Kitty rubbed her eyes again. It couldn't be. After all, she searched for, like, almost 4 years and always came back to square one. But how could someone like Lance actually appear in a University? It was impossible.

Kitty felt a tap on her shoulder and she spun around, "Kurt!"

"Kitty!" Kurt said, "I've been looking all over for you. Vhere did you go?"

Kitty pointed into the crowd, "Kurt, I think…I think I saw Lance. He bummed into me and-."

"Vat, Kitty, bumping into someone doesn't mean it's Lance. Ve's been lost ver four years already. Vat makes you think that it must be Lance?" Kurt had a very strong German accent.

Kitty wondered. Maybe…maybe it's just my nerves. I must be thinking, like, too much already. Kurt's right. Maybe he just looks like Lance. It doesn't mean it's him, right?

"Maybe it's that I'm thinking too much, Kurt. But he…he looked almost like he was Lance." Kitty said.

Kurt laughed, "In a University? Kitty, it's…not possible."

Kitty knew about Lance and his studies. He never failed to give a headache to any teacher and he's probably one of the most common one to see, getting ticked off from Principal Kelly or someone else.

But they looked way too…too alike.

Kurt pushed Kitty into the crowd, so no one could see him clearly and from there; he ported to the stairway closest to Kitty's dormitory. "Now, vun think so much, Kitty. Just go vand get some rest, ok?"

"Well, alright. I think I'll get a hot bath first and then explore some other day. Come to think of it, maybe I should go take some Aspirin too, before my head, like, totally explodes."

"Good thinking. Vand, bye!" Kurt teleported away leaving the smoke behind like he always did.

Kitty got back to the shared bedroom between she and Rogue and started to sort out her notes.

Her eyes widened at one of the unfamiliar ones. The paper was a little crumpled and it was a class timetable. It was a reprinted one as the normal one they gave was a piece of green paper. This one was white.

And what really caught her eye most was the name scribbled on the corner…Lance.

It was a little blurry but it was Lance.

Kitty came over with happiness, thinking that maybe the Lance she was looking for might be in this school, in the same campus as her!

Kitty bounced onto Rogue's bed, waking her up instantly. "Rogue! Rogue! I think I found him. Like, I was-."

"Kitty! Ah was sleeping jus fine till ya' came in! What's with ya'?" Rogue grew upset.

"No, look, Rogue! Just now, I knocked into a guy and got one of his papers by accident and…and look!" Kitty pushed the paper into Rogue's hands even before she knew what was going on.

Rogue looked and sighed at Kitty. "Kitty, I hate to tell ya' this, but do you know how many "Lance"s' are there in this school? Ah wouldn't be surprised if there were at least 10 that walked right past ya' and ya' don't know it too. Ah mean, you can't just judge by a piece of paper with a "Lance" on it, right?"

Kitty stammered, "B…but, he looked just like Lance. You know, brown hair, ripped jeans…"

Rogue got up from her bed, "Kitty, ah had brown hair, you had brown hair and so many others have brown hair. And worse, it could be dyed too."

Kitty didn't feel like believing it but she felt she must. "Rogue…maybe you're right. I…I just want to look for Lance so badly, I guess. It's been a good four years and still nobody has a single piece of news about him. Like, what's he playing at?"

"He could have gone somewhere but ya' won't know. Ah mean, he could have gone to somewhere like…like North Pole but ya' never will know."

Kitty didn't feel like laughing at the lame joke she made. After all, all she wanted to do is find the owner of this paper and then she'll decide for herself.

Kitty had very little lessons with Rogue or Kurt. As far as she could tell, Rogue felt like going solo and Kurt was making friends still with this certain "Shola" guy character, so it wouldn't be good to interrupt. The only lesson the three of them had was music, but it wasn't long.

"Right…so here's my locker…" Kitty glanced at the thing that looked so familiar to the silver lockers in Bayville High except that this one was green in color. Still, no big difference.

Kitty opened up her locker. Mmmm…very clean. A point for the janitor. The first thing kitty did was to pin up the picture of Lance and her together and then followed by pictures of her friends, the people at the institute and her family, followed by some of her all-time favorite country singers.

