[Luke – 13 years]

"Want to hear something amusing?" I ask Seph and Parker as we exit the school's building.

Seph's been extra nervous today, ever since his secret got leaked by those jerks. He's not shaking as much as he was earlier, but he still shakes a little if he hears someone whispering or notices someone looking at him. A few kids have had some not-so-pleasant things to say about him, but they've avoided doing so directly to him or intentionally-accidentally letting him hear.

Mostly because I've been close to him this whole time, and that's affording him a little bit of protection. Just looking at them when I hear the comments stops them temporarily.

A perk of being the most powerful person in the academy, both magically and influentially.

"Um… what?" Seph asks.

"The fact that our classmates still think little of you despite the fact that you've been invited to a party by Xander King," I tell him. "And that's even after news went around about him killing the leviathan causing problems in the Atlantic. In less than a second. Or five, if including when he was thinking about what to do. Anyone who thinks that someone who was hand-delivered an invite to a party by that guy isn't worthy of it lacks in the brains department."

Xander casually went and killed a leviathan during his afternoon stream, which I doubt anyone expected to happen. From what I heard, he went right back to his regular game stream after, too.

As if killing a leviathan with less than a second of spellcasting is just another part of daily life for him.

The clip was short enough that I could have gotten away with checking it out during class, though I watched it between the last two periods. Merboy Xander was really cute, too.

"Luke-" Seph begins.

"I mean, seriously," I say. "As I told those two before school, Xander wouldn't invite just anyone. And he's more than likely not even heard of most of the people here. In addition, you're here on a scholarship. And the academy neither offers nor allows scholarships, which only makes it even more amusing."

"He's right," another boy who's walking close to us say, drawing in closer. "The fact that you're a student here means you have connections worthy of a student here despite your social standing. I'm actually kind of envious of you a little, too."

This boy is one who's usually on the quieter side, though nobody ever messes with him. I'm not the only extra-powerful mage here, and Cyrus is another. His family owns the company Tyler's family sells their catches to, and they're all fairly powerful hunters.

Cyrus is a little bit like me as well – he was born significantly stronger than his parents. His own power level is around 3,000 mana, the last I heard. Maybe even more. In other words, he's as strong as my own parents, while his are only about fifty percent stronger than Tyler is. Students here come from families where 300-800 is generally around the maximum.

Cyrus is also rather cute. His hair is sun-blond and his eyes are a bright sky blue. As with most students at the academy, he's lean and toned (not that it's obvious, with a hoodie on right now).

His magical bloodline is a pretty well-known one, as he's from one of the older mage families, like me. Their name indicates it a lot better than "Gatewood" does, too. The Sunfangs, a family of mages who specialize in light and fire magics. They weren't one of the original families to learn magic from Adrian King, but they can trace their roots all the way back to the very first of the Kenzibri tribes.

My family can only trace our roots to some of the later tribes.

The difference being in when the tribes developed the adaptation of blond hair and blue eyes. It took around a century and a half after the first tribe developed the adaptations before others did. The same happened with the Zrebzial – one tribe of the settlers from across the Bering Strait developed the adaptations first. Around a century and a half later, the rest of the tribes developed the adaptations.

It was pretty cleanly split based on where they lived on if they were Kenzibri or Zrebzial. It wasn't until tribes went further and into the Great Plains that the Volmezia tribes came to be, though they all developed adaptations at around the same time.

Not that they survived there very long – most of them moved back up north after the rest of them died to monsters and other beasts. It was too dangerous to go too much further south.

Though he's from one of the original tribes, Cyrus isn't too arrogant, and he's always been a quieter kid. If I didn't have the issues with my mana that I did since basically birth, we might have been able to become friends.

Him deciding to speak up for Seph before ever really talking with me is disappointing, but it's not like I own a monopoly on Seph's friends. I just wish more of my classmates would try to become friends with me.

"Me?" Seph asks. "Why would you be envious of me?"

