“I’m gonna be ho, while this is big, for sure, this house is a lot more b than I expected,” Kalei said. “The show made it seem like the Kinders are always like three seds away from killing each other when they aren’t doing other wacky hijinks. And yes, I know this isn’t the Kinder house, but still. There isn’t even like anything hanging up on some of these walls.”

  “I dunno!” Oka said. “There’s a reason I’d rather be at the dorms instead of here. A lot of reasons, really. But hey, if you look out this window you see the pool though!”

  Oka grabbed Kalei and I by our hands and directed us to the window in her room, which gave a view of a huge pool below. The party was bei up there, with tons of ptes of food being pced all around.

  “Wait, is this a pool party?” I asked.

  “Probably the st pool party of the season,” Oka said. “Maybe one more before it gets really cold, but this is a heated pool so maybe not.”

  “That’s a heated pool?” Kalei asked. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? We could have brought swimsuits!”

  “If you really want to swim, I’m sure there’s swimsuits in your size in the undry, they have tons of clothes that aren’t being touched. I don’t know if I want to swim in front of all these people.”

  “Oh, like they’ll be paying attention to us,” Kalei said. “, you all want to swim right? I ’t even remember the st time I went food swim.”

  “It has been a while…” I said. The st time I could remember actually going to a pool was with Jeans, so the bar retty low for me having good swimming memories.

  “I’m fih it,” I said.

  Oka brought us down to the undry room, which was filled with piles of clothes. Like an absurd amount of clothes piled up, with some closest to the doors in garbage bags.

  “There are…a lot of clothes here.” I said, poking through stuff.

  “Yep, but thanks to yours truly the piles aren’t as big as they used to be!” Oka said.

  “How e?” I said.

  “I started bugging the Kio donate all the clothes they aren’t using, aually they caved in and told me if I bagged them, they’d take them away. et someoo take them away once a week. Berin even ts it as a chore so I’m getting allowance for every bag I bring in!”

  “Wow, how noble,” Kalei said. “And I don’t mean that in my usual sarcastic way. That’s pretty cool, dude.” She kicked at one of the piles. “But then how are we gonna find swimsuits in this?”

  Oka grinned. “I have this whole thing sorted mentally. Swimsuits are in the far er past the big winter coats.”

  “Question,” I said.

  “Uh huh?” Oka said.

  “If these are getting donated…and we see something we like that’s our size… we just…take it?”

  “Yeah, go for it!” Oka said. “I think it’s Kitty Kihat buys a ton of clothes that get shipped here that she never even touches. Maybe Aki too. But I haven’t talked to either of them much.”

  “They won’t be mad yetting rid of their stuff?” Kalei asked.

  “Berin says he doubts they’ll even notice.”

  Oka led us on an expedition over mountains of clothes to a er where there ile of swimsuits. I found three in my size, but one had a pattern of faces on it so that one was a hard pass. The other two were eae pieces that each had pastel colors. I went with a pink and yellow striped one, sihe other one’s green c was a bit too Rising Shards uniform-y. Oka had a white two piece that had a cute skirt type thing attached to the bottom, and Kalei grabbed ohat had the old logo and pattern of a soda pany on it because she thought it was funny.

  o the undry room was a whole giant gym and spa area that even had ging rooms. There were enough of them that we each could have a room to ourselves. I’m sure the others were the same, but I was amazed mine looked like the locker rooms big sports starts got interviewed at on TV. There were strange, padded spots between the cubbies; I wasn’t sure what they were for. It had taken me a while to get used to ging at school, so ging in a strange new pce made me feel a bit tense. I didn’t want to go back hunting for more swimsuits, so I was banking on the one I picked fitting. I tried to just pretend I was in the locker room for my eyes on the ground/directly forward at locker or mirror strategy even though I was all alone.

  Once we got ged, Oka found us some beach towels and showed us the way down to the pool area.

  “Hey, I ask a favor before we go out there?” Oka asked.

  “Sure, what is it?” I said as I tied my hair up.

  “I might get pulled aside for photo ops and stuff,” Oka said. “So if I give you guys this sign…” She made a subtle ssh throat gesture. “Find me and drag me away from whatever stupid thing I’m stu.”

  “Got it,” Kalei said. “And if I shove Zeta into the pool or dunk her head uer, that’s nal that we miss you and you should e over to us.”

  “You are not doiher of those.” I said. “What if you do that and she’s not looking?”

  “Well, then it’d just be funny for me,” Kalei said.

  “Whatever,” I said. “I wan into the pool already. I’m getting goosebumps just standing here.”

  The fall air was a bit brisk, so a heated pool sounded very nice. Right as we got to the pool area though, Berin stopped us.

  “Oka, before you dive iy’s gonna make his annou.” Berin said.

  “I’m in a swimsuit, I don’t wanna be in a press picture.” Oka said.

  “I don’t think they’ll take a picture,” Berin said. “But if they do, I’ll shove you out of the eam just wants the family here for his big reveal.”

  “Fiiiiine,” Oka said.

  “So we get in the pool now then, right?” Kalei said.

  “How about you wait until this is done?” Berin said.

  Berin took Oka away to go chat with the other Kinders, who were seated at a table that ced among the others so it was clear it was the main point of i.

  “Alright, let’s see how many Kinders are…here.” Kalei said as she squinted. “I see Berieldtam, and Caya.”

  “Did none of the others show up?” I said. “That’s…kinda sad for Peam.”

  Peam didn’t look too upset though. He was wearing a tuxedo, and looked like he osing to someone holding up a small camera near him. He proudly stood up and ged a gss against a fork he was holding. The gss broke, and after cheg his hands to make sure he didn’t get any broken gss in them, he got everyone’s attention again.

  “Alright, did you start the live stream?” Peam asked to the camera holder. They shook their head. “OK, good, start it now. And don’t get the broken gss in the shot. And everyoay away from the broken gss.”

  Oka had to sit down at the table with Berin, and Caya joihem. Oka had her towel ed around her firmly, looking incredibly embarrassed to be near a camera in a swimsuit. I hoped they didn’t get her in any shots at all for the livestream.

  “Right, wele, fans of the Kinder family! And also to the members of the Kinder family that are joining us via chat and will be here ter.” Peam got out a ptop a down. “Just getting this up too. I see Aki’s there in the chat. Aki, big bro! Well, big bro that’s not here! Oof, maybe don’t…swear so mu the chat. Alright, we’re all here for a big annou, right?”

  Caya and Berin gave some slight appuse, and Oka caved in and joihem.

  “Yes,” Peam said. “Yes, we’re all here for the new member of the Kinder family, my new daughter! Alright, I don’t want to wait anymore, bring her out!”

  There was nothing for a sed as Peam stood there. Just as I wondered if he would actually make this all up, there was a thud uhe table he was at. Oka scooted back just before the whole table flipped over.

  “Oh crap!” Oka said, falling backwards.

  A blue haired girl rose up from her spot where the table formerly stood. A blue haired girl I reized, the clybrid android girl Aira and Laenie found on the beach outside school. Peam cheered and posed as the table nded with a thud in front of them, the edge of the sheet on top of it dipping into the pool.

  “Ta da!” 09 said, arms spread out to match Peam’s pose. Oka looked my way and gave the throat ssh pose.