How Green Becomes Wood

"No no, you both can come. It's okay. I mean, it's a small apartment but not that small. I just don't know when you're available," and he didn't think he'd get this far, mostly still believing that he was never anything other than a pity invite or a recent obligation, "I guess. I don't know. Friday after school? Maybe? You don't have to stay long."
 
Alec glanced at Xander. "Friday should be good, right? We're supposed to perform on Saturday afternoon, but I can't think of anything on Friday."

"Friday's cool," Xander agreed. "We'll pass it by the folks, but, yeah, Friday should be clear."

Alec smiled at Milo. "Friday after school it is!"
 
"Oh, we never told you?" Alec grinned. He started to explain, and then he glanced at Xander and held back, hoping to get Xander to jump in.

After a pause, Xander realized Alec was waiting for him for some reason. "We're a band. Kind of. I play guitar. Sometimes backup vocals. The local pizzeria lets us play there some weekends."

"We don't get paid for it, but we do get to keep tips and get a discount on pizza," Alec confided. "Peter's our drummer. He's really good."
 
"That's really cool." Milo earnestly told them, then, after looking over his shoulders, turned and pretended like he was opening a locker until somebody passed. Then he hurried to catch back up with thw twins, "My dad used to play bass in a band. They were called, um. Egregious Peace. But that was their second name, they were first called Fat Lizard."
 
"We're called Driftwood!" Alec said cheerfully.

"Only because no one could come up with a better name," Xander grumbled.

Alec glanced at his brother's back before drawing closer to Milo. "You don't have to be nervous," he said softly. "I know it's easy to be, but if you're with Xander Cunningham, nothing will happen to you. Promise."
 
"Yeah but it's his first day back to school after being suspended, and he's not Captain America. He's more like The Punisher, and antiheroes fight, and I don't think the schoolboard would be thrilled to know he's back at it before the bell for first period rang." Milo responded, fiddling with his camera strap. "He's not secret service, either. At some point today, or this week, he won't be there." He looked over at Xander, "If you don't like the band name, why don't you change it?"
 
Alec started to say something and then bit it back. He wanted to tell Milo that it was okay to at least relax now, while Xander was here. Xander rarely started fights, but people had learned that win or lose, he wouldn't back down, and he punched hard. Especially now. Mostly idiots challenged him now. Why not take advantage of the tiny circle of protection while he could? But Milo was also right. Alec had no idea who the Punisher was, but he got the idea from connotation. Xander could not survive getting into trouble again, not on a school level. If anything, he appreciated that Milo didn't want to get Xander into trouble. Or for Xander to get into trouble on his behalf. So, he stayed quiet.

"Because all of my name ideas keep getting rejected," Xander complained. "It's two against one, and Peter can't come up with any better names, so we're stuck with it. You got any better names for a band?"
 
"I mean, what's your genre?" Milo asked, looking over at Xander, "It'd be pretty dumb to suggest something like, I dunno, 'Into the Red' or 'Quiet Cataclysm' if you were like... I don't know, staidum country? But I guess those names actually kinda work pretty well regardless, but if you're very pop, 'Vengeance and Satin' would be ridiculous."
 
"Oh, I like Vengeance and Satin!" Alec grinned.

Xander ignored him. "Alternative, I guess. We haven't really hit on a style of our own and mostly do cover songs. Alec is more pop, I'm rock, and Peter's jazz, so we kind of take turns. Well, not much by way of jazz. It's a heck of a lot harder to play than you'd expect. We mostly do rock and pop."
 
"I guess you gotta start working on fusion, then," Milo waved his hand, "a combination of those styles could be cool, if you've got the right people anyway. Sorta like Octopus Driver. Or Weather Report. I don't really know much about pop, because I'm... not..." He furrowed his eyebrows so hard he needed to readjust his eyebrows as he sought the proper word, "Marketable. And I don't understand things that... have a wide... appeal. But if you just add bright colours and a catchy chorus and put out a love song you'll be set."
 
Xander jerked his head back toward Alec. "I think we have the bright colors, no problem. Not sure about the rest of it."

"We do occasionally play love songs," Alec said cheerfully.
 
"I don't know enough about pop to offer any more help. The extent of my knowledge is a girl three or four schools ago who sat next to me in English. She was a huge Taylor Swift fan." Milo said, "but I don't like most love songs. Not most of them, anyway."
 
"We could always call our band Soda since we play pop," Alec said mischievously.

Xander aimed a punch in his vague direction and missed by an expected mile when he dodged with a giggle. "Come on. We need to actually get to class, you clown. And clown adjacent. We can talk music and bands after our prison sentences. I mean, classes."
 
"We're not required to go to class," Milo murmured, but then shook his head, "No, because you're on thin ice, and your dads--I mean, your, plural your not singular your, the dad you two share, works here. I skip sometimes, but it matters less for me. My grandparents can't exactly ground me when I don't go anywhere anyway. But I guess I'll go. I don't want to push the limit.'
 
"What's the point of going to school if you don't want to learn anything?" Alec asked curiously. "Math can help you get the angles for your shots right, history could give you jumping-off points for learning about photography, English could help you-"

"If you say English class will help him write captions for his photos, I'll know you're really reaching," Xander grumbled.

"Descriptions for your future self-owned photography business," Alec said primly.
 
"It's not that I don't want to learn, it's that I don't want to be here." Milo replied, "When you move like I do---Not all schools give the same information at the same time of year. I've read To Kill a Mockingbird three times in the past year. It's a good book, but I can only write an essay on it so many times. I've read it at literally half the high schools I've been to. What's the point in attending class when you learned the information last semester, in a different state? I show up for the tests, I submit my homework. If it's something new, I'll sit in."
 
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"Why do you have to move so much?" Alec blurted before he could stop himself.

"No time for that now," Xander frowned. "I have to be in this class whether I want to be or not." He glanced toward Milo. Even if he really did want to skip. School was boring. It was either too easy, too vague, or too boring to care. He could honestly get better grades than he was - even though his grades had risen since joining the Dark-Wahid household - but he just couldn't be bothered. At least he showed up and sat there. That was usually worth participation points.
 
Milo blinked at the question, and mumbled, "My mom--" but then the twins were heading off to class, and he wasn't going to try to stop them to reveal the stories of his past. It wasn't really easy to talk about anyway, especially not in the middle of a hallway. But it was, if the twins were perceptive enough to notice, only about the second time since they had met that he had mentioned his mother to them.

But they went to class, and he decided he may as well go to his. Play it safe.
 
While the twins were having their morning classes, Lex called Cooger to let him know that she'd gotten the bathroom ready for renovation. She was hoping he could stop by and give it another look to make sure she hadn't missed anything and then give her a ballpark pricing for what it would cost for him to help her put everything back together again. She was currently in the garage with the door open as she unwrapped several large pieces of metal from their plastic prisons.
 
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