Rough Days
Chapter 1 - What It's Like To Be A Toad
Summary: A li'l bit of the World of Todd for all you fans, his thoughts and experiences. Kinda like a day in the life sort of thing.
Rating: R, for language and violence. I don't think I'm good enough to write NC-17 type gore, so lucky you.
A/N: OMG! I'm writing a fic that isn't the intentionally funny kind. Someone strike sense into me before I lose my mind. No romantic comedies? Oh my, what am I doing?
A/N #2: Yeah, yeah. I know I said I wouldn't write anything very soon, but these stories just came to me. Besides, I don't have to go out drinking every night, do I? Or, at least, I can always write during the daytime. And please review if you can, I'd like to hear any thoughts on my story/writing you might have.
Morons. I'm surrounded by morons.
No, not the Brotherhood. Me. Freddy. Pietro. Lance. And even Tabby, now. We're awesome, yo. It's all those preppy losers, dumbass jocks, fatheaded nerds and anyone else I've forgotten. Especially those X-Geeks. Hell, they've even got a nice little combo on the loser quotient. Summers and Grey, morons extraordinaire. Those two are probably closet sluts. Snobby clothes, brand name clothing, that high and mighty attitude about the misuse of powers when their friends (and themselves) do that shit all the time. Did you know that those idiots can barely even control their powers?
Oh yeah, Lance told me. Grey freaked out during track practice and almost skewered a few sprinters. The whore probably got told to hit the showers 'cause she wasn't good enough. As for Summers, he's an entirely different matter. He has no control of his powers whatsoever. Just rip those stupid glasses off his head and the guy's tears apart anything he's looking at. Now that's what you call, "If looks could kill."
There's the fuzz ball and the kitty cat. One keeps poofing around town even though he's supposed to know better and the other one, the high-strung valley girl brainiac, just passes through things whenever there's a scare. One of these days she's going to fall to the middle of the Earth and never come back.
Rogue. Fucking traitor, her powers are almost useless. Just a God damn, mutant vampire.
And then there's Evan. Pietro's "supposed" rival. I say "supposed", because the guy's the biggest moron you'll ever meet. Literally. He skips more class than we do; and let me tell you, that's a hell of a lot. He even gets the shittiest grades you've ever seen. Must be all that bleach he uses on his hair. It can't be good for the brain, at all. He's got the worst control on his powers too. The guy sneezes and you have to scramble for cover. At least Summers and Rogue (whatever her real name is) have an excuse: their shit don't turn off. I don't know why Pietro doesn't grab one of those spikes and stabs Daniels in that big, fat head of his. He ain't doing it out of kindness, I can tell ya that much.
"Mr. Tolensky, are you with us?" asked Mr. Ingleton, Todd's history teacher.
"Uhh, yeah yo." The young boy shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts away from the demoralizing thoughts of Bayville's other mutants. "Sorry 'bout that, it's been a little hard to concentrate on anything lately."
"I'm sorry to hear that Todd, would you like me to write you a pass to see the nurse? Maybe she could excuse you and have your guardians pick you up."
"Oh, uhh… nah. I'm cool. It's alright."
In all honesty, Todd really had been having trouble concentrating lately, through no fault of his own, of course. Could he help it if every word out of every teacher's mouths bored him to no end? Of course, the Brotherhood having shitty holidays might have had a little to do with it.
With no heat, no TV and nothing to do, they were left to stealing to keep themselves warm and fed. Moist turkeys, delicious roasts, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, freshly baked breads, flavorful ribs that stick to your fingers, various kinds of pie. What was the point of having such sumptuous feasts when you have to resort to criminal activity to have them? The entire concept brought no contentment to the Brotherhood, even to Pietro, who could steal all the food they'd need without detection.
They would survive winter, however, defying the poverty that had befallen them. Because in the Brotherhood House, when you've lost your guardians and family members that never gave a shit about you, all you had were your friends. And in the Brotherhood House, your friends are your family. The only family you need to care about, not some megalomaniac father bent on eradicating the human species, or a mother who fights against her own child, or a bastard step-father who beats you whether he's drunk or not.
Fuck it. We don't need that shit. We've just got to take care of each other, and our lives will fall right into place.
Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. But nothing would ever convince Lance, Pietro, Todd, Fred and Tabitha not to at least try. They didn't have an old bald man with an enormous trust fund to take care of their every want, but they didn't need one either. Not to give them a house. Not to give them training as mutants. And especially not to give them a family. Nah, they already had richer lives. And a hell of a lot more fun.
