Charles Xavier shifted his book bag on his shoulder, glancing at his sister and their friend and offering them a bright smile, "We've finally arrived to hear some people tell it."

The first day of high school was supposed to be an adventure, but for a blossoming telepath it was more like jumping off a boat into a stormy sea without a life preserver. The number of emotions and thoughts he could already feel battering at his shields were sure to cause troubles if he was having a bad day.

Hank McCoy gave him a long, somewhat deep suffering look. "We've finally arrived? Please tell me you're joking. I'd rather be heading out that arriving."

That got a laugh from Raven, who was walking on Charles' other side, "Four years, Hank. You'll survive."

"Says you now," Hank returned, hunching his shoulders slightly.

"Oh, come on." She grinned at him, "What's the w—"

Charles cut her off, "Raven, don't jinx us the first day, please."

"Please," Hank added. He glanced down at the rather plain looking shirt that Raven had informed him he was wearing on the first day of class—after taking away his pocket protector from middle school—and sighed. "It can't be that much different from the last few years, can it?"

"Perhaps not initially," Charles admitted, "But there's a chance that it will improve with time. After all, more than half the student body doesn't know us...or doesn't really know us, so we can craft ourselves as we like."

"Until the half that does gets back at us?" Hank replied, nearly running into a blond boy heading the other way. "I'm not sure I want more students running around myself."

The blond turned slightly at that, scowling in their direction, but was hurried along by a taller brunet. Charles' brow arched at the flash of something he'd gotten from the two, but he brushed it off. "You're looking at it the wrong way, Hank," he chided.

"I'm with Charles," Raven nodded. "Try to find the bright side."

"Bright side?" Hank returned. "Charles, we're in high school."

"And we'll be graduating in just a few years, and able to go on to do whatever we like," Charles responded.

Hank sighed. "You're going to pester me until I start looking at the bright side here, aren't you?"

The telepath grinned at him, "You know I will."

"Fine," the taller teen whined. "I'm sure the next four years will just fly by and then we can all happily move onto the greener pastures of college."

Charles and Raven exchanged a look at that, Charles finally shrugging, "Well, it's a start."

Hank looked distinctly unimpressed at that, glancing down at his schedule. "Does anyone have any ideas about this whole... clubs fair or something like that?"

Raven shrugged, "Not really, but I'm going for the sake of going at this point. Charles?"

"Haven't heard much about it, but I figure there's no real harm in attending."

"It's after classes I think," Hank said, adjusting his glasses. "Anyone happen to have any good classes?"

Raven grimaced slightly, "Not really. I've got Drama for an elective, but who knows how that'll go."

"Dramatically, I would presume," Hank said with a teasing grin.

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we should head for our first classes then I guess?"

"Probably," Hank sighed, looking down at his schedule. "At least I'm not in math with the freshmen..."

Charles managed a bit of a laugh at that, "Yes, at least. Well, we all have second lunch, right?"

"Second lunch," Hank agreed.

Raven nodded, causing her brother to smile, "Great, so we'll meet up then?"

"Then again at this... fair?" Hank offered as a tall, angular teen in a black turtle neck stalked by, looking very focused on where ever he was heading.

Charles gaze was drawn to the other teen, watching him go and only snapping back to himself when his sister elbowed him, "Hm? Oh, yes, meet again at the fair thing."

"You okay there, Charles?" Hank asked with an arched brow.

"Hm? Oh, yes. I'm fine. I'll see you both at lunch. Have a good first few classes."

As Charles went off, Hank glanced back to Raven, whose first class was closer to his own. "What was that?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. You know how he gets sometimes with the things he hears. Maybe it was something like that?"

"Ah, true," Hank murmured. "Still, I'm worried about him here, bright side or not."

"He'll be alright. We'll keep an eye on him."

"I believe that was already our plan?" Hank offered.

She nodded, "It was. Anything new to add to our worries about him?"

"I don't know, tall brooding strangers?" Hank replied.

"We'll keep an eye on him too," Raven nodded decisively. "Maybe it was just something about his thoughts? Who knows. But we'll watch him. Have a good class, Hank."

"Yeah, you too," he said, waving her off before entering the math class he had tested into—he had no idea what the school was planning to do with him after he took senior math freshman year.

H-H-H-H

Darwin sighed at the blond boy beside him. "Could you pretend to be cheerful? Smile for all the nice people, Alex."

