Chapter 1
Peter Maximoff had trouble in school. It wasn't that he couldn't do it, in fact he usually got some of the highest grades, it was just that he had trouble focusing or remembering he wasn't the only person in the classroom. Whether it be the constant tapping on the desks or randomly making weird noises in the back of the class, he was surprised his classmates didn't all hate him by now. His best friend, Scott Summers, often joined in when he saw people noticing Peter to try and get them off the younger boys case, even if it sometimes started a chain of events where everyone did it. Even the teacher thought it was amazing.
That was middle school. High school was way different.
Peter's father, Erik Lensherr (divorced from his mum, hence the different surname) never went to high school, dropped out when his family got low on income to help make it through the next few years. Magda Maximoff, Peter's mum, didn't go to high school either, not a proper one anyway. She went to a fancy privet school that was way different. Wanda Maximoff, Peter's older twin by five minutes, wouldn't be attending either - she was in rehab after a drug overdose the last year of middle school. Turns out the people who she hung out with, the people who made Peter's stomach churn, did in fact have evil intentions for her, just as Peter said they would. Of course, Wanda didn't listen to him. Anya Lensherr, Peter's older sister, went to high school, but was now in a college the other side of America, so she wasn't much use to him. Lorna Maximoff, Peter's younger sister, was coming up to high school the following year, and even then it wouldn't be his: she'd gotten into a high school that particularly specialised in biology, and Lorna was the pretty average science nerd. Nina Lensherr, Peter's other younger sister, wasn't even ten yet, so it appeared that Peter was on his own.
Scott however, had an older brother who was a junior - Alexander Summers. Peter had met Alex once or twice, but he often stayed in his room or went down to the repair garage to help out with his friends Hank McCoy and Raven Darkholme. Peter was sure that the only words they'd ever exchanged were "hi".
Either way, the start of the high school year had been tough, Peter had to be taken out of ordinary classes for one-on-one's, apparently his ADHD and anxiety weren't exactly helping him out in the social environments of a classroom, despite the medication he took for both. He didn't mind, he still had gym with his friends, the one class he did with other people, and always met up with them at lunch and break times.
But now, as October began, Peter finally felt like he had a grip on this whole high school thing, even though he'd only gone for a month and even normal students were still having mental breakdowns about the whole situation. Having Scott there to help him through was the best part about it, Scott didn't care what was wrong with Peter, he was still his best friend.
"Have you guys heard about the school musical? My brothers doing it, and so are we. We auditioned for parts last Saturday, but you can still audition until next Tuesday. Come on, it'll be fun!" Scott rambled, pulling a flyer out of his bag with Alex's full name scrawled across the top. Ororo Munroe grinned, nodding along with what Scott was saying. They'd wanted to do the musicals since Scott had started talking about Alex doing them. "The school musical? Seriously? I'm not trying to be funny here but I don't exactly want to be labelled as a theatre nerd in my first year." Jean Grey rolled her eyes, stroking the ginger hair over her shoulder - a nervous tick she'd always and where more often than not, she was touching her hair. "Yeah, and surely they're more likely to cast the older students?" Jubilation Lee added. Scott shook his head. "Alex got the role of JD in Heathers in his freshman year. It's all about the talent here, not you're age."
Talk of the musical died down soon after that, Jean and Kurt Wagner protesting and Peter and Jubilee considering it. No matter where the conversation had lead to, Ororo and Scott still lead the others down to the performance hall once the school day was over, sitting them down in the audience and writing their names down on the audition sheet.
XX~•~•XX
"I auditioned for the school musical last week, Dad." Peter said nervously, walking into the kitchen where Erik was making dinner. He alternated where he lived by weeks, and this week he lived with Erik. Wanda just stayed at home with Magda - she despised Erik. Erik hummed in response. "What play is it?" He gruffly asked. Peter cringed. Erik tried to be there for his kids, tried to understand where they were coming from, tried to be interested in what they had going on, but truthfully he was only really like that with Nina, and even then he was pretty clueless. "Rent, and they gave out of the parts today on a flyer." Peter pulled one out of his school bag. "I'm a part of the main cast, Dad." He tried to impress Erik, constantly, always tried to get the highest grades and win every cross country race he partook in, even helped out at homeless shelters to show Erik that he was helping people get through what Erik's family very nearly had. It was hard to impress a man who didn't care enough about you to even remember your birthday, though.
Erik nodded, not turning to face Peter, still stood at the stove. "That's great, well done." And Peter could tell that was the end of the conversation. It wasn't fair, he was sure to get a phone call from Scott later telling him about his parents reactions - he'd gotten a part in the main cast, too. So had Ororo,but not Jean or Kurt or Jubilee, but they still got parts.
