Stopped a Bully; Bully Bullies Him

[Tim Tawfeek]

That had been the problem, actually, or, to be a little more accurate, Tim's problem at this exact moment in time. He shouldn't have said anything. He should've just kept quiet, lowered his head and kept walking. But the kid had been maybe eleven and had clearly just gotten here, which sucked all around, given how this place had been lately. So Tim had just said a few things, mostly involving how very brave you had to be to pick on someone young and obviously not in control of their abilities.

See, that would've worked a little better if the person saying it had better abilities himself. Right now, Tim was at least trying to tap into the abilities of a bat. Mostly because he was pretty sure a bat could get the heck away from trouble in a hurry. Tim sprinted down the hall, moving as fast as he could, zig-zagging around people and hoping that maybe, just maybe, they'd lose interest or something.

No such luck. Instead, they appeared to be gaining on Tim. He hadn't exactly had much of a head start, and he wasn't really known for the whole running thing. Neither, as luck would have it, were bats. Which meant that Tim only had one real course of action: he ducked behind the next person he saw and attempted to practically cram himself behind them. Who knows, maybe bullies were exceptionally stupid and would just walk right on by. Or he could've found the biggest badass in Bellefonte... which actually might not be the best thing right now. Tim gulped and looked over his shoulder at his human shield, hoping that his luck had suddenly taken a turn for the better.

[April Bishop]

It was one of those lazy days where April had very little to do, and too much time doing it. It had been an awfully dry and dull morning. She didn't have many training sessions either, which overall was a drag. But she didn't have many people that needed help with their side-effects either, which more or less left the blonde with a lot of time to kill, and very little to kill it with.

So instead, the blonde had opted for taking a walk through the academy. Walk down memory lane, perhaps. Visit all the spots she and Christopher had used to hang out; Maybe go to the bleachers, where their official make-out spot had been, or to the cafeteria, where they had gotten into a food fight together.

But she didn't really get that far before a student ducked behind her are seemed to be using the petite woman as a human shield for something, or someone. Frowning, the blonde turned her head to look at the younger boy with a confused expression before turning her glance forward.

That's when she spotted the group of bigger and badder students chasing him. "Well, that's unfortunate," the blonde said, cocking her head to the side. If there was anything April did not like, it was bullies: The strong picking on the weak. How incredibly despisable.

Considering the fact that April wasn't more than 5'2 ft, the boy had chosen a terrible person to hide behind. "You know, if you want to hide, I suggest hiding behind someone taller," April said, shaking her head. "Lucky for you, I'm a teacher," she added with a smirk.

Oh no, April had no problem with telling bullies just exactly where to stick it.

[Tim Tawfeek]

No fucking way: Tim had somehow managed to find an incredibly attractive girl that he couldn't recall having met before now. He openly gaped at her, not believing his luck. Okay, yeah, she might not have been the biggest person to hide behind, but she did come off like some kinda badass, which counted for a lot. Everyone at this school knew that you didn't have to be big in order to make an impression on people. You only had to watch Slade Konrad taken down by an impressive telepath in order to understand that.

Tim had become so distracted by the beauty (who right now he was hoping was some kinda valkyrie with awesome powers of awesomeness), that he'd forgotten about the whole being chased by bullies thing. They'd pulled to a stop a few feet away from Tim and the valkyrie, with Tim hesitantly poking his head around to look.

The valkyrie shook her head as she pointed out his plan. "Not really thinking much right now," Tim responded, flicking his eyes at the gathered mass of Neanderthal flesh. The valkyrie then said something that made Tim want to both sigh in relief and moan in frustration: she was a teacher. Well, that meant protection (most likely), but also meant he shouldn't flirt with her. Probably stupid to try anyway; Tim was known more for making an utter fool of himself than actually succeeding with girls. better to have a valkyrie than a sex goddess, at least, right now...

no, scratch that. Never better to have a valkyrie than a sex goddess. Period.

[April Bishop]

"Fair enough," April nodded slowly. Turning her attention back towards the group of bullies, April crossed her hands over her chest and arched her eyebrow.

