Chapter Four: New Kid
The next day, Scott and Jean offered to drive some of the students to school and Kurt was the first to take them up on their offer. Kitty and Rogue followed suit and they soon headed to Bayville High. On the way there, the X-Men have stopped at a red light and while they were waiting for the light to change, Scott decided to start a conversation.
"So, guys. Jean and I were talking, and we were planning on doing something this weekend. You know, maybe go to a concert, or see a movie. We were wondering if you guys wanted to hang out too if you didn't have any plans."
Kitty immediately smiled at the idea, and she threw her arms into the air.
"Woo-hoo! That would totally be awesome! There hasn't been much action lately, and I'm bored."
Jean laughed and then she turned around to look at Kurt and Rogue.
"What about you two? You up for it?"
Kurt nervously scratched the back of his neck as he thought about what to say. He nor Rogue wanted to tell the other X-Men about Mystique's invitation yet. Considering their mother's past encounters with the X-Men, Kurt and Rogue knew how wary their friends were when it came to Mystique. So, for the moment, the elf thought it would be better to not say anything about that.
"Well, um…I was actually going to…hang out with my parents for the weekend?"
That was not a lie, right? Kurt technically was thinking about spending time with his parents. Just not the ones his teammates were thinking about. Scott then smiled and glanced at Kurt from over his shoulder.
"Really? Your parents are coming over from Germany this weekend?"
"Y-Yeah! It has been a while since we saw each other."
"That's great. Really, Kurt. You should spend as much time as you can with your family."
"Hey, you guys are my family too, you know."
"Ha ha. Love you too, buddy."
Kurt chuckled, and then everyone turned their attention to Rogue, who was sitting quietly beside the elf with her arms crossed. She shrugged.
"I don't know. I was just goin' relax at the mansion for the weekend. Kick my feet up, get some much-needed sleep…"
Kitty scoffed at Rogue's idea of "relaxing".
"All you do is sleep nowadays, Rogue. Come on, let's have some fun! You do remember what fun is, right?"
Rogue rolled her eyes, but Scott stepped in before the two could start an argument.
"Hey, leave her alone, Kitty. If Rogue doesn't want to do anything, that's her business. But if you change your mind, you're more than welcome to hang with us, Rogue."
Rogue smiled and nodded her head.
"Thanks Scott. I'll keep that in mind."
As soon as the goth said that the light turned green, and Scott quickly looked back at the road to start driving again. As he stopped the car in front of the high school, Kurt noticed someone walking down the sidewalk.
"Hey, does anyone know who that is? I've never seen him at school before."
Rogue and Kitty both turned to the sidewalk and saw the person Kurt was referring to. The boy, who they assumed was another Bayville student since he was wearing a backpack, had short, light blue hair and incredibly pale skin. Kitty arched a brow.
"Must be a new guy. Looks like he's stealing the blue, Kurt."
"Hey! I rock the blue so much better!"
"Ha ha ha! Yeah, yeah. You're right."
Kurt laughed too, and turned back to the blue-haired boy. He watched as the new student walked up the school's steps to the entrance doors and disappear into the building. Kurt could not explain it, but he felt the need to go after the boy and talk to him. Maybe it was the fact that the stranger was a new student, so Kurt wanted to make him feel welcome. But the elf felt it was something more than that.
"Hey Kurt, you going or what?"
Kurt was pulled away from his thoughts when Scott spoke to him. The teen then realized that Rogue and Kitty had already exited Scott's car. Turning back to Scott, Kurt smiled at his older comrade, embarrassed.
"S-Sorry. I'll be going now, heh heh."
"You better. And Kurt—"
Kurt grabbed onto the door handle but stopped when Scott called him again. He glanced over his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
Scott sighed.
"Seriously, if you feel…weird or anything, don't hesitate to call us, okay? We'll be around, I promise."
Jean nodded her head.
"Yeah. Please contact us if anything is wrong."
Kurt smiled and nodded.
"Okay. I will call you guys, I promise."
Jean smiled back and then she used her telepathy to open the car door for Kurt.
"We'll hold you to that promise. Now you better hurry inside. And Kurt…have a great day."
