School Spirit (Part Six)

I missed Ruth and Eddie's team test, and the third one as well. I had been stuck with a few of the senior X-Men trying to figure out a way to get rid of the big yellow ball of doom between my hands. Mister Logan suggested cutting off my hands as a joke. Pulled his claws out and everything. I said sure, if he wanted everyone in the room and half of the school to get vaporized. He replied, 'Why not?' After all, it wasn't like it would kill him.

I didn't know if he was serious or not, about any of it.

Eventually, Dr. McCoy measured the amount of energy I'd poured into it and decided that it wouldn't end the world if I set it off somewhere. So they took me outside and let me shoot it into Breakstone Lake. The tidal wave it made had to be seen to be believed. Mister Drake froze it at fifty feet high. I wish I had my phone. I would have taken a picture.

Either way, when they were done with me, they let me walk back to campus proper by myself to look for my squad. I wanted to know how everything had panned out for us.

Also, my body wanted me to lie down. Everything on me hurt. I couldn't wait to get out of my uniform to see how much of me was bruised up.

"Hey! There he is!"

I turned at the sound of Megan's accent and saw her flying a few feet above her team. I waved as she headed over, however I was not prepared for her to hug me.

I was paralyzed from the pain. I couldn't even yell. My poor, aching muscles. She didn't even notice, "Bellamy, that was so great! You and Hisako! You guys actually beat an X-Man! Like, you beat him!"

"Yes, yes, I'm awesome," I said, my voice straining. Megan wasn't strong, and all things considered, her touch wasn't unpleasant, but at that moment you could have pressed a pillow to my chest and it would have felt like a cactus, "Please let go. Oh God."

Ben put his glowing orange hand on Megan's shoulder to get her to let go, "Pixie, let him go. You saw the fight. He's got to be feeling it right now."

Megan saw some of the bruises on my shoulder that led underneath my top and quickly flew back, "Oops! Sorry!"

I seethed, not out of anger, because I would never be mad at a pretty girl hugging me, but out of pain, because any and all contact hurt, "Aww... it's not you, it's me," I said, downplaying any need for apologies, "I need aspirin, IcyHot, and sleep. Wow, I actually could sleep tonight."

It was kind of a shame she let go though. She was soft and smelled awesome. If only my body hadn't been tenderized by an X-Men grade beatdown.

Having saved me from pleasant torment at the hands of Megan, Ben informed me of current events, "You weren't there, so just so you know, your team held on to third place," He told me, "Your overall score for team events came out to an 8.5."

It hurt to smile so much. My head was still throbbing, "Really? We kept the same average as the solo events? Okay then."

Good work, Paladins. 'Too sweets' for everybody once I saw them all again. I would have been more enthusiastic, but that could wait for when everything didn't hurt.

"If you and Armor hadn't gotten a 10 in the combat test, it would have been lower," Nicky said, grinning at me, fanged white teeth gleaming, "You got the highest score of the day in any event. Way to go," A ringing endorsement from the wolf boy. Fantastic.

Megan muscled back into the conversation, flying back in front of me, her wings fluttering to keep her aloft, "Yeah-yeah-yeah. Bel, you've got to tell me! How did you win?" She asked, a pouting curve to her lip, "Don't keep all the good tricks to yourself. The closest anyone else got was 8.8."

"And that wasn't us," Mark chimed in from the side, his headphones sitting comfortably around his neck.

Because he wasn't trying his hardest. None of the instructors probably were. Anyone who came up at the end of their fight still conscious should have figured that, "I don't even think Gambit really cared until things started getting dangerous, and even then, he still only kind of went at us seriously one good time," I said, "They weren't ever going to go all out on us. But just because they weren't didn't mean we wouldn't. So I went ham."

To a stupid, self-destructive degree. If we hadn't gotten the stoppage in the end, we might have been heavily penalized for how we went about doing it. It might not have worked on someone else that would have definitely demanded a pristine performance and would have fought as such.

For example, if we had fought Mister Summers, he likely would have taken our asses to school. He was too by-the-book, all substance. No amount of guts and crazy ingenuity was going to get to that guy without some serious steak to go with the sizzle.

