Dare I say I'm slightly surprised on the amount of positive feedback I got. Thank you for all the reviews.
As The Tables Turn
Chapter Two
"Now, I don't know about your old school, but Shady Oaks operates on an A Day/B Day schedule."
Lash lagged slightly behind Marion as they walked down the hallway, away from the office. Her too-cheery mood wasn't as annoying as he'd first thought, he got quite used to it and tolerant of it. He gave a sigh, and she glanced over her shoulder at him.
"What about lunch?" he asked.
She smirked. "Lunch goes on during third period, you have either A, B, C, or D lunch -- depending on what class you're in." She sounded so professional at this, he wondered how many students she'd welcomed before.
"How do I know if I have A lunch?" he questioned -- he didn't want to show up for third period and see that everyone was already at lunch; he'd look like an idiot.
"A lunch is for Science classes and Art classes." she said. "B for English and History. C for Math and Business Education. And D for Gym and Foreign Language."
He nodded, half amused as he caught sight of a couple, the girl leaning against the locker, her boyfriend's tongue halfway down her throat. He watched them for a moment, slightly amazed that they'd get so intense in clear few of everyone -- if their clothes had been off they'd have been having sex. When he turned back around he found they'd reached double doors that led to a staircase. He inwardly groaned; he hated stairs.
Surprisingly, Marion had fallen silent as she started to ascend the stairs, and Lash turned her over in his mind. She was kind of cute when she kept her mouth shut, and if she was the only one who was willing to be his friend, he'd have to deal with it. Sliding his hand over the railing of the stairs, his fingers brushed over what felt like chewed gum, and he cringed, snapping his hand back, and holding it with the other as though it'd been burned. Then he lifted his gaze.
He was met with quite the sight -- or so the teenager with raging hormones in him thought -- as his face was practically completely level with Marion's backside. He was a guy, he'd look at anything.
"Ugh, I hope you didn't take a foreign language." Marion said as they reached the top of the stairs. "This is only the second floor and you saw how many stairs it was -- language classes are on the third floor."
Her eyes widened slightly as she said 'third floor' for emphasis, and he found himself snorting, trying to contain his laughter. She reminded him remotely of a little kid.
"I'm serious." she said, "Try running all the way up to French with only the three minutes they give you in between classes with high heels on."
They started into a hallway with a small sign above the door that read, 'Science Department', and Lash looked around briefly.
"Don't wear high heels then." he said.
It was as if she had never even thought of this. "Good idea." she said. She shook her head though, and grinned. "But I'm out of French anyway; three years was enough for me."
"You took it for three years?" he asked. "I wouldn't have lasted one."
She was beaming again, as though excited to have gotten him to open up to her. "Yep," she said. "Eighth, ninth, and tenth -- didn't learn crap."
He smirked, but she'd suddenly stopped at a doorway, and turned to him.
"Ta da, Marine Biology." she said. "This class is really easy."
He nodded and she turned, sweeping into the room. He followed, not so jovially, and slowly neared the teacher's desk, as Marion took her seat. The teacher looked to be in his late forties, early fifties, and he was glaring at the screen of his laptop, brow furrowed in concentration. Lash looked around at the classroom, which was decorated with pictures and posters of oceans and bays -- he found a diagram of a tigerhead shark which he studied briefly.
"Oh, oh," the teacher clearly just noticed him. "I'm sorry about that; yes?"
"Uh, I'm..new." Lash said, before holding out his schedule.
The older man took it from him and looked over it before nodding. "Alright then," he said, "Let's get you put on the class list. Joshua?" he glanced up. "Do you prefer to be called anything like Josh?"
"Actually it's Lash." he answered, "Rarely anyone calls me Josh." He prepared himself to say thisover and over to all of his other teachers.
"Hmm, interesting." his teacher said, typing something into the computer. "Okay, Lash," he finally said, handing the schedule back. "Why don't you find an empty seat and I'll get you the course syllabus and whatnot."
