The academy had been left in panicked flurry ever since the loss of the professor. Staff worked their fingers to the bone to pick up the pieces, Storm desperately attempting to regain the moral to its former glory. Since the incident, the number of new applicants to the academy had dropped by more than half, not to mention the students that dropped out in fear of another battle. Even with the dwindling freshmen, young mutants still had the desire to learn, grow, practice or even to get away from their confinements. Some wanted to get into the academy, others were persuaded, but some, just some, needed it….
Peter flipped through the album daily, time unravelling and releasing the memories once again. Nobody, not even Peter knew where his parents had gone, they just…disappeared, leaving a black and white marble in his palm the night they went. Even at 16, Peter kept it in one of the many pockets in his combats, unwise to its meaning and unclear to its relevance.
He wasn't the only kid at the hostel, there were many others but only a few that Peter felt close to, even considering most of his 'friends' teased him about his dark brown hair that barely enabled him to see. Yes, Peter was the alternative one so to speak. Jack was the typical boy-boy, the hard-man the one every other boy wanted to be and every girl wanted to date or as the rest of the group said, was the one most likely to start of life great and end up an adulterate fat man. Sarah and Kate loved to be the girly girls, doing each other's hair, dependant on boys and drooling over Jack of course. The only other girl in the group remained somewhat of a mystery to Peter, always off somewhere, never stopping, yet always calming no matter how rushed. Even though the group was a kind of unorthodox circus, they did absolutely everything together, and this never changed, even with the arrival of a well known mutant, Storm.
Jack of course was thrilled with the news that he had some kind of power, the girls were marginally pleased yet Peter remained apprehensive. It had been a new rule to the academy put forward by Storm that students should be picked before they realised they had a power, this way they could be trained from scratch and allowed them to be placed into classes befitting not only their level but also their ability.
"Whoa mate I'm psyched, we get to get out of this hell hole once and for all, when do we go?"
"If you're ready, right now" Storm looked at Pete and could see that not everyone was as assured at Jack.
"You're not sure about this are you?"
"You're telepathic I guess"
"Hehe..no… it's just easy to see when someone is nervous, especially when you are almost cutting off the circulation to your friend's hand"
"Huh?" She was right, Peter was gripping so tightly onto Laura's hand that the pain was almost too hard to bear, he quickly released her.
"Thank god Petey, what's the matter with you, grow up, it's only a school for crying out loud"
"I promise, you will be looked after, now as I said, if you're ready…"