Survival Of The Fittest

((Junko Kurosawa continued from Pool Slingshot))

Oh, thank god for lunchtime. Junko really couldn't listen to another Brown rant about people's behavior and responsibility for too long, or else she'd start... dunno, beating people left, right, and center. Okay, that probably wouldn't happen, but you know.

But someone just had to keep talking during her class. Loudly. During lecture math time. And with Brown, that's a big no-no. So the last few minutes were about how they needed to be responsible and whatever. Greaaat. The entire time she went on, Junko had rested her chin on her hand, and occasionally she tried to command the clock to inch ever so closely to lunchtime with her brain. She was hungry, and listening to Brown rants while hungry was such a big joy, wasn't it? Didn't help that Brown was probably the one teacher she came close to hating. Junko didn't like math to begin with, and with her teaching it... she probably wasn't going to start any time soon.

But she was out now.

Junko's lips pressed as she stepped into the cafeteria. It was a good thing she decided to bring lunch today, because she wouldn't want to stand in line only to look around for a seat, not after the B.S. last class. Maybe she was getting too upset over Brown being Brown. Maybe she wasn't. Who cares, at least she had food now.

Junko placed her lunch bag in front of her at an empty table close to the window, before making a screech as she pulled out the chair and sat down.

The sandwich she had almost made up for it. Her reward for listening to Brown talk about being responsible for several minutes? Salami, beef, Swiss cheese, lettuce, mayo, pickles, and hot sauce, all on sourdough. She didn't have anything else. She didn't need anything else. She was fine with her delicious, delicious sandwich.

Junko took a huge bite, savoring it. Damn good hot sauce. Damn good salami and beef. Damn good bread. Let's rephrase that, damn good bread. It needed more emphasis.

((Kimiko Kao continued from Cruising and Perusing))

Moving through a crowd of people was difficult when you lacked the ability to ask people to move. Sadly Kimiko had gotten used to it but it was still depressing. It wasn't helped either way by people who preemptively moved for her or people who didn't move at all. On the one hand it made her openly feel different. On the other they were annoying and just got in her way. Unfortunately it was an unwinnable battle for her.

After managing to navigate the crowd of people in the doorway Kimiko's next task was to find a table. A delicate social balancing act, that was what she had been told at least. It seemed to be a complicated game of school politics only if you were interested in that sort of thing. Personally she had never really bought into it. Not that she was one of those kids that didn't care at all, she did have preferences. But she never saw the big deal of sitting on a certain table when it was only for the purpose of eating. Her only real requirement was that she could sit and that someone annoying wasn't on it.

A cursory look gave Kimiko her best bet. Junko Kurosawa was on a table by herself. Junko was a junior but they were actually the same age. Kimiko found it funny how that worked sometimes. Not that she was close with Junko, at all. But the younger girl did work at Larson's which was good enough for Kimiko. She had a copy of X-Men that needed to be read at some stage during the day.

With her table decided Kimiko moved in to sit down, choosing the seat one over and opposite Junko so they both had personal space. She smiled and waved a greeting. The best she could offer and then set to work getting her lunch out. It was a chicken salad using leftover chicken from the night before, a fruit salad featuring mango and melon and a bottle of water (not a salad). Nothing fancy but good healthy food. Her parents had always been big on healthy eating as far as Kimiko could recall and that had become more prominent once she became serious about gymnastics. Moving to America had made it more difficult, there were temptations everywhere, but also a greater variety of stuff plus everything they could get in Taiwan.

The final things Kimiko put on the table was her copy of X-Men, along with her phone. The comic was for reading and the phone was for communication. The issue was technically a month old but she planned on grabbing the newer one on her way home so a refresher was needed. Digging her fork into her salad Kimiko looked at Junko. It was awkward trying to start a conversation so Kimiko just looked between her table mates sandwich and her face trying to communicate the question with only her eyes.

Someone wordlessly placed their meal down at Junko's table.

Wait, was "wordlessly" a good word when it was Kimiko Kao? Because she wasn't sure. Kimiko was kind of cool, though, she guessed. She was on the gymnastics team, and Junko had seen her a few times when she was working at Larson's. Both things were cool in her book. The whole "not talking" thing was a little awkward, but, well, that wasn't something Junko could hold against her. It wasn't like she could if she wanted to. But Junko didn't mind her sitting here. She was still a little sour about last class, but she wasn't going to take it out on Kimiko.

Junko swallowed her bite.

"Hey".

The word slipped out of her mouth as she gave a gentle wave.

Alright, should she say more to Kimiko? Well, yeah! It would be awkward not to. What to talk about then? How Brown ranted last class? About what they were eating? About the month-old X-Men comic she clearly had in front of her? Well, Kimiko was clearly looking at her expectantly. There were plenty of things, really. Junko, being a Marvel fan, knew X-Men stuff. They both were in sports teams, just not the same ones. And everyone could relate to eating and Brown being Brown.

