George felt the rest of the week go by in a blur; nothing much important happened. He met with Grian and Mumbo a few other times and learned they were in a gaming club.

Now that he was home, maybe he could learn how to play video games this weekend and then they'd let him in the club next week; George was excited at the idea. He hadn't really had close friends in awhile, and Grian and his friends seemed really nice.

He tore through the cluttered garage and finally found his Dad's old Xbox. He found a small monitor to go with it and carried them up the stairs, grinning like an idiot.

Both the console and monitor were dusty but he cleaned them off eagerly and found a few replacement wires by rummaging in drawers. Now just to figure out which ones go where.

I hope this thing still works. George thought as he plugged in the last cord.

He touched the front of it and smiled when the Xbox made its "power on" triple beep.

He was about to get started on setting up an account when he heard a trill at the window.

The same bird was back. It was a bluejay; George felt silly for not realizing it the first time, but he wasn't very experienced with birds.

He walked cautiously over to the window and slid it open carefully.

The bluejay didn't seem scared, but he was taking care to not accidentally spook it again.

George smiled at it and rested his arms on the windowsill. The bird whistled and looked at him expectantly.

"Oh you want a snack?" He reached over his desk and scooped up a bag of trail mix, happy he thought ahead to pull it out earlier that week in case the bird came back.

The bluejay chirped as he took a handful of the seeds and released it on the flat roof.

George munched on the M&Ms and glanced over at the waiting Xbox. He was eager to play, but he had kinda missed his bird friend.

Bird friend. I must really be lonely if I miss a bird.

George pushed the thought away and looked at his little buddy eating the seeds.

"I made some friends this week."

The bluejay just peered at him.

"I only talked to Clay once or twice. I'm too scared to have a long conversation with him. I think he knows I'm acting weird."

George was mostly talking to himself.

"I should spend more time with him, but I just get so flustered-"

He stopped. The bird had finished the seeds and was listening.

"What?" He raised his eyebrows at it.

It hopped close to his hand.

George stilled.

What is it-

It pecked his hand, not hard, but George jumped, surprised. The bird fluttered back away from him at the movement.

"Ow! What the hell?"

Stupid bird. It probably just wants more food.

Unless... it's telling me to get up and actually do something about Clay.

No, no way it's that smart. It's just hungry.

He stood up, rubbing his hand. It didn't really hurt anymore, but he didn't want the bird to poke at him again with its beak.

He shut the window and sat back down in front of the console, loading up a game called Destiny. Time to figure out how this works.

Unnoticed by George, the bird hung around the window for a few minutes, like it was sad at being abandoned, then it flew away as the game booted up.

Guardian?

Eyes up, Guardian.

(598 words)