Continued from yesterday
_Rule One: Blend. Rule Two: Practice for control’s sake, and don’t let anyone *see* you practice. Rule Three: Know your animal._ Sara did her best to memorise those rules as she ate. Considering the necessary secrecy, it would be more than wise to not keep anything written.
Something occurred to her. “It’s not just chameleons, you know.”
“Hmn?” Todd surfaced from his mental wanderings. “Whut?”
“The skin-blending thing. It isn’t just chameleons. Octupi and Squid can change their skin colour and even their surface texture.”
“Maybe,” said Freddy. “But you ain’t gonna like goin’ around by 'SquidGal’ or somethin’.”
And seeing as how Freddy *knew* about this… maybe he was in deeper than he seemed. “We really need a hankerchief code.”
Both boys boggled at her.
“Was I speaking in tongues again?” she asked.
“Naw. Just from left field,” said Freddy.
“What’s a hankerchief code?”
Sara grinned. “I believe it belongs to San Francisco… There’s so many preference variations over there that the potential for mutual embarrassment is overwhelming… so each society developed a different way of folding handkerchieves into a visible pocket. Possibly it included variations for taken, looking, and not looking… The point *is* - if mutants could easily recognise who was whom, without letting the -er- mundanes[1] know… there’d be a better chance for socialisation.”
Freddy looked down. Todd looked nervous.
“Uh… yeah. ‘Bout that…”
Sara raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me. There’s mutant gangs?”
“Kinda,” said Freddy.
“Well, there’s us in the 'hood, y'know? We call ourselves the Brotherhood. And then there’s the X-geeks.”
“They call themselves the X-geeks?”
“Um. No. They call 'emselves the X-Men, yo,” said Todd, twiddling with his spork. “Even though they got skirts in there with 'em.”
Sara had to smirk at the anachronistic moniker for her gender. Most women alive today only wore skirts to interviews. “Gender equality will have to wait another day, hmn?”
“Sompin’ like that… I never understood it myself, y'know? I mean, we had girls livin’ wit’ us, but we always th’ Brotherhood. What *up*? I tried to take it to the boss, youknow, 'cause of discrimination an' all… but he just tole me to shut my yap.” There was something else that he wasn’t saying about the interview.
Sara could guess by the way he rubbed at a memory of pain… but she was never one to pry. “You have a boss? Someone in charge?” _Someone *runs* things?_
“Aaaaahh… less you know 'bout him the better, yo. Take my word fo' it. It don’t pay to get his attention.”
Ah. So he *was* warning her… and from the sounds of things, he wasn’t in a good place, right now. “You know, that offer of a place to hide can go both ways,” she said. “I know of rooms in my house that Mother never goes near. It shouldn’t be the work of an afternoon to clear a few of them out and make them hospitable. I can make sure everything’s completely hush-hush.”
[1] Convention term stemming from Piers Anthony’s lovely books. Mundanes are anyone who professes to be “normal”.
~
“Sweet of you… but that ain’t quite necessary. He ain’t around enough to give us real trouble. Always on some mission or other. But y'know… if we do wind up needin’ a place we’ll look you up.”
_She cares about me!_ Todd’s heart squealed in the meantime.
“So…” Fred shifted. “I guess maybe you oughta know who the X-geeks are. Watch out for *that* one,” he said, looking over at a red-headed senior seated at the X-men’s table. “She’ll pretend to be your friend and stuff… but man can she bite.”
Todd followed Freddy’s gaze and nearly rolled his eyes. Sheesh, not the Jean rant again. Granted, she was a class A preppie and a player, and sent Matthews after him whenever the 'hood annoyed her, but… she wasn’t… all that…? Okay, he was going to shut up and let Freddy rant for a bit.
“Who Miss Perfect? Don’t worry, I’ve got her figured. Mom unfortunately think’s she’s golden.”
“No kidding?” Fred and Sara got busy discussing the evils of one Miss Grey.
Todd listened for about a minute. Then he shifted on the bench, not liking the way the conversation was steering and liking even less the fact that Freddy and Sara had something to bond over.
“Ahem,” he tried for the third time and got their attention again.
