A/N: Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry. Sorry this took so long to update! I've had midterms for a while, and right after that I got a terrible case of writer's block. I think it was the worst I ever had.

Please, enjoy the results.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even this computer.

Chapter Eleven

Gwen watched Linda rifle through her heavy backpack expectantly. "It's here somewhere," the other girl muttered, her thin blonde hair obstructing her face. "Hope it's not broken...here it is!" She triumphantly held the object aloft, letting Gwen remove it from her grasp: a CD, its cover scratched and weak from overuse.

"Thanks," she told Linda, who grinned in response.

"The second track is the best," she said. " 'Think of Me.' Totally brilliant."

Their friend Tony, who was standing nearby, snorted and rolled his eyes. He, at most, barely tolerated the girls' love of theatrical music, preferring the more modern grunge of the time. His clothes matched this inclination: they were shapeless, ragged, and stained with something that looked like motor oil (his father owned in a autobody shop). Gwen often wondered if he wore such garments voluntarily, or he just didn't feel like changing from his work rags to cleaner items.

"Shut up, Tony," Linda retorted, standing up straight again and peering over Gwen's shoulder at the CD. She pointed at one of the songs with one of her blue-tipped fingers. "There. See it?"

"Yeah. You wanna listen?" She looked up as Linda nodded enthusiastically. Tony groaned loudly.

"For the love of god," he muttered. "Not again."

"Shut up, Tony!" Gwen said. "We said we were sorry about the last time. You can't even see the stitches anymore."

The three were over at Gwen's apartment, as was usual ever since they had met each other. Most days after school they would spend a few hours listening to each other's music on Linda's CD player and eating whatever was in the fridge at the time. Food for the Wagners had become more plentiful ever since their visit to Germany: their cousins had decided to send over money every month. Had it been anyone else, Sigfried would have declined petulantly, but his family was a special case. Their charity was gracefully accepted, something Gwen was extraordinarily thankful for. Occasionally, their electricity would get shut off, but not nearly as often as when she had been younger. Now it was a true annoyance, rather than a fact of life.

Sigfried's reunion with his cousins had changed him. Perhaps comparing himself to his past life had been the motivation, but he had finally started to look for a better job, one more suited to his intellect. He was forever buying newspapers and spending breakfasts circling career opportunities in the 'wanted' ads.

"Everything will be different," he promised his daughter as she ate her cereal. "We will move out of this place. You can go to a better school. We will have some control over our lives." He smiled as he said this, but to himself, as though he were remembering something. Milk dribbled down her chin as she tried to beam.

This positive change in attitude was not the only discrepancy in their household. Ever since meeting Kurt, Gwen had become decidedly more outgoing with her classmates, and made friends with two of them: Tony and Linda.

They were new to the school that year, but the way they carried themselves into Gwen's classroom, one never would have known this. They were chatting confidently with each other as they sat in the desks next to Gwen. The boy was dressed in clothing similar to hers, albeit much dirtier. The girl had been dressed in the most bizarre outfit she had ever seen.

She wore a striped red and black ski hat, gray cargos with all of the pockets weighed down by what sounded like change, and a form fitting neon pink tank top so bright it had made Gwen feel like her corneas were contracting in shock. "Do you think mimes ever get married?" the oddly garbed girl had asked as she sat down.

"No," she had replied, momentarily shocked. This was met with a nonchalant shrug.

"Yeah, that makes sense. My name is Linda." She held out her hand, and Gwen shook it.

"I'm Gwen, but people here are gonna call me Sigfreda a lot. It's my first name."

"Oh, that sucks."

"Yeah, I know." Her gaze flickered over at the boy briefly, but her shyness forced her to turn to her backpack as surreptitiously as possible. Linda noticed, however, and seemed to want to change her attitude.

"This is Tony," she said, jerking her thumb to her right. He waved, dark blue eyes squinting behind his large black-framed glasses.

The shade of his irises suddenly reminded her of Kurt's skin, and she inhaled slowly, feeling a bit braver. They had joined her, and maybe they'd like her if she allowed them to do so.

"Hi, Tony," she'd finally said.

Linda had soon changed the subject to music, sparking a heated debate between the three of them. The girls both liked Broadway, but he preferred the rock his older brothers listened to constantly. Gwen didn't mind this, though. Finally she had found someone who shared at least one of her interests.

Over the weeks, the three had become more and more friendly with each other, forming their own rituals and traditions. For example, every day after school they'd march over to her house, raid her fridge, and argue happily until her friends had to go home.

Sigfried didn't seem to mind the fact that the three children were always devouring his food. He was usually at work in the afternoons, and preferred it when his daughter had company in their building. However, she had her own reasons for wanting her friends to be there after school.

Tony glanced at his watch. "It's three thirty," he announced. "The mail's here."

Linda, who had been fumbling with the wires connected to her CD player, set the contraption down and stood up. "Gwen?"

"I'll get the keys and then we'll go down," she told them, heading in the direction of the kitchen.

She had told Linda and Tony about her uncle. She had described everything about him – his looks, how they had met, his teleportation abilities, his career (this delighted Linda beyond all measure), and his relationship with the Wagner family. They had taken it rather well, in Gwen's opinion. Perhaps it was because they were so different themselves, but the idea of mutants didn't scare them as much as others.

Despite this, she still hadn't told them about her own powers. They hadn't ever met Kurt. To them, he was just a distant connection to one of their friends. If she revealed her secret, maybe it would become too real for them. They could leave her, or worse, tell her father, causing him to abandon her as well.