"Because you got invited to Xander's party," Cyrus answers. "I do believe the claims of being part sun dragon, part phoenix, and part unicorn. He'd have no reason to lie, and Adrian King has confirmed it. Those are creatures of light and/or fire magic. Meeting someone with such an affinity for the same magics my family has would be a dream come true."

His face has slightly reddened. Is he into guys, too? And has a crush on Xander? He's definitely talking a lot more than usual, and it's about Xander. Even I'm aware enough to notice the signs.

"In addition to that," Cyrus adds. "He's an incredible hunter. While he hasn't hunted much, the fact that he's able to quickly and efficiently kill things is indicative of his skill."

"Isn't it indicative of his power?" Parker asks.

"No," Cyrus answers. "I saw footage of Xander killing the hares over the weekend. Sure, it would have taken a decent amount of mana to do that… but also skill. He determined what he felt was the best way to handle them, then did. Someone like that must have a lot of magical knowledge in his head."

"Don't get your hopes too high," I tell him. "Xander's got a lot of magical knowledge in his head… but he doesn't know how to translate it into words mere humans like us understand. When he tries explaining, he just starts making sounds, as if it's proper language."

Cyrus shrugs.

"Even without that," Cyrus says. "I'd love to be invited to one of his parties. Just the connection alone would be nice. Though Xander seems like he would be nice to have as a friend."

"Ah," Seph says as he unlocks his bike, though he inspects it a little, probably worried about someone messing with it.

"Everyone knows better than to do that," I tell him, and Seph gives me a confused look. "If they were to mess with your bike, they'd get caught on the camera there," I indicate a camera. "And that one, and that one, and that one. The academy takes security pretty seriously, so the bikes and hoverboards can all be seen from multiple cameras. Most kids here wouldn't do that even without that, though. They might talk a lot of smack, but this isn't a lower-class school. Words are about the limit."

"Pretty sure they're just afraid of what you'd do if you caught them," Cyrus says, causing Parker to chuckle. "We've all gotten shocked one too many times in the pool to want to know what it would be like if you were deliberately letting out sparks rather than accidentally."

"Well," Seph says. "I'm glad I haven't experienced that. I'd rather avoid getting shocked, thank you."

"No worries," I smile at him. "Only the worthy get shocked – those worthy of getting shocked, that is!"

He rolls his eyes in response to that.

"By the way," Cyrus says. "I've heard that you're a hunter, Seph?"

"Just a regular one," Seph confirms. "I know some basic archery magic, but I'm weak enough I ain't really able to hunt magic beasts yet. Not unless it's a weaker one and I get lucky."

He's probably happy he doesn't have to hide his accent anymore, even if he's not happy about the reason. I think he's still trying to maintain a better accent, though.

"That's fine," Cyrus says. "Is it okay if we hang out sometime? I want to see your archery skills and what you do for hunting."

"Um… sure?" Seph answers. "We're heading to my place, where my gear is. We usually do our homework, then just goof around for a bit. If Luke's fine with it, you can come with us."

Parker got denied permission to hang out with Seph today. He asked his parents since he now knows why Seph wasn't letting him come over to his place, but they want him home right after school.

"I don't mind it," I say. "The more, the merrier!"

And an increased chance for me to make another friend, too.

Cyrus and I retrieve our hoverboards, then part ways with Parker to leave. Tyler's already left for his next hunting trip with his father, so it'll be just the three of us there today.

"Hey, boys," Ms. Lee greets us when we enter the house, and she appraises Cyrus a little. "Who's this handsome young man?"

"Cyrus," Seph tells her. "He's a classmate whose family… hunts?"

I snort. It seems Seph doesn't know what Cyrus's family does and was guessing based on the conversation before we left school.

"Cyrus Sunfang," Cyrus extends a hand for her to shake. "My family owns the Sunfang Beast Processing Company. We provide centers for hunters of magic beasts to sell their catches at, then we process them. What the hunters wanted to keep from their catches is delivered to them or available for them to pick up once it's ready.

"The meat from the catches are put up for sale in our shops," he continues explaining his family's business. "As are some of the parts from the monsters, including leather we make from their hides. Companies are able to purchase beast parts from us for their production as well, though we do sell some minor items crafted using parts from the beasts.

