The Song of Eternity
Canto 7
A Normal Life
Verse 4
The battle completed,
They start to live normal lives.
First period/ homeroom. "Hello class, welcome to Chemistry. You should all be juniors, give or take a senior or freshman here of there. I am Mr. Petrosky. When I say your name, come up get your books and tell me the numbers," he said as he took a seat at a slate topped chemistry lab table in the front of the class. "Alvers, Lance," he started as Avalanche, one of the Brotherhood who helped fight Galactus, but thanks to tight media control, was still unknown, walked up to the front of the class. Petrosky went through class, calling out many more names. "Robert Drake…Pietro Leshinger…Alex Summers….," all of the students being there until he came to the Vs. "Valentine, Cole…Valentine, Murphy," he looked up as no one came forward. "Not here, he said as he marked it down in his book and continued calling out names. "Wagner, Kurt…White Marie," he finished the alphabet. "Do any of you know the Valentines and why they aren't here?" he asked his students.
"They're new here, I met them a few days ago, but haven't seen them since then," Bobby volunteered, avoiding the parts about the battle at the mansion. "I can try to con…" he stopped himself when the door opened and he recognized the two who entered.
"Valentines I assume," Petrosky joked as he looked at the twins.
Cole just nodded in response and handed the teacher a note. "Sorry about being late, this was kinda sprung on us and we had to talk to some of the administration here," Murphy explained. "And it's way too early to be getting up," he added under his breath.
Petrosky looked over the note and then back at Cole. "Should I let the rest of the class know about this?" he asked quietly, meaning the note which explained Cole's 'condition'.
"Not a problem, already planned for this," Murphy answered. "Listen up, first and only time you're gonna get told this. This is my brother Cole, he hasn't been able to speak for a few months now. He is not slow, so just treat him like a normal person, otherwise he'll take offense and is liable to smack you," Murphy explained loudly to the class. Cole looked over at his brother and shook his head in embarrassment.
"Well, here are your books and locker numbers and combinations, just go take a seat in the back," Petrosky said as he watched the twins head to the back of the room.
After class at the lockers, the two of them tossed their books inside and looked around for familiar faces. "Nice to see you made it today guys," Kurt joked as he leaned against the wall opposite their lockers.
"Yeah, Vincent had to work real hard to get us up though, had to literally light a fire under his ass to get him up," Murphy nodded at Cole.
"Sure it wasn't you lighting the fire? You seem like the resident pyro," Bobby joked as he came up behind Murphy and playfully punched him in the ribs.
"No hard feeling there man, just fooling around," Murphy laughed. "Shit, better get heading to class," he muttered as he looked at his watch. "One minute to find a room in a building I've never been in….plenty of time," he laughed some more before splitting off and walking away from Cole and the others.
"You able to find everything okay," Kurt asked.
'no problem' Cole mouthed and smiled.
"I think that was a no problem, so I'll probably see you later," he said as he too walked off quickly to his next class.
Lunch A. Murphy walked out of the lunch line after paying too much money for the bad food. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered as he looked at the food, trying to figure out if it was animal, vegetable or mineral. He looked up as he heard Sam calling him from across the room. "How's it going?" he asked as he sat down at the table. He looked around, recognizing most of the people. Sam, Kurt, Jean, and two others were sitting there and made room.
"Good, 'nuff," replied one of the ones he did not recognize in a Cajun accent. "Since when do you talk?" he asked.
"Since always, you're thinking of Cole, my twin," Murphy explained. "Who're you guys anyway?" he asked as he poked at the food on his plate.
"Remy," replied the Cajun.
"John," replied the other one. "Who're you?" the blond asked.
"Murphy. So what is this anyway?" he asked as he continued to poke at the food. "Looks like something Damon would eat," he joked, only part of the table immediately getting it.
"Damon?" Remy asked.
"It's what Chaos calls himself now," Sam whispered quietly. "You'll probably find out later anyway from Vincent, but these two helped with the battle against Galactus," he explained quietly.
"What's wit' de tellin' of secrets around here and trying to keep Remy outta it?" Remy asked, irritated a bit. "Who's dis kid dat you just go spouting off tings that we been keepin' secret for months?" he asked as his accent became worse and worse as he got angrier.