Lash nodded, and turned surveying the rest of the class, who were all studying him intently. Marion gave him a smile, and he found himself actually returning it before moving to the back of the class. He wasn't eager for new friends, but for some reason, he could really see himself hanging out with a misfit like her.
"I noticed you don't have a calculator, you could use mine."
Lash glanced up from the Algebra work he was supposed to be doing. First day in his third period Algebra II class and his bitch of a teacher was making him do the drill ("I imagine that since you're here you can obviously do work"). A short, scrawny kid was standing by his desk holding his graphing calculator as though it were an infant. His dark brown hair was styled into a bowlcut, and his glasses were large and round -- did Lash just have, "I Like Nerds!" written on his forehead or something.
"Nah, you don't have to let me." he said with a sigh. "I'll figure it out sooner or later."
The kid pulled the chair back of the empty desk next to Lash quickly, ignoring the scrape it made on the floor and sat down, shaking his head.
"No trouble, no trouble." he said, setting it on Lash's desk. "I'm already done, and I could help if you like."
Lash studied the kid for a moment before finally nodding. This was Hell -- if he were back in Sky High he'd end up stuffing this kid in a locker. "Yeah, that'd be cool then. Thanks."
"I'm Morgan." he said, extending a hand and using the other to push his classes up the bridge of his nose.
Lash slowly took the smaller hand, and shook it slightly. "Lash."
And that was how his second friendship started.
Like Marion had said, Math classes had C lunch, and Lash wandered slowly to the cafeteria with Morgan, who stereotypically carried a brown paper bag with his food. As they entered the cafeteria, Lash ducked to narrowly avoid being hit by a flying milk carton, traveling towards the trash can. A teacher who'd been on lunch duty whirled on a jock-looking guy as Lash and Morgan passed.
"You'll get used to stuff like that." Morgan rambled, "Guys like him are always getting in trouble for petty stuff like that; and if they start picking on you, don't worry -- just take it cause eventually, they'll stop."
Lash rolled his eyes when Morgan wasn't looking, but suddenly the shorter boy stopped, taking in a quick breath. Lash looked at him quickly, thinking something was wrong -- maybe he had asthma.
"There she is." Morgan replied in a dreamy voice.
Lash followed the boy's gaze and saw none other than Marion sitting at a table in a corner by herself, reading something that lay on the table. He turned back to Morgan who seemed to be in a daze.
"How do I look?" Morgan asked, patting at his hair.
Lash fought the urge to laugh, and kept his tone as neutral as he could. "Very..uh..suave." he said, nodding for emphasis.
Morgan smiled and started walking again, making a beeline for Marion's table. When Lash and he reached it, Marion looked up, and smiled.
"Lash," she said brightly. "Hi Morgan."
"Hi Marion." he replied, sliding quickly into a chair next to her as Lash pulled out the one across from her.
"Are you two in class together?" she asked.
Lash nodded, but Morgan was already changing the subject.
"Marion, my dad got me a new pair of binoculars over the weekend." he said. "You should come over to see them."
She shook her head, and Lash could tell that she was trying to be as polite as possible (something Morgan couldn't). "You know I don't like bird-watching, Morgan." she said.
Lash smirked, but kept silent. Morgan shifted almost excitedly.
"But guess what." he said. "Yesterday I think I saw a golden-crowned sparrow in my backyard."
She nodded, raising her eyebrows slightly, but had gone back to reading.
"They live in Western Canada!" Morgan exclaimed, before all but tearing open his lunch bag in excitement.
Marion raised her gaze to meet Lash's and they both shared a small smile, before Lash nodded at the magazine she was reading.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Weekly World News." she replied happily.
He glanced at the article she was reading and sure enough saw a picture of the one they called Batboy -- apparently Batboy'd found Osama Bin Laden's hideout -- that magazine was good for a few laughs.
"Why do you read that?" he asked.
She laughed a little. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've liked it since I can remember. I guess because it's just so stupid."
"She wants to write for them." Morgan said, eyes watering from the large hunk of peanut butter and jelly he'd swallowed quickly to point that out.