"In addition to that," Cyrus continues. "We do some hunting, ourselves. We also run various hunter training centers throughout the country. They're geared for training people new to hunting magic beasts, both in educating about magical beasts and how to safely and properly hunt them, as well as in teaching them basic magics which can prove useful in their hunts.

"I found out today," Cyrus tells her. "That Seph is a newer magic hunter, so I was curious if he would show me what he knows."

"After homework," Ms. Lee looks rather nervous now.

She doesn't shake like her son does, but she fidgets with her hands. It seems she's heard of the Sunfang family and knows their standing. While she knows that Seph's classmates are all wealthy, not all of them hold standing like the Sunfangs. Many of them are just wealthy, not actually influential or powerful.

But the Sunfangs are both wealthy and influential. Cyrus's approximate mana level is known publicly as well, due to some of the things he's hunted and hit headlines for. With her son being a hunter, Ms. Lee definitely knows about him even if Seph hasn't.

"Ma," Seph says. "Just treat him like you do Luke."

As far as we can tell, she still doesn't know that I'm literally the most powerful student at the academy. She's never heard my last name from us and I doubt she looks at magitech papers and news much. Those are the main ways she'd be able to know who I really am. It's not like the common person knows the faces of people who provide energy or who build generators.

And we're geared towards mage businesses and households, not common households. The Lumaria Group's energy company is the one which does that.

There are several boys our age named Luke who have obvious Kenzibri heritage over Zrebzial or Volmezia. That makes it easier to not know who I am if she doesn't know my last name or hasn't seen my face in news or something.

Wait a moment… if Xander's ancestry doesn't even include Earth human, then why does he bear strong signs of having Kenzibri heritage? He genuinely looks like he's mostly Kenzibri. Mr. Massey even commented on that when Xander learned about the three tribes. Xander looks like he has a pure Kenzibri either as a parent or a grandparent.

Yet none of them are.

Another interference by Adrian King for whatever experiment he's doing with Xander? I can't imagine why that would matter, since Xander wouldn't need to blend in with his heritage being known.

Then again, I can imagine that Xander might have derailed whatever the experiment was just by virtue of being himself.

"I think this is a little different," Ms. Lee says. "The Sunfangs are-"

"Ma'am," Cyrus chuckles. "I think they've avoided telling you who Luke really is."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it," I tell her. "We've just tried to avoid bringing up my family since we didn't want to make you more nervous about Seph hanging around me than you already are. It's taken a lot of effort to convince you that I'm fine with snacking on the same things Seph normally does. It's different than what I do at home, but it's not bad. Anyway! We should get to doing our homework."

The three of us take over the living room floor, and Ms. Lee brings us some snacks to munch on while we work.

"What sort of spells do you use for hunting?" Cyrus asks Seph.

"Just some simple enhancement spells," Seph answers. "Strength, speed, and durability, mostly."

"Do you know a telescope spell?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What's that?"

"Most people call it enhancing their vision," Cyrus explains. "But really, it's creating a telescope-like effect right in front of one or both eyes. It allows you to see further away, or more precisely when in foliage. Makes it easier to spot something to hunt or a better location to wait in."

"Um… no," Seph shakes his head. "I didn't know that was a thing. I'd heard that you can't enhance your vision, unlike strength and stuff."

"Yeah," Cyrus nods. "I'm not sure why, but a spell for directly enhancing vision doesn't exist. I guess it's just not possible. The telescope spell effectively does the same thing, though, so most people just refer to it as enhancing their vision. It's fairly easy to learn and we recommend it to beginner hunters regardless of their style due to its utility."

Cyrus teaches Seph the spell, and I practice it as well. Adjusting the distance it lets me look to takes some getting used to, but it's really pretty neat. How come I've not heard of it before? This could actually be useful for enchanting and working on magitech. There are times where I need to look at something small.

