As the bell that signaled dinner's end tolled, there was a great shuffle of students and teachers heading in all directions. Katie and Nicole headed out of the dinning hall and up the grand staircase, Nicole heading in the direction of their room, and Katie in the direction of Scott's room, her heart pounding like mad in her chest.
Hand trembling lightly, she nervously ran a hand through her hair. Oh, this is going to be the longest evening of my entire life. Sitting in his room, his bedroom, not four feet from him, and she was supposed to be paying attention to what he was saying. Oh, damn, why did they have to lock the classrooms?
Biting her lip, and shifting uneasily in her knee socks (Katie had gone for color coordination that day, green scoop necked (feeling much to low right now) shirt, black skirt, and black & green striped knee socks.), she reached up to knock on his door timidly.
After she knocked, she could hear the faint sounds of someone scrambling up as footsteps clonked along the floor behind the door to the side, then toward the door itself. When the door swung open, Katie teetered back to look up at Scott, while clutching her math book to her chest.
His hair was in disarray and wet, and he had a towel around his shoulders. He had on a simple dark blue t-shirt with the school's symbol at the top right just below the shoulder, (a silver 'X' contained in a circle), and some light, faded jeans. He wore no shoes, just dark blue socks. It looked as if he had just jammed on his glasses, they were slightly askew. He looked briefly panic stricken, but he slowly relaxed, leaning in his door way and smiling. "You're quick. I thought I'd have had a little more time since the bell rang." he joked, practically hinting that she was eager to see him.
She blushed, "I'm... sorry... do you want me to leave and come back?"
Scott grinned and shook his head, "No, no. That is fine. Uhm, c'mon in. Excuse the mess, when I woke up this morning I had no clue that I'd be having visitors." he chuckled, stepping back and allowing Katie to pass him into the room, before closing the door quietly behind her.
Katie surveyed the room with interest. Scott's room was brightly lit, tall lamps with lights scattered along the length of each lamp pole. From where she stood, the foot of the king sized bed that was situated in the very middle of the room, was perhaps 6 feet from her. On either side of the bed was a nightstand, each had a black piece of cloth that covered the surface, a lamp, a set of 3 drawers, and little miscellaneous bits and bobs such as wrist watches, extra pairs of glasses, and a small gold object that she couldn't make out from her stand point. On the left, stood a large closet with two doors, and off to the right corner, a desk was nestled and a couple of arm chairs situated nearest to the windows at the back, which were covered by heavy shades. A washbasin stood on a small table to her direct left, with a small mirror hanging above it. The wash basin puzzled her, as there was a small door to her direct right that led off into a half bathroom, with a nice marble sink and a toilet.
"Wow. Your room is much nicer than our room." she marveled, her mouth was slightly ajar and she couldn't stop staring.
He smiled at her. "It's a perk." Wandering over to the nightstands he straightened a few of the odds and ends, though it didn't really make much of a difference.
Turning to face him, closing her mouth and blushing slightly, trying not to look any more like the naive schoolgirl she was, Katie was completely confused to see him start taking off his glasses. Wait a minute... what? Why would he be doing that? "What... what are you doing?" She asked in alarm, biting down the urge to jump out of the way.
But it was too late, Katie saw it as if it were in slow motion, saw each finger curling tightly around the sunglasses and pushing them up and over his eyes, placing them strategically on top of his head so that they pushed back his hair slightly. Nothing happened. Nothing at all happened, and there Katie was, staring Scott Summers square in the eyes. Which were a lovely robin's egg blue. Her breath was caught in her throat and thoughts whizzed confusedly in her head. Why wasn't she dead? Why? What's going on? "W-What... your... your eyes are ... well they're blue, but... your sunglasses...?" she gasped.
He nodded at her, a small smile on his lips, rather glad she hadn't dived out of the way. Rather, she was just gaping at him, looking extremely confused. "It's the shades," He explained, gesturing to the ones covering his windows (not the ones on his head). "They block out the solar energy, so I can take off my sunglasses when I'm in here."
