My Son, The Alien 4

A Familiar Face

by Belladonna

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asb/belladonna/mysont04.php
Summary: Shifu heads to High School, and sees a familar face.

"I'm fine," Shifu said patiently. "I have your phone number. I have Jack's phone number. I even have General Landry's phone number. If I need anything I will call."

Daniel sighed. "Okay, I know I'm being a worrier."

Shifu smiled. "I understand, Daniel. I'll see you this afternoon," he said and got of Daniel's car in the parent's drop off loop and headed into the school.

Daniel had enrolled him the previous week at Rampart High School, and the Principal had given them the grand tour, pleased to have a genius student enrolling, even if it was mid term.

Shifu hadn't understood the term genius until Jack had explained it as 'Smart enough to shine in your schoolwork and dumb enough not to rub other kid's noses in it'. He still wasn't completely sure what Jack meant, but he knew he'd learn.

He walked into the school, his 'skater boy' shoes squeaking on the tile floors as he headed for his first class of the day, one among hundreds, an anonymous human. It made him want to smile.

The teacher glanced up as he walked in and jerked her head to an empty seat. "Hi, I'm Ms. McDonald, welcome to Physics."

"I'm Shifu," he said politely, slipping into the empty seat.

"Shifu? What kind of lame ass name is that?" another student asked.

"Mr. McRae," the teacher said with exasperation.

Daniel and Jack had gone over and over the new identity with Shifu. He was supposed to be half Jordanian (they'd discussed it and had decided that Jordan was the most westernized and least demonized of the middle eastern countries) and half American, his mother having died when he was young. Which was true, technically. "My mother was from Jordan," he said simply.

The kid looked at him confusedly, then shrugged. "Okay, I'm Joel."

"Hi."

The bell rang and the teacher began to teach, and Shifu understood the other part of Jack's warning. 'As a genius you will probably be smarter than the teacher but keep quiet, just listen or take notes and appear to be listening, even if you're bored'.

He made it through the rest of his morning classes and went dutifully through the lunch line, taking one of everything, much to the amusement of the beautiful negro woman who worked behind the counter.

Shifu glanced around and smiled when he saw a familiar face. He walked over and said, "Hello, Jack. May I sit here?"

The boy's head snapped up and his brown eyes narrowed. "My name isn't Jack. It's John."

Shifu sat down and took a bite, eyeing the other boy before he finished chewing the bite of something that maybe resembled the Italian food he'd had and tilted his head. "Very well. Hello, John. How are you doing? Do you enjoy being a student? I'm finding it very interesting."

John narrowed his eyes at him. "I don't know you. How do you know me?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh," Shifu blinked and reached his hand over the table. "I'm sorry. Hello, I'm Shifu."

"What?" John stared. "Holy ~crap~. Does Daniel know?" the clone of Jack O'Neill, asked incredulously, shaking Shifu's hand out of polite reflex.

"Well, yes," Shifu replied, a bit perplexed by the question. "I live with Daniel and Jack."

A look of pain passed through John's eyes before he blanked his face, but Shifu had understood what he'd read in them. "I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's okay. Look, what are you ~doing~ here?"

An easy question. "I wanted to see why Daniel came back," he answered.

"You're weird, just like him," John replied with an eyeroll.

"As Jack says, pot and kettle," Shifu riposted with a grin. "After all, are we not both in high school?"

"Got me there," John said with an answering grin. "So, you started today? Lemme see your schedule."

Hordes of giggling girls seemed to think that their table was very interesting and kept walking by, making John roll his eyes. "Well, you're a hit with the teeny-bopper set."

Shifu glanced up from his meal. "I think that they are too young for me."

"Preaching to the choir," John muttered.

The former ascended nodded. "I think I will wait," Shifu said thoughtfully after eyeing the curious crowd of girls. "I may decide to date men instead," he added and watched with concern as John tried not to choke to death.

Next: What Every Kid Needs...