How Green Becomes Wood

"That's a long time to go without seeing your folks. It's like boarding school," Peter remarked.

"You went to boarding school??" Alec asked, surprised.

Xander frowned at him. "Why would that surprise you?"

Alec shrugged. "It's never been mentioned before."

"Only for a couple of years," Peter said, waving it off. "My parents wanted to give it a try to see if that would work better than me traveling with them. It didn't click. Are you going to show your mom all the sights, Milo?"
 
"Yeah, probably. I showed her a lot at Christmas, but it's different now because it's warmer. It sucks that Spring Break isn't until next week, because I'm going to be in school most of when she's here, and I don't think she'll be able to stay for too long since she's a waitress." Milo said, settling down a bit, "By the way, she lives in New Mexico, not Arizona."
 
"I thought so," Xander said thoughtfully.

Alec made a face. "Sorry. I always get those mixed up."

"Are those two very different?" asked Peter, the non-American native in the group.
 
"No, they're right next to each other," Milo said, "They're just different states. It's like if someone lived in Leeds but someone said they lived in York." He paused, "Or an Australian example, which makes more sense by landmass, but I don't know how close different areas are."
 
"Yeah, in the desert," Milo nodded, "My mom has a cactus in her yard, it's really cool."

Elle poked her head back into the living room, "We were just about to order pizza, after we know what you'd all like, do you want to open gifts?"
 
"No way!" Peter grinned, truly impressed.

All three looked up when Elle walked in, and Alec and Peter immediately agreed to opening gifts while waiting for pizza was a great idea. Then came the arduous process of narrowing down what they wanted on their pizza. They finally agreed on extra cheese, sausage, and chicken. Peter got shouted down when he suggested anchovies seriously.
 
Milo really just wanted cheese, but since a second smaller only cheese pizza was ordered, he was content. When they all sat down, and his grandparents came out to watch, Elle requested Milo's camera so he could have the pictures he liked with himself in them.

"I don't know what present to start with," Milo said, feeling only a little awkward.
 
"Start with mine," Peter suggested. "It's not a particularly interesting gift."

His was a birthday card made by an indie company that looked like a work of art. It pictured two small hikers traveling up a rolling blue and green landscape with what looked like giant mushrooms. Inside had a British flag Peter had drawn in with the words, "King for the Day! Happy Birthday, Old Chap!" There were also two generous but reasonable gift cards; one to the photo development place Milo frequented, and the other for the online gaming store he liked.
 
Milo took some time looking over the card, enjoying the art, and then smiled shyly at Peter, "Thanks for this." He already knew what game he was hoping to get with the giftcard, and obviously the photography gift card would be used up quickly.
 
"Do mine next!" Alec encouraged.

His was dark brown leather (it might have been faux leather, he wasn't positive) planner pholio. One side held a bunch of tiny pockets for cards, paperclips, and a few pens or pencils. The pockets were empty, but Alec had procured a single very nice pen with Dark's help. The other side held a travel journal. The cover had images of a guitar, a camera, a campfire, a map, and a compass on a black background, and the inside was a carefully organized selections of pages where one could write down travel destinations, attach photos, make notes on the local culture and vocabulary, and even a bucket list. Underneath the pholio was a small book with the title, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking."

"I haven't actually read the book," Alec admitted to Milo when he looked at it, "but it had, like, thirty thousand positive reviews."
 
"Wow," Milo murmured, staring at the pholio and the pen, "Thank you. This is really cool. It, um, it matches the bag my mom bought me. Right?" He looked up at his mom, who felt so proud and relieved in that moment. Seeing him with his friends, who seemed to really care for him, made her so glad for her boy.
 
"I kind of went overboard, sorry. I just really like shopping for othe people," Alec said sheepishly. He didn't want to say it, but he also thought this was going to be the last gift he got to give, and he wanted it to be a good one. Hilariously, and independently, he and Xander had both come up with a similar idea. Xander had given him permission to go ahead and use it as he hadn't thought of getting a pen, and he thout it was a good idea.
 
"Xander's turn!" Alec grinned. "Unless he decided to forget to give it to you."

Xander gently shoved him over. Then he fetched his gift and slid it over, not looking at Milo as he did so.

Xander's gift was in a box, rather large, and quite weighty. Ten pounds, to be exact, as it was a weighted hoodie, light grey, and fuzzy. It seemed solidly built and quite comfortable. Laying on top of the neatly folded hoodie was a metal pin that read "My Social Battery" with a sliding indicator along a battery that went from red to dark green.
 
When Milo picked up the box, he stopped in surprise and looked at Xander, because the weight was unexpected. Then when he realized why it was so heavy, he smiled awkwardly at his friend, feeling pleased and just... known. "Thanks," he said, "I'm going to use this a lot. I need a good place for the pin, too."
 
"Yeah, it's cool, thank you," Milo told him, nearly going to pin the new pin onto his shirt but ultimately decided against it, setting it aside, "The hoody will be really great when I'm in the dark."
 
"Cool. Cool," Xander said, nodding awkwardly.

Awkward silence fell over two awkward people.

"You know," Peter said, breaking the silence, "I had a friend who had a weighted blanket. It was heavy! Their cat got under the blanket one day, and when it finally crawled out, it looked like it didn't know what century it was anymore. Its fur was sticking up every which way. It was great!"

"That's hilarious," Alec grinned. "Milo, what did Becky get you? And you said your pholio matches a bag?"
 
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