Another chapter done, and yes I finally got some inspiration back.
Thank you for all your support! Honestly, to everyone thank you so much, I'll do a proper thank you next chapter, I haven't got time to do it now as I'm really busy.
I've been catching up with Agents of shield and all I have to say...no no no no no no and plenty more no's, I won't spoil anything but I'm impatiently waiting for the next episode.
Disclaimer:you know this already...
I got addicted to this song, and it's perfect for Sam. I recommend listening to it while you read, if you wish to.
with that done, on with the chapter...
Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more,
Before your life is over?
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies,
While deep inside you're bleeding,
Simple Plan ~ Welcome to my life
I manoeuvred around the canteen tables towards the window, the meeting place of me, Bobby and John. I only got an apple for lunch, not all that hungry after history, I never did like learning about Auschwitz. Don't get me wrong, we need to know the past to learn from it, it's just difficult to comprehend what they went through. Either way the whole class felt a bit depressed afterwards, so most sat glumly at the tables as their friends tried to cheer them up.
Normally I'd be the one to turn up first, but it seemed Bobby had beaten me, a single finger tracing an ice swirl on the window. He seemed quite content by himself with his power to amuse him, his tranquil nature something I would admit being jealous of.
As I walked over he looked up and smiled at me, a little startled at my sudden appearance. I smiled back, unable to help myself as he was that type of person that was so innocent you couldn't be mean to him without feeling guilty.
"Hey Bobby, how was geometry?" I asked as I sat down opposite him, my back facing the rest of the canteen. Bobby scrunched his face in disgust, despising geometry as much as PE.
"That bad huh? Mine could've been better too." I said before taking a large bite out of the apple, crunching it slowly as if I was checking whether it was poisoned, ready to spit it out if it was. That's just fairy tale stuff, and fairy tale stuff doesn't exist.
"I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so hard, I mean, I like Professor Summers because he's a great teacher, it's just way too much work." He spoke quickly, a slight rant which was understandable as I knew how fast Professor Summers went with his lessons, he didn't stop for anything.
"It'll get easier, most things do." I tried to be helpful, but Bobby didn't look convinced. His typical black turtle neck making him look like an art student, all sophisticated and all that, but he was just kind Bobby, like a friendly Iceman
"Have you seen John? He wasn't in history." I asked, though the logical answer was that he was skiving again.
Bobby shrugged his shoulders, signalling that he hadn't seen him either.
"Not since this morning, maybe he's got a free period or something." Even as Bobby said his theory, we both knew it wasn't true.
I took another bite of the apple, savouring the taste as I had a growing craving for apples. Bobby just stared out the window as usual, John normally being the one to start most conversations, if it was just me and Bobby we could never find anything to talk about.
"You two look so miserable without me around." The familiar voice making both of us turn our heads, John standing in front of us in his usual attire of a brown jacket and plain shirt.
He sounded chirpier than usual, though I couldn't understand why as there was nothing exciting happening, as far as I knew. He slumped himself into a chair next to Bobby, leaning back on it as he normally did.
"Talk of the devil." I countered, quite a slow response but John still took it playfully, faking hurt at the comment. We all chuckled quietly, happy with our little group.
"So, am I the only person that's knowing the gossip around here?" John asked, glancing between me and Bobby, both of us confused. He looked as if it were a crime we didn't know, however Bobby never paid any attention to gossip, mostly doing schoolwork like a goody goody, saying that, I do that as well.
"Professor X is organising a trip to Oscorp, and only people from our year can go." He said, not overly bothered by the idea but liked that he knew more than us.
"Oscorp, why there? I mean, it's all high tech and everything, but if there are any trips they're normally places like the museums." I asked as curiosity got the better of me, though Bobby seemed to agree with me. John just shrugged his shoulders, not knowing himself so we pondered on it, John simply pulling out and flicking his lighter open.
Oscorp? Maybe their research has attracted Professor X's attention
I tried to reason why the trip was being organised, maybe it was just my imagination, maybe it was just a simple trip. I stopped my mind from dwelling on it, after all, to get a trip to Oscorp was impressive, though it wouldn't be difficult seeing as Xavier's school was exceedingly famous for being a school for future heroes of New York, but they didn't realise how true that saying was.
"Where were you in history?" I asked, John giving me a you should know by now look, confirming he was skiving. It was his way of being independent, he didn't see lessons worth the time of day, he wanted to learn how to make his abilities easier to handle, to make them more useful.
