Fighting the Still Life (Part Three)

It was weird being at school and not seeing a ton of people around during the daytime. The place was like a ghost town if you compared it to the way it was normally when classes were going.

The basketball courts were empty, which gave me plenty of space to burn time throwing up shots and playing the invisible opponent all by my lonesome. I was alone, just working up a sweat, at least until I was joined by the two people in charge of the school.

I saw Mister Summers and Miss Frost coming when I jogged off to grab a rebound from a missed shot. To acknowledge their presence, I threw a pass Mister Summers way. He caught it with a grin and took a shot the moment he stepped on to the court, a long three-pointer. It went in.

"Show off," I remarked, fetching the ball so I could idly dribble back over to the two of them, "I'm bored, but I don't think you're here for a game."

Miss Frost raised an eyebrow before gesturing down to her heeled feet with a scoff, "Please, darling. In these shoes?"

"I've got time. You can go get some flats and come back. I'll wait," The look on her face showed me just what she thought about that idea, even as a joke. I turned to Mister Summers, who probably would have been more up for it, "What about you? Let's see who wins one-on-one; the leader of the X-Men, or one incandescent boi."

"Maybe later," Mister Summers said, deflecting before getting down to business. "We actually came to talk to you about something. Logan came to speak to us about a talk you had."

I stopped dribbling and pressed the ball between my hands hard, "About me being a sociopath?"

Miss Frost leveled sharp blue eyes on me, clearly not liking my choice of self-description, "Your own words, Mister Marcher. You are no such thing. But if you feel concerned, we will do our best to help you. How do you feel about therapy?"

I winced at the idea, "It hasn't really changed since the last time we did something like that," It was a different situation though. Then it had been because everyone thought I was crazy when I wasn't. Now... well, it just took a little longer than everyone figured for me to start losing it, "I don't have a problem at least trying," I had more or less asked for this, after all.

"We have a proposition for you," Mister Summers offered, "At the start of the new year, the school will have a new guidance counselor. He's very good. He's been doing great work with Kevin Ford. From Emma's team-."

I held up a hand to keep him from explaining further, "I know. We're acquainted," Kevin seemed moody and, for lack of a better term, emo. But he mostly seemed to have his head on straight, despite having death touch powers, "So, you want me to go see this counselor guy? Lead the way on this one?"

I must have gotten it right, because Miss Frost and Mister Summers looked at each other, "While his work with Kevin has been outstanding, it would be best if we had more of a sample size to work with," Miss Frost explained, "You're very different from Kevin and have different issues."

Oh, so I had 'issues' now? Well, they weren't wrong. That was the entire reason we had this conversation to begin with. I was apprehensive to sit down with someone outside of this world. It was why I didn't talk to my parents about it. It was why I didn't talk to anyone else my age about it that hadn't dealt with anything similar.

"If it helps, he's a very famous counselor," Miss Frost offered, "Sean Garrison. He works with athletes, superheroes, all kinds of public figures."

A guy like that should have been swimming in cash, and with way better options than talking to a bunch of ornery mutant kids, "Why is he taking a position as a guidance counselor then? Do you guys really pay that much?" I tried to joke.

Mister Summers took my joke seriously enough to explain the circumstances around the hire, "Dr. Garrison is a renowned supporter of mutant rights. He's been championing our cause for years. It isn't so strange that he would wish to help the children that are going to be our future."

I agreed, simply because I needed an outside opinion that I was crazy, "So how much should I tell him about all of the insane things that happen around here? Because that might scare him off, and I really don't want to talk about some things, but he probably needs context of what he's gotten into."

Mister Summers reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, "He has files on our students in the X-Men training program. We plan to have all students in the program meet with him. When it comes to recent events involving the student body, he should be aware," He explained, "...This isn't a punishment by any means, Bellamy."

I didn't think it was, but I nodded. It was good to have that confirmed.

