The first host of the series of dinner parties is Sam. He decided that since three of the four of them are part of his band, the entertainment sector will feature the band's new music. The three of them had taped a demo CD over the last month, hoping to use it as part of their marketing campaign. They do not have a particular musical genre chosen; they do not even have a particular audience to aim for. Therefore, the CD is a compilation of various covers. To a discerning eye, the CD was a mess, but it was theirs.

Sam thought long and hard over a possible menu to serve his guests. He knew that Abigail would eat almost anything, but Sebastian had to be one of the pickiest eaters he had known. As for Alex, Sam knew him from early elementary school; however, Sam had moved to Pelican Town with his mother and his younger brother Vincent, soon after Vincent was born. The two of them met again in high school; but by that time, Sam had a very close knit friendship with Sebastian and Abigail. Alex for his part kept himself to his fellow Gridball teammates. Their paths rarely crossed unless absolutely necessary.

So he decided he will make at least an egg fest that would not gross Sebastian out too much.

He hoped.

Sam did find out in his research online that there is a sushi form that uses egg. Sebastian likes sushi. Abigail could take it or leave it. When she and Sebastian dated back in high school, she became accustomed to the idea of raw fish. Alex liked eggs in any form but Sam was not sure about how he would like sushi.

He further found out that he could actually cheat on the sushi rolling. There was a type of sushi that replicates the fried rice idea and is a lot easier to accomplish.

Now that the main course has been dealt with, he went shopping. Unfortunately, he had to succumb to shopping at the Joja Mart for Abigail's father's store does not have the ingredients necessary for the sushi dish. There was a small consolation that at least he could utilize his employee discount.

His mother and younger brother, Vincent, were invited to Marnie's ranch – Vincent so that he could spend time with his playmate, Jas, and Jodi could get to know Marnie better. The two women participated in exercise class together on Tuesdays but other than that, they hardly spend time together. It also allowed Sam full reign on the house to work his magic – whatever that was worth.

In the end the menu consisted of an appetizer of edamame, store bought version, sushi in loose rice format, and an assortment of fruit for dessert.

When he had returned home with the ingredients, Sam went to work

First of all, he had asked Sebastian's mother to borrow the rice cooker so that he could make the rice with as little fuss as possible. However, as it was his first time using it, it burned the first batch of rice he attempted. Fortunately, he still had plenty of rice left and his second batch came out much better.

That done, and the fruit having been cut up into bite sized pieces, he went ahead and made sushi rice with what he hoped was proper rice wine vinegar and sugar. Carefully he measured the proportions and prayed to Yoba. Hopefully Yoba heard his prayer since he was not a praying person like his parents were.

After about ten minutes of mixing and taste testing, Sam felt that he has his main course under control. The only thing left to do is to get dressed and wait for the guests to arrive. As this was to be a casual affair, he just put on a cleaner pair of jeans and a clean shirt.

The first person to arrive was Abigail. She was primly dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, with a pink blouse and black boots. Taking her coat, Sam told her to just head to the kitchen. He offered her a choice between Joja cola, sparkling orange juice (which is basically orange juice mixed with sparkling water) or coffee. She decided to try the sparkling orange juice.

After one sip of the juice, she nearly choked as the drink went down the wrong pipe.

Just as she regained her composure, the door knocked again, welcoming Sebastian to the fray.

As he usually does, Sebastian opted for coffee, light on the sugar. He greeted Abigail with a side hug and a kiss on the cheek. Even though they are no longer a couple, they had parted as good friends and would still look out for one another. They still hung out together with Sam at the saloon on Friday nights. They still play Solarian Chronicles on Saturday afternoons.

Both Sebastian and Abigail wondered who the fourth guest would be. They knew that there was a fourth person joining them for dinner but they do not know the identity of said person.

Sam knew the identity of the fourth guest, but he kept that information from Sebastian and Abigail. In the meantime, the three of them confirmed their plans for band practice and game night for the next day. The dinner parties were to be held every other day, allowing one day for the host to plan and one day to execute said plan.

A knock on the door announced the arrival of the fourth, mystery guest. Abigail, being the closest to the door, went to greet the guest...and nearly dropped her drink in surprise.