In that respect I could understand, I understood why we had lessons, because Professor X wanted all of us to be part of the human community, to not feel like an outsider or a freak. But the truth he was missing, was that we could never be part of humanity again.
"Crap, we've got Wolfe next." John mumbled, closing his lighter as he did so. We all groaned, there was nothing worse than having Logan bark at you, especially if someone got him so riled up that he threatened to chop the student up into bite size pieces. Haven't seen that kid in a few weeks when I think back on it...
"Don't let him catch you calling him that." I warned, but the nickname brought a smile to my face. John just shrugged his shoulders, knowing he was permanently in Logan's death book anyway. Shaking my head at John's dismissal, I saw that Bobby was in his own little world, a bottle of orange juice opened in his fingers tips.
How could I pass the moment up? Even John gave me a wink of approval, so I slowly let a hand slip under the table and extended my fingers apart and willed the water in the orange juice to rise. Like a caterpillar, a constantly shimmering mass of water crawled out of the bottle top, surprising Bobby so much that he dropped it onto the table. Luckily he didn't literally drop it, so no condense spilled out.
John chuckled to himself, trying to hide his snickering behind a hand. Bobby looked annoyed, thinking us both childish, but playing with water was all I knew how to do. He let it slide just as long as I left the water in the orange juice, removing it from the ingredients a crime in his crystal blue eyes.
I released my grip on the water and it splashed back into the bottle, instinctively Bobby screwed the lid back on just in case I tried anything else.
The little prank finished just in time as the bell rang for lessons, nearly the whole room groaning in unison. Most students moved like an elderly snail, trying to put off going to lessons as long as possible. Then there were others, the ones that rushed to class quicker than any athlete, these were mainly the super smart students. However, both me and Bobby fell into the latter, not brainiacs but we despised being late, trying to get desks together as we were in the same class for most subjects.
John had his own category, he either was incredibly late or he didn't turn up at all. Most of the time Bobby and I would say a quick see you later before heading off to class. However, as everyone chaotically squeezed through the exits, John stood up and proceeded to follow us towards the exit. It startled both of us, never seeing him walk towards a lesson before, let alone on time.
"I'll catch you up, I need to grab something from my room." Bobby shouted above the wave of students, disappearing in the mass as me and John continued the trek towards PE.
John didn't say anything as we bustled down the corridors, seeming to be searching for something, popping his head above the crowd. The strange behaviour was soon explained, John suddenly yanking my arm towards a separate corridor. Instinctively, I shifted my arm out of his quite placid grip. The suddenness made both of us stop abruptly, John twisting his body to face me with confusion.
"What?" He asked as if we weren't doing anything wrong.
"Why did you do that, where are you taking me?" I countered, asking the questions quickly. He rolled his eyes as if they were the most stupid questions in the world.
"Do you honestly want to have another lesson with Wolfe?"
"No."
"Well then, we skive it. we're going to the library; I don't want to go, but I'm breaking bending the rules to you slowly, so we'll do homework or whatever goody-goody stuff you do." He explained, ushering me to follow him like a puppy.
I stood my ground, there was no way in hell that I was going to skive off a lesson, no matter what it was.
Just one lesson won't hurt...
An inner voice whined, it growing stronger the longer I thought about it. He did say we would do homework, so we were doing something productive.
"Fine, just this once." I murmured, John smirking as he raced on ahead, leaving me to follow behind him.
We quickly found ourselves in the vintage library, the oak tables with their lamps that barely lit up the page during the early hours of the night, it reminded me of a Victorian library. Giant shelves of assorted books adorned the walls, while in one corner there was a modern area where computers were placed, normally everyone raced to the computers instead of having to write homework by hand.
John walked straight to the computers, me hastily chasing after him as I caught a glimpse of the librarian glaring at us. It wasn't an old crone with those spectacles that had rope hanging of her ears, no, this one was slightly older than us who looked as if he was destined to be a politician. Crisp grey suit with a spotless white shirt, brown hair neatly combed as if with a thousand brushes, honestly, he didn't belong in a library let alone a school for mutants.
Elijah as everyone called him, was busying himself by putting the books in order, hooligans such as Danny loved to pester him by unordering them, which caused his loathing towards students being in the library at all.
We sat at the computers that meant we could still see Elijah at all times, obviously if John got bored with doing homework and wanted to play on games or something. I simply logged on and mentally remembered which homework we had over the week.
"What homework do we have?" John interrupted my train of thought, but luckily I was expecting the question anyway.
