How Green Becomes Wood

"Yeah, I've seen him when he goes to get groceries. For what it's worth, I think the longer hair looks good on him. And when my aunt came over for Hanukkah, she made a big fuss about how hot she thought he was. Which was disgusting for me. But I hope they're coping well," She rested her chin on her fist, looking at the twins, "If you two need a quiet place to do your homework, you can come over. My mom won't let you in my room, but we can work in the dining room."
 
"That sounds really gross," Xander said in reference to Sloan's aunt.

"We might do that, thank you," Alec said.

"Mmm!" Peter said, holding up a cheese stick to make his point. "Speaking of events, did you get your parents to sign the form?"

Xander frowned. "No. Someone lost the forms."

Peter glanced at Alec and winced. "Really?"

Alec groaned. "Yes. I'm sorry!"
 
"It was gross," She agreed, "and I had no choice but to torture you with it. Having hot parents is the worst, that's why I'm glad my dad kinda looks like a weasel."

After watching them discuss the forms, she said, "Hey, I have a question... I hope this isn't offensive, I don't mean it to be, but is Daizi able to sign things? I'm sure this permission slip only needs one parent, but like... If you needed something with both her and Mr. Dark's signature, would she be able to?"
 
Both twins paused as they tried to remember ever seeing Daizi sign something. It had come up in conversation at least once. What was the verdict? It was not a daily need, so they'd not really paid much attention.

"I think she can do something of a signature if someone helps her find the line," Alec said slowly.

"It's like an actual name, like how we'd sign," Xander agreed, "but she'd have to be able to do something for some aspects of her job." He glanced toward Alec, mentally adding, right?
 
"Oh. Cool." She collected her trash to throw away, "Yeah, I guess she'd probably have had to sign her marriage license and your fostering papers. And Ivy's birth certificate, that's kinda important. I bet her signature is harder to fake than Mr. Dark's... But I've actually seen Mr. Dark's signature before, because he's signed my hall pass a few times. It's nice. My signature sucks, cursive s's are brutal. I think if I were better at it, 'Sloan Appelbaum' would be a really fun name to write out though, because it's a lot of big letters."

Standing, she looked down at the table, then shook her head and called to them while walking to the trashcan, "This is why I hate coming back to school! It makes me have the lamest conversations!"
 
"Really? I thought it was a fascinating conversation!" Peter said happily as he gathered up his trash and followed her.

"You think everything is fascinating," Xander pointed out, following him.

Peter considered this gravely and nodded. "This is true, but you never know when something might happen. This might be the last time you ever see something, or taste it, or feel the sensation. Every day is a beautiful day!"

"I noticed you didn't have smell in there," Alec said in amusement as he took up the end of the line to the trashcan.
 
"I feel like describing signatures couldn't be less interesting," Sloan replied, "But maybe I'm the weird one, I don't know. I know I'm not as positive about life as you, Peter. I don't know how you and Alec can be so upbeat all the time. I'm not a downer or anything, I just... I dunno. It's the winter weather, maybe." She threw away her trash and then used some hand sanitizer, leaning against the wall and waiting for them all to finish, "I can't believe next year Benny will be a freshman. I know I'm only, like, three and a half years older than him, but in my mind he's still nine."
 
"You sound so old," Xander said dryly. "Maybe that's the nice thing about having a sibling the same age as you. You don't have anything to remind you how old you're getting."

Peter tossed his trash and patted Sloan's shoulder. "Everyone has a moody day from time to time, and that's okay. It's good to sit with that feeling and think on it for a bit. Just remember that it's a rest stop, not the end of the line."

Alec smiled at Sloan. "Change is scary. We have driver's ed after this! I can't believe I'm old enough to be allowed behind the steering device of such a massive vehicle. But change can bring good things as well as bad. I just choose to deliberately think about the good. It doesn't always work, but it helps."
 
"I feel old, I have vague memories of Benny as a baby. I mean, I was basically a baby too. But one of my earliest memories is my dad telling me that when my brother was born, they wouldn't be able to pick me up anymore.' She shrugged, sticking her hands in her pockets. She smiled a little bit at the kind words they were saying but looked over at Xander, silently asking, 'when did they become philosophers?' But aloud, she said, "Thanks, guys. I'm okay, really. You don't gotta worry about me."
 
Xander just shrugged, used to Alec's bouts of philosophical rambles. He was trying to pay attention but had gotten distracted by a bit of gum stuck to his shoe. Not a lot, just a little, enough to be very annoying!

"You don't gotta worry about us, but that's never stopped you before," Alec pointed out to Sloan. He grinned. "But enough of this. It is onward to learn to drive hunks of metal on wheels!"

"I can't say I'm looking forward to this. You all drive on the wrong side," Peter chuckled, following Alec.
 
"It's not as bad as you think it'll be. Driving is actually surprisingly intuitive. Good luck." She pushed herself off the wall and headed towards the exit, "Be careful with Mr. Duke, though, he takes himself way too seriously. He's not really a yeller, but the classroom lecture stuff puts you to sleep and he doesn't have a sense of humor."
 
"I hope the rest of your day goes well," Alec called to her with a wave. "Thanks for the warning!"

"See? Not so bad," Xander told Alec as the three of them made their way through the halls.

"Do we have driving next? I thought it was at the end of the day," Peter remarked.

Alec heaved a sigh. "Oh, great, not only have I misinformed someone, but now I have to wait even longer?"

Peter dug out his schedule and glanced over it. "There is good news. School for us ends earlier on DE days! Not by a lot, but every minute counts. Next up is English."

"Yay. My favorite subject," Xander said in his flattest tone.
 
The rest of the day was pretty normal and average for Sloan. It was strange now that her relationship with Emily was different, and had she done any self reflection about it, it would've occurred to her there was a reason why this day back to school felt weird for her. She wasn't even sad, just irritable, and maybe a bit anxious.

But she didn't think that deeply about it, and just gladly hurried out of the building and went to her car to wait for the twins. She knew they knew where she parked, and it just seemed easier than waiting for them at their two different lockers.
 
The twins were a little late, unusual for them, and Alec marched out first, head down, both hands clutching his backpack strap. He glanced briefly toward Sloan but said nothing as he climbed into the backseat and slumped down. Xander greeted Sloan with a wince and a little nod before settling into the front seat.
 
"We are. Cherishing it deeply," Alec grumbled, staring at the pink backpack in his lap.

Xander caught Sloan's eye and carefully singled for her not to push it. He mimed texting, a wordless promise to text her later and tell her all about it. Awkward, but now was not the best time to talk about it. "How was... school?" he asked instead, struggling to make actual small-talk.
 
She saw the text and glanced up at Xander before looking quickly over her shoulder at Alec. "It was fine. In one of my classes the teacher said she's going to try to do a flipped classroom where we learn outside of the class and then work with it in the class. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it, but it's interesting."
 
"Sounds disruptive," Xander said carefully. "Might be nice to get more sun." He paused, trying to think of something else positive. Nothing came, so he moved on to, "Got any plans tonight? Homework?"
 
"Fridays and Wednesdays," Xander replied. When had the drive home gotten so long? Had the house teleported into the next state? A magical stretchy magic nonsense thing? Apparently, Alec's gift of gab really shortened a trip.

Alec, for his part, was still quietly sulking in the backseat and making no effort to engage in conversation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top