Hiding out {Mr. Wisdom}

[wisdom]

“I was joking, luv. As shoddy of a teacher as I am, I’m not the one to alter grades...without good reason. But as I said, just watch out who exactly you use that charm on, eh? Some people are two faced, take it from someone that knows.” As he spoke he discarded the remains of his cigarette to the floor below, squashing out any last vestiges of the flames with a quick stamp and twisting motion from his foot. He smirked and cocked his head to one side, “But I’m glad to hear it, luv, the entire concept of school girl crush is something of an anathema that I’d really rather avoid if all possible.”

Pete rubbed his face slightly, “Relax, I’m pretty sure trying to explain to the Professor that I sentenced a student to detention for quoting bad clichéd movie lines wouldn’t go down too well. And I’m kind of attached to my paycheck at the moment, got an awful hankering to eat every so often and all that.” He allowed a brief look of shock to flicker past his face before it was quickly replaced by a schooled and calculating look as he regarded the girl infront of him in much greater detail this time. “Kensington to be exact if you must know. Of course most yanks can’t tell one accent from another, so I must congratulate you on having a good ear. It’s a useful talent if perhaps underrated in some circles, but useful in the right circumstances. “ If she could pick that up from a few lines of dialogue, she’d be a natural when it came to aspects of a targeting officer. He snorted slightly as he realised he was sizing her up as potential recruit for something he no longer was involved in. Still, it was worth noting down for further reference.

[Chain]

"Trust me, Mr. Wisdom, I know. I've been best friends with some of the worst of them." As much as she'd prefer to call him Pete she figured she'd ease up since he was getting so uncomfortable. "As for the school girl crush thing? It's going to happen to you one way or the other. It might not be me, but someone eventually will. You are good looking, mysterious, and have a 'screw you' attitude. You are just begging for a teenage girl, who thinks she can handle an older more mature man, to fall for you. Not my schtick, though if I were older I'd make a play for you." She shrugged and grinned at him.

The girl snickered at him. "Who knows they might agree with you. But I'll try not to annoy you with my wide range of inane teen flick knowledge." Kelly smirked up at him and just shook her head. He was too much fun to tease, it was going to be hard to curb that. Her head tilted at his comments and she grinned. "Well it stands to reason. I mean you have Upper East Side all the burroughs and barrios and what not in New York and isn't London set something similar?" She smiled at him. "But thank you for the compliment.

[wisdom]

Pete snorted and shook his head slightly. “Darling, trust me when I say there are far worse people out there than those you meet in high school.” He should know, he’d worked with a good percentage of them over the years. People that put whatever he’d done during his service to shame. He shook his head once more, “But I suppose you have to find that out for yourself, eh? Learn by doing or not at all.”

“Great to know I have something to look forward to I suppose.” He deadpanned and rolled his eyes. He didn’t even know where to even begin if one of the students took a fancy to him, that was just too awkward of a territory to even contemplate. “Suppose I’ll have to start wearing the stereotypical English tweed jacket with elbow patches and smoking a pipe, maybe that will thin it down to a more manageable, if not hopefully completely nonexistent, level.”

He nodded at her comparison between New York and London, it was pretty similar. “Kind of, but it’s more to do with what district rather than what side of London you come from. That said, the west side is the more...for lack of a better word... High class I suppose.” He shrugged slightly, what area of London you came from wasn’t so much of an issue anyway, more who you knew or who knew you, which he supposed is consistent with any city or place you went.

[Chain]

"I'm sure there are, but right now my world is high school." She shrugged a bit at that. Kelly wasn't trying to be over dramatic or anything like that, it was just fact. She was sixteen this was her world. "Boys, homework, cheer leading and what not, are the things of my world. Now granted things are different and I have to readjust some, but being a mutant doesn't make me any less a teenager. And yes, I will have to experience it in order for it to sink in. As much as I hate to admit that, no matter what anyone tells us kids, we never think it can be that bad. Not until it happens anyway. Why? Because we are some dumbass people, us teenagers."

Kelly put her hand on his shoulder in a nonflirting way and gives him a sympathetic look. "Ask any Buffy fan, Giles was hot. You can't win, you have the look and the accent. But you might get lucky and the girls might be too occupied with the boys around here." It was a small sliver, but she was couldn't just leave him with nothing to hope for. "California's the same way. You have your Valleys, your Surfers, Snobs... You'd be surprised at how many accents Beverly Hills has. I got to go once on vacation. No matter what anyone says, Valley and Surfer are serious accents." A lot of people take in how she delivers what she says, and very rarely actually listen to what she has to say. Her comparisons may be odd, but the girl usually does have a point, if they could just get past her delivery of the lines. Henceforth why she is constantly dubbed an airhead.