She nodded, though she still looked more than a little taken aback, but then, this was a rather revolutionary concept. Scott? Without the sunglasses? She blushed a little, a bit sheepish, though she couldn't bring herself to look away. Katie took a deep breath, trying to get much needed oxygen to her brain, which refused to cooperate with her. "Well," she gulped fishing for something to say other than ' you're pretty.', "You look... nice... with them off, it's good to see your eyes instead of your glasses... NOT that you don't look nice with your glasses on, but it's just that... that it's a nice change." she blurted, covering her mouth so she couldn't sound like even more of an idiot that she was now. 'Nice' didn't even scratch the surface of what Scott looked like with out his glasses. Light blue eyes shining brightly behind long, dark lashes, paired with his dark brown hair and handsome high cheekbones... and those lips...
She shook her self mentally, forcing herself back to earth just in time to hear him laugh. "Thank you."
With really nothing else to say, besides standing and gaping at him stupidly, Katie was almost glad when they moved to the other side of the room to actually get started on the math part that had been the reason for her visit in the first place. Sitting down (glad for the chair as it meant she didn't have to worry about falling over if he smiled any more at her), she shifted somewhat uncomfortably, opening her book to what topics they were currently discussing. "I just don't get it," she offered as explanation, still unable to get over how absolutely adorable he was, and how near they were sitting.
Scott, smiling and chuckling, shook his head. "What about it don't you understand? All of it? Or..?"
Katie paused, trying to take in what he just asked, he was so good looking. Teachers were not allowed to be this attractive. It was too distracting. Not that Katie was complaining. "Well, no not all of it... I get some of it... like what we discussed on Tuesday... er...trinomials, binomials, and monomials... I understood that... but ever since then... it's gotten much more complicated... and I just... I have problems with figuring out what to do first." she mumbled, looking away from him feeling stupid, and feeling his eyes pass over her face like beams of warmth. She shivered.
He nodded and for the next half hour he went through everything that they had done that week and a little before then thoroughly, and in ways that she could understand. It went by so quickly, that... she surprised herself when the words, "Oh... I get it now." slipped from her lips.
He smiled, pushing her math book back towards her along with a few helping hints and notes that he had written out for her, to her side of his desk. "So. Is it just Math that you have trouble with?" asked conversationally, eyes sparkling wonderingly as if he actually wanted to hear about her. Those eyes were going to kill her. They were so... vulnerable, showing raw emotions... opening a window into the Scott that she wasn't supposed to get to know. Teachers couldn't be friends, or more than friends... but here they were, about to pass into a personal conversation now that the work was done.
"Well, no, not at the moment..." She started, fiddling with a stray thread at the bottom of her skirt, thinking. She was doing alright in most of her other classes; it was her personal life that had gotten complicated. Though she could hardly explain to him the main reason why. "I'm doing alright in other classes, its other stuff that's gotten complicated," she offered, resting her head in one hand, glancing up and meeting his eyes briefly. Oh, those eyes. She had a feeling she was going to start dreaming about them...
His eyebrows rose, he sat back in his chair, crossing one ankle over the other, and leaning his head into his closed fist. "What kinds of things?" he queried, his voice light and a small encouraging smile on his lips.
Katie blushed, looking away and concentrating on fiddling with the thread. She shrugged, trying to appear as if she didn't really care at all, "Just... life. Being a mutant and things...my parents don't know that this is a mutant school. It's the same with Nicole. But then again, they don't expect me to come back either. They probably think that I'll go on to college right afterward. I'm usually in the way at home anyway. That's what my mom tells me. It's just getting harder and harder to be a normal teenager for me." she confessed truthfully, looking up from her thread to see that Scott was watching and listening intently.
Sighing a bit, she looked back down at the thread. "I got a letter from them recently, and they make it sound like they're having this grand old time without me... more, like its all gotten better since I left..." She trailed off again, biting at her lip. "Its not that they don't think I'm ever coming back... so much as it seems like they wouldn't want me to come back. And its not like I'd ever want to go back... it's just, I hate the idea that they'd want to just get rid of me. I mean, they're my parents..." She trailed off again, looking up at him, wondering what his life had been like before coming to Xavier's. She didn't know anything about him, really, so for all she knew he could have been abused or something (though how anyone could want to abuse him, she couldn't see), and she was just complaining about nothing.
