How Green Becomes Wood

"Just make sure the audio book is the same edition as your physical one and it'll be really easy to pull off. You really only do school well if you can study in the way that helps you learn, so it's okay to break the rules to make that work for you." Sloan said, "It's not cheating, you're not watching the movie."
 
Becky gave a little squeal and would have hugged Sloan except there was a table between them. "You're so awesome! Such a genius!"

"Sloan saves the day again!" Alec said cheerfully.

"Yep. By thinking," Xander said quietly, a bit exasperated by Becky.
 
"Absolutely right!" Becky chirped. She glanced at the clock. "I should get going. My next class is all the way across the school."

"Mine, too," Peter said, quickly downing the last of his drink.
 
"Do you know my freshman year, passing periods were two minutes shorter?" Sloan asked, packing up what was left of her lunch, "Imagine how much it sucked to get to the other end of the school before they increased it."
 
"Oh, man, nooooo thank you!" Becky groaned. She cleaned up her area and stood. "See you around!" She set off at a fast clip toward the trashcans and then out the door.

"I wish I had her energy," Alec said enviously as he cleared off his area.

Xander stared at him. "Please tell me that was a joke."
 
"I'm literally an athlete and I don't run everywhere," Sloan commented, staring dumbfounded after Becky, "but I guess because I'm an athlete I also had to learn to conserve energy and all of that. Anyway, I'll catch the two of you later, okay?"
 
"Bye! Have an excellent rest of your day!" Alec cheered, waving after Sloan.

Xander stood with Alec and headed out. "If you had any more energy, you'd be in the running for the next energizer bunny."

Alec stuck his tongue out. "You're just jealous because you can't keep up."

Xander snorted and then admitted, "Maybe." He glanced around. Another lunch, another no-show from Milo. He should be used to it, but he'd been looking forward to sharing lunch and not just fast snippets between classes. Oh well.
 
For his part, it often felt too overwhelming to sit in the cafeteria amongst all those people, and although he tried to occasionally force himself to eat lunch with them, like he did the day before, it wasn't easy for him. Eating alone didn't feel great, especially not while he was hunkered down beneath the stairs or hiding in his favourite janitor closet, but it's not like he could ask only some people to join him away from all of the rest of their friends. He saw how Alec was with his friends, and he knew the twins may be the red sea, but he wasn't Moses. There was a lot he could force himself to do, but sitting amongst so many people who were, essentially, strangers... it was a hard, hard ask.
 
The twins headed to their next class, and Xander made sure to leave Milo his usual spot open. To their surprise and confusion, the large footballer wandered back and sat himself down on Alec's other side again. The twins shared a confused look but settled down to wait for Milo and the class to start. Alec considered speaking with the footballer, but he couldn't quite bring himself to.
 
When Milo walked in and he spotted the footballer, he furrowed his eyebrows slightly and then slowly made his way to his usual seat. This was definitely weird, if this morning wasn't, because now it was a pattern. Did this kid just... decide that since he got into a fist fight over saying you shouldn't make fun of someone for having a dead parent, he couldn't be friends with the football players anymore, now he had to he friends with the kids he defended?

Blinking, this thought nagged at him a bit. If it was true, it was really sad. And kind of... relatable? It wasn't something he would ever do or think, personally, but... he could understand why someone would.
 
Xander quietly handed Milo another stress ball, this one in the shape of a mariachi player, but he was keeping one eye on the footballer. The guy had barely glanced at Milo when Milo passed him and seemed determined to keep his gaze fully focused on the table in front of him. He didn't really take note through class, just doodled a little on the desk itself, but otherwise wasn't a bother at all. When it was time to leave, he stood up, grabbed his backpack, and headed off without a word.

"This is... unusual," Alec said slowly, watching him go.

"Leave him be," Xander warned him. "I bet he's just proving a point to his buddies or something. He won't be around long."

"So pessemistic," Alec sighed.
 
Milo stared down at this particular stress ball, trying to figure out for what reason Xander had acquired one of this highly specific shape. Bizarre. But somehow less strange than the stranger.

"I was wondering if maybe... I don't know. If standing up for you and getting into that fight cost him his other friends, and he doesn't know where to go now." Milo theorized, frowning, "and if you don't know where to go, sitting with the people he lost his friends defending seems decent enough."
 
"That's not a bad theory," Alec said quietly as he stood to go.

Xander grunted as he stood as well. "Somehow, I doubt he wants to be friends after one random fight, but I guess maybe he might not be on speaking terms with his buddies. That'll change when they decide to mess with someone again."

"We could always offer him friendship and maybe dissuade him from returning to his bullying ways," Alec suggested.
 
"It's not necessarily I think he wants to be our friends now," Milo replied as he walked with them, "but where else is he going to sit? If he wants to prove he is sticking by what he said, rather than sitting alone... Or if he's too stubborn to make up with his friends just yet, it's useful symbology of that."
 
"I think Milo's right," Alec said.

"I remain unconvinced, but we'll see how it goes," Xander said suspiciously.

Alec waited a couple of steps before saying, "You know... we could just... talk to him?"

"Now you're speaking crazy," Xander said bluntly. "Right, Stitch?"
 
"I don't... really..." Milo mumbled, looking down at his feet, "He's not sitting next to me. I don't think I'm really involved. Really you should check if he's sitting with you when I'm not here, because I don't think it's relevant to me. He didn't speak up when I was being messed with, you know." He rubbed the back of his neck, "It's, you know, a thing."
 
Xander sighed and reached out to give Milo's shirt a gentle, quick tug. "Relax, Stitch. It's okay. You can tell Alec he's crazy."

"Hey!" Alec blurted.

"Or me, if you want. It's cool," Xander went on without pausing. "As far as I'm concerned, no one's asking anyone anything."

Alec rolled his eyes. "You are the worst at friendships. Speaking to Xander, Milo, not you."

"I got the friends I want. I don't need anymore," Xander stated.
 
"No one's asking you too," Xander said patiently. "Alec would be the one to do it. I was just talking about the idea."

"True, I would totally be the one to do it," Alec agreed. "Don't worry about it, Milo! It was just a thought process." He smiled at Milo. "I like talking to people at least a little bit more than either of you two do, so I don't mind doing all the talking if there's any talking to be done."

"We noticed," Xander said dryly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top