Being a Mutant Teenager is Hard and No One Understands [complete]

[Aimee Connors]

[Continued from here]

Aimee's flip flops were loud on the gravel of the alley as she walked alongside Alex away from Redencion House. Probably not the best choice of footwear, either, as little rocks kept getting flicked up between her foot and the foam.

"So, this is awkward," she said finally, just to break the silence. "Where do you want to go for lunch?"

[Alex Kaine]

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. In-N-Out?"

[Aimee Connors]

"Sounds good to me."

They trudged along in silence towards the bus stop, knee high weeds threatening to take over the alley in a few places where their neighbors didn't bother trying to remove them. The air was hot and dry.

Aimee sighed quietly. "Sorry you got roped into 'cheer up Aimee' duty."

[Alex Kaine]

"Let me tell you, getting a free lunch and spending time with a friend, that's a big sacrifice," Alex replied. He searched Aimee's face for any flicker of humor, but with her head down and her hair curtaining her eyes on either side, he really couldn't tell. They walked on a few more seconds in silence.

"You know," Alex said presently, "I don't think this was a 'cheer up Aimee' plot at all."

[Aimee Connors]

"What?" She looked up a bit, and stumbled awkwardly over a pile of rocks. "Ow! God, sorry, I'm a mess."

Aimee stared at the ground as though it might betray her suddenly again, and continued, "How do you mean?"

[Alex Kaine]

Alex stopped just short of steadying her with a hand. No need in offering help where it wasn't needed.

"Well, think about it," he said. "We all know Tess is a rotten liar, right? So when you pressed her, she started stammering about wanting to make you feel better. If she really wanted to make you feel better, she would have stammered about something else to try and hide it. That must mean she must be trying to hide something else, and making you feel better was just a cover. So, see, she wasn't trying to make you feel better at all."

He paused, just to make sure it still all made sense in his own head. "So... that ought to make you feel better. Right?"

[Aimee Connors]

Aimee thought about it for a minute and laughed. "Actually, it kinda does. Wow."

She walked with her head up a little higher, and added, "In-N-Out sounds better already." She looked up at him, smiling, and brushed her hair out of her eyes. When she'd first met Alex she'd entertained the notion that maybe he'd look at her in a different way than just as a friend. After all, he was devastatingly hot. But then Lana had come along and Aimee had quickly removed those thoughts, accustomed to protecting herself from getting hurt.

After all, when you grow up in New York, and you're purple, you hear a lot of hurtful things, and its best to insulate the part of you that makes you who you are from it. Sometimes Aimee wondered if she was ever going to meet someone who'd be able to see past what she looked like on the outside.

Besides Anna, of course. She didn't count at all. Someone like a boy.

For now, of course, she'd settle for keeping company with her extremely hot friend. Aimee kicked some gravel, regretted it due to the flip flops, and said, "So, when's that rally going to be? Coming up, isn't it? Is Lana going to go with you?"

[Alex Kaine]

The alley spit them out onto a sidewalk that ran down toward the main drag. The only person they'd seen so far was a middle-aged man standing guard nervously over the lawn sprinkler he wasn't supposed to be using.

"Yeah, it's on Friday," Alex replied. "Lana said she's coming. How about you, you decided yet?"

[Aimee Connors]

She shrugged her thin shoulders, and pulled restlessly at the bottom of her white t-shirt. "I dunno. I mean, I guess so. Anna said something about taking the van, which seems weird... but on the other hand its such an Anna thing to do. You know?"

Aimee dug in her small purse for her bus pass as they approached the stop. They could walk to the burger place, but it was just too hot. And it would take too long.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex smiled - yeah, it was an Anna thing. If she were the one presenting the lawsuit against the MRA, she'd probably bring refreshments for the judge and defensive counsel.

"She thinks it's worth supporting," he said with a shrug. "It's a show of mutant solidarity. And there are mundanes coming, too. You know, just because you're there doesn't mean you're automatically lumped in with the extremist mutant crazies like me."

He grinned broadly at her as the bus turned the corner at the end of the street.

[Aimee Connors]

"Well, thanks for that, but," she gestured down the length of her five foot frame, "This pretty much does it these days. For the lumping me into a group thing. I've never seen it this bad before, to be honest."

