Wolf:I'm so sorry for being gone for so long! I have a psycho teacher and she consistently gives us three hours of homework, and on top of that I have my other subjects, and on top of thatI have rehearsals for our spring (even though it's obviously WINTER here [and it's consistently below 0, too!]) musical, Footloose. That's a three hour practice where I'm on and off every other scene, so I barely have time to sleep. I'll be uploading something I was working on during lunch a couple of weeks ago and didn't finish until now pretty soon, so bear with me, please. Also, apologies for the short and crappy chapter. It's a bridge chapter and I'll start writing something good soon. Probably.
It had been several days since meeting the boys. Kurt sighed at them. Hadn't he already told them not to alienate his mutant friends? It was true that they were allowed free reign around the mansion these days, but that didn't mean they had to go antagonize every mutant in the tri-state area about it.
"Seriously, though, Kurt," Ryan began, grinning when Kurt groaned. These guys were more annoying than he was when he wanted to be. That was quite the impressive feat considering the fact that they had to walk everywhere to get to where they wanted to be. Of course, that didn't stop them from walking around and trying to get into as much trouble as possible.
"Don't you have to go to the councilor's office now?" Mark asked, pointing to the clock. Like Kurt, he didn't enjoy Ryan's stories anymore. They were funny the first couple of times, but since they'd been friends for so long, there was no story they hadn't heard from him.
Kurt groaned and picked up his backpack, running toward the office. He was already five minutes late and the office ladies didn't swoon over his charm anymore. He waved to the boys and overcame the urge to just teleport there by running faster and longer than he would normally. When he reached the office, he could rightfully say that he was out of breath, especially considering the fact that where he'd been talking to Mark and Ryan was across the compound of the school.
"You're late," one of the ladies behind a desk told him. Kurt nodded, panting and hoping that he wouldn't have to reschedule.
"Lucky for you the other appointment ran long," another woman said, this one with a little more good cheer. It was no surprise to see that some of the workers were sour. The office for councilors was decidedly small and unappealing. The paint was peeling in places and there was a layer of dust on the upper corners of things. Most of the seats and desks were too big for the room, even though they were still too small for their intended purpose. The students kept asking for improvements, but all the money went into their sinkhole of a gym, which still faced a year of modifications even though people had been donating like mad to get it back up and running as it had been.
The person walking out of the office was the last person Kurt expected to see there. Lydia jumped backwards when she saw him, letting out a small squeak. Then she blushed and waved, looking down and smiling sheepishly.
"Kurt," the guidance councilor said before Lydia had a chance to say anything. Kurt opened his mouth to say his goodbyes, but Lydia slipped away.
Stepping into the office, Kurt was mildly surprised to find a new desk in it. The councilor was a middle-aged woman with a happy face, but she usually didn't change around her furniture, mostly because of the small budget.
The councilor, Mrs. Reed, interrupted Kurt's thoughts. "So, I heard the rumors about you," she said, laughing a little. "Have a seat and we'll talk about it."
"That's not really what I want to talk about," Kurt sighed, fiddling with his pants after sitting down. Mrs. Reed raised an eyebrow and her smile grew just a little. She was good at getting students to talk about what was really bothering them, but Kurt didn't usually disagree with her chitchatting.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Mrs. Reed asked.
Kurt leaned back in his chair. "Let's say that I have this friend," Kurt began, thinking how fake this story must sound. "She's a nice girl, but she's got some problems and not a lot of people like her because she's really shy. How can I get my friend to be friends with my other friends?"
"If it's Mark and Ryan, she won't be friends for a while," Mrs. Reed told him matter-of-factly. "Those two are the kind of boys you either like or dislike. But could you tell me more about this friend of yours?"
Kurt shifted uncomfortably. He felt a little bad going about it like this, but he didn't really want to leak Lydia's secrets out. She didn't even want the professor to know about her mental crowd, so she really wouldn't like it if the school councilor found out about her personalities. The story would be spread amongst the teachers by morning, and then half the student body by the end of the next day.
"Let's just say that she has really bad mood swings," Kurt said, smirking a little. "She gets really shy, and then violently angry from one moment to the next. And she talks to herself sometimes."
