How Green Becomes Wood

"You cannot go to that," Sloan said flatly, "Dude. Never go out with a girl who doesn't care about if you're actually interested in her! Damn!" She swiveled around to look over her shoulder at Bernadette and Crystal, and seeing they were far enough away, she turned back, leaned forward, and in a low voice said, "That girl is pure poison. Are you kidding me? 'I like your jacket, you've grown up, you have great style, you're taking me out.' On a Tuesday night? With no warning? Absolutely not, that is a parade of red flags. Of all the girls who have been interested in you since the talent show, she is literally the worst one you could go with."
 
"Well, she didn't necessarily say it was a date," Alec said uncomfortably.

"I'm with Sloan on this one," Peter said calmly. "Maybe I'm wrong and things are done a little differently over here, but I thought some back and forth was required for making plans of any kind, let alone romantic liaisons."

"She didn't seem so bad to me," Alec tried to defend. "Maybe she's just really anxious and it came out wrong."

"Call me shallow, but I'm pretty sure you don't deliberately show that much boob if you're self-conscious," Xander said dryly.

Alec looked down and played with his waterbottle fretfully. "But how am I going to tell her no now? That would be rather rude after saying I'd go, wouldn't it?"
 
Sloan held up a hand to Xander, "People's anxieties manifest differently, let women dress how they want. But, even if it's a day out to just develop a platonic friendship, do you really want to be friends with someone who only decided you are worthy to be friends with because you dress well? Do you want to be friends with someone who literally didn't say hello to your friends? To your brother? Girlie flounced in here and didn't even look at any of us, and she didn't care about your time! Again, it's a Tuesday, we're all in school, I'm willing to bet you have homework tonight and I know you have school tomorrow, she didn't even ask about your availability."

She took a sip of water and then sat back with her arms crossed, "If you want to go, go, but I gotta tell you it's a bad idea. I've been in the locker room with Crystal, I hear how she talks about boys. If you want to get out of it, your foster dad is scariest guy in school, just tell her he said you can't go. Or that Tuesdays is when your foster mom gives you music lessons and since she's about to pop out a kid you know that when that happens, you're basically done with them for the next six months. It's okay to lie in the name of self-preservation, you've done it before. Or say that you're dating me, I don't care."
 
Xander rolled his eyes at Sloan but didn't argue. They were in agreement on the important topic at hand, why get sidetracked with something that didn't matter? He didn't like Crystal either, but he knew himself well enough to know that it was more of style clash than anything he knew about her personally. He disliked her on principle and didn't even want to think about what he would do if Alec actually liked her.

"One of us could go with you as silent backup when you talk to her," Peter offered. "She does seem like a rather intimidating person to say no to."

Alec hesitated, fiddling with the bottle. They all had their points, especially Sloan, but it just seemed so rude to tell Crystal no right after agreeing to do something, and, more than that, he couldn't help the tiniest flattered feeling that someone had noticed him like that. Oh, he knew she was likely using it as an opener, but it had felt... nice. "I'll talk to her later when I get a chance," he finally said. "Maybe she didn't mean it like that. And... it's just ice cream even if I do go, right? At a public park. What can happen?"

Xander raised his brows. "Do you really want me to answer that?"
 
Sloan shrugged her shoulders, truly believing Alec's kindness would be the death of him some day, and said, "I just think you need to talk to your foster parents. We could be biased, sure, god knows I don't like the girl. But Mr. Dark and Daizi," Throughout all her growing up across the street from Tarot, she had struggled with what to call Daizi. She had been instructed to call adults "Mr." or "Ms." (or any of the marital status permutations of "Ms."), but Daizi was a doctor, but didn't like being called "Dr. Daizi" by random children she met, because it sounded formal, so Sloan had been instructed to call her simply 'Daizi,' which she did... So long as her mother wasn't around, "they're worth listening to, I'm sure. And for all we know, they'll have a different opinion than us, but you shouldn't go on a date with someone if you don't like her like that."
 
"I'll ask them," Alec promised. "At the very least, I'm going to need a way to get there and back, and they'll need to know where I'm going."

