How Green Becomes Wood

"Yeah, it began this winter sometime. There's a neighborhood email chain and so we were all alerted to it, so people didn't freak out seeing two teens they had never seen before in the neighborhood," She thought about it for a few minutes, and then said, "I think a lot of kids at this school were shocked because Mr. Dark kinda seems like someone who wouldn't want kids, but like I've said I've lived across from him forever, and I've got this memory of being, like, five years old or something, and he has this huge ash tree in his front yard, and one day I couldn't resist climbing it, but I fell and scraped up my knee, and he just came out of his scary house and gave me a band-aid. Didn't even yell at me for playing in his yard or anything. So I've always known he likes kids, he just doesn't show it."

She shrugged her shoulders and kept walking to the door, "His wife is really cool too, exactly the kind of person you'd expect to end up with him, which is why I was nervous when the entire family left the house last night. They're the cool neighbors on the street, you know? But I get nervous even if there's something wrong with the neighbors I hate. And yeah, I mean, I don't know Xander that well, but he definitely seems kinda touchy, but somebody's gotta be."
 
Peter smiled as he nodded and listened to Sloan. She seemed to be a bit of an oversharer to him, but then again, maybe that was just how Americans were. English folk tended to play their cards a lot closer to their chests when dealing with strangers. He decided to chalk it up to cultural differences and tried not to look as if this was strange to him.

"Life wouldn't be nearly as interesting as it is without a good share of porcupines and hedgehogs," he agreed cheerfully. "We can't all be sunshine and daisies. But at least Xander is nice and upfront about it rather than hiding something nasty behind a happy smile. He doesn't really bother me, nor does Mr. Dark, but Alec... Well, maybe I just need to spend a bit more time to get to know them. You must know them pretty well being neighbors. Or, oh, no, I'm sorry, he said you'd only actually met yesterday. I apologize."
 
"I'd definitely like to know them better, I think are people are really cool. I think I probably want to be a therapist or a guidance counselor or something. But we just never really had the chance to talk before yesterday, I didn't even know we had the same lunch period. And I thought it'd be weird to just, like, knock on their door like, 'Hi, I'm your neighbor, let me in.'" She laughed at the notion, "Like what was I supposed to do? Bring a basket of muffins? It'd be weird."

She looked down at him, and felt pretty cool to feel tall, "But anywhere, where are you living? I doubt you're commuting from Down Under every day."
 
Peter laughed at that. "Well, that's what we do in Australia and the UK, or very nearly. I doubt Mr. Dark would mind, he seems pretty cool about stuff like that. But meeting in a lunch room is a good deal more casual, that's for sure."

"Actually, we're renting a condo for now. The move was a little sudden, and my folks wanted to get a feel for the lay of the land in person before dedicating themselves to a house. We'll probably get one that's a little rough around the edges but totally liveable. My dad really likes to put his hand to improvements around the place."
 
"Maybe I'll give it a shot when I'm fifty," She replied, "and condos seem cool. I can't wait until I have a small, terrible apartment and I'll fill it with plants. It seems so much more real than a big house, you know? So I hope you find a good house that's a bit wonky and wild."

Sloan pulled out her phone to check the time, "The bell's about to ring. Ugh, I hate my next class. Why did you move here, by the way? Heather Hill just kinda seems like some lame suburban town."
 
"Oh, my parents work for one of the laboratories, and they agreed to be transferred here," Peter said with a casual wave. "The company agreed to fund the move for them since they are employees and me as a minor, so we figured, why not? It's fun to learn about new places! I should get back to Alec and Xander so they can show me our next class. We share almost all of our classes. Quite convenient!"
 
"Oh man, that is convenient. I'm jealous. My closest friend and I have, like, one class together this semester and we were sat on opposite sides of the room, it tragic. But, I'll see you around, Peter." She gave him a wave and then headed off to her own class, hands once more in the pocket of her jacket.
 
Peter waved and started to return to Xander and Alec, but a couple of other students had heard his accent, and they'd stopped to talk to him. Soon he had a crowd asking him to say random phrases. He politely indulged them, letting them get their giggles out and their ludicrous questions like what it was like to live so close to the ocean. Actually, he had lived relatively close to the ocean, as in within three-hour drive, but it wasn't like you could take an impromptu day trip with a three-hour drive.

Xander finally pushed some people out of the way, literally shooing them off as the bell rang and ushered Peter along to their next class with Alec trotting along behind them. Peter tried to apologize profusely until Xander told him to stuff it and it just not do it again. Thankfully, no one got the chance to continue harrying Peter with questions once class was in session, and all seemed much calmer for the rest of the day until the final bell rang.
 
