X-Men: The Next Class

I talked to Maura and her son Peter about everything for the next few hours, until my stomach started grumbling, indicating that I was hungry. I had been crying into Maura's shoulder for the better half of that time period. Peter had gone out to her car and returned with two large suitcases and a box full of my things. After they left, I debated between curling up into a ball on my bed or going to find something to eat.

Left.

My ears stood at attention and I swung my head around, looking for the source of the voice. Nothing.

Go left, Hope.

I recognized the voice as the Professor's and stood to follow his directions. I walked out of the room and turned left, taking each turn and stairwell as he called them out to me. Eventually I stood outside a room I thought to be the kitchen. The only problem was that my entry was blocked by two loud, rowdy boys laughing their asses off over something indiscernible.

"Excuse me," I said, trying to make my way into the room by squeezing past them. They had other plans.

"Are you okay?" One of them grabbed my arm and pulled me back with just enough force so that I was facing him and his friend. He had chocolate brown eyes and a mop of curly brown hair at the top of his head. He cleared his throat to mask the awkwardness of the matter, and pointed to my cheeks. "It's just that– you've been crying."

Up until then, I hadn't realized that the make-up I applied back in California for Travis was probably all smeared. I sighed, realizing that Travis and the rest of my friends were long gone. If I can still call them my friends. I thought bitterly to myself as I wiped my cheeks and under my eyes clear of makeup residue. I should mentally prepare myself to accept the fact that they weren't my friends anymore. They were like my parents, leaving me when times got rough.

"I'll be fine. I'm Hope," I smiled at him. He smiled back and held his hand out for me to take.

"I'm Aiden."

I shook his hand and my smile grew a little as I felt him squeeze my hand slightly before letting go. Aiden's friend, who was standing by eating a sandwich, paused with the sub midway to his mouth when he saw us looking expectantly at him.

Aiden's friend locked his eyes on mine and then handed Aiden his sandwich. He held out his arm, and said, "Ryan."

Ryan had medium length straight brown hair that was gelled in the front at all different angles. Oddly, it worked for him. I'm assuming he knew it worked, considering the confident smirk he wore on his face as two girls walked past us giggling.

I gave them both a faint smile before asking if they knew where I could get a nice, cold drink.

***

"Ryan. How much do you weigh?"

"Does it matter? Now shut up or we're gonna get caught!"

At the moment, Aiden, Ryan, and I were all crawling along the floor outside of the kitchen's side entrance. After I asked for something to drink, Ryan and Aiden told me that Mina and Bobby were having a "private" talk and that they would just hate to burst in and eavesdrop. Which is why we were entering unannounced through the side door.

Right now, we were directly under the doorway, with cabinets covering our profiles on both sides. Since it was a pretty thin walkway, there was only room for 2 of us to crawl side-by-side. Our first idea was for one of us to crawl behind the first two, but I quickly objected, seeing as I would have been one of the first ones, and I wasn't wearing any pants. The other plan was for me to go on one of their backs, but I was not about to partially hump somebody. So we stuck with that main idea, only Ryan was on Aiden's back, and I was by myself.

We were trudging along, I was on the right side of the walkway, and the boys were on the left side, which was also the side closest to Bobby and Mina. Since I was on the side farthest from Bobby and Mina, which was the side that was most likely to be seen, I had to rely on my hearing.

"Bobby, she wasn't wearing any clothes. What else was I supposed to think?"

All 3 of us stopped dead in our tracks, and even Aiden seemed to forget to remember how heavy Ryan was. Ryan turned his head to look towards me and mouthed "That was Mina." I nodded to let him know, and then froze again when I heard movement. The clinking of a can signified that someone had set their soda down, and then we heard more speaking.

"You're supposed to think that I'm not like every other hormonal boy, ok? I am with Rogue. It's been rough lately but I still care about her. Hope just needed something to cover up in so I gave her my hoodie to wear," Bobby explained.

