Thank You

Posted on Wed Jan 15th, 2025 @ 10:45am by Drew Williams & Kennedy Kelly

2,936 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 5: Days of Fortune Past
Location: Girls Dormitory
Timeline: November 22nd, 1990

Drew glanced around as he stepped into the corridor that led to the Girls Dormitory. He knew he wasn't supposed to be in the Girls Dormitory, especially after hours, but he felt it was important to do something before turning in. The last several days had been difficult. He blamed himself for upending his sister's life when he was outed as a mutant in the Cambridge Chronicle. Despite that the incident was about saving Angela's life. He was having issues with the guilt that by using his super speed to save Angela from what would most likely have been a fatal hit and run accident. Her had ruined their lives in the process.

Drew made his way down the hallway to Angela’s and Kennedy’s dorm room and knocked on the door quietly. He glanced around cautiously. He didn't want to get into trouble, but he felt a need to apologize to his sister.

“She’s not in there.” A voice from behind Drew responded in a hushed tone. “And you’ll get demerits for being in the girl’s dorm after curfew.”

Kennedy took a few more steps towards Drew and her appearance confirmed that this was a place that truly was forbidden to the likes of him. She was dressed in a blush colored nuisette that was adorned with lace along the hem and neckline, her long golden hair was in soft curls down her shoulders. She was clean faced and barefoot but still exuded elegance and grace. Kennedy was disarming and dangerous while being in such a sweet and vulnerable state.

“You must be Angela’s brother.” She saw the similarities in their faces, they were obvious siblings. “I’m her roommate, Kennedy.”

She glanced down the dark hallway behind them. Under the guise of brotherly love Kennedy decided to be his ally. She reached past him and opened the door he had been knocking on. A moonlight room with two beds was exposed to him. “Come on, you can wait for her in our room but she just got into the shower so it might be a minute.”

Drew was speechless as he looked at the young woman who was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. She looked like a Greek Goddess from mythology. His arm was tingling where she brushed his reaching passed him to open the door. Angela had spoken to him about Kennedy since their arrival a few nights before, but this was the first time he'd actually seen her in person. Her beauty was so stunning he couldn't even move.

There was a long awkward pause as Kennedy waited for Drew to do… anything. Instead he just stood there in silent slack jawed awkwardness. “Or not…” she muttered while slipping past him and making her way into the bedroom. Once inside she turned on her desk lamp and reached for her robe. The silk may have covered more of her body but it draped across her in a romantic cascade of fabric. She tied the robe at her waist, the cinched material only accentuated the long elegant lines of her lithe figure. She was the oldest daughter of the Kelly family, who had once waved and smiled from stages behind her hate spewing Senator father. Drew had seen her on the news and in the papers of Massachusetts for a long time, her childhood had been on public display along with the glamorous life her mother showcased. Kennedy turned back to look at Drew who was still just standing there, looking at her.

“Look.” Her features scrunched like those of an irritated cat. “You can either come in and wait for her on her bed or you can go back to the common room and wait for her. But just standing there, like that you’re going to get both of us in trouble.”

Drew blinked several times, as if he was trying to reboot his brain. It was a few more seconds after she spoke that he stepped inside and took a seat on Angela’s bed. He looked at Kennedy's again, but focused on the top of her head. He was still at a loss for words, but he knew he should say something. He gave her weak wave of his hand from where he sat. "Um, hi. I am Drew Williams. Angela’s brother."

“Yeah, I know.” Kennedy said with a chuckle before sitting down at her desk. The textbooks on the shelf above her head gave him a brief idea of who she was, Advanced French, American Literature, Calculus. “I called you Angela’s brother in the hall. I wouldn’t have let you in if you were some random guy.”

She looked at him for a moment longer, Drew seemed unwell. “You don’t look so hot, almost like you’re going to puke or something.” Kennedy got up and opened her tiny refrigerator next to her bed. “Do you want water or Diet Coke?”

Drew looked out the window when Kennedy got up. She was so much more beautiful in person than what he had seen on television or in the newspaper. He was finding it impossible to think straight when he looked directly at her. "No calories in water and certainly not enough in a Diet Coke. Thank you for the offer though. I was heading down to the kitchen for a late night snack after talking to Angela." He turned to Kennedy, focusing on a spot on her forehead. "Angela has told me how supportive you've been and how much she feels welcomed here...I just want to say thank you for being nice to her."

