In this chapter there will finally be a confrontation between Bobby and Warren.

The first thing John felt when he woke up was that he needed to sneeze. And when he sat up he did it, twice. Then he immediately wanted to wash his hands, which he, of course, did.

The moment he came out from the bathroom there was a knocking on the door. When John opened it he saw Piotr and Warren, both dressed and with a tray with breakfast for three people. John grinned and let them in. Piotr put the tray on his chair while Warren sat down on his bed;

"We heard you sneeze, are your cold getting worse?"

John looked through his wardrobe and dragged out some clothes;

"No, actually I'm better, now it's just my nose that needs to be fixed…"

When he looked around he saw Warren laugh quietly and gave the boy a questioning look. Warren just kept on smiling;

"You know that you probably chose the worst time ever to get better since you have to get to class today…"

John groaned loudly and caused both Piotr and Warren to laugh;

"Can't you just say that I go worse and I'll stay in my room the whole day?"

Warren shook his head;

"Nope, if we suffer you do to. Anyhow, I don't think you'll be able to sit here and be calm the whole day without destroying anything…"

John gave him a sulking look;

"Do you have any idea how irritating it is when people know you that good?!"

Warren leaned forward, looking serious;

"Yes, a lot."

He nodded like in self-confidence and made a big thing of picking a marmalade-sandwich from the plate on the tray. John dropped all the clothes he'd picked out in a pile on the floor and sat down on the floor to eat as well.

Piotr was the one to break the silence;

"Warren and I were talking about going down to the mall this afternoon to by some Christmas presents and…"

Johns head jerked up;

"Christmas?"

Both Warren and Piotr looked surprised at him;

"Don't say that you forgot about a thing like Christmas?!"

John looked close to a breakdown;

"I did!"

Then the others started to laugh which caused John to let out a little smile. Piotr was the one who saw the most humoristic in the whole thing; John had been talking about Christmas even before the snow started to fall, and he had argued a whole month before it that they shouldn't have to go to school this close before a that important holiday. However, he lost that argument against Mr. Summers when the man pointed out that John only loved the holiday because of the presents, decorations and other things that didn't have anything to do with the original reason that you celebrated Christmas in the first place.

But of course the mess during the last holiday had caused John to forget about it, and now he, of course, had to overreact on it.

Warren quit laughing at John after a while;

"Anyhow, we wondered if you wanted to come along. We thought we could split up at some rate and get present for each other, and later on meet again and eat at the mall."

He then took a bite of his sandwich and watched while John thought it over;

"Sure I tag along, but I just want to ask; why go shopping on a Monday, didn't anyone thought about it during the weekend?"

Warren looked at him;

"During this weekend; no. And like you said in the danger-room; none in their right minds would go there today, and since we already made clear that day that we two are nuts we might as well do it! We thought it over and came to the conclusion that not that many people go there on a Monday, so it won't be that crowded."

John nodded, now it finally made sense.

When they were done eating and Piotr went down to the kitchen with the tray and their plates and glasses, John got dressed while Warren waited outside. And even though John had picked out his clothes before they ate it seemed as if it would take a while. Warren did his best to be patient, and just to have something to do he started to move his weight from one foot to the other while his wings unfolded themselves and then got back to their normal position.

Then suddenly, when he put town his weight on the left foot, the math crunched. Surprised Warren looked down; the math was covered in small ice-crystals that would break a first touch. To find out where they came from he then looked up, and there stood someone he recognised. He'd herd enough about this boy to get a pretty bad picture of him, but now when he saw Bobby close up for the first time a thought occurred him; Bobby was just a boy, like himself. And human or mutant; nobody is perfect. Bobby had made a mistake, just one thing got wrong, and it ended up like this. Of course it wasn't the purpose when he did it, so why judge him for it? Everyone made stupid things and it was the surroundings that decided how big that thing could be called. One little detail, or a word from someone, might have changed the whole thing.

So when looking upon Bobby, Warrens mind decided that he'd give the other boy a chance, no matter what he'd herd. It seemed as if a lot of the kids at this place liked him, and that had to be for a reason. Hardly anyone liked John, but he'd turned out to be the first real friend Warren got here…

Giving the other boy a smile, Warren just said;

"Hi."

Bobby nodded;

"Hi."

He didn't smile, but he didn't look angry either. So Warren held out a hand;

"I'm Warren."

Bobby looked at it for a while, and just when Warren was about to take it back he took it in a firm and cold grip;

"Bobby Drake, usually called Iceman."

Warren looked down at his hand in surprise after Bobby had released it; it was covered in frost and he couldn't feel it at all, or move it.

"I see why…"

Bobby looked at him with cold eyes; it seemed as if the Iceman was sick of having feelings so he just turned them of.

"So what are you?"

Warren looked up, he'd no idea what the other boy meant. Then, without a warning, Bobby stepped forward and sized one of his wings over his shoulder. Warren stared in shock at the other mutant, who just stood there, holding his wing in a painfully cold grip and looking at it with the same cold expression.

"You're him."

Warren had no idea of what the other boy talked about;

"Who?!"

Bobby really freaked him out by now, and he didn't let go of the wing despite Warren's obvious struggle against it. Instead he started to turn his hand so that the wing slowly was turned into a painful angle.

"Please, let go, it hurts!"

Bobby looked down at Warren; cold, uncaring eyes, a blank face that showed no expression, and a mind just as cold as the ice it created and formed.

Then Bobby let go. Warren immediately backed away, he was quite sure that this mutant wouldn't care if he hurt him worse than this.

"You stay away from him."

"What?!"

Warren didn't get a thing.

"Stay away from Pyro, or you'll be sorry."

"But… Why…?"

"Because I said so."

Now Warren got a bit angry;

"Shouldn't John have a say in the matter?"

Bobby didn't answer, but for the first time he showed some sort of feelings; his eyes got thinner and his jaws tighten; mouth turning into a sneer.

But before he could answer the door to Johns room flew up, forcing the ice-mutant to back away before he could get hit.

"Were gonna be late!"

John shouted as he ran out, grabbing Warrens arm and dragging the other boy with him and rushing towards the classroom, where Piotr probably waited for them.

Left in the corridor was Bobby, who looked after the other two boys with an unreadable face before he slowly stared to walk towards the class. In this pace he'd be late, but who cared?

So, anyone who'd like to comment?