He couldn't help but play over her words in his mind as he walked to his class. He couldn't help but think of the time he'd laughed when Pietro bragged about scattering Sara's bag all over the campus. He didn't even know who Essel was and hadn't really had any part in it. Just felt good to be on the side of the prankster for once. Yet it still felt as though he'd helped torment her.
Well he could do something now, couldn't he? Todd rescued his text book from the trash-cluttered doom box that was his locker and scuttled as he noticed the hall clock. He could prove it to Sara somehow that his intentions were honest. Er, maybe 'honest' wasn't the best choice all things considered.
"On time for once," congratulated his teacher as he ducked in at the last possible minute. He managed to score a seat in the second front. Unfortunately it was next to Daniels. The boy wasn't paying any attention to him which was good. Todd could do the same.
"Today we will be pairing up. You will interview your partners as if they were Shakespearan characters from Hamlet. I'll write a few sample questions up on the board. I want you each to ask about six and share the answers with the class in thirty minutes."
Cool, Todd thought. Until he realized that everyone in his row had selected their partners, leaving Daniels. Evan looked half asleep already.
The only way Todd could tell he was still awake was by a lazy rolling pair of brown eyes which came to rest on him.
"So we're together." Evan's tone was flat.
"Er, guess so. Unless you wanna pass out and I can interview Yorick."
Evan stared blankly.
"The dead jester, yo."
"I cannot believe you pay attention in this class. How can you bear this stuff?"
"It's good, yo. More drama than Springer. Kid's mom marries his dad's murderer and pretends to go crazy. How can you bear to fall asleep?"
Evan rolled his eyes again. "Let's just get it over with."
Todd opened his text and flipped to the story. "Hang on for a minute. I'll pick out my character. Okay, I'm the uncle. Shoot."
Daniels stared at the scribbles. "You draw? That looks like Essel."
"Her name's Sara, yo. She's a girl. Everyone thinks she's a boy though."
Daniels looked wide awake now. "Are you shittin' me?"
"That doesn't sound like a very appropriate question, Mr. Daniels," remarked Mr. Hinkley as he passed them.
"Sorry." They waited until he moved on. "So he, I mean she . . . if that's true why hasn't she said anything?"
"Because people are stupid and they don't listen." Todd saw Mr. Hinkley coming back. "Okay, ask a question before we get detention. And I said nothin' about Sara that you need to go repeatin' around anybody, you unnastand, foo?"
Evan glared. "Wasn't going to."
"Good."
"You sure are protective of this info. Makes me wonder how you found out."
"Watch it wiseass. So, what made you believe Hamlet's mom was going to let you ax her hubby?"
"Huh?" Evan asked, caught off guard and not realizing the teacher was standing behind him. He caught on when Todd kicked his ankle under the desk. "Oh! Well . . . she thought I was hotter."
"Uhhhh huh. Anything else? Did you threaten her or promise her goods?"
"I guess I did both. I think I said I'd kill Hamlet if she didn't cooperate."
"Very creative, boys," Mr. Hinkley approved, smirking in amusement. He moved to another pair.
Daniels sighed in relief and Todd moved on to the next question. They didn't bring Sara up again and something about the way Todd had looked when he did talk about her warned Evan against making a second attempt. By the time the bell rang ending class, Evan had forgotten her in favor of realizing that he had five minutes to study for an algebra quiz.
"What on Earth happened to you today?" asked Mr Sheindlin. "Anyone would think you didn't like Computer class."
"Contrary to rumour, I'm allergic to something mysterious," Sara slid into her seat and began opening tabs in her browser(1). "The leading suspect is air."
Some of the class giggled and there were whispers containing a certain vowel. Lovely. Maybe she could work it into her featured animation.
Sara found out that she could focus if she scrinched her eyes painfully shut for an entire second, but all the same, she was mostly coding by feel.
Mr Sheindlin had one rule for computer class: No games unless you code them yourself, or are beta testing by request of the coder.
Sara at least was popular when she finished coding a game. Albeit briefly. Half the accusations of "Adrian's" drug lifestyle came from the people who enjoyed her weird sense of humour.
No matter. All she had to do was survive. One more day. Then she could hide out and weather the worst of her skin trouble and work out what to do from there.
All she had to do was survive.
From computer class to Remedial Ed. Mr Kawalski sighed at her appearance and got her and Freddy working on spoken grammar.
"Your eyes look really bad," said Freddy.
"They do? How bad is 'bad'?"
"They're all milky an' stuff," he supplied. "An' before you cry? They get all bulgy."
"'And', dear. Mind your consonants."
"Right. Sorry."
Sara pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Ugh. I haven't had this much trouble with my eyes since I made the mistake of painted contacts...(2)" Realisation hit her like a truck. "Lizards... Of course. Freddy? Is anyone watching us?"
"Nuh-uh."
She briefly washed her hands in a small slosh of her water, then held open one eye and plucked at its surface. There was a small, slithery feeling and a sudden relief of itch from one eye. And clarity.
"Sara?" said Freddy.
"Snakes shed the scales that cover their eyes, dear," she said. Minor slithery feelings resulted in her newly cleared eye evicting the last shreds of the last eye-coating. "I guess I have some of those properties."
Quickly, now, she removed the other one and put the evidence inside a tissue. "Oh, my that is such a relief..."
The tears weren't going away in a hurry, unfortunately. Sara rode them out, begging a refill of her bottle halfway through class, and found herself counting the hours until the end of the day.
She couldn't wait to tell Todd about the eyes. She definitely had one up on the weird-ometer for that one.
Mr Kian removed her from class for a half-hour to lecture her on why drugs were dangerous. Rumour was ever a replacement for evidence in this school.
She didn't protest, she just smiled and nodded, accepted the pamphlets, and added them into the grist she collected for the Janine Collateral Damage Collage she had planned for an art project this year.

