Disclaimer - I no own X-men. But Raul is mine, thanks.
I'm super happy you guys like Raul, I was afraid everyone would be like "OMFG ur character sux 'cuz he's such a fag an he's so emo I hate him!"
I actually, seriously, didn't realize how 'emo' the design of him in my head was. Oops. Oh well. If I haven't mentioned already, this is my first fic starring a fan character. I usually hate original characters in fanfics.
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Raul was awake by the second beep of his alarm. Sitting up the instant the sound reached him, he snapped the 'off' on the digital clock that was beside him on the bed and stared at it while his eyes adjusted. Slipping his feet to the floor, he put the clock on the bedside stand that Kurt had put there for him. Raul checked to make sure Kurt was still asleep as he stretched. He would hate to wake Kurt up and six in the morning. He assumed that since Kurt could instantly get dressed by flicking his watch, he'd sleep in to the last second.
Running his fingers through his bangs with one hand, Raul rubbed the sleep from his emerald eye with the other. He allowed himself one more yawn, and then shook his head to rid it of the haze of sleep. He crouched down over his bag and unzipped it, staring at the top layer of clothes that hid beneath his toiletries. Today would be his first day at this school, so he'd want to make a good impression, but nothing too flamboyant, since he wanted to make a good impression. Oh, how he hated half-asleep thoughts. Shrugging to himself, he lifted up the edge of several folded clothing articles, sifting to somewhere near the bottom and tugging out a neat bundle of black mesh.
Pulling off his pajama shirt and horribly neglecting the buttons, Raul shook out the shirt and slid it on awkwardly over his head, re-adjusting the sleeves several times. Of course, it was convenient that the sleeves were tight on the upper arm but loosened considerably near his wrist. It made wearing shirts over the mesh much, much easier. Raul dug around in his bag for a moment and pulled out a straight black tee. Shaking it out and holding it in front of him, he came to the conclusion that it was good enough to wear.
Rising from the floor, he looked down at his pajama clad legs and crouched down again, fishing out a dark pair of blue-jeans without looking to see which pair it was. If he had packed it, it had to be a pair he liked. Tugging off his pajama pants and tossing them onto the matching shirt (which created a pile); Raul leapt into the pants and zipped them up.
After pulling on some socks he finally made his first trip to the mirror, noting that his slow act of putting on clothes had taken him a total of thirty-two minutes. Fetching his brush off the dresser he dragged it through his hair as he opened the door and wandered out into the hall. He paused for a moment while he figured out his destination, then turned and headed for Kitty and Rogue's room. When he got to their door he was pleased to hear scuffling inside. He knocked lightly and waited, smiling warmly at Kitty when she opened the door.
"Mornin'" He said sleepily, "You guys got a hair straightened I can use? 'Left mine at home." He indicated to his messy hair to emphasize his need for the appliance.
Kitty paused for a moment as though considering his request, her hand holding her ponytail up and the elastic snagged between her lips. The hand she held the door with had a brush in it, similar to the one he held.
"Yeah, just get in and close the door before someone walks by and sees me!" Rogue snapped from in front of the mirror on the dresser, identical to the one in Kurt's. Kitty moved for him and Raul welcomed himself into the room, running his brush through his hair again. Rogue indicated to a drawer, and he opened it, only having to shift the contents once before spotting the desired object. Tugging it out he plugged it in ad sat down beside the dresser, snatching a bottle of hair product from the stand and reading the back slowly. "Y'can use that if you want, it's mine." Rogue said from her spot in front of the mirror. Mumbling a thank you, Raul glanced at it once more before he squirted some of the cream onto his palm and smoothed it through his bangs.
Though Raul was somewhat a morning person, he was still male. Therefore he would never be able to wake up as fast as most girls could, like Kitty. Noticing the light on the straightened signaled it was hot he ran his brush through his hair once more before standing to share the mirror with Rogue. By the time he had finished his bangs and had wandered back to Kurt's room with a bathroom stop in between, the clock beside his bed read '7:16'.
Glancing at the mirror on the way by, Raul noticed his ultimate failure. The rest of his hair was still frazzled from sleep, even though it was cut short. Snatching hair gel off the dresser, which had been totally free of anything to do with appearance before he had come, he smoothed it through his short hair and ruffled it into fairly even spikes, repeating the ruffling several times before he was satisfied.