"Uh..." she started. A few seconds later, she tried again. "Is that an X-Men comic you have?"

Junko was so smooth right now that someone could slip on her.

That...wasn't what she meant. Slightly awkward start to the conversation as well. Then again any conversation would be better than none and they did both share the same interest. Kimiko nodded and held the cover up with a shrug. It was an alright issue but nothing special. In truth X-Men had been depressingly average. It had become a mess of different titles with different story-lines that sometimes contradicted each other. Still she stuck with it, mainly out of commitment. It had been the first comic she ever read and she felt an affinity towards it.

It was at that point Kimiko realised she probably had to offer a bit more to the conversation. Holding up her finger Kimiko pulled out her finger and started typing. When she was done she put the phone down on the table and span it to face Junko.

"Yeah, it's alright. Not the best X-Men ever."

She didn't have any better way to communicate with the other girl. Sometimes people suggested that she use an electronic voice box but Kimiko couldn't think a idea she hated more. She could use sign language, her phone and written notes, it wasn't like she needed anything else.

Taking the phone back, Kimiko typed out some more words.

"The current run has been a bit disappointing really."

When she thought about it Kimiko didn't have any problem with having a simple conversation about the state of X-Men. She hadn't had a proper conversation about comics for a while anyway.  Not since she had helped that kid with horror comics anyway, but that felt like a long time ago. If anything she was overdue a conversation about comics. She was starting to enjoy the idea actually.

Digging her fork into the chicken salad Kimiko started to chew on a mouthful while she waited for Junko's response.

Junko didn't mind X-Men.

She had liked them when she was younger. While she didn't really follow anything that happened in the comics or movies too closely these days, she could appreciate their stories. It wasn't hard to deny the themes of discrimination throughout the stories. But yes, she remembered liking X-Men. Well, actually, she still did in a way. Did she ever stop? Even with some of the sillier movies?

"Oh, which issue's that? I haven't read X-Men in a w-"

A bit of hot sauce dripped out of the sandwich and onto the table. Junko looked down, and glared at it. Then, she placed the sandwich down. She slid a paper napkin over the spot, feeling it seep through.

"-Yeah," she started again. "It's been a while."

She'd recognized the cover from her shifts at Larson's. It's a shame she hadn't stopped to get her copy or borrow it off someone else. Not only was she behind and thus needed catching up. It meant that if someone asked about it, she wouldn't be able to say whether or not it was good. Hence why she usually tried to get caught up to date on this. Luckily, no one had asked about anything X-Men related in a while.

Another question meant more typing on the phone.

"It's Uncanny #16. The art is a mess."

That was pretty much all Kimiko had to say about the comic. It was rather typical X-Men inside the book, at least any X-Men comics that dealt with the group led by Cyclops. It had been a big moment when he'd killed Professor X but any potential momentum or interesting story directions had been squandered. Everything after Schism was a mess really, none of the writers seemed quite sure where they were going with their stories or what they should have been doing. Then Avengers vs X-Men happened and turned out to solidify the steady decay of X-Men stories. Every so often something good sprung up but it either didn't last or didn't sell well enough because it lacked name value characters, which was a shame.

Once she was happy Junko had been given enough time to read she spun the phone back around to type out another message.

"Story is alright, they're building towards Magneto betraying Cyclops and helping S.H.E.I.L.D., but I don't know if they'll commit to it."

Kimiko impaled a piece of chicken on the end of her fork and raised it into her mouth. One of the benefits of being mute, she never had to worry about talking with her mouth full. The reason for all the salads was that there was a gymnastics meet approaching and Kimiko needed to make sure she was ready to compete once it arrived. She always tried to keep herself as close to competing fitness and weight as possible but during the run up to a meet this went into overdrive as she cut all unhealthy snacks out of her diet. Normally she'd allow herself a packet of crisps, a chocolate bar or on rare occasions she'd have a burger but if she was preparing for competition anything along those lines was banned. Until then it was healthy eating all the way.

Eventually lunch ended and Kimiko left to go to class. Talking about comics with Junko had been cool, she always enjoyed getting to geek out every once in a while.

((Kimiko Kao continued in Roots of Jade))

"Ah."

That was her response, it turned out. Ah? Ah. That meant it was from... damn, 2013? That long ago? No, 2014. It wasn't that new, definitely. She'd definitely need to catch up. But... ah. Really Junko, that's an "Ah"? Eloquence wasn't her forte today. Maybe talking to someone who is mute isn't something she was good at. She kept trying to tell herself that she was simply mute, not deaf, not blind, not anything. Kimiko couldn't talk, is all. But still. Junko was rarely an awkward person. When was the last time she was this awkward? The crash fest at the pool? That was awkward. Same levels, though?

So they talked about it for the rest of the lunch period. Yeah, she definitely needed to catch up on X-Men comics. It was best for everyone involved. Luckily, she knew on what she could read for the future.

Kimiko was cool, she guessed. It was nice talking to her?

((Junko Kurosawa continued elsewhere))