Opening his locker door, Kurt placed his backpack into his locker and took his English textbook out before closing the locker. Once again, he was ambushed by a pair of arms wrapping themselves around him. Was Amanda going to make this a daily routine with them?
"Oh Kurt, I'm so glad you okay! I was so worried!"
Kurt smiled down at his girlfriend and gently pulled the girl away from him so he could look at her.
"Sorry, Amanda. I didn't mean to upset you."
"Well, you did mister! Didn't you see my calls and texts? You never replied!"
Frowning, Kurt took his cell phone out of his pants pocket and checked for any messages. He was surprised to see that Amanda had indeed left he multiple texts and calls. The elf was too wrapped up in his problems yesterday that he must have forgotten to look at his phone.
"Amanda, I'm so sorry. I didn't—"
"It's okay. Like I said, I'm just happy you're okay. I mean, you are okay right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just wasn't feeling too good yesterday. Did I miss anything?"
"Lucky for you, we didn't have any homework from any of the classes we have together. I'm not sure about your other classes though, so you might want to ask the teachers about that. If you need help with it later on, let me know, okay?"
Kurt gave Amanda a thumbs-up and winked.
"Sure thing!"
Amanda laughed and hugged him again before taking off down the hallway to her first class. Kurt was about to the same until he saw a familiar face walking in his direction. It was blue-haired boy he saw earlier walking down the sidewalk. The teen could see that the newcomer was holding a piece of paper in his hands and Kurt assumed it was his class schedule. Seeing the deep frown on his face, Kurt also assumed that the boy was struggling to understand where he needed to go. The elf decided that he should offer his assistance and he walked towards the new student with a smile.
"Hey!"
The blue-haired boy suddenly looked up from his paper and to Kurt.
"Um…are you talking to me?"
"Yeah. You're new here, right?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"Well, I thought you might need help finding your classes. I'm Kurt, by the way. It's nice to meet you."
"Um…okay. I'm N-Nils."
"Hey, Nils. Do you mind if I look at your schedule?"
Nils nodded and handed Kurt the paper he was holding. After a second, Kurt chuckled and handed Nils back his schedule.
"That's convenient. We have English together for first period. You can just follow me, okay?"
"Uh, sure. Thanks."
"No problem. Come on, we better hurry up before the bell rings. I already have enough tardies as it is."
Kurt saw Nils smirk for a moment, but the boy's smile quickly disappeared. Kurt was just glad to make the new kid laugh, even if it was only a little. The two teens quickly made their way to Ms. Vasquez's classroom, and they were about to take their seats until their teacher stopped them.
"Mr. Wagner, I am glad you are feeling better. Here is yesterday's homework, but I will give you until the end of the week to complete it."
Ms. Vasquez handed Kurt two worksheets for the homework.
"Wow, thank you Ms. Vasquez! I'll have it done by then."
"Make sure that you do. And I see you have gotten acquainted with Mr. Styger."
Ms. Vasquez smiled at Nils.
"It is a pleasure to have you in my class, young man. I hope you and I will get along splendidly."
"Y-Yes, ma'am. I won't cause you any trouble."
"That is good to hear. Now you two may take a seat. Mr. Styger, I believe there is an open seat behind Kurt. You may sit there."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Nils and Kurt then headed to their seats and laid their textbooks on their desks. With that taken care of, the bell rang and Ms. Vasquez decided to start her class.
At lunch time, Kurt and Nils were carrying their trays while talking about their classes. Surprisingly, they had about the same class schedule with the exception of their history classes. Kurt led his new friend to the table where the other X-Men students were sitting and he greeted everyone with a smile.
"Hey guys!"
Kitty, Rogue, Bobby, Amara and Ray all smiled back and made room for Kurt and Nils to sit down. Kitty was the first to ask about the new student.
"So Kurt, who's your new friend?"
Kurt laughed and motioned his hand towards Nils.
"This is Nils. Nils Styger. He's a pretty cool guy. I've been showing him his classes since are schedules are about the same."
Nils gave the group a small smile.
"H-Hello. I hope it's okay for me to sit with you all."
