The Marble Notebooks

Chapter 47

A loud bell ringing woke me up. I shot up from the bed and was confused as to where I was for a moment. I heard the voices of kids and loud footsteps of people running up and down the halls outside the door. The school day must be over. I washed up in Julia's bathroom and walked down to the Professor's study to see where Pietro was.

"How did you sleep, Mr. Barnes?" The Professor asked as I descended the staircase.

"Great, best I've slept in months,"

"I figured, you've been asleep since 2 in the afternoon yesterday," He chuckled.

"What? It's the next day?" I asked confused.

"Yes, the school day just began," The Professor signaled me to follow him into his study.

I sat down on a couch and he poured us both mugs of tea. A knock came from the door and a small child walked in and ran up to his wheelchair. She pulled on his sleeve and he leaned down so she could whisper in his ear. He laughed and whispered something back to her before she ran back out of the room. I've never been a big kid person. Kids never come around the compound so I rarely see them. But it was nice to see all of them so happy in their own little worlds around here.

"Your friends called," He said and pulled his wheelchair up to sit behind his desk. "You didn't tell them where you were going?"

"I didn't know where I was going till I got here,",

"Well, they were very worried about you two. I told them you were fine," He said and took a sip of his tea.

"Where is Pietro anyway?" I asked,

"He had a great time in the class yesterday," He smiled. "After the school day ended Storm and Kurt hung out with him and gave him a room to sleep in. He insisted on sitting in on more classes today, so he's back with Scott," The Professor explained.

"Oh good," I nodded.

"Your friends are worried about you," he said while stirring some sugar into the rest of his tea.

"Yeah, what's new," I scoffed.

"You shouldn't be so hard on them. They just want to make sure you're ok,"

"Well, I'm not ok," I snapped.

"Then tell them that. They just want to be there for you. Let them," He said.

I know he is right. They have all been trying to help me or just keep me company and I constantly shut them out. The bell rang and kids started pouring into the study. The Professor told me he had a class to teach and said I could roam around and sit in on classes if I wanted to. I thanked him and left the study.

I decided to roam the halls. There were pictures framed and hung on the walls that I've never noticed before. There was a picture of the Professor when he was younger with a few other people. He had hair and was standing without a wheelchair in front of the school. There was a silver plaque engraved below the photo. 'Charles, Erik, Raven, Hank, and Logan. First Class'

I've never seen a photo of Julia's father before. He was young in this photo and happy. He had a wide smile on his face and his eyes were squinting from laughing. Charles had his arm around him laughing along with him. Julia told me that Charles still considers Erik his best friend even though they don't speak often. It made me feel bad for Charles.

I continued down the hall and found Julia's class graduation photo. The plaque read 'Class of 2010'. There were about 10 or 12 kids in the photo. I knew Storm, Alex, and Kurt. Julia stood in the middle with a huge smile on her face. Her green hair fell onto Alex's chest as she rested her head on his shoulder with her arm around his waist. There were a few other people in the photo I didn't recognize. I believe one of the kids was Pyro, from the Brotherhood.