Despite that, and the fact that it's apparently a basic spell whose formula can be found online, I've never heard of it. Seph probably stopped looking after getting results saying that enhancing one's vision wasn't necessary so him not knowing is understandable. I'll need to ask my parents if they know about the spell, though.

If they don't, then that would mean it's a spell mostly known to lower-level mages. Then again, I guess that makes sense. Us upper-level one have ways around most of the things it's used for. I can use a special magnifying glass or other device when working.

Not having to hold a device or have an object right in front of my face when working would be really useful, though.

The three of us move out back, and Seph demonstrates his archery skills for Cyrus, with and without enhancing the arrows. Cyrus conjures stone-like orbs for Seph to target, sending them zipping around the yard (though away from the chickens) to imitate animals running and flying. The orbs are soft enough for the arrows to pierce without breaking, but firm enough the arrows don't go all the way through.

A magically-conjured stone like that is pretty interesting. It was apparently researched by another family specifically for training archers. The Sunfangs then learned it and use it for the same purpose at their facilities.

Well, it's mostly their employees teaching it, but Cyrus had to learn the spell and is sometimes required to teach as well. His parents want him to know the business well for when he one day takes it over.

"Not bad," Cyrus says after pulling the balls over to us with his magic. "You're pretty good with a bow, and with predicting the paths. Can you do aspect enhancements?"

"No," Seph answers as he begins pulling the arrows out. "I was planning on learning those once I had a little bit more mana. It would only increase the cost per arrow, and I only have so much. That would decrease how much I can shoot, if I need several shots or am shooting several things."

"Most archers," Cyrus tells him. "Especially weaker ones, pick a single aspect and stick to it. They target things it'll be more effective against as their targets. Only once they have some decent skill with that one do they start learning another, if at all.

"Your skill is impressive for such a low mana amount," Cyrus says. "It's better than most of our classmates, even, and we're pretty much all mages. You must train your ass off."

"A bit, yeah," Seph's face reddens a little at the praise.

"He can crystallize mana," I tell Cyrus.

"Seriously?" Cyrus's eyes widen. "Damn… that's impressive, Seph. If you can do that, I'd recommend learning light magic. I might be a bit biased, but it's a lot more useful than other magics. And if you get good enough at it, well…"

Cyrus gestures away from us and a brown-furred hare with flames appears out of the palm of his hand, hopping onto the ground and running around. Where its feet touch the ground, the ground turns to mud.

Oddly, I can't sense any electrical signals in the hare. Though the fact that he was able to just teleport one in so casually is impressive, too, not just the fact that he's somehow able to conceal it from my own senses.

Then the hare suddenly sprouts wings and soars upwards, flying about twenty feet into the air before bursting like fireworks, green and silver light flashing through the sky above us.

"That was an illusion?" I ask. "It seemed so real. I could even hear the hare as it moved. Figured you'd teleported in a magic hare of some sort."

"Sound magic helped with the illusion," Cyrus nods. "And yeah, it was mostly an illusion. I created a core of mana within it to let me add in some extra effects, like the ground turning muddy. That was actual water magic quickly soaking in. The core exploding is what created the fireworks."

"That's… damn," I say. "I knew illusions could get realistic, but the only indicator for it for me was the lack of electrical signals. I just thought that was you doing something to conceal it from me somehow."

"Realistic illusions are rather useful," Cyrus says before looking at Seph again. "You won't be able to do that anytime soon, but even minor illusions can trick your prey into a trap. You can also use light magic to blind them so they won't flee, or to draw their attention."

"Oh," Seph says. "You really think I could use that?"

"Sure," Cyrus says. "If you can actually crystallize mana like Luke said, you've got enough skill with controlling mana for something a little more advanced. I haven't watched you during magic training class, but I'm sure you manage activating five different things on the orbs at once. That should be more than enough."

"He had six circles raised earlier," I tell him.

"Then yeah," Cyrus snorts. "You definitely have the skills needed to learn light magic. It'll be a little bit more cost-intensive, but it can open up better hunting possibilities, too."

"Alright," Seph seems unsure. "I'll look into it. Um. Thanks for the advice."

