Flying exam day, the last trial for one of my elective courses. Everything about it seemed very familiar. It was lot like the Field Day test, right up to how hard I crushed it. I could have flown the plane we used with my eyes closed.
I hopped off with a pep to my step that a lot of the others that had gone before me hadn't had. Mr. Wagner got off of the plane behind me, making his last marks on the sheet he was using to grade me, "Zat is very good flying, Bellamy," He commented as we walked back to the rest of the class in the hangar.
I was so ready to be done with this class. It was the final test I had to take before I was finished for the semester, "Tell me I got an A."
Mr. Wagner laughed, but gave me the answer I wanted to hear, "You got an A."
It really wasn't fair to grade me to the same standard as everyone else. I broke the curriculum. Our teacher wasn't expecting to teach a student who would wind up being an ace by the end of the semester.
"BAM!" I shouted out loud, firing two fists full of light high into the air, "Thank you, sir!"
I had to take my victories where I could get them. Things weren't great. I still missed Miss Pryde, and we weren't any closer to finding a way to get her back, but we were assured that she was still alive, so there was a chance we could get her back someday. You had to try and put a positive spin on these kinds of things.
Once the test was done, I headed out of the hangar and for the elevator that took people back to the upper levels of the Institute.
My tests were finished. It was like a weight being lifted from my shoulders. Now I didn't need to worry about anything academic and could finish getting my summer plans set up. I was to head home for a few weeks to spend time with my family, but I'd be back at the Institute soon enough.
That was for later, though. Now, I had a get-together to troubleshoot for. I was really excited to get things underway. All I had to do was make sure the year-end party I had a hand in went off as well as possible, and that would be it.
Once I dropped off a stack of goddamn paperwork to Mister Summers, every responsibility I had to the school was fulfilled. I could then fully focus on debauchery.
When I got to the office though, I found some classmates of mine had gotten an early start on their debauchery.
I opened the door to find Noriko and David from the New Mutants behind the desk, breaking into Mister Summer's computer. Their stealth left a lot to be desired. Then again, Nori walked around with electric-blue hair. Subtlety definitely wasn't her thing.
I didn't say anything at first. I shut the door behind me, and waited. Nothing. Eventually I ruffled my papers. Both of them looked up like spooked deer in a forest. I tried not to laugh and keep a straight face. It was hard, "What the hell are you two doing here?"
David barely reacted, stoic, intelligent fucker. Noriko was the easiest to rattle – more expressive, "Bellamy. What are you doing here?" She inquired, trying and failing to play it cool.
I held up my forms and wiggled them in the air, "I have to drop off whatever counts for my year-end evaluations for the Paladins," I honestly scowled at that. What kind of psychopath made a kid taking his exams do extra paperwork? "What the hell are you guys doing? Did you break in?"
Neither of them denied it. Both Nori and David looked at each other before the latter spoke up, "Are you gonna tell?"
I raised an eyebrow in return, "That depends. Are you trying to take over the school or kill somebody on campus? Because I've walked that far in the snow before, and I'm pretty sure this time my word will actually mean something."
At least it better have been. My word should have been bond at this point.
"We're trying to see which team is next up to be X-Men," David explained, trying to prove his intentions weren't nefarious.
I didn't get it. To me, it seemed like high risk for little gain, "What does it matter?" I asked.
Noriko seemed stunned that I didn't care, "What does it matter? What are we doing all of this training for if some of us don't wind up being X-Men somehow? Talk about a waste of time."
I rolled my eyes, "I thought the teams were put together to make sure everybody knows how to fight."
"What do you think the fighting's going to be used for?" Nori shot back to make her own point, "Expecting a lot of attacks on the school?"
Had she checked out during the one time that an attack had happened on a school-wide scale this semester? "Yes. This place has been rebuilt how many times already?" Other places didn't have to deal with things like that, and definitely not as frequently as we did, "Our normal is not everyone else in America's normal."
David interjected himself in the middle of our debate before we wasted more of their window of opportunity, "Look, I don't want to be on the X-Men. I just want to make sure no one in charge is having any ideas," He said, without looking up from Mister Summers' desktop, "My dream is to go to Harvard, not to be some kind of superhero."
