Chapter 9:

Like I said, as a treat for waiting forever, here's chapter 9! I hope I don't disappoint! I don't know what your expectations were after taking so long but I hope that you guys are happy! I'm getting back into this story and I'm so glad! Warning, there's a moment in here that might offend some people. It deals with racial bullying. I am NOT a racist by any means but I thought it would be an interesting concept to bring into a story about mutants! Again, my intention is NOT to offend anyone. Someone had brought it up at Halloween (I was Nightcrawler for Halloween this past year) and I thought it was kind of interesting. I'm accepting of EVERYONE especially blue mutants with tails and pointy ears. ;)

Kurt walked out into the hallway and stood outside the office door for a moment, collecting himself. This wasn't going to be any easier than anything else he had encountered that morning. He felt as if he was counting the tiles on the floor for an hour before he felt someone staring at him. It was Jean.

"So what's the story?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Principal Kelly wants me to come back with a report after all my classes to prove I went."

"Oh…"

"I don't understand why the teachers can't just call him! He's doing it to screw with me!"

"Kurt, he probably just…"

"He's doing it to humiliate me! To walk from every class to the office and back I'm forced to walk in while everybody is already sitting down and to have to rush through a crowded hallway back and forth."

Jean knew this was what Principal Kelly intended. The entire Xavier Institute knew Principal Kelly was a member of the "anti-mutant committee" and any chance he had to make a mutant uncomfortable or humiliated, he'd take it.

"I'll walk with you to class."

Kurt took a deep breath and blew it out throwing his head back. "You don't have to do that."

"I want to."

Kurt gave an unspoken response. The two walked beside each other in silence to Mr. Butler's English class. As they approached the door, Kurt peaked through the long narrow window. All the students were seated at their desks facing the whiteboard with their backs to the door. Mr. Butler stood at the front of the class writing notes. Kurt knew that whenever someone so much as knocked on the door that everyone would turn to stare. At least when he came in late with his inducer everyone stared then went back to their work. How would they react when he walked in now?

"Kurt, I know everyone's been telling you this all day, and I don't need to read your mind to know that it's easier said than done; but just ignore it. In two months we won't even have to worry about seeing these people anymore. If they can't accept you then I don't know how they'll survive in the real world after high school."

Kurt said nothing. He stepped out of view of the door window in case the odd student with wandering eyes caught site of him.

"I'm not even so much embarrassed anymore, but mad. Why do people even care so much?

"That's quite the different view than what you had last night."

"I know… during my meeting with Principal Kelly I just hit a moment where I was looking at him and I thought to myself 'why do you even care'. He was telling me that he expected this to be a permanent decision to not rely on my inducer anymore and that people would recognize the 'fake' me if I used it."

"And?"

"Part of me agrees and part of me says that the professor can just change the holo-image to look like someone else."

"Kurt, you're just hiding again. When you wore your inducer before you looked like… well, a different version of you but you were still you. If the professor changes the image then you're just hiding even more."

Kurt put his hands on the back of his neck. "I know..." he stared for a moment and pulled his hands forward, "I don't know what I'll do after this... I need to take it one day at a time."

Kurt hovered his hand over the doorknob. He stretched out his fingers to open the door, only to hesitate and clench his hand. He took a deep breath. Jean squeezed Kurt's arm and gave him a gentle look.

"It's alright to be nervous." She smiled.

Kurt looked up at her and gave her a look of affirmation. "I know… I'll be fine…" Kurt closed his eyes and opened the door a crack. He turned to Jean and gave a weak smile. "See you at lunch." Kurt looked away and slowly opened the door the rest of the way.

The door creaked and Kurt stepped his furry foot into the classroom. As expected, the entire class turned to see who had come in late. Kurt gazed into the sea of mixed expressions by his peers. He avoided eye contact with anyone, shut the door behind him as quietly as he could and headed to his seat at the back of the room on the far side. As he walked towards his seat, he noticed that Mr. Butler had not even so much as acknowledged the fact that someone was joining class late, but he definitely noticed when the class fell into a fit of whispers.

As Kurt took his seat, he could feel all the eyes analyzing him; scrutinizing gawks and murmurs flooding the room all talking about the same thing. He set his books on the desk and slipped into his seat. Kurt grabbed his desk as if he were in a plane that was falling from the sky. He was sure that under his furry hand his knuckles would be white, or in his case a light blue. He tried his best to not make any form of eye contact with the students who had all turned to stare at him. The expression they looked at me like I grew a second head had taken on a whole new meaning to him. To keep his mind off it he took out his notebook and made a feeble attempt to act normal. Mr. Butler turned around to lecture about the notes he had just written.

"So when I mentioned earlier…"

He noticed that he no longer held any glimmer of attention in his students as they all turned towards the blue mutant at the back of his classroom. Kurt held his breath, looked up and with the utmost humility and gave Mr. Butler a look of well, here it is. The rest of the class turned to see what the teacher's reaction to this was going to be. A brief silence that seemed like an eternity hushed over the room.

Mr. Butler very subtly cocked his head and smiled. "Welcome back, Kurt." He ended the gaze he had with Kurt and continued his lecture.

Kurt exhaled a minor sigh of relief. There was one teacher so far that he wouldn't have a hassle with. Any time a student would turn their head or to try and catch another glimpse at Kurt, Mr. Butler would say things like "this might be on the exam" or "I'm up here, please focus" to alleviate the mental pain that he imagined Kurt was feeling. After about fifteen minutes, Mr. Butler announced that they would be watching a made for T.V. movie of one the novels they were studying.

