He waited there in angst, tick tick tick, could time go any slower he wondered his impatience starting to show with the sudden sound of his tapping heel. “bro can you not” his classmate sitting next to him says, his leg continues anyway, the hand lands on the twelve “Colt, Howard and Luke stone to the front office; again Colt, Howard and Luke stone to the front office” He tries to pace himself but still zooms out of the class room almost rumbling over himself trying to get out of the door “Hey Mr. Stone” his teacher calls before he can close the door “Yes?”, “Don’t forget your paper is due on Monday at 6:00 AM” Luke says nothing only nodding his head before closing the door and hurrying down the hallway as the bell rings. The flood gates open just as he reaches the front office. “Kane? What…happened” he looks around the office seeing Agent Finn signing paperwork on the front counter “It’s so nice to see parents coming to take their kids home instead of shoving them here and only coming on holidays, we need more like you two. You make a cute couple” Susan says to Finn “oh, no no, we are just roommates who just coincidently happen to be made guardians at the same time” his smile nervous and shaky as Susan turns her back only to pour salt in the wound by Howard “Swing and a miss, folks” Kane chuckles to himself as Finn cuts Howard the side eye over his shoulder. Luke takes a seat next to Colt “what ‘s going on?”, “apparently we aren’t staying in the dorms” Colt whispers as Luke looks out the window of the office to the zoo in the hallway.
So many unfamiliar faces, he was curious if they would end terribly like everything else in his life up till this moment. He zones out thinking to when he was nine when his dad taught him how to do a kick flip or twelve when they played catch in the backyard, thirteen when puberty kicked in and accidently fried dad’s new 60 inch tv cause he had gotten too excited watching his favorite cartoon show, the winter of fifth-teen when his parents got into that car accident on their way home from vacation, his mind dwells there for a long time. “Luke!” he shakes his head looking from Kane to Finn back to Kane “yeah?”, “come on we are leaving”. Making their way outside, Luke dragged his feet dreading having to hop up into that jeep but no. He had to pause for a moment this car was like nothing he had ever seen, no chevy, no ford, no dodge as he climbs in the back seat with Howard and Colt “I see you guys went for something more civil” Finn laughs at Luke, as he raises his finger into the air “Alright…alright seatbelts people. This car is not moving until everyone is strapped in and this goes for you too Kane”. Kane grits his teeth and grumbles under his breathe, “what…something to say agent Kane?” Finn jokingly says. On the way home the under tone of a soft jazz plays with the blur of trees, endless, endless, trees “I thought you said we would be staying right outside the school” Colt pouts as he doses off “We are right outside the school, it’s not like the school inside the city. Ya know, it’s on the country side.” Finn says with Howards turning around to look out the back window just in time to see a family of deer run by across the street as they turn down a dirt road “you shitting me?”, “Howard! Language.” Kane says. Howard throws himself back into the seat as they pull up to a large vine wall a little ways down the dirt path, all of them look out the back window as Finn punches in the code “Incase any of you have ideas about sneaking out, the password changes every hour with only Kane being notified” he chuckles as he continues, “they could try running away” Kane picks up his conversation “or they could just ask me to call the jail bus, so they can start their 25 to lifestyle” rolling a crack into his window as he laughs, packing down his fresh box of cigarettes.
“You know smoking is bad for you?” Colt says “ yeah, well so is stress kid” pulling the drag from the cig finally pulling up to the house. Colt jumps out of the car first, exploding the energy contradictory to his fatigue earlier on the trip home speeding around, warping all over the property from a distance he screams “There’s a pool!” Finn laughs as they all see a warp portal open in the sky and Colt comes falling down with a gigantic splash. Finn shakes his head at Colt’s burst excitement with Howards breaking away to take a look inside the house. He had only ever seen stuff like this in a life time movie or one of those cheesy holiday films, he was use to feeling small in a big world but most rooms he had ever lived in where small. He looks at the kitchen in awe, so clean, so much…just food. Normally he would have squatted down on the couch and seen how high def the resolution was on the tv but he was curious about something else. He notices the two rooms at the bottom both on opposite sides of the house, the front door room looking to be more of Kane’s taste while the rear looked to be Finn’s lounge which he only knew cause he creeped inside the room and saw the portrait of a young Finn holding a girl that looks like she graduated a few years ago from the date on the portrait. Howard continues on his journey upstairs, looking through each of the four rooms he tosses his bookbag on the floor of the last room in the hallway. He sits on the bed sinking into it, “a bed… I told you grandma I’d make sure I took care of myself” he says out loud to himself staring upward at the ceiling fan, listening to Colt below him in the backyard laughing with Finn.