After the final bell, Dark emerged from his classroom and went over to where Alec and Xander typically waited for their bus. He didn't do it every day, but it also wasn't the first time he had ever approached them after the day ended. Today in particular it seemed like the right time, considering how rough the previous day had been for all of them and they had also finished their first day with their school-appointed transfer student.

"Hello," He said. He rarely began a conversation without saying hello first, it was a habit he picked up from living with a blind person for so many years, "I wanted to check in and see how the school day. I hope Peter was nice. Was everything good?"
 
"Peter is great!" Alec said happily. "He really seems to enjoy talking with us, and he said he'd think about playing drums for us in the talent show!"

"It was an utter disaster," Xander grumbled. "We couldn't get two feet without someone trying to get him to say 'shrimp on the barbie' or asking if he rode a kangaroo to school."

"Oh, look, his mom is in the parking lot," Alec said, pointing to where Peter stood talking with someone standing by a car. "She must not know where the pickup line starts or something."

"No, she's coming this way. Maybe they need something from the office," Xander sighed.

"Do you think he'll want to hang out with us tomorrow? He seems very popular," Alec told Dark.
 
Dark listened. He genuinely liked hearing how their opinions differed. When it seemed like there was a pause long enough for him to speak he said, "The problem with an unfamiliar accent is everybody is interested in hearing it. It is worse if there is a stereotypical phrase relating to it, but when everyone adjusts to him, it will certainly be taken as a matter of course. Right now, it is just new. Do you remember the first day in my class and how many students spoke about my accent?"

He looked over at Peter and his mother, and when Xander pointed out she was coming this way, Dark softly groaned and said quietly, "I hate meeting the parents of my students, so often they are angry with me," and then in his normal tone of voice, "He might. If he was interested in helping your performance, and he is not cowardly and was honest, then he will very likely speak with you at the very least. I hope he does."
 
"Not really," they both answered to his first question. Alec had been completely intimidated by the giant man and had taken up most of the first lesson trying to think of ways to avoid attracting attention rather than listening. Xander had had a splinter in the bottom of his foot and had spent most of the first half of the day trying to dig it out without the teachers noticing. They'd only vaguely even noticed that Dark was not the typical white American male. Huge, yes, but other than that, their attentions were elsewhere.

"I hope he does. He is a good conversationalist," Alec remarked.

Peter pointed toward Dark, and the woman, presumably his mother, smiled and headed toward them. She was average height with hair as white-blonde as Peter's, and on the smaller side in her build, but slightly padded in the way of women over thirty-five who maybe worked out but also weren't afraid of Christmas cookies. Her smiled dazzled even more than her son's as she reached Dark.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dark!" she greeted him in a soft yet distinct British accent, more Emma Watson and less Emma Thompson. "Peter has been telling me about his day, and he said you were one of his teachers, and these are your sons? Or do you prefer fosters?" She smiled warmly at Xander and Alec.
 
"Hello. It is lovely to meet you, please, what may I call you?" Dark asked, shaking her hand. His wife did not take his last name when they married, and she had a doctorate, he never presumed the mother of a student shared their child's surname, nor did he ever presume they were a 'Mrs.', "And I prefer whatever they prefer." He had no plans to force them to choose a label and none to influence him one way or another.

"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked respectfully, once again speaking entirely as a teacher. She seemed nice and pretty enough, but her smile as bright and lovely as it was didn't phase him at all because there was, and he believed only ever would be, one person's smile that really struck him as something special.
 
Alec and Xander glanced at each other and shrugged. "Fosters" sounded more like a grocery store or something, and if Dark and Daizi were their guardians, that technically made them their kids. They had certainly made it clear they were not trying to replace anyone or be anything, so what harm did it matter if someone else made a wrong assumption? At least in this, there were clear lines.

"Oh, dear me, I must have forgotten my manners at work," she chuckled. "I'm Mrs. Hollis, Susan Hollis. I wanted to come and personally thank you for the hard work you do as well as meet one of the parents - well, guardians - of my son's first friends. You three made quite an impression on him." She switched to decent if rather heavily accented Arabic. "You can live without a brother, but not a friend," she said, quoting an old saying.
 
"Well, thank you. I hope our impression was a positive one and your son is glad to be at this school." When she spoke to him in Arabic, the twins would have been able to detect his smile because they had lived with him for long enough to detect some of his expressions. Dark was not surprised by her using his language, having already been told she knew it. He replied to her in it, "I see my accent continues to betray me. But it is always pleasant to hear my first language unexpectedly, although I was rather startled when your son spoke to me in it. He says you used to work somewhere in the Middle East?"

