8. Living normally so it seems, the kids stay focused on school, their hobbies and of course, containing their strange powers. 

One day during this time, their sign language teacher is about to leave as usual, with Melissa saying, "I just want to thank you for all you do for us, helping us communicate with our daughter and all."

"Oh, no worries," she exclaims, "you guys are a fun family to teach, now I'll see you all next week." 

"You too." Melissa says back. 

"Bye Ms. Letcher!" Melodie shouts at the door as Ms. Letcher opens her car door in the driveway. 

James immediately closes the door, with Melissa expressing an excited look on her face saying, "well, now that she left I can finally tell you about what your father and I want to do for you guys."

"What is it?" Arrow says without expression. 

"Since it's new years next week, your father and I decided to take you guys to the county festival to celebrate, and to experience what it's like to not use your powers in public." She puts a bright and shining smile on her face saying, "I can't wait, we will have so much fun, I know it, and James and I will bring the servants too, because we are going to be meeting up with some fellow co-workers while we are there." 

"So, it's for new years...?" Victor exclaims. 

"Yes, but, we want you guys to have fun, at least...Melissa does." James says, while walking up to the kitchen counter, smoking on a cigar. 

As they all follow him, Melodie randomly exclaims to them, "you mean the festivals, with cotton candy, funnel cakes, ah, face painting...All of it just screams me...!" 

"It sure does, it screams fatness." Celsius boldly says, causing them to laugh, except Max and Cora.

"Not nice Celsius, are you trying to ruin this for everyone?" Valencia says to him, "you are so troublesome sometimes."

Melissa claps her hands together, wanting the focus to be back on her. “Everyone, upstairs until the food is ready.”

They listen to this rule as usual, with them all making their way upstairs, with Melodie running up the stairs and saying to herself, "I can't wait to eat the delicious food, and the makeup and face painting, eee!" 

And while Arrow is the last to go upstairs behind everyone else, he finally makes his way to stare at James, in the eyes once again, giving him an unsettling smirk before vanishing in the upstairs hallway.

Melissa after watching everybody go upstairs, "alright James, this is going to be one hell of a challenge, and why do you always laugh at Arrow?" Melissa finally notices.

"I warned you." He says, flipping through his newspaper while taking out his cigar. 

"Warned me what? And stop smoking those cigars, good grief." Melissa says while walking away, saying to their chef Micheal, "get the food cooked, it's time for supper." Before walking off into her office. 

“I warned you about him,” he points up the stairs, then he turns around, smoking his unwanted cigar anyways.

And now on the day of the festival, the late afternoon sun is piping, the gates to get in are lined up with excited people, and the music is blasting. There are cars everywhere, and people talking like it's any kind of sports game, well, of course, it's a carnival, the whole city and some out of the city are here.

As they get out of the limo, Melodie rushes over to see the carnival closer, saying, "yay!! I'm so excited!" 

"Yes Melodie, we can tell." Astrid replies, standing next to her as they approach the line. 

"What are you guys doing? We have immediate access inside, follow me." James says to them. 

Celsius then replies with, "but at the gate it says you must wait in line, I mean, the gate makes it very clear." 

"We are LRX workers, we have access anywhere, now come on." James says back.

While walking behind Celsius, Melodie notices him looking around towards the forest across, as if seeing something.

“What is it?” 

Celsius shakes his head, “I thought I saw something again.”

“Like a ghost?” Melodie questions.

“I don’t know, it was so fast, but I feel like-”

"Come on and follow us already, people are looking." James cuts them off as they walk inside with him, stopping them from talking on further.

As they walk inside, passing people, enjoying the noise of excited and happy people, they all look to the outside world, something they rarely see. 

Meeting up with two other people, Melissa turns to Shelly saying, "can you watch the kids, Arrow and Astrid will too, but just watch them on rides and stuff." 

"We'll pay you extra." James replies. 

"Yes, sure." 

"Alright, see you guys soon."

As Arrow walks off from them, Astrid follows him over to one of the play areas, all the chairs filled with teens and adults playing water gun games, winning stuffed animals, and trying to catch stuffed animals with the crane.

Arrow ignores all of this, standing against a wall separating the areas, just observing and watching everyone it seems. His eyes shifted back and forth from north, east, south, west, until...Astrid came over, drinking from her soda cup, holding another in her hand with questioning eyes, saying to Arrow, "I got you a drink, it's root beer, your favorite." 

