How Green Becomes Wood

"Hey!" Sloan turned, grinning, "I'm glad you're having a good time! Everyone really seems to be enjoying it, it's awesome! It's always kinda nerve wracking when you introduce people who don't know each other, you kinda just have to hope they get along."
 
Sloan chuckled lightly, "You're way too nice. I'm sure even I can make friends with lame people."

After everyone finished up their cake, Sloan's mom made her only forced appearance for the night, and despite Sloan's absolute reluctance which she tried to downplay for the sake of being polite, she had everyone sit down in the living room and open her presents in front of everyone, while she took pictures. The first one she opened was Claire's, which was a handmade pink and orange mug with the text, "Sweet Mother, I Cannot Weave" carefully added to the side. Blair was confused as to what it meant and Claire smiled charmingly and explained it was just an inside joke.

"Well, I don't get it," Blaire said with a frown, "Why is it funny?"

"It's just a gymnastics thing," Claire lied as easily as she breathed. This was a situation she had prepared herself for, "We do this thing called weaving, which is this absolutely grueling warmup, and none of us like it, but our coach makes us."

"And we call our coach mom," Another team member piped up.

A third girl spoke, "And sometimes we try to beg her to let us out of it like we're, you know, Victorian children. Somehow it turned into us all saying 'we cannot weave! Mother, we cannot weave!'"
 
The twins exchanged glances, pretty sure it was not what Clair and her friends were saying, but also absolutely certain they shouldn't say anything. Becky frowned and looked like she was about to say something, but then stopped and glanced at Sloan curiously. Sherri and Rumy laughed, thinking it was exactly what Claire had said and thinking nothing of it.

While everyone was busy with the mug and what it may or may not mean, Xander took the opportunity to slink over to the table, swipe his small gift, and tuck it into his pocket. Then he slipped over to Alec and handed him the gift. Alec had bigger pockets, and if anyone thought there was a gift missing, he wanted to be able to turn his pocket inside out and prove it wasn't him.
 
Last edited:
Sloan expressed thanks for the mug with a quiet undercurrent of gratitude for the lie and then moved on. Becky's gift was lovely and simple, she had a good laugh at Alec's while promising him, "I will never, ever, ever wear this," but also that she was definitely going to make full use of everything in the self care box, because now that she was 18, it was basically all downhill. Rumy's gift she reacted to with absolute delight, although the look on Blair's face said she didn't really approve of it, although she was much too polite to say so aloud. Nobody was meant to know she was hyper-critical of her daughter, after all.

Sloan genuinely loved all of the gifts she received and although she noticed the present Xander had come in with wasn't there, she wrote it off as him trying to get out of being forced to take a stiff, awkwardly posed photograph with her, as Blair was demanding everyone who gave a gift to Sloan do, so she did not bring it up.
 
Becky and Alec were willing to ham up the picture with Alec using the situation to overcome his reservations about pictures. Sherri was probably the stiffest and most uncomfortable one there, and Rumy was her usual grinning self, though she tried to tone it down for the sake of Sloan's mother. They tried not to make it last too long, seeing how much Sloan hated it.
 
Soon enough, all the pictures were open, and Blair managed to be convinced to leave them alone so they could hang out a bit longer. Some of the gymnastics team were sleeping over, and the invitation had been extended to Rumy, Sherri, and Becky prior to the party (while making it extremely clear they were not obligated to accept, but Sloan felt weird about not saying anything about it to them), but all boys at the party were strictly prohibited. Until they were required to leave, though, it was time for more of the party!
 
Sherri politely begged out of the sleepover, and since Rumy had ridden with her, Rumy agreed to leave with her, though both thanked Sloan for the invite. Becky agreed eagerly to stay over, more than delighted to get to know everyone a bit better. And to steal a bit more cake when no one was looking.

Peter left first, bidding Sloan and the others goodbye and waving when he went out to get into his dad's car. Since he'd already given Sloan her gift, he'd gotten left out of the pictures, which he was quietly relieved about. It looked so awkward.

When it was time for the twins to leave, Xander looked for the opportunity to slip Sloan the gift he'd kept back. "It's not much, but I thought you'd like it a little," he mumbled awkwardly before heading out the door.
 
"Thanks man," She took the box from him as she stood in the doorway after showing them out. "I was wondering where this went. I'm glad you had a way to get out of those pictures."

When she opened up the box, she held up the single ring for a moment. It took a second for it to register what it was, but when it did her face lit up, "Dude, is this a fake septum piercing? That's sick as hell, thank you."
 