I pulled on Aiden's shirt, and he looked over at me. I signaled that I wanted to see what was going on, and so we switched sides, which finally gave Aiden the chance to shake Ryan off. I peered out and heard Mina mutter, "Explain 'rough'."

"She's been acting weird for a while and when I ask her what's bothering her, she tries to deny anything is wrong. I can tell it has to do with what happened back at my house in Boston but she won't come out and say it. It's just– it's not fair. I've never made her feel bad for not being able to do anything. And then she–"

"Bobby, breathe."

Deep inhales and exhales were heard through the silence. I turned to look back at Ryan and Aiden, and they just shrugged.

"I'm so sorry, Bobby."

I felt one of the guys tugging on my leg and after the fifth tug, I turned around and showed my annoyance by slapping Aiden's hand, which was reaching out to tug again. However, I forgot about the noise that it would make and froze as the contact made a loud smacking noise. Apparently, so did Bobby and Mina. Ryan and Aiden simply rolled their eyes, and raised a finger to their lips, signaling to be quiet. I nodded and they moved backwards quickly and quietly with me following suit. As soon as we were out of the walkway, we sprinted to the front entrance of the kitchen, calmed our breathing, and entered the kitchen.

"Sprite, water, what would you like Hope?" Aiden asked, acting as if the original plan all along was to actually enter the kitchen for some refreshments.

"Sprite's fine. Thanks," I responded, playing along. I sneaked a peek over at Bobby and found him already looking at me. He smiled at me as I took a sip of my sprite and, after I took a sip, I smiled back. An awkward silence ensued as we all stared at each other, wondering what to say next. It was as if they knew they had been overheard and we knew we were caught. Seeming as though they couldn't handle the situation anymore, Ryan and Aiden decided to leave suddenly, each kissing my hand as they departed. Soon after, Bobby and Mina left, leaving me alone in the kitchen. As I began to pull pans from the cupboards and ingredients from the fridge, the only thought that was running through my mind was that I was inevitably hopefully going to be involved in a large amount of shenanigans with Ryan and Aiden at this school for the 'gifted'.

***

"Smells good."

I turned around with the spatula still in my hand to find an attractive boy around my age leaning against the kitchen doorway. He had one bag slung over his shoulder and another resting at his feet. His shaggy blonde hair covered most of his forehead and his bright eyes were scanning the room, taking in his surroundings.

"Thanks," I replied once I had finished checking him out. What can I say? Old habits die hard, and I was never one to turn down looking at pretty boys. "Care to join me?"

"Sure, why not… haven't eaten since Heathrow."

I stopped stirring the mixed vegetables I was sautéing and again turned to look at the boy who sat himself on one of the bar stools at the kitchen counter. He was unusually attractive, dressed well, spoke of Heathrow…

"Was that an accent I heard?"

He chuckled, smirking. "Born in Birmingham, England."

I raised an eyebrow. "Nice."

"Yeah, I thought I could get away from the mutant hounding of the European variety, figured you Yanks would be tamer."

I smiled sadly. "I'm not too sure about that, unfortunately. I just got here myself."

"And you didn't bring any clothes with you?"

Fuck. Damn this hoodie for being so comfy!

"I didn't. But uh– my gym coach dropped some stuff off for me but I guess I was distracted. I've been walking around like this all day."

"Well then I pity the boys of this place."

"Why?" I asked, placing a plate of veggie stir-fry in front of him.

"You're going around flaunting those legs of yours and they'll never even have a shot."

My eyes widened and I met his gaze, feeling the heat rising into my cheeks before our eyes even connected. He was staring straight into my eyes as if he meant to devour my soul instead of the food I had just made for him. I swallowed the lump that had formed at the back of my throat and went to turn away. However, before I could leave the counter, he reached out and grabbed my hand.

"I'm Dylan."

I turned back to meet his blue-green eyes once more before smiling and responding with a single word: my name.

"Hope."