The Actual Room Assignment (Marcus)

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Marcus winced as her hand slammed harder than it should’ve right into his. He pulled back his hand and started shaking it to ebb out the pain. “Oww…..okay, I won’t do it again. Forgive me?” he asked with hopeful eyes.

“Good enough for my own shampoo commercial? Get a giant fan constantly blowing my hair back all glamorously, right? I bet I could swing that?” And then carry the fan around constantly….or hire someone to carry it around. And then have epic theme music playing always as he walked. Okay, now he was just getting ridiculous.

Marcus pressed his lips together when she asked him to differentiate his reasons. A rosy color reached his pale cheeks. “Um…embarrassed.” He had no problem with telling people, it was just…how do you tell people ‘oh, hey, I’m a guy, but half the time I’m a girl!’ without it being awkward? “I, uh…I shift into a girl. Actually. So. Yeah. There’s that.”

“Yeah? I mean, I’m not, really, but yeah! I think it could really work, you know! And…I already know a lot of people, so maybe I could help you out?” He’d been there for several years, there were few people, aside from the youngest and newest students, he didn’t know.

[Rylee Vasquez]

"Yeah...sure." Rylee only looked hesitant to freak him out a bit. She sure could pack a wicked high five and now he knew that. "You probably could swing that. Only I don't know who you would get to carry around a fan for you." She was imagining a giant fan weighing down a very small person. "You might have to pay them extremely well." She liked that he was going along with the joke, it meant that she would get along well with him and that's what mattered.

Embarrassed? Oh man. What was his power? But when he told her, Rylee's eyes widened in amusement. "That's actually kind of freakin' awesome." Although she supposed it could be confusing. "Does it happen randomly or...?" Could he control it? Did that sound rude? "A certain girl?" She definitely was interested. Man, she hit the jackpot on a roomie.

"So you know others who have powers like me?" she asked him.

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Marcus swallowed. Things were going to be okay between him and Rylee, right? He hadn’t accidentally ruined everything over a stupid joke, right?

Considering she was still talking to him and going along with his other joke, Marcus had to assume everything was square between them. “Uh….yeah, there’s that…And yeah, I mean, I guess I could swing that. People are willing to do some of the crappiest of jobs for a good pay these days.” He snapped his fingers as he thought of an example. “Like those body billboard people that have to stand out in the street and dance to advertise for pizza, or chicken, or taxes!”

Rylee seemed to take the news of his power…about as well as most girls did. He should have known, but there was still the chance that she would get weird about it. Boys were the primary culprits of weirding out, though. “Uh…depends. I mean, I can control it to a point, but I pretty much suck at it and most of the time I randomly get stuck.” Because of some weird time limit or minimum rest limit he had to adhere to. “A certain…? No, just me. As a girl. Honestly, not much changes, at least I don’t think.”

Marcus rolled his eyes and tried to think. “Um..there’s this one girl with disjointed flexibility…I know a couple of kids with super speed.” Not personally, though. “And! And one of my girl-friends has super strength!” For her ability specifically, Marcus was a little less than sure, however.

[Rylee Vasquez]

"True, but would you really want to fork out a lot of money for someone to carry a fan around just so your hair constantly looks like it's blowing in the wind?" It was a serious question....sort of.

"That sucks. I mean, it sounds confusing, honestly. If I was constantly shifting into a boy, I'd question a lot of things." Questions started running through her head. How did he identify sexually? Rylee didn't even know how she did yet and she didn't shift into the opposite gender occasionally. Not to mention, did he get his period?! Normally someone wouldn't spring these questions upon a roommate they'd just met, but Rylee had little to no boundaries. "Do you...like, have your time of the month? Does the dam let loose?" She found herself grinning at her wording.

"Hmm, if you can give me some names, maybe I can make this work." She wondered if they felt as she did about sports.

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Marcus shrugged, like it wasn’t that big of a deal. “I don’t know. Might be fun,” said the rich white kid. Though his grandfather might scold him for spending money on frivolous things like his mother did.

Marcus raised his eyebrows in agreement with her conjecture. Yeah, he did question a lot of things, his sexuality being the biggest one. “It is, but…I don’t really have a choice, you know?” Which sucked, because he really hated his power.

Her next question, though, had Marcus taking a step back out of pure shock. And embarrassment. His face flushed into a bright red. “That’s—! I’m not—! Idon’twannatalkaboutthat!!” he said quickly, running his words together.

“Yeah, I can do that!” he said with a nod. “I can make you a list and then give it to you so you can track them down, okay?”