Lunchtime.
Sara found herself craving protein and carbs, so it had to be the special fried rice plus the tuna salad. And a lot of milk.
She smiled when she found Todd and actually managed to avoid the gauntlet for a change on her way over to him.
"Hello, stranger," she smiled. "Are you okay for lunch today?"

(1) Mozilla Firebird and tab-browsing rock
(2) Some make-up effects are made by actually painting the inside of a contact lens. This causes irreparable harm to the surface of the eye. I'm frankly shocked that various makeup departments don't know this.

Todd was ranting at himself all the way down the hall. Great, foo, why not just tell the rest of the X-geeks about Sara. He didn't want them to notice her. It was bad enough if Lance and Pietro noticed her and he'd already proudly told them he had a girl. They were going to be paying attention.
Freddy could help keep them in check if they found out Sara was loaded. But the X-geeks would approach her and make nice or wipe her brain or something. Todd shuddered involuntarily at the remembrance of spider legs walking through his mind right after his first espionage assignment. Todd had learned nothing of great significance, but Xavier had checked anyway. He had gone through his memories - ones he didn't want anyone to know. The ones he wanted to disown. Xavier probably knew all his secrets. Todd couldn't trust someone like that.
He popped open his locker. No text for Spanish today. He'd lent it to Tabby over the weekend and had seen nothing of it since. Ms. Cortes was going to skin him alive. Fortunately, Todd knew the combination to the locker next to his which belonged to Paul - one of Summers' friends. Todd pulled out the Spanish book and hoped he'd have time to return it before Paul noticed it missing.
"Hola, clase."
"Hola, Senora Cortes."
Que aburrida, Todd scribbled at the top of his notes. Deseo dormir ya, y la clase no ha comenzado.(1) He contented himself by drawing more pictures of Sara in the margins, paying attention only when the person in front of him was called to read from the book. Todd executed his turn, pausing when the teacher corrected his pronounciation.
High school spanish wasn't a language class. It was a parrot class. Everyone just repeated what they heard while Todd practiced his own skills by writing his thoughts down in Spanish. Man, he was going to be screwed if Mrs. Cortes saw his notes, but Spanish was a secret code he could use to write about anything or anyone he wanted.
Todd looked up at the clock. Ten minutes left and it was lunch. Drawings were one pleasant distraction, but the real thing was infinitely better.

"Hey stranger, you okay for lunch?"
Todd looked up from a comic book.(2) "Yo, you're lookin' better. And you got an appetite. That's good news."
"Ugh, I might be looking more bright-eyed..." Sara popped a forkful of tuna into her mouth. Maybe not as gracefully as Lady Favisham would have approved, but she was hungry.
"I know," Todd soothed sympathetically. His voice was already quiet, but he lowered it just in case. "I ain't never had no scales come in, but I can imagine. I've had gravel trapped between new and old, and it wasn't fun."
Sara made a face around her next bite. "Ack. The thought makes my skin itch even more."