“Oh it’s nothing, you don’t have to thank me for that.” Kennedy waved off the compliment but she understood the sincerity behind his comment. She bit her lower lip in a moment of contemplation and decided to speak frankly with Drew rather than continue the guise of being a perfect socialite. “I wasn’t in a great place when I arrived here, my mental state could have been described as ‘poor’ at best. I stole my ex-boyfriend’s father’s car in a moment of crisis and when the cops pulled me over I knocked him over with my abilities. Thanks to the very public assault on a police officer it was impossible to cover up. I’m currently on probation and serving hours and hours of community service for the offense. You know how my dad felt about mutants, my family disowned me and I lost my place at Smith College and my legacy acceptance into Harvard Law. Despite my fine clothes and my nice car, I’m destitute. My whole life was taken away from me in the blink of an eye. My past, my present, and my future were all gone and I had no idea who I was or what I was going to do with myself. All I knew was that I was undesirable to the people who were supposed to love me forever.”

In an instinctual response to openly discussing her past trauma, Kennedy wrapped her arms around herself in the form of a self-soothing hug. “My former roommate, she was really nice to me when I first got here. She would stay up with me when I cried, she brought me dinner when my boyfriend left and I was too embarrassed to go to the dining room, and she was always looking out for me when we got into trouble. So, I know what a difference that can make especially when you’re new and feeling lost.”

Drew listened attentively and he looked at her. His expression changed as she spoke, transforming from that of a boy enamored by Kennedy’s physical beauty to something akin to empathy. He had been feeling lost the last few days and everything that occurred at the feast earlier this evening had kind of reinforced that loss for him. He felt guilty for thinking that Ashley's presence was something bad that was his fault. Kennedy’s words gave him an epiphany of sorts. What he was, what he could do would have eventually been discovered. The circumstances of that discovery wasn't so much important as what he, and Angela, and every other person here at the school had to face. What was he going to do going forward. "I thank you anyways and I hope you know that Angela thinks you're an amazing friend and I...I do to.

Footsteps could be heard outside the door, not the soft pitter patter of slippers, but the clip clop of hard shoes. A moment later there was a hard knocking on the door. Drew's fight or flight reactions kicked in just as a voice called out for the door to be opened. Time seemed to slow for Drew. He stepped over to the radio and turned it on as he dialed in a talk radio news station he had been listening to. He then popped open the windows and scrambled through. He slid the window closed...more or less. He spotted the tree about 8 feet from the narrow ledge and left for a branch he hoped would hold his weight. Less than a quarter of a second in real time passed from the moment the knocking ended and Drew found himself hugging a tree 25 feet in the air.

Kennedy frowned at the blur of movement and the overactive response that had just occurred. If Drew was ever going to become an X-Men he would have to learn to keep his cool. She shrugged off the thought as the knock occurred once more, maybe it was a speedster thing.

“Hold on Zelda!” Kennedy said while standing up and fixing her askew window. She made her way over to the door and opened it for a small, dark haired girl who grinned at her while holding a brush and a ribbon. The girl was young, no older than twelve, and at first glance she appeared average at best. What was strange about her was the large pair of heavy, iron boots she wore on her feet and a pair of similar bracelets on her wrist. When she moved through the bedroom her feet sounded large and imposing.

Drew watched from the window as what appeared to be a nightly ritual occurred between Kennedy and Zelda. The small girl sat on the edge of the bed and Kennedy brushed her long hair until it was sleek and smooth. They talked as they did this, a brief conversation that seemed to make both of them laugh occasionally. Kennedy finished by neatly braiding the girl's hair for bed.

With a nod of thanks and a brief hug Drew could see why the girl needed help, her limbs were heavy and slow thanks to the extra weight they carried. Kennedy walked her to the door and shut it before she made her way over to the window Drew had departed from.

Kennedy opened it and peered out into the darkness, it took her a second to locate him in the blackness. “Are you stuck in a tree now?” She attempted to both shout and whisper the words.

Drew sighed. He easily lept back to the ledge and crawled back inside. He looked at Kennedy for a second before shrugging and changing his gaze to the floor. "Sorry. Thought it was a teacher doing bed check. I didn't want you to get into trouble for having a guy in your room." He glanced at the door and walked over to it.

