How Green Becomes Wood

"Yeah, a park is good. That's no problem. There's, um, a pretty good one not too far from here. We can go there." He shrugged, nearly suggesting they go to his house, but immediately beginning to sweat at the thought of bringing someone over without giving his grandparents notice.
 
"Cool. Cool. We'll meet there, then," Austin agreed. He asked Milo to explain where the park was, confirmed he knew where it was, and hastily scribbled down the directions on his hand before going to make the arduous journey to his usual seat without pushing oo many of the desks around.

Xander, still grumbling quietly, came up next and barely gave Milo a nod before steaming back to his desk. Alec followed in his wake, panting a little as he tried to keep up.
 
Xander very deliberately did not throw his books onto his desk. He placed them there carefully. "My science partner ditched me. I gotta finish up half of the project on my own."

"Oh no. I can help," Alec offered immediately.

Xander shook his head. "Nah, I'm good. I can get it done. I'm just mad."
 
"That sucks," Milo said, frowning, "You should tell the teacher, so she knows. Some teachers, um, they uh have students fill out a form at the end of the project where you explain what everyone in the project did, and then compare them, so they know who actually helped."
 
"Okay," Milo replied, looking down at his notebook, "I hope you get it sorted, though. Sucks when a group member doesn't help. But I've left a lotta people hanging 'cause I moved partway through."
 
"Not like that was your fault," Xander huffed. "This... this is his lazy ass' fault."

"I doubt it has anything to do with his butt," Alec said mildly, earning a glare.

The class started, stemming any further conversations about projects or butts.
 
Milo let it go, smiling a little bit at his friends' conversations. It was nice to hear them chat like that, even when he didn't engage with it himself. It made him feel like he was part of something, even if he was totally on the periphery of it.
 
Class went by in the blink of an eye. Alec spotted Claire at one point while walking between classes and gave her a vigorous wave before they were parted once more. When it was time for lunch, Alec separated to work with Emma for a while. They were very nearly done with their project and only needed a little bit of time to put on the polishing pieces. Xander ate with one hand and worked with the other as he tried to catch up on everything that needed to be done, but halfway through, he gave up, tired of staring at it, and went to join Milo under the bleachers for some quiet time. Then it was back to class.

After school, Alec went to join Emma, feeling very strange not going with Xander. In fact, when it came time, he almost chickened out. This was so weird! But he gritted his teeth, told himself he couldn't always rely on Xander, and forced himself to go be friendly.

"Do you need a ride?" Xander asked Milo, feeling oddly uncomfortable without Alec now that he wasn't actively angry with him.
 
"I was, um, just gonna go to the park," Milo replied, gesturing even though the park wasn't even a little bit in sight, "I gotta work on my project." He pulled at his sleeve, "I don't want to. But I have to. I don't know, um, you know, how to talk to. Most people."
 
"Just focus on the project," Xander told him. "As long as you're talking about the project, then you can say whatever needs to be said. You'll have a topic. When you're done, if they try to keep talking, say you gotta go or you might get into trouble. No sweat."
 
Milo nodded, sticking his hands deep in his pockets, "I guess so. Yeah. I mean, I don't really have a choice, you know? I care about doing well on it, so." He shrugged, "I should probably go. Don't want to hold him up."
 
"Text me if you need anything," Xander said. He checked his watch. "I guess I can get to therapy early today. Today I'm just working, not directly therapizing, so I can show up a little earlier." He headed out. "Later."
 
"See you tomorrow." Xander headed off to his therapy session. They'd cut back to the actually therapy session being a little longer but only every other week. The off weeks, he still went in to work with the horses, which was a kind of therapy by itself. Human free therapy. (Except for the humans making certain he didn't hurt himself or the horse.) It was a peaceful time, usually, unless the horse had a bee in its bonnet. Then it was at least distracting!

~~

Alec took off his shoes as he entered Emma's house, looking around in awe. It was like something right out of the early two-thousands! Not necessarily in a terrible way, just in a very bizarre, going-back-in-time way. Emma's mom offered them a snack and indicated the kitchen table where they were to work on their project. He settled in, curious about this family, but trying not to be too nosey. It turned out, it did not take much effort to learn that Emma was an only child, a straight-A student, in Honors, and while her parents were both still alive and married to each other, her father traveled a lot, and her mother had gone to work in real estate after Emma had started high school. Emma was also going to be getting her driver's license this year, which was something she was highly excited about. Her favorite color was orange, her mother loved when she brought friends over but was highly suspicious of boys, and they went out for pizza every other week, which was how they'd come across Alec's band.

"By the way," Emma commented as she carefully glued a factoid bubble onto the poster they were making to present their teacher (not a requirement, but something they agreed would be visually appealing), "why do you wear such colorful pants?"

"I like them?" Alec more asked than said as he drew an outline onto another factoid bubble. "I love bright colors."

"Bright colors are the best! But I don't know if they work for you for pants," Emma remarked. "I mean, I'm not a fashionista, and you should do what makes you happy, but brown, blue, and black pants with a dashing top would look so good on you!"

Alec glanced down at his dark green pants with thin vertical lines of yellow. He thought it went well with the brown shirt he was wearing. "I guess I hadn't thought about it, but I don't suppose it would hurt to try," he agreed.

Emma smiled. "I love your color matching! I just think there's too much awesomeness to see at once."

Alec laughed, and their conversation turned back to the project.

~~

Austin was waiting patiently in the park, using pebbles to weigh down the papers he has spread out across the picnic table. He was in no hurry, and he had everything needed for him and Milo to unite their projects.
 
Milo cycled to the park but once he got there, he walked his bike up the rest of the way to where Austin was, leaving his bike propped against a tree, "hey," He mumbled, sitting down across from Austin and setting his bag down.
 
"Oh, hey," Austin said, glancing up at him. "Ready to get this over with?" He pointed out a couple of the parts he was supposed to be working on. "I need a little bit more on those two things, but I'll have them done tonight. Everything else I got done."
 
"Yeah," Milo agreed, taking out his part and showing what he had done. There was still a bit more he needed to do, too, but he was also in good shape, "I think we should've been given more time, but. I don't know. I guess it's okay. We'll have it ready."
 
"Yeah, we got it," Austin said encouragingly. "We just gotta put this together, and tomorrow morning, we'll add the bits we needed to finish. Easy." He started doing just that, his large fingers clumsy but dedicated.
 
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