(1) translation: How boring. I want to sleep already, and class has not begun.
(2) Calvin and Hobbes

Sara didn't want to risk peeling her skin and exposing anything scale- like during school hours, so she placed her palms on her arms(1) and wobbled the flesh. Not that it did anything for her actual discomfort, but it quelled her desire to scratch. "Gyah. I'm going to change the subject to something even grosser, dear. I'm sorry, but at least it's not going to make me itch worse." The last remnant of her left eye-scale chose that exact moment to appear in the corner of her eye. Sara quickly wiped it out. "Remember my vision problems this morning? It turns out I was shedding skin from my eyes."
Todd shuddered, but that didn't stop him ingesting. "Ick, yo."
"Sorry," she engulfed more of her lunch. "Dear... I think my metabolism might be going into hyperdrive."
Freddy was nodding. "That happens," he said. "You're not sick, but you feel that way?"
"Oh heck, yes," said Sara. She almost inhaled her milk. A snatch of tune escaped her mouth. "I'm not sick, but I'm not well..." She instantly blushed and covered her mouth.
Todd, seemingly uneffected by her caterwauling, sang the next line, "And I'm so ho-oooot, 'cause I'm in heeee-eeell..." He laughed. "Know the feeling, doll. If it's any consolation, yo, it's all gonna be downhill after tomorrow."
"O, tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow... creeps in this petty pace from day to day... Oh dear... Todd, darling, please... I need somewhere to hide out tomorrow. Mother--" twitch "--needs to believe I've gone to school. The school needs to believe I'm staying at home. Can I please hide over at your place?"

Todd remembered that he had his hand up his sleeve and a handful of dead skin. Yes, she had called him 'darling'. He wasn't dreaming. On the other hand, the way she said it had - intonations. It was you'll- be-a-darling-if-you-say-yes, not darling-I-love-you. When she said 'dear' to him, he heard I-kinda-like-you-but-I-dunno-what-to-do-next.
It was amazing what Sara could pack into a few syllables.
"Hey, take it as given," he breezed. "We got a room or two that we ain't using fo' trash. Y'know... if yo' need privacy fo' anythin'. Or somewhere t' stash yo' stuff. Or sumpin."
"Something," said Sara, possibly on automatic. "Thank you. Will you - er- also be there?" She went pink again.
He loved that blush. My crimson cutie... Part of his mind was appalled. I did NOT just think that!
Unfortunately for his hopes of answering, Pietro had to show up.
"Heywhatthehellareyoudoin'talkin'toEsselfor? Shouldn'tyoubemakin'smoochiewithyourallegedgirl?"
"Shuddup, Pie-pie," Todd growled.
Sara blinked. "Goodness. You certainly cram in the words per second, don't you? Todd, dear, is this a friend of yours?"
Translation: Do we have to be friends with him because he's a mutant? "Yeah, he's one of us. Ignore him. He's an asshole." And there's no way I'm tellin' you what he did to yo' stuff, neither.
"Hey, atleastIactuallytalktogirls," said Pietro. "Thereisn'tagirlinthisschoolwhowon'tfallfortheoldquicksilvercharm."
"I can think of one," Sara drawled.
"Areyoustillhere?"
"Ah, so you're blind as well as stupid," Sara said. "No wonder you couldn't see that we were having a pleasant conversation."
ZING! Todd grinned. Rare was the time someone got one up on the speedster. It looked like all that water was finally helping.
"Aren'tyoutheguywhocarriesaroundfeminine stuff?" He zipped around behind her. "Lemmegiveyouasimplehint. Dicksdon'tbleed."
O God, no, thought Todd.
"Ifyougotnothinguphere--" he 'honked' her left breast.
WHAP! "Comport yourself, sir!"
The hell? Todd stood, trying to find where Pietro went.
"Whoah," said Freddy.
Pietro was under a neighbouring table, holding his face. Sara had one hand over her mouth in frightened amazement.
When he emerged, Pietro had a perfect red palm-print on his jaw. "Unh..." he managed. "Ah... fuckin' 'ell..." Very, very carefully, he made sure his jaw was still undislocated.
"I'mterriblysorry," Sara murmured, trying to untangle herself from the chair, her bag, and the table. "I didn't even know I had that reflex. Lady Favisham's must have got to me. Do you need a hand to the nurse's off--"
"Don'tfuckin'touchme!" Pietro scrabbled away and hid behind Fred.
Fred immediately scragged him by the front of his shirt. "I got half a mind ta pound ya myself for what ya did."
"Freddy, please," Sara chided. "Violence isn't you."
And, amazingly, Fred put Pie-pie down and actually pouted.
Yo, this has gotta be some weird mutant power, Todd boggled. Three words and she got the big guy to settle down and not want to fight. Sometimes it took the 'hood a whole day. "Did I ever tell yo' you're amazin'?" he said. He risked holding her hand. Ow. Her poor skin. She's all dry an' lumpish. Damn, those must be new scales. Poor kiddo...
She wrapped both hands around his and went pink. She ducked her head, but since he was much shorter, he was in an ideal position to see her smile for him. "No, I'm not," she mumbled. "It's just a dumb trick."
Daniels was giving them the hairy eyeball.
Todd gave him the finger.
Then, by some unknown magic, a teacher appeared into the scene. "Mister Maximoff! I believe this is the third time you've been told about brawling on school grounds?(2)"
"But-- he-- I mean--"
"No excuses. Detention."
There was a distant, "Yes!" from the X-geek table.
"Suck it, Daniels!" Pietro shouted.
"Two hours' detention," said the teacher. "Want to shoot for three or are we going to come along quietly?"
Todd took the chance to escort Sara from the scene and find the one faucet reliable for filling up bottles. "You OK?"

