Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2017 10:35:47 -0600
From: Kurt King <kingkurt1339@gmail.com>
Subject: The New Life of Xander King Chapter 13

	This story may contain sexual acts between males, persons below the
age of consent, and relatives. If this offends you or is illegal for you to
read where you're at, please close this website and go elsewhere.

	This story is fictional and entirely the work of the author's
imagination. And resemblance to persons, places, or things, real or
fictional, are entirely coincidental, and any views stated do not
necessarily reflect those of any companies or organizations which do exist
in real life, nor necessarily reflect the views of the author.

	This story is the property and copyright of the author, do not
share, reproduce, repost, or any other such act which is illegal to do
without the author's permission.

	You can find my other story at the following link:
	NLCK:
http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/the-new-life-of-cal-king/

	Don't forget that you can always contact me to give me feedback! I
can be found at kingkurt1339@gmail.com, and I do my best to respond to
every email if I can! Any comments, questions, or suggestions are always
welcome, especially as I'm constantly changing events that happen in the
story, and will be publishing other stories!

	As always – don't forget to donate to Nifty at:
	http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html to keep the archive free!

	This story is not a quick jack-off story. If you are looking for
that, you would be best going to another story. If you are interested in
not just the sex, but also the lives of the characters and their romances
and dramas, then read on, and I hope you enjoy it!

	In the last chapter, Karma ranted to Xander about the Student
Council probably going to end up doing the stuff they normally do for
Spirit Week and Homecoming, and Xander made an off-hand comment that became
the idea and theme. Xander went to the town's homecoming with Luke, and
freaked out at the fireworks. Luke took him to his house instead of the
Scotts', and Xander spent the night there, making Luke stay on his bed and
stay clothed for even a chance at getting to hang out again, something
Xander rejects in the morning, saying he still doesn't like Luke. Dylan met
Sam, the captain of Lakeview Middle School's soccer team, and after they
hung out a little bit, the two of them had sex.

	Sorry for the delay in getting this out here! I know I promised 5-7
days, and if this goes up the day I submit it, it'll be pushing the 7 days,
but I have reasons! I'm publishing another story at this time, NLCK (linked
above), and I'm trying to get that out and finished before events go
underway for Xander. If you've been reading NLCK, then at the end of the
last chapter, you saw a note, which is that that restaurant will overlap
with MANY of the stories I've written, published and to-be-published,
including NLXK. I'm going to do 2 NLCK and 1 NLXK a week until NLCK is
finished (so just 3 or 4 more NLXK chapters from now, so about a month),
and then back to my rhythm for NLXK. HOWEVER! Once I start publishing
Matt's story (he's the official winner of the voting, now), I'll be doing
one chapter a week in each story, at the most, unless I can do a rush for
some reason.

	Sorry for the longer intro, on to the story!

~~Chapter Thirteen – King Xander~~

[Xander]

	Homecoming. Not the city's homecoming fair, but the high school's
dance. The Student Council basically had me plan the entire thing, and
because of that, I'm allowed into it, even though I don't have a date and
am not in high school, because they're weird like that.

	As soon as school ended, I went over to the high school to start
helping set it up in their massive gym. It's really big, and can fit
thousands of people, though we probably won't have more than a thousand
show up for the dance, if that. They'll be announcing the Homecoming King
and Queen at the end, whatever those are. Probably some sort of popularity
contest, just the sort of thing I could never win. Or even dream about
winning.

	I'm really nervous, because they want me to stay for the whole
dance, and I don't like crowds. At all. It scares me.

	I think the gym actually looks nice, sort of like a castle. They
had the Art Club make some of the decorations. Had I tried to do it, it'd
look horrible. Their Art Club is amazing. Like, really amazing. Probably
the results of sending talented rich kids to a school for rich kids, where
they can get better at things they're already amazing at.

