Lesson To Learn (Part One)

I felt like I was sitting in the lion's den when I was called to Miss Frost's office. Telepathically of course, because fuck intercoms! After two times in my head, she could find me by singling out my thoughts.

I could now see why Eddie had a problem with Ruth allegedly using telepathy on him. She'd never done it to me, as far as I knew, but Miss Frost's forays into my head had been annoying.

In the middle of my class with Miss Pryde, I got the message. Apparently, she did too only moments after I did. Her face twisted into surprise and then into a scowl, and I'm certain that most of it wasn't directed at me.

"Bellamy, go ahead," She said, getting me to nod and stand up from my seat. I tried not to look her way, because I felt guilty now. It was my fault she had to interact with her least favorite person at the Institute. Worse yet, I was in trouble, so she probably got a brainful about that.

Regardless, that left me to shuffle on off to the headmistress' office, the location of which Miss Frost was nice enough to beam into my head, probably so I didn't hold her up.

When I got there, I noticed that Julian Keller was already there, sitting in a seat in front of her desk, both of them smiling. If the fix hadn't been in already, that was all I needed to know that I was completely screwed.

They both noticed me at that point and Julian's smile twisted into a glower aimed at yours truly. Miss Frost's previously pleasant expression morphed into one of complete professionalism.

How would I feel like I could possibly come out on top in this situation? I didn't see a path to victory here. The most I could do was damage control, and I didn't trust that I could even do that much.

I sank into the cushy chair, less than three feet away from the guy that I'd gotten the better of the other day thanks to a timely sucker punch. The tension was so thick Mr. Logan could cut it with his claws.

Man, I wish Mr. Logan were there instead. He wouldn't have cared at all if I'd gotten into a fight… probably. I don't know. I was just going off of what I had to work with assumption-wise.

"Now then," Miss Frost said, sitting down at her desk, folding her fingers in front of her face, "I hope you recall what you're here for, Mister Marcher."

"I'm here because I blasted him halfway across the courtyard," I said, taking a small measure of satisfaction out of watching Keller's face turn red, "Where's that Santo guy? Didn't I shoot him too?"

I was once again going with the strategy of using no filter over my mouth. If she asked me a question, she would get an answer, raw and from the source. No filler.

"Let's settle one dispute at a time, shall we?" Frost said, "Now, why did this happen?"

I noticed she was looking between the two of us, and felt a bit of an opportunity open up. If she was asking that and she wasn't patronizing me in doing so, that meant that she was patronizing Julian. If she hadn't read his mind to confirm anything yet, I wouldn't have believed it.

I slowly and robotically turned my entire body Julian's way, prompting him to go first. I would have loved to hear what he would tell her. What possible lie could you give a telepath? My perspective would be taken with a grain of salt whether I went first or second, at least in my own mind, because she'd already probably seen it. Hopefully that street would go both ways.

I was sorely disappointed with the results.

Julian looked between me and Miss Frost before sighing, his head lowered in a way that didn't fit with the proud, confrontational personality I'd pegged him to have from the last few times we'd met, "I'm sorry, Miss Frost. It was just something that got out of hand. It won't happen again."

I was floored. Oh, that slick son of a bitch. He didn't even bother trying to give his side, instead launching into the next portion of the student punishment process; acceptance.

That was so good. I should have done that from the start myself. I'd neglected to because I figured I didn't have a chance at smoothing things over the conventional way. Thinking about straight-up taking accountability for the incident would have involved thinking about the next words coming out of my mouth.

Miss Frost seemed pleased. Good for her. Good for him.

"I would hope not," She said before turning over to me, "Mister Marcher, you should know better than to use your powers to attack a fellow student. But boys will be boys. There was no real harm done, and this is your first offense."

I was still so out of it, I didn't even bother feeling slighted at the fact that Julian had used his powers on me first was swept aside.

"I know you are both training to be X-Men, but this is a school," Frost asserted sternly, "No more childish squabbles, from either of you. I expect better out of students in this program. You're to be held to a higher standard," She did actually level a look of culpability onto Julian, which did make me feel somewhat better, "Now do the two of you have anything to say to each other?"

Julian and I looked at each other, as though wondering which one of us was going to take the first step. If he was waiting on me, he would be sitting there for a while, "I'm not apologizing," I eventually said.

And this was what having no filter between your brain and your mouth did for you. Why couldn't I make this easy on myself? To her credit, Miss Frost was giving me every chance to. She had been since we spoke yesterday. I was making everything much more difficult than it had to be.

I continued before I could get an earful about maturity and whatever snide comment she would make to chastise me, "I'm not apologizing because I'm not sorry, and I don't think I was wrong. I feel like I had some kind of right to react, I was just wrong in how I went about it. Clearly, seeing as how we're all sitting here," I gestured to our surroundings, "I don't expect or want one either. I just want to bury the hatchet, so we can move on."

Julian gave me an odd look but acquiesced to this. Both of us being okay with it was enough for Miss Frost, who figured that any apology between the two of us would have just been grandstanding. In other words, just a waste of time, air, and false feelings, "You know, I do believe something positive has come out of this after all. I've thought of an effective exercise that all of the squads can use for training, thanks to the two of you."

"Uh… you're welcome?" I said, not knowing quite how to respond to that.

"You should go now, both of you," Miss Frost said, entirely unamused, "Mister Keller, I'll see you shortly for squad training. Mister Marcher…"

"See you when I see you?" I ventured again, trying to finish her thought for her. Kind of hard when I wasn't a telepath.

"Yes, well, hopefully under much more positive circumstances the next time."