"Science homework on gas particles, English literature essay on William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and history we have to pick an event during World War Two." I counted them on my fingers, these being the only ones I could think of off the top of my head. John moaned, Elijah turning his head towards us with a killer glare. I nudged John's shoulder to make him shut up, whether it was because of it or because he didn't want to get thrown out he did stop.
"Let's just get History out the way, we can work on the boring ones later." John decided, never bothering to ask me which one I wanted to do. I didn't mind anyway, getting history out of the way was a good call.
"I'll go grab some books, might be something in them we'd miss on the internet." I offered, exiting the seat and quietly heading over to one of the book shelves. Elijah studied me the whole time, trying to find something to get me into trouble, but I followed his rules and held my tongue.
I don't think I've ever heard him speak, though some of the troublemakers like Danny say he's got this mixture of Irish and German accent, which I have no idea as to how it sounds.
I skimmed through as many books as possible, hoping something might help with History, but it was quite difficult to find an obscure event, everyone normally using D-Day or Dunkirk, honestly, there had to be something that everyone overlooked but was important, especially the people who fought or died.
"Need some help?"
The voice nearly made me jump out of my skin, I looked up from the book opened in my hands, and saw that Elijah was glancing between me and the book. I understood what Danny meant by Irish and German accent. Though the Irish took over most of his tone, there was a slight German choppy edge to it, making it quite rough to hear.
"No, I just, I was just looking for some books on World War Two." I stuttered, caught off-guard by his sudden helpfulness. He cocked his head as if in approval, then proceeded to search through the book shelves, disappearing behind the corner for a second before reappearing with three books in his hand.
"These should have what you need." He said, more of the German spilling off his tongue. I took them gingerly, slightly confused by his niceness, considering his death glares from before.
"Thanks." I whispered, skimming through the first book to check he wasn't lying, he was indeed right, my eyes met with obscure battles I hadn't heard about before. I closed it again to see he hadn't left to finish ordering the books, seaweed green eyes waiting for me to close the book, his body language quite uncomfortable.
"I remember you used to come in here quite a bit, I always thought you'd be trouble, the silent ones normally are." He finally said, a smile revealed pure white teeth. Maybe I was being slightly mean, but I never liked it when people jumped to conclusions, though I couldn't say much as that was what I had done when told about Elijah.
"Well I'm not a troublemaker, it was just easier to be alone, when no-one could bother me." I lied, well, it was partially true. I wasn't a troublemaker, and I liked being alone for awhile with books to keep me occupied, but that was only because I didn't know how to talk to people, to anyone other than Johanna.
"You don't seem to be alone now." He commented, a hand motioned over his shoulder to point at John. I glanced in his direction, and saw that he had pulled out his lighter, watching Elijah's back menacingly.
Really? I didn't know John could get so protective.
I sighed, that would likely cause a problem later, but for now I'd just let him seethe before I confront him about it.
"Yeah well, I got dragged out of my shell, literally. I'd had enough of being alone, thought it was about time to grow up." I explained, feeling proud at myself for speaking so truthfully. So maybe I did play pranks, maybe I was skiving a lesson, but I wasn't afraid anymore, not like when I was younger.
Elijah chuckled, not out of spite but of seeing me so confident. I must have been too quick to judge, maybe he liked being alone they way I used to, to just immerse yourself into a different place so reality couldn't hurt you.
"I'm always here if you need help, I mean books by the way." He added, before disappearing, literally disappearing in a poof of grey smoke that dispersed in seconds. When I rounded the corner, I saw he was at the top of a ladder across the library with about six books piled in his hands.
That explains it, he's a mutant too.
I walked back over to John, whose glares had stopped the moment I returned into the chair next to him. I placed the books Elijah had given me in-between the two computers, finding that John moved away from them as if they were poisoned.
"What was that about?" I asked with a sigh, my eyes never leaving the computer screen as I searched for information on the Falaise gap and the french village of Chambois.
"What?" He mumbled, hiding his annoyance terribly.
"You know what, the evil eyes at Elijah." I talk as if I'm enlightening him on something he already knows, which he does. He shut his lighter angrily and placed it in his pocket before harshly typing in the keyboard.
"John, I didn't know you were so protective of me." I mocked, laughing at my own joke.
"It's not funny." John really sounded grumpy, so I didn't make anymore comments and carried on with finding information to type up.
