xp_logs | Miles & Matt (again), Friday afternoon

Matt offers Miles some advice at settling into life at Xavier's. He even forgives Miles for eating his favorite snack.

Coming back from aerial arts practice in the city, Matt headed straight to the kitchen for a snack. He had eaten before catching the train back to Westchester or taking the bus from the station to the school. Still, he was ready to eat again. Rummaging through the pantry, he wondered if there were any cookies or maybe popcorn. He liked the sea salt kind and that sounded really good right now. The question was, where was it?

In Miles's hands. Kyle -- Mister Gibney, Miles reminded himself -- had assigned the class to watch a TED talk about the importance of reading "classic" American literature, Miles supposed to justify why they were reading The Grapes of Nothing the Hell Happens in 500 Pages. So he'd taken his iPad and headphones down to the kitchen so he could at least nourish his stomach even if his brain was rotting. He sat at the table, legs kicked up onto the adjacent chair, and dug through the now half-empty bag of popcorn as he listened to this geezer drone on about reading.

Hearing someone enter, Matt turned, "You're eating my popcorn!" he accused. Not that it was really his popcorn. Still. He was going to be irrational about it. That did explain why he couldn't find it though.

"Mmf?" was Miles's stuffed mouth reply. He pressed a pinky that wasn't covered in popcorn dust to the screen in order to pause the video. "Sorry," he said once he'd swallowed. He was suddenly terrified that he'd managed to tick off yet another person. And he was doing so well these last couple of days. "I didn't know this was yours. It doesn't have a name on it."

"Yeah, yeah," Matt didn't really argue it since it was all true, "It's not actually mine. I just want it," so fine. He would find something else. "What's with you and Wade, man?" he asked, curious. He hadn't ask at their first meeting, it hadn't really felt right. Now he wanted to know as he pulled a bag of chips from the pantry instead.

Miles held up the bag. "Here, there's still plenty. I didn't eat it all yet. Maybe if you were five minutes later.." He shrugged and set the bag down on the table, open end facing Matt, and wiped his hands on the sides of his pants. "Who's Wade? Is that the minion guy? I dunno. You call a guy a child molester and he gets all angry. What're you gonna do?"

"Not call him a child molester?" Matt replied, grabbing some of the popcorn and setting the open chip bag on the table for Miles to share, too. "That's not going to win you points," he slid into the other seat, a bottle of water in hand.

"The first time I met Mister Gibney, he assured me that he's not a pedo. I guess that's just my first assumption now here. Everyone's gonna need to wear labels that say 'NOT A PEDO.'" Miles shrugged and reached over to grab a handful of chips and popped a couple into his mouth. "Who is he, anyway? He didn't say. I hope he's not a teacher."

"Last time I met a guy who was a pedo, I put him in the hospital," Matt explained quite seriously, "Don't believe me? Ask Clint. He was there when the cops arrested me," that wasn't something to joke about. "Wade is...Wade. He does a little of whatever he wants."

"No, I believe you, man. I don't think that Clint would tell me anything, either, anyway. I also got on his bad side. Everyone jokes about the New Mutants and demons and stuff. I didn't know it was so traumatic for some people."

"You joke instead of cry," Matt explained, "It's not all that fun. But...you deal. What? You thought this place was all sunshine and roses? It's the best place I've ever lived, I meant that yesterday, but that doesn't mean it's not got it's downsides. Curses and demons amongst them."

"Mixed signals everywhere. Kinda wonder if I ever should've come here in the first place." Miles had that feeling ever since reading Clint's first annoyed comment on the journal. He'd managed to mostly ignore it between schoolwork and meeting people who didn't think he was a raging jackass, but now it was starting to come back.

Swallowing, Matt sat back, tilting the chair on its back legs, "It's a new place, lots of new people," Matt replied sympathetically, "new relationships and all that. Makes it difficult. Sucks being the new guy. You'll be okay though. You can always come hang in my suite if you need to get away or whatever." Clint was right, but at the same time, no good isolating the new guy when he just got here.

"The culture shock wasn't so bad at my last school." But that time, Miles had Ganke around, and there was no being alone or feeling sorry for yourself when he was there. "Thanks, though. I haven't had any problems in my own suite yet. Everyone's either not there or in their own rooms. And Ty's cool."

"Yeah, Ty's cool," Matt agreed. So was Clint, but they were very different personalities. "Guess it depends on your old school and stuff. Every school has it's quirks. This one...just involves things a little more unusual than mean girls and stupid jocks."

"My other school was a charter boarding school," Miles explained, gently flicking a popcorn kernel around the table. "So no jocks there, either. Lots of nerds all up in each other's business because we were kinda cramped. But there weren't any mutants as far as I know, so no, you know, crazy monster bad guy drama."

"Aaaah," Matt nodded, that explained a lot, "I came from public school, kinda," did they really need to get into his sordid past? "Sort of did private tutoring for a while," that was another way to explain schooling in rehab while detoxing. "I dunno, I learned to go with the flow. It's a useful skill."

"Must have been a pretty big change for you too, then. I'm trying to just go with things, but . . ." Miles waved his hand idly. "So you've known Clint for a while, huh? What do I have to do to get him to accept my apology so I don't have a roommate hell situation happening?"

"We were foster brothers when we were younger," Matt agreed, "Then I was arrested and went to juvie and he was adopted," he wasn't even jealous, if someone had tried to adopt him so soon after his dad had died it would not have gone well. "Then we both ended up here by chance. As for apologies....He's a fair guy. And he respects people who are able to step up and do the right thing, put their money where their mouth is. So apologize if you mean it and all should be good."

Miles was nothing if not earnest so that all seemed like a no-brainer. The only trick would be hunting down the elusive Clint so they could actually talk. Miles nodded gratefully to Matt. "Thanks, homes. And sorry about the popcorn. There's just this printed label on it but it just says 'popcorn.' Pretty whack when the name on the bag is much bigger letters. So, sorry."

"Yeah, Lorna labels everything," which Matt appreciated. They were primarily for him, "It's redundant for people, I guess, but that's how it works here. Everything in the kitchen is labeled, actually. Not just the food, but some of the other stuff as well. Pots and pans or whatever."

Not the weirdest thing that Miles had seen or heard of here, so he took Matt's advice and just rolled with it. He could at least start with the small things and would get to the bigger ones in time.

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From:

x-wildchild.livejournal.com

Kyle says Matt quit trollin' Miles about the "Mister Gibney" thing (Kyle haaaaaaaaaaaates it. He's Mr. G, or Kyle, or K-gibz if you're the senior class of trolls)

(They're reading The Grapes of Wrath because it's an important part of American culture and also because it's a cultural touchstone. Everyone had to read it and most of us hated it)

(I read it in the car on the way home from summer vacation at the beach, took a back to school quiz on it, and then immediately forgot the whole thing)