Drew put his hand on the doorknob, speaking as he opened the door. "Angela’s lucky to have found such an amazing friend who is very kind to people....as kind as she is beautiful. Thank you for being her friend." He darted away at super speed before she could respond.

A moment later Angela’s voice could be heard singing as the door to the dormitory shower room opened. She was singing the lyrics to the pop song released by Tiffany just a couple of years ago *I Think We're Alone Now*. She came bouncing into the room, a cheerful smile on her face. She looked at Kennedy's expression. "What's that expression? You don't like my singing?"

Kennedy had a look on her face that was a mixture of annoyance and confusion, while Drew had stopped by for… something… he had been a confused and a clumsy mess the whole time, his decision to leave when the person he was waiting for only muddied her first impression of the speedster.

“No, not you, sing away.” Kennedy waved off the strange look on her face and smiled at her roommate. “I just had a weird thought, it was nothing.” Sitting down on her bed, Kennedy reached out for one of her magazines and began to casually flip through it. “Did you have a good Thanksgiving?”

Angela smiled as she took a deep breath and sighed. "Met a cute guy who my parents would totally NOT approve of so...yeah. What about your Thanksgiving?"

“A little sad but it ended better than it started” Kennedy said with a hint of a smile. But she grew a little concerned when Angela mentioned a boy. “I feel like I should warn you…”

She put her magazine down and looked a little nervous about offering her roommate advice. But Kennedy would feel like a cad if she didn’t say something and Angela got hurt. “I don’t know if it’s the environment or everyone’s mental state but things have a tendency to move fast around here. Look at Aurora, she slept with Scott in the first few weeks she was here and he broke up with her when his old flame reappeared. Now she’s pregnant and can’t even be in the same room as him. And I moved really fast too, with someone I thought I knew…”

Kennedy trailed off for a moment, her blue eyes sad with the memories. “Jace was a student here as well, he had been here for a while before I arrived. He was so sweet and considerate, and he had the most beautiful blue eyes. We fell for each other fast and hard. Then he left the school and found out who his real father was… he was given a lot of money and power and he made the choice to hurt people with it… A lot of innocent people, and us, and also me.”

Kennedy huffed out a sad sigh before she composed herself. “I’m not telling you what to do or anything, I’m just speaking from personal experience. I was sad and lonely so I gave everything to someone and it hurt me in the end. If I could do it all over I would have slowed down and spent more time getting to know him, then maybe… I wouldn’t have been so shocked in the end.”

Angela listened to Kennedy. She really listened. "I hear what you're saying. I want you to know that I appreciate what you are saying too. There's something I want you to know about me. I've...never done it. I'm not ready." Angela’s grinned at Kennedy for a moment. "Doesn't mean I won't kiss a guy I like if the mood strikes me. I'm not ready for anything more than that." She looked around curiously a moment after speaking. She sniffed the air a couple of times before turning her gaze back to Kennedy. "Why does it smell like Old Spice in the room?"

Kennedy turned her pert nose upwards and sniffed the room for a few seconds but she didn’t seem to pick up on any novel smells. “I don’t smell anything. Maybe you have a better sense of smell than I do.”

She shrugged and returned to their previous conversation. “By no means am I telling you what to do. There just seems to be a trend of broken hearts around here. Connor had a girlfriend and she left, Ethan also lost the guy he wanted to be with. Even Hank’s girlfriend died from Sentinels. The only ones that appear to have lasted are Scott and Jean from the first class.”

She sighed and glanced at the glamorous photo of a man and a woman together in her magazine. “But refusing to live your life out of fear for the worst isn’t really a life worth living, is it? I guess I rescind my previous warning, kiss all day if you want to and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll cry and eat ice cream together.”

Angela gave a short laugh as she pulled down the covers on her bed. "I don't need an excuse for sitting down and eating ice cream. If you need the same, just let me know." She crawled into bed and got settled in.

“Deal.” Kennedy said with a grin as she turned off her reading light. “Whatever choices we make, we’ll support one another.”

Angela gave Kennedy a thumbs up as she yawned. "Cool. I am choosing sleeping with my pillow right now." She settled in, taking a few deep breaths as she drifted off to sleep. She wrinkled her nose once or twice and still wondered why the room held the faint scent of Old Spice.

"Same." Kennedy said with a faint laugh, "Pillows don't steal all the covers. Have a good night Angela." She yawned several times before drifting off to sleep.

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