Bobby Drake (takes place after issue 13)

"I can't believe it. After having transferred schools, I didn't think I'd have to deal with press of being a member of the "X-men". I was just hoping the only thing I'd have to worry about is avoid being pounded on by Flash Thompson and Duncan Matthews before lunchtime," said Bobby Drake as he opened his gym locker. "And I wasn't expecting to have to deal with assholes like them. I thought I'd left those behind at my old school in Boston."

"Hey, okay?" said the voice of his new friend, Johnny Storm, from where he stood next to him. "It's like that at every school, Bobby. You've got your desks, some blackboards and some mean kids."

"Don't think you've left that behind you just because you moved somewhere," added his other friend, Peter Parker as he slapped Bobby on the shoulder with a grin on his face.

"Yeah. It's just like high school without the musical," Bobby said with a shake of his head as he changed into gym clothes.

Peter Parker and Johnny Storm . . . I'd never once thought I'd meet anyone quite like them, Angelica Jones or Mary-Jane Watson anywhere. Especially Johnny and Angelica, the two hot-heads who just happen to be dating. I'm the one who is cool and calm, yet I can't even find a romantic partner yet for myself.

Johnny and Angelica, two fiery personalities contrasting to my cool and calm character. I guess that's just the way it works with us.

I think that's enough of the hot/cold puns, for now at least.

I'd never once thought I'd get tossed into anything like this . . . needing to save Senator Edward Kelly's ass from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I'm fourteen years old for crying out loud! Yet, I shouldn't be complaining. Scott and Jean are seventeen, and they're not complaining one bit about it. But at the same time, being a member of what the media is calling "The X-men" as well as an ice-controlling mutant means that I need to hide who I am.

I guess that's not such a bad thing. It allows me to start over here now. And I am forever thankful that I'm able to have that clean slate here at Marsden Regional High School located in the Chinatown district of Manhattan.

Bobby walked into the gymnasium and took notice to everyone lining up for a game of dodge-ball, Peter's least-favorite game of all time. This was especially since their school bullies, Eugene "Flash" Thompson, Duncan Matthews and Taryn Fujiko were on the opposing team.

'Great,' thought Bobby. 'Just what I need, today. As if Flash tripping me in the hallways on the way to class wasn't good enough for him.'

It just seems as though even though there were a few things that have gotten easier after I'd transferred schools and moved to New York, there are still those difficult moments where I dread going to school. I know I shouldn't be complaining. Marsden Regional is heaven compared to my old school back in Boston. Now, I've gained friendships with four people, who do not give a crap about my being a mutant.

Though it isn't as though I hadn't endured hardships before. My mother and father are old-school, working class parents. My father especially has conservative viewpoints. The words "I love you" aren't words he normally tossed around. My mother is quiet and reserved, yet before my mutation developed, she'd been particularly open with affection. If it were up to my parents, the only sex education I'd be able to receive is celibacy; my mother being Irish Catholic, she'd made me get a purity ring once I'd turned fourteen. However, the two didn't leave their disdain for mutants unspoken. In fact, that they're very open about how they think mutants cause problems in the world. I think Magneto only further justifies that for them.

Now, my communication with my mother and father is sparse to nothing. Even before my mutation manifested, I'd always felt as though I was different from other people around me. I'd gone to a high school that was very athletic driven. I've got talent for sports.

Swimming, basketball, little league baseball, soccer and track and field were common sports I'd always participated in growing up. I'd swam in the summers for a club swim team when I wasn't playing little league. Despite being into athletics and being talented, it didn't strike me that I was different until I was twelve.

In the sixth grade, I was on the cusp of puberty. I'd gotten a severe acne problem that took me at least two years to get in control over. There are those days that I wish acne at that time was the only thing that I'd had to worry about. It hadn't hit me until age twelve that I didn't have feelings for girls like a lot of the guys in my class did.

That's not to say that the girls in my class were not pretty. It's not that they weren't attractive with their personalities. It's just that I wasn't attracted to them, and I didn't understand why. And then, when I was thirteen, I'd learned what the word "gay" meant when one of my classmates had said that her aunt was going to be getting married to a woman. I didn't understand what that meant at first.