I hadn't noticed that he didn't deny it, his eyes glancing at Elijah every so often, his position changed as he was now sorting through a mountain of books on the main reception desk. His unreadable expression unable to be seen by me or John, his eyes glued to a diary.
The hour went quickly, with none of the teachers appearing to give us a week's worth of detentions, all in all it was a good break to catch up on some homework. I managed to just about finish typing up an essay about the battle of Normandy, though I still had to spell check everything before printing it off. Even John (with all his moaning about how boring it was) finished his essay on Hill 262.
When the bell rang, I quickly saved the essay and took the books back to where Elijah had gotten them from, making sure I put them exactly in the right place.
When I turned around, John had already gone, his form disappearing out the exit.
Never seen him move so quickly...
I pondered, daydreaming slightly as I grabbed my bag and made my way towards the exit. Elijah sat at the desk, eyes glued on an old looking book, his face representing a mixture of anger, melancholy and nostalgia. I walked quietly over to him, finding that I couldn't leave without knowing he was alright.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked quietly, Elijah only looking when he realised I was leaning on the desk. He smiled tightly, it completely forced as he closed the book tenderly as not to damage it.
"Yes I'm fine. Just...my family was there." He said it below a whisper, seeming to hold back tears, and honestly he did it superbly. I had no idea what he was going on about, but it was affecting him a lot, so I tried my best to comfort him.
"It's okay, if you're speaking in past tense then it can't be that bad." I failed miserably, having no training in comforting people.
"My mother's side of the family originated from Germany, and, well, they ended up in labour camps in 1944." He hinted, a hand pressed firmly on the tattered brown book, barely held together by faded string. It dawned on me what he was trying to say, our history lessons being about the holocaust.
"I'm so sorry..." I really didn't know what to say, but luckily Elijah seemed to be the forgiving type.
"At the end of the day what was done was done, nobody can change what happened, but we can remember them and honour them." He said, straightening his back as he rushed to put the books away, he came back with a smile on his face. He chuckled, avoiding my eyes as he looked at the space behind me.
"I don't know why I told you that, I just let it slip." He said with bewilderment in his tone, the Irish very thick.
"If being here has taught me anything...you can't bottle things up, believe me, I've tried and it ate at me everyday." I spoke truthfully, a tight smiled pressed onto my face.
"I'm Sam by the way." I added, trying to make the subject less tense.
"I never asked."
"You didn't need to." I quipped quickly, finding my quick tongue was because of John, but it wasn't a bad thing to catch. Elijah regained his original composure and outstretched ah and for me to shake, I took it gingerly.
"Pleasure to meet you Sam...is it short for Samantha by any chance?" He asked, to which I cringed at my full name.
"Yeah it is, but I let everyone call me Sam."
"Shame, Samantha is a pretty name." We stopped shaking hands as I realised how late I was, next lesson being with Professor X. That explained why John left so quickly, Professor X was one of the few people that didn't let him get away with anything.
"I've gotta go, bye." I said hastily before sprinting out of the door, never hearing Elijah's reply. I'd likely end up in the library again, but at least I didn't have to worry about his evil glares, well, that was if the conversation wasn't a one off.
As soon as I reached the classroom, everyone stared at me with judgemental. Professor X raised an eyebrow, expecting my apology.
"I'm sorry for being late." I said truthfully, Professor X's eyebrow raising higher.
"It won't happen again." I added, bowing my head in shame.
"Very well Miss King, take your seat." He sighed, motioning to a chair next to my worst nightmare, Creepy Freddie. I held down my disgust and did as I was told, ignoring Freddie completely. Professor X carried on with the lesson as if I hadn't interrupted it, everyone bewildered that he had let me off so easily.
I wasn't off the hook, at the end of the lesson I would be getting the lecture, but for now, I tried by best to redeem myself. As I wrote down notes, I couldn't help but think about what John said, it going over my head earlier.
"I'm breaking bending the rules to you slowly..."
If John thought I was going to follow him, he had another thing coming, there was no way I was going to start skiving too many lessons.
You've met your match John...
I've recently found The Vampire diaries, I'm not a fan and I haven't watched any episodes, but Elijah immediately stood out, which is why I used the name.
I don't wish to offend anyone on what happened during the holocaust, we've been learning about it for a while and we watched the pianist, it was the first film I struggled to watch, and it was something I had strong feelings for which I find difficult to portray and writing is the only way I know how. So that is my reason.
hope you enjoyed this, I have an inkling on where to take this now, until then, thank you for reading!
~gothgirlstrikesagain