Bobby laughed and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head.
"Don't worry about it, man! Any friend of Kurt's is a friend of ours."
Amara nodded.
"Yeah, don't be shy. We won't bite."
Amanda laughed and everyone else soon joined in, even Nils. It was a low chuckle, but it was something. Kurt was happy to see Nils so relaxed around him and his friends. He hoped the rest of the students would be just as kind to him. But of course…
"Great. Just what we need. More freaks."
There had to be those people who spoil everything for everyone else. Unfortunately, that group was Bayville High's football team. Even though Duncan has graduated and is now in prison for an incident involving the X-Men, he still had some influence on the students of Bayville High, especially the football players. Unfortunately, one of the members of the football team was Duncan's own cousin, a seventeen-year-old named Carter Matthews. He had been home-schooled for most of his life, but it was not until he found out about Duncan's arrest that he wanted to attend Bayville High School. It was clear that he only wanted to come to this school to make the X-Men's lives miserable because of their involvement in his cousin's arrest. Carter and his teammates walked up to the mutants' table and scowled.
"Don't you guys understand that your kind isn't welcomed here?"
Kitty glared back at Carter and crossed her arms.
"What's your problem, Carter? There's no need for you to be such a jerk."
"I'm only saying what everyone else is afraid to say. The last thing we need is another mutant—"
Carter pointed at Nils.
"—trying to make things worse for us humans."
Rogue scoffed.
"Maybe you should get to know the guy before you start makin' assumptions. How do you know that he's even a mutant?"
"What other reason would he have to sit with you freaks?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because he's much more open-minded than you guys. But how can you be open-minded when you don't even have a mind of your own?"
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
Carter stomped towards where Rogue was sitting, but Kurt teleported in front of the football player to stop his advance.
"Hey, hey! There's no need for hostility. Just please let us be."
"Who asked you for your opinion? Now move, or I'll make you move."
"Please, don't—"
"What seems to be the problem here?"
Walking in the teens' direction, Principal Kelly scowled as he looked between the X-Men and the football team. Carter turned away from Kurt and spoke to the principal.
"Nothing to worry about, Principal Kelly. We were just leaving."
"No one was causing you any trouble, correct?"
Kelly looked to the mutants, who were not surprised that the man would believe that they were trying to start a conflict. But fortunately, or maybe unfortunately for them, Carter did not try to make the X-Men look like bad guys. Instead, the teen shook his head.
"No, sir. No problems here. We were just leaving, right guys?"
The rest of the football players nodded their heads in agreement, and then they began to walk away from the X-Men's table. Principal Kelly glared back at the mutants one more time before taking his leave as well. Kurt let out a breath that he had not realized he had been holding and sat back down. Rogue patted the elf on his shoulder and smiled.
"Thanks for the save, Blue."
"Yeah. Anytime, Sis."
Kurt then turned to Nils, who had been rather quiet during the whole incident.
"Don't listen to Carter, okay? He just has a thing against us mutants."
"But he does make a point."
Kurt and his friends all turned to Ray. He frowned as he placed his hand under his chin.
"Nils, be honest with us, alright? Are...Are you a mutant?"
Now everyone's attention was on Nils, and it was clear that the boy was very uncomfortable by that. He looked down at the floor to avoid the others' gazes and stuffed his hands in his hoodie pockets.
"I, um...I..."
"It's okay, Nils."
Nils looked at Kurt, who smiled and patted pale teen on his back.
"If you don't want to tell us, we understand. But just know that we will accept you, mutant or not. You don't have to hide."
Nils nodded his head and took a deep breath. It took him a minute, but the teen finally spoke again.
"I...It's kinda c-complicated."
Kurt nodded.
"I get it. We won't talk about it anymore if you—"
"No, I-I mean...my powers. They're complicated."
Kitty's eyes widened in excitement, and she smiled at Nils.
"So, you are a mutant? That's so cool! I'm sure the professor would love to meet you."
Nils suddenly frowned.
"The...professor?"
Kitty nodded her head.
