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The Star Festival was here again. Jax and Bryce had been coming together for the past couple of years, and Jax always enjoyed it. Bryce usually toured all the booths at the festival, playing every game at least once. He was really good at some of them – especially the bean bag toss. Last year, Bryce had won a teddy bear that he'd let Jax keep, and it still had pride of place on top of Jax's dresser. Jax usually hung back from joining in the games – he was usually more interested in buying hot dogs and cotton candy. But this year was different. Jax really wanted to win Bryce something too. He hoped it would be a nice memory of the night that Bryce could hold onto. Hence why he'd stopped dead in front of the mancala booth. He didn't exactly know what mancala was, but he was intrigued by the booth anyway. The tent the festival runners had set up shrouded the mancala booth in mystery, and Jax at least wanted to know what prizes they had on offer before he moved on. Bryce noticed he'd

Mich was supposed to be meeting Miles at the festival later, but he hadn’t showed up yet. It was a little boring waiting around for him. Miles pulled his phone out and checked his notifications — nothing from Mich despite Miles’ insistent messages. Maybe he should check out some of the booths while he was here? Miles looked around, wondering if there was anything interesting going on. He hopped up off of the bench he was sitting on, hoping he could take some of the edge off of the wait by taking a stroll. All the games looked rigged, and too tricky to win. Miles wasn’t at the festival to line some carnies’ pockets — he at least wanted to get something for his troubles. Whether it was a goldfish or a giant plush bear, he didn’t really care what it was, as long as he got something in return for his pixels. He passed the basketball hoops with nary a second glance. He was a decent shot at basketball, but he knew they used oval-shaped hoops that were harder to score points through. The

The Star Festival only came once a year, so Daiz was determined to check it out while it was here. He was pretty excited – he almost felt like a kid again. Dan had taken the afternoon off work to come with him, and Buzz had tagged along with his friend Jamil. "No sight of stars yet." Daiz grinned. Dan turned to Daiz, giving him a wry smile. His hands were in his pockets. "Never seen stars at 3 in the afternoon, have you?" "I have. I got socked in the back of the head with a football in high school. It was like I was watching a meteor shower." Daiz was expecting Dan to laugh, or maybe make another dry comment, but he went quiet. He had started fidgeting with an old lighter that was in his pocket. "You ok?" Daiz prompted. "Uhh… yeah. I was thinking about something Buzz said. He said he could see flashing lights… like stars. That time he got hurt." Oh yeah… Buzz's accident. It had been a while since Daiz had thought about it, but the memories suddenly came rushing back. Buzz's face