"We want you to be as adjusted as can be. None of what you've been dealing with is easy," Miss Frost said, "You've done an admirable job taking charge of the Paladins after what happened on Breakworld. None of this should have been on your shoulders."

"I've said it before – you are being trained to deal with threats in the future. The distant future," Mister Summers specified, a glare off of his visor making him look more serious than normal, "We need to make sure you can carry the load that comes with what that means. You and the rest of your peers. You would just be going first."

They didn't need to do any more convincing as far as I was concerned. If they were just practicing part of their spiel for the other trainees, that was fine. I had already made my decision, "I'll do it. But I wouldn't count on anyone else being told to go to therapy without a fight, just because you've got me going first," I said, getting an amused look from Miss Frost, "What? Did I say something wrong?"

Mister Summers spoke instead, "There's another reason we're having you lead the way with this, other than you being the first one we could talk to about it. You don't understand just how influential you are to the student body, do you?"

Miss Frost took that opportunity to interrupt, "Influential enough to throw a party off-campus that half of the student body attended," The basketball slipped from my hands and bounced off to the side of the court, "Mmm. Yes, that face was worth waiting almost two months to see."

They knew? I thought I'd pulled a major coup making sure that party went off without a hitch. I patted myself on the back about it for days afterwards. I still got 'too sweets' from the few people left in the hall who had to stay back for vacation! Why didn't they just bust me right after they found out about it, instead of letting me think I'd gotten away with it?

Miss Frost reached out and took great pleasure in pushing my lower jaw shut, "Close your mouth, darling. There are mosquitoes out," I shook myself loose from her grip and glared at her, "The point is, you are a figure here. This institute doesn't have sports teams or any other means for students to be major symbols representing the school. It only stands to reason that all of the student squads would be."

It made sense. Everyone knew us. Everyone saw us all over campus in our uniforms, clearly being trained in something more than just learning how to control our powers. And the damn school spectator sport that Field Day was. Sheesh.

Mister Summers added onto his lover's point, driving the nail of my status home deeper, "-And out of all of the trainees, you've been through arguably the most crap since you joined, so everyone knows about it."

Miss Frost casually flipped her hair, "Honestly, we were probably going to ask you to see Dr. Garrison first, even if this sudden concern over your value of life didn't come up. You have issues that we could see visible difference in if taken care of, and out of all of the trainees that have similarly prevalent issues, you're the most agreeable."

I had to stop and run things through my head with three of the most extreme personality examples amongst my fellow X-Men trainees that I could find.

Julian Keller from the Hellions? The guy was narcissistic and had an inferiority complex, which sounded like an impossibly dangerous combination with the amount of power he had. There was no way he would take well to this if he had to go first.

Noriko Ashida from the New Mutants? Attitude problems and a nasty temper with dangerous powers to boot. She was fine if you could deal with how in your face she was, but if you were at odds with her for any reason, things got difficult quick. She was a very obstinate sort. Definitely not the type to test the waters on with the new school shrink.

Laura Kinney from my own team? Yeah, we're not even going to start there. I didn't care how good this Dr. Garrison was supposed to be. The Gordian knot that was Laura's scrambled noodle was not the problem you approached to prove you were a capable of working with kids in high-stress situations. It was a masochist's run... which explained why I spent so much time trying to help her adjust. God, I'm sick in the head.

No, Miss Frost was absolutely right. Dealing with the lot of us was like dipping into a fucking rainbow stew of teenage angst and instability. We all had problems, most of us thought those problems were the center of the universe, and when we lashed out we just so happened to have superpowers we were still learning to control to back it up. How the hell had a designated counselor not been implemented sooner? Advisors couldn't handle everything on top of the duties they already had. Then again, as far as I knew, this had been the first full year for X-Men training squads, so they were still working the system out.

And it just so happened that yours truly was the perfect guinea pig for it.

"Well look who's turning into the head honcho's new favorite," A voice said inside of my head, "You're just a good little toy soldier, aren't you?"

What kind of a thought was that to have? What the hell was wrong with me?