"Yeah! Don't worry, Professor Xavier is a really cool guy. And you'd love the institute. It's—"
"Woah, woah, woah. Hold on."
Nils held up his hands to stop Kitty's rambling.
"Y-You're talking like you're going to make me meet this guy. I don't know this "Professor Xavier" person. Not like you do anyway."
Realizing her mistake, Kitty quickly shook her head and waved her hands in front of her.
"No, no, no, no, no! I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to force you to do anything! I just...got a little excited is all."
"...Okay."
That was the last thing Nils said until the bell rang again to signal the end of lunch. The boy was the first to get up from his table, but was Kurt was right behind him.
"Hey. I'm sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable back there. Like Kitty said, she was just excited. We all get excited when we find other mutants, because that means we have more people we can relate to. More people we can talk to about our problems, you know?"
Nils nodded as he dumped his lunch in the trashcan and placed his tray on the counter behind it.
"Yeah. I-I get it. But I don't know if I want everyone to know about me being a mutant. Not right now. I'd rather be bullied for being a nerd than for being...well, a f-freak. No offense."
Kurt shook his head.
"No. I understand. More than you know."
"But y-you're not afraid to show your true self. You're friends with the X-Men. You're c-cool."
Kurt stopped in his tracks, and it took a moment for Nils to realize that. But when he did, the pale teen quickly turned around to face his friend.
"W-What's wrong?"
"It's just...that's not exactly true."
"What do you mean?"
"Well...you see, I'm not just friends with the X-Men. I AM an X-Man."
"Really? S-Sorry, I didn't know. I've seen everyone else on tv and stuff, but I never saw you."
"Um, actually...you did see me. Just not as I am right now."
Nils frowned.
"What are you—"
"It would be much better to show you than to explain it to you. Follow me."
Kurt grabbed Nils' arm and teleported them both out of the cafeteria. When they reappeared by the boys' bathroom, Nils sniffed the air as the smell of sulfur surrounded him.
"Is that n-normal?"
"Yeah, sorry. I can't help that."
"I-It's okay. I'm used to it."
Now it was Kurt's turn to frown.
"You're...used to it?"
"I-I-I mean...well, I—"
"You know, now that I think about it, you weren't so surprised when I teleported back in the cafeteria."
"That's j-just because I assumed since the X-Men were here that there were other mutants t-too. Sure, I was a little surprised but—"
Nils shrugged.
"It's normal here, r-right?"
"So...do you think this is normal too?"
"Huh?"
Nils watched as Kurt reached for his watch and slowly remove it from his wrist. Once he did, Kurt's true form was revealed to his new friend, who gasped at the sight. The elf looked away from Nils and sighed.
"Well...what do you think?"
Nils stared in awe at Kurt for some time before he answered the elf's question.
"I...I still think you're cool."
Kurt had expected Nils to run away in fear. But he did not hear any malice or terror in the pale teen's words. He genuinely meant what he said, and the made Kurt extremely happy that someone else had accepted him, blue fur and all. The blue boy smiled.
"Thanks. That means a lot to me, Nils."
"Y-Yeah. I mean...with enough time, I-I think I would have connected the dots anyway. But thank you for s-sharing this secret with me. I promise I won't tell anyone."
"Thanks again."
"Sure thing."
Nils then looked down at his backpack and reached inside it to pull out a brochure. Kurt instantly recognized the Xavier Institute on the booklet's cover. Smiling, Nils held out the brochure for the elf to see.
"I...I had been thinking about going for some time, but...I'm not g-good when it comes to meeting new people."
Nils let out a dry laugh as he looked down at the ground, but Kurt was there to cheer the boy up. The elf grabbed Nil's shoulder to comfort the pale teen.
"Well, now you know me, right? And you just met some of the X-Men."
"Yeah, that's...that's true."
"So, if anyone gives you a hard time, we'll be there to help you, okay? Although, most of the students at the institute are really nice. I think you would really like it there."
"In that case, I...I think I will take a trip t-to the institute. If you're still okay with that."
"That would be awesome, Nils! Don't worry about a thing, alright? Us mutants have to look out for each other, and that is exactly what the people of the Xavier Institute do."