Now, of course; There was several ways one could go about dealing with people such as these, though as April had very little patience with people who bullied others, she had absolutely no problem with publicly humiliating them. Sure, it wasn't the best way to go about it, seeing as how she was supposed to be a professional and all, buuuut right now, that wasn't exactly what occupied the blonde's mind.

Reaching for her phone, April ran her finger over the screen and opened up the application to the camera. Directing it towards the group, she clicked a few times before smiling. "Now, before you guys get your asses into more trouble than what you're already in, I suggest running before," she stopped and turned her attention back towards the phone, "-No, whoops. Too late. Already sent the photos to the rest of the teachers, and--'' she paused again, still looking at her phone, "--It looks like Slade Konrad's right around the corner. You know that huge, bulky ex-army guy? Yeah, him. He'll be here in... Two minutes." This time, April looked up and offered the group of bullies a sugar sweet smile. "And there's more coming too."

She didn't waste much more time on the bullies; She really hoped they would take this opportunity to run away. Looking at the student, April pursed her lips, "You don't need to be big, or have a destructive power in order to get control over your life and the people within it," she said, smiling a little as she rested her hand against her hip.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim waited and watched while the little blonde valkyrie (or possibly sex goddess; he'd need more evidence to prove one way or the other), confronted the bullies. A phone appeared, and Tim's brow at first furrowed in confusion. She was a teacher, right? Or at least some kinda adult type person? Shouldn't she just, like, use her powers of adulthood to tell them off or what have you? Instead she was... well, she was doing something that Tim totally should've thought of on his own: sending pictures to various teachers and claiming that the hulk who was Slade Konrad was right around the corner. The bullies stared and gawked for a while, before deciding that being there was probably bad for their collective health. Tim didn't think he'd ever seen someone run so fast.

Which left the two of them standing there. Tim gaped, then looked over at the cute blonde. Don't need to be big, or have a destructive power, like Tim didn't already know that. He was still kicking himself for not thinking of doing something like that himself. Probably didn't because of the whole panic thing; the whole cowardly bit being his first course of action. "You're awesome," came out of his mouth, again proving that he should try the whole thinking thing, as the next words were "Marry me."

There was then a beat where Tim seemed to realize what he said and flushed and looked away and shuffled his feet and was like "Sorry, I, uh, got caught in the moment there. Panic and all. Adrenaline. Whoosh," he gestured then, and no, no he wasn't sure why.

[April Bishop]

The boy's expression alone was enough to tell April that her neat little phone trick had done the job, without having to turn around to actually watch the other students run away. With a satisfied nod, the blonde offered the student in front of her a grin. "That I am," she agreed with a chuckle. No, she wasn't nearly that cocky (all the time, anyways) or arrogant, but even she had to admit that her move had been at least a little bit cool.

And of course the 'marry me' bit had April laughing a little more. How painfully adorable could someone be? Ugh, she just wanted to reach down and pinch his cheeks. But that would have been condescending, right? Right. She couldn't do that. Even if she wanted to. Badly.

"Pfft, don't worry about it," April said as she lifted her hand to place it around the younger boy's shoulders. Giving it a gentle squeeze, April pursed her lips, "Where do you recommend us having our honeymoon? The usual places seems a little cliche, don't you think? What about somewhere adventurous? Like maybe the Amazon rainforest?"

She had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from snickering out loud. This was just too good of an opportunity for her not to mess a little with the guy. Hopefully he wouldn't hold it against her. "Unless a nudist beach is more your thing, then I think you would have to be in charge of the planning." Highly inappropriate? Of course. Hopefully she wasn't about to lose her job over a little teasing.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Now there was touching, which Tim almost couldn't believe. Touching felt kinda nice, and he was trying to remember when he'd last been touched by a female that wasn't, like, related to him or something. Before he could jerk himself back into commenting about the whole what she did and how cool that was, she'd started talking about honeymoon and cliches and he figured she had to be joking. He could totally joke back, and was about to suggest something that would require 24/7 bikinis or something when she outdid even that: nudist beach.

And Tim's brain broke.

