How Green Becomes Wood

"Nothing too fancy," Claire replied, "I try new combinations, but I haven't been working on many completely new skills."

"It's more fun in a group," Sloan replied, glancing again at Alec and Claire, but nonetheless got down and tucked herself up, "If you step on my hair I'm skinning you."
 
"Can I see it?" Alec asked. "Unless you don't want to, of course. Or if it's like asking you to work on your vacation. I wouldn't want to do that! But if you'd like to show me something, I'd love to see it. Only if you want to, though."

"They'll see us and come join, I bet," Xander said. He bounced a little to warm up and then started getting into the serious jumps. He wasn't too familiar with how it worked, so, at first, he didn't try to fling her too high. He experimented with where to jump and how to get the best results rather than immediately jumping as hard as he could.
 
"Oh, uh, I would show you," Claire said, rubbing her arm a bit shyly, "but I'm working on new vault routines, that's my favourite event. There's just not a vaulting table here."

Sloan stayed curled up, holding herself in tight. So far, it was pretty easy to stop herself from flailing her limbs outward, and she had a lot of experience in this game.
 
"Is that the one where you run and spring off one of those springboard things?" Alec asked, miming what he meant and bouncing along the trampoline as he did so.

Xander took his time, getting used to the feeling and seeing how things worked. Then, once he was comfortable, he timed everything properly and gave Sloan and massive jump, sending her higher in the air than she'd gone yet.
 
"Yeah, I think it's really fun. You really have to get the timing right, and if you get it right, it looks like you barely touched the table at all." Claire said, looking over her shoulder and finally noticing Sloan and Xander.

Sloan nearly vocalized at the massive jump, but she squeezed herself tighter in. She wouldn't be popped that easily!
 
"Oh, that's really cool. I can see why it's your favorite," Alec said admiringly. He followed Claire's gaze. "What are they doing?"

Xander had to work hard to keep his timing right, but he managed to keep Sloan bouncing higher and higher until he worried it was too high and he'd end up hurting her.
 
"It's Sloan's least favourite event, actually, but I like the bars least. That's why we work so well together, we're never competing against each other, really." Claire explained, then after watching Sloan be bounced up into the air, unable to fully resist shrieking but still valiantly refusing to 'pop', said, "I think they're playing Popcorn."
 
"It's where one person lays down all curled up, and everyone else jumps until they end up flailing their limbs and 'pop.'" She paused for a moment, turning her head, "Or maybe the rules are that everyone except one person are popcorn kernels and whenever one pops, they start jumping to try and get the last kernel to pop. The last unpopped person wins."
 
Three people bouncing her was enough to make Sloan shriek embarrassingly and stick her arms and legs out to stabilize herself. Then, sitting up properly, she looked up at the three of them, "I bet you're all so proud of yourselves now."

"Yep!" Claire chirped.
 
"I'll go!" Alec said and immediately regretted it. He didn't back out, though, flopping down and rolling himself into a ball. "Please start gentle. I've never done this before."

"Fine, but only to start," Xander warned.
 
"The microwave has to heat up!" Claire grinned, beginning to bounce gently. Sloan stood back, planning to join in the jumping, but since Alec requested they started gently, she didn't want to start with three of them trying to pop him.
 
Xander bounced on Alec's other side, matching Claire's energy with the bouncing. He let Alec get nice and used to the gentle bouncing before he even started upping the intensity. Alec took it well, still gripping his legs tightly, but he couldn't help little squeaks of alarm whenever he felt like he was about to roll out of control.
 
As Alec seemed to adjust, Sloan hopped onto the mat. Just her added weight automatically increased the intensity. Once he seemed to adjust to her presence, then, both she and Claire started doing bigger, stronger jumps.
 
It didn't take Alec long to "pop." Xander wasn't even trying to go too hard, but when one of his jumps sent Alec half rolling toward Sloan, Alec popped open and flailed around until he found the mat.

"I think your record is safe, Sloan!" he groaned, half wheezing, half laughing. "If we were keeping records. That's really hard!"
 
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