Yeah, yo. All you need to do is believe in faeries. Cover me with dust and watch me fly.
Today would be a good day. When Todd and his friends go home this afternoon, they would forget about school, unburden themselves with life and responsibility, and simply let go of themselves. When you're with the Brotherhood, you don't need to have a care in the world. Other than have fun. 'Cause what the fuck would you become when you didn't know how to have fun anymore? Just another god damn automaton, pounded into existence by laws and ideals made to govern the lives of others, creating a slave of the free world.
What a fucking load.
Todd rushed from his seat at the sound of the bell. The teacher was frantically trying to get the students to write down the night's homework before leaving, but it was futile. Todd knew it, and so did his classmates. Any direction from a teacher after the end of class shall be considered null and void. You snooze, you lose teach. He chuckled to himself as he made his way to his locker, thinking of the embarrassment to teaching Bayville High's educators were. Not that they didn't have their moments, of course. There were a few teachers that were nice, cool and understanding, like Mr. Ingleton, Mrs. Applebee or Mr. McCoy, but he was long gone. It was widely known around school that Hank McCoy had turned out to be a mutant and terrorized the entire city one night when he lost control of himself.
He ran his hands through his dust colored hair in anticipation to rejoin his friends; but first, he needed to get some play materials he had left inside his locker. "Just need that Elastic Plastic, then we can get the hell out of here." (For those of you not familiar, it's like a mix between Play-Doh[or toothpaste] and a balloon. In essence, it's a balloon in a tube.) And he had plenty of it, especially the glow in the dark kind. "But first…" his speech drawled out to himself as he spotted none other than Mr. Wonderful, Scott Summers, walking along with his butt-buddy Paul.
You should watch out, Cyke, I heard they just waxed the floors.
Toad darted behind Scott and fell into step with the auburn haired teenager, bringing his foot out to hook around Scott's ankle as he took a step forward. Unfortunately for Mr. Summers, his body was already progressing forward, entire weight compressed unto the small point of his toes. On his rear foot. One forceful shove sideways and Scott was sent careening into his blonde friend. The two wound up in a tangled mess on the tiled floors, with the entire student body halted in their affairs just to laugh along at the two popular, but humiliated teens.
Scott readjusted his ruby quartz glasses before lifting his head from the ground and carefully scrutinizing the instigator of his embarrassment. "Toad," he seethed, causing the name to sound like something you would sweep under the carpet. "Don't you have anything better to do than cause trouble?"
Todd crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head aside as he regarded the fallen teens. "As a matter of fact, Scooter, I do. Hope I didn't hurt your boyfriend, yo." He spun away from the dumbfounded pair and the murmuring crowd, who were left to gossip about Scott's possible homosexuality. He couldn't help but to grin to himself.
Not bad for a minute's work, yo. Not to self: treat yourself to some ice cream when you get home, you deserve it. And Pietro too, he doesn't seem to be having a very nice day.
What would await the young boy when he reached his locker gave him no cause for celebration, oh no. In fact, before him stood one of the people he loathed most at Bayville High, Duncan Matthews, flanked by his cronies no less. Too bad he was human, which meant that he couldn't use his powers unless he wanted to expose himself to the whole school. Duncan, the big, stupid, rude, slow-witted jock was accompanied by two equally deficient friends. To be honest, Todd was stronger than the blonde boy, even if he did just look like a scrawny little freshman. Proportional strength of a toad and all that. And that fact was one of the particulars of just why it would give him so much grief to fight back against Duncan and the rest of the jocks that liked to pick on him. Plus, the fact that he could never take a beating very well also played very heavily in not getting into fights with jocks. That's why it was good to have friends like his, who scared away most opposition and definitely kept the jocks away, because of their bad boy image.
Friends, who didn't happen to be around at the moment. Damn, yo.
"Hey guys, I guess we do get to play a game of Frogger today." Duncan joked, which was followed by a raucous sound as his fellow football players laughed beside him.
"Man, just leave me alone today, I don't got time for this yo." Todd tried to step aside, but Duncan just leaned back against his locker. "C'mon Matthews, I need to get into my locker."
The blonde football player just sneered, lurching forward to give Todd a rough shove in the chest. "Whatcha gonna do about it, Stinky?" He shoved Todd again, while his companions gave howls of laughter behind him. "Huh? You got a bar of soap in there Toddy?" Duncan gave the young boy another push, sending him into the row of lockers across the hall.
"You don't wanna be fucking doing that," Todd retaliated against (much) larger boy as he thrust his hands towards Duncan's chest, propelling the older boy back into the lockers, where his Letterman's Jacket caught its sleeve on a lock, causing a small tear in the leather.. "Just let me get the hell out of here, I don't have time for your shit."