"You're welcome!" Cyrus says. "I kind of want to ask you more about your hunting and stuff, but I think that's enough for now. Besides, I spotted a creek and I think Luke could use a soak."

"A soak?" I ask. "Wait-no! Don't throw me in the creek! It's too cold!"

That turns into Cyrus chasing after me, and Seph joins in on that.

"Traitor!" I laugh as I evade Seph's hands. "You'll never catch me!"

[Sig – 13 years] → begins near the start of Luke's PoV.

Xander joined us at the rendezvous spot for the after-school hangouts, though he looks pretty tired and doesn't say much as we ride back to my place. Jake is with us now, too. That's not just because he's Connor's boyfriend, though – he's sometimes hung out with us for the after-school stuff before.

The reason it was only "sometimes" was because he was always nervous about slipping up about his identity, so he limited how long he was hanging out with others for. He mostly hung out on weekends.

Now that he doesn't have to worry about slipping up, he wants to hang out with all of us more. We aren't his only friends, but we're definitely his closest. Having him officially join us for this is something we all want, too.

"Is it okay if I nap while y'all do your homework?" Xander asks once we're in my basement, Aunt Rachel greeted and snacks acquired.

"Yeah!" I answer. "But how come you came here for the nap rather than in your room? Wouldn't you have more time to sleep, then?"

"Yeah," Xander covers his mouth as he yawns. "But I wanted to ask y'all something before I forget."

"What?" I ask.

"Grandpa Adrian gave me these earlier," Xander pulls out some packages of jerky. "It's wyvern jerky with various flavors of marinade and seasoning and stuff. He's experimenting with flavors for the stuff getting sold as wyvern jerky in stores and wanted some feedback. There's a feedback form."

Xander and his feedback forms. There's not a doubt in my mind that Xander's the reason they exist over Adrian just getting a "they love it" or "they hate it" from him.

He puts down slips of paper letting us know where to go to fill out the feedback form, including the code for each of us.

"I'm gonna take my nap now," Xander sleepily informs us. "Don't explode while I'm asleep."

That causes us to snicker a little. It's not the first time he's made a "don't explode" comment, and we're all well-aware it's because of Greyson. It's funny every time, because it's always during the most mundane of situations where there's zero chance of an explosion.

Xander goes over to a corner and puts down a blanket, then a pillow, then Trenton and Mr. Leviathan. The stuffed animal looks the same as it almost always does, but I feel like it's different from Saturday night.

"Hey, Xander?" I ask as he changes into sleepwear and into a wolfkin.

"Yes, Sig?" He responds.

"That's not the same plush we snuggled Saturday night, is it?"

"No," Xander answers. "This is Green Leviathan, because he's got more green in him than Blue Leviathan. Blue Leviathan stays on my bed, so that's who we snuggled Saturday. Green Leviathan is for snuggling when I'm not sleeping on my bed since he's cozier, but I might put Cyan Leviathan on the bed I'll be using in the dorm rooms."

He has three different Mr. Leviathans, for different sleeping locations. That's honestly really amusing.

Xander lies down on the blanket and snuggles Trenton and Mr. Leviathan, and a blanket plops down onto them.

"Aaaand he's out," I say, then look at my friends, who are all giving me a weird look. "What?"

"You slept in his bed?" Connor asks.

"Tate and Carter were there, too," I say. "His bed's huge. Even with all of the stuffed animals on it and creating dividers between people, there was space for all of us. He figured it was better than all of us sleeping on the floor or in different rooms for the sleepover, since there were only four of us. Being surrounded by that many stuffed animals was sooooo weird. Anyway, you should all get started on your homework so you're done before Xander wakes! And let's try the wyvern jerky!"

We try some of the wyvern jerky (Xander has a feedback form code for Jake, too) and the four of them get started on their homework. I play with a magic practice sphere and occasionally give them help while they work on their assignments.

"Zombie shooter?" Jake asks once they've all finished with their homework. "Or not enough time before Xander wakes?"

