*Carter*

"So what carnival games are we gonna do?" I asked as me and my class sat around a table in the library. For the rest of the week, we didn't have classes. It all culminated with the spring festival! Which just so happened to also coincide with the birthday of the Lan triplets.

"Hmm, maybe something traditional to this country?" Aurelius asked.

I hummed. My knowledge of Kyuu Seishin was probably the worst of the lot.

"There might be a lot of that from the native students doing stalls, though," Mira said.

"Yeah, we don't want to do the same exact thing as the others," Lidia said.

"W-we should probably investigate the other groups," Jude mumbled.

"That's a good idea! Let's go on a spy mission!"

Huo grumbled. "Let Jude take care of it if it's meant to be incognito. You'll just ruin things."

I pouted.

Lidia chuckled. "I don't think it's a spy mission, right?"

Jude blinked.

"Eh?! You actually plan to go undercover?"

Jude nodded.

"Why not just talk to them?" Aurelius asked, smiling. "Think that'll be better, won't it?"

Ling shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean, the Kyuu Seishinians might not be as openly hostile to us as they were when my brother was our age, but that doesn't mean they'll receive us with open arms. They might think we're trying to poach ideas."

"Good point," Nat said.

"But we're not," Kanja said, standing up from her seat. 

"Then talking to them will be like killing two birds with one stone!" Aurelius said, grinning.

Tammy smiled and nodded, holding out her tablet. 'Let's gain their trust!'

Ling sighed. "You two are being too optimistic. I'll just stay back here and come up with ideas while the rest of you deal with the socializing." She turned back to her laptop.

"Same," Huo said, sinking into his seat.

"I'll go! I love talking!" I said, standing up.

Huoyin rolled his eyes. "We know..."

I smiled and waved. "Good!"

Kanja sighed for some reason.

"Cart, I do think you should try being more quiet," Mira said as all of us minus Li, Nat, and Huo exited the room.

"I agree," Au said.

"Hmm? Why did Nat stay back?" I asked, turning around to see him still seated between Li and Huo.

"My guess is in case anything goes bad," Kanja said.

Lidi smiled. "It's why I came. Otherwise, I wouldn't feel good leaving Huo alone. Li can be kind of rude."

"Huo too," I said, swinging my hands behind my head.

"Really? I think he's a nice guy," someone said. We turned and saw the usually shy boy from dance class. He pulled the rolled up cardboard in his arms close to his face.

Lidia smiled. "He is once one gets to know him better."

I shrugged. "I don't think we'll ever get along."

"Who knows. You do have similarities," Au said.

"Like dancing?" the shy boy said, barely audible.

"You got a point there. Ugh, but that just makes us rivals!"

"W-wait, you have dance class?" Jude asked, eyes wide.

Ahhh! That was supposed to be a secret! The only ones outside of dance class who knew were those in music class and only because of Shuai and Enkai!

I lowered my head and nodded slightly.

Tammy smiled and patted me on the back. What a nice girl! I was so lucky to have her as my friend.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Kanja said, putting her hands on her hips. She chuckled. "I mean, Shuai, Enkai, and Huoyin are also on the same boat as you."

I tilted my head. "Boat?"

"It's an expression, Cart," Lidi said, chuckling weirdly.

"Ohh, oh right!" I snickered. "I guess we are in the same 'boat'."

"Plus, not like Jude's a bully or anything," Au said, glancing at Jude.

Jude was writing something in a notebook. Eh? Was he writing down my secret to blackmail me in the future?!

"Stop that!" I yelled, swinging my arms.

"H-huh? W-weren't we going to write down what the other c-classes are doing?" He pointed at the blue-haired kid.

"Oh, right! So, what are you doing?"

"Do you even remember his name?" Kanja asked, giving me a pointed stare.

"M-Maybe... It's Katie, right?"

He shook his head.

"Katie's a girl's name, Cart," Kanja said, sighing.

"It's Katsuo," the boy whispered.

"You know, you're very hard to hear, Katsuo. You should speak up a bit more," I said, grinning.

Katsuo hid his head again and said something I couldn't hear.

I gasped as Jude yanked on my sleeve.

"Hey, don't do that! You spooked me!"

"M-mission," Jude said, staring at me with those big blue eyes of his.

