Steven hummed a happy tune as he made his way to Funland Arcade. Now that his ban was lifted, he could finally pick up the pace on expanding his collection of GUYS (Guys Under Your Supervision). While he could get GUYS from the supermarket or some of the restaurants in town, the arcade had a much greater variety. He walked up to the capsule machine that held them and took out a quarter to purchase one when suddenly, a large, pufferfish-like Rough Gem with green and pink coloration careened out of the sky towards the arcade, crash landing mere inches away from the entrance/exit and creating a giant hole in the ground. The Crystal Gems then came running over to it.

"Well, it looks like it's adequately stunned," Pearl said. She then turned to Sapphire. "How long do we have until it wakes up again?"

"Not much longer. We should destroy the Rough Tourmaline now while it's still vulnerable."

"I can handle that," Ruby announced as she leapt up onto the roof of the arcade and jumped up high enough to the point where she became a tiny red speck in the afternoon sky. She soon came back down with her gauntleted fist out in front of her and landed right on the monster, bursting it like a water balloon as its Essence splattered all over the surrounding area. Steven, the Gems, and much of the front of the arcade were all covered head to toe in the cyan goop.

"What the what just happened over here?!" a partially-goop-covered Mr. Smiley exclaimed as he and the other patrons of the arcade ran outside to see the commotion. Through his strained smile, Steven could see that he wasn't very happy with the mess.

"Sorry, Mr. Smiley. The Gems just blew up another Rough Gem. We'll help get this mess cleaned up."

"Yeah! You better! And if I catch you Crystal Peeps fightin' any more freaky space monsters around my park and doing more damage, you'll be banned for two years!"

"Two years?! Come on, Mr. Smiley, I just got unbanned from the arcade! It's the best place where I can get GUYS."

"GUYS?" Pearl repeated.

"Guys Under Your Supervision." Steven started counting off his fingers. "There's Apple Guy, Ranger Guy (my personal favorite), Policeman Guy, Superhero Guy... and the worst, Dave Guy, with his stupid, ugly combover and his stupid, boring tax papers..."

"Less chit-chat, more clean-up." Mr. Smiley came out with some mops and a large bucket of water.

"Yes, Mr. Smiley." The half-Gem boy took one and got started mopping up the mess.


After they got done cleaning up the Essence and the Gem bits from the boardwalk under the close supervision of Mr. Smiley, the Crystal Gems decided to head out for lunch. "So, what do you guys wanna do for lunch?" Steven asked.

"I'm down for anything good," Amethyst replied.

"I guess I could eat something," Ruby said. "What do you think, Sapphire?"

"Lunch does sound good."

"Well, I suppose trying some more human food couldn't hurt," Pearl said.

"How about we go to Fish Stew Pizza?" Steven suggested. "They've got a lot of good options to choose from."


The Crystal Gems arrived at the pizzeria. "Hello, Fish Stew Pizza! Steven and the Gems are here for lunch!"

"Hey, Steven, Gems," Kiki greeted from the front counter. "What'll you be having today?"

"Just a large pepperoni is fine." Steven turned to his alien family. "Is that alright with you guys?"

The Gems all let out murmurs of agreement, before Kofi called out, "It's not alright with me."

"Daddy?"

"I've seen first-hand the destruction that you Gems bring to this town, and I don't want you eating in my restaurant."

"Aww, come on, Mr. Pizza," Steven pleaded. "We just wanna get lunch. We'll be gone as soon as we pay for our food."

"You can eat here as often as you like, Steven." The man's expression hardened as he turned his glare to the rest of the Gems. "But you four are not welcome here. Need I remind you of the damage you've done to this place two months ago? And how much it cost to fix everything?"

"Yeah, and I remember telling you that human lives are more important than pizza, after we saved you from a giant, aggressive Rough Emerald on the rampage," Ruby remarked. "You're welcome."

Sapphire put her hands on her lover's shoulders. "What she means is we're sorry about the damage caused to your restaurant."