Dark, because he never had parents who even really tolerated him, never had the experience of your parent running into their friend unexpectedly and having to stand bored until they finished talking. There was therefore no part of him that was fully aware of the awkward obligations Xander and Alec were under to awkwardly linger nearby.
 
Mrs. Hollis twittered softly. "Oh, but I feel like a rusty can now! I rarely get a chance to practice my Arabic, so I do hope you'll forgive me of any mistakes I make. Anyway, yes, I was allowed to intern in this lovely little place outside of Cairo, Shiekh Zayad City. At least, it was outside of Cairo some twenty-odd years ago. At the rate that city grew, I would not be surprised if they are not shaking hands at the border now. I am afraid I became embarrassingly and possibly even offensively obsessed with the culture at the time, but life whisked me away, and I have not been back since. I would still like to return, but my obsession has faded to a much more acceptable level now."

Alec and Xander stood off to the side, shifting boredly. If they didn't wrap this up soon, they were going to miss their bus. Not the worst thing in the world, but annoying. Xander found a wall to lean against, and Alec started humming softly under his breath, trying not to be disruptive while he practiced his piano scales in the air. This was new. Neither of them could remember Dark ever actually just chatting with someone before.
 
"No, you speak beautifully," Dark was willing to forgive grammatical mistakes when it was so obvious she was trying, "I was raised speaking a different dialect, so I am sure if I ever returned to my country, everybody would assume I was foreign, because my wife is from Cairo and we visit her family so often. We have visited Sheikh Zayad a few times, it is a lovely city. I'm sure that you would have a lot to talk about with my wife, even though she has not lived there for ages, she still knows everything about Cairo and its Greater Urban area. But she is brilliant, next to her I look like an absolute moron. She is really," He touched his hand to his heart. He did this gesture regularly enough when talking about Daizi, in any language, it was probable the twins knew where the topic had reached. But then he switched back to English and said, "Oh, and I hear Alec and Xander asked Peter to be in the Talent show with them, so if he agrees, I am sure they will be seeing a good deal of each other as they prepare."

Out of the corner of his eyes he spotted the twins still standing there, and he turned to them, "You should go catch your bus. It is okay to interrupt me, you know, if you need to go, I will not be upset."
 
"See ya," Xander said, pushing off the wall and grabbing his backpack as he headed for the bus.

"Drive safe!" Alec called, waving as he hurried after Xander.

"Oh, it is so sweet to see such a masculine fellow show such devotion to his wife!" Mrs. Hollis sighed with a smile, touching the hollow of her throat briefly. "She is truly blessed to have you, I see, and I would adore meeting your wife! I do not wish to presume at all, but if our children do end up becoming friends through this talent show, I would like to make an effort to get to know you better. It has always been our practice to be at least acquainted with the parents and guardians of Peter's friends. Some say that is being silly, but with how much we both work, I say it is the least we can do to try to be aware of what is going on in his life. Anyway, we should definitely try to find a time to get better acquainted, perhaps over dinner, but I'm afraid we only arrived three days ago. I am buried up to my eyes in boxes! I should probably prioritize unpacking over dinner plans with new friends." She giggled lightly and turned as Peter approached.

"Mother, remember, we have that appointment? And we don't really know the way yet," Peter pointed out politely.

She touched her hand to her forehead. "Oh, goodness! How could I forget? Yes, we'll need extra time to plan for getting lost."
 
"I will see you at home," He said to the boys are they instantly scurried away as soon as being given permission. Then he turned back to Mrs. Hollis and said, "I suppose I never viewed masculinity as something diametrically opposed to devotion, and she is easy to love. But," he held up his hand, "I would need to speak to her about dinner, she... has... been under the weather, lately," It wasn't technically a lie, but he would have said the same thing even if she had an easy first trimester without any morning sickness, because they didn't want to share the news openly yet. It wouldn't be difficult to hide, especially considering Mrs. Hollis didn't know Daizi's normal build, but they still needed to talk about it, "but, when you are unpacked and settled, I am sure we will see each other again, considering our children's budding friendship." Internally he cringed at this choice of words, but he truly could not think of another way to phrase it.

"When you get adjusted to the Hill, you will find it very simple to navigate, but until then, goodbye, it was nice meeting you. Ma'a salama."
 
"Of course, of course!" she agreed instantly. "I wouldn't dream of trying to make any plans until we have both had a chance to speak to our significant others." She smiled and returned the farewell before touching Peter's shoulder and walking back to their car. "Hope to see you again soon, Mr. Dark!"

Peter turned and waved to him. "See you tomorrow, sir!"
 
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