How Green Becomes Wood

"You're 17 and have been running a buisness for, what, three years?" Dark asked, "That is not something most people your age can say. One may even say it's... unusual."

"You're also a red-headed identical twin," Daizi added, "which is rare in two ways."
 
"I don't think it's been a full three years, and most people would call that industrious. Or child labor," Xander told Dark. "Unusual is the red-headed twin bit, but still not crazy."

"Redheads are always crazy. Look at Uncle Cooger," Alec retorted.
 
"It is industrious, but it is strange," Dark replied, "and even if it has not been three years yet, it has been at least two, you began before Ivy was born I am fairly certain."

"Red heads are crazy," Daizi agreed, "Not to mention, if we're all crazy, but you're allegedly sane, you're really weirder than the rest of us."
 
Xander made a wobbling hand gesture. "Close enough. Something like that. I suppose I might be weirder than any of you in here, but out there?"

"You're still weird by association," Alec chirped.

Xander heaved a melancholy sigh. "I'll never win, will I?"

"Nope. Might as well accept it," Alec agreed.
 
"Is that not already what she is?" Dark asked, looking at his daughter who was half-eating, half-playing with her food.

"I still don't get the obsession with making girls into princesses," Daizi sighed, resting her chin in her hand, fully aware it was a losing battle.
 
"I hope not," Daizi said, drumming her fingertips on the table, "But it is strange how even now, before she knows what a princess is, she's already encountering the expectation that she will be a princess, or that she is one already. Girlhood is so tied to princesses and it's strange. If she decides she likes them when she learns about them, it is one thing, but as soon as I started telling people I was having a girl, I was being told about princesses."
 
"It's the weird American obsession with royalty while refusing to accept any sort of royal rulership," Xander shrugged.

"And therefore the biggest compliment they know how to give," Alec added.
 
Dark made the wise decision to stay silent out of respect for his wife's opinion and concerns. He knew they were grounded in some ways. But he looked at Ivy with her big sweet eyes, pretty smile, and lovely dark hair, and he couldn't not see her as a little princess. She was too cute not to be, especially since she was Daizi's daughter, and Daizi was a queen to him.

"I don't even know if I believe it's just an American thing," Daizi sighed, drinking her tea, "but it's unavoidable, I suppose. One of those societal things."
 
"Good point," Alec agreed. "We'd best get going, though. You may be off work, and Ba has Princess duties, and Ivy has princessing to do, but we have school!"

"True enough," Xander agreed and polished off his breakfast.
 
"I will absolutely do my best to not be normal at all! Outside of not disrupting my classes," Alec said cheerfully.

Xander gave an exaggerated sigh and pretended to be irked, but he was amused inside. Together, they headed out and to the school. School went okay, and Alec and Xander were able to turn in their history reports. Alec's on the plans for the cleanup after the Gulf War, and Xander's on the War of Jenkins' Ear. Jenkins' Ear was a lot more humorous than anything to do with the Gulf War, though still full of the usual unfortunate things that happen during wartime.

Later, just before lunch, Alec snagged a few spare minutes to head to the school library to pick up a book required by their literature class. He walked down the shelves slowly, frowning. The computer said it was supposed to be here, but it wasn't. Maybe it had been misshelved?
 
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Claire was in her English class at that period, and her teacher always sent a few students every Tuesday to the library to pick out a book to read, if they so chose, because the teacher understood it was hard to find the time otherwise. That day, she was in the selected group and made the decision to go. She had her hair mostly down, except for two space buns, and had a seafoam green pinafore nearly the colour of her shoes on over a pale yellow top.

And she was struggling. Because she was only five feet tall, and the book she wanted was on one of the top shelves. She stood, stretched as far up on her tip-toes as she could, trying to get to the book she was hoping to check out.
 
Alec spotted Claire from behind. It took him only a moment to recognize her, and he admired how she'd gotten her hair up so perfectly, and the pinafore really complimented her figure and coloring. He quickly shook the thought from his mind. That was very boy-ish. He wasn't supposed to think like that. Then he saw her reaching up for the book she couldn't quite reach. He wasn't exactly a giant - which his father would tell him was a good thing - but at the taller end of "average," possibly even a touch taller, depending on the source, he could easily reach it. He came up behind her and quickly leaned up behind her and fetched the book down.
 
When Claire noticed someone come up behind her and reach up for the book, she paused, feeling a little bit wary, until she turned around and saw who it was. And immediately, her eyes widened visibly and she glanced down at her shoes, a pink blush colouring her cheeks. Then, looking back up at him, she almost shyly said, "Oh, hi. I didn't... I didn't expect to see you here. Thank you. I can hardly reach anything."
 
Alec blushed mostly because Claire was blushing and because she looked so cute. "You're welcome. When you live with parents as tall as mine, it's kind of nice to be the tall one for once." He hesitated, second-guessing himself, but blurted out, "Your cute is hair! I mean..." He blushed bright red and took a step back, looking at his own shoes. "Your hair. It's cute. It looks good, I mean. Today. I mean! It looks good every day, but especially today."
 
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