"'Sorry' doesn't just magically absolve you of the consequences of your destructive actions. Now get out of my shop!"

"Come on, Daddy," Kiki spoke up. "Can't we just let them order?"

Jenny skated over after dealing with some customers. "Yeah, Daddy, it's not like they're doing anything wrong."

"My decision is final. The Crystal Gems will not be eating at Fish Stew Pizza until further notice."

Steven started complaining about how unfair it was before Amethyst interrupted with "Fine. This place isn't even that good anyway. Let's blow this popcorn stand." And the four Gems all walked out of the pizzeria.

"Do you still want to order, Steven?" Kofi asked.

"No thanks. I think we'll get lunch somewhere else."

Steven joined the rest of the Gems outside the pizzeria.

"So, where else should we go to eat?" Amethyst asked. "I'm getting hangry."

Steven looked over his shoulder in the direction of Beach Citywalk Fries, which was right nextdoor. "We could get something from Beach Citywalk Fries. I know they don't have as many options, but they sure do know their stuff when it comes to fried food." They walked right over to order.

"Hey there, Steven!" Mr. Fryman, who stood at the front counter of the fry stand, greeted. "Will you be ordering the usual today?"

"Actually, I think I'll be ordering for five."

"Oh. The Gems are eating too? I thought they didn't eat food."

"Amethyst mostly does. But Ruby, Sapphire and Pearl thought it couldn't hurt to have lunch today."

"Did somebody say Gems?!" Ronaldo suddenly came from the back of the stand.

"Uh, hi, Ronaldo. We're just here for lunch today."

"That's nice, Steven." Ronaldo turned his attention to Pearl. "Do you know who might be trying to colonize the Earth? What's their motivation?"

"Um..."

"Are they trying to make more of themselves? Are they trying to harvest Earth's natural resources for their own uses? Are they trying to build an intergalactic shopping mall? What are their plans?!"

"Ronaldo, please," his father reprimanded. "They just want to order some food."

"But, Dad! These questions are important!"

"We'll just come back some other time," Steven said, not wanting the Gems to be bothered by Ronaldo's questions.

"But I have important questions about the fate of humanity! Who's coming to colonize us?! We need to know!"


Steven and the Gems went to the Big Donut in the hopes of grabbing lunch without being harassed a third time.

"Now, I know the Big Donut doesn't really have much in the way of lunch food, but Sadie keeps her bagged lunches in the fridge sometimes, and she might give each of us one if we ask."

They walked in to see the two teenage employees at the counter. Sadie, who had been sitting there bored along with Lars, perked up upon seeing their best customer. "Hey, Steven! Are you and the Gems here for some donuts?"

"Actually, we were wondering if you could give us some of your bagged lunches. See, we wanted to go get lunch after cleaning up from today's Gem monster hunt, but Mr. Pizza wouldn't let the Gems eat at his restaurant, and Ronaldo kept asking questions about who might be trying to start a colony, so I thought we'd try here."

"Well, I guess I could give you some." Sadie went to the back to get some lunches. "I should warn you, some of them are a few weeks old."

"Won't bother me none," Amethyst remarked. "I've got guts of steel."

"So, why do the Crystal Babes hang out with you anyway, Steven?" Lars asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're not exactly a hot girl. And besides, I haven't seen you using any magic powers."

Sadie glared at him as she came back with five bagged lunches. "Lars, lay off."

"Well, I did just discover a new healing power not too long ago, and I can summon my Gem weapon. So there's that."

"Cool. So, what exactly are you guys? Ghosts? Witches? Aliens?"

"The third one. We'll be going now. Have a nice day!" The Crystal Gems took their lunches and left.

"You too!" Sadie called after them.