He was holding her hand.
A boy.
A real, live male of the species... wanted to touch her.
Something quantum had gone wrong with the universe(3).
"Uh-uh," she nodded mutely and tried to swig from her empty bottle. No water. She was still thirsty.
"Here, yo." He held her hand - again - as he guided the bottle under the faucet and turned it on. He touched her face. Light, gentle, cool fingers... His skin was so smooth. "You sure you okay?"
"You're. You are," she said. Her whole body jumped in a shiver. "Hah... Oh my... I've never had nerves before. Is that what it's like?"
"Yo, you were fan-frikkin'-tastic, cutie-pie. I could kiss yo'."
"Something's stopping you?" she babbled.
His gentle touch bought her head down to his.
Their lips met.
He tasted sweet.
He smelled of forest floors and rich, wet earth.
Such a moment could have lasted forever... but the bottle overflowed and the splashing water soaked into their ankles.
They broke apart in an embarressed flurry to at least halt the spread of the mess.
Sara spilled half the bottle over her shirt in her fright.
"Todd..." she said. "I--"
Rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggg...
--have to go to class. Damnit. "After school?"
"Death can't stop me," he said, "Sugarlips."
Sara was beetroot-red and prone to giggle all the way to class.

Evan poked Kurt with a note in AP Chem.
"Dude," he whispered. "We're supposed to be watching the film."
"Read the fuckin' note," Evan hissed.
Kurt rolled his eyes and unfolded the paper.
Just saw Essel and Toad kissing, Evan had written. Only, Essel's real name is Sara or something. I still think she's a guy. Does that make me gay?
Kurt tore up the note with a pointed glare at his friend. "Get a grip," he murmured. "Geez..."

(1) Hey, that rhymed! Whee!
(2) Teachers always pick on the wounded, rather than the woundee, to haul off to the office. I've yet to fathom why.
(3) I'm pretty sure I've paraphrased Pratchett here...

