Utopia: An X-Men Story

Chapter 2

My favorite part of the school day was honestly the lunch break we received, although, much like classes, it was easily divided. The school was famously split into two distinct factions: one was either an X-Man, elite and beloved, or a Brotherhood member, viewed as lower and untrusted by not only faculty and peers but the general public. It was especially visible in the common yard.

It was where everyone gathered to eat- a greenhouse built in the center of the institution. There was a pond and gazebos in the garden space built for the students. Typically, the elitists huddled in their masses by the gazebos and we, the cast off troublemakers, were left to the pond.

It wasn't an ideal situation, but we made due. By we, I meant my friends and I.

Allow me to briefly introduce them. First, is Nathaniel Essex the 7th. He suffered much like I in the name department. Stuck with the ancestry of a psychopath, he hailed from a long line of genetic experimentations created by the hand of Mr. Sinister himself. Granted, there hadn't been any experimental creations in his line for the past few generations, he still somehow managed to retain the sleek handsomeness that was programmed into his dna long ago. We had been friends since we were both young. We related to each other's family situations so well it just seemed destined. My own mother had walked out on my dad because she finally realized that she could not change him. She didn't care for me very much; I was his spawn. Nathaniel's dad left his mom after she had a torrid affair and he took his only child. Soon after the nasty divorce, his dad remarried and he had to deal with the problems that come from being an older brother.

His little sister was named Alex and she was a delight. Alex was sometimes a girl. We would then call her Alexandria. Sometimes Alex was a boy. We would then call him Alexander. And sometimes Alex was neither and would just be called that. Alex. We didn't care very much and that was perfectly fine. She took more after her mom then her dad and was equally as spunky. Cute and charming and downright fabulous as a girl, tough and sleek and cool as a boy, but fiery either way. I liked Alex. She was a good kid and an equally good sibling. Definitely quite the party during our lunch charades, but not as much as the twins.

Bastian and Abrielle LeBeau were one soul divided into two bodies. They loved the same things and were equally as passionate and fiery as the other. Bastian was tall and cunning and sly. Abrielle was short and elegant with a temper that was shorter and not so clean. They were descended from Gambit and Rogue, Remy LeBeau and Marie Ann. The Rogue's real name had been lost to time, but her style had not. The twins' parents had tried everything to shape them into little models of the fatefully doomed lovers. It was strange and they didn't exactly succeed. Both took lessons in French and were fluent in a dead language. Bastian learned card tricks and Brielle settled for a white ribbon in her own brown hair. She had it tied around her neck at school and up in her hair at home. They hated their parent's persistence almost as much as I hated mine.

Nathaniel and the twins were already at the pond by the time I arrived. Adrielle was curled up on the grass with a tablet in hand and a book on her lap. Bastian sat on the rocks fiddling with his deck of cards and Nathaniel was reading.

"Bonjour mon cher minou! Comment est notre Credo préféré aujourd'hui? Tu as l'air fatigué." Bastian curled his lips in a charming smile.

"Lebeau, you know I don't speak French."

He laughed and his sister just smiled. "He asked how you were."

"I'm fine. And I'm the only Creed you know."

Nathaniel laughed. "I thought you didn't speak French."

"It's called deduction. And he only calls me kitty every other sentence."