How Green Becomes Wood

Sloan watched Alec and Emma, lightly tearing her sandwich into smaller pieces. She could guess what was so great about a science project, but all she said was, "Some people really like science. And some people really like group work. I like it when I can pick my group."
 
Xander huffed. "He does like group work, but... what's so funny?"

Becky looked up at Xander then at Alec and Emma. "Oh, please, Xander, you can't be this dense." She glanced at Sloan, who knew him better. "Can he?"
 
Becky narrowed her eyes at Sloan. "I feel like I'm missing something here." Before she could ask, Austin tentatively approached, moving slowly and carefully.

"Hey, um... Xander," he said, glancing between the three. "I'm looking for Milo?"
 
Sloan turned to Austin and smiled at him. As suspicious as she was of the intentions of any person on the football team, she tried to engage with them as individuals when they arrived as individuals. If Austin was on a quest to bully Milo, he wouldn't show up to ask Xander about it. So she smiled and said, "He doesn't typically eat lunch with us. I don't know where he goes."
 
"He likes his quiet time," Xander said bluntly, still not fully won over to Austin's side, but not fully writing him off either.

"Oh. It does get kind of loud in here," Austin agreed hesitantly.

"What do you need him for?"

Austin made an awkward gesture. "I was just going to ask if he'd done anything on the project yet because I had a couple of questions, but they can wait. I'll just catch him later."
 
"If I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him," Sloan promised, although she doubted she would catch him.

At that exact moment, Milo was happily, for him, eating his lunch under the bleachers while listening to a trivia podcast, quite content to be alone.
 
"Thanks," Austin said and headed off.

Xander considered going to spend some time under the bleachers with Milo, but he didn't want to immediately leave Alec after everything that had happened the day before. Even if Alec was animatedly explaining something to Emma, who was watching studiously and occasionally adjusting her glasses. Tomorrow, he decided. He'd go tomorrow.

Alec and Emma apparently decided to conclude their meeting, and Alec slid over to rejoin the group while Emma left. "Becky, your colors are beautifully sorted."

"Thanks!" she said brightly and offered them around to everyone.
 
Becky looked at the piles. "I don't know," she admitted. "I just do. It feels right. I do like the yellow ones best!"

"Yellow ones are the worst," Xander grumbled.

Becky smiled at him. "That's okay. I still like you even if your sense of taste is broken."
 
"I liked the Lime, then they replaced them with green apple, which I hated, but they brought back lime." Sloan said, taking one, "I like buying the big bag of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and separating them out. Not all flavours go together, but also I feel like a bird."
 
"Yeah, Jelly Bellys, you have to separate those out!" Becky agreed, and Alec nodded along with her.

Xander hesitantly took a red skittle and waved away Becky's offers for more. "I don't trust Jelly Belly Beans."
 
"Both. You can't trust them to taste good, even when you think you've got one that's good," Xander said with a serious look as if they were talking about something far more important than candies.
 
"I really only run into problems with the cinnamon flavour," Sloan said as she packed up before the bell rang, "Sizzling Cinnamon has yellow spots, but some bags include Sizzling Cinnamon and regular cinnamon, and regular cinnamon looks identical to cherry, and it's like an IED everytime you eat a red one. Anyway, I'll see you later, okay?"
 
"Oh, sure, sounds cool," Sloan grinned, rather pleased at the suggestion, "Just let me know when."

After lunch, Milo went to his locker, because he was gradually coming to terms with the fact he didn't need to carry everything he needed for school with him all day long.
 
A couple of footballers passed by Milo, and one slowed with a grin. He reached out and tapped the locker door so that it started to close, hitting Milo lightly on the arm. It was not hard, but it was firm, and the door was cold and unforgiving. "'Sup, loser?"

"Hey, man, give it a rest," the other one - the one who had earlier apologized to Milo - rebuked.

The first one scowled. "What's the matter with you? You've been acting so weird lately!"

"Just," the second one huffed in annoyance, "come on. Leave him alone."

"What's the big deal?" demanded the first, turning on his partner.

"It's not a big deal! It's just not worth it!" replied the second.

The first shoved the second, the second returned the favor, and soon Milo had been completely forgotten in the shoving squabble that broke out.

Austin was walking by and spotted Milo. Smoothly, he literally shouldered his way between Milo and the bickering footballers, apparently ignoring them completely. "Hey, Milo, how are you doing?" he asked in his quiet, serious way, looking down at Milo. One of the footballers bounced off his back, but he barely even swayed.
 
Milo tensed up when he first saw the two players in the hall, and remained holding all of that tension inside, dropping his hands to his side as his locker was slammed shut, barely flinching at the firm tap, because his mind was shut down tighter than the metal door. His dentist had words about how much he clenched his jaw.

When the fight began, he exhaled and returned to what he was doing before, content to be entirely forgotten. Then when Austin spoke, he nearly jumped out of his skin, whipping around quickly, relaxing only slightly again when he saw Austin. "Well I thought I was about to die," he replied blandly, looking at the scuffle behind him, "but I guess I'm okay now. You?"
 
"I'm, fine, yeah, fine," Austin said with a little nod. "If you have everything you need, let's get out of here. I, um, I had a question I wanted to ask you. About our project." He waited until he was sure Milo was ready and then started walking down the hallway with him, leaving the two footballers to keep squabbling, apparently having forgotten all about Milo's existence.
 
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