A telepath wouldn't even be able to figure anything out there. They'd just pick up a long stream of static and various white noises, maybe a few pops or crackles here and there, certainly nothing that could remotely be called coherent thought. Tim more or less just stared into the distance. Worse for the poor guy, he wasn't even picturing the obvious right now. It was like his brain had attempted to load the image and just overloaded in response. Nothing was getting through either, well, the whole arm about his shoulder and the fact that this hot blonde was still within touching distance got through, but everything else was just this fizzy mass of static...

[April Bishop]

The silence had April furrowing her brows. The boy seemed to stare at something far, far away with something similar to an absent minded veil glazing over his eyes. Stopping, April cocked her head to the side as she spent the next few seconds scanning the boy's face. Was he hurt? Did he have a brain bleed? No, he didn't look hurt. Maybe he had fallen while running and hit his head?

Lowering her hand, April repositioned herself so that she was standing in front of the boy. Luckily, she didn't have to stoop: With her short height, she very rarely found someone shorter than her, and this was no exception.

Putting the palm of her hand against his forehead, her frown deepened further, "Are you feeling alright? Maybe I should take you to the nurse's office and get you checked out?" she said, mostly to herself than to the boy. She couldn't take any chances, now could she? Unless of course the boy suddenly started talking again and didn't look like a sick, constipated pig. But it was such a cute pig...

Snapping her fingers in front of the boy's face, April sighed. "Is this a side-effect from your power, or should I call for help?"

[Tim Tawfeek]

Something sort of punched through the static. Like those garbled messages in a radio that someone desperately tried to tune, hoping against hope to land on a channel that could operate something. Felt like... a hand on the head? Sounded like... some words. Feeling alright? Nurse's office? Oh God, did they still have that incredibly, stupidly hot nurse? Yeah, something told Tim that would not help his situation right now.

Fingersnaps, which finally had Tim jumping. "What? No, like, I totally didn't---my power is bats," he blurted and flapped his arms, because obviously she might think his power involved the things used in baseball. "I can, like, talk to bats and imitate them a little. That's why I was running from the bullies. Turns out that squeaking at people just gets you weird looks."

Tim tried laughing then. It was nervous, a little high pitched and almost like something someone who had never laughed before might do if they were told that they should be laughing at something. Hey, at least it was better than static, right? If just? A little, maybe?

[April Bishop]

Frowning, April looked at the younger boy for a few moments before speaking, "Right," she drawled, "Okay." It was amusing, even she had to admit to that much; The boy reminded her of someone she had known way back when she had attended the school herself, and needless to say, it brought a smile to her lips. "Well, at least they're gone now," April said and lifted her head in the direction the bullies had run off to, "I doubt they will bother you again," she mused. "But," she began as she looked back at the awkward little boy, "If they do, you should come find me. Or another teacher or trainer for that matter."

April really, really couldn't stand bullying, and she could only hope people wouldn't be this cruel when Emma was old enough to get into the school - if she got in, though that was very likely seeing as how both her parents were mutants.

Reaching her hand out, the blonde cupped the younger boy's face in her hand. Holding him by the chin, she scrunched her eyebrows, "Are you sure you're alright?" She cocked her head a little to the side; Did he look a little flustered? It was hard to tell with the color of his skin and all, but for all she knew, it could be the adrenaline - or possibly the awkwardness. But even so, it was always important to be sure.

[Tim Tawfeek]

"Yep, all gone," agreed Tim, his voice still odd. he nodded perhaps a little too enthusiastically, his grin showing perhaps a little too much teeth, "and I'll do that. The whole finding a teacher or trainer or other authority figure thing." Yeah, no way in hell was he doing that. The only thing worse than getting bullied was being known as a narc. He already had enough of that going on with his blog; he didn't need to add to it. He'd just have to figure out a way of fending them off using his natural charms and talents.

So yeah, screwed.

Speaking of, the latest star in Tim's Naked Daydream hour had now moved to touching him. Tim froze, his eyes widening for a moment, not quite sure of what was going on here. Oh sure, his favorite mental program certainly featured some touching, quite a bit of it, actually, but that didn't generally involving his head, well, this head, the one that did his thinking (most of the time). "What? Yeah, totally fine. Just a little shook up," he responded, and then, because apparently he wanted to keep being an idiot, he gave himself a little shake. "See? Shook."