Everyone else got it. Unfortunately for poor Megan, who was still in the process of being Americanized, the most important thing I said went over her head, because I said it in slang, "W-What? Ham? I don't-," Hope took pity on her and whispered what it meant to her on the sly, "Oh!"

"Well there's still day three," Ben said. He sounded determined, "The Paragons aren't laying down without a fight."

The last time I checked, our scores had been very close, with them and the New Mutants ahead of us. I didn't know what the leaderboards looked like now, but things were tight enough for them that Ben felt the need to call us out. The target was going to be on every top team's back for the final day.

I accepted it in what I felt was a graceful manner, "As much as I wish you would, I wasn't expecting you to," I said as I started walking away, "Just take it easy on me tomorrow, guys! I'm beat up!"

The Paragons weren't my last run-in for the day. When I said before that everyone kept up with Field Day, I meant everyone. More than a few people stopped me to tell me how great they thought my team was doing, or how we were going to get smashed by whoever the hell they were rooting for.

I got away from them as quickly as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. Come on, people. I just wanted a sandwich and a nap.

Eventually, I did work my way back around to the dorm side of the Institute, when one more person called out to me.

"Bellamy."

My name had been called so much that day, I was tempted to ignore it, but that was just too rude. It was just as well, because it wasn't some random passer-by trying to get my attention. It was Miss Pryde. It was interesting as to what she wanted, because she'd been pretty hands off as far as we were concerned since the start of Field Day events. All of the instructors were.

She'd popped in after the first day to let us know that we were doing well, so it wasn't surprising that she wanted to do so now, "Hey, Bel. You're the only one I didn't get to see today. Do you have a minute to talk?"

I wanted to lay down, damn it. But she was my advisor, and I honest-to-goodness liked her. If she was asking for me, it had to be for something worthwhile, "Sure," In the end, a minute or two wouldn't affect my rest and recovery time, "What's up?"

"Remember what I said about you doing something for me in exchange for that project you have me working on with you?" Miss Pryde asked as I walked the rest of the way over to her.

Absolutely. I kept track of whenever I owed someone or someone else owed me, "Yeah? You finally know what it is you want? I can't believe it took you this long to figure it out."

Miss Pryde was a fun mentor, and she was the one who told me to be more casual when we weren't in a situation where she had direct authority over me.

She grinned at me and tapped her own temple. Whatever this was, she was excited about it, "I knew what I wanted when I first brought it up. The last two days just gave me time to confirm that I made the right decision."

The right decision for what? If she had thought of something big over the last few days, none of us were privy to it, and I was as lost as could be. I hadn't done anything with her since we'd come to our original arrangement.

Miss Pryde paused, as though she were building up to what she wanted to say. But it wasn't out of nerves on her end, she just wanted to give me a moment to get ready, "I want you to lead the Paladins."

With good reason. My legs almost gave out from the weight of the bomb she dropped on me. I couldn't believe what I'd heard at first. But when she remained standing there, leaning forward in anticipation as to how I would react, smile as wide as ever, I had to accept that she was being serious.

I also had to wonder if she had gone for the last few days with an undiagnosed concussion if this was the kind of choice she'd been sitting on with any kind of certainty.

I was befuddled. I needed an explanation. Why was I her prime choice? "Me? You're not going to ask someone that's been here longer? I mean, if I were you, I'd have gone to Hisako about this instead of me."

Miss Pryde shook her head adamantly. She was sticking with this. Any doubts she'd had were nonexistent, or had clearly been cast out due to whatever I'd done, "You were the one who took charge. No one else so much as even tried to do that since the team was first put together," She told me, "They listen to you. Even if I didn't ask you directly, you still would have been the informal leader. We would just be making it official."

Was it Field Day? Oh no. If that was what this was about, I felt the moral obligation to nip this in the bud before bad things happened, "I just don't see myself as some kind of amazing chess master than can work things to our advantage."

I was still getting used to the idea of other people counting on me, of other people being affected by my actions. I wasn't great at it yet. I tried to be thoughtful, but I had habits that were hard to break, if I ever would. Going from learning how to be more responsible to bearing most of the responsibility was a heck of a leap.

