Lunch And A Prelude To A Talk

The rest of the gym class passed by extremely quickly. It really just consisted of seeing how he did with a multitude of workouts and exercises toward the end. Obviously, I finished them without too much trouble and a few people started asking me for tips - which I did my best to do but they weren't the best because I wasn't exactly doing these workouts through superior technique. I was just brute forcing my way through with my insane physical specs.

Nonetheless, most of the people in the class were looking at me with stars in their eyes toward the end. Like I was indeed a Terminator, or however the gym teacher described me.

Whatever. It was over now and I was going through the motions and just waiting for lunch to begin.

After all, my body does need some level of sustenance despite being pretty decent at being efficient with energy. I can go for like a week or two without food but it doesn't exactly feel nice. An empty stomach is still an empty stomach even when you're half alien, it would seem.

After gym class, I had two periods of English, which both passed dreadfully slow and were both with that odd girl who I quickly found out was called...Laura Kinney. Of fucking course she was.

I mean, I had my suspicions from the light green eyes that tried to pierce through me whenever she looked at me and along with the short height and the line 'you don't smell human', I was pretty close to already knowing it was her but the class registry confirmed my suspicions. Which means the guys backing her are the X-Men and more importantly, Wolverine. I'm not fearful of the X-Men but them forcing the issue thinking I'm some sort of evil alien would put my family at risk. Plus, I don't know if my body can resist Adamantium claws. There's a big chance I can but there's still a chance that I can't.

Until I can get a willing test subject, I'll just play it safe. Don't know my potential to heal - because I've never been injured before - and I don't exactly like getting hit anyway. It's annoying.

Anyway, as I sat down at the table, I poured out the few contents in my bag that were food related.

Mainly nutrition and protein bars. Other forms of food are just a bit too inefficient for my body and I end up needing an insane quantity of them. Take sandwiches for instance - I can eat dozens of them before I feel full. Granted I don't need to do that everyday otherwise my household would've put the majority of our money into just buying food but still, doing it every once in a while would still be a burden.

So, I'd gotten into the habit of keeping protein bars and nutrition bars on hand. I steal a few boxes every now and then just to stay topped up. Hey, I know it's a crime, but it's hardly going to be financially destroying to the companies making them, is it?

Anyway, as I was opening the wrapper for the first nutrition bar, I saw Miles enter the cafeteria and waved him over as I took a bite out of the bar.

Fruity but otherwise kinda bland.

Miles came over before looking at the small pile of bars I had in front of me, "...You okay, man?" he asked, somewhat perturbed by my food of choice.

"What? Yeah, I'm good, Miles," I laughed before gesturing to the bars, "I have a big appetite and this is the cheapest option. The body needs fuel," I shrugged before taking another big bite of the bar in my hand.

Miles gave me a luck before sitting opposite me and taking out his own lunch - a subway type sandwich with what seemed like meatballs and cheese inside it. Topped off with a decent amount of marinara sauce. Looked nice...but not exactly the healthiest thing out there. Welp, not like it'll matter too much if he becomes the Spider-Man he's meant to be. Pretty sure his metabolism will be able to handle any type of food at that point.

After this, Miles took a few bites of his sandwich while the two of us talked about our lessons and how they were going so far. When we got passed that, we began speaking about ourselves and our hobbies.

Mine being reading and working out (hey, I might as well run with it if everyone thinks it already, right?), while his were similar in the fact he liked reading but it was more centered around comics and such, and he also spoke about how he likes drawing and public art aka graffiti. He showed me some of his drawings from a notebook in his bag and I gotta say...he's a good artist. He'll most likely get better with time as well.

Soon, however, our conversation was put to an end when some new arrivals pulled up next to us.

"This is the guy you're so excited to see, MJ?" I heard a voice near us and I stopped speaking to miles as I turned around to look over my shoulder as the girl continued, "I can see why," the girl giggled, much to the jealousy of the blond guy with his arm wrapped around her shoulder.

MJ, who was standing next to them, blushed slightly and gave the blonde girl a glare before looking to me and smiling, "How's you're first day been so far, Alex?"

"Yeah, it's been fine, MJ," I smiled before motioning to Miles, "MJ, this is Miles. You could say he's a friend I've made today," I said, turning back to Miles, "Miles, this is my neighbor, MJ," having introduced the two of them, I decided to break the ice by making a joke. At Miles' expense. "You see, I felt a little sorry for him. The poor guy looked lost among the halls of Midtown High, so I decided to help him out," I joked, getting a laugh from MJ and a scoff from Miles who quickly retorted.