Mr. Butler turned off the lights and walked towards the TV at the front of the classroom."Now, don't think that you can just sit there and chat, take notes. There will be a question on the final."

Kurt understood that Mr. Butler had to be doing all of these class distractions on purpose. His respect for his teacher grew exponentially.

Well if I'm in the dark then they can't see me as well.

The class fell silent for a moment as the opening credits flashed on the screen. Kurt knew this was going to be boring but decided to focus all of his attention on watching the movie, but he couldn't help but feel like the rest of the class was watching him. The credits had barely ended when a boy to his left scooted closer to Kurt.

"Hey." He whispered.

Kurt ignored him.

"Hey, I'm talking to you." The boy said as if Kurt had offended him.

Kurt knew this boy just from this class they shared together. His name was Connor. He was one of Duncan Matthew's friends. Short brown hair and average features.

Kurt turned his head to humour him. "What?" He asked in a very short impatient tone.

"Why are you like that?"

Kurt looked at him with irritation. The answer to this question was much deeper than Connor deserved. Kurt took a deep breath and bit the inside of his cheeks, almost to contain his anger.

"Dumbass, can't you hear me? I asked you a question."

Kurt put his hand up to his face with his thumb to his chin, his "index" finger to his temple and his other finger pressed against his lips.

"Is that you trying to flip me the bird? You realize you need more than three fingers to do that, right?" Connor laughed and held up his hand in attempt to hold his fingers together mimicking Kurt's.

This added more fuel to Kurt's anger. He tried to keep his composure as best as he could.

"Please, leave me alone." Kurt managed to quietly mumble.

"Sorry, what was that?"

Kurt ignored him again.

Connor reached forward to tap the boy's shoulder in front of him and whispered. "Hey, Eric…"

Eric turned around and gave Kurt a very smug look then laughed.

"Eric, this kid won't talk to me."

"Are you sure it even speaks English?"

"You know what, man? I'm not even sure. Have you ever heard him talk in this class before?"

"Isn't he German or some shit?"

"Hey Eric," Connor giggled to himself, "I always knew the devil was German."

Now Kurt was getting, for lack of a better word, pissed. Not only had they crossed a line everyone seemed to have no problem crossing about his appearance, but they made a racial slur against his ethnicity. If it were any other human student, surely this would classify as a hate crime. Kurt was not going to let this one go under the radar.

"What did you say?"

"Oh, so now you can hear me?"

"You can't say stuff like that." Kurt scolded.

The three boys had gathered more attention. Kurt knew they were all looking at him since he walked in, but now they were listening as well. Eric was trying to contain his laughter while Connor cocked his head sarcastically.

"And what are you going to do about it? You think anyone here will side with the likes of you" Connor gestured to Kurt. "I think the odds of you of ending up behind bars at a sideshow are higher than me getting in any trouble for anything I say to you. And you know what? You don't belong here. You're a freak, plain and simple."

Kurt had to maintain tranquility. Connor was going too far. He could feel his face getting flushed from his anger. This caused his eyes to flash that florescent yellow when he was upset. He heard a few hushed gasps, obviously students who had noticed the change as well. This caught Mr. Butler's attention.

"What's going on over there?" Mr. Butler perked his head up.

Connor put on an innocent tone. "Mr. Butler, I'm not sure what's going on, but his eyes started to change colour. I'm getting concerned."

"Yeah… me too, I don't feel safe with this mutant in our class." Eric feigned concern as well. "I feel like he might use his powers on us any minute now."

This was ridiculous. Kurt slammed his fists on his desks. "My powers can't even hurt you anyway!"

Anyone who was trying not to stare at Kurt was staring by now. Kurt didn't even care anymore. He wasn't going to let people push him around and make fun of his appearance anymore and they had crossed a line with jesting about his home country.

"You know what? Go ahead! Stare if you want to! I don't even care at this point! You're treating me like garbage just because of how I look! Do you honestly think I chose to look like this? When I was born do you think I said 'hey mom, can I have a tail and blue fur because I think that would be fun'? Because you know what, my own mother didn't want me and sometimes I think you people honestly think mutants choose to be mutants! It's not a choice! Do you choose your gender or your hair colour? No one in their right mind would choose this!" Kurt stood up and gestured to himself. "And if you people honestly can't understand that, then this stupid school isn't worth my time and effort. If any of you had to deal with half the stuff I have to deal with, you'd certainly agree with me… This is a waste of my time." At this point the burning in his eyes had moved to his stomach. He was so angry and fed up that he had no business left in that room.

With that, Kurt teleported out of the room, leaving behind his signature brimstone scent and the rest of the classroom waving their hands in front of their noses and coughing. Mr. Butler stood up from his desk in attempt to follow Kurt, but he was in somewhat of a state of shock as he didn't even know where Kurt went. All that was left was an empty seat and books on a desk. After a moment of regaining his equanimity, he motioned towards the boys at the back.

"Connor, Eric, get your things, we're taking a trip to Mr. Kelly's office."

The boys rolled their eyes but preserved their conceited smiles as they exited the classroom. The rest of the class was left with the malicious feeling of guilt and disgust in their mouths.

Mr. Butler walked the two boys down the hallway to Principal Kelly's office in silence. Once the boys were there, he searched the hallway to see where Kurt had "wandered" off to.

Oh, but guess what! CHAPTER 10 IS ALMOST DONE TOO! OH HO HO YES IT IS!