How Green Becomes Wood

"I did, but I've got a stupid essay to do in English, and I never do good in those. THought I'd give it one more look-over before resigning myself to Mrs. F's mercy," Xander grumbled.

Alec shuddered and stood. "She is ruthless. Want some help?"

"I wouldn't say no," Xander agreed. "Maybe between the two of us, I'll actually pass this class."
 
Dark nodded solemnly, "She is infamous at grading harshly. I prefer the newer teacher, Ms. Piper. She is still getting her legs, but I think she will be very good, some day."

"I love listening to your opinions on your coworkers," Daizi said happily, "Let us know if you need help on your essay, okay?"
 
"Thanks, but if I start doing too well, she'll accuse me of use AI and make me write another one by hand," Xander huffed.

"She did that to Peter when it was an essay on whales. She wouldn't accept the fact that his parents knew a marine biologist in Australia. That, and she keeps getting on his case for using the UK spelling instead of American. But she did put a smile face on my analysis of the original Rumplestiltskin story!"
 
Dark sat up straight and looked intensely at Xander, "If she tells you that you use AI, and you did not, you tell me. Okay?"

"Do you know, I use the UK spellings but Dark uses US spellings? I learned English in Egypt, and we were taught British English, and Dark learned English here, so obviously he learned to speak the American dialect. I don't really use the British words anymore, because I've lived here for so long, but nobody can pry the 'u' in colour away from me." Daizi mused curiously.
 
Xander nodded. "I will."

"I like the U in colour," Alec agreed.

Xander caught his arm and gently dragged him away. "Come on. We've got an essay to not AI!"

"That sounds weird," Alec said, following him up. "Why not, 'We've got an essay to intentionally trash?'"

"It'd better not be trash," Xander grumbled, leading the way up the stairs.
 
"And it better not be intentional," Dark told them as they went up the stairs. Once they were gone, Dark looked down at Daizi, squeezed her shoulder, and then once they were absolutely certain the twins were out of earshot, told each other exactly what had happened, because there was not a universe where they weren't keeping each other up to date, especially not when they both knew, with absolute certainty, there was something going on.
 
The next day, the morning went by smoothly until Xander had to put the bicycle into the back of Dark's car. It took a bit of figuring out, but eventually, he worked out how to get the front tire off and set on top of the bike so that it would fit easily in the trunk. Then it would snap back on with a twist of a wrench once it was time to take it out. Xander looked for Milo at school while Alec stayed close by.
 
Since Milo's grandma dropped him off in the morning, which was the reason he arrived to school as early as he did, and so he immediately hurried in with his head down, planning to slink off somewhere isolated and hunker down for as long as he could. What he didn't expect, however, was to almost immediately run into Xander.

"Oh," he said, blinking. "Hey."
 
"Dude! Awesome." Xander checked his watch. "We got time. I was hoping to show this to you before school started. Oh, first, hang on." He dug into his pocket and pulled out two rather wrinkled tens. "This is for the darkroom tonight. I was going to pay for it when we went, but since I can't go, I wanted to give it to you now." He immediately moved on, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. "Anyway, I have something in the parking lot I wanted to show you. Come on." He glanced briefly at Alec to make sure he was okay.

Alec gave him an encouraging smile and went to their normal seat to wait for him to come back, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in his stomach. It was just going to be a quick thing. No need to overreact! No, don't think about that. It was like telling yourself not to think about an elephant. Think about elephants instead.
 
"Oh," Milo responded, surprised by the money. He stared shocked at it in his hand and looked up at Xander with wide eyes, "If... if you wanted to go, we can just... go on Wednesday. The film isn't going to fall apart if I wait a day." But then he was already being shepherded over to the parking lot, so he went along, "What's in the parking lot?"

It seemed a pointless question, because if Xander was going to tell him what was there, he would've, instead of bringing him out there to look, but what else was he supposed to say? He couldn't ask where they were going, he already knew the answer to that.
 
"I mean, if you want to wait a day, that'd be awesome, but I don't want to mess up your schedule anymore than I already have," Xander told him, walking over to the rusty yet trusty bike racks. A few other bikes stood there as well as one skateboard. They all had locks on them, including the skateboard, which had a chain wrapped all the way around it. Unfortunately, the chain was loose enough that if someone had wanted to, they could have just slid the board right out.