The fourth guest is Alex, one of the reasons the three of them found high school to be a trying time and who, inadvertently, brought the three of them closer together uniting in their dislike of Alex and the group he hung out with.

For his part, Alex was not as surprised to see Abigail – and Sebastian who had joined Abigail at the door. He had figured since he had the invitation to go to Sam's house for the dinner party that it would be very likely that Abigail and Sebastian would not be too far behind. Although both Sebastian and Abigail were dismayed to find out that Alex was the fourth guest in the dinner party, they were too polite to say anything out loud.

They glanced at each other and decided to keep a close eye on Alex and not trust anything that came out of his mouth. Sebastian is willing to allow Alex to join the party; Abigail was less than welcoming. Alex had made his views known about Abigail's questionable parentage, believing the rumor that she was not Pierre's real daughter; that, in fact, Caroline was seen coming out of the Wizard's tower more than once or twice in the early morning hours around a year prior to Abigail's birth. Abigail did not take kindly to that, even though she herself was not all that enamored about Pierre as a father. Alex went further to say that like mother like daughter as if Abigail was a slut as the town had perceived her mother to be at the time. She was not willing to be as forgiving to Alex for that. However, she was not about to ruin Sam's party with drama.

Abigail, Sebastian and Alex sat around the kitchen table as Sam set out his edamame appetizers. Sebastian thought it was an okay beginning but it seemed to be more of something for their game night than for a dinner party. Abigail was indifferent. Alex did not know what to do with the beans so he popped one in his mouth intact, only to choke on it. Sebastian slapped Alex in the back in hoping to stop the latter's cough but to no avail. However, Alex did manage to cough up the bean and spit it back on the napkin.

Sam took pity on Alex and showed him how to eat edamame. The skin was basically inedible as it was very hard. It was almost like eating peanuts out of the shell, he explained. Once Alex understood the art of eating edamame, he found that he actually liked it.

The four of them then grabbed bowls from Sam's cupboard as he had mentioned that the main course will be served a la carte. Each of them scooped some of the rice dish into their bowls, although Sebastian wondered what in the world this particular dish was. He was surprised to find out that it was actually sushi – it was not the sushi that he knew. Sam explained that it was actually sushi rice and that according to the internet it is quite popular in Japan. It was a good thing to know as they had all heard that the new resident arriving to Pelican town next spring is flying in from Japan. Although Sam had originally thought about this dish as to cater to both Sebastian's love of sushi and Alex's love of eggs without making the other person sick in the stomach, news of the new resident's arrival had played a small role in Sam's menu choices.

The four of them ate in silence. None of them knew what to say to one another. Although Sam, Sebastian and Abigail hung out together often and had no loss of things to say, once Alex entered into the circle, they were all wary of one another.

Sam was first to break the silence.

"So, Alex, how are your grandparents?" Sam asked.

Alex looked up from his plate. He had his head kept down the whole time he was eating after that spectacle with the edamame. "They are doing fine, thank you," he replied politely.

Sebastian joined the conversation. "So, how did you like Zuzu City when you lived there?" He had always wanted to move to the city and was saving up for it with the proceeds from his freelance programming contracts.

Alex looked down. Sam, who knew Alex from years ago, also knew that his childhood was not the happiest. In fact, if rumors at the time were true, Alex had an abusive father and a mother who was very ill at the time. It was only after his mother passed away one summer in Alex's junior year that he had moved to Pelican town to live with his grandparents – his father had abandoned the family soon after his wife's passing. There had also been rumors floating around the school at the time that he had abused his wife as well. It may well have killed her indirectly. But no one in their right mind would say so in front of him.

Sebastian, always noticing nuances in other people's expressions, knew that he had somehow hit a sore subject. "You do not have to say anything if you do not want to," he added.

Alex, for his part, decided to partially answer Sebastian's question. "It was all right, I suppose. I did not live in the greatest of neighbourhoods growing up. I thought you would have already asked Sam. He grew up in a better neighbourhood than where I was."

"Sam, idiot that he is, never says anything that would help. All he tells me is that it was okay and nothing really special. I wanted another opinion, to be honest."

"Well, if I were you, if you ever decide to live there, avoid the west side. That's where all the crime and drugs are. Unless you are into that sort of thing."