As they were making their way back to the Temple, Steven looked in his paper bag to see what kind of food he got while Amethyst just ate hers without even bothering to open it up. "Let's see, we got the classic PB and J, cut into triangles as every sandwich should be, and, ooh! A star cookie!" Steven took out a star-shaped sugar cookie topped with yellow frosting and pink sprinkles. "I guess you could say it's... out of this world! Eh?"

"Very clever, Steven," Sapphire said.

"So, what lunches did you guys get?"

Pearl peered into her paper bag. "I got a sandwich and a package of pretzels."

Ruby looked in hers. "I got a sandwich and a thing of... wait, what's that?" Ruby took out a bag of spicy corn chips. "Oh! Spicy chips! Yes!" She ripped the bag open with her teeth and poured its contents into her mouth.

"I call dibs on the bag!" Amethyst reached over and took it from her to munch on.

"I also got a sandwich and a snack packet," Sapphire said.

Steven looked at his cookie thoughtfully, then looked at the stars on his and each of the Gems' clothes.

"You know, I don't think a lot of people understand you guys."

"What do you mean, they don't understand us?" Pearl asked. "We speak the same language as everyone else."

"I mean, a lot of people don't really understand who you guys are and what you're about. You protect Beach City and the rest of the world from evil aliens and monsters on a regular basis, but Mr. Smiley and Mr. Pizza don't like you because of those couple of times you made a mess saving the boardwalk, Ronaldo thought you guys were evil shapeshifters at some point, and Lars thinks it's weird that I hang out with you because I'm not like you." He took a bite from the cookie. "I wish there was some way I could bring everyone together so they can all see how smart," He looked up at Pearl. "fun," He looked over at Amethyst. "tough," He looked at Ruby, "and mysterious Gems really are." He looked at Sapphire, who smiled.

"Hm, mysterious."

Steven's eyes drifted to the small barbecue grill on the side of the beach house's front porch. That's when he got an idea. "Hey, I know! We can have a cookout right here on the beach! And we'll invite everyone we know!"

"Everyone?" Amethyst asked.

"Well, just the Pizza family, the Fryman family, and Lars and Sadie. Then they can all learn about you guys!"

"I don't know, Steven," Pearl said.

"Don't worry, it'll be great! I'll make the invitations right now." And Steven ran inside to do just that.


The next day, Lars, Sadie, Nanefua, Jenny, and Ronaldo all came to the beach. "What do you think Steven invited us here for?" Sadie asked.

"I dunno," Jenny replied. "I think he said something about a cookout?"

"Why are we even coming to this thing anyway?" Lars grumbled. "I've got other stuff I wanna do."

"Come on, Lars," Sadie said. "It could be fun."

"That's what you said when we got the invite."

"Hey, guys!" They saw Steven there grilling some food on the barbecue. Instead of his usual t-shirt and jeans get-up, he was wearing denim shorts and a pinkish-red tank top with a yellow star on the front. "The food's almost ready. Come on over and take a seat."

Everyone did so at the nearby folding table.

"You're probably wondering why I invited you here."

"I can probably guess," Nanefua said.

"Well, I wanted to help you guys understand the Crystal Gems a little bit better, so I decided to throw a good, old fashioned Crystal Temple Cookout!" It was then the boy realized something. "Wait. Where's Kiki, Mr. Pizza, Mr. Fryman, and Peedee? I invited them too."

"Daddy and Kiki had work to do back at the pizzeria," Jenny answered.

"My dad also had work to do," Ronaldo said, barely looking up from his phone. "He said Peedee could go if he wanted, but he wanted to stay back at the stand and help out."

"I didn't wanna come," Lars said. "but Sadie made me."

"Well, now that you guys are here, I can properly introduce you to the Gems!" There was a brief moment of silence as everyone looked around amongst themselves. "I said, I can properly introduce you to the Gems!"

Just then, the four Gems came out one-by-one from behind one of stone hands on the beach.

"We are the Crystal Gems! Ruby!" She was wearing a red and white striped tank top, maroon shorts, and a matching headband.

