Lesson To Learn (Part Four)

After practice, I decided that the least I could do was tell them all why they had to suffer through a Danger Room session without me. It was just in case they didn't know already. I knew Ruth did, but that didn't necessarily account for the others.

We all headed out to the town the Institute was in for a little down time before curfew. Salem Center was a small, quaint place that was fine enough with mutants that it wasn't a big deal for the most part that the school was situated there. Of course, there were a good share of anti-mutant bigots, but that was just a reason that you were almost never allowed to leave the institute by yourself as a student.

A little cafe wound up being our destination as we sat and I explained the course of events that led to my getting into trouble.

Hisako tried to look angry, but a smile peeked through even as she tried to admonish me, "Bellamy, you can't go around picking fights with the other squads," She said, her stern tone betrayed by her expression, "...No matter how much of a dick one of them happens to be."

"Okay, first of all, language," I said, getting an amused snort from the Japanese girl, "Second of all, is he really that bad?"

"Can you spell superiority complex?" She replied, "I'm pretty sure there's a 'Keller' in there somewhere."

"Wait, so you guys aren't pissed?" I asked, unsure of my standing with the only three people I could actually call friends so far.

Ruth had been sitting next to me quietly, taking sips of her milkshake. She shrugged her shoulders, so I couldn't tell one way or another how she was feeling.

Eddie leaned back and rubbed his sore ribs he'd aggravated by stretching, "Ah, I'm not mad. Trust me, our sessions used to go way worse than that last one before we had you on the team," He commented before a goofy grin spread across his face, "I just wish I could have been there to see you clean Julian Keller's clock. I can just imagine the look on his face."

"The guy's a jerk to everybody. Even teachers, sometimes," Hisako said, taking a sip of her drink, "If you have 'decent' powers, he lays off a bit. Not much though. The guy's needed someone to knock him down a peg ever since I've been here. If I were you, I wouldn't have even apologized."

"I didn't really," My sheepish admission got a decent round of laughs from the table.

"Ha! So you really knocked Keller out?"

Our attention was turned to a waitress at the cafe, leaning over one of the booth chairs nearby in our direction. The electric blue hair and gauntlets were a familiar sight from the school. I didn't know students could have jobs. I recognized her as the girl that was usually there in same timeslot of Mr. Logan's hand-to-hand combat classes that I chose to go to.

I leaned back and turned around in our booth to get a good look at her, "I wouldn't say that. I rang his damn bell though," I said, showing her what I'd hoped was a grateful smile, "Thanks for the heads-up about him beforehand... err-," I was awful with names.

She took it in stride though, "Noriko," She informed me, "Noriko Ashida. Anyone willing to take a beatdown from Mr. Logan and put Julian Keller on his ass can't be that bad of a guy."

"Wow, I'm actually getting some love for flattening somebody," I said as Hisako and Eddie scooted over to make some room for our fellow student, "Maybe I should have done it sooner?"

Noriko's eyes seemed to light up as she probably thought about what it had looked like. She shook her head and let out a chuckle, "Even David thought it was great. He tried to hide it and act all uptight and responsible, but I know he liked hearing about it."

Hisako leered my way, and I could feel a remark coming on, "Huh Well, it looks like you've got a few fans on the New Mutants squad. You guys want him?"

"Well if you're offering..."

Eddie scoffed at that, "Hell no. Bel's ours," He declared, "Today made it abundantly clear just how much we actually need him if we're gonna put any kind of dent in the squad rankings."

Noriko rolled her eyes and turned back my way, "Fair enough. We've got a full team already, even if you do have some firepower behind you. So, what's your story?"

It was the first time that anyone had really asked since I'd been there. No one really cared to know, which was well enough because there wasn't much to tell, "Don't really have one," I said, "There isn't some big, tragic reason why I'm here. Compared to some of the stuff I've heard about, even the part about me getting attacked isn't that bad."

"You're getting along pretty well, the run-in with the Hellions aside," Hisako said, waving a fry around in the air before she popped it into her mouth, "But they rub pretty much everyone the wrong way anyway."

Ruth had gone silent for quite some time, but none of us had really noticed because she hadn't been talking much before we'd gotten to the cafe. She re-announced her presence with authority.

She tensed up, as if she had been asleep and had just woken up and let out an ear-splitting scream that got everyone's attention. The milkshake flew out of her grasp and spilled across the table. Noriko was luckily out of the splash zone, while Hisako armored up and kept it from getting on her. Eddie and I were splattered with it.

