How Green Becomes Wood

"I dunno. Haven't really thought much about it." He replied, "I'll probably just have whatever my grandparents decide to get. It's not for a little bit, anyway." As he said this, his grandfather pulled up in the mini van, "I'll see you at school, okay?"

"Are you excited to open our family presents at home?" Daizi asked while they all headed to the car.
 
"Text me when you get home," Xander said. He lifted his hand in a wave, and then sighed and shook his head. That boy. He turned and headed toward where his family was getting into their car.

Alec's eyes lit up. "I'd forgotten! Oh, my goodness, the awesome doesn't end!"
 
"I will," Milo promised, waving and getting into his grandparents' car.

"Cooger said he'll meet us there," Daizi said, looking forward in the car to hide her excitement about it, "He wants to see you on your birthday."
 
"Really? That's cool of him!" Alec grinned. "I'll bet he got Xander a hatchet for a gift."

"As long as he doesn't get you a hatchet," Xander grumbled, settling back to enjoy the quiet, non-peopley car ride back.
 
By the time they made it home, Ivy had woken up from her nap. Because her schedule had been so thrown out of wack, she was a bit fussy, but not to an unmanageable degree.

Stretching as he stepped out of the car, Dark said, "We can wait to bring everything in, I think your sister is desperate to get home and I am sure your uncle is impatient since he beat us here."
 
"Really?" Alec asked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

Xander nudged him before getting out of the car. "Don't complain. Just enjoy! Besides, the Mini needs inside."

"True," Alec agreed, hopping out of the car. "Do you need me to carry the diaper bag?"
 
"Sure," Dark replied, headed to the trunk for the cake, "If you would like to. We should probably also bring in the leftover food too, but other than that, nothing will go bad if we leave it for the time being."
 
Alec got the diaper bag, and Xander helped with the cake, carrying everything inside. They kicked off their shoes and touched the salt, looking around for Cooger and Enkidu.
 
Cooger went right up to the front door with a huge grin, "Hey, happy birthday! How's it feel to be 17?"

Enkidu came up happily, wagging his tail and trying to sniff after the food that was brought in.
 
"Awesome! I feel very grown up," Alec grinned. "Like I'm one year away from being a mostly adult!"

Xander snickered and leaned over to give Enkidu a good scratching, keeping the cake out of reach. "Feels like a lot of responsibility, being seventeen."
 
"Yes we are!" Alec cheered. "And you gotta see what Austin gave us." He dug around his pockets. "Oh, right, I left it out in the car. I'll show you later."

"I think we should start with Aunt Ciara's," Xander said. "Since she's not here."
 
"Who is Austin?" Cooger asked, taking Ivy from Daizi and letting her snuggle in. Meanwhile, Daizi went to sit on the couch so everyone else would settle in. Dark went to move the twins' presents into the living room. There was one bag, one typical sized wrapped box, and one larger wrapped box.
 
"He's a kid from our class," Alec said, following Daizi's lead and sitting down. "We don't know him well, but he's sat next to us for most of the year, so we thought we'd invite him."

"He was a real punk when he first came," Xander said, sitting next to Alec. "Tried to fit in with the footballers and gave Wheels a hard time. Stitch, too."

"Toby and Milo," Alec translated for Cooger.
 
The twins both snickered, but let it go.

"Anyway, Austin's been cool after a rough start, and he got us both a really cool gift," Alec said.

"Speaking of gifts, let's get this show on the road," Xander said, nudging Alec.

"Right! Where's Aunt Ciara's gift?"
 
"Oh, right!" Alec got up and ran upstairs. He soon returned with the crisply wrapped boxes and handed Xander's to him. The pair pulled off the wrapping at the same time and found two similar boxes. Alec's held an astronomical ring dial, and Xander's was a Nocturnal dial, or Nocturlab. The astronomical ring dial was a 17th-century spherical sundial, and the nocturlab was from the16th-century. Both hung from a little stand and were used in different ways to tell the time.

"Wow, these are really cool!" Alec said, reading the information available on the side of the box. "A really, really old clock!"

"I wonder if it actually works for real," Xander mused. "Might have to go outside after dark to find out on mine."
 
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