He let that dry as he fetched random accessories from his bag, a stud-less collar here, a few plain wristbands there. Raul worked with occasional long pauses in between his movements, though for the most part his progress was somewhat consistent. He almost forgot a belt, but managed to grab one before he turned back to the mirror. Today, he would go without studded everything, since he was wearing mesh. He didn't want to overdo it too much. Glancing at the clock again, he found a bright '7:23' staring back at him. Raul went to his bed and grabbed a different bag, one he had gotten for school, and shoved a book off his bedside stand into it. He'd get school supplies later, if he decided to stay. Glancing around the room one more time, Raul decided he had everything he needed from there. He saw Kurt shift in his bed as Raul left the room.
He ran straight into Evan as he walked out of the room, and Evan shoved him away playfully, telling him to watch where he's going. Raul apologized and walked down the hallway, his eyes widening slightly at the sudden line for the bathroom. He raised his hand by way of greeting as he walked past, watching several people stifling yawns.
Raul found the kitchen just as cramped, people refusing an organized breakfast and bustling about. He noticed a healthy couple of stacks of pancakes on the table and he took a seat beside Logan, who was blocking out the commotion and eating his breakfast. The gruff man turned to Raul as the boy helped himself, passing him the syrup. Raul nodded by way of greeting as he smothered his pancakes, noting the lack of anyone else actually sitting down at the table, instead grabbing plates, piling them high with pancakes, and walking away to continue getting ready for the day.
He finished quickly and was just going back up the stairs to his room when Scott passed him going down, nudging him towards the way he had come and mumbling something about leaving. Raul stopped on the stairs and turned, then was almost trampled to death as half the academy charged down the narrow stairway, chattering and groaning sleepily amongst themselves.
Recovering, Raul hopped down the stairs and found Scott waiting outside the front doors in his car. Raul opened the door and was about to slip into the front seat when Kurt randomly appeared there, smoke swirling around him. Squeaking in surprise, Raul didn't put up a fight and closed the door, slipping into the back seat instead.
The drive to school was short enough, and Raul watched curiously as they pulled into the student parking lot, his gaze drifting from person to person. Everyone filed out of the car with Raul second last, his nervousness slowing him down slightly. Scott came up behind him and clamped a hand down on the boy's shoulder reassuringly, smiling warmly.
"Almost all the X-men go to school here too, right? So if you have any trouble we'll all be here for you." Raul was nudged foreword gently by the older, red-shade wearing teen, and he complied after taking a small sigh, breaking into a trot to catch up to Kurt.
Falling into step beside his friend, Raul sighed heavily and looked around again, pounding the thought into his head that this wasn't any different from his school, and if anything, unless he wanted too he'd only have to stay at the place for a week.
Kitty ended up splitting off from the others with him, deciding that since Kurt had to run for fast food, she'd take him to the office. She smiled warmly as she left him in front of the office door, waving momentarily before walking into a grinning boy. She squeaked something and his grin morphed into a smirk, the tall boy throwing his arm around her casually as he started down the hall beside her, then whining lightly as she pushed it away.
Just then the principle opened the door, ushering him in. Raul took a seat in front of the desk, watching the seemingly strict woman move around him to take her seat. She eyed him up and down thoughtfully.
"Raul Sedlak, the new student Xavier enrolled here? I'm your Principle, Mrs. Darkholme. I heard that you may not be staying with us for more than a week, which is slightly irritating. It's quite bothersome to have to make room in classes for someone only to have them leave again. I truly hope you stay." She drawled emotionlessly, her fingertips pressed together in front of her chest. Without giving him time to speak, Darkholme continued, "I've made a list of your classes, even in the short period I've known of your arrival. I truly hope that you will try your best here." -- A short pause -- "That is all, you may leave."
Raul blinked slowly and nodded, still absorbing the speech. He rose slowly and accepted the class list she was offering, examining it as he slung his bag over his shoulder again and pulled the door closed behind him. Raul sighed again as he looked up from the paper to find room numbers to orientate himself. He must have serious issues, with all this sighing to himself. It probably wasn't healthy.
The worst part of switching schools, and the only part the seventeen-year-old truly hated, was having to find his way around within a time limit in a place he'd never been before. He glanced around one more time before he spotted a familiar face, and he instantly started towards her.
"Jean! Have you got a… moment?" Raul started strong as he walked up beside the gorgeous red-haired girl, but his words slowed and withered as he took note of the very incredibly more-violent-than-necessary glare he was receiving from the thickly built blonde boy she was talking to. He snapped his mouth shut instantly as he shied under the jock's glare. Taking a step away and leaning against the wall patiently, Raul heard Jean said something to him about being done in a minute, and he held the strap to his bag in a grip he didn't realize was tight and waited.