Fair enough. But he seemed to like being half in charge of his team with Sofia, "Well, nobody says you can't do both," I said with a shrug, "Then again, that's easy for me to say, seeing as how I never have to sleep. How'd you even get in there, anyway?"
David looked over at me from the screen and tapped at his temple. Oh, his power to absorb knowledge and skills of anyone in range. All he would have had to do was stand by Mister Summers and somehow record however he needed to get in while he had the info muddling around in his head.
Noriko grinned and moved behind me to try and push me with her gauntlets to take a look at the computer, "Come on, Bellamy. Aren't you curious about what they think about you? You're telling me you don't want to take a look?" She was not strong enough to budge me against my will, and realized that quickly enough.
"Nope. I'm good," I said after she'd given up. I walked over to the desk and dropping my folder of papers down without going behind it to take a look. I had dealt with enough legit danger. I didn't need to see what was written about me on a computer to know that I could handle some stuff if need be, "Just hurry up. I'm not vouching for you if you get busted."
They did as I asked and dove into looking for what they were after. I kept watch for a moment out of common courtesy, seeing as how I would have been doing something against the rules soon enough myself. They seemed to be reading something or another, scrolling down and whispering amongst themselves.
"No way."
"What!? You've got to be kidding me!"
I didn't budge from my spot by the door, even when the New Mutant members seemed to be in disbelief about something. Whatever it was, it wasn't my business. At least, it wasn't until Noriko glared at me, "What? What did I do?"
She took a moment to size me up before telling me what he problem was, "How the hell are you a reserve X-Man?"
That was finally enough to bring me over, "What did you just say to me? I'm a what now?" We had reserve X-Men? This was news to me.
David turned the computer monitor my way to take a look. Despite what I'd said, they had gone ahead and looked up the briefing on me anyway. Right there, not far underneath standard things like my name, birthday, blood type, and all of that basic stuff was a recommendation that I should be considered as a reserve in case of emergency.
No one had told me about this. So it must have been in case of serious emergency. Like, an absolutely last resort, last line of defense kind of emergency.
So, you know... I was definitely going to get called in at some point in the near future. That was just how things worked around there.
"Want to see the synopsis?" David asked, snapping me out of my trance.
"No," I immediately responded, for all that my opinion on this meant.
"'Bellamy is well-suited to stressful situations; a very adaptable sort. When pressed, he is quickly able to prioritize, make decisions, and act instead of sit and wait. He has a take-charge attitude, which many of his peers respond well to. His combat abilities also do a lot to inspire confidence as well.'" David read out for my benefit, "'He is one of the most battle-adept students at the school, aside from a few special cases. In a very short time under our watch, he has excelled in several incidents where he should have been in over his head."
Noriko's nose scrunched up at the last part of that statement, "What incidents?"
There were plenty that could get thrown in there, so I listed them off on my fingers, "In chronological order, I'm guessing; getting kidnapped by the Reavers, the whole Field Day thing, and... Breakworld," I really didn't want to talk about that last one. Hisako and I barely told our teams about that hell of a mess, let alone anyone else.
She and I didn't always have the best relationship, but we were on the same page when it came to Breakworld. It wasn't some cool thing to talk about for bragging rights. We lost our teacher. We saw some terrible shit. We almost died a bunch of times, violently. Ten years down the line, it wasn't going to be some cool story we told during reunions.
Anyone that found out about it and started grilling us for details without taking no for an answer... well, a good tongue-lashing was the best outcome that they could expect.
"Yeah, we should get out of here," I said, waving the whole thing off. David and Noriko had seen all they needed to and quickly signed off before following me out. We hustled for a bit before we finally felt safe enough to slow down, "So you guys are gonna be at the 'you-know-what', right?"
Noriko seemed conflicted. It was a good chance to cut loose after a stressful time, but some of the people behind it rubbed her the wrong way, "It's being co-promoted by the Hellions. Gross. I can't believe you're hanging out with them."
