How Green Becomes Wood

The tone Sally used made Daizi sit up, and immediately she felt her anxiety rise, "I'll go to my office, hold on." There was some slight shuffling sounds in a few minutes she said, "Okay, I'm completely isolated, now. What's going on? What news? Is everything okay?"
 
"Daizi..." Sally took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I have decided after much tormentuous back and forth... to stay here!" Her glee broke through in her last three words, and she couldn't fully hide what she was feeling any longer.
 
"Oh my god!" Daizi exhaled, leaping up as she did without even thinking about it, "You are, really?! That's wonderful, oh I'm so happy! I would have been so proud of you if you had gone but I was really, really hoping you'd stay! Oh!" She sighed, holding the phone close, "You scared me, I thought something had happened. Is Jack okay with it?"
 
Sally giggled at Daizi's reaction. "I'm sorry, Daizi darling, I do hope you'll forgive my little prank. I could not help myself." She grew a little quieter then, and in a more sober tone said, "We are... working through it. We have some details to discuss, and a tiny part of my still worries that I've passed up on something amazing, but," she said, bolstering her tone, "regretting a decision will not get me anywhere, will it?"
 
"No, it won't," Daizi agreed, "and I'm sure you feel much lighter now that it's not hanging over your head, right? And, you know, you may not have passed on something amazing, you may have just taken the right turn to find it, right? Because who knows what other opportunities you might encounter now! What new jobs you might find, here. In my experience, employees who choose to stay get rewarded, and you may have opened the door to something better than you can imagine."
 
"Hmm, this is true, though I'm afraid I have pretty much climbed that ladder as high as it will go here," Sally admitted. "The whole reason we came here was because they needed someone of a higher experience, but... you may be right about the rest of it. You usually are." She let out a little sigh. "It is such a weight off, and a little saddening. I don't know why. Anyway, I do have one favor to ask. Will you please not tell the twins? Peter wants to announce it at school tomorrow to his friends."
 
"Still. You never know. Things change." Daizi sat back down and taking a deep breath to settle herself. "Anyway, sometimes it's not about professional growth. Emotional, relationship, it's all..." She trailed off, stretching, "I promise not to tell them. I wouldn't want to take that moment from Peter. And luckily Ivy hit a new milestone today, so if I seem unusually happy, they won't be suspicious. It's okay to feel a little sad about it, though. I can't tell you the number of times I felt something was the right choice but I still mourned the other option, for things either less serious or more obviously correct than this was. This was a situation where you would've been happy regardless, so of course you feel sad about the path you didn't take. But I think Robert Frost intended both roads to be the same road, so... Things will work out as they will, as they're meant to."
 
Sally chuckled softly. "Daizi, darling, how do you always know exactly the right things to say? Now, tell me, what milestone did my honorary niece hit and why did you not tell me sooner?" She had a teasing tone, knowing full well that Daizi had a few other people to alert before she came into things.
 
"It's because I foster my connection to the divine," Daizi said, and with her, with a comment like that, it was impossible to tell if she was joking or not, "and Ivy's started giving kisses. It's really sweet, and it's something that when you read the books and the articles, it's not really spoken about, so it was a nice surprise for us. I don't think it even occurred to the boys it's something she needed to learn to do. I would've told you earlier, but it happened right after Dark came home, and then we ate dinner, and then she ate dinner, and now Dark is working to lay her down for the night--hopefully the night, last night she woke up again--and you called just as I was relaxing for a little while."
 
"Oh, yes, the first kisses!" Sally laughed. "They are so sweet, and it is joyous to see them learning things like that, but they are not exactly pleasant, either. I will warn you, guard your nose! If she does not accidentally break it, she will attempt to eat it. I should let you go now, dear. I don't want to impede your relaxation, but I just had to tell you."
 
Daizi laughed, "I'll keep that in mind, but unfortunately, I won't be able to see where she's aiming! But I'll be sure to warn Dark. Or maybe I won't, I'm mad at him. Not really, but..." She shrugged, "Okay, bye Sally. I'm glad you told me, it's a weight off my mind too. I'm really, really glad you're staying."
 
"Good night, Daizi Darling! Give my love to your husband and that sweet little child," Sally said before hanging up. There were still details to be worked out, but the final decision had been made, and now she had to figure out how to live with it.
 
"I will," Daizi promised, and after hanging up, she held her phone to her chest and grinned. It still wouldn't be easy for her friend, but at least it was settled, and at least until Sally expressed regrets--if she ever did--Daizi would let herself be happy about her choice. It had seemed selfish, but she had really, really wanted her friend to stay.
 
The next day, the morning went as calmly as usual. Alec hung out under the bleachers in Milo's area, trying to stay quiet and unobtrusive so he wouldn't draw attention to the hiding space, but it was a perfect spot to do last-minute homework or review! The first few classes went well, too, and it wasn't long until lunch time rolled around. Alec got their first with his packed lunch but waited to open it until the others showed up. Tom and Becky stopped by, but they'd been invited to eat with the other theater club members. They asked Alec if he wanted to join them, and he considered but chose to decline with much gratitude that they'd thought to include him.

Peter didn't arrive until after Sloan, and he sat down with quiet gravitude.
 
"Did I know you had a cat? I don't think I knew you had a cat," Alec commented. "Beside the point." He looked at Peter nervously. "Did you're mom make a decision?"

"Yeah," Peter said grimly. He looked between them seriously. "We're staying here!" he suddenly cheered, throwing his hands up.
 
"I don't have a cat. That's how I know what it's like when someone is about to tell me my cat died." Sloan replied sardonically before focusing on what Peter was saying, first with concern and then excitement, "Oh my god, really?! That's great! What's even in Egypt besides the pyramids and some of the richest history of our early civilizations!?"
 
"Really bad food," Peter smirked.

Alec came around the table and wrapped his arms around Peter. "I'm so excited! That's just awesome! I mean, you would have had a ton of adventures and made a lot of new friends, but here is so much better!"

Peter laughed and hugged Alec back playfully. "I have enough friends with you lot. I gotta text Xander, too. I'd call him, but he hardly ever actually answers calls. Why is that?"

Alec shrugged. "Doesn't like them."

"Fair enough."
 
"I can't blame him, I hate phone calls too." Sloan said, grinning, "It's good you're staying. If you left, we'd need to find some other kid with an accent and those aren't easy to come by. Plus they'd need to find a new drummer, and if finding a kid with an accent is difficult, finding a drummer who doesn't spend all day drumming on every flat surface he has available to him is an impossibility."
 
Peter laughed as Alec finally let him go. "Not to mention no one wants to be a drummer. They're really hard to come by! They all want to be the lead singer or guitarist or play some weird forgotten instrument like the lagerphone or the rhombus."

"I have no idea what you just said, but I am so happy you and your accent are staying put!" Alec said happily.
 
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