"Were you there when that monster showed up over Seventh Street?" asks Sumiko.

"Yeah, I was! I didn't join the fight, they just had me hang back and watch. It was good getting to see how monster fights work, they're really different tactically than crowds of the little ones."

"Are you going to be a paladin?" asks Josephine.

"If I can manage it, yeah. More support than direct combat, probably, but if I get good enough I can help coordinate attacks and maybe even get prophecies about where the kaiju are going to be."

"Awesome," Josephine says.

"Thanks. I might try to join a more rural squad next summer, when the commute will be less of a problem. Since my powers are better against single big ones than a bunch of the little ones."

"Those are so much more dangerous though," says Aaliyah.

"Absolutely, but I'll have the whole spring to build my skills. And if I don't feel ready when summer starts I can always wait another year."

"I want to be a paladin too," says Hattie, "but I'm not old enough to ride along without my parents' say so and my parents think there's probably a reason they make the age cutoff where it is."

"That seems a bit silly. Yeah, there's a reason, and that's because it's the age at which *most* girls would be mature enough. Your parents should decide whether you're mature enough on their own without outsourcing their judgement to an organization that doesn't know you and isn't even trying to evaluate you in particular."

"Yeah. It's stupid," sighs Hattie. She toasts her pizza a bit; it is too cool.

"That was clever; can I get a reheat on mine too?" Margaret holds out her pizza.

Toast! Hattie toasts many pizzas.

"Looks like you're the toast of the town!"

This gets a groan.

As it deserved.

Tim wants to know if anybody wants to play Smash Brothers.

Larissa and Josephine do!

Margaret will join in for a round and play meta knight and probably get creamed because she only knows how to mash buttons and the x-box doesn't cooperate with her tactical sense. She has fun anyway.

Larissa is Zelda and Josephine is Samus.

After a few rounds of losing really hard Margaret brings out the cake. It is chocolate with a layer of raspberry jam inside and the top is an inch thick of buttercream flowers.

"That's gorgeous," says Sumiko. "Where'd you get it?"

"There's this little tiny bakery on magnolia street, I don't know why they're not famous, everything they make is awesome."

"Does it taste as good as it looks?" asks Hattie, waiting for the birthday girl to have some so everybody else can too.

Margaret finishes chopping it up and passing it out, then when everyone has a plate she takes a bite of hers and shuts her eyes. "Yes. Yes it does."

Om nom nom cake.

"Magnolia Street," repeats Aaliyah to herself under her breath. "Magnolia."