This is Jake's first time hanging out with us for the after-school hangout since his return. Xander napping with us for it isn't all that common, though, so even we aren't always entirely sure.

"It should be fine," I say. "Unless he's nearing waking? But we've got about fifteen minutes before then, and we've never worried too much about volume. Just a little."

"Alright," Jake says. "Let's play!"

Twenty minutes later, Jake sniffs the air.

"Is that berry cobbler?" He asks, and I sniff the air, too.

Is Aunt Rachel baking?

"Yeah," Xander answers, and we all look over to find him sitting cross-legged with a big bowl of cobbler and ice cream on his lap.

Nope. It's just Xander eating a snack.

"Oh!" I say. "You woke up!"

"Yeah," Xander gives me a "duh" look.

"Not eating the regular snacks?" Connor asks.

"What regular snacks?" Xander asks, and we all look at the table.

All of the snacks are gone.

"Uh…" Connor tries to think. "What happened to them?"

"Trenton says y'all ate them," Xander says. "That you, Sam, and Isaac seemed hungrier than usual. And since Sig and Jake use a lot of magic, they eat a lot, too. But you three also ate more than usual, and y'all ran out. Even the jerky is all gone."

"Trenton was watching us?" Sam asks.

This was probably Xander observing the outside world from his dream world and is interpreting it as Trenton telling him stuff. I did tell our friends about discovering why he can sometimes interact with us while he's asleep, so they're probably thinking the same thing.

"Xander was facing in our direction," I say. "Guess Trenton could see."

"Yeah," Xander says. "How come you three are lower in magic than normal? That's probably why you were so hungry. I wanted to ask that when we met up, but I was tired so I decided not to."

"The magic lesson was a lot more difficult than usual today," Isaac says. "I thought the hungry thing was just for people who are stronger, though? We're all still average."

"It can happen even at weaker levels," Jake tells him. "It starts becoming noticeable if you'll take more than a day to recover to at least ninety percent capacity. And since you guys were practicing with me over the weekend, and today's class was a bit more intense, well, you're low enough to spark that."

Since Xander and I were both busy all weekend, the four of them hung out without us. There were pictures in the group chat, though Jake isn't in it so I don't know if he's aware that they sent us a picture of him having whipped cream over half of his face.

If he does become a part of our core group, we'll need to make a new group chat so that he's included.

"Oh," Isaac says. "I guess we should let the dads know that we might sometimes eat a lot more. They split the costs of our snacks with Aunt Rachel rather than putting it all on her."

Whether by splitting the costs or rotating sending snacks or money for them over, the dads try to ensure it's fair. Xander's a bit of an exception to that since he always brings over snacks, but we're not going to ask him to make up the deficit. He already brings more than his share and we had to give up telling him he didn't need to bring as much as he does.

For whatever reason, he's really stubborn about providing snacks. The jerky wasn't all that he'd put down, he snuck in a fruit and cheese platter when we weren't paying attention.

"I will confess," Jake tells Xander. "I ate most of the jerky. Wyvern is sooo good. Dad takes me hunting for them regularly."

"Regularly?" Connor asks. "Do you guys sell the meat or something? Or is it just like a… once every six months sort of thing? Or longer?"

"Dude," Jake snorts. "Dad and I are dragons. We hunt them in our real forms and eat them. Sure, we aren't big enough to eat them all in one go… but that's what saving them for the next few days or week is for."

"Oh, right," Connor says. "You eat a lot more in that form, don't you?"

"A bigger body means more food is needed," Jake says. "So yup! Dad and I eat a ton in our real forms. We also tend to be pretty hungry if we switch back from human form to dragon form, though it doesn't go the other way, where we feel stuffed. It's because there's so little food in our bodies in human form, but our bodies' magic breaks it down quickly if there's excess if we switch into it."

There's probably more to it than that, but the basic idea is the same. Magic ensures they don't pop from the amount of food inside of them when going from dragon to human, even if it doesn't prevent them from being hungry when going the other way.

"So last Saturday," Connor says. "When you showed us your real form, you were really hungry?"

