There was a great shuffle and numerous groans as the groggy students got up and stretched, making to follow Scott from the bus. Katie sighed, bending to gather her things, then shuffled to enter the queue to exit the bus. As she entered the queue, Pyro called from some two or three students away, "Hey, Katie! Did you miss me up there all alone with the teacher?"
Katie smiled and rolled her eyes at him. "Of course I did, Pyro. Just pining away without you," She replied, her tone was obviously non-serious. After all, she'd rather sit with Scott than with Pyro, not that he should ever know...
Pyro grinned, "Aww, I hope you weren't too miserable... Did you get any naps in at all?" he continued, his voice taking on the same falsely sweet and soothing tone it had after she had broken up with Arch...
Katie rolled her eyes, sighing silently. She really didn't want to talk to Pyro, but given the fact that Scott was no longer within snuggling distance it was inevitable. Even if he were, the fact that she wanted to snuggle with him wasn't exactly all that comforting of a thought for Katie. She shouldn't even want these things in the first place... Yes, she should know better than to pine after Scott like this, when it would be so bad for him to have any of it come true. But it was hard not to... "I slept practically the whole time... you know, not having anyone as stimulating as you to have a conversation with." Though she was rather sure Pyro's idea of "conversation" involved copious amounts of kissing with tongue.
After the brief exchange of words between them, nothing else was said as the students filed out of the bus and into the cool early evening air. The buses were parked in a large vacant parking lot a little ways away from the large hotel. The hotel towered above them, the lights behind the windows were glowing an invitingly warm shade of orange yellow, and the walls reflected the just setting sun on its west side blindingly.
The students gathered around the opening in the buses' under belly, watching as Professor Wagner, nicknamed Nightcrawler, teleported to each student in turn with his or her luggage, with a pointy toothed grin and a twinkle in his amber eyes. His dark blue skin shone an odd bright blue in the light of the setting sun. Professor Wagner handed Katie her luggage after a short while, appearing in a puff of thick blue smoke with a sound like a particularly loud huff of breath. She thanked him, accepting her things from his outstretched three-fingered hands.
"Thank you, Kurt", she smiled, calling him by his first name only because he insisted his students do so. Well, whenever he was feeling well and whenever Logan wasn't filling in for him, that is.
"You're very valcome", he answered, grinning back, his 'devil's tail' swishing in an almost happy- dog fashion.
Katie sighed to herself as she began towing her luggage towards the hotel door, joining the students who had received their luggage and were going inside. That was definitely the problem with the teachers at Xavier's... they were much too nice. Glancing about the fairly crowded lobby, she looked around for Scott. Of course, it was the ruby sunglasses glinting in the crowd that made him stand out. Most people that owned red sunglasses didn't wear them in September, and usually not inside.
Catching sight of her he beckoned, handing her a plastic 'key' with the other hand. "Here's your room key... Room 311, and you're rooming with..." he consulted a list of roommates and room numbers. "Kitty. She hasn't been here yet, so you get the first look at your room. I'll be in 306, just down the hall, with Kurt if you need anything." He gave her a warm but somewhat harried smile, pointing her off in the direction of the elevators.
Katie smiled sympathetically in return, feeling bad for the poor flustered Scott. He always did all of the leader-ly things, even when he deserved a break. Especially if said break would get him landed with her. But Katie sighed as she placed her hand on the cool metal doors as they shut despite her call of "Hold the elevator!" after sprinting to it.
Unfortunately the elevator man only grinned sardonically before closing the doors, even though no one was in the elevator with him. She groaned. The hotel managers may have agreed to allow mutant students to occupy the building, but it was quite clear that many of the employees weren't happy about it. Now that she though about it as she looked around, she received many disgusted glances from a few of the girls at the front desk, and quite a few random strangers.
However, one elderly man caught her eye. He wore a hat and a rather well kept tan suit and tie. His blue eyes twinkled oddly as he spared her a smile, tipping his hat as he passed, revealing peppery gray hair. His metal suitcase seemed to follow him as if on an invisible leash. Well, at least we're not the only mutants here... Katie thought slightly cheerfully. However, the elderly gentleman's smile was rather disconcerting, it gave her an odd foreboding sensation...
He came over and stood next to her, giving her a knowing smile as they waited for the elevator. She smiled back tentatively, and they didn't speak.
The elevator man returned once he realized that he couldn't leave them there forever, though he didn't look happy about it. In fact, he was almost cowering in the corner, acting as though they didn't exist.
After pressing the buttons for their respective floors, complete silence settled between the two mutants comfortably. The elderly gentleman continued to smile, almost as though considering a thought that he rather liked, and didn't look or speak to Katie for a short while. After the brief silent pause, the man shifted, turning to face Katie. "So my dear, what wonderful power are you blessed with? I know full well that you are from a mutant school, other wise such fine employees," he paused, shooting a withering look in the elevator man's direction, "would not be making such a fuss about serving such find young people as yourselves. On the contrary, normally young people are quite a profit to the Hotel business..."
Katie blushed a little, slightly uncomfortable, but she liked the phrasing he'd used, 'being blessed with'. "Electricity. Here she was seized with an urge to call him 'sir I can generate it, and control it in the walls and things. You can manipulate metal, can't you? I saw your," she pointed to his suitcase "moving along with you." The elevator-man looked like he was hoping that they'd get off really soon, and was trying not to listen in.