[wisdom]

“Luv, not to burst your bubble but you kind of signed up with practically a frontline mutant version of the girl scouts. You might want to reassess just what you classify as your life.” The girl might just be sixteen and only just developing her powers, but at the current rate the world viewed mutants and Xavier’s overall dream for the school and it’s students, she would soon start having to become more than that. She’d have to be a symbol, a representative of her “race”. It was one of the things Pete and the Professor didn’t exactly see eye to eye on, but he recognised it was just one of those things that he would just have to accept while he was a teacher under this roof.

“...Giles?” Her sympathetic look was matched with an equally quizzical one as he tried to work out who the hell Giles was. Buffy he’d heard of, but not being much one for television beyond a name and a face for the leading character he was pretty much drawing a blank. “Hmm, might have to give extra loads of homework... Or any homework for that matter... Maybe having a reputation as an utter bastard might put a kibosh on it.”

The girl was pretty insightful; another quality he found could go either way. So insightful, perceptive, and, unless he was missing his mark, a lot more intelligent that she let on. Traits that, when combined with her slightly flirtatious manner, were definitely going to make her the student from hell he was sure of it. “I’m sure they are, I’m sure they are. Back home it’s pretty much the same, although we seem to have a much wider range of accents over a smaller area, what with them differing immensely in the space of a couple miles in some areas.”

[Chain]

"Huh?" The elegance to which she made that statement proved that she had no idea what he was talking about. She wasn't sure what she was talking about. As far as she knew this was a school for mutants yes, but just a school. "OK, like you don't sound like you mean that because of cheerleading....." If it was that she could handle it, been there done that.

"Giles was Buffy's watcher, British, tweed, Librarian, stuffy, hot." She scrunched up her nose because she spouted obscure teen trivia. "I could be wrong though. I mean if they haven't tried already they might not try at all." She wasn't sure but she had to give him a tiny bit of hope. "That might do it. Kind of hard to be attracted to someone you hate."

"You got a point there. But anyway, it was just the point I was trying to make." She wasn't sure he liked the calculating look he was giving her. It was her turn to shift a little uncomfortably, but not in the creeped out way. She just wasn't used to people looking at her as if they were trying to see past the superficial.

[wisdom]

Pete hmmed softly at the girl’s reaction, reminding himself that she’d only been here a few days and yet to really see the on goings of the school as a whole. “Cheerleading? Oy...” He smirked and held his hands up in a placating manner. “Kidding, kidding. Mostly. But seriously, cheerleading?”

He regarded her with what would many describe as his patented careful understanding look, which of course translated meant he hadn’t the slightest clue but wasn’t about to let that on. “I hope you’re right about that, as I said I don’t think I could handle a school girl crush, and considering all the student base has some form of super power under their belt... Well, I’d rather just skip the whole thing and be done with it.” He was pretty sure one of the first rules of teaching was something along the lines of not being scared of the kids, but in all honesty he doubted who ever created those rules had envisioned a place like Xavier’s ever existing. He laughed softly and grinned, “Yes, a good helping of hate does wonders for people’s whole image of you.”

He watched her shift awkwardly under his gaze, causing him to glance away slightly embarrassed at having been staring so intently. Old habits die hard he guessed, it wasn’t the first time he caught himself assessing people or falling back on some of his older tricks during his day to day routine. Pete scratched the back of his head slightly and covered his awkwardness with another smirk, his default expression when caught unawares it seemed. “Sorry darling, I tend to think a bit too much at times.”

[Chain]

Blue eyes widened at his reaction. "Cheerleading. I'm a cheerleader. Couldn't you tell? Everyone else seems to be able to." Now that she thought about it she was a damn Plusle. That thought made her slightly miserable because that meant her powers were height of pathetic. She scrubbed a hand over her face and wondered why she was even here. It's not like she can do anything unless someone else with a gift was around her and she touched them.