	The dress code for it is strict: the guys are to be dressed
according to their year, with the girls to be dressed as ladies. Senior
boys are nobility, juniors are knights, sophomores are members of the
upper-class, and freshman are jesters. It's actually a pretty good mix. The
teachers are all dressed like peasants and servants. The gym is decorated a
little bit like a castle ballroom, courtesy of the school's Art Club, who
spent the last two weeks prepping the pillars and the covers for the walls
and tables and everything.

	I think I look stupid, but what Karma wants, Karma apparently
gets. She's got me dressed up like a king. I got out of having the scepter,
but the crown wasn't something I could get out of. Or the cloak. It's
fuzzy. It feels nice.

	The gym slowly fills up with people, and it's all I can do to not
panic. There are so many people here, it's more crowded than I thought it
would be. And they're all leagues above me, too.

	I'm only a King by name, I'm not an actual king, and I don't belong
wearing these clothes. I feel like a fake, a fraud, and a loser.

	I think they enjoy the dance a little bit, but I'm not sure. I've
never been to a dance before. The gym gets crowded, and the servants have
to constantly get more food and drink for everyone. I pick the lock to the
stairs and go up to the second level of the gym to watch everyone, away
from the crowd.

	Finn shows up. He's dressed like a jester. Had to be, or they
wouldn't let him in, even though he's on the Student Council. He was
running late, something to do with Turtle. Karma wouldn't give me the
details, just forced the outfit on me. Finn's jester outfit is entirely
white. I wonder how he found one that was completely white, that can't be
too easy to find.

	Or did he have it custom-made for him? That's short notice. The
things rich people can do.

[Finn]

	I was running a little late getting to the dance, but Karma and
Xander and the rest of the Student Council went ahead. Last time I saw
Xander, he was wearing a t-shirt and one of his regular pairs of Under
Armour pants, and when I walk into the gym, it doesn't take me long to spot
him. He's up on the track on the second level of the gym, where the
students aren't allowed to go during the dance, but somehow managed to get
up there, anyway. Probably picked the locks on the stairs.

	The gym that Homecoming is being held in is the Dome, a massive,
two-story gym with bleachers on both levels, a small track wrapping itself
around the inside of the second level of the gym. Perfect for running when
we can't go on the full-sized track outside. The bleachers on both levels
are pushed against the walls, but when they're out, they can seat over six
thousand people. It's modeled after a smaller version of this room that
Lakeview High School, one of the public schools in the city, has had for
over a hundred years.

	Even if Xander weren't the only person on the second level, he'd
still stand out. He's dressed in purples and reds, a golden dragon emblem
on his chest, and a golden crown atop his head. I'm so glad that Karma
didn't talk him into a scepter, he'd probably start smacking people in the
head with it if they got near him. That, or held it in front of him in
terror in the hope that they'd go away. The sad part is that the pitiful
look on his face would probably get them to go away, save the bullies. I'm
so glad no one else is up there.

	Xander's cloak is a deep crimson with black flecks and a white fur
trim, and he's rubbing it with one hand, and at one point, even lifts up
part of it and rubs it against his face. He's so adorable, and he doesn't
even have to try.

     Unfortunately, seeing Xander like that makes me hard, and I'm wearing
a tight outfit, being a freshman, and therefore, a jester. After a few
minutes of being uncomfortable, I notice I'm not the only guy who's hard,
and start enjoying myself.

	The entire dance, Xander doesn't descend from the second level
once. They do the announcements of who's Homecoming King and Queen at the
end of the dance. Tracey Blaine and Connor West, who everyone expected to
win. They're not on the council, but they help us out a ton, too, and even
offered to stay after the dance to help clean up. As soon as they asked,
Xander tried refusing, saying he was fine doing it himself. The rest of the
Council apparently had to step in and say that if they wanted to, they
could, and that we'd all be staying behind to clean up the mess.

