How Green Becomes Wood

"I've been driving the whole time you've known me and you've never worried about my safety," Sloan huffed, pretending like she was offended as she packed up her lunch, "There’s nothing I can do to convince any of you to go to the party with me?"
 
"Of course I worry about you!" Alec soothed. "But you're also more rational."

"Like daggers to the heart," Xander grumbled, putting away his phone.

Peter shook his head to Sloan's question. "I've been to a couple of parties, and I can say even the tame ones aren't really my scene."

"Nope," Xander said flatly.

Alec rubbed the back of his neck. "Well... I wish I could say yes, but it just doesn't sound like a good time to me." Plus, if Xander wasn't going, there was no way he was going by himself.
 
Sloan sighed, admittedly disappointed, but she wasn't going to argue with them if she had no hope of changing their minds. "Well, alright. I'll let you know if it's any fun. I hear he's got, like, a ping-pong table. I'm pretty good at ping-pong."
 
"I hope you have a really good time," Alec told her sincerely.

"Stay safe, and don't drink anything that doesn't come with a lid," Peter told her. "All it takes is one stupid punk and the whole party takes a wrong turn."

"But mostly have fun," Alec told her.

Xander eyed Peter. "What kind of parties did you go to?"

"I lived most my life in countries where the drinking age is lower than yours," Peter pointed out.

"Good point," Xander admitted.
 
"I appreciate the advice, Peter. I'd be lying if I said that sort of education hadn't been beat into me since I was small," She made herself smile a little to distract from the innate horror in teaching women from girlhood to not let their drink be spiked, "but it's always good to remember. I think it'll be fine though, you know? We're not living in some fan fiction or CW show."
 
"The last time I went to a party, some bloke dropped a handful of Ritalin in the punch bowl," Peter remarked as they headed out. "The good news is that three of the kids there learned that they had undiagnosed ADHD since they could think clearly for the first in their lives while everyone else was bugging out. Thankfully, I'd just left, so I didn't get any."

"I guess anyone can be in trouble from things like that," Alec said, making a face. "Anyway, see you later, Sloan!" He hurried off after Xander for their next class.
 
"God, that's ****ed." Sloan remarked, her jaw genuinely dropping for a moment, "Did they ever find out who did it? Because that's like... a crime. Like they could have killed someone, probably."
 
"It was one of those cases where everyone 'knew,'" he hooked his fingers into quotation marks, "who'd done it, but there wasn't a speck of proof. No one was seriously hurt, at least, but it created quite the buzz around school. After my parents heard about it, they pretty much banned me from going to any parties, not that they needed to. I didn't care much for it even before the the whole drug thing went down. I mean, spiking the punch with a bit of alcohol, that's one thing, at least most people can handle a bit of it, but drugs? That's a whole other level."
 
"The worst part about it," Sloan mused as she walked with Peter to class, "is how I can't even say, 'I can't imagine someone doing that,' because I absolutely can. High schoolers are absolutely deranged. Does it ever--" She paused, nearly asking Peter if it ever bothered him how much his parents seemed to have banned him from doing, because it drove her insane how limiting hers were, but she stopped herself. They nearly argued over wealth, she doubted it would go well for her to ask about how he liked his parents' rules, and she knew from what she had heard it would've driven her insane, and it wasn't worth it, "ever occur to them, do you think, that life isn't all about making stupid choices?"
 
Peter glanced at Sloan, somewhat amused as he guessed that wasn't what she originally meant to ask him. He had a vague idea what the original question might have been, but he wasn't going to go there if Sloan didn't want to. "I think it's about half and half, you know? You learn best from mistakes. Optimally, we make our worst mistakes when our parents can help us out, but it doesn't always work out that way."
 
"I feel like getting a speeding ticket is a mistake. Spiking punch with ADHD medicine is a little something else," Sloan joked lightly, "I know the intention wasn't to harm, it was to have a wild night, but still. Anyway, not everyone has parents who would help them out of a mistake. Some parents will just ship you off so you aren't their problem anymore, at best." She adjusted her bag, "I'll see you later."
 
"Yeah, it was a dick move, no mistake there. I thought you meant in general." Peter smiled at Sloan. "Good thing our family is more than just blood relatives, right? Catch you later!" He gave her a wave and headed off.
 
Sloan waved and headed to class. If she was honest with herself, she didn't really anticipate this party to be as much fun as she was pretending she did, but it just seemed, somehow, like... the thing to do. Just a stupid, brain-dead party. Mostly harmless, uncomplicated. And, since the party was Friday night and her meet was Sunday, she didn't have to worry about if it would throw her off at the competition. It was just a normal thing, for normal teenagers, and what was the harm? Even if none of her other friends wanted to go?
 
The rest of the school day went well, and as it ended, Xander hung back while Alec chatted with a couple of his friends from the drama club. He stayed where Alec could see him and he could see Alec in case anything happened, but it gave space for Milo to pop up out of nowhere as was his habit. If Milo didn't show, they'd catch the bus and be on their way.
 
"Before it begins to rain every day. April." He adjusted his bag, squinting up at the sky to try to gauge the clouds, "Does she? That's cool. I thought she looked like she could be a gymnast. If I had to guess she was in a sport."
 
"We'll all be going out for pizza or something afterward," Xander remarked. "You can come if you want. There's going to be a lot of waiting around, and I expect to hate most of it, but gymnasts are pretty cool with what they can do." He shrugged. "Might be too boring, but if you want to see a bunch of cool tricks and get free food... might even be able to give you a ride if your grands are busy."
 
"Oh. Cool. Um. I'll ask. I don't know if she'd want me there, though, you know? Because she doesn't really... know... me." He shifted his gaze to his feet once more,, "I'd like to take pictures, though. Not in... a weird way. But there's a lot of motion, and it is impressive. And quick."
 
"She wouldn't care," Xander assured him. "She's cool like that. Good with pretty much everyone. I bet it would be a great place to get good pics, and you wouldn't have to stay the whole time if you didn't want to or didn't have the time, or you could come later just for the food. It sounds like it's pretty chill with a lot of people coming and going like that. But if you don't want to, or you got other plans that's cool. Just thought I'd ask."
 
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