"See you later, Duncan!" Jean chirped cheerfully a handful of moments later, turning to see what it was that Raul needed. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off before she started by the loud bell that signaled the beginning of class. When the sound stopped she waited a half second before opening her mouth again. "Don't mind Duncan, Raul. He's not that bad of a guy." She said to comfort him. Raul realized how shaken he must have looked and he instantly let go of his bag and lifted his paper to her helplessly. Jean laughed lightly and took the paper, reading it carefully.
"Sorry to bother you about this, you're probably going to be late now, too." He said quietly as she scanned over the paper. She raised her emerald eyes to his and the corners of her lips curled upward slightly in a smile.
"Don't worry about it. Here, you're first class is over here." She led him down a hall and he followed obediently, trying to memorize not only room numbers but also general landmarks he could use to get there. It wasn't all that far from the main doors, though, so Raul doubted he would have trouble with this class.
Raul thanked her graciously as he put his hand on the door handle, then a random thought of Kurt flashed through his head. "Oh hey, and, Jean?" He called softly as she turned to walk away. The older girl looked back at him questioningly. "You can call me Ray."
Turning back to the door, Raul sighed lightly as he opened the door. His heart leapt a beat as his eyes stopped their sweep of the room and locked onto a head of blue hair that was talking quietly with an equally familiar swishing brown ponytail. He felt a heavy hand clamp down on his shoulder and he snapped his eyes up to the warm eyes of his teacher, who ushered him into the class welcomingly.
"You must be Raul. Here, come in and take a seat." He said with a large smile, shooing Raul towards the desks.
"I prefer to be called Ray." Raul lied through his teeth, masking his face with a shy smile as he slipped into a seat beside Kurt.
"Alright, Ray. Welcome to my classroom, I'm Mr. McCoy."
It didn't take long for the classroom to settle back down, and Raul found that he liked this teacher quite a bit. He hoped that the rest of his teachers were this absurdly awesome. At one point, nearly halfway through the class, the tall brunette Kitty had walked into earlier that day came in, nodding to the teacher as he made his way to the table Raul, Kitty, and Kurt occupied.
"Hey Lance!" Kitty said softly as he took a seat beside her, across the table from Raul. Lance said something quietly to Kitty before absently turning his eyes on Raul, whom he stared at for several moments.
"Who's this kid?" The boy said, raising an eyebrow at Raul. Kitty introduced them quietly, and Raul learned that this 'Lance Alvers' was also a mutant. Lance could cause earthquakes. He also learned through hushed whispers that Lance was part of a small gang of mutants called the 'Brotherhood', who were petty rivals of the X-men.
It wasn't long before the bell went, and Raul realized he hadn't paid attention to anything the teacher had been talking about. On his way past the thickly set man, Raul heard his say, "Oh, and Ray; I do hope you'll pay attention more tomorrow, since I let you off today for introductions and fitting in."
Raul nodded respectfully to Mr. McCoy as he left the room, glancing at his class list again and snagging Kurt so he could show him where it was located, but found that Kurt had already wandered away on him. Sighing and reminding himself that he sighed way too much, Raul checked the room number atop the door of his Science class and then looked down at the list, figuring out which way he should head down the hallway. The layout of this school couldn't be too hard, could it? Raul scuffed his feet forward and started walking, watching the room numbers carefully. He wandered almost full circuit around the lower level of the school before he turned up a set of stairs to the upper floor. He knew he was already horrifically late, but finding the classroom was more important than attending it, he decided.
Not watching where he was going, Raul walked straight into a large object as he read over his list, noting that it was human by the grunting noise it made. Dropping his list and his bag, Raul backed up several steps and began to apologize when he realized who he had stumbled into.
The tall blonde -- what had Jean said his name was, Duncan? -- cracked his knuckles threateningly. Raul flicked his gaze around to find an escape route and was surprised to see that the rest of the jock's gang were already picking on someone. The small, lanky boy they held pinned against the wall looked absolutely terrified, his dark teeth bared in a nervous smile and his legs kicking slightly.
"Aww, poor Toadie, What's wrong?" The one who pinned him to the wall cooed. He brought the greasy boy off the wall so he could smash him against it again, wringing a pitiful squeal from the light-haired brunette.
"You're the little faggy-boy that Jean was talking to earlier, aren't you?" Duncan asked rather dangerously, taking a step forward. "Hey guys, put that trash down, I think I have someone even more fun that we can play with."
Raul watched with wide, mismatched eyes as they dropped the thin boy and he fell into a crouch, squeaking and hopping away most likely as fast as his legs could carry him.
"What's your name, little faggy?" One of the jocks behind Duncan asked, a deadly smirk slipping across his face. Not answering, Raul backed up a little more, but was stopped dead when Duncan lashed forward and pushed him into the wall hard, the small cry wrenched out of Raul by the sudden crushing feeling of something smashing against his skull.