"You have no clue what I am talking about do you?" She let out a sigh and giggled as she patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, happens to me a lot." She kind of felt bad for the poor guy because she was sure there was a student somewhere that had a thing for him. "People are strange, Mr. W. There is no telling what turns people on and off anymore. It used to be so easy." Actually, for her it used to be, but then she knew everyone well enough to figure them out.

Kelly smirked at his comment. "I seem to not think enough some times." She shrugged a bit and grinned. Actually, she just had a bad habit of not thinking before she speaks or thinking she's right and speaking. "Actually, I tend to just... Blurt things out. Brain doesn't always check the words before they leave my mouth. Hence why I can say I have blond moments."

[wisdom]

“I wasn’t questioning whether you were a cheerleader, luv, just more questioning the fact anyone would want to be one.” Sure it was like the popular version of gymnastics, but the whole preppy team spirit thing was just so... Odd. Of course he’d be the first to admit that, back when he was in secondary school, he would have gotten a lot more interested in school sports if there had been cheerleaders involved.

He smirked. “People are strange, eh? That’s probably the best way of looking at it I suppose, definitely a lesson you should learn earlier rather than later in life.” The whole Mister W remark was sort of weird, falling into the whole informal respectful area of address, but Pete was never one for formalities when he could help it so let it slide. As long as there was at least a bit of respect in the tone, he wasn’t too bothered what the hell she called him. “Used to be so easy? Darling, you just need to keep your eyes and ears open. People, especially you high school kids, aren’t exactly the greatest at hiding their intentions; you just need to spot the signs.” That was his way of giving a don’t worry, you’ll fit in speech, one that was admittedly in a roundabout and slightly cryptic way.

. “You’re a high school kid; you’re not exactly supposed to think too much at this point.” He snorted and shook his head. . “Trust me; sometimes life is better when you don’t think at all. Ignorance is bliss and all that... Of course, that said, I suppose I’m obligated to ask you to at least try to think in the classroom. Or at least my classroom, eh?”

[Chain]

The girl actually sputtered, but then took several deep calming breaths and looked up at him. "Everyone else may not see cheerleading as anything more than a bunch of girls shaking their ta-tas and pom poms, but we work really damn hard at what we do. It's not nearly as easy as one thinks. We train just as hard as any other sports team, we work just as hard as anyone else, we may not have our competitions but once a year, but that means we are doing nothing but training during that time. Even going out to a club or a party where dancings involved can be considered training. Those of us that cheer do it because it's our way to support our school mates and our school teams. We support, we inspire. Hell just the thought of actually, maybe, possibly getting a chance with one of us was reason enough for most of those boys to kick ass. We cheerleaders are the school spirit and we are the support system, half the kids these days don't give a shit about anything, someone has to care or it was a wasted four years, plus." Kelly took a deep breath and slowly let it out. The girl could have gone on even longer if that was possible she was just too frustrated right now. Everyone knocked the cheerleaders and it pisses her off.

"People are strange and people are stupid." She figured she might as well clarify while they were on the subject. "Mr. Wisdom, we are a lot better at hiding more things than people give us credit for. Oh we are really good at not hiding all of the stuff that's expected, but trust me, if we don't want you to know, you aren't finding out. My journal is filled with teenage bullshit, not even half of it is true, but it sure sounds like it." She patted him on the shoulder and smiled at him. Grown ups really didn't have much of a clue these days.

"The pressures of high school students have changed a lot over the years. I'm supposed to have been thinking long before I got to this point. Pre SATs, SATs, where am I going to college, what am I going to go in for, are my grades good enough to get me in, will I be able to get a scholarship, if so will it be a full ride or only a half? And that is just the school part of it, not even the social ramifications."

[wisdom]

He cocked an eyebrow at the girl’s defensive spiel about cheerleading, raising his hands once more to give a simple placating gesture. “I wasn’t questioning the sport...Is it a sport? ... Luv, I was just curious to what the whole appeal was to be the whole American teen spirit personified. Cheerleaders aren’t exactly common our side of the Atlantic, not entirely unheard of, but definitely not the sort of thing you’d come across on a regular basis.” He was going to have to make a mental note to avoid the whole cheerleading topic in future. It wasn’t as if he was intimidated, it was just really one of those things you didn’t want to experience again if you help it at all.

“Journals? Do people even keep those anymore?” He couldn’t actually recall the last time, outside of some movie, that he’d even seen someone keeping a journal at her age. No, it was mostly all those modern technology crap and blogs. Still then again it might just be one of those cultural differences. “I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree, eh? It’s one of those things you have to be the other side of to see I’m sure.”