“My apologies,” Sara was blushing faintly and the Boston accent had returned. God she was cute when she did that. Todd could scarce believe he’d just admitted that so easily. “Pray continue?”
“Er… well, not that Jean *isn’t* a bee with an itch, but lunch is almost over and I gotta tell you some more stuff.” Todd didn’t *mean* to sound as peeved as he was that Sara’s attention had strayed. His tone apparently fired off some sort of message because the girl’s eyebrow raised and Fred looked sheepish and rather like he was being squished.
“Such as?”
_Such as?_ his mind echoed, just as expectantly. _Crap, yo. Ummm…_
“Erm… contact. In case things go screwy, you need to know where you can go. You know where the Brotherhood Boarding house is, right?”
“I’ve driven past it on Eileen once or twice. So yes.”
Todd looked at her oddly. “Who?”
“My bike.” Fred nodded; apparently he’d seen this Eileen beforehand. Todd felt peeved at that too, but he hid it better this time.
“Okay,” he mumbled. “And maybe it would be coo’ if we knew whereabout you lived? Or a number or email? Just in case we need to contact you.”
Sara gave the address as well as a phone number that was specifically to her room to avoid her mother screening her calls. Todd scrawled it on a paper napkin along with her email address.
There was something else bugging him that he needed to tell her and he was hating himself for it. He knew Fred would too… but here went nothing.
“As whacked as the X-geeks are,” Todd said, “If yo ever in a *real* pickle… one we can’t help you out with… you should go to them.” God that was painful to say. Todd glanced at Freddy and got the shock of his life. Freddy looked *relieved*.
“Yeah,” the giant said, just as begrudging as Todd, though his voice was also full of concern. “Should you need more than us… Xavier will help. Just don’t sign no contracts or nothin’.”
“He’ll want you to *fight* if you stay on as a boarder. For his little army. And he’ll want you to get along with the mundane. Y'know, turn the other cheek and all that crap.” Todd couldn’t help sounding just a tad bitter. _If Mathtews was beatin’ on any of *his* kids, Xavier would wax the mansion floors with his ass. But Matthews is smart, yo, so he beats on the stragglers._
~
“Dealing with the mundanes isn’t all *that* difficult, is it?” Sara said. “Technically speaking, I was a mundane and Freddy and I got on fine.”
For someone in Remedial Ed., she was pretty sharp. “Do I have to abandon all my friends just because of what I’ve become?”
“It’s complicated,” sighed Todd. He’d never had any real friends since moving to Bayville, and generally kept his company amongst his fellow mutants. All of the Brotherhood were transplants to Bayville. He’d never thought what it would be like to have lived there for a long time, to have connections, and only have them disrupted by manifestation. “I guess you can keep yo’ friends an’ all… just - be careful? If yo' secret gets out… y'know… life can get *real* nasty. Th’ army might wanna take yo’ apart so they can make invisible soldiers, y'know?”
“Yes,” Sara said. “I can just imagine…” she winced and scratched at her back. “Ack! Pardon me… urgh… ow… ooooohhh…” She sighed. "Ever had one of those itches that drove you simply *mad*? This one's been prickling at me since third period. Neef.“
Todd found himself laughing even though he also knew the feeling. Once a month, in fact, when he got a new skin all in one go[1]. "Hey, yo. Mebbe yo’ shedding yo’ skin.”
“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “I’m still warm-blooded, aren’t I? Just because I can do what I can do doesn’t mean I’m turning into a *reptile*[2].”
“Jus’ sayin’,” Todd managed. Inwardly, he was kicking himself. "Y'know. Lighten th’ moment?“ He cringed.
"Sorry,” she said, blushing. “New to mutant humour.” The bell rang, summoning everyone to class. “See you after school?”
_She still wants to see me!_ “Sure thing, yo.”
Sara skipped as she withdrew.
+
“…can’t get into my shoes… because my shoes refuse… to ever grow weeea-ry…”
“Singing, Sara?” Janine smirked at her. “What happened to make *you* so happy?”