Arrow only turns his head to the west of him, seeing Astrid handing the cup to him. "Here, take it, it's cold," she says with haste.

Arrow grabs the cup and takes one sip of it, before saying, "having any fun yet," simply.

"Honestly, no, I don't care for this type of stuff, an arcade would have been better, but...Of course," she says with exaggeration, "we have to be here." 

"Hm, this is good, thank you." 

"What? The drink?" 

"Yes." He replies suddenly annoyed. "Alright Arrow, you're welcome, you grump."

Astrid stands next to him as they drink their drinks, until Astrid stops drinking, saying to Arrow, "I'm gonna get that panda, I need another animal to hammer, that would be just perfect," she hands Arrow her drink saying, "take this, I'm gonna be quick, don't complain."

She throws her check mark hands at him before playing on the crane machine. 

Arrow shouts at her, "don't overdo yourself!" Knowing what he meant, she replies, "I know." 

She begins to play the game, keeping her serious face, she focuses on getting that panda to destroy she says.

Arrow stands next to her, watching her play, it seems to interest only a little bit, though he does smile when Astrid loses the bear the first time.

"Don't laugh at me, I'm getting this bear no matter how long it will take!" 

"Don't worry, I'm not laughing at you." 

"Yes you are, Arrow, why else would you smile." She playfully pushes him before playing again.

After the crane is moving back and forth intensely, she finally manages to grab on to the panda bear. "Come on, come to mama..." She whispers, "yes!! I got it, yes!" She shouts right after, making sure to hug on to Arrow, with him clapping for her saying, "I'm proud of you."

"I deserve something for this, Arrow." 

"Like what??" He questions. 

She lends forward, “a hug…Maybe…”

"I thought you hated hugs?" He says seriously.

She stands back up, "you right, I don't, but I got the bear, look at it,” she looks at the panda, “you ready to be punched to death?" She says it with a baby voice. 

"For this and for the drink, I'll get you some candy or so," She turns back to him with wide eyes saying, "licorice, right?" With slow excitement.  

"Your favorite, of course." 

"Thank you Arrow, I love you." She says hugging him anyways. "Okay, that's enough, you know I hate hugging too." 

"Well today is finally different, so it’s an exception for both of us, now go on, my licorice should not wait to enter this mouth of mine." She says, pointing to herself playfully. 

"Alright, stay there though." 

"I will!" She shouts as he leaves.

She holds onto the panda, while looking back at the machine, most likely contemplating whether or not to play again. Looking down to the buttons, she rubs her finger through them, saying to herself, "maybe another one won't hurt..."

As she looks up, looking through the glass tube with all the stuffed animals inside, she sees what looks like herself from the other side of the tube, even in the same position as her as if like a mirror, looking at the animals now like Astrid is.

At first Astrid thought so, until she noticed the different outfit, that of a girly and preppy style, wearing the light and bright colors of white, pink, blue, and yellow.

When Astrid and the girl across look up at each other as they both notice their staring at each other, their eyes become wide, they both tilt their head back and forth, putting their hands on the buttons to look closer at each other. 

They look the same, their face is the same, except the girl in pink has makeup on as well while Astrid just has on black eyeliner.

Astrid's voice seems to be gone from this, not knowing whether she should say anything or not, and so is the other, she can't seem to communicate over the loud clutter of other sounds, nor can she seem to move and see the girl truly like she wants too, she is shocked in the worst way possible.

And before she even tries to do anything, the girl quickly runs off, causing Astrid to reflex and run over to the other side, but...The girl is gone. 

Now standing in shock, Astrid stares almost into oblivion, until Arrow taps her shoulder, taking her off of her shock, with her saying, "oh I'm fine, just looking at all the people, thank you for the licorice." After noticing Arrow's questioning face.

"No need to be thankful again." 

"I just wanted too." She says while putting the licorice to her mouth, trying not to overthink what she just saw, about whether or not that was her long lost twin sister, Somi…

As Arrow and Astrid move over, Victor and Valencia walk by, with Victor saying, "enjoying the candy," while looking her in her eyes. 

"Yes, I am Victor, I'll enjoy anything you give me since you are nicest to me." 

"Really, so if I put a rat in your caramel popcorn, you will be fine with it." 

"Okay, no," she laughs. 

Victor pulls her to the side, out of the way of people, the two of them close together, he starts saying, "I would just sit here with you like this, but...I really want to get you that giant pink bear over at the booth with the horseshoes." 