"Arrgh! What the hell, Ruth?" Eddie shouted at her as he tried to wipe the mess off of himself. I hopped up and provided enough room for her to wiggle out of our booth and take off outside.

"What's her problem?" Noriko asked, frowning at the mess she would likely have to clean up later.

"Damn, man, she's so weird," Eddie said, grabbing as many napkins as he could to try and deal with the mess, "She's just... how can we work with her? She's like our scout, but we can barely even understand her when she tells us anything."

I looked down at the mess on my own shirt and sighed, "I guess learning how to work together is part of what we need to figure out as a team?"

Our dynamic had always been kind of weird. From our sessions, it was clear that until I came along, Hisako was used to doing the lion's share of the dirty work. Eddie would help when and where he could, but his power made him very specialized.

Ruth couldn't really fight at all. That had to leave the others who had to in her place somewhat resentful. I guess I just hadn't been around long enough for it to rub off on me.

"I'll go get her," I said, grabbing some napkins to start wiping off my own shirt as I headed for the door, "Be back in a sec."

I don't know how I found her. When I got outside, there was no sign of her. I just started walking down the sidewalk until there was no more road left to follow. Instead, I wound up heading through the woods of a riverside park.

It wasn't far. Just far enough to be inconvenient if you didn't know where you were going.

She was sitting at a bench that would have given her a look at the water... if she could see, of course.

Maybe she wanted me to find her?

Maybe it wasn't even that specific? Maybe she just wanted someone, anyone, to look for her, to see what was wrong?

Either way, I was the one that came.

I plopped down next to her on the bench and waited for her to say something. It took a while. Long enough that the sky was nice and orange-colored by the time she did.

"Sorry."

"It's okay," I told her, touching at the huge stain on my clothes, "Nothing a load of laundry can't fix. So, you want to tell me what that was back there? Did you see something from the future?"

"No. Yes. She had a vision," Ruth told me, wringing her hands fitfully in her lap, "She saw..." She started to say before cutting herself off, "Bellamy works hard and does his best, but it will not be enough. No, it won't. He will try, but it will be more than he can handle."

She saw something about me? Okay then, "What are you talking about? What's going to happen?"

Ruth put her finger on my heart, "Overload." My heart skipped a double beat at that. So it would happen eventually, "She sees ugly things. Nothing good. Never anything good. Yes, it is why no one wants her around. Even Armor and Wing."

"You really saw me overloaded?" I asked quietly, stunned at the realization. What was there to say to that? She couldn't even tell me when it happened, where, and under what circumstances, "Jesus, Ruth," I said as she shivered once more, "Do you ever... try to tell more people about this shit?" She silently shook her head, her knees still pulled up to her chest, "Like, another telepath? Like Frost, or something?" Another shake of her head, "Why?"

I didn't have any idea the specifics of what she was talking about. It was a running theme when it came to anything she told us in regards to her premonitions. It was as though she was incapable of explaining to us just what she'd seen, or never had enough information to truly let us be on the lookout for them. And she hated it too, that she had a power like that, one that was rarely ever even useful for her. The best I could guess was that it was like how you couldn't properly recall a dream you'd had the night before, despite the fact that you remembered it was something jarring.

The fact that her usual way of speaking was confusing enough on its own didn't help matters either.

Whatever this crap she saw was, she had to deal with it by herself more often than not.

"Look, I know it probably doesn't mean anything to you, but I'm always around," I told her, trying to be supportive. What did I really know about it? "I don't really sleep, so if you want to talk, if you get any of these stupid visions at four in the morning, it doesn't matter. Just let me know, and we'll sit down and figure it out together."

We'll sit down and figure it out together. Yeah right. As if I had any sort of chance to help her. It just sounded nice. I wanted her to feel better.

"If that happens... well, it won't be anytime soon," I tried to assure her. Honestly, I had no idea. For the most part, I felt fine. Full of a little more power than I usually would have because I didn't actively participate in our team practice, but nothing I hadn't felt before. I could get rid of it later, "And I want you around. You don't creep me out."

"Pardon? You are lying."

"Okay, yes, you do creep me out. But it's a good creep."

I punctuated that by throwing an arm over her shoulders, just as a little gesture for support. She balked at the contact at first, but just as quickly turned herself all the way into it an gave me a full-body hug. It caught me off-guard at first. Eventually I settled in and let it happen.

"We'll figure this whole thing out. Come on. I've still got to go back and pay."

We didn't make it back.