"No way, Toadie. You're gonna pay for that one. And since you don't have the cash, I'm just gonna have to take it outta your hide."
Scott and Jean rushed towards the confrontation, cutting a path through the mob of students who had begun to gather at the prospect of a fight before school was completely over.
"There a problem here, guys?" Ahh, Summers. The goody two shoes who likes to be in everyone's business but his own.
"Duncan! What are you doing?" And Jean Grey who, despite her telepathic ability, didn't ever know when to butt out.
"The little twerp tore my jacket, so I'm gonna teach him a lesson for putting his grubby little hands on me."
Scott edged forward, extending his hands to place himself as a barrier between the radically different-sized teenagers. "Whoa there Matthews, hold on a minute. He's littler than you are, cut him a break." Scott Summers, always trying to act like the hero, even to people he didn't like. And to people who didn't like him back.
So, it wasn't a surprise when Todd denied the help. "Butt out yo, this is between me and the muscle head."
"You heard the little man." Within a few seconds, three extra football players had come around and pulled Scott aside, restraining him from further involvement. When he had been neutralized as a nuisance, one of the brown haired jocks broke off to restrain Jean, who had started to complain.
"Duncan! You can't fight on school grounds, you'll get suspended! And you're a lot bigger than Toad, what do you think everyone would think of you beating up a freshman?" At Duncan's shrug, Jean realized that it would be useless trying to appeal to his more reasonable nature. If he actually had one, that is. She wouldn't even be able to use a mental suggestion, knowing that the students would think it would be suspicious if Duncan Matthews ever found good sense and broke off a fight. That left Todd, who would have to play down his mutant powers, in the hands of an irate jock, and two others who might not comprehend the concept of fair play.
"Don't worry about it babe," The blonde athlete smirked at his redheaded girlfriend as he started to remove his jacket. As soon as he turned his eyes back on Todd, however, he was met with a surprise.
Eat this, you sorry little cunt.
"Fuck you, cock sucker." The gathered crowd let out a squeal of excitement as Todd's fist came into contact with a very unguarded nose. As he pulled his hand back, he could feel the warm, sticky blood dripping from his knuckles. Trying to squeeze in another hit before Duncan regained his senses, Todd sent his fist flying forward once more, but instead found a shoulder tackle ramming hard into his midsection. The students spread wide Duncan rammed Todd into the lockers, winding the young mutant, and cheered on as he gave Todd an uppercut to the chin. Momentarily fazed, Todd hadn't found the time to regroup before he was thrown across the hallway once again, but he recovered in time to feel Duncan's big left hand strike him in the cheek. And then the other cheek. And in the stomach. This fight was definitely not going how he planned.
In a move of desperation, Todd brought his leg up, shoving his knee into Matthews' groin. The move sent the blonde stumbling backwards, into the sea of fight mongers. As Toad went in to finish him off, two sets of hands grabbed his arms, halting further movement. Oh great. Duncan's friends had latched onto Toad, then begun to send vicious knees into his legs, stomach and back. Todd could only cry out at the blows, waiting until all three boys ganged up on him.
As Duncan haul himself to his feet, he cracked his knuckles at the nearly helpless mutant before him, preparing to send the first of many blows. Aimed right at Todd's face. "You're gonna get those yellow little teeth knocked out of your mouth punk. Consider it a favor."
Duncan tested out a few jabs and hooks, never really coming close to Todd's face. But the younger boy cringed, fearfully at each possible strike. And Duncan delighted in it. "Here's your knuckle sandwich Toad, I call it The Duncan Special." Scott and Jean both struggled, in attempt to help the outnumbered youth, but it was to no avail. Kitty and Rogue also watched as Todd readied himself for a relentless punishment, too far to even lend a hand.
Todd steeled his nerves and looked Duncan in the eyes, all traces of fear or anger awash from his face. Through his eyes, his newfound resolve, he simply relayed the message to Duncan: You don't mean shit to me.
The X-Men saw it.
The students saw it.
The jocks saw it.
And finally, Duncan saw it.
Angered, Duncan pulled his arm back, shouting in pure rage as he sent his tightened fist forward, towards Todd's unyielding face. Duncan poured every ounce of his strength into the punch, intent on destroying the young boy's features, starting with his nose.
But inches before Todd's face, a hand clamped onto his wrist. The grip was so tight, inflexible, it stunned Duncan, and everyone else, to see who had stopped him.
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TBC