"Kurt, everyone talks to themselves, even you and I," Mrs. Reed told him. "Your friend is a typical teenager. She'll have no problem making friends if she isn't pushed too badly." The older woman paused before she got a devious look in her eyes. "So, is this 'friend' the girl who supposedly jumped you?"
"I heard that was supposed to have been a boy who jumped me," Kurt pouted. "Now the stories are getting all mixed up."
They chatted about nothing for a while, with Kurt vaguely touching on his real worries about Lydia not fitting in. He never mentioned names, and it was unlikely that Mrs. Reed would be able to place a name with some abstract details.
"But do you like this friend of yours?" Mrs. Reed finally asked, toward the end of their appointment. "I mean, you talk about her a lot for just being friends."
Kurt jumped backwards and nearly tipped his chair over. "I have Amanda!" he said a little too loudly. "I like Amanda!" His skin paled under the fake image that Mrs. Reed saw, but the woman must have seen something in his expression because she apologized.
"Mrs. Reed," someone said after knocking on the door. "Your next appointment is here." Kurt stood up quickly and smiled at the woman.
"Same time next week, remember," Mrs. Reed told him, meeting his eyes. Kurt only waved and walked off, humming. His talks with Mrs. Reed were something not a lot of people knew about him, but every time he did it he felt better about whatever was troubling him. It wasn't that Mrs. Reed helped him solve problems, but rather that she listened without judging, even when Kurt brought up things like how hard it was to keep his powers in check during school when it was so much easier to just teleport to different classes.
Once the boy got home, he found out that he missed a lot of what he was supposed to be doing for training. Lydia looked at him when he walked in, and laughed as Wolverine berated him about the common practice of being on time. Of course, all the others in the room laughed as well, because Wolverine chewing anybody out was funny, as long as the person laughing wasn't the one being yelled at.
There wasn't a lot more to do in training, so Kurt was allowed to see Lydia when she stopped in the kitchen and got a few things to eat. She noticed him watching her and her movements were a little hesitant, like she would be yelled at in any moment.
"So, what were you doing in the guidance office?" Kurt asked, smirking. Lain rolled her eyes and continued making her sandwich with a little more confidence. She assembled her food like she didn't care what went into her stomach.
"I was talking through my problems," Lain told him wryly. "It helps." Kurt sighed. She was quoting the poster in the office about the guidance councilors. That was one way of avoiding answers, he told himself. Lain was the kind of clever when she wasn't being horribly shy.
"If you're not going to be truthful, you shouldn't say anything at all," Kurt told her, grinning once more. Lain picked up her finished sandwich and took a bite, shredded lettuce immediately leaking out the other side. Kurt saw the girl blush and catch the extra food dropping out of her meal, and she ate it quickly.
The girl finished the sandwich in seconds and even Kurt, the King of Food, was surprised at just how big the girl's stomach was. She could stuff a monster sandwich in seconds, so she must have been just being polite when she barely ate anything at dinner.
Lain knew something that Kurt didn't know about the guidance office, but there was no way she would tell him what she'd been talking about with the woman. It was personal and she really didn't want to share her view on the few rumors that had reached her ears. She knew that something was going to go around about her eventually. It was impossible for her not to have someone slip up and tell her exactly what she'd been catching in the almost-conversations that she could ignore. Unfortunately, she was readily recognizable and there was no way she was going to be able to just ask.
Where had the rumors come from? Why was this small thing making her so uneasy? Was there a spark of truth in those rumors about Kurt? That thought sparked a fire of jealousy in the Lydia collective. They all liked Kurt, or didn't hate him to the extent that it could be called indifference.
The girls slept this time, forcing their minds into the darkness that was dreamland.
Also, sorry about the stupid ending. I was writing, and I had the end in my mind, and then I stepped away from the computer and all my inspiration left me... So, I'll have a time skip and reassess the situation, probably doing something unexpected to reach the impossible ending I have for this story. If you want an idea in the story, just ask and I'll do my best because, frankly, I have no means to reach my end, if you get what I mean. Wow, that last sentence was long.
Ciao!