milliways_bar | (no subject)

Ako checks the notebook page discreetly as she wanders up to Bobby's table. If nothing else it will make following any conversation they have easier.

"Bobby-san."

Bobby looks up and instantly recognizes the hair.

"Oh! Hey, Ako. What are you up to, today?"

Ako gestures at her hat. "Dressing up a little," she says, "I've been slobbing around a for the last few days."

Slobbing around being relative of course. Ako's not really that good at it.

"It's a very good hat. Looks nice on you."

He gestures to a seat across from him.

"Want to help me avoid writing a book report?"

"Thank-you," says Ako as she sits. "What is the book report you aren't writing not on?"

"It's a book called Flowers For Algernon. It's actually a really good book, but it's kind of hitting a nerve with me; it's probably why the professor assigned it."

He shows her the book in question.

"I have trouble organizing my thoughts into a report that makes sense without really giving away that I'm smarter then I act."

That doesn't make a lot of sense to Ako, but it's not Mahora.

"Can you be right for the wrong reasons?"

Bobby sighs, realizing that his strategy only makes sense to a select few who know him very well.

"See...with only five students at school, the professor likes to really heap work on us. Hank is a super genius; a prodigy, almost. Warren is super rich, and had the best tutors and schooling while he was growing up. Scott is a logical thinker and great at strategy, and Jean is beautiful and smart and practical."

Maybe she can see where he's going with this.

"I'm the youngest. The practical joker and the screw up. They almost expect me to to be dumb. If they find out I'm not as much of an idiot as they think, they'll expect me to do like...ten times more than they already do."

Well, Ako was trying to help. It's just not working so well.

"Oh. Um, I've never really tried to make my work look worse than it is," says Ako.

"Does it all have to be written out or can you do the report another way?"

"I'll have to hand in a hand written outline and rough draft, then I can use a computer to print out the final one."

He's fully capable of doing the work, it's just hat he doesn't want to.

"I like it better when we all have to read the same book, then just have a group discussion about it."

"So no chance to turn it in full of doodles or cartoons," says Ako, "This is tricky."

"Hey...Flowers For Algernon: The Graphic Novel has a nice ring to it..."

He perks up a bit.

"If I could draw, and had longer than three days, it would be nearly perfect."

"There are always stick figures," says Ako, "You just need a way to tell the different people apart. Does anyone dress a particular way?"

"Nah. Prof. X would never go for it. It's a nice thought, though."

He grins and offers her a cookie from the plate on the table.

"He'd just tell me to finish that AND do the report. There are lots of movies made about the book, so he's making me do a written report, but make sure I actually read the book."

"Oh, one of those teachers," says Ako after takling a cookie.

"I'm sorry Bobby-san, I just don't know how you'd pull it off. You might have to bite the bullet and get a good mark."

She feels your pain Bobby. Really.

"Oh, I can get a good mark; he grades us according to what he thinks our abilities are."

He winks and takes a bite of cookie.

"Another reason not to let on that I'm not that dim. I'm not brilliant, or anything--I'm just a guy of average intelligence who is almost always surrounded by incredibly brainy people."

So, of course he's going to SEEM a bit dim.

"There's a real spread like that in my class too," says Ako, "There's more of us though, so there's more room in the middle."

The girls with the worst marks are the Baka Rangers. They have colors.

"Sometimes I think about going to a normal school, but then I'd have to hide who and what I am."

It's a good trade off for him to stay at Xavier's and play dumb.

He shrugs and nudges his notebook aside. Time for a change in topic.

"Thanks to the magic of Milliways, I don't have to worry about it, right way. Is there a reason your getting more dressed up, today? Got a hot date?"

"I, um, no. No date," says Ako, "I just felt like looking nicer today that's all."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

He sighs and picks up his glass of milk, taking a sip.

"Love's nothing but trouble anyway, from what I can tell."

"What happened?"

Because something obviously did.

"Valentine's day at Milliways. I don't know what the heck happened, but I made an ass out of myself as a result."

"I guess that means that Valentines Day is on the list of annoying holidays in Milliways," says Ako, "Did it have anything to do with that big fight?"

"No, that was completely different."

Though he was involved in that whole thing, too.

"I basically declared my undying love for someone I'm barely friends with, and I don't even know why."

"That is strange," says Ako, "And I don`t like it at all.

Minds are special. Costume changes, body swapping, all that leaves the minds as minds and didn't really touch the minds involved. This is deeply different and that's not good.