"But, how will you know if you're going to win?" He smirks at her, then she says back, "oh, your agility, I see." 

"No, I do genuinely want to try, for you." 

"Okay, go get it then, I'll be right with you."

As they wait in line, their turn finally comes as the man behind the booth says to them, "how much are you looking to throw?" With a big smile on his face. 

"Only three sir." 

"Alright, you got confidence boy." He gives Victor the horseshoes, and with excellent focus, he throws all three towards the cups, perfectly. 

"Ah! Yes, you got all three kids, here, you win this big pretty pink bear." 

"It's for the girl, I did this for her." He smiles at her again as the man gives her the bear, with him saying, "congratulations! And happy new year!" 

"Happy new year!" They say back at him, as they walk away together, with Valencia thanking Victor for the bear.

While this Maximus runs over to the port a potty, kneeling down by some trees, hiding from the public. Melodie runs after him saying, "you were supposed to ride the carousel with me? What's wrong with you?" 

"I'm having a social crisis right now, my people meter just ran out and I'm having a crisis, I'm trying not to cry here, can you leave me alone please?"

"No, because you ran off from me, plus I’m supposed to stay by your side." 

As Maximus tries to calm himself down, Melodie sighs and rolls her eyes before sitting down with Maximus, just simply eating her big lollipop in silence, looking over at Max covering his face due to his bad anixety.

"You know Max, I have a lot of issues too, but, I like to own up to it, my weight or whatever, it's me, I mean, I will probably eventually lose weight or whatever, but right now, I'm focusing on being a little girl who eats lollipops and starburst." 

Max lifts his head up saying, "you just have a lot of confidence that I may never have no matter how hard I try." 

"You will have confidence, just wait to you get older, it may be us to help you, mom or dad, or even a special person, cause I pray I'll get help too, I love the outdoors and people, I just wish we were more into this, this world isn't a scary giant lab like mom and dad make it seem, I'm going to need this."

"Where are mom and dad anyways? Are they still talking with those people?" 

"Yeah, why?" 

"Go find Shelly, I'm going to go find them, I'll wait until you leave." 

"But I...Nevermind, I'm going to go find Celsius, is he with Cora?" 

"Yes, and he's with maid Shelly too." 

"Oh, okay, see you when the fireworks start, or...Hehe when the ball drops." She skips away, with Maximus preparing to walk through the crowd again.

Over with Celsius and Cora with maid Shelly, she walks up to them saying, "I need to use the bathroom, could you guys wait right on the swings until I'm done, and if anything tries to occur," she comes closer and whispers to Celsius, "use your powers, okay?" 

"Yeah yeah, just go, we'll be here." He says without looking at her, saying this carelessly. 

"Alright, let me hurry up." She runs off while Celsius smirks at Cora, tapping her leg from the swing saying, "hey, hey! Cora! I know you hear me, you can stop lying, we're in public." 

She looks at him in annoyance, then he looks her up and down saying, "you must be lucky to not hear all this commotion, so you say, because I can just tell you're lying, like...You're so clingy."  

She ignores him and continues to swing, until Celsius quietly gets up and pushes her off the swing. Landing with her hands as she catches herself from the ground, the mulch that is, she picks up some of the mulch and throws it at him. 

"Oh, you want to play that game." He picks up more mulch and throws it at Cora, causing the two to make a scene.

Celsius starts to stop and laugh as Cora starts crying, then Melodie walks over to them saying, "why do you guys have mulch on your shirts, it's ruining my appetite,” then seeing the swingset, Melodie happily says, “ooh, swings!" She pushes the both of them over and begins to swing. 

But then Shelly walks over with their parents, with Arrow, Astrid, Victor, Valencia, and Maximus with them, along with their butler Frederick.

James walks up saying, "alright guys, the sun is going down, it's time for the fireworks, come on, follow us." 

As he's about to walk away, he catches Valencia saying, "where are we going to put that bear in the car?" 

"We’ll make some space,” Melissa says back. 

Cora gets up and stares at them, then Maximus walks with her as they walk up with everyone looking to the sky, the fireworks begin to boom with excitement, showing through everyone's eyes, even Astrid's sad eyes, causing Melissa to say, "you okay, Astrid?" 

"I'm fine." She says vaguely, staring right at the fireworks sparkling above. 

As all the kids stand together, they enjoy the sight of the first enjoyment in their lives, not knowing what each other did though, they look to each other as they have their first major experience with the outside world.