"Mission? Oh, right! So what are you up to, Katsuo?"

"Cream puff," he mumbled.

"Cream puff?" I asked, blinking. I didn't see any ovens around. Pretty sure libraries didn't have them. Eli's classroom would. Oh! Maybe he was here to find some recipe books!

"Posters," Jude said, pointing at them.

Eh?! Did he read my mind? The kid was a psychic!

"L-looked confused."

Oh! Wait, how did he know I was wondering if he read my mind or not?!

"I am starting to see the resemblance with Huo," Lidi said.

Huh? What did she mean by that? How was Jude like Huoyin? Or did she mean me? 

"So these are posters for your cream puff stall?" Aurelius asked, smiling at Katsuo.

Katsuo nodded. "Came to print them out."

I chuckled. "And here I was wondering why you would come to a library for cream puffs. If your group needs a taste tester, you can ask me! I'll be happy to taste them!"

"Thanks, but we already have enough."

And just as I started to look forward to some pastries.

"Hey! Katsu! What's keeping you?" a voice yelled out. It was Katsuo's buddy. "Hey! If it isn't Cart, Kan, and Lidi! Working on your project too?"

"Yeah, we're going to make a game stall, but we aren't sure what to do," Lidia said.

"We want to be original," Aurelius said.

He grinned and nodded. "That's some good thinking on ya part."

Hmm? Was he from the boonies too? His accent just now sounded a tad rustic. The countryside. Hopefully, Sis, Bro, my niece, and kitty were fine without me.

"Thanks!" Lidia said.

"Do you know what kind of games are typical for the spring festival?" Kanja asked.

"Hmm, I'm not from this part of Kyuu Seishin. Where I'm from, the spring festival is mostly about flower viewing and going on picnics with family. Usually the summer festival is the one where we go all out. We smash watermelons and eat the remains, shoot aluminum bottles with toy guns, dunk people into the water, that kind of stuff."

Kanja smiled. "That brings back memories."

"Oh and we guys wear loin clothes as we work!"

Aurelius chuckled and glanced at the room we had been using. Huoyin, Ling, and Nate seemed to be working on something as they looked to be chatting.

"Yeah, Ling would be blushing at the thought," Lidia said, chuckling.

"Now I'm looking forward to summer," Kanja said, grinning as she glanced at Au and me.

My face turned red. "I-I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that stuff!"

"M-me neither," Jude said, hiding behind Mira.

Aurelius snickered. "Can't say I'm not curious to try it out."

"C-can we please talk about something else?" Mira said, fidgeting.

"Traditionally, the spring festival has been to view flowers," Katsuo said. "Back in middle school, we would take a field trip instead and ride some dragon boats."

"Oh, don't forget kites!" his friend said.

"Woah! Dragon boats?! That sounds so cool!" I glanced at the others. "Can we do that instead?!"

"I don't think we can. The island doesn't have any rivers big enough for that," Kanja said.

I hung my head low. "Phooey!"

"I did get an idea from what Jinpei shared," Ling said, grinning. "We can have people try to dunk one of us in water!"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Mira said.

"Yeah, Mira is too heavy that she might break the container, plus she sinks. Huo doesn't seem like he'll enjoy it," Kanja said.

"Thanks for calling me fat," Mira said, chuckling.

"Eh? You don't look fat," I said, staring at the slim waist of the armor. "Wait, it's sarcasm, isn't it?"

Mira nodded.

Seemed I still had to get better at it. The one person whose sarcasm I got the best was Rob's.

Tammy patted my arm.

I smiled. "I'm okay."

She grinned back.

"Although, seems we're back to square one," I said as Katsuo and Jinpei walked away.

"You're giving up already?" Kanja asked, putting her hands on her hips. "That doesn't sound like the Cart I know!"

I slapped myself. "Yeah! You're right. We can't give up just yet!"

"We should see which groups are working on non-food stalls and skip all the food ones," Aurelius said.

"The school is very big. I don't think we can get all the info we need. Even if all ten of us were to go and spread out."

I glanced back at the trio that had stayed behind. What were they working on?

"I'm gonna go check something," I said, running over to the door. I swiped the keycard the librarian had given me and walked in.

"Hey, welcome back! Did Katsuo and Jinpei give you any ideas?" Nat asked.

