Ezra let go of her wrist as soon as they got to the beach, where they found a smug Lily and Edward standing off to the side as Abedi and Vanita made awkward small talk.

  “You guys finally made it through the line,” Aida said to Shon, who was standing off to the other side with the other Class 2 boys. She offered them the sack of meat skewers, each boy taking one with a murmur of thanks.

  “We would have been done earlier if Abedi wasn’t going so slowly,” Myk said, annoyed. He glanced at Ezra as he munched on his skewer. “Surprised to see you in Shale Port instead of Buddington. Doesn’t your family hold their own celebration?”

  “I am trying something new,” Ezra said simply. He took the sack of skewers from Aida, handing her one before he headed over to Lily and Edward.

  “Are you two…” Shon asked quietly, the other three boys leaning forward to hear Aida’s response. She shook her head.

  “We’re here just as friends,” she replied as she nibbled on another candy. She wondered how much she could say without sharing too much of Ezra’s personal information. “I think he was planning on just staying at school otherwise.”

  “Staying at school for a major festival?” Pritchard asked skeptically. “This guy really doesn’t know how to appreciate fun.”

  “He’s trying something new this time!” Dev reminded him. He looked after Ezra, his smile turning thoughtful.

  “They’re moving,” Aida said suddenly as Abedi and Vanita started wandering off, bodies rigid as they avoided looking to where their friends were idling. Aida and the boys sped up until they caught up with Lily, Edward, and Ezra, where they maintained a leisurely pace as they followed their two targets.

  “Skies above, Abedi’s actually making a move,” Myk breathed as Abedi accidentally brushed against Vanita’s arm. They all collectively sighed in disappointment as Abedi flinched away, despite Vanita not moving.

  “That was an accident,” Lily said hollowly. She rallied immediately. “But it’s still early!”

  “Here!” Myk said excitedly, pointing at a random stall and pulling the rest of them along, right as Vanita glanced suspiciously over her shoulder at them.

  As soon as Vanita had turned back to Abedi, giggling nervously, the group turned back towards the pair, eyeing them beadily. Amused, Aida instead looked at the stall, which had several large glass tanks laid out at the front filled with water, with several sacks in the back. The hopeful proprietor caught her eye and beckoned her forward.

  “Come, come! Three copper baen to scoop flowers! Even when you lose you win, because you’ll get some beautiful flowers for your trouble!”

  “What are the rules?” Aida inquired.

  “You get thirty seconds to scoop as many seed pods as you can,” the owner said eagerly, holding up small fishing nets in one hand and a small canvas sack in the other. “The more seeds you scoop before they bloom, the higher your point total! At the end, depending on how many pods you collect, you can trade them for a prize!” At the mention of prizes, the owner pointed upwards with his fishing net, where several knick knacks hung from the ceiling. There were small stuffed animals, clearly handmade, as well as several beaded accessories.

  “But even if you only scoop flowers, you can still walk away with some lovely blooms,” the man said reassuringly, mistaking Aida’s fascination with the prizes as hesitation. “You aren’t losing anything at all by playing!”

  “I’ll do it,” Aida said decisively, pulling out her cloth coin pouch. Three copper baen to play a small festival game seemed a small price to pay for cultural immersion.

  “Ooo, me too!” Lily said, extricating herself from the group.

  “Anyone else?” The owner looked eagerly among the boys. “Two more tanks available!”

  “Me,” Pritchard said pompously, stepping forward while he rolled up his sleeves. “I’m good at this game.”

  Edward took the tank next to Lily’s, and the stall owner set up small pouches on a contraption that would release seeds into all the tanks at once. As he set up the game, a small girl - she looked like his daughter, based on her dark hair and eyes - collected the coins from everybody and handed them a fishing net in exchange. She pulled a pocketwatch out of the folds of her festival robe, her tiny hands making the timepiece look comically large.

  “Ready?” she asked breathlessly, her large eyes blinking innocently at Aida. Aida looked down the line at her classmates, all of them hovering over their tanks with intense focus. Her lips quirked as she got herself ready.

  “Go!”

  With a clatter, the pouches burst open, unloading several black balls into the water, splashing water out of the tanks. Almost instantaneously, several seeds bloomed, their petals swirling the water about their center and throwing the rest of the water into a small vortex.

  Swearing, Aida plunged her fishing net into the water, scooping fruitlessly at the dark balls in the water. It was much more difficult than she had imagined: with each passing second, at least one flower would sprout, the wave it generated swishing a seed out of her shallow net’s grasp.

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  “Time!” the girl announced gleefully. “Please remove your nets!”

  Aida pulled her net out, looking glumly at the two seeds that accidentally tangled themselves in the threads. As the bloom caught in her net drained, it began floating into the sky, only to be plucked out of the air by the girl.

  “Good job,” she said, giggling sweetly as she threaded a string through the center of the flower. She proceeded to fish the rest of the blooms out of the water, stacking them all along the string. Her father, mother, and older sister were efficiently threading the blooms from the other tanks. “Since you got two seeds, you can get a bracelet!”

  “Thank you,” Aida said, bemused. The girl handed Aida two strings of flowers, all of them floating in the air like balloons. She ran over to her mother, who reached up to take down several bracelets. The girl bounded back, handing Aida a bracelet with a smile.

  “Do you want to play again?”