"Sapphire!" She was wearing a cerulean one-piece swimsuit with a sky blue wrapping around her waist.

"Amethyst!" She was wearing a black sports bra, a sea green fanny pack, and purplish grey denim shorts. Her hair was also done in a ponytail.

"Pearl!" She was wearing a cyan sundress that reached her knees.

Steven ran over to join them. "And Steven! But you all know me already. Now let's eat. I'm sure you're all pretty hungry."

"I know I am!" Amethyst piped up.

Steven made everyone their own plate of food, and they all sat around the table to eat. Some people ate, while others, particularly Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl, didn't take a single bite.

"Everything came out great, Steven," Sadie complimented.

"Thank you, Sadie!" Steven replied.

"Aren't you three girls going to eat?" Nanefua asked the Gems. "You haven't touched your food."

"Well, we aren't really particularly hungry," Pearl said.

"We mostly eat rocks," Ruby said.

Nanefua laughed. "Oh, you teenagers and your crazy fad diets."

"We are all much older than you," Sapphire told her.

"Is that so?" Ronaldo prodded. "Exactly how old are you?"

"We're over ten thousand years old," Pearl said. "Gems age much slower than humans do, so we were able to come here and build the Crystal Temple before Beach City was even founded."

"I should probably add that I'm in the nine thousands range," Amethyst said through a mouth full of burger. "But I'm, like, super close to being ten thousand."

"Gems also only need to eat about once every three months or so," Sapphire added. "While some of us do enjoy human foods, we're able to get our nutrients almost purely from minerals."

"Fascinating," Ronaldo said. "By the way, do you also know who might be trying to turn the Earth into a colony?"

"Well..." Pearl hesitated a bit. "we don't really know who exactly might be trying to colonize the Earth, but we do know that we'll do what we can to prevent them from reaching it."

"So, what? You guys are like superheroes or something?" Lars asked.

"In a way, yes. We protect the planet from enemy Gems on a constant basis to keep humanity safe."

"That sounds pretty cool," Jenny said. "If only Daddy could see that."

"Well, you and Nanefua can tell him all about it when you see him again, and then he'll let the Gems eat at Fish Stew Pizza."

"Kid, we don't really care about Fish Stew Pizza," Ruby told him. "We only care about protecting humanity. We don't do it because we expect some kind of reward."

"Do you guys hear that?" Steven asked his human friends. "That's so nice of them!"

"It is nice of them, isn't it?" Ronaldo remarked, then he slammed his fists on the table. "It would be nice to know what can be done to prevent the destruction of our planet! What should we expect?! Will they be coming in a fleet of ships, or just one big mothership, or both?!"

"Dude, shut up," Lars said.

"These are important questions! Not like I'd expect you to know, Lars."

"Okay! Everyone relax," Steven piped up. "Who's up for a game of volleyball?"

"That sounds fun," Jenny said.

"I haven't played in ages," Nanefua said. "but I bet I could whoop everyone's butts."

"But, Steven," Pearl said. "won't we have an unfair advantage over the humans?"

"Don't worry! I'll split you guys into equal teams. Let's see... Amethyst," He pointed at the purple Gem, who was already having seconds. "You'll be teamed up with Jenny." He pointed at the dark-skinned girl, and kept pointing at individuals as he partnered them up. "Pearl... and Sadie! Ruby and Lars! Sapphire and Ronaldo! And last but not least, yours truly and Ms. Nanefua! But only four teams can play at a time, so we'll just be keeping score."

The four teams headed over to the volleyball net, Ruby, Lars, Amethyst, and Jenny on one side and Sapphire, Ronaldo, Pearl, and Sadie on the other.

"You guys ready?"

"Ready!"

"All right! Let's play!" Steven tossed the ball to Ruby, who promptly jumped up and spiked it in Sapphire's direction, but then Pearl ran over and spiked it over the net, to which Amethyst jumped up and kicked it back.

Steven whistled. "Amethyst! No kicking!"