The elderly gentleman chuckled richly, "Ah, yes. Such an observant girl you are, yes I can manipulate metal and magnetic force fields... To put it this way, if I felt like it, I could crumple this elevator like you would a scrap of tinfoil." he said airily, looking about the metal elevator as though almost considering doing it.
Katie laughed somewhat nervously. Could he really?
The man laughed again, looking back at Katie. "I could even levitate myself up the stairs and to my room. But, I'm rather sentimental; sometimes it's more interesting to do it the hard way. You never know who you'll meet along the way."
She grinned back at him. "No, you never do know." The elevator dinged, as it paused at the second floor to pick up a maid, who took one look at them and decided that she'd wait for a different elevator. "May I ask your name?" She asked him politely, as the door closed.
He chuckled again, tipping his hat upward and scratching his scalp momentarily. He nodded, "Yes you may. My name, is Eric, Eric L-"
DING! The elevator halted on the third floor and the doors whooshed open. Katie hesitated, and then lugged her things out of the elevator after receiving quite a nasty look from the elevator man. Eric smiled, eyes sparkling once more. "Well then my dear, enjoy your school trip. Perhaps we shall meet again," he said in a gentle final tone.
Katie smiled, "Alright, it was nice meeting you, Eric" she sighed; making eye contact until the doors shut and the elevator proceeded up. Sighing, Katie turned around to face a very lovely red and gold argyle carpeted hallway lined with dark wooden doors, crystal doorknobs glinting in the brilliant lighting. Katie's slight disappointment at having to leave such a kindly old man evaporated. Looking down at her small key, she began to walk down the hallway comparing the room numbers with the small, engraved numbers in her key. Room 311 was near the end of the hall, some three doors down and across from 306 (as Katie did look to see the relative distance). Inserting her key in the slot, she opened the door.
The room was very attractive-looking, even for a hotel. The walls were a gentle shade of metallic gold; the bed sheets were a dark, royal red. The bathroom, she discovered, was lovely as well, as fancy as most hotel bathrooms look when compared to the ones at one's house. "This is a nice room," she commented to herself, plopping down and bouncing on one of the beds. She claimed the one closest to the window, dropping her bag on the floor.
Sighing happily, with a silly grin of happiness, Kate flopped backward onto the bed. She sighed as the mattress accepted her, softly embracing her back and cradling her on a cloud of comfort. "Mmmm... comfy..." she moaned, grinning even more giddily before. If only Nicole were here... she definitely would have something interesting to say about comfortable beds. Most likely something about how they would be all the more comfortable if they came with men. And Nicole would be most certainly right. Such comfy beds would definitely be even better if they came with attractive men attached.
She rolled to her side and buried her face in the pillow with a sigh. But, of course, given who her attractive man of choice was, she'd never get that chance. Unless of course, Nicole was right. And that did happen every now and then...
Katie sighed again, if Nicole was right about Scott being Shade...Well, it would be both flattering and slightly weird at the same time. Given that Scott didn't seem to be that expressive about his feelings outwardly...and he was sweet and kind. Shade was sweet and sexy and had a way with words... but, if it were Scott behind those words…? Well it would be very nice, but Katie simply couldn't see Scott thinking those types of things. Then again, if Nicole was right about men's need for something soft and sweet in their arms... it could be entirely possible... And, now that she thought about it, he did act less like a teacher around her... Katie shivered all over lightly. It was a very pleasant thought, Scott being Shade, at least until she tried to really comprehend him having such dirty (though not entirely unwelcome) thoughts about her... She shivered again. It was just so hard to reconcile the two: Shade's openness, and Scott's general aloofness.
Before Katie could contemplate this subject any more, Kitty walked right through the door interrupted her. When Kitty caught sight of Katie she grinned. "What's the point in duct taping the doors shut when I can just walk right through them?" she laughed. Kitty fell silent, her mouth hanging open. "Whoa. What a spiffy room we've got..."
"Isn't it?" Katie commented back, getting up off of the bed to start unpacking. Kitty dropped onto her own bed as well, bouncing in its fluffy covers. "I'll take these three drawers; you can have those three, alright?" Katie offered, sorting her stuff into the drawers.
"Sure", Kitty agreed, and with that the conversation petered off.
Reaching the bottom of the bag, Katie paused. She'd brought Scott's sweatshirt with her. But, given that she'd slept in it for a week, it really didn't smell like him. And he had to be worrying why she hadn't given it back yet... "D'you think Scott's done giving out keys to the other kids yet?" Katie mused aloud.
Kitty jumped at Katie's inquiry. She had been staring at the wall, her eyes glazed. She shrugged, "I s'pose so. I mean, it shouldn't take that long to pass out keys. Mr. Wagner was helping Scott so I suppose it would take less time to pass them out if you could just teleport the keys to the students." she mused, smiling.
Katie smiled in return, nodding and standing up. Well, if she didn't have anything else better to do at the moment-her unpacking was finished anyway- she could return Scott's sweatshirt. It would also give her an excuse to go and visit Scott... "Good, I just need to give him something." Katie muttered, grabbing Scott's sweatshirt and carrying it with her out of the room, hugging it to her chest.
Her heartbeat pounded in her chest. What if Scott wasn't there? She would be disappointed of course, but at the same time... it would give her a bit more time to sleep in his sweatshirt before returning it... She made her way quickly to 306. With a deep, calming (sort of) intake of breath, she knocked three times on the door. She heard some rustling from the inside of the room. "Hold on a moment-" came Scott's slightly muffled voice. Katie's heart leapt into her throat. He was there.