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Quiet a moment ago, the halls of Charles Xavier's school have suddenly filled with boisterous noise as students of all age groups exit their classes. Standing head and shoulders above almost all of his shorter classmates, Sam Guthrie slumps out of a history classroom, his blue eyes wide in a stricken expression. Under one arm, he's carrying a textbook and a spiral notebook with a pencil stuck into the binding; in the other, he's got a well-worn typewritten sheet. He wanders into the middle of the hallway, holds up the sheet of paper, and slowly starts to turn in a circle, clearly searching for something.
*
It's odd. One moment you can be chatting it up and grabbing asses, and the next there's a bell and a horde of loud children and teenagers flooding the hallway. Akihiro tenses at the sudden eruption of noise and movement, and it takes all of his willpower not to pop his claws and accidentally hurt somebody. "Calm down, it's fine." he chides himself.
*
Jubilee isn't doing the school thing anymore. She doesn't have to. She's going down the hall, off to get some lunch, when she sees the others in the hallway. Akihiro gets a wave, but Sam gets the words. "What are you doing?"
*
Sam Guthrie can only envy Akihiro's ease with chat-ups and ass-grabs — although he'd be more likely to just wish he had the other boy's free time. As it stands, Guthrie is no more a dropout, and the staff of the Institute are making sure that he makes up for that year of lost academic time. The tall southerner's gradual turn brings him face to face with Jubilee, and he offers her a hopeful, lopsided grin. "In general or right at this moment?" he asks her. "Because in general, Ah'm tryin' to finish twelfth grade. In specific, Ah'm tryin' to figure out what the heck a conservatory is, so Ah won't be late for Biology."
*
Speaking of chatting up and grabbing ass, Akihiro offers Jubilee a wave and heads that way. "Hey there doll, what's happening?" It's worth noting that he isn't completely bald, his hair is short and he's sporting a full beard. Thanks dad. "Conservatory? Gonna be outside, I imagine. Lots of glass and plants. Just look for other seniors floating around."
*
Jubilee leans on a wall and looks at Sam. "I thought a conservatory was something um, you know, just a fancy name for a school?" Akihiro gets a wink. "Not much. Still hoping to hear some analysis of some things though, from the people who do the math and science."
*
"Glass and plants?" Sam echoes, eyebrows rising. "Like a greenhouse?" He looks back down at the dog-eared typewritten page with an accusatory glare. "Well, why the heck don't it just say 'greenhouse,' then?" With a grunt of annoyance, he crams the page into the pocket of his slightly ill-fitting school uniform.
He turns to Jubilee and his shoulders sag. "Well, that sure ain't me. Ah thought Ah wasn't bad at math, but this trigonometry nonsense the teachers expect me to be learnin'… it's ridiculous." He shakes his head and continues, "Whatcha tryin' to get analyzed?"
*
The wink earns a grin from Akihiro. "Well, if you're looking to waste some time.." he doesn't specify, but there is an invitation there all the same. "And because it's a conservatory, not a green house. Wouldn't want to spend a class period in a green house I imagine." His eyes go slightly wider, and he asks to nobody in particular, "You think the Professor would be cool with me running an after school organization? Could teach self defense or Japanese culture or something."
*
Jubilee snorts at Sam's comments. "Well, trust me. However bad you think you're having it at math… you're fine." Leaning back, her back against the wall, but her feet forward, propping herself in place. "Is your suggestion, Aki, that we waste time making a club at the conservatory? With a lead pipe?"
*
With the hand newly freed of his class schedule, Sam scratches at the side of his head, perplexed. "Ain't sure what you mean by wastin' time," he puts in with a friendly, clueless smile. "Ah'm usually game for any old thing, but what with these dumb classes, ain't got a break until the afternoon." He ignores the fine distinctions between greenhouses and conservatories — because, frankly, he's still not clear on what they are — and leaps ahead to offer, "The Professor seems pretty open to ideas if you show him you've got a plan. Won't hurt a thing to ask."
He flashes a sheepish grin at Jubilation and adds, "Sure appreciate the vote of confidence, Jubi, but Ah ain't sure my math teacher would agree with ya."