"Man, what kind of sport doesn't let you kick the ball?"

The ball decked her right on the head, to which Sadie replied, "Sorry!"

"I don't make the rules. I just expect you to follow them."

"That's one point for Pearl and Sadie," Nanefua announced.

Sadie's eyes lit up. "Wow! I didn't think I'd actually earn us a point."

"Beginner's luck," Lars scoffed as he picked the ball up off the sand. "I could spike that ball with my eyes closed." To demonstrate, he threw the ball in the air, closed his eyes, and missed the ball entirely as it unceremoniously fell back to the ground, eliciting some chuckles from Amethyst, Jenny, and Sadie, which in turn caused Lars to blush furiously.

"I got this one." Jenny picked up the ball and served it to the other side of the net, for Sapphire to speed right over to where it was about to land and spike it right back.

"Nice one, Sapphy!" Ruby chirped as she jumped up and spiked the ball so hard that it made a smoldering glass cluster in the sand, astounding everyone. Ronaldo took out his phone to take a picture.

"Did you know that if sand gets hot enough, it turns into glass?" Nanefua asked.

"That's really fascinating!" Steven said. "One point for Lars and Ruby!"

As the game went on, the players started exhibiting some cheap tactics; Lars pulled on the net to try and deflect the ball back to the opposing teams' side, Pearl produced three Holo-Pearls (Of course, Ronaldo went ballistic at such a sight.) to try distracting Amethyst when she tried to do the classic "Look over there!" trick, and Sapphire told Ruby that if she didn't touch the ball, she'd give her a big kiss.

"Honestly, why is everyone cheating all of a sudden?!" Pearl exclaimed.

"Hey, you cheated too!" Amethyst pointed out.

"Only because you cheated first!"

"Seriously, what were you thinking?!" Lars snapped at Ruby. "I don't care how hot she is, you're not supposed to get distracted by your girlfriend!"

"It's just a game! I can be distracted by my hot girlfriend if I want!"

Their arguing started overlapping, becoming a loud cacophony of voices and accusations (as well as Ronaldo's various questions about Gems, which were sadly going unanswered). It was safe to say that things have gotten out of hand.

"This has gotten out of hand," Nanefua observed.

Steven walked over to try and put a stop to it. "Hey now, guys! Why don't we take a break? There's still some burgers and hotdogs left if anyone's hungry."

But nobody payed him any attention. They were too engrossed in their own squabbling.

"Guys, please! This is supposed to be a good time!" Steven was on the verge of tears at this point. "Oh, what made me think this would work out?!" And he ran off, causing the Gems and the teens to cease their arguing.


Steven ran until he reached It's A Wash, and he slumped against the side of Greg's van with a sigh. What was the point of having a cookout if everyone was just going to end up fighting?

"Is something wrong, Schtu-Ball?" he heard his dad ask as he walked over to him. "I heard you sigh."

"Well, I threw a cookout at the Crystal Temple to try and bring everyone together, but it didn't work out so well. It actually started out pretty good until everyone started arguing over volleyball."

"Steven?" It sounded like Pearl. "Are you here? We're sorry about the fight we had."

Steven turned his head to look up at her. "That's okay. I just wanted to teach my human friends about Gems, you know?"

"You did teach us about Gems," Sadie said.

"I did? Really?"

"That's right!" Ronaldo piped up. "And we've learned some things from the Gems themselves too. Apparently, the monsters that invade Beach City are a Gem subspecies. What I wonder is how they're able to get to Beach City in the first place."

"We really understand each other a lot better now thanks to you," Jenny said as she put an arm around Amethyst's shoulder. "Amethyst and I are basically BFFs now."

"Yeah! So whaddya say we play another game of volleyball?"

Steven smiled. "Yeah! Let's play!"

And they all ran back to the beach to play some more volleyball, the Gems having made new human friends, and the humans having learned a bit more about the saviors of their town.