"So I heard you had a run-in with Warren," Kitty said the next day during lunch.
"Gotta love the gossip grapevine at good ole Mutant High…" Thea mumbled.
"What's he like?" Kitty asked, ignoring her friend's comment. She had long been accustomed to such sarcastic remarks.
"I don't know. Sort of…I don't know," Thea replied. She took a large bite out of her lasagna.
"Such eloquence," Kitty teased.
"Shut up," Thea retorted through her mouthful of food.
Kitty laughed and took a bite of her macaroni and cheese. "What did you guys talk about?"
"Nothing, really."
"Thea, you're not helping…"
"Kitty, I'm serious when I say nothing. I was criticizing him jumping out of the window and it turns out he was behind me. Jubilee started talking with him so I left. He introduced himself to me in the kitchen, and his hands were all cut up. So I healed them and then I left. The end."
"You healed him?" Kitty asked, a gleam in her eyes.
"Yeah," Thea replied warily.
"You rarely use it," Kitty commented.
"You know I don't like talking about this," Thea replied seriously.
"We're talking about it. Deal."
Thea sighed with annoyance. "I don't like playing God."
"You're just using your ability."
"I just…"
"You just what?"
"Nothing. Can we please change topics. Let's talk about you. How are you and Bobby doing?" Thea asked with a mischievous smile.
Kitty threw her napkin at her friend. "Nothing's going on with me and Bobby. We're friends."
"Uh huh."
"Seriously, he has Rogue and she's great for him."
"But that doesn't change the fact that you like him."
Kitty shrugged. "He likes me like a sister."
Thea grimaced. "Deadly."
"Yeah."
"You should go flirt with Warren. Get your mind off of Bobby."
Kitty laughed. "No. He's too old."
"What? He's too old for you but you throw him at me?"
"He's like twenty-three or something! You're twenty, I'm eighteen. You're old," Kitty replied.
"Thank you," Thea deadpanned.
"Anytime," Kitty said brightly.
Thea checked her watched and sighed. "I have class now," she stated.
Kitty nodded in understanding. "Good luck! It'll be great!"
Thea rolled her eyes and waved goodbye. She had trained her exterior to not show a trace of what she felt inside, but that did not mean she did not feel the nervousness that began in her stomach and spread to her extremities. She walked steadily down the hallway and into the class.
"Hi everyone," Thea said calmly, taking a seat in the front and facing the class.
The class of about twelve students mumbled their hellos as some of the older students shifted uncomfortably in their seats. It was then that Thea noticed Jubilee in the class in the left front corner. Interesting.
She let the class' mood settle a bit before beginning to talk. "I know this is weird. And I'm not going to try to take the place of Professor X because that would be stupid." There was a chuckle from some of the class. "But I don't think he'd want us to stop learning because he's gone. I'm not a professor. That would make me old." Another chuckle from the students. "But I hope I can lead this Ethics class to completion. Are there any questions?"
Jubilee raised her hand and Thea motioned for her to speak. "Why are you teaching this class rather than Ms. Munroe or someone…older?"
Thea had anticipated that the older students would have a problem with learning from someone just one or two years their senior. "Ms. Munroe approached me about teaching this class. I've taken it before and on a personal level, my mutation has led to me having a lot of ethical questions that Professor X had helped me with," Thea answered. "Any other questions?"
There was no response.
"Okay, so, I'll be following the lesson plan Professor X had laid out. Today we'll have a discussion of mutants' responsibility to society. The first question would then be: do mutants have a responsibility to society?"
"Not anymore than anyone else," one student, George, said.
"Why's that?" Thea asked.
"Because we're just people too. Why should we have to go and do more stuff just because we're different?" George replied.
"Not long ago we were treated like freaks who had to be in hiding. Now we're supposed to contribute to that society that screwed us over?" an older teenager, Dom, asked.
"Anyone want to answer that?" Thea asked.
Just then the class' attention shifted to the doorway where Warren was standing.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb," Warren said.
"We're having class right now," Thea replied, a little annoyed.
"Ms. Munroe told me you'd be teaching. May I sit in?" he asked.
Thea waved him in, and he took a seat in the back. Some of the teenage girls were smiling and turned around to continue looking at him even though he was sitting behind them.
"Ladies, I know he's cute. But I'm the only one who gets to look at him," Thea said with an amused smirk.
Some of the girls blushed and turned around while others giggled. The boys were quite happy that Thea had called the girls on their ogling.
"Now, does anyone have a response to George and Dom's questions? Why should we be obligated to do more just because we're different? Why do we have an obligation to a society that treated us so poorly?"
"Because we are different. We have abilities that others don't and to waste them when we can be helping others is selfish. And we shouldn't be vindictive about what happened in the past. I was taken by Stryker, I remember how people treated us like dirt, but nothing is accomplished with that attitude of bitterness," Jubilee replied.
Jubilee was the epitome of optimism, and Thea had to admire her for that though she personally didn't agree.
"But it seems there is a choice involved," Thea commented.
"It's a choice, but people should feel obligated to help if they can," another student, James, stated.
"And how far should that feeling of obligation extend?" Thea asked.
