Always Something Else (Part Two)

Another day, another lunch period, and I was in desperate need of some sustenance.

"Come on, Wolf. Let's get some food in us."

"I do not require nutrition to survive, Bellamy. You are aware of this."

Yeah, Wolf was with me. It wasn't like he had much else to do.

I had made the rounds talking about how the days had to be so boring for Saberwolf. Some teachers had given me the okay to let him sit in on some classes. He still wasn't a student, even though he could learn, but it was just as well. A giant wolf-bot with a high school diploma would have been weird.

So sometimes he followed me, sometimes he didn't. Other times he would go off to wander campus on his own or go back to my room to game. But he usually met back up with me around lunch, even though he didn't need to eat anything to live.

By then, the rest of the school had gotten used to Saberwolf being around. Plus, he'd gotten a lot of brownie points with the students and the teachers for helping to protect kids from the drones that the Danger Room had taken control of during the Field Day fiasco. He still insisted that he was leaving any day now when he figured out what he wanted to do, but he was starting to get comfortable at the Institute.

"It was suggested by one of the Xavier Institute's staff," Saberwolf said, his feet softly padding off of the tile on the floor as we walked through the cafeteria, "I do not feel comfortable with allowing this Forge individual to check my diagnostics and study me."

And why wouldn't he? It sounded a lot like being taken apart to me. I didn't know if Wolf felt pain or fear, but he had a healthy respect of death, or what equated to death for him.

"Well, you're sentient, so say no," I told him. He hadn't done anything except sleep in my room and play the hell out of my video games. If that was what it took to have him on my side when bad things happened, I'd stick up for him until the end, "I'll throw another shit-fit about it if I have to. I've already got enough beef with the headmistress. I might as well double up and piss off the headmaster too. You know, complete the set."

Wolf took that moment to contemplate his decision to throw his lot in with me, "I do not think staying with you has done much for the outlook that Emma Frost and Cyclops have on me," He said, "Perhaps I should have primarily associated myself with Blindfold instead?"

Not a chance. He was my A.I. pal. "Ah-ah-ah, I'm the first one you saw, and I'm the one who busted you out, so you imprinted onto me... just like a baby duck," I reminded him, dodging a swipe of his tail that was aimed at my head, "Also, Ruthie doesn't have any video games or movies, so you would be bored out of your mind with her."

Sitting down at the table with my friends, I planned to dig into what I had picked up from the lunch line, only for a calculus book to be dropped right in front of me, turned right to the page that we were supposed to be using for homework that night.

I looked next to me where Hisako had plopped down, her own book open and at the ready. She didn't say anything, just sitting there staring at me. I had indeed asked her to help me figure out how to do things in that class so I could stop trying so hard and coast like I did through every other course I had.

"Now?" I asked her, still holding the burger I had picked up in my hand, "You want to do this now?" I was not in the mood to do work.

Hisako was patient, yet seemed to know that she was challenging my deep-rooted lazy bone, "You asked me to help. Do you really want to waste our free time studying, or do you just want to get it out of the way?" She had a point, but it was hard to get motivated for things that I wanted no part of.

"You know what? You're right. Lets get it out of the way then," I said, taking a bite of my sandwich before setting it aside to get to work.

The smile she gave me was probably the nicest one I had gotten from her since we'd met, "You see how easy things can be when you don't try to be a smartass about everything?"

Saberwolf took that moment to chime in, "Times like these without hearing his retorts are encouraging. I sometimes wonder if he is physically capable of holding himself back."

Hisako spared Wolf an understanding glance before grinning back at me, "See? Me and the wolf-bot agree on something. That has to tell you something."

"I am an A.I.," Wolf corrected gently, but otherwise left it alone. He must have been getting used to the mistake.

There was an 'Asians are good at math' joke right on the tip of my tongue to respond with, but I thought better of it. Hisako was being nice and actually helping me with my calculus. Antagonizing her just for the sake of argumentative banter would have been a real prick move, no matter how fun it was to take shots at each other. After all, I was trying to be a better person, no matter what my instinct to respond was.

As the lunch period dragged on and the answers spilled out onto my pages, the desire to run my mouth increased, "You know, I was fine with math, until I got past algebra," I said, "Why couldn't things stay that simple? Algebra was just mad libs with numbers."

Hisako busied herself with doing her own homework while she waited on me to finish my problem or get as far as I could so she could check it, "It's supposed to make it easier to deal with bigger sums of money, more people dealing with the money, getting a piece and all that," She explained, "Why'd you even take the class?"

"I needed a math course. Trust me, if I could stay away from numbers, I would," I said, as Ruth made her way over to our table and sat down. An idea immediately hit me, "Ruthie, have I told you today that you're my favorite Paladin?"

Ruth held her hands up as though she were putting some distance between me and what she could tell I wanted, "Sorry. She will not help you cheat in your calculus class. Thank you."

Oh well. It was worth a try.

Eddie slid into his seat across the table, the legs of the chair screeching off of the floor. He distracted me, but to be fair a squirrel running around outside within sight of the window probably could have distracted me, "Poor ol' Bel, getting his ass handed to him by the new girl and now he can't handle his math."

I let out a groan. He had brought it up repeatedly since it had happened the day before. Any excuse to punch holes in my inflated ego, "I couldn't make out an opening, I swear," I tried to tell them. Fighting Laura had been like fighting an illustration out of a 'how-to' martial arts text... only in real life, shaped like a girl, and with claws, "The only openings I found were the ones I made."

With the shift in topics, Hisako took a look around the cafeteria trying to spot our teammate, "Now that we're talking about it, where is Laura anyway?" Even if she had chosen to sit by herself or somewhere else, we should have been able to spot her somewhere.

It was a good question. I hadn't seen her since the day before, which was odd, seeing as how I saw everyone else multiple times through the day, "I don't know. I don't have any classes with her," I focused on Hisako and Ruth, "You guys stay in the girl dorms, not us. Do you know where she is?"

"I don't even know where her room is, or if she's even rooming with anybody," Hisako said with a shrug of her shoulders, "I didn't see her after Miss Pryde took her to get her uniform designed."

I could already tell it was going to be tough getting Laura on the same page as everyone else, but things like this would just make it more difficult. For starters, none of us even knew how to find her if we needed to. That was a problem for obvious reasons. Hell, we couldn't even get her to sit with us during lunch to try and get her integrated with us. Rome wasn't built in a day though. Miss Pryde said before that I was patient. We would see how far that extended. Making sure everything was alright with my team was a big deal to me, and that included Laura now.

Besides, it was clear that she was well worth the effort that getting on her good side would be. I would find out all of the particulars later. If Miss Pryde didn't know, Mister Logan would. There was a chance he would be unwilling to come off of the information, but if I could goad him into some spars he'd let me know after slapping me around a bit. I clearly still needed the practice anyway.