By the time we're outside I see the mutant kids all driving away in a bus. My first thought is, wow, that's all a lot of mutant kids going to the same school.
On the rear of the bus are the words XAVIER'S SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED. Any normal human being would think, oh, a school for geniuses. Great. But if you're not human...
Angel turns to me, delight on her face, and says, "Max!! Oh my gosh, it's a MUTANT SCHOOL."
Nudge and Gazzy squeal (if his voice were any higher only dogs could hear it) and I even see Iggy sigh a little bit. But Fang is the opposite of relieved. "Are they crazy?!" he demands, staring hard after the bus. "That's asking for an ambush! Or a straight-up attack! How could they be so stupid?"
"Maybe it's an etiquette school for how not to be a mutant," Iggy suggests, sarcastic as always. "Y'know, I hear it's all the rage having normal kids these days."
"Shut up Iggy," I snap.
Nudge has turned her big, brown, horse-like eyes up into my face. "Max, it's a whole school filled with people like us! Can you believe it?" Before I can respond she's off like a shot. "No more hiding, scavenging for food, or fighting! We can have friends and be around people without feeling weird! We can..." As she rattles off it suddenly hits me: Nudge is twelve. She's at that stage where the most important thing to her is having friends and just being around people she can talk to. For her entire life she's been around the same five people, her family, but it's not the same as having a BFF she can call up and pour her soul into.
"No way," Fang cuts her off. "We've dealt with this before. We don't need school."
"'We?'" I cross my arms and glare at him.
"Yes, we," he responds icily, matching my glare eye for eye.
We could stand there glaring at each other all day, but suddenly I felt a tug on my sleeve. "I'm hungry," says Gazzy, delivering his best poor-pitiful-me look.
"You just had lunch!" I say in disbelief.
"I'm a growing kid! See?" He pushes up his sleeve and lift his forearm, flexing it. He's done this before, but to my absolute shock this time I see the start of a bicep pop out from his skinny arm.
"Uh, I don't know if I'm growing yet but I'm kinda hungry too," Angel says.
"Me too," Nudge says.
Iggy stares at his feet. "Same," he mutters guiltily.
I soften. "Ok. That's fine." I reach into my pocket and pull out some bills. "We have..." I feel my shoulders slump. "Three dollars." Damn, that museum food was freakin' expensive!
"Did you count change yet?" Fang sneers.
I turn my head and glare at him. The rest of my hungry flock do the same, and pretty soon it's all four of us against the one militant soldier.
My stomach growls. I know Fang hears it but he bears no response. I realize he's not changing his mind.
It's getting dark.
"Okay," I say, grinding my jaw. "Fang, I'm not standing here all night starving myself. You know where we'll be."
I'm still in a pissy mood when we take off. Fang is still standing stubbornly outside that stupid museum as people file out around him, muttering angrily about how mutants are ruining their lives. To be able to just stand there listening to these hundreds of morons put down his own kind while he watches the people he loves most in the world flying away means he's very set in his opinions.
I say sucks for him. While he's standing there in the sweltering New York heat with a rumbly tummy we're gonna be at mutant school.
Yay.
After a few miles of flight down a highway we spot the bus heading down a secluded looking exit. We follow, flying recklessly at a low five hundred feet. The landscape is gorgeous, with green grass spreading as far as I can see, even at th is height. There are trees of every kind lining the road. The bus approaches a fancy but heavy-duty wrought iron gate with a brick fence sprawling in either direction. The gate opens, and the bus passes through.
We follow.
The landscape gets even more classy. Beautiful gardens with every color flower you can imagine. I see basketball courts, a pond with boats at the dock, a track and football field, a baseball diamond...all of these surround an amazing mansion. I really can't describe it. It's made of elegant stone, with high windows. It's practically a castle. I even see a spire poking up. Behind the mansion is a lawn surrounded by flowers, trimmed hedges, and some benches with a fountain in the center.
Overall, I would definitely not mind living here. But I don't just want to turn up and say "Hey, we're mutants!! We're gonna be staying here for a while, hope you don't mind!!" I signal for us to land in a spot about a half-mile away from the mansion.
"Sooo," I say, sitting cross-legged and pulling out the grass around me (why is that so addicting?!?!). "How should we do this? We're six kids..."
"Five," Nudge corrects me.
I glare at her. "Five kids who eat a ton, take up a lot of space, don't like school, and get into fights. A lot."
"Who, me?" Angel widens her baby blues and gives me a look that is so innocent, so charming, I want to cry.
I heave a sigh. "Not to mention a little girl who will probably just convince her teachers to give her As anyway. So, any ideas?"
We sit around thinking for a few minutes. Nudge suggests we tell them the truth. Iggy and Gazzy laugh so hard they almost throw up on each other.
"What?" Nudge demands. "C'mon guys, the truth will set you free, right? RIGHT?"
"You bet your ass it would," someone growls behind me. I leap up and whirl around.
Standing there is a man. He has wild hair and side burns, and a wolf-like snarl on his face.
And...he's got knives.
"Max!" Angel suddenly screams. I turn around to face her. There's a vein throbbing in her forehead, and she's grabbing at her hair. "There's someone in my head!" she's screaming. "Get him out!"
Before I can do anything something massive runs up behind me. I try spinning away but, quick as lightning, he reaches an arm around my waist and with his free hand points his knives at my throat.
None of us, aside from Angel, who's crouching on the ground in shock, move. "Do something!" I say, my jaw clenched with anger and fear.
"Max," Nudge whispers hoarsely. "Look at his hands."