1
On reflection, Hank wished that he hadn't announced at the beginning of the class that he needed the students to stay behind at the end of it. His pupils may have actually paid attention if he'd waited, instead of spending the entire time he had been trying to teach them how to use punnet squares passing notes between them, exchanging meaningful looks, and probably trying to formulate an ad-hoc eyebrow-language. At last, the session had crawled to its conclusion, Hank dutifully writing the homework he knew he'd have to re-explain to every one of the distracted class come tomorrow on the board, and at last getting on to the point they had been waiting for.
"I won't keep you too long, I'm sure you're all very keen to get down to lunch – but I've got something very exciting to tell you all and hopefully to get some help from you with"
The class shuffled around, someone dropped their pencil, nobody spoke. Hank's idea of 'exciting' was rarely theirs, and a sense of semi-bored dread had settled over them.
"Are we going on a field trip?" Jubilee asked hopefully, "Somewhere cool?"
"No, it's not –"
"We could explore the bottom of Kurt's wash-basket," Peter suggested, grinned at his desk-mate wickedly, "pretty sure there's a few new forms of life in there"
"Why don't we experiment on you instead?" Kurt shot back, whipped his tail up to poke Peter in the back, "I could think of a few things that would be most amusing for everyone"
"Class?" Hank pleaded, "Quiet, please"
Obligingly the few giggles provoked by the squabbling class clowns died back, and he cleared his throat to go on
"Now here at the Academy, we've never held an open event for prospective students before, but since the Conference last year went so well, we've decided for the first time to invite parents AND their children to come look around, and each department is going to have a stall, isn't that exciting?"
the class stared back at him as if he were a wall-full of drying paint. Undeterred, he continued,
"So what we will need is a few people to help me out putting together a display that's going to show off the science department at its best. Who wants to help?"
A pause stretched out, during which Hank began to feel increasingly uncomfortable, until at last it was broken (as usual) by Peter, calling from the back of the class
"Dr McCoy, have you got a pin I could borrow?"
"A… pin?"
"Yeah. I wanna see if we can really hear it drop over all the enthusiasm"
Another little ripple of laughter. Hank decided he would just let the students think about it and dismissed them for lunch, giving up on the idea of getting hungry children to get genuinely interested in making a papier-mache volcano or helping him make a robotic arm. At least, amid the distracting laughter provoked by Peter's sarcastic quip, Jean and Jubilation had quietly put their hands up to volunteer – that was two he could count on, and some of the younger kids could certainly be tempted in with the promise of explosions. It would have to do for now.
Down in the lunch hall, it had transpired that every class had been given the same request. Xavier had asked his literature and drama class to put on a little performance, Ororo had suggested a musical number showcasing some of the Very Small Mutants' dancing and singing talents. Every teacher in the school seemed way too enthusiastic about the whole idea. It was just depressing for Scott, for once without his girlfriend glued to his side and eating his hamburger in unhappy little nibbles when he'd been joined by a strong breeze, shortly followed by Peter.
"If you're looking for leftovers, Maximoff, you're out of luck" he muttered, moved his fries to the other side of his tray. Peter gave him a hurt look.
"Came to see what was up with you, actually" he said, "Though if you're sharing –"
"I'm not" Scott snapped, "What do you want? Eating with you at the table is like having a dog begging scraps"
"Shades, I'm wounded," the speedster put a hand to his chest, an exaggerated look of mournful hurt pride on his face, "You cut me up me, you really do. Now what's the matter? You can't spend one lunch hour without Jeanie?"
"Just this whole open house thing" he admitted, tried and failed to slap Peter's hand away from stealing a couple of his fries, "I'm not really great at any of my subjects, I don't know how I'm supposed to contribute"
"I was thinking the same. Sounds like a thing for the geeks to me"
"You'll have to choose something. All the older students will – Academy solidarity"
"Are you gonna eat that cupcake?"
"Yes!"
"Sorry, just *asking!*… anyway I was thinking, why don't we do a sports stand? I mean, you and I probably spend more time in the gym than anyone else, and we've got the pool and the basketball court and the tennis courts. We could show potential students it's not all books and stuff"
"That's… actually not a bad idea" Scott conceded, "You think they'd let us?"
"Let *me*? Absolutely not. You, however… well, you're the tactical lead. Totally trustworthy and upstanding and all that. You'd get it passed easy" he grinned, gave Scott a wink, "So how 'bout it Captain Shades? You and me, the faces of the Academy athletic programme?"
Scott thought, nibbled his burger. Looked at the boy beside him giving him an appealing little smile that most found hard to say no to, and nodded
"On the one condition that you really do help me organise it, not leave me to do it all"
"Thanks Scotty," Peter beamed, "You won't regret it, I promise!"
With that he was gone. In a couple more seconds, Scott realised that so was his cupcake.
What on earth had he just agreed to….