“Oh, nothing much,” she returned, knowing that if she told, it would be all over the school in nothing flat. “I might be making a friend.”
“A *booooyyyy* friend?” Janine grinned wider. “I saw you flirting with Freddy Dukes…”
Sara rolled her eyes. “I believe I was sharing lunch with him, Janine.”
“Ooooh! You *deny* it!” Janine squealed. “It’s *gotta* be true.”
“As true as your own lesbian tendancies,” said Sara in a low mutter. "Do you mind? They might be covering something new in English today.“
The English class, carefully calibrated for students with problems, had been going over the proper placements of nouns and verbs, with some explorations into punctuation - for well over a month.
"Fine,” said Janine. “If you won’t tell the truth, I’ll just have to draw my *own* conclusions…” she waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Nothing had ever stopped her so far. “Whatever.” Sara concentrated on keeping her skin its accustomed colour.
[1] I *LOVE* that theory! Let’s run with it.
[2] She’ll get irony later.
~
Todd was so elated he nearly forgot about the money on the table. Fred was looking at it dolefully. Todd sat back down and waited for Fred to get over it and pick it all up.
Fred sighed and continued to study it.
“Oh come on, yo, she *gave* it to us!” Todd burst out. The cafeteria was already thinning out.
“Yeah, I know, but… it don’t feel right. I should give it back to her next period.”
Todd fidgeted and decided to bite. “Why don’t it feel right?”
“'Cause… she earned it, not us. And sometimes her mom cuts her off. Ain’t right for us to take it.”
“Unless,” the smaller boy added after some thought, “We earn it, right?”
Fred looked at him. “Uh… I guess? What are you thinkin’?”
“Well, we’re helping her, right?” Todd lowered his voice. “With the whole mutant thing.”
The larger boy scowled. “So you wanna charge by the hour or somethin?”
“No!” It *was* an idea, but not one Sara wouldn’t see through in about five seconds flat. Todd felt a twinge of dismay at the rising dilemma - he cared about what she thought of him and he *liked* her, but goddammit, they *needed* the cash. He was going to have to choose carefully and he was probably gonna fuck it all up anyway. “I’m just sayin’ we should take what she freely gives. She wants us to have it, we need it, someday somehow we’ll pay her back.”
Fred considered it. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Great, good. Keep the money, make sure it don’t fall into Pietro's hands or Tabby’s.” Todd watched Fred scoop up the change and deposit it in his overall pocket. Good, a high and safe place. Nobody was going to shake Fred Dukes down for *anything*.
Now he’d better skedaddle before he got a detention for real this time.
+
“The dinosaurs in the Triassic era were mostly reptiles and amphibians,” Mr. Dronall spoke at the head of the class. “The Triassic era took place during the splitting of Pangea into two continents. The northern continent was known as Laurasia, and was made up of North America, Europe, and Asia. The southern continent…”
Todd stifled a yawn and put his head down on the desk. Biology was interesting and all, but the teacher was as slow as molasses when it came to lecturing - and man did he try to cram every detail possible into the forty-minute time frame. Other than that, Mr. Dronall was nice and the sort of geeky old man whom the jocks verbally debased in gym class, which meant he didn’t consider himself above smiling at the boy whenever they met in the halls.
For that reason along with others did Todd sit quietly in Dronall's class and try to learn something instead of throwing spitballs at Wagner in the third row.
“…was named Gondwanaland and was made up of South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India. Great changes occurred during the Mesozoic time period for plant life…”
_Maaaan, get back to the amphibians, foo’. You almost had something interestin’._
Todd sighed and did the only thing that would keep him awake. He opened his standardized textbook and flipped to the chapter about amphibians. Compared to this chapter, the rest of the book was immaculate of highlighter marks and dogeared pages. Todd’s eyes skimmed over the bits about the life cycle and he shut his eyes squeamishly as he flipped one page over which contained a detailed photo of a dissected toad.
Bored with reading over old facts, Todd was almost about to doodle another picture of Sara when he remembered the book also had a reptile chapter or two. Heh, why not. Mr. Dronall was still going on about petrified forests and ginkophytes. Todd flipped to the chapter and began to read.
~