Whenever certain members of both teams were in the same place, it was awful for anyone else to be around. In our spare time one day for shits and giggles, Ruth and I had worked out the worst combinations of Hellions versus New Mutants. Hisako and Eddie had overheard us and jumped in.
We wound up drawing a flowchart. It was pretty sweet, even though we had to destroy it afterwards so we didn't catch any heat from either team.
In no particular order of grudge: Julian and Noriko. Julian and David. Julian and Josh (notice a pattern here?). The kind-of-goth kid Kevin and Josh. Cessily and the quiet blonde girl Laurie. Sooraya and Noriko (entirely one-sided on the latter's side, admittedly).
High school sucks.
I wasn't about to be caught trying to defend Julian... mostly because it was appropriate for most people to have a problem with him, "They're all not so bad. It's 90 percent Julian, and as long as you hold your own, he's fine. Why do you guys have so much beef anyway?"
David let out a humorless laugh, "Where should I start?" He said, "Most of it is Julian. He's pulled us into a lot of trouble. He turned one of our own teammates against us to join his team instead. He tried to turn the whole school against Josh for being a Reaver in the past-."
Noriko picked up for David at that point, "-He treated me like shit when I first tried to come here because I was homeless. He can get away with almost anything because he's Headmistress Frost's favorite. Entitled, rich, fuckboy." She let out a grunt of frustration, "How can you stand the guy? He pulled his crap on you when you first got here."
True. But if anyone wanted to start a fire with me, I was more than happy to throw gasoline all over it. I liked certain amounts of conflict. It kept life interesting. The only thing Julian really could have done to set me off fortunately never came to pass. He had never messed with one of my teammates. For instance, had he ever started picking on Ruth -especially Ruth- it would have turned into something out of Gangs of New York.
"I can take care of myself," I believe I had made that abundantly clear to anyone who cared by now, "...Hey, have you ever actually beaten them at anything? Like, any Field Days? Head-to-head challenges? Anything?"
David scowled at the thought of being bested constantly by the Hellions, "No. and thanks for reminding me."
For a guy that didn't want to be on the X-Men, he was seemingly very salty over the team exercise losses, "Well, since you can't ever seem to fight him to get it out of the way like I did, you've gotta do it that way," I explained, "The more you beat him and prove you can do it, the more he'll fuck off."
"It can't be that easy."
Admittedly, no. There was more to it than that, "Well, I did save his ass once before too," I added, probably as an important aside, "All of you have your little conflicts and whatever. Blah," I spat to show how I felt about high school drama, "But Santo, Brian, and the others for the most part go as Julian does. If he chills out, they will too."
At least I thought so. This was not an exact science. I was no expert on people. I could only go off of my own experiences, and sound confident while doing it.
"He's probably pulling Sofia's pigtails too," David pointed out, "He's got a thing for her. But she won't date him even though she has one for him too."
"Everybody can see it too," Nori added with a sigh, "No accounting for taste in her case, I suppose."
"Oh yeah. That was probably why he started shit with me," I said, remembering those early days when I didn't know anything about the school, "He thought I was trying to sidle up to her when I first showed up," Which was crazy, as I barely knew the girl. Even now, there were plenty of people I knew better than her.
"And now you're after Pixie, right?" Nori asked, giving me a few nudges with her elbow, "Didn't take you for the type to like the sweet ones."
I rolled my eyes, but humored her regardless, "Yeah? What's it to you?"
"Nothing, nothing," Noriko waved her hands defensively, "I just think it's cute to think about you two hanging out."
"Uh-huh," I could think of many words to describe me and the things I got involved in. Cute was not one of them, "So... party? Everybody's going. Stop by, say hi to some folks, maybe grab a drink. You know, unwind a bit. Exams are over, baby."
David was thinking about it. I was about to give him a little extra nudge, when he caved, "Where is it?"
I could feel how big my smile was. Winning, in its various and sundry forms, was always good, "Exact details are need-to-know. No one's finding out until the night of, so no one blows what's left of our cover. I'll make sure to text you," I lifted my hand for the 'too sweet', but no one reciprocated, "...No? Okay."