How Green Becomes Wood

"Ugh, he was terrifying," Alec mumbled.

"I thought he was stupid, but, yeah, kind of weird," Xander shrugged. He didn't tell Milo that he purposefully had a few extras stashed away precisely so he could give them to Milo, who never seemed to have one. It seemed to help, so why not become a stress ball dealer?
 
"I watched it when I was pretty young. It really took me by surprise," Milo told them, not putting down the stressball until he actually had to start taking notes for class, and then he missed it.
 
Alec and Xander quietly murmured that, yes, that kind of movie would be freaky to someone young. Then they tried to focus on class. At least they weren't playing games or pointless questions again today, but their brains also didn't want to work.
 
Thankfully, the class was mostly lecture that day, so Milo was able to keep his head down and write notes, rather than struggle with being any sort of participant. School was much easier to deal with when he was able to only focus on the content.
 
The first couple of classes went by without much issue. Xander and Alec both kept their heads down and did not draw undue attention to themselves, but while Xander clearly didn't want to be there any more than Milo did, Alec did his best to appear engaged and interested even if the topic being covered was not particularly interesting.

History came next, and it was more lecture. The teacher had up a chart on the board showing the outline of what they were going to be covering over the course of the school year. Most likely, they would not be covering everything, but on the very slim chance that they had extra time, she had them write down suggestions for short topics to cover in less than a week. She passed around a basket and had them drop in their suggestions and set the basket in one of the cupboards for later. Then she went back to explaining the outline, which was unfairly weighted heavily on more modern and less ancient topics. American history by itself took up more than half of the timeline, and the Second World War was at least a quarter if not more of that. Alec grumbled unhappily about history not being very historic, but, thankfully, she didn't hear him.

Then they were released at last!
 
Milo, despite his disappointment in the structure of the course, kept his mouth shut until they had left the class and he felt fairly positive anything he said wouldn't be overheard. Then, with a look to his friends he commented, "Our syllabus doesn't say American History, does it? Because I was in that was last year."
 
"Nope, just history. But apparently the only history that matters is the nation of America, particularly after the civil war," Xander said dryly.

"Sometimes the civil war is talked about to say how far we've come, so, yay," Alec said, sounding almost as dry as Xander.

"I swear we go over the same stuff every single year," Xander groaned.
 
"Did your dad teach American history too?" Milo asked, having not taken him and therefore not knowing Dark primarily taught the world history course, only teaching the American history course if there wasn't another teacher available. In addition, he typically taught at least one elective history courses on more specific regions and time periods, none of which were focused in the United States. "The world is so old, I don't know how teachers manage to teach so little of it."
 
"Nope. He taught actual history," Xander said. "They teach so little because that's what the schools want them to teach, and even if they said they wanted to teach real history, hardly any of them actually know it because becoming a teacher is more about learning how to keep kids under control than the subject matter."

"I wish I could refute that, but it does seem to be the way," Alec shrugged. "Unless a teacher goes into teaching with a passion for their subject and at least some foundational knowledge, they generally don't know any more than what they teach the students. Which is a real shame because you could teach something so much better if you know more about it."
 
"I wonder if it depends on the school," Milo commented, thinking back on all of the places he had been, "I've met so many teachers. I miss... There are some schools I went to where the teachers were really, really on it. I wish I could've stayed there, you know? Or they could've come with. But I've also been to schools where it's basically just busy work all day. School is fun if you have the right people teaching you."
 
"Like most things," Alec agreed. He started to say something but then stopped. After a somewhat awkward moment, he said, "So! Lunch time! No teachers during lunch, which is nice. What did you bring for food?"
 
"Leftover Kabuli Pulao," Alec said happily. "It's a rice and chicken dish with a few other things. I heated it up in the microwave before we left, so it should still be reasonably warm in the lunchboxes. I like making us lunches. It's the only time I'm allowed unsupervised in the kitchen."

"Even that's been debatable sometimes," Xander told Milo.

Alec stuck his tongue out at Xander and led the way to their normal table. Peter hadn't arrived yet, but Tom was there sitting on the far end and reading a book.
 
"What is kabuli paolo?" Milo asked, mispronouncing it accidentally, "I wish there were microwaves we had access too. Some schools have that. But some schools also have kids sticking metal in them just to see what will happen."
 
"You'd be that kid," Alec told Xander.

"I'm cooler than that," Xander said, a touch of sharpness in his tone.

Alec ignored him and told Milo, "It's a rice dish that I think is originally from Afghan, maybe, with rice boiled in this really great broth, and then you have carrot sticks, chicken, and some other stuff. It's like a punch of flavor. You want to try some?"
 
"Oh. Um. No thank you." Milo replied, rubbing the back of his neck, "It sounds good, and all, I just don't know, you know, if it's for me. I don't really like my foods to... punch. You know?"
 
"It does take some getting used to. We used to be mac-and-cheese conosiers and not much else," Alec assured him. "If you ever do want a bite, I'm more than happy to share!"

Xander glanced around, wondering where everyone else was that normally sat at their table.
 
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