[Rylee Vasquez]

Rylee regarded Marcus with a strange look. Surely he realized there were a lot better things to spend your money on, but she mostly assumed he was joking. It would definitely be fun to have someone carry around a fan to blow your hair constantly as if you were driving in a car with the windows down. She had to admit that.

"Yeah, I get it. None of us have a choice with these ridiculous powers we're given." She shrugged, although hers just caused her annoyance. His seemed to cause confusion.

She burst out laughing at his reaction as he moved away from her slightly, his face turning red. That was exactly what she should have expected, but she really didn't see it as a big deal. So what? It was a period and if he got one when he shifted into a female, it wasn't as if Rylee couldn't relate. "What?" she asked innocently. "It's a normal thing! And it's a bitch too. You might have an upper hand with the ladies if you don't patronize them about their time of the month because you know what it's like. That's all I'm saying." She held up her hands in defense.

"That would be awesome," she agreed.

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“I see a lot of people around, though, who think their powers are the bees-knees and all that, you know? Or like, it just suits them to a T, or it’s everything they ever wanted…and I just can’t understand it.” There were definitely some who felt like Marcus, and that having meta powers just created more problems than necessary, but he was amazed at how many people coped so darned well.

And those people were mostly the ones with powers that affected practically nothing. Like, there was this one girl who glowed in the dark or something, then this other guy who graduated who was a light manipulator. And then there were those cool powers, like pyrokinesis or those guys with wings or who could levitate things. Those were the cool powers.

Because they didn’t have to deal with…with….ARG! Marcus didn’t want to think it, much less say it! Especially no to his roommate, or anyone else for that matter! “I really don’t think that girls are gonna be throwing themselves at me just because I…I do that once a month.” Marcus may not be popular with the ladies, but he’d had experiences, and to be honest, it was easier to score so far with gay/bi men than it was with any woman. “Like…none of my girl-friends really look at me like that. It just makes me one of the girls, most of the time…,” he said with a red face. Which really sucked because Marcus did like girls, especially one in particular…

[Rylee Vasquez]

Rylee raised an eyebrow at his use of the phrase 'the bees knees.' Who actually used that? Apparently Marcus did... "Well, I haven't met very many people yet, but I don't get it either. I guess it's mostly because I ended up with a power that destroyed what I'm actually good at, which happens to be sports." She sighed heavily. "Powers are supposed to be cool. It's supposed to be something that nobody expects to be real and so it's so awesome. Like when people used to ask you that generic question, 'If you had a super power, what would it be?' I definitely didn't say super agility. I didn't even know what that was. I just wanted to lift objects with my mind or something. You know, something useful." That would make her incredibly lazy though when she thought about it.

"I didn't say they'd throw themselves at you," Rylee corrected him. "Let's not get carried away." She grinned. "Well, way to put a negative spin on my ultra positive comment." He'd managed that really well. "But that brings me to another point...girls are stupid. So..." she shrugged. Really, what else was there to say? "We have a lot in common, you know. I'm one of the guys. You're one of the girls."

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“Yeah….I know there’s some people it actually helps, but….when it feels like it’s holding you back…that just….suck’s balls.” He laughed nervously. “Yeah, I get what you mean. I think mine was something like “flying” or maybe even…I don’t know, the ability to turn into a tiger, or a bear, or a red-tailed hawk….” Okay, now he was making childhood references he was sure she didn’t have a clue about. Was he the only one who read Animorphs as a kid? Because those were cool superpowers!

“Ha ha, yeah….” And Marcus was usually so optimistic about things. But he supposed anyone could be pessimistic when it came to talking about finding a girl/boyfriend, right? It really seemed impossible sometimes. Especially when you saw so many other people with partners and you wonder how a person like that managed to snag one. “Girls are stupid? Ha ha…yeah, right. Guys are….morons!” Himself included. Marcus laughed, nodding with Rylee’s assessment. “You sure don’t look like one of the guys, you know. That pretty face of yours could fool a lot of people.” He meant it playfully, and as an innocent compliment. Marcus wasn’t trying to hit on her or anything. It hadn’t even crossed his mind, actually.

[Rylee Vasquez]

"Yes, it really does suck balls," Rylee agreed, using his language to respond to him. "And that's the thing, it kind of shattered the whole 'What if I had superpowers?' idea that I had when I was a kid. Now I'm like, 'Well, I'm only a few weeks in and this is bullshit.'" She sighed heavily. "Whatever."

