How Green Becomes Wood

"Oh, cool. I'm Tuesday, Thursday, Friday." She nodded, drumming on the steering wheel with her fingers.

As they drove, the twins' phone beeped with a text from Dark, having been sent to the family group chat. Despite being a fairly well-spoken man, his texts were rarely not awkward and stilted. This one said, "Look. Push-ups!" and included a little video of Ivy briefly lifting her head and chest before plopping back down.
 
Alec didn't even look at his phone. Happy for a distraction, Xander pulled his out and checked it. "Hey. Looks like the mini is starting to try to push herself up. Impressive form." He nodded and watched the video twice before pocketing his phone again. "She'll be buff in no time."
 
"Oh, cute," Sloan said, although she hadn't looked over at Xander's phone because she was driving, "I bet she will be really strong, like, physically. If she takes after Mr. Dark, anyway. I don't know how strong Daizi is. Again, physically. That's one neat thing about babies, I guess, they grow so quickly."
 
"Yeah," She chuckled, "Yeah..." She sighed, falling silent for a little while more, "But I guess it feels like yesterday I was in third grade learning multiplcation, and now I'm in precalc. And I'm almost an adult now, but I still feel like a little kid. So maybe they've got a point."
 
Xander glanced back. Now was the perfect time for Alec to get all deep and make good points and make them all... nope, he was still sulking. Okay, then, still Xander's job. "Uh... maybe it has something to do with... perspective?" he suggested awkwardly. "Like... notice how a year feels shorter and shorter the more of them we live? Like... a camera looking at one long block then zooming out to show more and the one block looks smaller even though it hasn't changed in size." Wow, he was bad at this.
 
"I've been told because it's, like, proportional." Sloan said, "Because when you're five, a year is 1/5th of your life, that's 20% of your life. But then you're 17, and a year is not even a full 1% of your life. I bet if Ivy could understand the concept of a year, it'd feel like a million years long, because a year is 100% of her life right now. Bigger, because she's only a few months old, but to our parents, a year probably feels even shorter than it is to us. I wonder if a year feels shorter to me than it does to you."
 
"I dunno. I have no idea how to measure something like that, but it could be interesting to figure out," Xander agreed. He looked ahead. There was their street! Finally.
 
"Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it can be measured. It's all... Qualified? No." She thought for a while to think of the word, "Qualitative!"

Sloan parked briefly on the street in front of the twins' haunted mansion so they could get out. Normally, she just pulled into her driveway and had them walk back across the street, but since Alec seemed to be in a bad mood, she wanted to give him a shorter path home, "I'll see you tomorrow."
 
Alec nearly bolted out of the backseat and headed up the walk.

"Thanks for the ride," Xander said, getting out at a more normal speed. "See you tomorrow."

Alec slung his bag over one shoulder as he stomped up the walkway and in through the door. He paused long enough to kick off his shoes and nearly tipped the salt bowl over in his recklessness, and then he stormed off up the stairs to his room, not even calling out a greeting as he went. He didn't quite slam the door, but it was close.

Xander followed but took his time taking off his shoes and touching the salt as he tried to locate where the other three inhabitants were.
 
"Welcome home!" Daizi said brightly stepping out of the kitchen, drying her hands, but her smile faded as he heard one storm off. Ivy was tucked into the baby sling Cooger had bought them for Christmas, and she had managed to grab hold of Daizi's shirt. Not being able to see which twin stormed off, and since neither of them had spoken yet, she asked softly, guessing incorrectly, "Is Xander alright?"
 
"Oh, Xander's fine," Xander said, knowing Daizi had guessed it was him storming off. "Alec is... less fine." He took his backpack to the kitchen, stepping around Daizi, and started cleaning out his lunch box. "He's in a bit of a mood."
 
"Oh," Daizi replied, looking briefly embarrassed that she had guessed the wrong twin who had stormed off, because it revealed she typically assumed if it was a twin being moody it was Xander. Embarrassment swiftly gave way to concern, though, and she followed Xander back into the kitchen. On the counter were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, because she wanted to give them a treat for their first day back at school, but she didn't even reference them. "What happened?"
 
"To summarize," Xander said, running the washcloth around the inside of his lunchbox quickly, "driver's ed did not go well." The thump of a backpack being tossed into a corner reverberated through the floor. "He didn't even make it out of the parking lot. I did fine." He glanced at the cookies hungrily but did not help himself. "I know he didn't think he'd do well, but I don't think he expected to do that badly, either."
 
"He did better than I would," Daizi said cautiously, leaning against the counter near to Xander. From her place in the sling, Ivy turned towards the sound of Xander's voice, and spotting him, cooed and smiled. She, at least, seemed unaffected by Alec's mood. "Do you think he's too in his own head? Is he overthinking?"
 
"I'm not sure." Xander reached out and cautiously touched Ivy's hand in greeting. "He just... froze up. I guess he could be overthinking and sabotaging himself. That's the only thing that makes sense, but the teacher was not happy. Didn't handle it well."
 
Ivy smiled even bigger and grabbed Xander's finger--this time, intentionally, rather than as a reflex. "I'll fight his teacher if they can't be compassionate with him. Driving, I'm told, can be very frightening when you're new to it. I get that there's a whole class who needs to take their turn, but it's the first day. I'm surprised they already even have you behind the wheel." Again Ivy cooed, and Daizi smoothed her hair with one hand, "You're right, Hummingbird, it is ridiculous."
 
"She wasn't too mean, I guess, no yelling, but she was definitely... snippy," Xander said with a huff. He bounced Ivy's hand lightly. "She had us watch some ridiculous horrible movie that's supposed to warn us about the dangers of driving, then we were just supposed to take a spin around the empty parking lot to get a feel for things. He... drove into one of the barriers and dented the car. Solid car."
 
"Mm." She nodded, thinking things through. As Xander spoke, she remembered how their mother had died, and it seemed like it probably had a thing or two to do with it, "I doubt he is the first, and he won't be the last. I'm call his teacher."
 
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