So, after school, I'd gone home, and I'd ended up accidentally coming across the word "homosexual" in the dictionary. I don't even know how I'd come across the word. I don't know why I was looking up the word. I guess at the time, my curiosity was getting the best of me.

The definition of the word "homosexual" was: "a person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex."

When I'd learned what the word meant, I was scared. It made me wonder if that was what I was. In fact, after learning the definition of what a homosexual was, it had bothered me for days, to the point where one day, I'd gotten physically sick over it and I'd ended up throwing up in the boys' restroom at school. It had been a behavior pattern my parents didn't recognize from me.

So therefore, I knew instantly that I needed a coping mechanism so that I could hide my fears about what could potentially be my sexuality. I'd discovered my talents of having a sense of humor when I'd cracked a joke that genuinely made my little brother, Ronnie, laugh. It had made my parents laugh, as well. That's what led to me becoming a jokester. Sure, it led to me having a crappy reputation with my teachers, but it had kept me from gaining too many enemies.

And for the most part, this worked. It helped me to keep my discomfort at bay. I remember my eighth grade years when I rounded up the guys in my science class to fill up the school's swimming pool with chocolate Jell-O pudding mix. Although the swim team coach had been pissed, the swim team got a kick out of it considering they were jumping into that pool and being crazy enough to eat that pudding. I'd additionally had teamed up with the football team and we stole the rival team's school mascot, a cow! That thing had been mooing like crazy when we'd snuck it down to the boys' locker room. We didn't get caught, thank God, because it was hysterical. It was like that scene from Saban's Power Rangers just without the bad car accident. The summer between eighth grade and freshman year, a group of neighborhood kids and I filled up balloons with grape juice and had gone down to the park, making quite the scene by tossing the balloons a passersby. But it wasn't until my first year of high school, when every boy in my class seemingly started finding girlfriends, that I'd found I was under a lot more pressure than most would think. Maybe I'd put a lot of that pressure on myself more than anything.

Then, one day, back in September, I'd started getting these strange chills randomly. They would just be simple sensations of cold running through my body at random moments of the day. It got to a point where one day, I'd woken up absolutely freezing. My anxiety at that point was getting worse, but I was still trying my damn best to hide it behind the façade I've created.

Bobby felt the sensation of being hit in the stomach with a dodgeball being thrown his way by Duncan Matthews, who seemed to made sure to throw it harder than usual. However, before Bobby could even make his way over to the "jail" on the other side of the gym, he felt Flash Thompson strategically throwing a ball that hit him in the face.

"Thompson!" the gym coach shouted. "No headshots!"

'Like he'll ever listen to you,' Bobby thought bitterly as she shot Flash a glare. 'You can tell him twenty times to not do something; he'll do it anyways because he's got the intellect level of a brain-dead fish.'

It all came to a head the day my mutation fully manifested. I was entering the boys' locker room for gym class, when the chills came back. This was especially as the guys in my gym class, particularly my classmate Duncan, began asking me which girl I'd thought I was hot. Who would have thought that my new high school would also have an asshole named Duncan?

Anyways, I'd tried. I'd tried my best to go along with the conversation and get those guys laughing. The least I could do was just try and be myself – be the guy at school who had the reputation of being class clown. But it was getting to be too much for even me to handle. The ice had just burst from my fingertips and covered my whole body. It had made me look like a walking icicle. But that was enough to freak out my classmates, who went running for the gym coach yelling about how I was a "mutie".

Bobby swallowed hard as the tears began to sting in his eyes as he remembered the day his mutation had fully manifested. It had been the day that had changed his life for what felt like the worst. There were still days he felt sick over it.

After that had happened, before I'd even ran out of the locker room to avoid the gym teacher, I'd ended up running toward a trashcan that had been there and I'd gotten physically sick. Never once did I ever regret eating breakfast that morning. I'd probably spent about two minutes vomiting when the principal came into the locker room, telling me to come to her office and that she was going to call my parents to come and pick me up. I'd never felt more scared to face my mother and father.

