11 Homework

Harry had decided to start doing his homework before doing anything else, but that presented a problem. He had nothing with which to write, so with that, he made his way towards the library. Scott should be there, and he could get a pencil from him.

The library was quite packed, surprisingly so. There were people reading books, lounging on comfortable looking chairs and couches while others were sat down by desks, writing on papers.

Scott was sat by himself further in the library where there were fewer people. It was place that provided an even quieter corner in an already quiet location. He was scratching his head, constantly referencing a book that was lying open on the table in front of him before writing something on a piece of paper.

Harry placed down the homework papers he had been carrying around down on the table and sat himself down on one of the four chairs, opposite of Scott. His sudden appearance gained Scott's attention as he raised his head to look at him curiously.

"Hello Harry." He said. "So, why did the professor make you and Jean stay after class?" The papers in front of Scott lay forgotten as Harry's appearance had gained his full attention.

"Nothing much." Harry took out the homework Ororo had assigned them. "Can you give me a pen or something?"

"Nothing much?" Scott handed him a pencil and an eraser. "That's really vague or rather, it's no information at all."

"Why are you so interested?" Harry asked as he wrote down his name on the sheet of paper.

"I've been here ever since class ended." Scott pointed at the stack of papers in front of him. "I need a distraction; my mind can't handle this much work."

Harry ignored Scott's attempts at prying what had happened with the professor and focused on the homework in front of him. After a while, it seemed that Scott had given up and was looking around for another distraction before starting to wave his hand towards the library entrance.

He didn't look towards the direction of the wave, as he wasn't that interested, but the mystery solved itself soon enough as a pair of girls appeared and sat themselves down on their table.

Kitty, who Harry had dubbed as the overly energetic one sat next to Scott while the red-haired telepath sat herself down next to him.

They were quite obviously friends of Scott's and had come to talk to him, so he decided to not interject himself into their conversation and instead focused on the homework. The assignments they had been given weren't that hard, to be honest.

He had already finished Ororo's homework and was halfway done with Hank's one. He was trying to figure out the answer to a particularly weird question when he thought he heard something.

Harry looked up from the homework and saw that both Scott and Kitty were staring at him while Jean had fished out her own homework and had started doing them.

He looked at them both for a moment. It seemed like they were waiting for something.

"What?" He asked when he couldn't figure out what they were doing.

"I asked if you were good at these academic things." Kitty giggled while Scott just continued to stare at him with something that resembled a hope that had been crushed many times.

"Huh?" Harry looked down at the homework in front of him. "I guess?"

Scott did a little fist pump in the air while Kitty suddenly seemed extra energetic. Harry had no idea what caused that. He was extremely confused as Scott suddenly took hold of his hands and clasped them in his.

"Dude, save me." He said desperately. "Help me."

It was honestly a little scary, the amount of desperation Harry could detect within his voice. Not even a second after Scott had done that, Kitty's hand clasped over Scott's.

"Save me, too." She said with the same desperation. "Jean alone isn't enough."

Harry glanced to his side, at Jean who suddenly seemed a lot more attentive to their conversation. She turned to look at him with an intense stare.

"Do it." Simple words, they were said like a command, but sounded more like a desperate plea for help. "They're hopeless, I can't do it alone."

Harry was extremely confused. What were they talking about?

"I'm confused." He said. "What am I supposed to save you from?"

"Homework!" Kitty and Scott shouted in unison which caused more than a few glares from the others using the library. "And exams." They added, a little more restrained and quieter.

"Uh… sure?" He said unsurely. "Isn't there a better candidate than me?"

"Psh, no one wants to help us except Jeanie." Kitty said. "Saying we're a lost cause. I agree with them, but still."

"You're in the same boat as Scott?" There was a slight bit of trepidation in Harry's voice.

Kitty removed her hands from Scott's to the boy's disappointment and reached down into her bag. While she was doing that Harry shook Scott's hands off his with surprising ease while shooting him a glare.

Scott smirked and shrugged in response. There was a small thud sound as a stack of papers, almost as large as Scott's suddenly appeared on the table. Harry released a weary sigh. What had he agreed to do?

"Hehehe." Kitty laughed quietly. "At least I'm smarter than Scott so I have less papers than he does."

"Hey!" Scott looked offended.

"Comparing yourself to Scott and beating him isn't an achievement." Jean said to Kitty while sighing. Scott looked doubly offended now, looking back and forth between Jean and Kitty with his mouth opening like a fish. Probably trying to come up with a rebuke but failing to find the right one.

"They're not entirely lost causes." Jean turned towards him. "But they will need a lot of help to graduate."

"You can't handle them alone?" Harry asked.

"Hell no, have you met either one of them?" She asked and pointed at Scott and Kitty. "Just look at what happened with just a momentary distraction."

Both Kitty and Scott were bunching up small pieces of papers and were throwing them at each other, each time they hit a specific spot, they added points towards a score or something. When it was clear that Scott was hitting more than Kitty was, the balls started to suddenly go through her instead of hitting.

"Hey! No powers allowed."

"Like you wouldn't use them if you could."

The battle continued, only with Scott leaving his chair and using it as makeshift cover as he waited for a while and sprung forth with a bunch of paper balls and threw them at Kitty, this time hitting her.

"See what I'm talking about?" Jean sighed. "They always do something like this."

The battle was executed in surprising silence, and it didn't garner that much attention. After a while, they seemed to be satisfied and sat back down. The area around their side of the table was now littered with small paper balls.

"Seriously, guys." Jean said as she used her powers to gather up the paper balls. "I always have to clean up after you."

"Thanks Jeanie, you're the best~." Kitty cooed as the papers slowly levitated their way into Scott's bag.

"Hey! Why mine?" He asked as his bag was now filled with a bunch of little paper balls.

"Because you started it this time." Jean replied before turning towards Harry. "Help me." She begged.

"I already said I will, no need to look so desperate." Harry said while sighing before turning to look over at Scott. "What are you struggling with right now?"

Scott pointed at the entire paper, and then moved it to the stack next to it. Harry sighed, it was going to be a long day.