How Green Becomes Wood

With the thumbs up acquired, Milo sat back, pulling lightly on his sleeves, but not bothered anymore. At least, not by that. Sloan and Alec where chatting, he was in a crowd, things could only be so comfortable. But soon enough the bell rang, so he hurried up with his bag, ready to get to where he needed to be as quickly as possible.
 
Xander muttered a goodbye to Milo and led the way to class with Alec right behind him. They had a decent day going from class to class, going to many of them with Peter. There was nothing special about the day, but it was a good day.

Finally, it was lunchtime.
 
Peter groaned and waved his piece of string cheese around. "By hand! My hand cramped so bad, but the good news is that It actually didn't take me as long as doing all the research for the paper."

Xander and Alec sat side by side, and Alec looked for Milo, intending to wave him over to join them.
 
"I'm so jealous of the people who went to school before AI. It was harder to cheat, but they didn't have to prove a robot did it," Sloan sighed, resting her chin on her hand, "Does your dad ever complain about grading AI?'
 
"Not that he's mentioned," Alec said. "Although, if AI could do something really awesome, it'd be great if it really could safely pilot a car. Even if it was just a few cars."

Peter glanced up from his spaghetti. "Why's that?"

"Because our mum is struggling a bit with not being able to leave the house on her own," Xander said.

Peter frowned and glanced at Sloan. "Doesn't this town have public transit and taxis? Or ride share things?"
 
She shrugged, "We have buses, but their routes aren't really that great. You have to walk a bit from our neighborhood to get to the nearest stop. We do have taxis and stuff, but I don't have an answer about why she isn't using them. It can get kind of expensive, I know."
 
"Because sometimes the drivers are a******* when they think they can get away with it," Xander grumbled.

Alec told them an abbreviated version of Daizi's story, and Peter scowled. "On top of the obvious scummery, that is so illegal!"
 
"Damn," Sloan said, furrowing her brows, "that sucks so hard. And it's so stupid we don't have a better system. People always say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but then still refuse to really make sure, you know, everyday life is accessible for disabled people."
 
"That's because society as a whole isn't a chain. It's a pile of shorter chains and loose links," Xander said dryly.

"I suppose having a baby with you doesn't really help," Peter mused. "I wonder if there's a way to add in a thing..." He frowned, toying with his fork. "But then again, I don't know how car seats really work... and there's others... I guess that may be... If you just..." He stared off into space, still waving his fork lightly as if making designs.

Alec and Xander exchanged confused looks before Alec tentatively asked, "Uh, Peter? You okay?"
 
"I mean, yeah, but it leaves people so trapped. I bet there are people like her who are in, like, an abusive relationship, and how can they leave?" Sloan asked, frowning, but then looked at Peter with growing concern, "Uh, dude? You alright, man?"
 
"Huh?" Peter blinked. "Yeah, fine, I just had a thought." He zipped up his lunch box. "I need to step away for a bit. I'll see you at class, okay?"

"Okay?" Alec frowned as Peter already strode off. "Bye?" He looked at Sloan. "Today's theme is strange conversations!"
 
Sloan stared after Peter and then looked at the twins confused, "I swear I thought he was having a seizure or something. I thought we were about to have to scramble to get the nurse and the biggest ice pack she had." She gestured, "Not that he left in a way that was any more comforting."
 
"Eh, he's probably fine," Xander shrugged, eating his apple slices. "He didn't look troubled, just distracted."

"Hmm, I am inclined to agree, but it was still weird," Alec nodded.

"We have class with him. We'll keep an eye on him," Xander assured her.
 
"I haven't had a breakdown!" Alec protested. When Xander looked at him, he amended, "For a while. Oh, look at the time, yes, the bell is going to ring at any second now. Yes, we should be going now."

Xander snickered as Alec cleaned up his place. "Don't worry. It'll be fine. Catch you later?"
 
"Yeah, I'll see you. And I did say we were taking turns, not that it's all happening at once." She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked with them as long as she could before she had to leave to go to her own class. It wasn't something she was going to express, but it still bothered her the twins saw her upset like they had only a few days ago. She was supposed to be stable. It wasn't comfortable for her having lost that status, but talking about it only made it worse.
 
"Good, 'cause I'll have something to show you later," Xander told her.

Alec forced himself not to flinch. They'd talk about this later. Instead, he just smiled at Sloan and patted her arm. "Don't worry. Someone will have a bad day here soon, I'm sure of it, and then you'll be able to breathe easy because then we'll have a few days of peace! That's the pattern, right?" He waved to Sloan and followed Xander into their classroom.
 
"I don't want anyone to have a bad day," Sloan replied, frowning, "I think most friend groups don't cycle through tragedy. I just don't get it."

She sighed, going her own way to class, knowing they didn't understand and feeling selfish. Their entire friendship she had felt capable to step in where there was a problem, but lately she had just been feeling way, way too tired.
 
Alec noticed Sloan's discouragement as they parted ways, but he had nothing he could do about it at the moment. Curse schools and their bell-enforced schedules! He turned his attention to his work, hoping that later he could try to do something to cheer her up. If nothing else, though, he knew of a surprise just waiting for the weekend!

The rest of the day went well for them, and when they saw Peter next, he was his usual chipper self. He seemed alright, so they didn't pry. Whatever he had been going through at lunch, he seemed past it and not eager to share. They could respect that.

Finally, the day began drawing to a close.
 
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