How Green Becomes Wood

The next day, Dark took Alec back to school, still unable to shake the feeling of regret everytime he left Ivy behind, even though he knew, ultimately, she didn't even have object permanence yet, so she didn't know how long he was away from her. But he knew, and he couldn't stop thinking about what he might be missing. Not that there was much he felt he could do about it. He had a job...

For her part, Daizi still felt fairly content at home with her daughter. To an extent she was looking forward to when she went back to work online--and it was coming up--but after waiting so long to have this baby, she wasn't in too big of a rush to get back to her old routine. Xander being home with her was enough of a shakeup to keep her satisfied, because now she also had someone to talk to. Cooger would stop by to visit fairly regularly, sometimes her other friends would too, and she always was able to make phone calls, but just having another person around made life a little bit more comfortable.
 
The morning seemed to go pretty smoothly, all things considered. Alec kept to himself, and other than a couple of whispered rumors about Xander - now he was working with the mysterious Mr. Dark on undercover work - most of the school seemed to have moved on as well. A flash in the pan of excitement, and it was back to the daily grind. It was all rather boring. The two seniors - whose names he'd never caught - were back, and they still bore some impressive bruises. Alec only caught a couple of quick glimpses of them, and they seemed to be less interested in each other than he remembered, but he'd never taken much stock in their comings and goings to begin with, so perhaps he was wrong.
 
Sloan did not really pay any mind to the seniors. They hadn't existed to her before, and they didn't really exist to her now. She didn't even really notice them when she walked directly by one in the hallway, being more focused on her own business than the people her friend fought for reason's she didn't even know. It never occurred to her to even have asked Xander about it, he was so fight-prone she figured someone said something wrong or they had been bothering someone, and it didn't really matter all that much... Even if it had, it wasn't like Xander was an open book. It had felt pretty certain that had she asked, she'd have been told, "What does it matter to you?" or something similar.
 
The senior, for his part, paused when Sloan passed by him. He stopped, and she was nearly too far away to catch her attention by the time he worked up the courage to call out to her. "Hey, uh, hey, Applebaum. You, uh, you got a minute?" he asked awkwardly. He looked ready to pretend he'd never said anything and flee if she didn't acknowledge him.
 
"Um, sure?" Sloan replied, turning around and walking back to him. Looking at his face, she was fairly certain he was one of the boys Xander had fought, but she didn't really know him outside of that. "What's up?"
 
He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked away, not meeting her gaze. "My mom said it would be a good idea to talk to you, and if I did, she wouldn't take away my gaming privileges for the rest of my life. Um. Right, so, I'm sorry about... what some people... like me.. have been saying... whether or not it's true, and we shouldn't... be saying stuff like that... not about anyway." The words seemed dragged from him by sheer will and under great reluctance. Not necessarily because he didn't believe them or want to say them, but because of his sheer embarrassment that he had to apologize.
 
"Wait," She blinked, visibly confused, holding up one hand, "What are you talking about? What... have people like you been saying? About me?" Sloan stared at him, only looking away when she glanced at the other students in the hallway, none of whom were really giving this conversation any attention, trying to figure out what was happening right now.
 
The senior shrugged uncomfortably, not realizing Sloan genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. "You know. Like what we were saying when your boyfriend clobbered us. Or whatever he is to you. Figured you two had to be some kind of couple for him to get that mad. But, you know, even if he hadn't, we shouldn't have been talking that way about anyone, so... sorry."
 
She licked her lips, turning her head slightly to the side as he spoke, still entirely confused, but understanding now, at least, a little bit more. Xander had fought him over something this guy had said about her? And she still didn't know what that something was, but she didn't exactly want to find out from this guy. "...thank you for apologizing..." She said slowly, considering correcting him about her relationship to Xander but not knowing if it would make things worse? Or better? On one hand, if that rumor got out, it might make her mom stop asking pointed questions, but on the other hand, her mom definitely didn't want her dating Xander, and she didn't want Xander to feel uncomfortable... Thinking of him, she did murmur, "We're just friends. Um. I'm going to..." she gestured over her shoulder, indicating her class.
 
"Right. Yep. Just wanted to say, you know, sorry, and I'll try to be, you know, sensitive about others and stuff," he mumbled just awkwardly. He turned on his heel and quickly strode away, the back of his neck pink from embaressment.
 
"Okay. Thank you. Goodbye." Sloan replied by rote, adjusted her bag on her shoulder and then walked off in the opposite direction, heading towards her class and trying to figure out if she should text Xander about that. What was that? God, she hoped the other boy wouldn't also stop her and catch her in a new conversation.
 
The other senior seemed to actively avoid Sloan, so she had no worries there. They didn't exactly cross paths a lot anyway, so it was easy for him to ignore her and pretend like nothing had ever happened.

Lunchtime came, and Alec was later than usual to the table. Peter was already there, sleepily munching on an apple slice and staring at nothing. Usually, today he'd be eating with one of his other friend groups, but he found the table with Sloan and the twins to be the least exhausting of his friend groups.
 
"Hey..." Sloan said, joining at the table. She had mostly shaken herself out of the weird mood her earlier conversation had put her into, but it was still on her mind. Even moreso now that she was looking at Alec, "How have you been today?"
 
"Hmm?" Alec looked at her distractedly as he played with his hard-boiled egg. "I'm fine. Everything's fine." He looked down and turned the egg around in his hand. "How about you?" He looked up at her again. "How's the day treating you?"
 
The egg stopped rolling in Alec's hand, and it took him a beat longer than usual to reply. "That is odd. Maybe he got the wrong person? Which doesn't make much sense but is possible."

"Shouldn't he be apologizing to Xander? Or, more logically, Xander be apologizing to him?" Peter asked with a frown.
 
"I asked him what he was talking about but he kept talking to me like I knew. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know." She took out her water bottle and took a sip, really just to do something, "He was saying something like he's sorry for what guys like him have been saying? And I don't..." She trailed off, staring blankly down at her food as she took it from her lunchbox, "It's weird."
 
"Guys like him? Does he mean seniors or something else?" Peter asked curiously, sitting up a little straighter now that he had something of interest to focus on. "Is he rich? Privilege? Of a certain political party?"

"He's not rich, I don't think," Alec said without thinking. He decided he should stay out of this conversation as much as he could before he incriminated himself and finally bit into his egg.
 
"I have no idea," she said anxiously, "about any of it. From what I've heard from him, Xander fought him over something he was saying about me? Like he stopped me directly in the hall, by name, so I don't think it's like, he was saying sexist bullshit about women and decided to apologize to me, as a stand-in for all women kind. But I don't know, I don't even talk to the guy, so like..."
 
"That's curious," Peter mused. "From what you've said, I think we can gather that whatever Xander's fight was about, it involved you somehow. You specifically by name. And it had to be about something he felt worthy of getting into trouble for. He's not quite so reckless as he used to be in that regard, so what could they have been talking about?" He paused and paled slightly. "It could be something gross, I suppose."
 
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