She already knew what Rogue would put on her locker. Maybe, Korn or some of the other goth singers and bands or maybe, she would like to keep hers completely clean. Kurt would have the first one, Amanda, then his foster parents and maybe one of himself, since he was always a little "over" on the way he looked like. Blue.

Kitty pilled tons of books into the locker, and lightened the over-weight bag of hers.

"And…ah, I've got Chemistry first up."

Lance got into her head again. She remembered that he was always her lab partner and now, she'll be doing it with somebody else, somebody she knew nothing about. Oh, how nice can that get…

Chemistry was nice and so was Literature, which came after that. Everything was harder, more complicated and more brain exhausting too. She felt her brain had every last bit of its juices squeezed out till she was totally worn out. She wondered how Kurt and Rogue were handling it themselves.

During Lunch…

"I'm telling you, the teachers are all so fierce! And scary!" Kurt said, over his sandwich.

"Man, ah thought ah would die of all this." Rogue replied.

Ok, so guess they aren't handling it any better than I am myself…

"What have you got later on?" Kitty asked.

All replies were Music. So, it wouldn't be all that bad…

Kitty, Rogue and Kurt entered the room. It was filled with whispers and shuffling feet, so maybe the lesson wouldn't be as hard as Math or Biology.

"All right, students. This year, we'll all concentrate on only one instrument," said the male teacher in charge for music. "And it'd be the guitar."

Some moans came up. "Now, now, unless you want to do Literature with Mrs. Brown, then you certainly may. So, anyone?"

Of course, no hands were raised up.

"Good." The male teacher smiled at his students. "I'm going to be at a meeting today involving your after school activities. So, I'll be having my star pupil in guitar to come teach you guys how fun is guitar." And he left the room.

"Aw, man, ah think ah am gonna' hurl already." Rogue sighed loudly.

"Hey, he did have a point here. Either it's this or Mrs. Brown. And guys, believe me, she really gets to you. Maybe this student of his would be nice." Kitty said.

Kurt laughed, "Ja, right."

They waited patiently as the student came speeding in, half-panting and holding his guitar.

"Sorry, I'm late. I had some stuff to attend to and I…uh…"

Kitty, Rogue and Kurt had their eyes wide open. Will wonders ever cease…Lance?

Lance spotted Kitty at the back and he hesitated a little. "My name is…uh…Lance. Just call me that, ok? I'll be assisting you guys for every…um…lesson now onwards."

Ever since he left, Lance seemed to have grown up a whole lot. His hair was longer for sure and he seemed more matured in many ways. So, is this where he had been for 4 years? Can't possibly be…

Lance didn't want to look at Kitty. Oh man, of all Universities in the world, she, goth girl and Blue boy had to pick this one? One Brotherhood versus three X-men. Same case as usual…he was the loser.

Lance taught them the very basics and even showed them how to play some songs too. His fingers were very fast and moved really quickly round the strings. But in truth, Kitty wasn't concentrating.

Rogue nudged Kurt in the stomach with her elbow and pointed at Kitty. Kitty was just staring at Lance. And no one knew what she was thinking.

The lesson ending pretty soon. The students all stood up to leave, even Lance. He didn't really want to be in any embarrassing state, especially not talking to his ex-girlfriend/ long-time no see girlfriend. But Kitty seemed pretty eager to talk to him.

As soon as every student left, Lance did too, only that Kitty blocked his exit.

"Vant us to get out?" Kurt asked. He didn't wait for an answer when he grabbed onto Rogue and ported them to god-knows-where.

"Lance? Is that really you?" Kitty asked.

Lance shook his head. "I'm not Lance, Kitty. Now, get out of my way. I still have lessons."

Kitty still didn't budged, "Then…then how did you know my name was Kitty in the first place?"

Lance knew he made a huge mistake. "Kitty, I have things to do." He pushed her out of the way and ran past.

Kitty tried to catch up, calling his name several times, but still, she lost him in all the mess.

Lance was happy he got past Kitty by running into the boy's room, and heaved a sign of relieve. But he didn't really want to hide from her. It's just that he wasn't ready…ready to face her and tell her the truth.

He did miss her. After not seeing her for a lousy four years and then finding her in the University of Illinois, he didn't know whether he ought to be happy or sad.

Lance leaned against the tiles of the wall, hoping that one day, he could face her bravely.

And tell her he still loved her.