Luckily for Scott, one of those reasons was sitting across the cafeteria table from him right now.
"-picked my piece to be recommended for display in the state congressional building," Jean was saying, eyes shining. She seemed happy but a little confused. That was okay - at least she was happy. This morning she'd been anything but. This transition was hard on all of them, but she'd had the most to lose. He understood. He knew what it was like to have your life ripped away.
Evan looked more confused than anything else. "Even after... everything?"
Jean nodded. "I brought that up, and she said, 'True art celebrates the individual, and individual differences. Being a mutant is no more reason to disregard your work than being an Impressionist.' "
"Wow. That's pretty enlightened."
"It doesn't mean that my stuff is going to get chosen or anything, but you're right."
Scott caught sight of a trio of football players slowly but determinedly making their way toward the table. He sighed and gave up on eating, instead standing and saying, "Looks like my lunch is over already, unless I want it force-fed. I'll see you guys after school."
Jean cast a concerned look over her shoulder, scowled when she saw the football players, and turned back to face Scott. She looked like she was going to say something like, I'm done too, let's get out of here, and he was perfectly ready to accept.
But it was Kitty who stood and said, "Wait, I'll come with. I sorta need an escort to my next class anyway."
He raised his eyebrows at Jean; she shrugged and waved goodbye, a little disappointed, he thought. That might've been wishful thinking, but things were shifting between them, and some days it seemed like...
Kitty, artfully steering through the crush of lunchtime traffic to maximize space between them and the football players, broke him out of his thoughts with, "Yesterday a bunch of kids were waiting at that one hallway, you know, where you can't see around the corner, and they seriously tried to, like, grab me."
"Oh?" he asked, which he knew would get her to keep talking, and listened with half his attention as they navigated the halls.
This was his school as much as it was anyone's - he'd gone there for four years, or close to it, and he'd worked hard the entire time. His grades before had been nothing special, with more Cs on his report cards than anything else, but Professor Xavier expected him to work hard, and he never wanted to disappoint the professor. Which meant that he now had the highest GPA of anyone in his class, even if he didn't make a big deal out of it. A perfect 4.0, unweighted, that skyrocketed much higher when all of his AP and Honors courses were factored in.
Maybe half of the seniors knew who he was, but he would've been valedictorian. Now he had the sinking feeling that his four years of hard work would not be rewarded, or even recognized. He didn't mind being different - he'd been different all his life: military brat, orphan, mutant. It was all the same. But being ignored because he was different... no, that wasn't cool.
"Scott?" Kitty asked, sounding slightly annoyed, and he realized that she'd realized that he wasn't paying attention.
"What?"
She bit her lip. "Can I ask you about... Um, nothing."
He waited.
"Okay, so like, you're a guy," she finally said, the words bursting out. "And I know you hate Lance's guts, but could you please try to tell me what's up with him and this whole attitude change? I mean, it makes no sense!"
Whoa boy, he thought. On a scale of things he didn't want to be confronted with, this was pretty high up there - right above a quarterback holding a grudge and a two-by-four. "Uh... shouldn't you be talking to Jean or Rogue or someone about this?"
She made a face. "No, because they're not guys! Weren't you listening?"
No, he was trying to avoid the conversation. Scott took a step back, stalling for all he was worth. "Uh, well, I think that... maybe..."
And Kitty lost her patience. "Ugh! Nevermind. Geez. You're all the same."
She stalked into her classroom, leaving him in the hallway. He breathed a sigh of relief, checked his watch, and decided he had just enough time to get back to the cafeteria and walk Jean to class.