	"...and before we go," Connor finishes his speech. "I'd like
everyone to look up to the track. I'm sure you all noticed him walking
around up there, watching everyone. For those of you who don't know, that
little king up there is Xander King, an eighth-grader, and the one who
planned out this entire dance, and even the themes we had each day this
week. Without him, it would've been the same, boring Spirit Week we have
every year, so give him a big round of applause!"

	When Connor started that, Xander was nuzzling the fur on the cloak
again, eyes closed as he enjoyed the feel, and it took him a moment to
realize that he had everyone staring up at him.

	Yeah, Xander looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He's now
staring down at everyone staring up at him, eyes wide, unsure of what to do
or how to react. Being publicly thanked like that is definitely a new thing
to him, and he's probably doubting the sincerity behind it.

	Connor and Tracey only know he's behind the whole thing due to an
off-handed comment Ryan Young, the Student Council President, made while
they were talking during setup, Karma told me during the dance. As soon as
she told me that, I knew this announcement was going to be made. I would
have warned him beforehand so he could leave the gym before the
announcement, but he never looked at his phone, and I'm wondering if it's
on silent.

	Everyone applauds, and now Xander looks even more confused, though
I think it's lost on the crowd, who are just happy to have an actual
homecoming this year.

	"He looks confused as fuck," Karma giggles, and I look over at
her. She appeared out of nowhere. "Probably doesn't know how to react to
all this, and probably doesn't know if they're serious or not."

	Half an hour later, the dance ends, and once everyone's gone, the
staff and Student Council and Xander start cleaning up. He disappears for a
few minutes, and when he returns, he's back into the outfit I saw him in
earlier. I don't find him awake, though, he's curled up on the floor in one
of the closets, and at first, I think he'd gotten attacked.

	I'm about to call for help when I realize that he'd changed into
his pants and t-shirt, and is curled up with the cloak wrapped around him,
the fuzzy part clutched tightly and against his face. He's just sleeping,
and he's comfortable, which is odd, with how badly he's been sleeping
leading up to now, due to what's coming up this week. I'd think he'd be
tossing and turning or unable to sleep entirely, since he's apparently been
wandering around the house at night lately. I snap a picture of him before
closing the door and returning to the Dome.

	It's around two in the morning when, exhausted, we finally
finish. Xander woke up a few minutes before that, wandering back into the
gym with a duffel bag slung over one shoulder and the cloak wrapped around
him, looking sleepy. He makes his way over to Karma on a mission, but
before he can, everyone walks over to him, surrounding him, and he freezes,
clutching the cloak tightly. Probably think we're going to make him give it
up.

	"So you know," Karma starts to talk as Xander looks at each of us,
probably thinking he's going to be beaten up or something, in addition to
having the cloak ripped away from him. "This isn't the dance of a normal
school. We're rich, and we like nice things. Professional caterers,
high-quality food, banners, streamers, balloons, lots of decorations, nice
materials for the things the students make, and so on. We spent tens of
thousands dollars on this week's events," now Xander looks terrified in a
different way. He probably thinks he has to make it up or pay it all
back. "And so," Karma holds a thick envelope out to Xander. "It's only
natural that we'd give this to the third party person who organized this
event, and did a fantastic job at it, too."

	Xander takes the envelope suspiciously and opens it up, eyes
practically bulging out of his head when he sees what's inside. It took a
lot of negotiating with the school to be allowed to do this. It wasn't
Karma who finally convinced them, though she did have a huge part in
it. The current Homecoming King and Queen were the ones who convinced the
school into this, even though he's not a professional planner, like we use
for Prom.

	"Your commission," Connor says, and Xander looks at him. "Of the
cost of Homecoming Week. You did an outstanding job, kid, between the
decisions for the theme each day, the market on Monday, and the dance
today. It wouldn't be right for us to use your services without paying you,
and while most party planners probably get a higher commission than that,
we figured-"

	He doesn't get to finish what he's saying. Xander actually shows
emotion as he tackles Connor, wrapping his arms around him in a
hug. Xander's actually recognized that someone's thankful of him and is
serious about it, and even though he's crying, I'm pretty sure he's happy,
too.