Peter had gotten the part of Angel, to which he had to play lover to Collins, who Alex had gained the part of. Scott wasn't particularly happy with his best friend playing the lover of his brother, and Peter wasn't sure how he felt about kissing Alex on stage, it certainly wasn't a bad feeling, but he was sure Alex didn't want to be playing the part of a freshman's love interest, little brother's best friend or not.
Just as he had presumed, Scott called, excitedly telling him about how his parents and older college brother Gabriel had reacted to him and Alex getting main parts. Scott himself had scored the role of Roger, which Alex apparently hadn't been too happy with. One thing Scott wasn't keen on, though, was acting with Angel Salvadore, one of Alex's closest friends, as Mimi. Peter knew he'd been hoping for Jean, but Jean wasn't much of a confident actor and could barely sing, hence why she got the part of April. In the original musical, April was only mentioned, but the school decided to follow more closely with the film version, though Peter suspected that was only because it was probably the only version they'd seen.
"First rehearsal is next Friday after school; we're totally gonna rock this!" And with those as his final words, Scott ended the call. Now Peter had to find a way to tell his dad he was playing the part of a gay drag queen, and though he was sure Erik wouldn't mind, it occurred to Peter that he didn't even really know his dad that well, so what if he did mind?
XX~•~•XX
Rehearsal's came sooner than Peter expected, but he was ready. He had rehearsed his songs all night on FaceTime with Scott and Ororo, stole breath mints and chewing gum on the way to school, and had even watched the movie nonstop until the day. And now the day had arrived.
"Students, my name is Mr Stryker, and I am the Musical Coordinator, so whatever I say goes. To start off with, please pull all your chairs into a circle centre stage." Said the very tall, serious-looking male teacher sat on the front row of the seats in the Theatre Hall. Anxiously, all the students did as they were told, waiting for Mr Stryker to come to them. Mr Stryker placed his seat between Alex and some blonde girl Peter suspected was one of Alex's friends, he was sure they were talking before rehearsal started.
"First off, we're gonna go around and say our names, our characters, and our years please. Raven, go." Mr Stryker turned to the girl beside him. "My name is Raven Xavier-Darkholme, I am a Junior, and I will be playing Mrs Jefferson."
"Hi, I'm Angel Salvador, I am also a Junior, and I shall be playing Mimi Marquez."
"I'm Elizabeth Braddock, also a Junior, I'm Pam."
"Names Warren Worthington III, I'm a Sophomore, and I'm Mr Grey."
"Hello, my name is Robert Drake, but my friends call me Bobby, I'm also a Sophomore, and I'm playing Benny."
"St John Allerdyce, Sophomore, Mr Jefferson."
"My name is Anna Marie, I'm a Sophomore, and I'm playing Maureen."
"Hi, I'm Kitty Pryde, also a Sophomore, and I'm Ali."
"I am Kurt Wagner, I am a Freshman, and I'm playing Steve."
"Hi, I'm Peter Maximoff, also a Freshman, and I'm playing Angel." He didn't look up once he said his words, he simply glanced at Scott beside him.
"I'm Scott Summers, Freshman, playing Roger."
"Hello everyone, my name is Ororo Munroe, I'm a Freshman, and I'll be playing Joanne."
"My names Jean Gray, Freshman, and I'm April."
"I'm Jubilation Lee, but feel free to just call me Jubilee, and I'm a Freshman who's playing Alexi."
"I'm Emma Frost, Senior, and I'll be playing Sue."
"James Howlett, Senior, Waiter."
"I'm Sean Cassidy, I'm a Junior, and I'm Gordon."
"Hi, Hank McCoy, I'm a Junior whose playing Mark." Peter thought he'd definitely already got the awkwardness down.
"I'm Armando Muñoz, Junior, and I'm playing Paul."
"Hi, I'm Alex Summers, I'm a Junior, and I'm playing Tom Collins."
Peters breath caught. Now that he was actually here, it meant he actually had to work with Alex. Scott's big brother. He had to work on romanticism with Scott's big brother. This was crazy.
"What I'd like to happen now please, is have all the side characters stood on the left hand side of the stage, and the eight main - including Benny - on the right please." Mr Stryker ordered, picking up his chair and moving it back to its place in the audience. Once separated into these groups, Mr Stryker continued. "I'd quite like to get right into this with no interruptions please, so just do what I tell you. Side characters, I don't really need you at this point, so just go over lines or songs in a practise room or something." And he sent them off with a flick of his wrist, much to those students annoyance. "Mains, I'd like you to know your love interests. Whoever is playing Mark, even though you have no romance scenes with Maureen, still get to know her please, because you're pining."
Scott went over to Bobby and Angel, Ororo went over to Rogue and Hank, meaning now it was just Alex and Peter.