The bus was almost there, and she raised her voice over the sound of it. "But that's enough about me. Really. Maybe we should go dancing or something on Friday night. Er, you and Lana, of course." The hiss of the bus' pneumatics made further talk impossible until they were safely aboard.

She leaned against the window, until she remembered how filthy buses were. "Anyway, there's a cool 18 and up club I heard about at school. They say they're not very good at carding people."

[Alex Kaine]

"Yeah?"

Alex raised his eyebrows with interest, and he took a surreptitious look around.

"I'm secretly trying to be a corrupting influence on Lana... that sounds like an excellent idea. All we have to do is tell Anna we'll find our own ride home. I bet we can also drag Jim along, and probably Ronnie and Scott and Jen--"

He suddenly got a mental picture of Jennifer in a dark club with dozens of unfamiliar guys with money to buy alcohol.

"On second thought, better not take Jen."

[Aimee Connors]

Aimee giggled, "Yeah, but I think we're good. She's going to visit her aunt this weekend." She sobered a little. "Her parents still won't talk to her. Really bad blood there."

They rode in silence for a few minutes after that. Aimee splayed her hand on the back of the seat in front of her, feeling herself stick to the surface. She'd never investigated exactly why it was she could climb up walls like a spider, but the thought was that her palms and soles of her feet had little barbs on them that would grip to anything. Others could feel them - a roughness that was softer than the pokey side of velcro, but still noticeable.

Thankfully she could control it so that things didn't randomly stick to her hands. "Stop's coming up," she said, suddenly remembering Tess' excuse. "I don't see any radical vegans outside this one." She winked at Alex as the bus rolled past to the closest stop, and came to a halt with a loud squeal of brakes.

[Alex Kaine]

"Huh?"

There really wasn't time for explanation as he and Aimee and about a half dozen other passengers piled out of the bus and onto the sidewalk. People threw a few glances at the purple girl behind them, but mostly they were polite enough or embarrassed enough or engrossed enough in their own business not to stare.

Only minutes later they were sitting down with a pair of lunch baskets, Alex with his customary two-by-two burger and fries, animal style, Aimee with a single and a tall chocolate milkshake. Junk food made everything better.

"Okay, okay, this one's better, I swear," Alex said. "All right. How many psychics does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

He wiped his hands on a napkin to take up the requisite pause and said, "Just one. Because... hey, quit picturing me naked!"

[Aimee Connors]

Aimee nearly choked on her fries, and then groaned. "That's terrible. Really. Terrible.

"I like this one, personally. How many flies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" She sipped her milkshake, thick and delicious and cold, and continued, "Two - it only takes two to screw!" Aimee rolled her eyes at her own joke, dipping a bunch of fries into ketchup.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex had heard worse versions of that one. He sipped his Coke and followed up with, "How many shapeshifters does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one. The trick is keeping them from changing back."

He put a hand over his mouth to cover his laughter and added, "How many Vipuls does it take to change a lightbulb? No one knows, he never stops at one."

[Aimee Connors]

She laughed at that one, her smile lighting up her face. "Oh man, I hadn't heard that one before. Not bad, Mr. Kaine, not bad at all." Aimee looked out over the inside of the restaurant and caught a little boy staring at her. She smiled and gave him a little wave, getting a small one in return.

"I like kids," she said. "At least when they ask if I drank too much grape juice I know its an innocent question."

[Alex Kaine]

Well, she was still pensive, but she wasn't downcast. That was an improvement.

"That's how it should be, isn't it?" Alex said. "You can see in the dark, you can climb up walls... Sure, it's different, and it's awesome. After fifty thousand years or so, the human race is finally getting some meaningful upgrades. I think childlike wonder is an appropriate response."

[Aimee Connors]

"Its better than the alternatives." Aimee took a huge bite out of her cheeseburger, and was chewing when the door behind Alex opened and Cameron Bell walked in. She hurriedly tried to swallow the too-big mouthful, but failed and had a coughing fit as the older boy caught sight of her and started coming toward them.

[Cameron Bell]

Cameron beamed at the sight of an old friendly face. He cut a meandering route around the surrounding tables until he reached them. It was polite, he figured, to remain standing. After all, for all he knew they were on a date, a first date at that. Aimee was recovering from an undignified splutter so he gave her an amused pat on the back, then extended a hand to Alex in warm greeting.