One bike stood at the end of the row, the bike Xander had bought with Cooger's help. Held cleaned it up as well as he could, gotten new tires, oiled all the gears, and gotten a large front basket. The basket folded up to make it compactable, and he'd deliberately roughed it up a little so it wouldn't be obvious that it was new. It was a mild, inoffensive blue color, and now that it'd been cleaned up, it looked like it could go for many more years.

"So, I have this bike," Xander said, pointing it out to Milo, "and I told you neither of us could ride it, and Alec's not that interested in it despite him not wanting to drive." Actually, Alec said he would use it if Milo refused to take it, but that was beside the point. "Instead of letting it sit and rot, I thought maybe you could use it. The front wheel comes off to make it smaller, so maybe you can take it with you. If not, you can sell it or give it back or whatever, but until then, at least you have a way of getting around."
 
Just like he stared at the money, he stared at the bike, but this time didn't say anything for awhile as what Xander said fought to enter his brain and make sense. He could only stare at it in shock for what felt like ages. "I...." He began, wanting to look at Xander but feeling absolutely unable to. Whatever he began to say fell away, and he got jittery, like he always did when he was uncomfortable or anxious, but instead of scratching he started bouncing one leg. Finally he asked, a little too loudly, "Why are you so nice to me?" but then he shook his head and forced himself into a different tone, "I'm sorry, that sounds--accusatory--I'm not--mad, I just--don't... understand. It doesn't make sense, to me. Why you would be nice to me."
 
Xander blinked, taken only a little by surprise. He figured Milo wouldn't have the smoothest of reactions, possibly get offended or just refuse the bike, but this was not an angle he expected. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked with a half-shrug. I may not be an expert on friendship, but last I checked, friends did stuff for each other. You're a pretty cool guy who does stuff for me like try to talk to me or show me the darkroom thing. Besides, what else am I going to do with a perfectly good bike that I can't ride?" He nodded toward it. "I ain't no dog in a manger. You can use it, so why not give it to you?"
 
"I don't know," Milo said, still looking at the bike, "Talking to you and letting you go somewhere I was already planning doesn't seem worth---" He held up one hand towards the bike, "I just, I haven't done anything. I haven't, I'm just-- I'm not--" He swallowed, rocking onto his toes and dropping back down onto his heels, trying to figure out what to do or say or think, "It's so much, and I don't know---"
 
"Dude, you don't have to do something to deserve someone being nice to you," Xander told him, "but if you want to look at it that way, then see this as me trying to earn your niceness." He gestured to the bike. "Seriously, you're doing me a favor by freeing up space if you take this, Stitch."
 
"Yeah, but..." He started to say, but didn't know quite how to express his opinion there was probably someone who deserved nice things more than him, and if there was, then he didn't really deserve them. And somewhere buried deep down and nearly demolished under the weight of his own feelings towards himself was the tiniest shred of pride that said I'm not a charity case, but he couldn't interpret what that hushed whisper was saying to begin to express it. "Okay. I... guess, if it helps you out... thank you."
 
"Cool, but before you thank me, maybe you should test it out?" Xander suggested. "All the parts move and stuff, but I don't know how bikes really work. And I have a helmet, but it might not fit. You will have to get your own lock for it, though. Sorry. I would have thrown one in, but I didn't have one hanging around." He'd almost bought one, but he figured he was pushing it with the helmet. It was black, plain, and very helmet-looking. "You can thank me for the helmet. I had to keep Alec from bedazzling it or something, and he wasn't even the one going to wear it!" He offered the helmet to Milo. "If you do want something painted on it, all you have to do is hand it to him."
 
"Test it... now?" Milo asked, taking the helmet from Xander, his gaze drifting to the other students who were still walking to class, drumming his fingers against the hard plastic, "I don't really like people staring at me, and riding around aimlessly... seems like... it'd attract attention, and I don't like... that."
 
"Alright, fair," Xander shrugged. "If I miss you heading out, let me know later how it rides, okay?" He turned back toward the school building. "We should probably get back in the gym anyway. Alec will be waiting."
 
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