1¹ | Dexter ▷ Scott Summers | ✓

E I G H T E E N

"Why was Ruth in your bed?"

Scott tripped, dropping his plate onto the floor as he fell to the ground, his glasses nearly falling off. He groaned, apologizing to the waiter who rushed to help him clean it up.

He turned to look at Peter, glaring. "What?"

Peter shrugged, taking a sip of his orange juice. "I snuck into your room to pour water over you, but I found Ruth there. I was gonna pour it over both of you because Ruth really isn't that special, but then I remembered she could burn my things, so I decided not to."

"Smart decision," Ruth said, carrying a plate of cinnamon pancakes and a chocolate muffin, "I couldn't sleep, so I went into Scott's room."

Hank made a face. "You two seem to be taking this relationship pretty fast."

Ruth frowned shaking her head. "It wasn't like that. I just get scared. I told you this already, or at least I told Raven, I wasn't allowed to watch the news after a while because I kept thinking there were ghosts and murderers in my house."

Hank looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry. That sounds really sad."

She nodded simply. "It was. But, I mean, my parents were okay with it sometimes. I would sneak into Lionel's room sometimes if I got too freaked out. So nothing's really new."

Jubilee gasped, waving her hands. "Ruth! I'm going to show everyone around to my favorite places and stuff, you should show us yours! I mean, you don't have to show us everything, but at least help me show them around the mall. And I wanna meet this Lionel guy."

Ruth's heart stopped. She had taken a bite of her pancakes as Jubilee was talking and tried not to choke on them. She chewed slowly, the taste going sour. She swallowed thickly, coughing. She nodded quickly, hoping that she could later argue that it was just her coughing if they tried to get her to introduce him.

"While I am interested to see where you grew up, Jubilee, don't you think we should be focusing on the mission?" Kurt was in his camouflaged state, taking a bite out of the pancakes that Ruth and Jubilee insisted he try.

"No," Charles said, answering for Jubilee, "We had all talked it out earlier and we have decided that today will mostly be getting situated with the city. Hank, Erik, Alex, Raven, and I will see what we can find out about the lab and see how we can get in and try to find out more about Warren. In the meantime, you all are just going to enjoy yourselves."

Ruth wasn't so sure she would enjoy herself all that much.

º º º º º

It came as no surprise to anyone that Jubilee's first and main stop was the mall.

She seemed to take them into every store in the mall, looking at things and telling stories about what she and her best friend used to do there. She wouldn't take them into certain stores, but she always had a story as to why.

"Ruth, what stores did you and Lionel like to go to?" Jean asked, looking at a shirt in the mirror.

Ruth tensed up and shrugged. "We liked to go to the arcade. We didn't really come here much other than to try to find you."

Jubilee smiled. "I'm flattered. Well then, let's go to the arcade!"

"What's an arcade?"

Peter fell to the ground and Scott gasped. Jubilee looked sadly at Kurt while the other three girls just stared at the scene in faint amusement and great embarrassment.

"Let's speed walk," Jean offered, stopping Peter before he grabbed Kurt's hand and raced him to the arcade; not that he would know where it was, but it wouldn't take long for him to find out.