	"Whoa, little guy," Connor laughs, detaching my godbrother from
him, and Xander looks up at him, confused. "No need to cry, we're just
paying you for your services. You put in a lot of work and effort and time
for this dance, and you don't even go to this school. We pay the third
party people who plan prom and our other dances and events, so it'd be
right to pay the third party person who planned this dance, too. Especially
since the Student Council's supposed to do it."

	"Actually," I interrupt him. "Xander's happy. He's never been paid
for work he's done before, and wasn't expecting this. Probably in shock at
the amount he's being paid, but grateful and happy. It's a huge surprise to
him."

[Xander]

	I got paid for planning the dance and the week and everything. One
thousand dollars. Fifty twenty dollar bills. They're all crisp, new. I'm
not sure what to do with it, so when I get home, I stick it in my
backpack. I don't want to get crumbs all over these bills, since they're
new.

	I had to steal all the other money, I was given this money for
planning out the dance and everything. Had to steal all the other money I
had other than the two thousand that Mr. Scott gave me to buy clothes,
which I ended up not spending because of the scary lady hurting my arm.

	I grab Trenton and curl up on my bed, hugging him tight against me
with the soft cloak from my costume wrapped around me as I drift off to
sleep. I sleep in late, and after I get up and yawn, I go to the bathroom
and look in the mirror, playing with my bangs. My hair's growing out again,
and I kind of like it, but I like my new old look, too.

	"I supposed I should stop stalling," I sigh, looking at myself in
the mirror. I smile at myself, but still think my smile looks stupid. I
hate it and stop smiling. "Today will be a good day. I woke up today, I'm
stupid, and I'm broken and damaged, but people enjoyed something I
planned," that...was surprisingly easy to list. I wasn't thinking something
could come easily, nothing ever does. "I made money on my own for once,
instead of having to steal it while I'm on the run from one of my
'patrons'," I spit that last word out, I always backed out, but they always
forced me to anyway. "And yesterday was a good day."

	Today, the good things came out easily. People enjoyed something I
planned out, I made money on my own, and yesterday really was a good day. I
didn't have any problems at school, and while I was scared and nervous at
the dance, people actually liked it, even though I was the one who planned
it out, and the Student Council thought it was good enough that they paid
me for it. I didn't realize they'd spent that much money on it.

	I then spend the next twenty minutes getting ready, trying to
figure out which outfit I will look less stupid in. That done, I grab
twenty bills from the envelope from and stuff them into one of my pockets,
then go downstairs for breakfast.

	"Got your shoes on already?" Mr. Scott asks me, and I nod. "Going
to go out?"

	"Yes, sir," I answer. "I don't know when I'm going to get
back. I'll text you at lunch."

	"It's eleven, now," he says. "This is lunch, I just figured you'd
like breakfast for lunch today. Tell you what, if you're not back by, let's
say seven, so eight hours from now, text me to let me know when you'll be
back, okay? I won't tell Linda."

	"Okay," I say, then go back to eating.

	After my stomach's full, I leave, walking down to the Great Clips I
got my hair cut at before. The one I got my hair cut at the day the scary
lady attacked me when I was just trying to buy clothes.

	"Hi," one of the stylists walks out, still wearing her apron. "You
thinking about going in?" I nod. "What's your name?"

	"Xander."

	"That's a nice name," she lights up a cigarette. "Sorry about the
smoke, it's a bad habit. I'm downwind, so unless the wind changes, it won't
go to you. Ever been here before?"

	"Yes, ma'am."

	"Where are your parents?"

	"Dead."

	"Sorry to hear that," she says. "How long?"

	"Does it matter?"

	"Not really," she shrugs. "I was just wondering. Who do you live
with?"

	"Mr. and Mrs. Scott."

	"Sounds generic," what does she mean by that? "Never gotten your
hair cut by yourself before?"

	"I've only gotten it trimmed."