Marion's cheeks pinkened only slightly. "Well, I meant if I can't find anything else to do with my life," she said quietly.
Lash smirked, liking this shy version of Marion. It was much better than the business-like one he'd met early in the morning. He was actually kind of glad he'd met her now.
Lash groaned with relief as he finally left his fourth period class, US History. The sky had cleared up, and it was resolutely sunny now as he made his way from the double doors he'd entered that morning. His mother's BMW wasn't at the curb yet and he rolled his eyes; leave it to her to tell him to be there exactly after the bell rang -- the old hag.
A doofy sounding laugh came from his right, followed by a familiar airy voice saying, "Come on guys, knock it off."
He turned to see Morgan on his hands and knees on the ground, glasses-less, with three brute-like guys standing around him, one of them holding said glasses. Marion was standing somewhat near, hugging her books to her chest, but looking equally nervous of these guys.
"Or what?" the one holding Morgan's glasses asked, "What are you gonna do about it, Blondie?"
An irrational annoyance bubbled over in Lash's gut. Sure they weren't the coolest of people, and they could get irritating at times, but Morgan and Marion had become his friends. They were nice and didn't deserve to be picked on like so. Lash dropped his bag and went to stretch for Morgan's glasses, but his mother's voice snapped in his head like a light switch.
"-- try to remember that you must not use your powers."
He gave a sigh, hating what the good side of him was telling him to do, before he slowly neared the gaggle of guys.
"Alright guys, split it up." he said, "Give him his glasses back."
From behind one of the bullies, Marion beamed -- she did it quite often, but this time Lash felt a sense of pride at it. The bully holding Morgan's glasses gave a skeptical snort.
"What are you gonna do about it?" he asked.
"Well, seeing as there's only one of me, and three of you, I doubt I'd be able to do anything right away." Lash replied -- time to bluff, "But seeing as I have about three friends who were just released from jail, I know I'd be able to something in the long run."
He was studied intently for a few moments before the one with the glasses cocked his head at him. "You're lying."
Lash smirked. "Why do you think I'm a new student here?" he asked, "I was kicked out of my old school to be put in jail."
The lead bully snorted again, sounding very much like a horse before he shook his head and dropped Morgan's glasses on the ground.
"Whatever man," he said, "It's not even worth my time."
With a gesture of his hand, he turned and his two friends quickly followed, one of them giving Marion the look down, and moving forward as though he were going to hit her. She naturally flinched, and he laughed before they disappeared.
Lash bent and helped Morgan to his feet, while Marion swept his glasses from the ground. She quickly handed them to the smaller boy, and he thanked Lash while wiping the lens on the bottom of his plain tee shirt.
"Don't mention it, man." he said. "You guys just let them do that stuff to you?"
Marion made a face, but said nothing and Morgan nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Like I said, they'll stop...eventually."
Marion reached over and plucked a blade of grass from Morgan's hair and he gushed at her. She pretended to ignore it and glanced at Lash.
"Were you really in jail?" she questioned curiously.
He nodded, "Sadly." he answered.
"And do you really have friends were just released?" Morgan asked.
Lash grinned, and shook his head. "No." he said, "I only have about one friend, and he's still in there."
Morgan seemed impressed, while Marion pursed her lips together.
"That's awesome!" Morgan exclaimed; he was obviously excited at the fact of having an ex-prisoner as a friend.
Marion suddenly threw a look around the emptying grounds, and shifted her books. "I have to catch my bus," she said, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
Morgan and Lash said their goodbyes, and she started briskly towards the road where a line of yellow buses waited. Lash looked back to the curb where he'd been dropped off and sighed -- his mother was there.
"Don't you ride a bus?" he asked, going back to retrieve his messenger bag.
Morgan shook his head. "Nope," he said, "I walk."
Lash nodded, "Well I got to go, kid." he said, "I'll see you later."
"Bye Lash." Morgan said in his over-excited tone, it was kind of cute in an endearing way.
Smirking, Lash made his way to his mother's car. Maybe his experience at Shady Oaks wouldn't be so bad after all.