Xander actually blushed a little. "If it doesn't fit right or hurts, let me know and I'll get you a different one. I figure, you know, it's small, so you can hide it when you aren't wearing it. Glad you like it."
 
"Cool, yeah," She nodded, closing the box and sticking it in my pocket, "It's really awesome. I mean, my mom would kill me if she saw me wearing it, but it'll be cool to get to try out when she's not around. Thanks so much."
 
The twins headed back across the road to home, and the pair of them, particularly Alec, told their parents all about the party. Xander commented on how refreshingly gloomy and dark their house was, and Alec pointed out all the random knickknacks and gems all over the place, bringing life to the Draculan lair. Not long after, they headed up to bed for some sleep. Xander dreamed he was trying to bake a cake while driving a Mario Kart, and Alec dreamed he was dancing with Claire while every person he'd ever met watched and made fun of his outfit.

The next morning, they came down for breakfast and then went up to work on their homework. Alec started compiling every piece of evidence he wanted to use for his poster with the intention of running it past Daizi for final approval before he started picking which one he wanted to use on the poster. When it came to show her, he hesitated, laptop in hand, foot on the stairs, and then turned back to his room. He'd show her when he was finished. He was supposed to be closing in on adulthood, which meant he should practice. He couldn't always run everything past his parents or boss first. He had to do it himself and take whatever consequences came. He would make the poster and then tell her about it. If there was an error, he'd fix it. It was a part of being independent, right?

Xander was having his own issue. He picked up his schoolbook and started down the stairs. Then he reversed and went back up. Ten minutes later, he started back down the stairs again. He made it half way before turning around and going back upstairs. Five more minutes later, he made it all the way down before going back up. The last time, he made it down the stairs and stood muttering to himself before finally approaching Dark, gripping his book awkwardly and not looking at his father directly.
 
Last edited:
Both Dark and Daizi took the praise for their decor willingly. It was a lot of hard work making the house one a Victorian ghost would be proud to haunt. Ivy was just happy to see her brothers home but was quickly distressed to learn it was already bed time. Yes, she was tired, but why should that matter? She wanted to talk about things, too!

But, the next day was Saturday. It didn't mean much to Ivy, who didn't quite understand there were a set number of days in a week, but it was one of those special days where everyone was home. Not that it changed much, Alec and Xander were still busy, but Mama wasn't going away to the upstairs room. So it was a good day. And Daizi was having a nice time entertaining her daughter without worrying about if perhaps she should've been getting more work done, because it was a Saturday, and she deserved weekends even while working from home.

Meanwhile, Dark was on his laptop in the kitchen, keeping an eye on his wife and daughter in the living room, but primarily meal planning for the next month. His goal was to, eventually, make a year-long calendar, but doing that was a process and required a strong understanding of what everyone liked best. As Ivy jingled after a ball, he frowned lightly, remembering she was a wildcard which needed accounting for. How many dishes did everyone else in the family like, which she may end up hating? If everybody else liked it, it would only be fair that sometimes Ivy would need to be a big girl and eat it anyway, but it would also be fair to reduce its frequency in the rotation. That was already true for how the household functioned, of course, but almost two years in, he had the data necessary for everyone else.

He was just about to look up at what age is it acceptable to tell your child, 'this is your dinner, cope,' and at what point should the parent still provide an alternative meal when he noticed Xander had come up to him. Shutting his laptop, Dark asked, "Kulu tamamu?", which was roughly equivalent to, 'You okay?'
 
Xander fidgeted and almost turned back. Then, abruptly, he shoved the book toward Dark, not letting it go or quite looking at him yet. "I don't get this math section," he stated almost angrily. "If you're... If you're not busy, maybe could you... help me understand it?"
 
A small, hardly perceptible change came across Dark's face and he moved his laptop and the pad of paper he was taking notes on aside, "Of course I can. Or at least I can try, I have not needed to do some of this math in years. Sit down."
 
Xander walked over and sat next to Dark, opening the book to where he'd stuffed his notebook between the pages. He spread it out and pointed to the page. "This part here," he mumbled. "I don't really get what it's asking for. The example shown here doesn't seem to fit with what the description says its supposed to do. I guess I'm reading one of them wrong, but which one?"
 
"Okay," Dark murmured, taking a few moments to carefully read over and study the page so he understood what needed to be done before asking, "What do you think the description is asking you to do?"
 
"I don't know! I've been trying to figure it out, but I'm just-" He stopped himself. He took a deep breath, held it for a second, and let it out slowly. Then, more calmly, though not completely without frustration, he tried to explain to Dark what he thought the description meant.
 
Back
Top