"I'll make sure he asks them," Xander assured Sloan. He didn't care much for their dating advice the few times they had given it, but they were good judges of character. Surely they'd give Alec good advice. Good advice that would get him to not go to a random park with a girl on a school night. "Weird that she'd ask on a school night, anyway. By the way, Sloan, I don't know how close you listen to scuttlebutt, but saying Alec is dating you wouldn't work anyway. About a third of the school - of the ones that care - think you're dating Peter."

Peter straightened. "Really? I have to say, I'm flattered they'd think I was in the same league as a junior."
 
"He better. We can't have a harpy in the friend group anyway." She huffed, moving her bangs, "And, Peter, you have an accent, it gives you an unfair advantage. You could pull seniors if you wanted to, and I'm pretty sure even though we're only a few days into the school year you could have an army of freshmen at your command. Unfortunately for me," she chuckled as she took another sip of water, "I don't think you're scary enough to prevent the weird guys from knocking on my metaphorical door. Not that Alec is either, no offense to either of you. But at least Jordan started leaving me alone."
 
Xander said nothing as he started crunching his carrot sticks. As far as he knew, no one else knew about the "conversation" he'd had with Jordon, and he was glad to leave it that way. He was just happy it had worked and the lesson was sticking.

Peter chuckled. "You do flatter me, Sloan, but thank you. As it stands, my parents have told me in no uncertain terms that until I'm seventeen at the very least and preferably eighteen, I am completely ace. After I turn at least seventeen, preferably eighteen, they will gladly support me in whatever manner of love I choose."

"Eighteen and seventeen seems awfully old to start," Alec said hesitantly.

Peter shrugged. "They say that those are your defining years, and it's a lot easier to figure things out about who you are without adding in the added pressure of following the hormones to the nearest person you desire and trying to figure out how to make yourself desirable to them. Besides, we move so much that it really wouldn't be fair to the other person. It seems unfair sometimes, but other times it does take a lot of the pressure off!"
 
"I mean, I guess it's fair to not date someone if you move around all the time, but it feels like it shouldn't be a rule," Sloan commented, "I mean, what if you meet someone you're really into? I don't think it's fair to not pursue that just because you're not 17 yet. I don't know, I don't really like parents telling their kids when they can and cannot date. Or those dads who, like, say whenever their daughters try to date, they'll sit outside with a shotgun, it's all really weird to me. Like I understand saying, 'no, my fifteen year old child, you cannot go on a date with a 20 year old' or even, like, telling your middle schooler not to date a high schooler, unless it's like, an 8th grader and a 9th grader, but saying, 'you can't date until this age' just seems unrealistic." She frowned, and then thoughtfully asked, "Hey, you said Mr. Dark and Daizi are having a girl, right? Do you think he'll be one of those shotgun dads threatening everyone who tries to date her?"
 
"Yes, but we would disagree with such a rule, wouldn't we, considering we're the teenagers it's affecting?" Peter teased her, his blue eyes twinkling. "I think they are just trying to protect me from making the same mistakes they did and providing me with opportunities to make my own mistakes. Besides, if I really liked a person, and they liked me, then it would wait a couple more years, wouldn't it? If love cannot last even a couple of years while seeing each other often in the hallways and being only denied things like kissing and whatever else one does while dating, then it's hardly a lasting love, is it? Or maybe it's just easy for me because at least right now, I'm not into anyone. That might change if I meet anyone special."

Xander snorted at Sloan's question. "He doesn't need a shotgun, and I think Daizi would be more likely to threaten them. I don't see either of them doing that, though. They'd just teach her how to load the shotgun herself."
 
"I don't think you start a relationship in love, though. You start with a crush, and it grows into love as you get to know them more deeply, and love can last some time apart, but I don't think crushes can. It just seems like a lot of missed opportunities. Especially since most other people are already dating by then, I'd be worried about if I was way less experienced than anyone in my dating pool." She shrugged, knowing she was the only one of the four of them who was in a relationship, although one that she privately worried was nearing its end, so her perspective was bound to be different, "and you're right, he wouldn't need one. I'd probably cry if I went to my date's house and her-their-dad looked like that. What about you? When she gets old enough to start dating are you going to try to scare off her suitors?"
 