Alex Summers rolled his eyes, "This is cheerful. Doesn't mean I want to be here. Why are we going to the club fair or whatever the hell it is?"

"Because it's sociable?" Darwin offered.

"You're sounding like Scott."

"Probably because I was hanging out with your brother all summer," Darwin rolled his eyes. "Besides, isn't golden boy all involved in clubs and stuff?"

"See reason number seventeen I don't want to go to this. He's president of a couple. Can't I just go out for baseball and call it good?"

"No, you can't," Darwin replied, reaching out and taking his upper arm. "Come along now."

Alex rolled his eyes again, but allowed himself to be dragged along to the club fair, "Fine."

"We'll avoid Scott's clubs, alright?" Darwin gave him a peace offering.

"Alright. We avoid those ones like the plague."

Darwin laughed. "Oh come on, your brother's not that bad..."

"Says the guy who doesn't have to live with him, and doesn't have to take classes from teachers who had him last year."

"Oh no," Darwin couldn't help but laugh. "Are they already starting in on that?"

"Not yet, but that's what happened last year, and the year before, and I give them 'til the first assignments are turned in."

"It won't be that bad," Darwin attempted.

Alex looked unconvinced, "So, any idea what clubs you're thinking about?"

"Not yet," he said. "It's all about energy, you know? Gotta see who else is around before deciding on anything. That's why a fair's so cool, you see all the clubs at once."

The blond just looked at the other, "Energy. Right."

"Oh hush you. Yes, energy."

"Well, let's go see what sort of after school activities they have devised to keep us hooligans out of trouble."

"You're not that much of a hooligan," Darwin murmured, reaching the doors of the gym where everything was set up.

That earned a ghost of a grin as he murmured his reply, "I hope you think that, can't see you dating a true hooligan."

"I'm much too dignified," Darwin agreed, looking around the bustling room. "Hm, where to start?"

"How about that far corner over there that's clear across the gym from my brother?" Alex pointed to the corner he meant.

"We could at least say hi," Darwin said, with a small shake of his head.

"And we will. If there is still time once we've seen all the other booths."

Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, Darwin used his hand on Alex's arm to sheer him toward the nearest club flyers.

Raven strode into the gym, looking around at the mass of students and club tables. She glanced up at Hank, "Do you remember where we were meeting Charles?"

"Not really?" Hank offered. "We might want to try, I don't know, the chess club?"

"There's a chess club? That's probably our best bet for Charles then."

"I think I saw something about one," Hank replied.

"Well, let's go find that then," she grabbed his wrist and started weaving through the crowd.

He allowed himself to be dragged along, not much noticing the different club booths they were passing, full of various people smiling and trying to tempt people to their side. "We have a science club?"

"Apparently. I promise you can go back and look it over once we've found Charles."

"Okay," he murmured, eyes still roving over the room before they settled on what looked like a paper mâché chess piece. "I bet it's that one."

Raven looked to where he was pointing and nodded, slipping through a gap in the press of people.

Following her, Hank frowned slightly when he noticed the same tall teen in the turtleneck. He did not look impressed in the least with the general fair. The girl didn't notice the teen from earlier, her gaze sweeping around for her brother. She finally spotted him next to the chess table, but almost between it and the booth next to it to avoid too much contact with the crowd, "Charles!"

He looked up from where he was talking to one of the members of the chess club, his blue eyes seeking her out. He offered her a bright smile, faintly tinged with relief, "Raven, there you are."

"There's more people here then I actually expected," Hank remarked, following Raven closely, glancing every once and a while at the tall teen, who seemed to have noticed the chess table.

Charles nodded at that, taking his sister's hand as soon as she was in range. She let go of Hank and gave her brother an anchor, "There are rather a lot more people than I think most of us expected. Though, I suppose it's a sort of rite of passage to some."

"High school tends to be," Hank murmured. "So let me guess, you want to be on chess team?"

That earned a grin from Charles, "Of course I do. I wouldn't be here otherwise, would I?"

"Well, you could be hiding," Hank remarked.

That comment was greeted with wide blue eyes, looking up at him innocently, "And who or what would I possibly be hiding from?"

"No idea," Hank murmured, only somewhat sarcastically.

Raven looked her brother over, considering saying something, but a look from his silenced her. Charles glanced at Hank, "So, see anything that sparks your interest?"

