𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

A Family Meal

If there was one thing the entire school body could agree on, it was that exams were the worst thing in the world. Designed to destroy the human spirit, students were forced to study non-stop, put up with homework that was still being given out, try not to let the stress get on top of them, and far more challenging tasks made to 'help' the study process. Jennifer had to reschedule her entire day to have time to study, starting by pushing her shifts back an hour, not wanting to be studying at night by the side of a fire that seemed to cast more shadows than it did light. However, mixing up her day only caused different issues.

With just under two hours between school finishing and her shift starting, travel became a problem. Her original plan of studying in the school library had been scraped when the room had been restricted after some idiots broke a window and everyone else had been labelled irresponsible. Her fall back plan of going home wasn't any better. The bus took a good half an hour to reach the outskirts of town, never mind the twenty minute walk either side of the journey -  and walking all the way home took even longer. True, if she was really determined she could study on the bus, but with all the bumps and corners, it seemed like a plan for disaster. Unfortunately, her solution to this problem wasn't ideal either – studying near the school, outside.

Due to it being early May, the sun spent lots of time hanging in the sky, but the weak rays that made it through the heavy clouds did not deter the gale force winds that ruffled through the open books and notebooks every minute.

It was a case of one or the other, and Jennifer decided she would rather sit with five jumpers on and have to wedge open textbooks with other books than strain her eyes to the point of needing glasses.

So there she sat on a park bench, her shivers clear in her usually perfect handwriting as her hand shakily led the pencil across the page. All feeling in her face had disappeared ages ago, the wind having beaten it until it resembled an over ripened tomato. The calm swirls of her breath were quickly snatched from her by that same violent and relentless force of nature.

An hour into revising something that Jennifer doubted she would ever be asked about in the real world, uneven footsteps appeared from nowhere, stopping mere feet from Jennifer's huddled figure.

"God, it's freezing out here," Peter exclaimed, shoving his bare hands into the warmth of his jacket pockets before looking at Jennifer incredulously. "Are you studying?"

Huffing, she dumped her pencil case on top of a stray piece of paper that kept flying around. "Trying to."

"And how's that working for you?" Jennifer glared at his grinning face as she slammed her hand down on a book that was threatening to close. Peter dropped his teasing. "You can't work like this, we're going to my place."

Jennifer was taken back by his words, but carefully picked up the books, knowing that turning down his offer would be insane as the wind continued to collide with her body. Peter held open her backpack, allowing her to slot in the worn books and crumpled pages.

Pushing herself onto her feet, Jennifer took the bag and slung it over her heavily padded shoulder. The weight tried to pull her to the ground, and a part of her would've been happy to just lie down until summer came. Fighting that urge, Jennifer walked beside Peter in the direction of his house, which wasn't too far from where the park bench had been.

The two walked quietly, knowing full well that anything they tried to say would be swept away. Looking up at Peter, Jennifer followed the strands of silver hair that traced his slightly-lighter-tomato-coloured cheeks. Those tomato cheeks had looked for her in the harsh weather instead of staying in the warmth. Jennifer frowned slightly upon considering something. "How did you find me?"