A boy who looked to be his age and had just moved in next door came out of his house to gather mail from the mail box. This neighborhood didn't have the fancy metal mail boxes like some neighborhoods did. They had ones that were in front of your yard with the little red flag. Blaine liked to pretend the mail box was a ship sometimes and had adventures with the ship. Like one time a big scary shark attacked the mail box, but then a dolphin came and saved everyone on board.

The little boy looked over at him curiously. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm making a potion," replied Blaine. In fact, Blaine was just really really bored. His mother worked from home and always had lengthy conversations with clients. Blaine swore they could go on for hours. His dad, just like every week day, was at work. He wouldn't come home until after dinner though. So Blaine busied himself by making potions, playing make pretend, or playing with his dolls. He had to do the later in secret though as his dad forbade it when Blaine once stole his sister's and played with them in the kitchen. But no one ever noticed if Blaine played with them outside or in his room with the door closed.

"What kind of potion?" asked the boy sitting down next to him. He took a sniff at the potion and wrinkled his nose. "It doesn't smell very good."

"It's a potion silly. It's not supposed to smell good. It's a healing potion! See, I accidently dropped her on the ground and now I have to fix her broken leg with this potion. I need to do it fast or else her leg won't work ever again. In fact, her leg might even fall off! But things need to be added in a speftic order and crushed just right to work. It's not very easy to make."

Kurt's eyebrows narrowed in concern. "Oh no! What else do you need for the potion?"

"It's almost done, but it is missing a key ingredient. Without it, it won't work."

"Can I help you get it?"

Blaine's whole expression light up. "Its going to be hard to get, and dangerous. Are you sure you want to help?"

He nodded puffing out his chest.

"I need an apple from that apple tree," Blaine said pointing to the tree in his front yard. "It's a magical apple tree guarded by dragons that breath fire so be careful. The dragons are invisible but I can see them, so I can help you get through."

The boy nodded seriously and went to the orange tree. "You need to be really quiet. They are sleeping right now."

The boy tiptoed to the tree as quietly as he could. He reached up on his tip toes and carefully took the apple off the branch. But when he did there was a loud SNAP.

"Run! They woke up! They won't be able to touch you if you can make it to the grass. It's lava to them"

He ran as fast as he could to the grassy area of Blaine's front yard and then handed the orange to Blaine.

"Thanks, that was very brave of you. I was worried that they were going to get you. But you were really fast."

The boy smiled brightly as Blaine opened the apple, crushed it, and mixed in the juice. "It has to be a fine paste," Blaine told him matter-of-factly. Finally, the potion had taken on the correct constancy and Blaine put it on the doll's leg.

"Will she be alright? Did we make the potion in time?" he asked.

Blaine smiled, "Yeah, she will be just fine. It might take her a day or two to fully heal. Thank you so much for saving her leg! I thought I was going to have to am-pu-tat it."

"I'm glad she will be okay too. What's your name?"

"Blaine. You?"

"I'm Kurt. Nice to meet you."

Blaine stuck out his hand for a hand shake. Kurt giggled. They felt like adults.

"Hey, Bwaine, I was wondering, my Gymnast Barbie sprained her wrist at her competition today. Do you think your potion could help her get better? She needs to be able to use her wrist by tomorrow or else she will lose."

Blaine gasped, "We can't let that happen!"

"I'll ask my mom and dad if you can come over. I'll be right back, Bwaine the Healer."

Blaine went back into his own house and snuck Barbie into his room placing her in his closet to heal. He was going to ask his mom if he could play with the boy next door. When he went into the kitchen she was still on the phone. From past experience Blaine knew not to interrupt phone calls. She got mad and yelled at him. Blaine decided to leave a note on the counter, just in case she got worried about where he was. He then went outside to see Kurt about to knock on his door.

"Oh! Hi, Bwaine. Come on! My mom and dad said you could come over."

Blaine entered Kurt's house to see that his Barbies were all out in his living room with a huge Barbie house. "Kurt, won't your parents get mad that you have Barbies out like this? You should hide them if you don't want them taken away."

Kurt's dad entered the living room. Well, it was too late to hide them now. Blaine looked at Kurt sadly knowing that he would never be able to play with them ever again.

"Hello, you must be Blaine from next door. Kurt says that you can make a healing potion for his Gymnast Barbie so she can compete again."

Blaine nodded wondering if he was going to get into trouble too. "Well, get to work. I want to see her win that competition."

Blaine was confused. Why did Kurt's dad not take away the Barbies? But Blaine had a job to do. "Kurt, bring her out."

The two of them played together the rest of the afternoon.

"I have to leave, Kurt, it's almost dinner! I hope we can play again?"

Kurt nodded, "You are fun to play with, Bwaine. You make up good stories. Maybe we can play Barbies at your house? I would love to meet them."

Blaine shook his head, "We can't play with my Barbies. They'll get taken away."

"Why?" asked Kurt.

Blaine shrugged, "I don't know. My parents don't like them, but I steal them from my sister and play with them anyway."

"Well, you can always play with mine! Right dad?" Kurt asked looking over at his dad for support.

"Right," his dad looked at Blaine, "you can come over whenever you want and play with Kurt's barbies."

Blaine nodded he wanted to cry and rushed back at his house before the tears could fall. Blaine didn't understand it. Kurt's dad even played with them for a little bit. He didn't think playing with Barbies was wrong. Why did his parents?