Xander glanced at Milo and frowned slightly. He understood Milo's gesture, but he was also strangely confused by it. Yes, he absolutely would stand in Milo's place or at his back, whichever he chose, but why did Milo trust him like that when Milo didn't seem to even like him that much? At least, not enough to rank him over birds? He decided to brush it away and focused on the lesson. He was probably overthinking it or underrating Milo's love of birds.
Alec saw the nod and stared at Milo for a hair longer than he normally would before forcing himself to look away. Right. He had Xander. He could rely on Xander for his help, even if he didn't hold Xander in esteem over birds. Over anything. Right now, Xander was probably the most reliable person in his life who wouldn't tell him what to do or boss him around, and it seemed like he would depend on Xander, but only when he wanted to. Only when he needed something. Milo barely even talked to them without someone else starting the conversation! Xander was the one putting all the work into this relationship, and Milo was barely giving back. How was that fair? Yes, yes, Milo had problems and anxiety and all the rest of it, and Alec did recognize that it was hard, but this hard? Holding back this much? Contributing this little? It just didn't seem fair.
The history lesson covered another large section of history including one culture, the Hittites, that historians and archeologists had thought were made up myths and stories until someone discovered hard evidence of their existence. That was pretty cool, but Alec couldn't focus. He wanted his brain to shut up! It was being so negative! And a small part of himself wanted to give up and let it. His shoulder bothered him even with the pain meds, the lights were bright, he was tired, and everything bothered him. No, he couldn't focus on that. He had to let it go. Deep breaths, calming thoughts, let it go. Let it go. Think about the good things. Like how Milo had at least come to them today. Like how if asked he often said yes to things. Like coming over for the weekend, or for a day of the weekend. That was good!
Class ended, and Alec loitered behind as he had to face another negative thing: correcting a teacher. He waited until there were only a couple of other kids filing out before he approached the teacher. "Ma'am? Sorry, um, I think there's been a mistake on one of the posters."
"Oh? I'm sure a couple of them do have mistakes, and I did mark those," the teacher said, distracted as she shuffled some papers on her desk.
"Well, it's the one about the war in Iraq," Alec pushed on. "I didn't notice any corrections."
She glanced toward the poster. "Oh, that one. There's nothing wrong with that one."
"The numbers, they aren't the correct numbers with war casualties," Alec told her. "According to my father, who was-"
"Alec," she said, straightening, "I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but parents sometimes get things wrong. Yes, even teachers do, but in this, I am correct. Those are the official numbers presented by the US government. Those are the correct ones to see on that poster."
Xander stepped forward now. "There were corrections later," he protested. "Those corrections were also posted by the government."
"That is enough," she said, still calm and perfectly polite but firm. "I have personally checked those numbers, and I am very familiar with all of the turmoil in that part of the world. I am satisfied with my findings, and the poster is fine as it is. If this is an attempt to sabotage another student, I am afraid you have failed."
"Being satisfied doesn't mean you found the right source!" Xander protested.
She picked up a sheaf of paper and gently tapped it into order. "Grades are in, and everything is finalized. If you will excuse me, the next class will be here in just a minute," she said firmly.
Xander started to say more, but Alec caught his sleeve and pulled. "Thank you for your time, ma'am," he said and guided Xander out.
"Seriously? I am satisfied with my findings?" Xander protested.
"Maybe she didn't realize the numbers had been updated. There's a lot to keep up with these days, after all," Alec suggested. "I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it, and we did our job of suggesting that something is wrong. That's all we can do."