*
"Something kinda like that." Akihiro nods to Jubilation. "Maybe instead we just get food though." Sam gets a much slower nod. "I didn't take any math classes," or go to school, "but I learned to calculate where a shooter was firing from. I'd say you'd get the hang of it in no time, but they don't use the same sort of motivation here."
*
Jubilee folds her hands behind her head and looks at Sam. "Let me put it this way Sam. If you ever think I'm hurt, don't to the 'how many fingers am I holding up' trick. Because that takes me a moment in the best of times." There's no laugh, no sign that it's a joke, at all. She does smile again when she looks to Aki. "Maybe you could. But the doctors told us I have a reason for it."
*
Sam looks back and forth between the other two. At first he tries to smile appreciatively at Jubilee's comments, assuming she's just trying to make him feel better, but then her own seriousness causes him to doubt that, and his smile falters. Aki's comment gets the same concerned expression. "You sayin' you had people shootin' at you in school?" he inquires, his words hesitant. Surely he got that wrong.
*
"Of course, I meant Sam." Akihiro says to Jubilee, reaching over to give her shoulder a squeeze. "Math isn't really something we use too terribly much throughout the day anyway." He snaps and points at Sam, "Wasn't in school. Camp in Canada for military purposes, been shot a few times. Took my eye. Cut my fingers off. Whatever they could think of, think they had fun with it because I can grow things back." The normally light teen is /very/ serious about this. "Why I don't have a practical education, where I spent the last four years."
*
Jubilee shakes her head, smiling faintly at Akihiro at the touch, though that faintness grows as he tells his story. "Poor Sam," she then says, looking back to Guthrie. "Here you're trying to commiserate over your school problems, and I bring up my learning disability and Aki talks about how he got abused."
*
"Does kinda put failin' a couple of classes in perspective," Sam answers Jubilee sheepishly. Although he's talking to her, he's staring at Akihiro, horrified by the other boy's story. After a pause several seconds long, he finally says, "Okay. Everythin' Ah've heard about Canada was wrong."
*
"Well, I'm Logan's son. We have to take the good with the bad." Akihiro waves his hand slightly, back to his old self. "I like to live in the now, you know, live and let live." Sam gets a slight grin, "It's not all of Canada. I imagine the rest of it is pretty pleasant."
*
Jubilee snickers. "Sam, the fact that I can't do math and Aki had horrible things happen to him, doesn't make your problems less real though."
*
"Wait, wait…" Guthrie holds up a palm at Akihiro, trying to hold back the shocking revelations long enough to catch up. "You're Mr. Logan's son? Ah didn't even know he was married!" Granted, all of this was revealed back in the library, but Sam was a little busy tripping all over himself and spilling books on people to keep up with the conversation. Turning to Jubilee without putting his hand down, Sam says, "Don't make 'em not real, but it does remind me they ain't all that important."
*
"He was, she died while she was pregnant with me. He didn't know about me until recently." Akihiro fills Sam in. "Where I get the claws and the need to shave twice a day from. But, Jubes is right. Just because we've got some shit going on with us doesn't mean that you do-" He pauses, "Wait, don't you need to find the conservatory on top of getting there?"
*
Jubilee laughs and looks. "Yeah that's right. Should we start walking over there?" She then pushes herself off of the wall and looks around as though trying to decide the right direction."
*
"Mr. Logan's wife died?" Sam's expression has gone from sympathetic to horrified to just sort of deadened. "Ah had no idea."
But while Sam might have no problem admitting that his class problems pale in comparison to these real problems — not to mention his own family issues — Akihiro's comment about the conservatory is an important reminder that sticking to a class schedule is, at least, an immediate problem. "Aw, shoot, y'all're right," he answers, turning to look for the nearest exit to the grounds. "Ah don't suppose either of y'all just know offhand where it is? This house is too big for words."
*
"Unfortunately not." Akihiro says with a shake of his head. "I haven't spent as much time getting to know the grounds as I should." As of right now the teen probably knows New York better.
*
Jubilee Shrugs, and points in a direction. "Let's just go that way and see if we can find it. Come on." And so, she starts walking, leading the way in this urgent adventure.