Sebastian would prefer to avoid those seedy areas himself, if only to reassure Robin that he would be okay living in the city.

Abigail, ever watching Alex out of the corner of her eye, kept herself aloof. She was not willing to budge an inch in accommodating him into the group, even out of politeness. Both Sam and Sebastian knew that she tended to hold grudges for a long time for hurts committed by persons who had long forgotten what it was.

Alex decided to change the subject, hoping to bring Abigail into the conversation. He was hoping that all three of them would eventually see that he had changed from the boy he had been in high school. Sam seemed to be willing to let bygones be bygones. Sebastian appeared to be more reluctant but at least he was willing to let Alex prove himself. Now, Abigail was a tough one, Alex found. She seemed out of all of them, to be the one who really did not want Alex to be with them; however, she also knew that she was somewhat outnumbered and therefore had to bow to the majority rule. Besides, it was a short term competition and hopefully once it was over, she could go back to avoiding Alex.

"So, what do you guys think of the new game that came out this week...what was it called...Shadows over Camelot?"

None of them have heard of the game; all three of them were surprised that Alex even knew of a game that they had not heard of before. If it was a game. There was a possibility that he was just trying to bluff his way into the group because he knew that the three of them loved playing games.

"No, seriously," Alex said. "It is a co-operative game set in the time of King Arthur. I think you three may like it, if you want to try it out."

Sebastian, the gamer of the three, said that he was willing to take a look at it and it would be possible to play this at a future game night. Perhaps Alex would wish to join them?

Abigail motioned with her hand across the throat, saying behind Alex's back, "No, no, no, do not let him play with us! Remember how he treated us back in high school?"

Sebastian ignored Abigail. Sam, not seeing what was going on between Seb and Abby, decided he would be willing to try out the game and to let Alex play...just this one time, mind.

Defeated, Abigail sighed and relented, saying that Alex can join their next game night.

Although the three of them had a Solarian Chronicles campaign ongoing, they decided that they would try out this Shadows over Camelot that Alex suggested, for the next party.

Meanwhile, the four of them helped themselves to the fruit platter that Sam had taken out of the refrigerator. Along with refills of their drinks, Alex gave Sebastian and Sam his contact info to put into their phones as well as taking their info into his phone.

It was time for Sebastian, Abigail and Alex to step outside to fill out the ballots and judge how Sam's dinner party on the food front. The menu was quite underwhelming, the three of them decided separately.

For the entertainment portion of the night, Sam had brought out his guitar, to the mutual groans of both Seb and Abby. They were hoping to be entertained, not be the entertainment. But they also knew that Sam wanted for the band to have a gig sooner rather than later. And what better way to advertise than to perform in front of a live – if captive – audience.

Alex was not a musical guru but he did like a wide range of musical genres – his mother made sure that he at least had some sort of cultural upbringing.

Sam, Abigail and Sebastian went into Sam's room to set up their instruments, while Alex wandered around the house. It was the first time that Alex had ventured into another person's home – he was afraid of what his father would be like after a day of drinking so he rarely invited people over to his place and as he felt he could never reciprocate, he never did accept many invitations to other people's homes. It was an average family home – something that Alex had no idea or clue about; his home being as far from average as it could get. Photos were on the kitchen fridge along with Vincent's recent crayon drawings, Jodi's shopping list and Sam and Vincent's list of chores to be done around the house.

Sam called out to Alex from the bedroom, saying that they were ready.

"Since we do not have a music genre, I thought maybe we could entertain with a few covers of our favourite songs," Sam announced, with a guitar riff played in the background.

It was nothing really exciting, Alex thought. It only had emphasized the outsider feeling that Alex felt whenever he was within range of the trio. The three of them played well together; he gave them that. The music was a nice touch to the evening. After about three songs, Seb and Abby declared that that was enough for one night. Besides it was getting late and Alex did not want to wake his grandparents up if he could avoid it.

So, the three of them took their leave of Sam's house. However, before they were allowed to go home, they had to fill in a questionnaire about how the night went in their opinion. The music was a nice touch, Alex thought. Seb and Abby both thought that they should have been able to relax rather than play for the one person who they did not quite consider to be an enemy but definitely did not consider to be a friend.

The verdict for Sam's dinner – average.