the Halloween activities is going to be another day. I don't want to spend another three hours on planning today.

"Dad?" I ask after I finish stretching once we finish the planning for the party.

It's important to get up and stretch at regular intervals when sitting for a long time, and again once I finish sitting for a long time. Otherwise, my muscles might get stiff, and I don't like that.

"Yes?" He asks.

"Is it okay if we watch the documentary while eating lunch?" I ask. "I might still fall asleep after, but I'm so tired now I think I'm gonna fall asleep soon after lunch. And that'd cut into the documentary."

We normally watch a documentary after lunch on Sundays when I'm home at that time, rather than with and after dinner like we do on weekdays.

"We can watch it after your nap," he tells me. "Or if you're planning on hanging out with your friends after the nap, then with dinner and after."

"Okay," I say, then look at Mom. "I'd offer to help cook lunch, but I'm feeling sway-y, so I don't think I'll be very good at it."

"That's fine," she smiles. "I'm feeling a bit exhausted from all this planning as well. Why don't we order something?"

"Steaks?" My tail starts wagging.

"Are burgers close enough?"

"Cheeseburgers?"

"Cheeseburgers," she confirms.

"Okay!"

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