Peter just shrugged and smiled. He knew his parents' rules were strange to other people, but he didn't feel the need to explain them to everyone. It was enough that his parents had taken the time to explain their rules to him, sitting him down and talking about it thoroughly so that he knew they were not arbitrary laws put into place at their whims. Jack and Sally Hollis had their reasons for their rules, and even when Peter didn't always agree with them, he respected them.

Xander frowned, seeming genuinely confused by the question. "Why would I want to do that? Maybe later I'll have a different idea, but right now, it's hard enough to keep my own shit together. I don't need to borrow some kid who's a decade and a half younger than me."

Alec said nothing, but he couldn't help thinking that Xander didn't keep his own business together; he added Alec's in as well, whether Alec wanted him to or not. But the opposite was true, as well.
 
"I don't know," She shrugged, "you just seem like the protective type, that's all." Sloan remembered perfectly well how Xander used to snap at her for the slightest thing if he perceived it to be somehow critical of Alec, so she could only imagine that when Xander watched someone grow up and was at enough of an age difference to remember when that someone was helpless and small enough that he could hold them... She sort of expected him to be a helicopter sibling. Even if it seemed that hadn't occurred to Xander, yet. She took a brief glance at Alec to see if he had similar suspicions, and then said, "Well, anyway, my dumb brother's Bar Mitzvah is coming up, and you're all welcome to come to the party after. I know none of you are Jewish, but my mom feels so much better when the party has a huge attendance because she thinks it makes us look better. All of Benny's friends and teachers and everyone have to attend the ceremony, but the few people I get to invite aren't going for Benny, not really, so it doesn't matter. It's still a ways away, we don't even have a venue yet, but, just so you know."
 
"I've never been to a Bar Mitzvah," Alec said, looking up and suddenly brightening. "That sounds like extraordinary fun! I would love to go!"

Xander shrugged. Parties and crowds were not really his thing, but Sloan seemed to not hate him, so why not? "Yeah, sure, I et we can go. We don't normally have much going on."

"You'll have to let me know when and where it is, but if I can attend, I'd be delighted to," Peter told Sloan.
 
"Oh, awesome. Yeah, it should be in December, I think. These things take ages to prepare, and Benny was assigned a grueling passage, which sucks for him. Mine was easy. And you'll all get formal invitations in the mail like 6 weeks in advance."

When Sloan finished eating, she checked the time, "Bell's about to ring. I should head to my locker." She pointed at Alec, "Talk to your foster parents, don't be stupid."
 
"I look forward to it!" Peter said happily. He rose with Sloan. "I take my books with me. I can't fit them in the locker."

Alec winced at Sloan's statement. "Thank you for that glowing statement of your opinion of me," he muttered and stood as well. He turned and walked toward the opposite end of the cafeteria just to be away.

Xander's brows drew down and he glared at Sloan. "Not cool, man," he said simply. It wasn't the snap he would have given even last year, but he was the only one allowed to call Alec stupid.
 
"Sorry dude, didn't mean it that way," Sloan said immediately, but then, after Alec had walked off said, "I didn't call him stupid, I told him not to be stupid. The smartest person alive can be stupid. Stephen Hawking cheated on his wife, that was stupid. The time I tried to shave a notch in my eyebrow but accidentally shaved off my eyebrow was stupid. But I didn't mean to upset him."
 
"Tell him that, not me, but you'll have to catch him, first, and he's very good at ducking when he doesn't want to talk to someone," Xander said a little too casually. He stood, stretched, and headed after his brother.

"Well. This has certainly been an interesting lunch period," Peter remarked to Sloan. He glanced at her and patted her shoulder in a sympathetic way. He knew what she'd meant, and ordinarily, he knew Alec would have, too. He must have just been having an off day or something to react that way.
 
"I will. After he cools down, I think. Don't want to make it worse." She said, as Xander walked off. Then she turned to Peter and said, "Do you think maybe Alec actually does like Crystal? And that's why he's hesitant? But he didn't even know her name. But she's just... Such a bad person, I know her pretty well. We're all just trying to help him."
 
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Peter shrugged. "I think he's just flustered and doesn't know what to do. I think once he has a chance to think, he'll see what we were trying to do. Whether or not he actually wants to be with Crystal... no idea."
 
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