	"Never gotten it cut short before?"

	"People keep telling me it'd look better short," I look at the
parking lot. "I've never had it short before. I like hiding behind my
bangs. But...I want to try it short. I don't think I'll look good with it
short."

	"We can do it short, but not too short," she puts out her cigarette
and walks around me, then stands in front of me, looking right at me. "I
know the perfect haircut for you, it'll make all the girls in your class
want to be your boyfriend."

	"What if I like guys?"

	"It'll make all the straight boys in your class question their own
sexuality, too," she answers. "So if you swing that way, or both ways,
you'll have options. I'm Lila, by the way. Forgot to introduce myself
earlier, Xander. Want to come in?" She puts out her cigarette I'll make you
my next customer, so that I can do this cut for you."

	"Okay," I say, then follow her in.

	She asks for my address and name.

	"King, Alexander," she smiles at me. "Fitting name, for a handsome
kid. Let's get you started."

	She sits me down, and after a little bit of me freaking out at the
razor, she starts trimming my hair with scissors instead. After she
finishes, she washes and shampoos my hair to get all the little bits out,
after I say I'll pay for the extra cost. It puts my total up to exactly
twenty dollars, so one of my bills. Before she finishes, she lets me see my
reflection. She put just a little bit of gel in it so that the bangs sweep
to the side. It's only about two inches long now, so pretty short compared
to what it was before.

	I can actually see my face, for once. I like the haircut. I still
think I'm ugly, but I like the haircut, so I buy a bottle of the gel she
used, too. After that, I pay and leave, making my way to the sporting store
I went to before. While I'm looking at jackets there, a girl around my age
walks up to me.

	She's a little taller than me, with long, purple hair (and eyebrows
- I thought you weren't supposed to dye your eyebrows, that's why I never
did) that flows across her shoulders and back, eyes that remind me of the
dark green grass in the Scotts' lawns, and has a little bit of glitter on
her cheeks, for some weird reason. Is it glittery cheeks day? Did I miss
the memo?

	"Hi," she greets me. "I'm Tessa."

	"Xander."

	"Do you go to school around here?"

	"Yes."

	"I've never seen you before."

	"Now you have," what does she want?

	"You keep looking at the cheap ones," she says. "But this one," she
grabs a light gray jacket. "Will look better on you than those ones, even
if it's fifty instead of twenty. If you're on a budget, though, go ahead
and get that cheaper one, but I'd save up for this one, if you get an
allowance. Or are you on birthday money?"

	"I can afford it," I feel the jacket. It feels nice. And it's an
Under Armour one I don't have. I was just looking at another
brand. "I...don't like people spending money on me."

	"Wait," she says. "So someone else is paying? Just get the most
expensive one they'll let you by."

	"I'm paying for it."

	"They just give you money and say 'give us the change'?"

	"No."

	"Oh?"

	"I got paid for helping with something," I say. "It's my money. I
earned it."

	"Ah," she says. "Budget yourself so you don't burn a hole in your
pocket."

	"I don't like fire," I say. I don't. I've been burned too many
times. "I'm not burning holes in my pocket."

	"You took that literally, didn't you?"

	"Took what literally?"

	"It's a metaphor!" She exclaims. "A way of saying something without
using the words, usually in the form of a comparison, without using 'like'
or 'as'. Using those makes it a simile. The phrase 'burn a hole in your
pocket', in reference to money, typically means that having it makes you
eager to spend it, just because you have it, even if you don't need to
spend it."

	"Oh," I say. "It's not burning a hole in my pocket. I have more at
home, I just wanted a haircut and to see if they had any new clothes since
the last time I was here."

	"Okay!" She grins at me. "So does it fit into your budget, or not?
Don't spend all the money you earned at once."

	"I didn't even take half my money," I say. "I'm saving the rest. I
already have that jacket."

	"You do?" She asks, looking me up and down. "Well, you're wearing
Under Armour already, so I guess that makes sense. Have this one?" I shake
my head. "You should get it."