"You helped me out? I think it's the other way around, Alex. None of the people in our classes have made an attempt to come up to you besides that girl in gym class," he gestured about with his hands, a joking pretentious tone to his voice, "I could've found any muscle-bound freshman to speak to, but I chose you. Feel free to thank me, man," he replied and I chuckled before opening another.

"Keep telling yourself that, Miles," I left it at that with this retort as MJ turned to the two people, introducing them to me.

"Liz, Flash, this is Alex," she said before turning to me, "Alex, these two are Liz and Flash, my friends," she smiled wide as she did and I gave a smile and a nod to Liz before looking at Flash and putting my hand out toward him.

"It's nice to meet you, man. MJ's spoke about you both. Only good words, I promise," I joked and whatever jealousy Flash had on me when Liz implied I was good-looking went away in an instant as he took my hand, returning my handshake with a firm grip and a charismatic smile. He replied with some stereotypical jock-like thing to say 'What bad is there to speak about?' or something like that, which spurred on my next thought process.

What should I do about Flash? There's a major chance he's still gonna try and bully Pete. In the comics it was because he was envious of Pete's intelligence and ease with school work but with the good-looks Pete has in this life...I wouldn't be surprised if he bullied Pete because Liz said he wa cute or something petty like that.

But, what could I do? I'd protect Pete, obviously, but how far should I take it? Flash is the stereotypical case of a bully:

He suffers from abuse at home. Or at least he did in the comics. I guess I'll have to find out if that's the truth in this reality as well. Either way, if it is true, the abuse is what makes Flash bully people. He feels weak and helpless at home, so he tries to feel powerful at school. Bullying is his escape - it's unhealthy and even with the abuse, it still makes him an asshole but...if I were to humiliate him in school, his only place to feel powerful - what would that do to his mental scape? I'd rather not think about it, honestly.

The best I can do is be there to stop him from harming Pete, and maybe even get him to realize that bullying Pete isn't gonna help him deal with stuff at home. Not in the long run, anyway.

...God, who knew this type of shit is so hard to figure out?

Restraining a sigh, I invited the three new people to sit down at the table with us and they happily did. Flash spoke to me about joining the football team, even trying to get the not-so athletic Miles to try out. The two of us declined and I turned the subject matter toward the latest football game and other such sports games. Flash ate this up and was incredibly enthusiastic about it, which led to a debate between the three of us (Me, Flash and Miles) about which sport was better.

I was pretty adamant that Basketball was best, while Miles preferred Baseball and Flash was obviously a massive Football fan.

Meanwhile, MJ and Liz joked about us being so enthusiastic about sports or whatever, while also talking to one another. Though I could clearly see that MJ was somewhat upset about me not speaking to her about something instead of sports.

...Well, you gotta branch out and make new friends MJ, so, uh, sorry I guess?

But such conversation came to an end when I felt something prodding at my mind. Knowing this was coming, I sped my thoughts up to a truly inhuman degree, and within seconds I heard an audible gasp coming from the opposite end of the cafeteria. No one else really turned to look but I looked over my shoulder and saw a truly odd group sitting around one of the bigger tables, frozen in time as my superhuman time perception kicked in.

Each of them looked unlike one another and each of them gave me a feeling of...not fitting in. The one who I quickly realized was the source of the gasp, was a redheaded girl and she truly was beautiful. But her beautiful face was currently twisted in pain.

No doubt from trying to make sense of the multitude of things I was thinking about and at the speed I was thinking them.

A little trick I didn't know was going to work...but I figured it would. Seeing Quicksilver earlier had made me remember the little tidbit of information that telepaths usually have trouble reading his mind because of how fast it works.

It'd be like trying to read a sign speeding passed you at hundreds of miles an hour.

Even the redhead, Jean Grey (I assume), would have trouble. Even if she is a powerful telepath. It's not like telepathy and telekinesis give you superhuman reaction times. Not without the Phoenix Force active, at least.

Anyway, onto the rest of the group.

The one next to the recoiling Jean was a tallish guy with brown hair and a well-built frame. He seemed decent looking and looked to be the product of a few girls wet dreams from how a few people in the cafeteria were looking directly at him. But they all kept their distance, for an unknown reason. He was probably a dickhead. And from those red-tinted sunglasses he's wearing, I'm guessing he's Scott Summers aka Cyclops and I can pretty much guarantee he's gonna be a dickhead. Probably his bad mood mixed with him already being with Jean.

