Raven was ripped from her nightmare by the sound of Jean screaming.
She jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway, not bothering to dress. A young African woman with a white mohawk, Ororo, poked her head out of her room at all the commotion to see Raven completely naked, which by this point many of the students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters were used to. She rushed to follow Raven down the hall to Jean's room, her thin, silk robe fluttering behind her.
Raven flung open the door expecting the worst; blood, fire, a rapist, swarms of spiders. Instead Jean stood in the middle of her room in her nightgown with a huge grin on her face, her long, red hair bouncing excitedly, green eyes wide with excitement, holding a letter in her hand.
Before Raven could utter a syllable, Kurt appeared in a puff of smoke with Scott beside him, both still in their pajamas. Raven backed away a bit and subtly morphed into a form that looked clothed. She was fiercely proud of her body, but it felt more than wrong being naked in front of Kurt.
Scott rushed to his girlfriend's side just as Ororo caught up with the other X-Men.
"Jean!" he exclaimed. Even though his expression was hidden behind dark ruby quartz glasses, his voice radiated concern.
He held her gently by her elbows. "What happened? We could hear you all the way in the boy's corridor."
Still smiling, Jean held up the letter for everyone to see. It was made of thick, expensive parchment paper and marked with an official looking stamp; an emblem of a redwood tree.
"I got into Stanford!" she squealed.
Raven breathed a sigh of relief. Ororo and Kurt surrounded their friend with ecstatic congratulations.
"I am so excited for you, Jean!" said Ororo in her thick Egyptian accent.
"That's wünderbar!" said Kurt, in his equally heavy German accent.
"Stanford?" said a voice from the other side of the room. It was Peter, whom nobody had noticed run in during all the hubbub. Not impossible, or surprising, since he could run faster than the speed of sound. He obnoxiously snapped his gum and lifted his running goggles onto his shock of messy, silver-white hair. "That's like, in Connecticut, right?"
"California," Scott corrected him, his voice grave. He perked up and tried to smile even though he knew Jean had already telepathically felt his sadness. He brushed her hair away from her face. She wore the sweet, empathetic, slightly embarrassed expression she always did when she accidentally read someone's thoughts.
"I am really proud of you, Jean," said Scott, as if she'd already spoken to him.
"Good job, Ms. Smartypants," said Peter as he continued to chew. He scratched his pale, narrow chin, covered in a fine, white blanket of leftover 5 o'clock shadow. "You get to go have fun in Cali for four years and miss out on the crappy New York winters."
"I love the winter here," said Ororo, slightly offended. "Do you know how hard it is to make it snow in Cairo?"
Peter ignored her completely. "Aw man, dude," he whined, drooping his shoulders and rolling his eyes in an exaggerated mini-tantrum, "I want to go to the West Coast!"
"You could run there in a few hours," said Kurt wryly.
"Yeah, but running full speed for very long makes my legs turn to jelly," he said.
Raven cleared her throat and stepped forward. "I know you're excited, Jean, but the screaming was unnecessary. And misleading, honestly. I was sure you were dying."
"I know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to give everyone a heart attack." She gasped suddenly and started counting off days on her fingers.
"23rd, 24th, 25th... Oh my god. I have, like, no time to get ready to move!" She began pacing the room, opening drawers and closets, pulling out clothes and travel bags. Scott shifted uncomfortably.
She started talking to herself more than the others, "I have to call my parents, I have to register for classes! I still don't know everything I need to take or if they'll take my AP credits from here..."
"Speaking of heart attacks," said Peter under his breath.
"Jean," said Scott.
"...and if they don't, it's going to be a few thousand more dollars, and then I'll need a private loan..."
"Jean," he said again, more firm this time.
She stopped gathering her things and looked at the bemused, slightly concerned faces of her teammates.
"I have a lot to do," she explained sheepishly.
"Well, that may be true," replied Raven, breaking the awkward silence, "but you're still going to training today."
"But I need to-"
"Some exercise is going to work off all that nervous energy," Raven interrupted her briskly, switching into drill sergeant mode, her favorite way to diffuse uncomfortable situations. She addressed the whole group as she left the room, "We meet in the danger room at 13:00 today, sharp. If you're late, 30 push ups and 10 pull ups, understood?"
The young X-Men responded with a feeble, "Yes, ma'am."
Raven poked her head back in the room for a moment. "Congratulations Jean, by the way," she said, then headed back down the hall.