"Yup!" Jake answers. "Which is why I didn't stay in it for too long. I was there to hang out and the urge to go eat something was pretty strong."

"Huh."

"I've always got an urge to eat something," Xander says before taking another bite of his cobbler.

"Once you're done snacking," I say. "Want to shoot some zombies?"

"In real life?"

"In the game, goofball."

"Oh," he looks at the TV, then back at me. "No. Can I sit next to you?"

"Sure!" I scoot over and pat the cushion. "Come on!"

Xander moves over to beside me and places Trenton on my lap, then returns to eating his dessert as Isaac takes the controller.

Getting to hang out with my friends like this is really nice, and I'm glad I can still do it even with me not being in school. The only downside is that Xander's cobbler smells really amazing and there's no way I'm going to ask him for a bite. He's mostly done pies, cheesecakes, and cakes for the desserts he brings to bowling rather than cobblers.

His cobblers are definitely the best, though. I'm not sure why he hasn't been bringing them anymore.

"Hey, Xander?" I ask after he finishes another bite.

"Yes, Sig?"

"I know you've probably already got everything planned out for the party," I say. "But what are the odds of there being cobbler as a dessert/snack there?"

"Um… why?"

That means it's not in the plans.

"It's a good cold-weather dessert," I tell him. "And I really like the ones you make, so it had me wondering if I'd get to have some at the party."

"Oh," Xander says. "Um… it wasn't in the plans."

"Alright!" I say. "You're doing pie, then, aren't you?"

"Yeah," he nods. "Mom's teaching me how to make pumpkin and pecan pie during tomorrow's baking stream, and I'm gonna make those and apple pie for the party. And ice cream, to go with them."

"Sweet!"

"They should be," he says. "They're dessert pies."

I snicker a little.

"Alright," I tell him. "I'm looking forward to trying them!"

[Xander – 13 years]

"Everything okay?" Dad asks me.

Dinner is over and it's time for us to get ready to go shopping to buy the things we'll need for the party. I'm looking at the papers with the things we'll need to buy on them, trying to do math.

"Adding in cobbler for dessert would be too much, wouldn't it?" I ask.

"You want to add in cobbler?" Dad asks. "In place of the pies?"

"In addition to the pies," I say. "It ain't a proper pumpkin party without them. The boys' home always did apple pies and pumpkin pies for theirs. And sometimes pecan, but they didn't buy them too often because ones from grocery stores were always hard and nobody liked them. Buying from a proper bakery got better ones, but they were more expensive. So it was mostly just apple and pumpkin."

"Ah," Dad says. "Why do you want to add in cobbler?"

"Sig was asking if there'd be cobbler," I explain. "And Connor, Sam, Isaac, and Jake seemed interested, too. And if five of my friends want cobbler for it, then won't the others?"

"I think the first four," Dad says. "Were wondering because you haven't made it for bowling in awhile. You told me it was because you preferred bringing things with circular dishes rather than square or rectangular. Even the cakes you make for them are round."

"Oh…" I think for a few moments. "I guess that makes sense. But… I was going to bring the pies Mom and I made for tomorrow's bowling dessert."

"Why not bring those to Youth Group?" Dad asks. "Since they'll be in stasis, they'll still be fresh. That means you can bring those there, and do cobbler for the bowling dessert."

That sounds better.

"Okay," I say. "I think I'll do that. Should we buy the stuff for the cobbler today, or when Mom and I go shopping to get the stuff for the baking stream tomorrow?"

Not all of the stuff for cobbler will come from the store, as I do have berry plants in the greenhouse. Same with some fruit trees. I don't grow everything needed for what I eat in there, though, so we still have to go shopping for food.

"Tomorrow," Dad says. "That'll make it easier to keep it separated from the party's stuff, especially since we're also buying the stuff for Tuesday's celebration tonight as well."

There's so much stuff to keep track of and separate already. Not adding in another to that is definitely a better idea. It's unlikely I'd be able to manage it.

"Okay," I start putting my papers away. "I'll do that, then. Lemme find my shoes, and I'll be ready to go."

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