How Green Becomes Wood

"I think it'll be alright, really. I mean, it's really just sitting and watching babies sit in a pen, I can't imagine it'll be that awful. The woman who recommended it was nice, anyway," Daizi said, turning her head to listen to Ivy's little noises, "I'll miss when those go away."
 
Xander finished off his lemonade and snack and started cleaning up. "When what goes away?" he asked curiously, not realizing Daizi was listening to Ivy. "Going to baby groups?"
 
"No, just... the little noises she makes when she's happy." Daizi replied, "She's so noisy, but there's something beautiful about expressing joy before you have words to know how you're feeling."
 
"She is really noisy," Xander agreed. "At least that means you always know where she is. Where both of them are."

Alec was making noises and burbling and laughing with her.
 
"And that's certainly a blessing. Who knows what trouble they'd get into if I couldn't keep track of them." She finished her little snack and then turned to them, "How was your day? I hope things are settling down okay."
 
"Really? I'll have to call and congratulate him. Maybe I'll invite him and Sally out to celebrate. Dark will hate it, but he can cope, I think," She chuckled, "I'm glad homework isn't too bad. It felt like they really put a lot on you the first two weeks."
 
"It was brutal, but at least we don't have to do any group projects anytime soon," Xander said.

Alec wandered in with Ivy held upside down. "Did I hear you want to invite Mrs. and Mr. Hollis over?"

"Because of the butterfly picture," Xander said.

"Oh." Alec flipped Ivy right-side up. "Not a good idea."
 
"Peter said his mother is kind of Halloween-phobic," Alec explained.

"Phobic is going kind of far, I think," Xander protested.

Alec shrugged and hugged Ivy close. "Maybe, but she's not a fan. Which is shocking how comfortable she is here."

"That's 'cause this," Xander waved a hand, "isn't Halloween."

"True, but it is Halloween adjacent," Alec pointed out.
 
"Sally doesn't like Halloween!" Daizi gasped, absolutely aghast. How could that possibly be? She tried to think back to when Sally had last visited the year before, after their decorations went up. With the stress of preparing the house for a new baby, they hadn't put up as much as normal, although they still had decorated some. That was one useful thing of getting ready in September, the house was already spooky when Ivy arrived prematurely. It was on her due date, she believed, that Sally visited in person again. The decorations must have already come down, by then, but Daizi didn't recall a thing about it. "But what is she going to do when we have Ivy's birthday party?"
 
The twins shrugged in unison.

"It's Ivy's birthday. I can't imagine she wouldn't come," Alec assured her.

"Yeah, if she can deal with this spooky house during it's normal spookiness, I don't see how she couldn't deal with it for Ivy's party," Xander agreed.
 
"I hope so..." Daizi said, picking up a raven they had set out, "We thought about having the party outside the house, but we decided it'll already be stressful enough for her, with so many people visiting, all of whom will already want to see her. Even if it was a tiny party, it'd still throw off her routine, so... I think bringing her somewhere unfamiliar would be too much." She sighed, setting down the raven, "It is really disappointing to know she'll never come to our Halloween parties, though."
 
"No, I had no idea," Daizi replied, trying unsuccessfully to recall if it had ever been mentioned, but it seemed like something she'd remember, "But last October was pretty busy. There wasn't much time to talk about celebrating a holiday."
 
"And I doubt she'd want to hurt your feelings if there was no reason to bring it up," Alec remarked. He made a face at Ivy. "Right? Right? Yeah! No need to talk bad about someone else's favorite thing!"
 
Ivy squeaked up at him and then flopped her head against his shoulder.

"Right," Daizi agreed, admittedly a bit disappointed to learn this about her friend, because it meant it wasn't something she could share with her, "Well, this year we aren't doing a big Halloween party, anyway. It's going to be much too busy of a month... Much to busy of a season, really. It's like everything that matters is all consolidated into one block of time."
 
"It is going to be a really busy time," Alec agreed solemnly. "I might have to take some time off my cyr wheel just to fit it all in! The teacher is very understanding, so if I explain, he won't mind if I do."

"Might have to give the band a rest for this month, too," Xander remarked, making Alec frown.
 
"If you feel like you need to, but don't feel like you have to." Daizi assured them, while Dark and Cooger came inside together mid-conversation, seemingly satisfied with the work they had done that day.
 
"I will take it into consideration," Alec said, and he did intend to take it seriously. It was an option, and it might be nice to have a bit of breathing room, but it would also be easy to fall out of practice.

"How's it looking out there?" Xander asked when he felt there was a break in Dark and Cooger's conversation. "Does it look appropriately spooky?"

"High-class spooky?" Alec grinned.

"High-class spooky," Xander agreed. "The front looks awesome."
 
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