"Take it easy Remy," a younger teen said as he pulled up a chair. "I'm Alex, we have Chem together, Scott explained a little to me about the situation yesterday, but I never got around to telling the guys," he shrugged. "Him and his brother are cool, don't worry about it," he explained as he coughed back a laugh as Murphy turned his food tray over, noting how the 'mystery meat' did not fall off.
Lunch B. Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee, and Tabitha walked through the food line tomorrow and spotted Evan, Bobby, and Lance holding down a table. "You seen the new kids yet?" Tabitha asked once she sat down.
"You mean those twins, right? Yeah, got both of them in Chem and the silent one in Calc with me," Lance replied. "Kinda freak me out a little. I bet you one of them is a mutant," he announced quietly.
"Well duh," Kitty joked. "Since you guys know Vincent and us, I guess its okay to let you in on it," she whispered. "Vincent is their guardian, they came over for a barbeque over the weekend with him and Chaos. We had a little sparring match and they kicked out butts, just the two of them," she admitted.
"So what do they do?" Tabitha asked.
"Murphy, the one who talks, controls a little magic like Vincent does. They both are really good at fighting and sneaking around too. Cole can negate powers, it looks like," Rogue explained, leaving out the part about his wings.
"Speak of the devil," Jubilee added as she pointed at Cole coming out of the lunch line. He looked over the lunch room, then headed to a small unoccupied table. He was wearing a pair of baggy jean shorts and a long sleeved red Etnies top. "He saw us here, why do you think he sat down there?" she asked.
"Maybe he doesn't like you?" Lance joked before getting hit by the girls. "Sorry," he muttered.
"I'll go talk to him," Rogue said as she got up and walked across the room. He looked up when she got to the table, then looked down at his food again. "Mind if I sit here?" she asked. He just shrugged as he continued to eat his food. "How are you doing?" He looked up and waved his hand and wiggled his hand, 'so-so'. She sat there quietly for a bit before talking again. "How is your back?" she asked him. He looked up and mouthed the word, 'hurts'. "Hurts?" she replied as he nodded. "Listen, why don't you come sit with us?"
He looked down at his food for a second, as if debating it with himself, then shrugged and picked up his tray. He followed Rogue over to the table and sat down with the others.
Meanwhile. "Do you people actually work or not?" Logan asked as he leaned back in his chair, looking at Vincent, Damon, and Elena.
"We don't really need to, but we got a job yesterday," Vincent explained. "Some guy thinks people are trying to kill him, so he hired us. Damon's gonna head to New York in a day to do bodyguard work for a week and see if there's anything to his claims."
"How much money did Starmore leave you anyway?"
"Elena?" Vincent asked.
She sighed and pulled out a small notebook. "With all the money in banks, buildings, property, and the big safe in the basement, we've got somewhere around one billion dollars," she replied as she added up the numbers in her head.
"A billion dollars… Why are you hanging around a dump like this? You could have your own freaking country if you wanted to?" Logan asked.
"We've all lived odd lives Logan, sometimes it is good to just settle down for a bit. You know, live a somewhat normal life," Vincent explained philosophically.
"Quit trying to sound smart Valentine," Damon said from his desk as he looked up from a book.
"What's the deal with all the books too?"
"Just brushing up on world history," Vincent explained as looked up at the clock on the wall. "Hmmm, school's almost out and so far there have been no explosions or crowds of people running away screaming. Looks like the boys behaved themselves."
"You really worried about those two?" Logan asked as he got up out of his chair.
"Not Murphy, he's just trying to get by," Elena shook her head.
"The silent one has problems," Damon said.
"He's not a danger to others, I don't think he would knowingly hurt someone. But he has no regard for his own safety," Vincent mused as he looked over the edge of a history book at Logan. "So long as we keep a watch on him, things should be okay. He's seeing a shrink after school."
"What kind of a shrink you sending him to? Can you trust the guy?" Logan asked.
"I believe so," Vincent laughed.
Logan looked at Vincent for a second before he finally understood what Vincent was getting at. "Crap, you sent him to Chuck, didn't ya?"