  “I’ll let someone else go,” Aida said, smiling as she accepted her prize. The bracelet was a motley collection of shells and shiny stones on a small cord, and didn’t seem to have any special properties. Despite that, Aida slipped it over her wrist as she turned away.

  Ezra was standing behind her, watching in amusement.

  “Here you go! A gift for you,” Aida said gallantly as she handed him a flower balloon. He accepted graciously, his fingers curling elegantly around the string.

  “Impressive that you managed to secure two seeds.”

  “It was honestly luck,” Aida said in an undertone as she looked back at everyone else receiving their prizes and talking. “I didn’t know they would grow that fast.”

  “It really is a luck game,” Ezra agreed. “They coat the seeds in oil to keep water from activating them. As the seeds get used in these games, the oil washes away, so the more often the seed is played the more likely it will be to blossom.”

  “I don’t care,” Aida declared, smiling at her balloon. The flower petals were so wispy as they floated languidly in the air, bending and curling in the air currents; it was hard to believe they could generate so much force when they bloomed. “I think the flowers are amazing.”

  “Here you go,” Pritchard said pompously, shouldering his way over and forcing a bracelet of similarly incongruous composition as Aida’s over Ezra’s other hand. “Now if you get lost, you can show an adult this bracelet and they will know to bring you back to us.”

  Ezra stared blankly at Pritchard as Aida laughed. Pritchard raised his arm defensively, showing off his own bracelet. “We’re all wearing one!”

  Behind Pritchard, everyone raised their arm: Lily and Edward waved cheekily at Ezra, displaying their own bracelets. Dev and Myk and Shon all gave him a thumbs up, their bracelets catching the sunlight. Dev was stoic; Myk gave Ezra a smirk; and Shon gave him an abashed smile.

  Aida turned back towards Ezra, tittering. “Welcome to the squad!”

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  The rest of the afternoon was a lot easier - and significantly more fun - than Aida expected. They continued tailing Vanita and Abedi, making sure to keep a careful distance so as not to disturb the two, while also not falling too far behind that they couldn’t keep tabs on how the date was going.

  It took a bit of time before Ezra finally relaxed enough to partake in the inane observations the group tended to make about the couple. Aida was more interested in the activity booths and Festival games than the play-by-play of what was happening with Vanita and Abedi, but she had to admit there were several points where the commentary was ridiculous enough to draw her interest.

  “His kissers are at her ear,” Myk gasped amid the clamor. “He’s invading her personal space! Is she going to stand for it?”

  “It’s okay, don’t worry,” Lily said, her eyebrows meeting in the middle as she concentrated on the subjects of interest five stalls down from them, her half-eaten sweet bun hovering in front of her mouth, forgotten. “She's going to turn into-!”

  A collective groan drew Aida’s attention from the target she had her slingshot aimed at. The stall owner had trapped Aida in a friendly conversation as they had lingered at the stall while stalking the unlucky couple, to the point where Aida found it extremely uncharitable to deny the invitation to play - especially considering how he even offered to let her play twice for the price of one round.

  The rules were straightforward: she was given five slingshot ammo, giving her five chances to shoot the paper targets in front of her. Each target depicted a hand-drawn monster’s face. Aida recognized a charred zard, eel, and an insectoid head that reminded her of the beetle she and Levi had come across so long ago. Like the seed-scooping stall, prizes were hung from the roof of the stall. All the prizes appeared to be paper charms of some sort.

  “What happened?” Aida asked. Even the stall attendant leaned forward to get a view of where they were all looking.

  “She leaned forward instead, away from him,” Dev said in disappointment. “It wasn’t even to get away from him, but he interpreted it as such so he backed up.”

  “Vanita looks disappointed,” Ezra intoned. “Perhaps Abedi will realize, and rectify his mistake.”

  “I don’t know,” Pritchard said doubtfully. “Abedi is pretty dense. I think he’s going to misinterpret what happened and pull back even more.”

  “How do we save him?” Shon fretted. “He’s going to tighten up if we approach.”

  “Love troubles, eh?” the attendant observed. He eyed Aida knowingly. “Tell you what. If you can make three shots in a row, I’ll give you a set of love charms! Normally, it’s a five-shot prize, but since I like you so much, I’ll let you have it if you can make three.”

  “In a row? Who do you think I am?” Aida protested good-naturedly.

  The attendant sucked his teeth, as if he was agonizing over a difficult decision. “Fine! Fine. If you can just make three shots, you can have your love charms.”

  Aida glanced at her friends, hoping one of them would volunteer as a more accurate shot, but they were all totally absorbed in brainstorming ways to sneak closer to the couple. The stall owner nudged her before she could get their attention.

  “You know, it seems to me a pretty young lady like you might also have some unresolved love troubles. I’ll offer you this: since you already have ten shots, for every three shots you make, I’ll give you one set of love charms.” He waved off her protests. “Youth only comes once! I want to maximize your chances of experiencing that young love.” He thrust a finger in her face. “But you have to be the one to take the shots.”

  A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of Aida’s lips. His offer really was very generous, and he was nodding at her very sincerely. Of course, she didn’t believe that his charms would have any effect, but if she could get even one set of love charms it would make the bit of rooting for Vanita and Abedi even more funny.

  “Okay,” Aida said lightly, raising her slingshot again, to the gentleman’s delight. “I accept your challenge.”