Miss Pryde's calm demeanor was helping to let me try to wrap my head around it all. No matter how gun shy I seemed to be, she wouldn't let me step back from the idea,"You think you have to be some kind of strategic mastermind to lead a squad?" I felt like I had to be serviceable in that department, yes, "Bel, it's not all about plots and schemes. You've got all of the qualities. You're smart enough. You're focused, your confidence is infectious. You're transparent and authentic, even passionate when you want to be. You're decisive, personable, and you're patient-."

I stopped her right there and started laughing. Those last two had to be some kind of joke, "Whoa-whoa-whoa. Personable? Have you met me? Most of the people who aren't on this team either hate me or think I'm weird. Or crazy," I added, before moving on to the next point, "And patient? I sure as hell wasn't patient out there today."

She smiled like I had fallen into her trap, "I'm not talking about in the field," She said, alluding to something else, "You're the best thing that's happened to Ruth since she joined this team. You have no idea."

I let out a snort, letting her know just how much I believed that, "Ruthie would have been fine if I'd never showed up."

Miss Pryde started to frown. Apparently, she didn't think it would be this difficult to get me onboard, "But she's better now than she would have been by now without you. And it's not only her. It's just her you've impacted the most."

The skepticism could be read from the curious lift of my eyebrow, "Oh really?"

Miss Pryde sighed and marched up to me, looking up right into my face, "Eddie needed someone to stand up and be as competitive as he is. Your whole 'hate to lose' thing resonates with how much he wants to be an X-Man. He really outdoes himself because you do in every assignment I have you do," She explained, her tone deadly serious, "Hisako needed someone to get under her skin enough to make her step up. She's got so much untapped potential, and whenever you two are at each other's throats, as much as I wish you would both take a chill pill, I see a real spark. She does better just so she can lord it over you, and her gloating just slides off of you like water off of a duck's back. You never care for any longer than thirty seconds. It annoys you long enough for her to get something out of it, but it never sticks to make you resent her."

Of course not. Losing at anything was my fault. If I failed, it meant that I wasn't good enough to get the job done. Nothing more, nothing less. Get mad, then get better. Resenting others for their talent was for mental midgets.

But I was beginning to see what she was getting at. Eddie didn't have the temperament to lead to match his drive. He couldn't be the spiritual focal point, even if he was more than willing to match the intensity of others. Hisako could do it... eventually. Even I knew she was more than capable once she got her backside in gear. But for the time being, she needed an in-house motivator to push her to live up to reaching that point.

I didn't even have to think about why Ruth wasn't considered. I loved her to death, but bearing top responsibility for a squad was not in the cards for her.

While I was far from a finished product, or even passable as a real crisis situation sort of leader, I was the best option we had at the moment. I couldn't lie and say I wasn't much for thinking. Field Day results aside, she'd seen me take the lead on other things that required planning. I was a good enough fighter in my own right to lead the charge for whatever bullheaded mess I convinced the others to go along with me for.

And most importantly, her original point. I was the only one that had so much as even tried to grab the reins, even if only because someone had to steer the horse.

I'd been here significantly less longer than the others and still noticed that when I didn't try and direct the team, no one else really did. It took a month of us running around freestyling our drills before I picked up on it and tried to organize some stuff, just to give us some default gameplans to fall back on. If it had been that way all year long, before I got there, someone trying to get everyone to do anything had to seem like a breath of fresh air.

The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Miss Pryde just stood there, waiting patiently as I mulled it over. I didn't want to let her down either. It wasn't even about me owing her. For something this big, that was a bad excuse anyway.

I didn't want to let her down by saying no, but I didn't want to let her down by being a complete screw-up either. Her and everyone else.

...To hell with it. Man up.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat. It was heavy. I felt it hit my gut,"...I'll only do it if everyone else says it's okay," I eventually said, staring her down eye-to-eye. I needed her to know how seriously I took this. It was a big deal. She didn't blink once I started speaking, "Everyone. Not just two out of three. This team's not big enough to handle any dissent like that."

She nodded and accepted that before backing away, smiling at me again, "You'll do great. I just know it," She said, turning to go her own way, "You already are."

"Yeah, we'll see about that tomorrow."