The Enemy From Tomorrow, Today (Part One)

As a squad leader, it may have been beneath me to admit this, but Eddie's laughing at what he saw on my schedule for the semester started to wear on my nerves.

It was still the first week of classes, and everyone was still settling back in around the school. Everyone had made their choices on what courses to take, electives included. I saw piano class and decided to give it a shot.

Hey, I wanted to try and take Mindee Cuckoo's advice. I mean, maybe she was messing with me, but I could at least try and expand my horizons... become a more well-rounded person. All of that crap. Besides, piano sounded interesting. Hopefully I wasn't too old to pick that sort of thing up. Also hopefully, it wasn't just some sort of music appreciation thing. I wanted practical skills.

I eventually had enough as he, myself, and Saberwolf walked between classes. I snatched the sheet with all of my classes out of his hand, "Hey, laugh all you want to. I say it's worth a shot," I said with a glare.

Eddie was completely unapologetic, "I still think it's hilarious when I think about you taking any kind of music class," He said, still chuckling to himself, "All I see in my head is a room full of superpowered teenagers all blowing on recorders like first graders. It's great."

He just had to bring up the worst instrument ever created by man, "Fucking recorder," I groused at the thought of ever touching one of those things again, "That instrument was the bane of my existence for three years. And then I discovered a lit firecracker does not treat it kindly."

A cruel grin sprang up on his face, "You know how you can always tell who played recorder?" He asked before launching into the point he was set on making, "Hot cross buns. Hot cross buns. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns~."

The words and the cadence put the melody in my head, and my brain didn't like that, "Shut the hell up. You're giving me PTSD."

Wolf turned his head, a curious tilt to it that we could read despite his featureless face, "I do not understand your disgruntlement, Bellamy. The recorder is just a musical instrument."

Eddie looked over at Wolf and shook his head. The poor A.I. was so intelligent, but just didn't understand certain things, "Oh, Saberwolf. The recorder is barely an instrument. I'd make you listen to it, but I like you. That's something you subject your enemies to."

I reached over and gave Wolf a pat on the side, "If I got scared enough, I imagine I wouldn't fight back. I'd just curl up on the ground and start singing Hot Cross Buns."

Eddie scoffed and went to one-up me, "Dude, try having two little siblings bring 'em back from school with the instructions 'practice at home'. Just fuck my whole life up."

I couldn't imagine the horror. It was bad enough being in a room with them when you were one of the kids playing, "Teachers know exactly what they're doing. But don't worry. Seeing as how I don't have a goddamn piano, I can't really practice, can I?"

"Small miracles," Eddie quipped, "So, no squad practice today. I say we head back to the dorms and you, me, and the big bad wolf here can link up on Grand Theft Auto online to terrorize some folks."

I winced. As much as it sounded like fun to blow off some steam tormenting whatever randoms we came across in GTA's online lobby, I would have to take a rain check. There was somewhere else I needed to be, "I'm busy. I have to go to New York for... reasons."

Most people, upon hearing my hesitance, would have just left it at that. Eddie, however, was one of my more persistent friends, "Reasons? Come on, Bel, you've got to do better than that if you want me to leave it alone. Don't make me get Pixie to start asking."

And that was what I didn't want. If Megan asked me, I wouldn't be able to keep from her that I was stuck going to therapy. The best way to keep a secret was to tell no one. The second-best way was to tell one other person. Eddie was not my first choice to be that one other person, because homeboy ran his mouth a lot, but circumstances put me in this position. I had to put trust in my hype man.

So, I told him about my problems. I told him about what was going on in my head. I told him about Dr. Garrison, and some of what I knew was coming.

Eddie seemed to take everything I told him in stride, even about the crap rattling around in my head, "We're getting a shrink? About time," He muttered before putting two and two together, "Wait. You're already seeing him, aren't you?"

Of course, that was the part he would dwell on out of everything I'd said, "I'm the guinea pig. Apparently, we're all going to see him."

He stopped mid-stride and raised an eyebrow, "Now, when you say all of us..."

That left it up to me to specify, "I mean all of the kids on squads, at least. It's supposed to be mandatory for us," I made sure to emphasize that this meant him too.

"That sucks. I'm not crazy," Eddie complained before taking a moment think deeper, "...But that's what a crazy person would say. Hey, if crazy people don't know that they're crazy, does knowing that you're crazy make you sane?"

I was almost absorbed by how much sense his dumb comment seemed to make before snapping back to reality, "...Quit trying to sound profound. You're not good at it when you do it on purpose."