	For the next hour, she hands me clothes to try on, and I try them
on, then show myself to her, and she tells me what she thinks. She does
nothing but compliment me, so I'm suspicious.

	When I finish picking out clothes, I go up to the register. Tessa
asks me exactly how much I was paid.

	"One thousand dollars."

	"Whoa," her eyes practically pop out of her head. "What did you
do?"

	"I planned the high school's homecoming," I answer.

	"Which one?"

	"E.A. Marker High School."

	"The rich kid high school?"

	"Yes."

	We get to the register, and the guy standing there looks at me
suspiciously. He's probably going to accuse me of trying to play a prank.

	"What happened to your arm?" He asks as soon as we approach.

	"That's rude!" Tessa exclaims. "I met him an hour ago, and I
haven't asked him that! You just see him and ask him? What kind of customer
service is this?"

	"Do you know," he looks at her. "How many people, especially
teenagers, we have who try to play pranks on us? Faking an injured arm
isn't going to make me believe it anymore."

	"A prank?" She asks. "You think we're playing a prank? I just met
him while he was trying on outfits, and-"

	"I should probably call my caretaker," I don't mean to say it, I
was thinking it. Mr. Scott would probably make sure this guy doesn't give
me hassle, like the last person. But I don't want to disturb him. "Didn't
mean to say that out loud.

	"Your caretaker?" Tessa asks. "Not your parents?"

	"My parents are dead."

	"The sympathy card isn't going to work, either," the man says,
watching as I put stuff on the counter. "I'm tired of kids always playing
pranks on us."

	"I'm not playing a prank," I say. "I just want to buy clothes."

	I'm scared. I'm going to get yelled at again, aren't I? Is he going
to grab me, too?

	"Xander!" The sweet lady from my last visit approaches. "Welcome
back. I was wondering how you're doing. Your arm still isn't better?"

	"It still hurts," I look at her. "They said I can stop wearing the
brace next week, as long as I don't keep taking it off. But it itches
really bad, I don't like wearing it."

	"Well," she laughs. "Try to put up with it until they give you the
O-K, so that you can stop having to wear it."

	"It itches so bad."

	"I've got to go clock in," she says. "See you around."

	The cashier glares at me as he starts to scan things.

	"Will that be all for you?" He demands, and I feel myself shrink
down as I hand him a card. "What's this?"

	"You have to swipe it on your register."

	"We only do that for gift cards," he says. "What is this?"

	"You have to swipe it on your register."

	He tries to argue with me, and I get scared. I should probably go,
he's probably going to yell at me.

	"Excuse me!" Tessa calls out to a worker passing by. "We need a
manager!"

	"I'm a team lead," he walks over to us. "What's up?"

	"The incompetency of this cashier," she answers. "My new friend
Xander has given him something that's supposed to be swiped on the
register, and your cashier is insisting that he only does that for gift
cards. He's also accused us of playing a prank, when Xander's spending
money he earned doing a job. Honestly, we're considering calling
corporate!"

	That's a lie. I'm not considering calling corporate. I start to say
that, but the team lead guy looks at me and talks.

	"You're Xander?" The team lead guy, his I.D. says 'Evan', asks. I
nod. "Nice to meet you. Have you been in here since the incident?" I shake
my head, and he smiles. It's friendly. "Welcome back, then. Just so you
know, she's been fired. Eric, hand me the card." Eric does, and Evan
snorts. "It even has our company name on it. That's cool."

	Evan takes over the transaction, Eric stepping out of his little
booth. Evan swipes the card in the reader on their register, and then asks
me if there's anything else. I shake my head, and he totals it out, and
then inserts a key into the register and punches in some numbers.

	"Can I see your I.D.?" He asks, and I hand it to him. He scans it
with the scan gun, then hands it back to me. "Alright, your total comes out
to be three hundred, six dollars and twelve cents. Will that be cash or
card?"