"Hey, you're one of Scott's friends, right?" Alex asked, walking towards him with his hands in his army-green bomber jackets pockets. Peters breath caught once again. "Er... yeah. I'm Peter." He awkwardly stuck his hand out. Alex shook it with an equal amount of awkwardness before shoving his hands into his pockets. For the next five minutes, or so it felt, they simply stared at one another.
"Oi, you two lads! Find something to talk about NOW!" Mr Stryker shouted, pointing angrily at Peter and Alex. The boys looked sheepishly at one another. "Well, I've done these musicals before, they're a lot of fun, and clearly they think you have something if you've gotten one of the main roles in your freshman year." Alex offered, his eyes not quite meeting Peter's, perhaps looking behind Peter's head. Perhaps looking closer to where Hank stood.
Peter knew that Alex at one point had a crush on Hank, Scott wouldn't stop talking about it. More like complaining. Scott didn't like the idea of having the school nerd round his house because Alex liked him, or having to be known as the guy whose brother was dating the most un-date-able guy in school. Apparently Hank was straight though, at least that's what Raven, another one of Alex's friends who seemed to be more frequent of a face at Scott's house than any of his own friends.
"That's good to know, I've always enjoyed musicals. My sisters have some of the movie versions, and our mum took us to see Wicked once, for my older sister's birthday." Peter replied, hands finding their way to his own pockets. "Wicked's good, I saw that with Angel over there." Alex pointed to the petite (yet oldest-looking) Latina girl playing Mimi, who was stood with Scott and Bobby. "It was originally supposed to be her, Raven, and Elizabeth, but Elizabeth dropped out to babysit her younger brother or something and Raven got grounded. It ended up being me, Angel, and Sean." Alex shrugged slightly, almost like this was just a casual conversation, the sort you'd have with a friend after a weekend had gone by. "My mum couldn't take all my sisters, I have four, but she took me and my twin with our older sister, and luckily Lorna and Nina didn't mind that much." Alex looked at him quizzically, as if only just realising he was there, despite the conversation they'd been having. His blue eyes swept down Peter's body, trying to figure him out. "Is it hard having four sisters? I don't think I'd handle it that well." Peter shrugged. "They've always been there, so I guess I just got used to it."
XX~•~•XX
Alex had been diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, or IED, when he was eight. Scott at the time had only been six and hadn't understand why Alex had been urged to take antidepressants and wasn't very happy with the fact that he couldn't take them as well. Alex had started having panic attacks at twelve. At first they were over little things, like worrying about his IED getting out of hand and hurting people, as well as not wanting to get into trouble for forgetting to take things to school. As he got older, he began to get them from school stress, after watching a particularly violent movie or show, or when things didn't go exactly to plan because he couldn't handle changes all that well. The whole time, Scott had been there for him, of course he had, he didn't want his older brother hurting.
An outlet for his anger and for his stress, Alex had found, was drawing. He wasn't even very good at it, but had been recommended by his therapist to just have a notebook on him, to draw or to doodle or write, and Alex began to go through those surprisingly quickly. He drew and doodled and wrote and even once the books were full he kept them, kept them to show to his therapist and kept them to see if he was progressing in his drawing or writing skills, or at least to see if what he'd chosen to draw or write about had changed. In the beginning, it was all dark and gloomy, slowly getting brighter and happier throughout the books. Being the neat person Alex was, he had a date at the beginning of every new piece of work, so he could tell which books were from when, along with a start and end date on the covers. Scott was never allowed to look at them, and he never wanted to. Most younger siblings would find joy in trying to figure out all their older siblings secrets, getting a glimpse of the world they cannot see, but Scott has never wanted to do that to Alex. Alex had done so much for him, and to betray his trust would cause a terrible rift in their relationship, and Scott knows that Alex is a very difficult person to get forgiveness from.
"Peter's coming over next Monday to study for the biology test next Friday, just a heads-up." Scott brought up randomly as Alex sat down at the breakfast table the day after the first musical rehearsal. "Really? He didn't seem the type to sit down and study." Alex shrugged, remembering vividly all of Peter's excited ramblings and non-stop talking from the day before. "He can if he tries, it's just getting him in the mood to actually do it." Scott chuckled fondly, passing Alex a breakfast bowl full of shredded wheat. "I might have Sean over that day, then. He wants me to go over his summer job applications with him." Alex decided, pulling his phone out of his jeans pocket to text his best friend.
Sean and Alex had been friends since they were ten, when Sean decided it was a good idea to kick a soccer ball at the back of Alex's head when the boy was having a picnic in the park with his family during the summer. They had somehow ended up in the same school class once they got back, and since neither were particularly popular amongst their peers, they'd just sort of stuck together. And six years since.
Pocketing his phone after he sent a message to Sean, Alex quickly devoured the rest of his breakfast before heading back upstairs. "Wait!" Scott called after him, rushing up. "Huh?" Alex looked back at his brother. "Don't suppose you could get coffee for Monday after school?"