"We have a science team," Hank replied, and a glint entered his eyes.

"Well, perhaps we should go check that out next?" Charles offered, his gaze sweeping around the students again and coming to rest on the tall teen in the turtleneck.

"Sure," Hank said, following his gaze. "Does, um, anyone know who that is?"

Raven shook her head as Charles answered, "Erik. He's new to town."

His sister eyed him, "Do you have a class with him?"

"I think I have English with him."

"You think?"

"I was paying attention to the teacher then."

Raven looked at him warily, "Are you skimming?"

Charles had the sense to look a bit sheepish at that, "Maybe a bit..."

"Charles," Hank started to say softly as the teen in question suddenly appeared next to them at the booth.

"Is this a club for chess?" he asked, his English good but still with a marked German accent.

Charles looked up, offering him a smile, "As far as I can determine, it is." He paused for a moment before offering the other his hand, "Charles Xavier."

The taller teen's eyes flickered down to the offered hand before taking it. "Erik Lehnsherr," he replied.

"Do you like chess, then?" Charles asked, ignoring Raven's sigh of frustration.

"Yes," he replied. "Do you?"

The smaller teen nodded, "I do. I don't get as much chance to play as I used to, but I do enjoy it."

"Well perhaps something of this sort would give you more chance to play, no?" Erik offered, Hank giving him a very odd look.

"I certainly hope it will," Charles answered. Startling very slightly when his sister kicked lightly at the back of his ankle, "Oh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot, Erik, this is my sister Raven and our friend Hank McCoy."

"Charmed," Erik said, sparing them a glance that didn't look half so interested as the one he'd been giving Charles.

"I'm sure you are," Hank muttered.

Raven smiled thinly, "Well, it's good to meet you. We were just headed to the science team table, weren't we, Charles?"

"Hm? Oh, you two can go on and I'll catch—" He stopped at the look on his sister's face, "Oh. Right. Yes..." He glanced back at Erik, "Well, I'll see you around?"

"I believe so," Erik replied as Darwin finally made his way up to the chess team table, still steering Alex around with him.

The dark skinned teen considered the group around the table and nodded. "I like this one," he declared.

"No. No way in hell, Darwin," Alex protested.

Hank blinked rapidly, recognizing the teen that had just ran him over earlier.

"Why not?" Darwin protested.

"You really think chess is a good idea?" the blond scowled.

"Have you ever played before?" Hank asked softly.

"Nope," Darwin declared, still quite happy with the idea. "But I think now will be a fantastic time to learn."

"And so...I'm along for the ride. Thanks. Remind me to not trust your judgment for clubs," Alex muttered.

Charles offered the two one of his bright smiles, "Oh come, it can't be that bad. I'm sure you'd be good at it." He managed not to wince as Raven stepped on his foot.

"I'm sure," Hank muttered, not sure he liked the look of the pair and Erik just blinked at the entire tableau.

Alex's gaze darted to Hank, "You saying I wouldn't?"

"I-I said nothing of the kind," Hank replied, taking a small step back. Out loud he hadn't anyway.

The blond's eyes narrowed, "Okay, Darwin. I'm in."

That got a rapid blink out of Darwin and Hank's shoulders hunched slightly. "Wonderful," the dark skinned teen declared happily.

Your note from Victoriousscarf: So, when you run into high school stories, they either tend to be "High school is the best time of life ever!" or "High school is hell." This story sorta takes more a middle ground between the two, though of course there's going to be that requisite bit of drama that must come with this age group. We'll be dealing a lot with the set of characters out of the First Class movie, but we're pulling in a lot of other characters from the comics and other movies too and just sorta throwing them all together in this setting. In fact, we're pulling some characters out of Marvel that don't come from the X-Men line at all. I think we have a total of 14 some pairings for this story over the course of the next four years.

Right now it's set up as a series of connecting one shots/two shots within this high school, so it's gonna be updated sorta sporadically as we work on it between other projects.

The last thing is, yes, we're using Chess Team cos the idea of Erik and Charles meeting at Chess Team was what set this whole thing rolling. My brother was a member of our school's Chess Team for four years and he got a varsity letter in it three years, if not all four. ((Yeah, kids on the Chess Team can get varsity/Letterman's jackets if they wanted, which I always found hilarious.)) So most of our knowledge about the Team is probably going to come from him. Cheers all and we hope you enjoy!