	"Cash," I count out sixteen of my remaining eighteen twenties,
handing them to him. "Here."

	He recounts, then punches a thing on the register, and then the
till pops out. He puts the money in and pulls out my change, counting it
out in front of me and handing it to me.

	"Thirteen dollars and eighty-eight cents," he says, and I stick it
into my wallet. "Hope your arm gets better soon, Xander, I heard that you
already had issues with it before that."

	I nod quickly, then grab my things and leave.

	"So do you really not have parents?" Tessa asks.

	"My parents are dead," I answer. "I just have caretakers."

	"Sure you do," she laughs. I wasn't joking, they're just watching
me until it's time to send me off to someone else. "My parents are at home,
I'm out with my brother, who's in Wal-Mart right now, and it'll be another
hour or two before he finally finishes, so I'm wandering around. If he were
alone, he'd be fine, but he ran into his girlfriend, so they're basically
just chatting as she's shopping and he's grabbing what he needs along the
way. You hungry? I'll pay, since you put up with me judging you in there,
and had whatever that was. How did you get a twenty-percent discount?"

	"I'm hungry," I follow her into Panda Express, and we sit down to
eat after ordering. I've never had Panda Express before. "This is good."

	"Of course it is!" She laughs, and we finish eating. She talks
about her friends a lot. "Can I see your phone?"

	"Why?" I hand it to her.

	"And there!" She says after doing something on it. "By the way, you
should lock your screen so no one else can go in and mess with it."

	"How do I do that?"

	She shows me how to lock my screen, and then tells me to lock it
with something different than what I showed her, but make sure it's
something I'll remember, but not something others can easily guess. After I
do that, I ask her what she did, and she tells me she put her number in my
phone.

	"Did you put in a password?"

	"Yes."

	"Did you max out the character limit?"

	"Yes."

	"Will you really remember seventeen digits of a password?" She
asks, and I nod. "It's not something someone else can guess?"

	"It's not."

	It's not. It's something I only recently started remembering, no
one else would know about it. I don't think so, anyway.

	"Halloween is this Monday," she says. "Come to my party, I'll text
you my address and time. Since we're just a little too old to go
trick-or-treating, since the cutoff age is twelve, I'm throwing a party
this year. Come dressed up, if you want."

	"I've never been to a party before."

	"That's fine," she says, checking her phone for a moment. "Dylan's
ready to go. Come to my party, if you can. It's short notice, with
Halloween being in two days, so if you don't have a costume, that's fine,
but try to come dressed up, if you've got a costume. It's gonna be
awesome. Also, I think you'd be even cuter if you didn't dye your hair."

	She walks off to Wal-Mart, leaving me wondering how she knew I dyed
my hair.

~~END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN~~

	Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Feedback is always
appreciated, be it comments, questions, suggestions, etc., and you can
reach me at kingkurt1339@gmail.com – I try to respond to every email!
And if you just feel like chatting about it, I do that, too (seems like
most of the people who get into the longer conversations come from the High
School section, though).

	Yes! Xander's connection to Dylan has finally been revealed (even
though it's only been a couple of chapters since Dylan was introduced)!
However, Dylan won't be meet Xander for three more chapters, unless I add
in another chapter. The next few chapters will involve a few things,
including the court date for Kevin's trial (which I've been getting a TON
of emails asking me what's going to happen to him). I actually skip over
the hearing entirely, but I'm wondering if y'all want me to do that
chapter. If the majority vote is YES for the court, then I'll add in a
chapter just for that (since it spans several days).

	Trivia time! So Xander's phone is the same model as mine, and no,
I'm not going to say what kind it is, but it has a 17-character limit for
the lock, which I did actually check. The first thing I thought of for
Xander's password...was exactly 17 characters. By complete and total
coincidence. It'll be a long time before there are any, if any, hints as to
his password.
	Yes, Xander likes soft, but fuzzy, things.

	Hope you enjoyed it! Look forward to Chapter 14!