Her friends were aware of Gwen's contact with Kurt, and eagerly awaited his letters nearly as much as she did. They usually arrived a week or so after she wrote to him, at which point the three children would walk downstairs to the mailboxes on the ground floor of her building. It would be sandwiched between a few bills and one of her father's magazines, filled with occasional circus posters and pictures from Kurt's travels. These gifts were kept in a box beneath her bed, where she was almost certain Sigfried would never look.

She had tossed the key to their apartment on the kitchen table, setting her backpack on top of them. Shoving the bag aside, she picked them up and ran back into the living room.

"We'll listen when we get back," Gwen promised Linda, who had managed to untangle her headphones and set them on the couch beside her. She nodded and stood up, bending down briefly to straighten her blue thigh-high stockings. The spring weather was warm, but the girl didn't seem to notice it, by the way she dressed. She didn't enjoy shopping for clothing all that much, but instead preferred to wear her sister's old hand-me-downs. It resulted in a rather abnormal appearance for a twelve-year-old girl, but neither her family nor friends cared.

Tony was already in the hallway by the time the girls had gotten ready, rubbing his glasses on the edge of his shirt in an effort to clean them. He was narrowing his eyes, as he always did whenever he removed his spectacles from his face. He was nearly blind without them, and Gwen usually took this opportunity to tease him.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked, as she twisted the key in the lock.

Linda laughed as he put his glasses back on. "That's really old," he told her, running his fingers through his dark hair. "And stupid."

"You're stupid," she countered as they went to the elevator. Tony shoved her into a wall, grinning. She lost her balance for a moment, before regaining it and pushing him into Linda.

The three of them tussled with each other until the elevator arrived. It was clunking sadly and, as it had been ever since Gwen could remember, in desperate need of repair. The doors seemed to be stuck, but a hard kick from the boy opened them up. One of the lights on the ceiling was cracked, but there was still sufficient illumination for the three to ride in comfort.

There was a brief period of panic when they arrived at the ground floor and Linda, as enthusiastic as usual, jumped as high as she could to obtain the feeling of gravity defiance. The elevator stopped the instant her feet had met the ground again, but before they could really start to be terrified, it began moving once more.

"That thing is a deathtrap," Tony mumbled nervously as they stepped into the lobby. "We're taking the stairs on the way up."

"That was awesome!" Linda shrieked, rushing out before them and tripping on a torn piece of the carpet, falling on her front. "OW!"

Gwen ignored both of them. She agreed on all accounts, but the filled mailboxes in front of her were distracting. The container labeled "3F" was packed with envelopes, and one of them was considerably thicker than the rest.

"It's here!" she squealed, skipping over happily.

" 'Dear Gwen,'" Gwen read aloud. Tony and Linda were sitting on either side of her. The boy was peering over her shoulder attentively, but the girl was fidgeting with her boot. "Linda...are you listening?"

"I think there's carpet stuck in my zipper."

"We're reading without you, then." She cleared her throat. " 'Dear Gwen, How are you? I'm afraid there's nothing of real interest going on right now. We're traveling to Prague at the moment (I'm writing from Mom's truck at the moment, which is why my handwriting is worse than usual) and are staying for the next month. I'll send you pictures as soon as we take them.

" 'I've put a few posters in this letter. Josef drew them last week, and as soon as we settle in, we'll put them all over the area. If you look in the bottom left corner of the third one – it's covered in stars – you'll see the newest recruit. His name is Christophe, and he's working as an acrobat. He's a nice enough man, a few years older than me, I suppose. Amanda seems to like him quite a bit, but I think it'll take me just a bit longer to warm up to him. It's nothing serious, but-" Gwen paused briefly, taking in the next few words, but not reading them aloud. 'Every so often I catch him staring at me more than people normally do. I believe I'm used to this, but he unnerves me a bit.'

Tony was still reading over her shoulder, and mouthed the last sentence silently before looking up at Gwen. He was frowning slightly, and she reciprocated his negative thoughts. Linda was still fiddling with her shoe.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked, grimacing as she yanked on the zipper of her boot.

Gwen glanced at Tony, who nodded. "This guy's creeping Kurt out."

Linda snapped up, and began skimming over the man's spidery handwriting. "It'll be fine," she said, although she did not look completely sure of this. "He's just not used to your uncle."

"I guess." Gwen brushed her hair out of her face. " 'But your last letter didn't have nearly enough about yourself in it! Yes, I've told Stefan all about you. He'll adore you when you two meet, although I must ask you not to repeat that joke I wrote to you a while back to him. If you were to do so, it would take a long time to regain his respect.'"

"What joke?" Linda inquired eagerly.

"Oh, you know, I told you. A man goes into a sauna with a lobster..."

"I love that one!" Tony screeched, a far cry from his usual mordant personality.

"Yeah, you sure did. 'However, if you are coming to Germany again this summer, chances are that Stefan will be home from school then.

" 'I apologize for the lack of any real substance to this letter, but there's really nothing of true importance to write about. Tell your friend Linda that if she ever comes to Germany, I'll gladly give her tickets for our circus, and ask Tony what it means when a car makes a large clunking noise whenever the key is put in the ignition (I'm afraid that Mom's truck doesn't have much life left). Write soon, to the address on the front of the envelope. Love, Kurt. P.S: The word 'idiotish' does not exist, contrary to what you think.'"

She looked back up from the letter, flipping through the rest of the papers sent by her uncle, her friends on either side of her couch and her father just about to return home.

It seemed impossible that such a bizarre life could be so wonderful, but Gwen now knew it could happen.