When they'd arrived at the school to pick me up and take me home, I'd felt the embarrassment, especially since my mom and dad refused to look me in the face. I remember in the car ride home; I'd begged my parents to not hate me. I'd begged them to at least say anything to me. It took everything within me not to start crying especially as I'd holed myself up in my bedroom for the rest of the day.

However, it was that moment of me, sitting alone up in my room, dwelling over it all and acting like a miserable little shit that the most life-changing thing happened.

Bobby could feel his eyes drying as he caught one of the dodgeballs, allowing him to get back in the game thanks Johnny tossing it his way. He cast his friend a smile of appreciation in return.

Scott and Jean had shown up, walking into my bedroom and just sitting with me. They told me about X-Corporation, and how that could potentially be my one-way ticket out of Boston, my high school, and my parents' house.

They'd told me about their own mutations and how they were essentially in the same boat I was. Never once had I ever felt more weight come off my shoulders than in that moment there. Scott and Jean had sympathized enough with me to understand why I'd felt so ashamed in that moment. However, it was them telling me that their parents were dead was my wakeup call. Since then, I've tried reaching out to my parents and at least talking to them on the phone, so that I could at least keep that relationship.

But it was Jean who was able to emphasize with me the most.

Jean's ability of reading my mind provided her with my thoughts at the time, where I'd been questioning whether or not I was gay. Having her confront me about it in confidence was the first thing that gave away her character and who she was. She had the consideration to talk to me about it after Scott left the room. Never had anyone once been that considerate towards me.

It was Jean who had brought me the first, real feeling of security I hadn't felt in such a long time. Just feeling her hug me that day alone was something I hadn't realized I'd needed that day. What had gone from being one of my worst days of my life easily turned around to being the day that I'd gotten this new family.

Bobby internally smiled as the gym teacher announced the game of dodge ball was over, calling for everyone to go and get changed. Bobby, Johnny and Peter made their way to their gym lockers and proceeded to get dressed as quickly as they could before their next class period of the day began.

"Flash Thompson going for the head; yeah, nothing surprising there," said Peter as he shrugged his t-shirt on.

"You'd think he'd develop a new level of creativity to haze people," said Johnny.

"He's a bully, Johnny. What creativity would you expect him to have?" asked Bobby. Unfortunately, Flash and Duncan heard that.

"What'd you say, fag?" asked Duncan angrily.

"Nothing, Dunk. Besides, if you want a hobby, how's about coming up with more creative nicknames?" Bobby quipped, pulling his jeans up around his waist.

Duncan just flipped the birdie at Bobby.

"You wanna play twenty questions? No? Not up for talking?" Bobby asked. "Why am I not surprised? Besides, I have to thank you. Because calling me a "fag" is probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Well, I wouldn't call it the nicest. It's just the less of vile of words you've used against me in this past month."

"Fuck you," Duncan said.

"Fuck me? Fuck you," Bobby quipped.

Duncan just rolled his eyes as he and Flash made their way out of the locker room. Bobby felt Johnny slapping his shoulder.

After being brought into X-Corporation, it was almost as though I'd gotten my confidence back. And my interactions with the others no doubt helped. Upon meeting Beast, I hadn't expected to have as much in common with him as I did. Hearing him talk philosophy and mathematics to me brought me the strangest sense of comfort. Because as horrible as I am at other subjects in school, my best subjects include gym, Spanish, and math.

Math is one of those subjects that feels natural to me. I think maybe I'd like to go into finance. I'm told constantly that I could be great as an accountant if I just work on having more discipline. My teachers, and even the professor, drill it through my head all the time.

However, right now, I'm just determined to not allow loud-mouths like Duncan, Flash or even J.J Jameson get the best of me while they sit around shit-talking the "X-men".

At the end of the day, I know who I am.

I am Bobby Drake. I am Iceman. That's something nobody could ever take away from me, even if they tried.

Up next: Tony Stark

A/N:

Be sure to REVIEW. And be sure to keep up to date with volume 2 of Peace in Our Time since that gets updated bi-monthly – on Sunday, once every two weeks. –

DC-MarvelGirl 1997

Also, who is excited about Johnathan Hickman's run on X-men? I'm most likely getting my copy of the first issue tonight. I'm beyond excited to start collecting comics.