Well, I'm assuming that last part from his body language and how he's sprung into action as soon as Jean showed any discomfort.

Either way, they usually end up together around this age. Not too far fetched to think what I am.

Moving onto the next, it was a frankly, humungous guy. About 6'6" and packing more muscle than a professional offensive lineman. He had black hair reminiscent of my own and grey eyes that looked like metal. He wasn't what you'd call good-looking but he wasn't ugly either - he was perfectly average in terms of looks. Though I could still see someone liking him physically just based off his muscular and imposing frame. I'd take a guess and say this is a young Colossus. Can't remember him ever being the same age as Jean and Scott...but whatever. It doesn't really matter in the big scale of things.

The one a bit away from the others was the previously seen Laura Kinney. She was just staring at me.

...Not much has changed then, huh?

The other girl was a bit more odd than the others. She had brown hair but one large strand of hair was pure white and it acted as a sort of fringe for her. She had a beautiful face, one that looked kind like a perfectly crafted doll's - but she looked way too gloomy for it to really show. From the black eyeshadow and pale white skin, she also seemed a bit too Goth-like for the majority of the boys at this school.

...This is probably Rogue aka Anna Marie. If I had to guess, anyway.

There were a few other people at the table with them, but they honestly didn't ring any bell in my head, so I just looked passed them before returning my perception back to normal.

Scott seemed to be making sure Jean was okay before he turned to glare at me. Colossus or who I thought was Colossus always turned to give me a glare, while Laura and Rogue just looked at me. There were a few other expressions among the others at the table but I didn't look at them any longer and turned back to my table before giving an apologetic smile.

"Sorry guys, I've gotta go and say hello to some friends I haven't seen in a while. I'll be back in a bit, okay?" I said this, mainly to Miles and MJ, but also to not seem like an impolite ass as I stood up.

Grabbing the last nutrition bar, I swung my backpack over my shoulder before turning around and walking away. I said I was gonna be back, so Miles and Flash kept on speaking after giving me a quick 'see ya later'. Liz continued to speak to MJ, giving me a small wave, while MJ herself was the only one who actively watched me walk over to the X-Teens with a look of obvious suspicion on her face.

She probably knows I was lying - how? Because I didn't really have any friends I walked to besides her and Pete. So to suddenly have a few friends that I needed to say 'Hello' to? It was sure to set off suspicion in her mind.

But what can I do? I can't just sit here and let a redheaded telepath poke at my head, can I? I need to move this misunderstanding out of the way, verbally discipline these kids who think they can invade someone's personal privacy via telepathy and if it comes to it, prove that I'm not some evil alien hellbent on taking over a random highschool in New York.

I'd also like to know why future members of the X-Men were in Queens when their highschool should be somewhere in upstate New York and not in New York City. Hell, if we go off the comics, they should be in Xavier's school or whatever.

So, questions all around.

Getting in front of the group of Mutants, I swallowed a bite of the bar before motioning to the door that led out the back of the cafeteria, "You guys wanna go talk outside? I think we need to lay down some ground rules. Like not using powers to get into someone's fucking head without permission," I whispered harshly to Jean as I leaned forward, making sure only the group in front of me heard it. Did I sound like I was calm and collected earlier? Allow me to correct that misunderstanding.

Someone had tried to break into my mind. I was rightfully pissed off. My alien instincts were also quite enraged by the thought of someone trying to pry about inside my head.

Like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they couldn't meet my gaze.

Not until Mr. Self-Righteous, Scott Summers, looked up at me and his facial features twisted into what I assumed was a glare, "You hurt Jean--so how about you back off, douche," he spat back but lover boy was quickly refuted by Jean who put up her hand to silence him.

"He didn't hurt me...I just couldn't handle how his mind worked," she clarified, wiping a small trail of blood from her nose, "We can talk. In fact, we need to talk about...you know, you."

She spoke with a seriousness that I didn't expect from a teen who looked the same age as MJ but I guess she's just built different, huh? Nevertheless, I nodded and walked for the exit, the few Mutants I recognized standing up and following me. I walked forward knowing that however this turned out, I was gonna a little fun to make up for her trying to get into my mind.

I understood why she probably did it. Doesn't mean it wasn't extremely fucking rude either way.