It was weird walking into something I was nervous about alone. Ever since I'd come to Xavier's, I'd had the Paladins with me. That had either inspired me to nut up and be brave, or fake it as much as possible to keep their spirits up.
This was not the same thing. I tried to keep in mind that a date was just hanging out, only with a girl who might be interested in letting you play with her boobs if she thought well enough of you.
...
No, that just made things worse. The pressure of getting laid or looking like a dork would be far more intense if that were my mindset.
As I made my way to the shuttle that would take us into Salem Center proper, I decided to just let things end us as they would. My friends had a point, I tended to make bad first impressions, but I'd been around the Paragons team plenty, and I didn't annoy them to death yet. I'd give it time though.
It was bright out, and getting warmer to boot. The sun beat down on my back, though my hat kept most of the light out of my face... as though that mattered. Spring Break was right around the corner, and it couldn't have come soon enough. After what had happened on campus recently, a lot of kids that could go home probably needed to, to let their parents know that they were okay. To unwind a bit. It all sounded good to me.
Speaking of unwinding, I saw the Paragons coming my way to the shuttle stop. A group with a werewolf kid, a guy with a flaming head, and a girl with bright butterfly wings was pretty easy to spot from far off. I gave a wave and Megan left her feet to fly over to me, "Bel! Hi! We didn't keep you waiting, did we?"
If the brightness of a smile equaled actual light, there had been enough in hers to charge me straight to overload, "Nah. I'm just chilling. Soaking in the sun. People-watching. You know, all that good stuff."
"People-watching?" Hope said disbelievingly as the others approached, "Around here?"
I scoffed at her skepticism, "You tell me one better place in the world to people-watch than Xavier's," I challenged jokingly.
It was a rhetorical question, but Hope rose to the challenge regardless, "Mutant Town," She said, looking very pleased with her quick answer.
That was actually a good response. It was like my answer, just on steroids, "Fuck. I've got to go back to New York soon then. That actually sounds awesome."
"It does?" Nicky asked, "I'd have figured you weren't much for dealing with people."
So it was obvious enough that even people on another squad could see it. That was sort of embarrassing. Hopefully I didn't come off as socially awkward or anything, "I'm not a people-person," I tried to defend, "That doesn't mean I don't like people. It just means they don't like me."
"Well, I like you," Megan said all of a sudden before realizing what she had blurted out. Her face turned beet red, "I mean, I'm so glad you could actually come with us today! This is gonna be great!"
As someone who said the wrong thing all the time, I respected her quick attempt to run damage control. Because of that and the advice I'd gotten from my friends to be less like myself at first to try and make a good impression, I let it slide, "Of course I made it. I told you I would. There was absolutely no reason not to. I told you last night, it sounded like a good time."
Hope nearly jumped on Megan's back, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pinch her cheek, "You should have seen her, Bel. She was so excited all night and all day today after you said yes. I thought she was going to tire herself out before classes even let out."
Megan tried so hard to wiggle her way out, but Hope's grip was tight, "Hope, shut up!" She yelled at her friend. When she turned to me, her eyes seemed to be pleading not to take it seriously, "Don't listen to her, Bellamy. She's just picking on me."
"But you make it so easy," Hope said before finally letting her go, but not without a parting shot, "Don't worry. I'm sure Bel will be super-nice to you if you ask him."
I looked over at Nicky and Ben. Nicky just grinned at me with his super-sharp teeth, while Ben just rolled his eyes. Well that settled that. I wasn't going to be getting much help from either of them for different reasons. Nicky seemed to be enjoying the whole thing, while Ben just seemed like he had better things to do than to humor the situation at-hand.
"Can we get going?" Ben said, pointing at his wrist where he was wearing a watch, "If the shuttle leaves and we have to wait on the next one, that'd put a real damper on the start of the weekend."
True enough, the bus sat waiting. It had pulled up while we were all saying hello. Well, it was time to get the show on the road.