Now that the party had died down and the guests were starting to dwindle, the bowling alley was quieter. Carol could see Kate and Yelena a couple lanes down, still trying their best to one-up each other, and Kate crowing triumphantly whenever she knocked down more than three pins. The sounds of pins being bowled over and the mechanical grinds and whirs of machinery knocking down and re-setting up still lingered, but it was late, and the place had mostly emptied out.
They had some clean-up to do, but Emme had taken point on that and shooed her off to go keep their (still relatively new) housemate company. It was a big day for Kamala, and although Carol had done her best to make sure it was full of fun and laughter and distractions, she knew it had to be tough, too. She was just a kid, and instead of spending her birthday with her family, she was in this strange, new world. Not alone but away from the familiarity of home.
She returned to the lane they’d been playing on to find Kamala and sank down onto the bench seat beside her, extending yet another Captain Marvel cupcake (not her choice, but she couldn’t say she minded the ego boost) in her direction.
“Happy birthday, kiddo. Again. Did you have a good time?”
Was she officially seventeen? Could she count this as officially seventeen just because she had already turned sixteen? Then again they were also years behind in this world than they were back in their world so maybe she was still considered sixteen. These were the thoughts running through her head by the end of the night as she sat on the bench staring out at the lanes and sipping her soda.
And they were the better thoughts to have instead of thinking of the last birthday she had spent with her family and Nakia and Bruno.
“I did!” She said, with a smile as she put down her soda cup and took hold of the cupcake. It wasn’t possible to have more junk food than anywhere else but all the Muslim and/or Pakistani celebrations she had ever went to but that didn’t mean she ate healthy here either. She could go light jumping later on in the week anyway.
“This was so great, thanks for throwing this though you really didn’t have to!”
“I wanted to. It was a good excuse to get everyone here together so you can meet them,” Carol replied with a shrug. She would meet other kids her age on her own, she figured; if she stuck around, she’d probably end up at the local high school. That meant Carol could take care of the from-their-world people and the new influx from Emme’s world, too.
“I’m just glad you liked it. I’m a little out of practice with teenagers these days,” she admitted easily. She hadn’t been around much for Monica’s teenage years, and hers felt like they’d happened a million years ago. Bowling seemed like a classic for all ages, thankfully.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re doing great.” Kamala swiveled around in her chair to face the table behind her, grabbing a tissue. It was a really good thing that in a matter of days, she was able to actually talk to Carol like a normal human being, but every once in a while she was still hit by stardom, and thought that a woman who was a goddamn superhero would have no problem at all getting teenagers to like her.
“But yeah, meeting people helped! Especially since I’ll… probably see them before school begins.” Inwardly she cringed, only just. Because the thought of school really sucked because she’d only ever done it with her friends but maybe the courses will be tough enough that she’ll be sufficiently distracted?
“Yeah. How’re you feeling about that?” Carol questioned, looking at Kamala with genuine interest and concern. “You’ve got a while to go, but I know it’s a big deal.”
It was a solidification that she was in this for the long haul – or at least longer than the three-ish weeks that had passed. Vallo’s sense of permanence seemed completely subjective from person to person.
“About school? Well. It’s school. Not sure what else to think about it. I guess it’ll be something to keep my mind occupied.” Especially because the novelty of being here and in the company of so many damn superheroes was eventually going to wear off. Very eventually.
“I was doing pretty okay in my school. I wasn’t like a straight A student or anything, just enough to get by, get decent grades. Of course, my parents always wanted me to get straight As and probably expected it more from me when my older brother didn’t get those. But it’s fine. I’ll manage. I don’t expect the courses to suddenly be super difficult here in comparison to there, right?” She was rambling again and she eventually needed to stop doing that in front of The Carol Danvers.
Luckily, The Carol Danvers thought the rambling was cute. They mostly communicated just fine at this point, but the hero worship held for her did a hell of a lot of good for her ego. But, that aside, that was just how kids were sometimes. She remembered Monica being quite a chatterbox when she was young, and this was no different in her eyes.
“That’ll be a talk you should have with one of the kids around here. School’s behind me by a handful of decades. I’d bet it’s different from American education, but I doubt it’s any more difficult. I’ve heard something about the university being comparable to the Ivies, though.”
Kamala’s eyes widened slightly. “Yeah, thanks, that’s like… no pressure at all.”
She paused in her conversation to take another bite of her cupcake, collecting her thoughts before turning back to her Vallo guardian. “It’s really true that even though I’m here right now, there’s a version of me back in our world? Like nobody back there is really missing me? It sounds super trippy and hard to believe but that’s what I was told.”
“It is super trippy and hard to believe,” Carol agreed, “but I can definitely confirm it’s true. When I got here a year ago, the last thing I remembered was not too long after the Blip, but not long before you got here, I got what we call a memory dump. I guess it’s Vallo’s doing, but I got another two years of what I’ve been doing back home shoved into my head. Life continues on like normal back home, I promise.”
Hers hadn’t been too bad. Nothing like Stephen with the constant, unending trauma. She was always busy, but she’d actually taken a couple of vacations in those years. That had been a rarity the first few decades.
“So if something did happen at home, in a while, I’ll probably remember it all? Or go back because I’ve seen that happen to people.” Kamala nodded, understanding it… somewhat. Bruno was still far better at this kind of stuff than she knew of. And speaking of Bruno…
“Do you seriously trust the people here? I mean the scientists and all, especially, collecting blood and all to help others? Because like… I still want to know about what I am but I can’t guarantee that he’ll show up. Although it would be great if he did. I think you’d like him. He probably wouldn’t be as wide-eyed and tongue-tied in front of you like I was. Unless you’re Tony Stark or Bruce Banner.”
“I bet Tony would love Bruno,” Carol chuckled. She knew her friend was feeling a little down lately – they both were, with Stephen gone, and it was an extra slap in the face for him given the universe he came from – but he was a good guy. If Bruno was as gifted as Kamala had told her, she’d bet money Tony would take the kid under his wing just like he had with Peter.
“But yeah, I trust them. Tony, Alex, Lena, they’re good people. They’re not going to do anything you’re not okay with, and even if they tried, I wouldn’t let that happen.” She reached out to give Kamala’s shoulder a brief, reassuring squeeze. “This is your choice, all of it, and people here just want to help.”
Kamala nodded. It was the best that could be done under the circumstances. Those circumstances being that Bruno was not here to satisfy more of her curiosity with further experimentation. “Alright. I think… I think I’ll consider it. I’ll give it a few days and I’ll let you know.” A few days was enough to think over it. As far as she knew, she had enough time in this place, unless Vallo decided to send her back to her world.
And if that happened, then the whole thing was moot point, wasn’t it?
“Thanks,” she said, reaching up to squeeze Carol’s forearm when she reached out to her. “For taking in the new kid who couldn’t talk when she first met you.”
Carol wrapped her arm fully around Kamala’s shoulders, looking down at her with a big, fond grin. “I liked you from the start, new kid. I had a good feeling, even when you were completely mute on me. I’m just glad I got less scary to talk to,” she teased.
She gave the young woman an affectionate squeeze. She meant every word of that. Just the short amount of time Kamala had been around meant the world to her. Selfishly, she hoped she got to keep her here at least a little longer – and only partially for the ego boost.
“Happy birthday, Ms. Marvel. Glad I got to spend it with you.”