Eh? He knew them?

"We got some, but Kanja dismissed them."

"Oh? Seemed that girl does think after all," Ling said with a slight smile.

"So, what are you three working on?" I asked, leaning forward.

"A list," Huo said, typing rapidly. It was actually rather freaky. He kept glancing at a book about Kyuu Seishinian culture that Mira had checked out for Au. There was a section on festivals near the end. Au said that according to the book, Kyuu Seishinians celebrated the passing of all four seasons. Each was said to have its own group of deities that were celebrated. For spring, there was Budding Inari, the child form of the Kitsune branch's patron spirit and a whole host of lesser flower and plant spirits.

"List about what?" I said, walking around the table. My eyes widened. There was so much on the screen, I didn't even know where to begin.

"About the significance of the festival from both a cultural and religious perspective. Also of traditions."

"We were thinking that we could do something kite related instead of a stall," Ling said, leaning her head back.

"Oh! Jinpei mentioned that too!" I said, causing Huo to jump.

"Indoor voice, idiot," Huoyin mumbled.

"Sorry," I said, backing away. "But that sounds like a great idea!"

"Plus, I think we'll be fine even if other groups have the same idea," Nat said. "There's over two thousand students at this school, so there's bound to be a shortage of kites. Plus, we thought of making decorated ones to make them stand out in case any possible competitors do the kite idea, but choose to go with mass produced kinds."

Ling crossed her slender fingers and smiled. "There's a charm to artisanship that industrially manufactured goods lack."

"I'm gonna go tell the others!" I said, turning around.

"Came up with something?" Kanja said, entering.

"Seems like it," I said, grinning.

"Although, we shouldn't celebrate yet. I'm still working out the budget," Huo said as he glanced at his computer. "We might not have enough money to make more than five hundred kites."

"Eh? How much does one cost to make?"

"If we want them to last, a good amount. We can't go cheap with the wood."

"If only we had Mokin trees," Ling said, sighing.

Nat looked at the table. He seemed sad.

"It's okay, Nat. We'll figure something out."

"We?" Huo said, scoffing as he continued to crunch the numbers. "More like me."

I huffed. "Huo will."

"I didn't know Huo was a math wiz," Aurelius said.

"He was my tutor back in middle school," Lidia said. "The guy didn't skip a grade for nothing."

Jude jumped off of Mira's back.

"But Jude skipped two," I said, smiling.

Huo glanced at Jude. "Oh? Think you can crunch the numbers before me? I've done my research already."

"Is he always competitive about everything?" Kanja asked.

"Only the things he cares for," Lidia said with an awkward chuckle.

"So he wants to be the biggest know it all," I said.

Jude winced.

"I-it's okay," Jude said, watching at Huo worked.

Huo stopped typing and turned to look at him. "You okay?"

Jude nodded. "Y-yeah."

Huoyin sighed. "Don't let what Carter said bother you. He's an idiot. Compared to him, we're all know it alls."

"Rude!" I said, crossing my arms and huffing.

Jude covered his mouth.

Eh? He was a mean little kid too, wasn't he?!

"Say, do you have an connections?" Huo asked.

Jude blinked. "What kind?"

"To the arts and crafts and textile industries. Or at least to primary good producers, like the lumber and cotton industries."

"Mama's dad has some to lumber, b-but that's in Hoin."

"Then we will need to find sources closer to school if we want to keep costs low," Kanja said. She grinned. "Leave this to me!"

"No. We don't want any products from shady companies," Nat said, glaring at her.

She glared back. "You really like pissing me off, don't you? If you weren't leagues stronger than me, I would take you out back and beat you to a pulp."

Nat smirked. "So, your violent side has shown itself."

"Nat, knock it off," Ling said, sighing.

"Yeah, Kanja's not the same person you met," Mira said.

Nat sighed. "You say that because you didn't meet her prior. She threatened to kill Carter. A person like that doesn't change from one day to another."

Kanja turned around and ran off.

"Hey, wait up! Kanja!" I yelled, running after her. I glanced at Nat. "You really can be a big bully, you know that?"

Nat's turned his head away. He's done this before. Yet he seemed to not learn. Sometimes, I didn't know which side of him was the real one. He could be so nice to some, yet so mean to others.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**