Scott smiled sympathetically, shifting slightly in his chair. "Well, at least you know your parents." pointed out softly, his smile was thin now and his eyes deadened, sadness darkening them ever so slightly.
Katie froze, rigid on the edge of her seat, cold regret weighing down in the pit of her stomach. She bit her lip and glanced at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything... you... you didn't know your parents?" she mumbled softly, leaning forward and staring at him intently, eagerly, and sadly to show him that she wanted to hear his own story.
He sighed, and long dark lashes blocked his eyes from view momentarily. "It's not that I didn't know them. Undoubtedly I knew them, but I don't remember them. All I know... well, what the people at the orphanage told me was that we were all in my father's air force plane... and then... I remember falling. Being pushed from high up, someone was next to me, holding onto me and crying. We were both crying.
"Then, what I assume was the parachute, slowed us down. Then there were flames and we fell even faster. My head bashed up against something hard, the ground I think, and the person that had been with me was gone. I don't remember anything about the hospital that I was taken to, though I was told that I was held there for quite sometime. Then I was in the orphanage, in Nebraska I think, and I remember everything there so well, even if I don't want to.
"They conducted experiments on me once my powers were manifested... people in white coats with cold hands always poking and prodding...They kept a bandage around my eyes to keep them shut. I remember tearing the bandage off and blasting someone in a white coat through the wall. They put me in a straight jacket after that, and I sat in a room all day. I don't know if it was an empty room, I couldn't see and I couldn't move, so it didn't really matter, but I remember hearing voices. Always talking about trivial things... holidays... special treats from the orphanage workers... foster parents... getting adopted... then they would talk about me when they thought I wasn't listening. Calling me names and saying that I was crazy, that's why they kept me in a straight jacket..." Scott shuddered, rubbing his closed eyes as if they ached.
Katie shuddered, feeling as if she were there with Scott. In the dark, and unable to move, hearing the nasty human children criticizing him.
Scott took a deep shuddering breath, and continued, eyes opening though they had a far away look to them, glazed over as if he couldn't see her. "I escaped. I was 16. I had to run with my eyes closed. Then I remember hearing Xavier's voice, he told me everything was alright... that I could be safe away from everyone... and that I could be able to see again... He took me with him... and gave me my glasses after many tests. And... I've been here ever since." he finished, looking away and running his hand over his mouth and chin slowly. His body had tensed during his tale, and now he relaxed into his chair, looking exhausted.
Katie sat in awe. "Oh my god. Pr- Scott, I'm so sorry I even brought it up... I didn't even stop to think... or consider..." she began, but the smile was back on Scott's face.
He laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'm happy now. I love it here; it's where I belong... and where the memories of my past don't even matter. Not anymore. I've dealt with them already, and now all they are, are slightly painful memories. Don't be sorry. I'm glad you brought it up. It feels good to talk about my problems. To get them off of my chest." He confessed, shrugging and smiling. Eyes sparkling once more.
Katie smiled (or did her best to) back at him, feeling the knot of guilt in her stomach relax. There was a part of her (a very small part) that was laughing right then, laughing at her clichéd, romance-novel moment/feelings. 'Everything suddenly better when he smiled' sort of thing... But it was true. The mood (at least for her) had brightened, and it had been suddenly easier to smile when his eyes had sparkled. "Well, I'm glad you're happy now...?" She said uncertainly, unsure of exactly what to say. 'Your welcome'?
Scott grinned, "Of course, it would suck to have an irritable, bitter teacher. Especially in the subject that you're having trouble in." he laughed, his whole face lighting up for split second.
Katie's heart skipped a beat. "Like Logan?" she suggested, grinning when Scott smirked.
"Yeah. He does put a bit of a damper on everyone's mood whenever he enters a room."
Katie walked out of Scott's room smiling (though there was a part of her that wished it was using that phrase for an entirely different reason). She was rather proud of herself for being able to walk straight though, considering the way her knees had gone all weak... It had been an entirely satisfying evening, all together, actually understanding the math concepts, and learning a great deal about Scott in the process (his past, favorite color, favorite book, more small talk things like that). Course, his eyes had still been the best part, she thought with a sigh.