*
Sam starts off after Jubilee, feeling like a bit of an idiot for waiting for the girl to cut them a path through the throng of students instead of taking the lead himself. He's only about twice her size. Of course, now that they're moving, there's no room in the crowd for him to edge past her and do the gentlemanly thing. "Ah wish Jean were here," he says wistfully. "She'd figure out where this dumb fancy greenhouse is just by finding the answer in someone's brain."
*
"Don't think she likes doing that too much. Never sure what you're going to pick up." Akihiro points out, he clearly doesn't have a problem following along, but he's no gentleman either. "Imagine it'd be outside though, makes sense for the biology class to be near a garden."
*
Jubilee looks back. "Outside, that's a good idea. And well, um, don't people who can do stuff like Jean does, have to spend more time trying to block everything out, than trying to listen for stuff?"
*
"Ah don't pretend to understand how that psychic stuff works," Sam answers with a shrug, darting after Jubilee with a little more dexterity than one might expect from the lanky boy. "Heck, Ah don't even understand how my stuff works. Do any of us really know how our stuff works? It ain't like mutant powers come with an instruction manual." The blond teenager's frown is easy to hear in his voice. "Although Ah suppose this biology class is gonna pretend they got all the answers. That'll be the day."
*
Jubilee continues to have a lead. "I'm sure some people know what they're doing. But me, mine's probably math and science, so yeah, forget that," she snickers, finding the door to get outside of the building after a walk. "Well this is the back, I hope it's out the back."
*
As they escape the confines of the hallway, the crowd is suddenly nonexistent; with all of the space of the grounds to move in, the students can disperse to a comfortable density. In a couple of loping strides, Sam moves to Jubilation's side, head on a swivel as he scans for anything that looks like a greenhouse. Or … whatever else Akihiro might have meant by 'glass and plants.'
"Mine's magic, far as Ah can tell," Sam answers with a resigned partial smile. "Just energy explodin' in all directions out of nowhere and me takin' off like a rocket. Whatever it is, it ain't likely to be explained outside some kinda nuclear science lab. Ah ain't so eager to spend much time in a place like that, so Ah guess ignorance is bliss."
*
"Mine's flesh and blood." Akihiro replies, lifting his hand to extend his claws, which despite their dark color appear to be bone. "I get hurt, I heal. I can hear your heartbeat, so lying to be and hiding are out of the question, and I can also track people by smell. Got everything my father does."
*
Jubilee snickers as she holds the door open for the others, then lets it shut after they're all out. "See, so that sounds like science too. I don't even know what the difference is between magic and science though."
*
Sam can't help but flinch back from Akihiro's claws. It's not just that they're stabbing out through the boy's skin; on some level, they are just cruel-looking things — it's all too easy to see them used to injure or kill. Thrown off his stride for a second, the southerner says, "Sounds like somethin' out of a horror movie. Almost more animal than human, if you ask me." He peers around, pace slowing. "You see anything that looks like a conservatory?"
*
"Something I wrestle with every day." Akihiro lets the claws retract, and the tear they made heals up instantly. "Hard to think you aren't a monster when pretty much everyone else does. Why I try not to kill, even when they deserve it. Though, sometimes I black out, and anything that moves is fair game."
*
Jubilee whirls around to point. "Aki, in the conservatory, with the claws! I win!" She then turns back toward Sam. "Well, if I can roll a 6 and find our way to the conservatory."
*
Sam winces. "Sorry, Aki. That don't sound pleasant. Ah didn't mean to…" The boy trails off, then gestures vaguely: "You know." Ever the master of social graces, our Mr. Guthrie. He turns to look where Jubilee's pointing. "Oh, okay. That's a conservatory. Huh." He doesn't say it, but his expression does: looks like a greenhouse to me. Several students are filing in through the entrance, all shorter and several looking a good couple of years younger than Sam. "Alright, y'all — thanks for helpin' me out!" he says, giving the others a wave and flashing a lopsided smile. "Ah better get on my way. See you later!"
*
"No harm done in pointing out the obvious." Akihiro says with a dismissive wave. "Alright, we'll see you around." His gaze slides over to Jubilee, "Wanna go grab something to eat from the city?"
*
Jubilee tilts her head and waves to Sam. "Alright, try your best!" she chirps to encourage him. And now Aki. "In the city huh? I don't know I was thinking of being lazy today."