“It’s true you probably should give some thought to them, I couldn’t exactly call myself a teacher and not tell you that, but there’s a fine line between thinking about them and obsessing about them.” He scratched the two-day’s worth of stubble that had collected on his chin and gave a light shrug. “I think sometimes you lot tend to concentrate too much on the big picture at times, and miss out on the little details that really make life worth living.” He heh’d mostly to himself and favoured her with wiry grin. “Of course, I suppose the opposite can be true too... But I figure I should probably stop before I go all sounding too much like a Saturday morning special.”

[Chain]

Kelly took a deep breath and looked over at him. She sighed and dropped her head. "Yes it is a sport though many would argue the point. Sorry, I just get tired of people dogging it all the time." She shrugged a bit and ran a hand through her hair. When it came to cheer leading she did tend to get worked up a bit when she felt she had to defend it. It was one of her many character flaws she supposed, but she wasn't sure she wanted to change that one.

The girl shrugged. "Most of them keep online journals now a days I suppose. Don't know why, they are supposed to be our private thoughts. Some of us still keep book journals." At least as far as she knew. Kelly nodded and agreed to disagree, but she really did think that he wasn't giving kids enough credit. Well some of them she can understand why, but still. "Kind of hard not obsess about it these days. I mean they are teaching you how to read in kindergarten now. I remember it was all about learning colors and stuff."

[wisdom]

“To be honest luv, I don’t care what you do outside of the school...” He paused and frowned briefly and added to that sentence, “There are something’s you probably should avoid, and I figure you know the kind I mean.” He shrugged and smirked, “But If you like it, well simply put... Bugger what anyone else thinks, life really is too short to stop and worry about what people think about you or what you do.” Of course it was easier said than done, especially when you were a high school student.

It wasn’t as if he wasn’t giving his students enough credit, some of them were pretty intelligent and downright sneaky that it impressed him immensely; it was just that as a whole they lacked the conditioning to properly conceal things when pressed. That said, Wisdom was a trained Intelligence operative, one of the best in some regards, so it might be more down to him expecting too much rather than any lacking on their part. “All I’m saying is sometimes you got to know when to stop and smell the flowers or some other clichéd activity. You just don’t want to get down the line and look back and realise that you missed out. Hell, I had a pretty... active... life growing up, and I still wish I’d done more at times.”

[Chain]

Kelly watched the teacher with sparkling blue eyes and it was obvious she was fighting back a giggle or snicker. Slowly, she started to shake her head as she tried not to laugh because it would have been rude. "This responsible adult, authority figure thing really goes against your nature doesn't it? I'm sorry, I'm not trying to laugh or whatever but it's kind of funny watching you try to go from you 'screw it all' advice to trying to sound like a responsible teacher. It's not a bad thing, at least not by my standards. But you seem to be struggling with it a bit." Besides he got her jollies from her bad week, only fair right?

The girl grinned. "Oh trust me, I fully intend to live my life to the fullest. Just now I have to rethink how I'm going to do that. I can definitely pass for being human, especially if no other mutant is around. But with those Sentinels it won't be so easy. Now I have to readjust my plans and go from there." Kelly shrugged, she'd do what she had to. If there was one thing Kelly wasn't and that was a defeatist. Bitch slap her down and you'll get a stiletto up your ass when she bounced back.

[wisdom]

Pete had to fight the urge to facepalm at Kelly’s amusement, instead opting to smirk and try to weather it out. “That obvious, eh? Being responsible isn’t exactly new, but the whole being responsible of other people...not to mention being a role model... It’s definitely something of a novelty for me.” It was true, he’d only been a teacher for a few months now and he’d yet to find a balance between teaching and guiding his students. So far he tended to be more of the latter, which was unfortunate as he seemed to be completely failing in that regard.

He nodded slightly and frowned at her words. It was true life for the newer mutants was a lot more difficult than he’d experienced, sure they didn’t have schools like Xavier’s back in his day, but the public were blissfully unaware of their existence. Swings and roundabouts. “Those sentinels are making life look a lot more complicated that’s for sure. But in all honesty even though I’d rather they didn’t exist, part of me understands what made them do it... I mean people like Magneto and his brotherhood are running unopposed with super powers, it makes sense that people are nervous enough to pull out all the stops, even if said stops aren’t exactly the right ones.”