Back To School (Part Three)

A week or so later, students started filtering back onto campus for the start of the fall semester. Normally, school starting back up was a major buzzkill, but for me it meant that I would get to hang out with all of my closest friends again – Ruth, Hisako, even Laura found her way back. And of course, there was my goddamn hype man, Eddie.

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

All of the students were inside of the main auditorium for the opening address from the faculty. When I saw that red-haired son of a bitch walk in, I was ecstatic. I'm pretty sure when I got up to run over and greet him, I crawled over every other kid in my row, including Ruth and Laura, and shoved two or three people out of the way in the aisle.

No, I didn't think of how much of an asshole that made me look like. I was more concerned with 'too sweeting' the last straggler of my crew. It had been too long.

"That was fucking magical," I remarked when we sat back down. Eddie sat on the other side of Hisako, who was on my other side.

"You two are way too happy to see each other," Hisako replied. Even as she said that, she was leaning over to give Eddie a gigantic hug. She'd missed him too, "Good to see you, Wing."

"Why wouldn't I be happy to see Eddie?" I said, sounding offended that she would try to downplay my joy at having all five members of my squad around me again, "This is, like, the last all-important piece of my entire crew getting back together. I feel so warm and insulated right now."

My enthusiasm for our long-awaited reunion was shared by Eddie. Of course it was. I could always count on that guy to have my back, "It's time to fucking form Voltron up in this bitch. The Paladins are back!" He exclaimed before the grin fell from his face and he settled back into his seat, "Well, most of us are."

It was a nasty reminder that we were missing one person; our teacher. She was still hurtling through space somewhere in a giant, planet-shattering bullet.

Hisako reached behind Ruth and nudged me to get my attention, "Hey, you and Laura were here before any of us. Did anyone tell you what they were going to do with our team?"

It was a good question, and not one I had been able to get an answer to, the few opportunities I'd had to try, "Afraid not. I'm pretty sure they've been working it out all summer trying to... get us a new advisor."

There was no way they would let me run the whole thing myself again like I had to at the end of the last semester. I couldn't. I didn't know anything about the administrative crap that squad advisors had to do. I did the bare minimum. And I didn't know how to train us either. We wouldn't get any better without real supervision, and I didn't have nearly enough experience to serve in any kind of advisory capacity. I was greener than grass.

The whole in-house staff was on the stage, from the headmaster and headmistress on down. Several of them gave us speeches and whatnot. This was mostly for the new students, because listening to it, I tuned out in about five minutes. I was glad I came in after the start of the term so I didn't have to sit through this before.

They reintroduced all of the teachers, associating them with the student training squads they worked with if they had them. Nothing had really changed from the last year, only a few advisors had been added for new squads being formed. None of it caught my attention until one introduction in particular.

"Piotr Rasputin," Mister Summers said, gesturing to the large Russian man we had been acquainted with, "He'll be teaching art courses this coming year. He will also be the interim advisor for the Paladins."

The five of us all just looked at each other, likely with similar thoughts. Miss Pryde's boyfriend was going to be our advisor for the foreseeable future. None of us expected anything less than a completely awkward experience.

XxX

We got together after the assembly with Mister Rasputin in the room that would serve as his studio/classroom when classes started back up on Monday. It wasn't an easy matter trying to break the ice between us, even though we had already been previously acquainted. We hadn't interacted in any meaningful way since Miss Pryde went missing.

Obviously, he'd had his own things to work through in the aftermath of that whole mess. We all did. Fortunately for us, we had each other and lots of other things going on. Also, we hadn't known her for as long as he did. And the two of them had been romantically involved. It was hard to imagine what was going on inside of Mister Rasputin's head. I mean, I could have asked Ruth, but that would have been in bad form.

We all sat around the studio, huddled together in our various ways. Eddie and Hisako stuck together closer than the others. Laura hovered just outside of our little circle. I was sitting on a desk with Ruthie on my back.

"Well, I guess we should reintroduce ourselves. You know me and Hisako better than the others," I said, trying to jump-start the conversation, "This is Laura. She has claws and shit," I pointed over to the dour young lady in question before gesturing to our red-haired mobility specialist, "This is Eddie. He flies," I then jerked my thumb to the blindfolded girl resting piggyback on me, "This is Ruth. She has brain powers," Ruth waved at our soon-to-be advisor.

"So... this is happening," Eddie said with a sigh, "Well, at least they aren't breaking us up, which is good, considering at least two of us probably have an open invitation to the X-Men."

He had been referring to me, Hisako, and maybe Laura. This normally would have been a badge of honor, but I sneered at the thought. I couldn't imagine the level of bitch-fit I would throw if the Paladins were broken up. It wasn't just that I thought we were a good team. They were my closest friends.

Mister Rasputin held up a hand, as though to keep those kinds of ideas at bay, "Scott believes that breaking you up would be a waste of what you are all capable of, and insulting to what you've been through. He spoke with me through the summer about working with you, and I accepted last week," He told us, "I am not trying to replace Katya. I could not. I just feel like I need to do something, and helping you all, teaching you what I can… I believe it is the best way to do that."

He'd been making a heartfelt speech, but he didn't really need to. It was going to be an adjustment period for all of us, but that also meant we were all in it together.

"Mr. Rasputin, it's cool. You don't have to come in here and give us the whole stepdad speech," I said, trying to mellow things out a bit. The atmosphere was too tense for my tastes, "This whole thing is messed up, and there's nothing any of us can do about it but deal with it."

Hisako shrugged her shoulders and chimed in, "Yeah. And if that's the way it is, well, why should you have to do it by yourself?"

Mister Rasputin stood up from where he'd been sitting, making me realize, not for the first time, just how gigantic the guy was, "You were all with Katya while I was dead. You are the closest thing I have to her. I will do right by you as her students, and now as mine."

All any of us could say was one thing, and Eddie beat the rest of us to it, "Welcome to the Paladins," He said, which put a smile on all of our faces, "…First order of business, you have to learn how to 'too sweet'."

There were few facial expressions more obvious than ones related to complete and utter confusion, "...What is that?" Mister Rasputin asked, staring at the 'too sweet' sign in question.

Before our new teacher could be educated on the finer points of the Paladins' social nuances, Hisako jumped in to be a wet blanket, "No, you don't. Don't listen to them, Peter. It's just a dumb handshake thing they made up."

"Hey, we didn't make it up," I made sure to specify. It was very important that she got this right, "You're giving us too much credit. We stole it and re-appropriated it," I pointed over to Mister Rasputin who was trying to mimic Eddie's own hand gesture, "Hah! See? He's doing it!"

Small victories, people. Take them where you can get them. Life isn't much for handing us extensive winning streaks, so hoard every single one you can get.