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Are we obligated to help those who are at a disadvantage like non-mutants and not obligated to help mutants? Or perhaps the opposite. Do we only feel an obligation to fellow mutants, and not to others who may not understand us? And how much are we supposed to do? Do we risk our own lives to save others? Do we do everything we can without putting ourselves in danger?" Thea asked the class.
"I think it's really dangerous to make a ranking of who to help. Thinking like that implies that one group of people is better than another and that's not right," Jubilee said.
"Does anyone disagree with this point?" Thea asked.
No one did.
"I think the reason why were having this debate is because it's easier for us to help. Like, if there's a burning building, it's easier for me to manipulate water and help people than it is for the average dude on the street to help. So society wouldn't put pressure on that average dude to try and help out, but society would put pressure on me to help because it's easier for me," another student, Matthew said. Sometimes during lunch breaks, he would entertain the younger kids with a water works show by the fountain.
The class started questioning him and his personal example of obligation he felt, and although the questions were good, the class put a lot of pressure on Matthew to answer, and he seemed to be getting flustered.
Thea cut in. "Those are all really good points. Let's take another concrete example. I have the ability to heal. Do I have an obligation to society? What is it? Logistically, it is impossible for me to heal everyone who is sick on the planet, so then who do I heal? If there were two people who needed my help, and I can only help one, how do I choose who to help? Is it even right for me to choose? Isn't that placing a rank on people, which we've already established to be wrong?"
The class was silent for a while as the students thought about the questions Thea asked. After a few moments, lively debate started and Thea was quite happy with the level of student participation. Soon the hour was over and Thea dismissed the class with a homework assignment.
A few students hung back. "Thea?" one younger student, perhaps twelve years old, went up to her.
"What's up Chelsea?"
"So what have you decided? About saving people?" Chelsea asked.
Thea shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know yet. The frustrating thing about ethics is that answers are…elusive," she replied.
Chelsea did not look satisfied with Thea response, but she thanked her and left.
"Interesting class," Warren said once the last student left.
"Thanks."
"You're a good teacher," he complimented. He had no idea Thea could be so talkative.
Thea snorted. "Not like Professor X."
"He sounds like he was a great man," Warren said.
"Yes."
But apparently her talkative nature did not extend beyond class.
"Your questions…I've never thought about my responsibility to society," Warren said quietly. Thea did not reply, so Warren continued. "The wings, I always thought about how they affected me, my life, it's always been an internal battle."
"Well, it's understandable. If you looked around, none of the students had mutations that make them stick out from the crowd. You, on the other hand, have a very public mutation. So for them, along with the internal debates, they have the opportunity to do things for society while having the advantage of anonymity."
Warren smiled at hearing Thea speak so much. "I often wished that I had that kind of mutation. Everyone says I shouldn't hate my wings. They say they're beautiful, but I still hate them most of the time," Warren said.
She shrugged. "I don't blame you."
Warren looked up at her, surprised. "What?"
"Well, it's easy to say something is beautiful when you're admiring it. But if you have to live with it, day in and day out…" she ended with a small shrug.
Warren smiled at her, truly intrigued. "You're the first person to ever say that."
Her eyebrow quirked up. "Well, you've been talking to foolish people."
Warren chuckled as he walked out of the classroom with Thea.
"So, why'd you keep them?" she asked.
Warren struggled to try to explain as he walked beside her. "They're…part of me," he said ineloquently.
Thea nodded thoughtfully but did not speak.
"So, how come you're here teaching and not out there in college?" Warren asked, his mood brightening.
"I went to college for a few months. Didn't work out."
Warren wanted to know what happened, but he knew she wouldn't say. "Where did you go?"
"Stanford."
"Wow. Impressive."
Thea shrugged again. "You went to Harvard."
Warren looked at her strangely. "How did you know that?"
"Heard it on the news."
"Ah, geez. They're still talking about me?"
Thea smiled amusedly. "Now they're going into 'who is Warren Worthington III'?"
Warren chuckled. "Oh, no."
"Not into being a celebrity?"
"No."
There was more silence, and once again Warren broke it. He felt like he was forcing conversation, but it was so hard to assess Thea. He couldn't tell if she was just humoring him with responding to his questions but didn't really want to talk or if she was just not used to talking to people.
"So, you think I'm cute?" Warren asked, a bit of an arrogant smile creeping over his lips.
"Spare me from your fishing," Thea replied, exasperated
Warren was taken off guard by her straightforward nature. "I'm not fishing."
"You're fishing, and you're not going to bait me."
Warren shrugged. "Oh, that's a shame," he said flirtatiously.
Thea's head whipped over to look at him and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Warren smiled innocently at her. She finally reached her room.
"You live here?" Warren asked.
"Yes," Thea replied.
"I live here," Warren stated, walking up to the room diagonal from Thea's. He flashed her another smile.
Thea sighed exasperatedly. "Joy."
Author's Note: Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it. I got over 100 hits for the first chapter of this story and I'm truly flattered that so many people are reading. If you could review and let me know what you think, that would be super. Thanks also for putting the story onto the C2 called My Guardian Angel, it's an honor!