"Girls are stupid. Guys are morons. Sounds like a great motto to live by," Rylee told him with a grin. "Eh, I get that a lot. You should see this pretty face when it's covered in dirt though," she said, pointing to her face. "Or sweat for that matter." If only he would have seen her back home in Pennsylvania, grappling with her several brothers, playing street hockey until the sun went down. "I swear it's the fact that I'm half Peruvian," she commented. "It makes me look so appealing. Damnit!" She was joking, mostly, however it did make a lot of people think that she was some dainty girl, that is until they saw her in action. "Fooling is part of the fun though."

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Marcus could only laugh. She didn’t need to try and get him to agree with her. Though Rylee seemed exastperated by everything so far. And with good reason too! Her powers, first off. Then being placed in the boy’s dorm. If it were Marcus, he’d probably be complaining just as loudly(though probably with a little more whine in his voice and to one of his other friends).

“It’s true. I am one, so I can attest to that.” He laughed again. Her attitude, so rough and spirited, he actually liked that quite a bit. Not the “usual” type of girl that one would expect. Most of his girl-friends were like that, he realized. Especially Safia. She was really on top of that whole ‘guys are morons’ thing. “I’d like to see that!” he exclaimed, then stopped himself. “I don’t..I don’t mean in a weird way or anything. Like, I'm not one of those guys who like to see lesbians mud wrestling or anything. I just mean, I’d like to see that side of you more. I mean, like….not a lot of girls are like that, so it’s…refreshing? I don’t know how to say it and I’m probably making myself sound like an idiot, which I kind of am, well, we just agreed that guys were morons, but since I’m half girl, I guess I’m stupid too, but….” What was he trying to say? “I mean…I don’t agree with all those normal gender barriers and expectations and shit…for obvious reason, obviously, but…it’s nice to meet other people who think the same way.” End incoherent ramble.

[Rylee Vasquez]

Rylee just grinned at Marcus as he spoke. She liked him already. "Ah, good. So you understand." It wasn't that one sex was better than the other, it was that they both at times fell victim to stereotypes of their sex and that meant girls were dramatic and boys acted foolishly. It just happened. "Lesbians mud wrestling?" She found herself laughing at that one. "That's not what I meant when I said sometimes my face is covered in dirt and sweat. But use your imagination," she encouraged. "I live for hockey. Especially street hockey and with how many brothers I had...well, I got pretty roughed up." It was funny to her that he'd mentioned lesbian mud wrestling though when it came to her. "Yeah, I'm just a breath of fresh air. Really, I just don't care about boundaries that people set to make themselves feel better and put us all in categories. Biologically, I'm a female. I'm quite aware, but that's all that it means." She definitely didn't believe in barriers like that. And either did Marcus, and even if he had, his power would have shown him different. "Gender isn't definable." For how young she was, Rylee had a lot of opinions. She believed that the Hispanic culture was more out right with their sexuality and they didn't mind expressing it and she loved that about being half- Peruvian. "I just don't define myself by....what society says I should be... I don't really define myself at all."

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Marcus blushed slightly when she fixed on his “lesbian” comment. “My imagination? Um…are you sure you want me to? Because I have a pretty good imagination, and it tends to go in the exact opposite direction that I want it to." But when Rylee gave a better explanation… “Oh…oh, well I guess that makes more sense, strangely enough. I mean, I can kinda picture you pulling the shirt over some guy’s head and beating him with a stick if you needed to.” Actually, Marcus knew next to nothing about hockey.

He smiled at her rant about gender and social expectations. “Yeah, that’s what I think to. I mean,” he gestured to himself, “even as a guy, I’m hardly the picture of what a guy “should” be, right?” Though, if Marcus hadn’t gotten the power he had, and hadn’t lived with it for the past several years, he might have had more issues with his appearance and lack of “manhood” than he did. That was also, he supposed, a bit of his mother’s influence, who encouraged him to not care about such labels. His grandfather, unfortunately, didn’t seem to agree. He’d just say that Marcus was “soft” and “too sensitive”. Definitely not meeting his expectations. And he was certain that he didn’t like the fact that Marcus was “half-girl”. However being like that…Rylee was right, Marcus did have a unique perspective, and probably one of the few people who had to endure the stigma of such gender stereotypes from both ends. It was…trying, to put it mildly.

“So uh…” he started, looking down at her luggage still on the floor. “You need help bringing this in, or can a tiny girl like you handle it?” Marcus smiled teasingly at her.