He couldn't help but sing, although mindful to do so under his breath while passing anyone who might pay the wrong kind of attention. She hadn't pulled away. Hell, she kissed him back. Todd was so happy he passed his classroom, swore cheerfully when he realized the mistake, and circled back.
"Well, you're on time for once." Ms. Jones said by way of greeting.
"Fine, how are you?" Todd distractedly answered the wrong question as he found his seat.
The teacher launched straight into modern history and the standardized account of what happened during Eisenhower's reign as president. Eisenhower the hero. No mention was made in relation to the Congo or diamonds, or Patrice Lumbaba.(1) But Todd didn't feel up to writing side notes. For once he was content to dishonor the truth and be a sheep if it meant he could escape into his little dream world.
Sara was going to stay with him tomorrow. All day perhaps while she waited out her changes... maybe more than one day - who knew? Todd knew he was going to have to make preparations. He could trust Fred or Lance to bring homework and make excuses for him if it extended past the weekend. Thursday he had to be present for a stupid group presentation in order to get credit. The rest of the days he could skip easy. Maybe Fred could stay with her on Thursday and have the day off for himself.
Todd wasn't going to think of enlisting Pietro's help with any of this, not unless the speedster showed remorse. Shyeah, like that's gonna happen. Ass. He was going to have to see to him. Sara'd gotten him pretty good, but Todd would personally make sure the message had been delivered. He didn't want her to be bothered by anything - poor kid had enough goin' in with her new scales. He wondered what else was going to happen. Maybe her eyes were gonna change too. Pupils elongated and turned to slits in daylight. No matter what, she was beatiful to him. He was going to make sure she knew that.
She wasn't going to ever feel ugly. Or unwanted. Not like his pop had made him feel. She was going to be happy with who she was. Todd would do his best to make it so.
Someone tapped his shoulder. Todd then became aware of murmuring voices. The teacher was calmly up front reading from her grade book and everyone had their books open to the same page. Except him. Todd peeked at his neighbor's book and calmly turned to the correct page. The tapping started again, more insistent.
"Yo?" he asked, turning around. He came face to braces with Janine. "You aren't in this class."
"Thaking nothes for a friend.(2) Did you really kith Thara? Trish thays thee thaw you."
Todd turned his back on her and looked back at his history book. They were supposed to be doing Assignment 3A review questions. Todd figured there was nothing else to do.
Pokepokepoke went the sharpened pencil into his shoulder.
"What was the slogan Eisenhower used in his campaign?" Todd asked.
"We like Ike or something. Dith you or dith you not?"
"I did."
"Even though you thought the was a boy?"
"You're a sick sad little person you know that, Mouthy? She don't ever gossip 'bout you. Why you give her grief? Make you feel better bout yo'self knowin' yo' higher up on the food chain, don't it?"
"I'm thure I don't know what you mean by that," Janine stated, eyebrows raised coolly.
"You just wait 'til yo' all alone one step up and ain't nobody got yo' back. It's lonely up there with the other predators. Sooner or later they'll knock you down and ain't nobody goin' to help you up. Not even Sara. You'll be there one day. Count on it."
Janine glared. "I don't think I'm thalking tho you anymore. Goodbye." She slammed her book shut just as the teacher announced they could leave before the bell.

Art was a pleasant distraction from mulling over the unpleasant consequences that might come from pissing off Janine. Even though Todd hated cubism and hated newsprint collages even more. Somehow Mrs. Spindel had been forced into using less paint and more recyclable mediums. She's combined cubism with newsprint this assignment. Todd was giving killer death glares to his tube of Elmer's which liked to give large overdoses to tiny shapes of paper no matter how gently he squeezed.
He wanted the day to be over; even in art, the clock was moving unnaturally slow. Todd pulled out the piece of black paper he'd managed to glue into his hair and stuck it to the canvas.
Kurt kept glancing at him, trying not to look threatening or curious, and failing at the latter. There were some times blissful moments when Todd forgot he shared a class or two with the elf. When he could pretend the X-men were just a bad comic idea.
"Problem?" he drawled.
"Not unless you wish it," Kurt replied evenly. "Just looking at your art, if you don't mind." He'd been looking straight at Todd and both of them knew he'd been caught.
"Rumors flying around already?" Todd whispered. He knew what kind of rumors. "Tryin' to see if my skin'll turn rainbow?"
Kurt snorted despite himself. "Nein. Just trying to find a way to wish you good luck without getting my head bitten off."
"Luck?" Todd was dumbfounded.
"With all the pressure. Essel's a lady by name of Sara. I know that. Wouldn't care if I didn't. You love her, that's what's important right? I hope it doesn't make you doubt yourself or each other."
Todd felt a small something twinge in his stomach. "I wouldn't. Er. I get defensive sometimes, you know? It's cause I want people to just stop... to just accept us and get over themselves."
Kurt chuckled. "Don't we all?"
"Yeah, we all do. I know your story, boy, but how bad do you got to deal with shit like this? You can hide from the worst of it behind that watch and behind your friends."
"Not from all of it," Kurt murmured, rubbing a bruise. "Not from everything. Maybe not as bad as you, but I still struggle. Doesn't that count enough?"
Todd wanted to say something sarcastic and cutting to show Kurt that nothing had changed. "Maybe," he retorted uncertainly. Yea, fuckin' brilliant. Feeling flustered, he turned back to the collage and Kurt seemed content to keep his furry yap shut until the last bell.

(1) Read Barbara Kingsolver's 'Poisonwood Bible' for class, and Eisenhower reportedly ordered the assassination of Patrice Lumbaba (shoot me if I spelled it wrong) the elected president of the newly independent Congo. The Belgians and Americans still wanted the diamonds and independent Congo was going to make it very difficult to capitalize on that. A very powerful book.
(2) My high school actually let people do this. If the person had study hall and a friend who was absent, she (it was an all girl school I attended) could go to that friend's class and take notes and collect reading material. I don't know about Bayville high, but let's pretend they're liberal.