xp_logs | [Julio and Lorna] - Thursday Afternoon

Lorna finally tells Julio exactly who Mr. Maximoff is and what he's been doing. Julio doesn't take it very well.

Julio waved goodbye to Angel and Kyle as the two headed for the cafeteria to grab some lunch, while he headed in the opposite direction. Ms. Dane had wanted to see him about...something. He couldn't think of what it could possibly be, he diligently did all of his assignments and she said he was making steady progress in powers training.

Lorna made faces at her computer, expressions that she quickly smoothed out at the knock on her office door and the subsequent opening of it. "Julio, you got my message. Come on in." She smiled at him reassuringly, not wanting him to think he was in trouble or anything.

The boy shifted his backpack from one shoulder to the other and looked at his teacher questioningly. "You said you needed to see me, Ms. Dane?" He didn't sit, as he was hoping this visit would be quick. It was lunch, and not even the muffin he'd inhaled a couple of hours earlier to could stave off the oncoming tide of hunger felt by all sixteen-year-old boys.

After almost four years at the school, Lorna had a decent idea about the bottomless pit that was the stomach of teenage boys. She waved him at a chair, "Take a seat, please. I'll try to keep this short but I'm not sure...um, anyway. Just sit, okay?" There was a cooler down by her feet with some sandwiches in it (she liked being prepared) just in case.

Dropping his backpack by the chair, Julio obediently sat. His teacher seemed a little flustered, so that set off a a tiny alarm in his head. Though he didn't quite know why. He clasped his hands in his lap and looked at her, expectantly.

Lorna took a breath and sat forward. "Okay, first of all, I want you to know that nothing is wrong, all right? I'm telling you this because I think you should know not because it's something you need to worry about." Lorna wasn't really sure why anyone thought that those kind of statements actually put people at ease but it was impossible to resist the urge to make them. "Did you see the post on the journals from Mr. Maximoff?"

"Yes, I did." Julio said, now feeling a more than a little confused. And thrown by her beginning statements. Nobody said things like that unless things were wrong, or had the potential to be wrong. "What does Ms. Maximoff's brother have to do with anything? He seemed like a ....jerk? But not something bad?"

"He's very much a jerk," Lorna replied though she wasn't sure exactly how much Malice's memories could be trusted. "But that's not why I asked to talk to you. Pietro's father...Wanda's father...is Magneto. And up until four months ago, Pietro worked with his father." Without waiting for that to sink in she went on, "With his father but not for. Pietro has been aiding the X-Men for a while now."

In a damn poor fashion, if you asked Lorna. He hadn't felt the need to help her until it was much too late for dozens of people. But she'd keep that to herself for now.

Julio blinked rapidly. "He...he is what now?" He stammered. Just the mention of that name could suck all the air out of his lungs. Lorna could see the thoughts flicker rapid-pace in Julio's eyes. Magneto is his father. He worked with his father, then does that mean...?

"He was our mole for a couple of years. Now he's come to us for some temporary asylum." Lorna flattened her hands on her desk, her tone emphatic, "We are not putting him ahead of the students though. If something happens, if there's even the slightest hint that his father is going to make a move against him, Pietro's gone. He's promised that and I'll throw him out myself to make sure of it."

He said nothing at that. The shock was being replaced by a much more familiar feeling. His hands trembled, and he stood up suddenly, almost knocking over his chair. He turned away from Lorna, hands clenched at his sides. He worked for them. They were keeping someone safe who...? They knew. They had to know, he was their mole and oh those bastards. With one violent sweep of his hand, he flung the chair across the room.

Lorna flinched but stood rapidly and circled around her desk, coming around to face him. "Julio, please. I know this sucks. Believe me."

Julio didn't even look at her, he was staring at the floor and desperately trying to will himself to calm down. His hands were clenched so tightly that his nails cut into his palms. A muscle twitched in his jaw, and his eyes were hard. "Did he know? Did he know that his father was...following me, all those months?" did you know?

Lorna took a breath, buying herself time and steadiness. "I don't know. I only just found out that Pietro was less than his father's perfect soldier myself. If he did...it wouldn't be the first time he'd let something like that happen. But it was the last." Carefully, she reached out and rested her hands on Julio's shoulders. "I don't know how much he knew and I don't know how much he told Scott."

The boy tensed under her touch. He was not calming down, at all. Julio shrugged out from under her hands and went to stand by the window, fists shoved in his pockets. He took deep breaths as the windowpane rattled, ever so slightly. "So Mr. Summers could have known? And did nothing?" He said tightly.

"No." Lorna didn't move to follow him, trusted him to control his powers even if he couldn't control his temper. "If he'd know, he'd have done something. We don't stand by and let things happen when we can stop them. I swear to you, Julio. We wouldn't have let Magneto take you if we could have stopped it and we will never let him near you again."

Julio heard those words from somewhere far away. He wanted to do a lot of things at that moment. Scream, hit something. Break something. Instead he snatched at all traces of his power and shoved them back down inside viciously. Stay He commanded them. Obey me. The pressure in his head abated, and he exhaled loudly. "I believe you," he said, quietly. Lorna had always been honest with him, hadn't she?

Now she went to the boy's side again, though she didn't touch him. She could imagine only too well the anger and pain he was in, the fear that lived below it. Her voice was soft, "You don't ever have to go near him. You don't have to speak to him. If you ever feel threatened, you can come to me and I'll deal with him. It...might be a good idea for you to talk to the Professor. He can tell you more about Pietro's intentions and what you have a right to expect."

"I...I will not avoid him, if it comes to that." The thought of hiding from this man like a coward in his own home made him sick. Julio stared out of the window at the grounds, registering nothing. "I think I should talk to the Professor."

"That's probably a good idea. He's free right now, if you wanted to go." She knew because he'd emailed her once Scott had run to him.

Julio finally met Lorna's eyes and nodded. He looked tired, suddenly, and much older than his sixteen years. "I will." He walked over to the desk and scooped up his backpack. He would go straight from Lorna's office, seeing as how he'd lost all his appetite.

The look in his eyes broke her heart, all the more because she knew how it felt. "I'm sorry, Julio. I wish there was more that I could do."

"I am sorry," Julio said quietly. To whom he was apologizing or for what he didn't know, it just seemed like something to say. He shouldered his backpack and walked out of the office without even looking back.