“So, are you always this much of a hard ass?” Luke stands beside Kane while he is over looking the front yard, Kane cuts him the side eye when he sees Luke’s positions himself to light a cigarette “Hey…did you?” He shouts looking down and feeling his pocket while leaning over to snatch the cig out of his hand. “nah nah too slow old man” Luke says parkouring his way up the porch overhead. Lifting himself up he is greeted to a pair of shoes, he looks up and is shocked to see it’s Kane who reaches down and takes the cigarette before Luke can jump back down, when he lands Kane is still standing there by the pillar under the overhead, taking a minute to look up the second Kane waves at him before fading. “Wait you….”, “You should go check out your room kiddo” he slow walks up the steps glaring at Kane the whole time, picking up his back-pack on the way into the house. Leaning his back against the door to shut it completely, he shakes his arm sleeve letting another cigarette fall out into his hand instantly placing it behind his ear.
Well I already know which room Howard is in Luke says to himself, from the radio that was blasting out of his room. Luke didn’t have a problem with hip-hop, not at all quite the opposite in fact, but you could say that even some of the closet friends can’t agree on everything all the time and Howards overwhelming infatuation with Drake was slightly annoying. The gentle childish giggles of Colt and Finn in the back made Luke ignore it and just continue on his way with a grin he couldn’t hide. Luke looks down the hallway but only notices “only three rooms” looking over the stair railing and seeing the other two rooms on the bottom floor “so that’s what….three, four, five” he looks down the opposite side of the hallway with a single door “probably just a closet “ he says to himself but when he opens it, he is greeted to the lounge room with a gigantic window, which makes him chuckle “Hey…arnold” whispering to himself “ Move it, football head!” Howard shouts from behind him. Luke jumps turning around to punch Howard in the shoulder “dude, I’ve told you about doing that…one of these days”, “yeah yeah “ Howard says rubbing his freshly bruised arm “Hey you can’t call the lounge room”, “oh yeah….” Luke responses tossing his bag into it “wanna spare me over it?”, “you know what…” Both of them charging out the front door with no time wasted. “Wha…the hell?” Kane says at the door comes swinging open watching both Luke and Howard run to the middle of the front yard, Finn comes charging around with the all the noise coming from the front instantly “ No…no, not going to happen” Finn begins to charge out there being ignored by Luke and Howard who are engaged in a death stare; Kane stops Finn short with a hand on the chest.
“Kane!”, “Hey, let them” Kane responses “Plus they are sloppy, look at their technique. Howards never been in a fight a day in his life just look he doesn’t even protect his face, Luke on the other hand…”, “growing fond of a protégé? Umm” Finn sarcastically says “His imitation of Form seven is impressive but loose and sloppy, probably should move to a Form five” he says pulling another hit . It doesn’t take long before Howard comes limping back up the steps “Nice moves Howard, maybe next time champ” Finn says trying to cheer Howard up but he just grumbles under his breath opening the door and shutting it behind him. Luke doesn’t rush, but he does stop short of the steps when he looks up and notices Finn and Kane staring at him “what?”, “Form seven uh?” Finn says “Yeah, it’s the form my grandfather use to us during the mutant wars”.
Kane pause for a moment, halting Luke from going into the house “You know what you want for dinner tonight?”, Luke is taken aback by Kane’s kindness. Puzzled he swiftly replies back “I could go for a burger not going to lie, been a while seen I had something that’s not in a can”. Finn pulls out his note pad and then walks in the house. As the hours pass and things begin to cool with the sun closing its eye on the day, Luke and Howard sit at the edges of the pool looking up into the night sky. “Well this is a nice change of pace” Howard says “Yeah, no more sleeping back to back in some alleyway”, “or shelter”, “or tent city” there back and forth ends in them both laughing. “Question tho” Howard says disgruntled “You trust them?”, “I trust them about as much as they probably trust us”, “ You never know Luke that could be quite a bit”, “ maybe….maybe not, seems more like some teen mutant second chance program” his light joke doesn’t land, he wasn’t sure if Howard just didn’t find it funny or if he just was amused by something else. They sat there for a moment before a knock came to the glass double door behind them, it was Colt mouthing the words food is done. They jump up from the pool “ah ah, feet guys” Finn says, Howard runs to grab his towel to wipe off while Luke stands there for a moment before walking inside “Luke!” Finn shouts “what?” Luke says in shock, Finn looks down at Luke’s feet and scratches his head “wasn’t…never mind”, if they are dry then they are dry. Take a seat anywhere.” he did choose a seat the one seat sitting on the side of the table letting Howard sit next to Colt.
As they all sit together at the table, it was one of those few times in his life Luke felt everything wasn’t a train wreck.
Mean while in a neighborhood not to far from the secluded house, she sat there on the couch eatting per normal tub of Ice cream before setting it on the coffee table as she watched her late-night show. She sighs, not from loneness but boredom, since she got home, she hasn’t done much. A Few dishes still in the sink, her room still hadn’t been cleaned and most importantly she had yet to sweep and mop the floor; while she has never had her mother come home to a mess and she definitely wasn’t going to have her first time being a mess this big either but….it was late and she laid steady on the couch. She scoffs “who knows when she will be back anyway”. As the words leave her lips, her phones chimes, her heart beats intensely, she checks the message. “The Dean?”.
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