Together As Mutants (Book Six)

Chapter 48: Diploma

The day Roosevelt High celebrates its graduates, Casey Jones skips the ceremony.

Okay, he doesn't skip skip, but he stands outside the school in a button-up white shirt and dress pants, fumbling with his tie and wondering why he bothered to show up at all.

Because of April, he reminds himself. He wouldn't be here if it weren't for hating the idea of disappointing her.

It's a load of crap, of course, because he already has disappointed her. All that tutoring they did, the years he managed to keep moving up a grade, then another, and then...then this. Being left behind again.

It's embarrassing enough that he's in the same grade as his little sister now. She must have gotten all the brains their parents had to offer them. The school counsellors have been as helpful as they have been condescending, in that they've fully laid out his options, all while trying to make him feel like the biggest dumbass on the planet.

Casey knows he isn't school smart. He's always been better with the streets. Too bad the streets can't give you a diploma.

He's missing a few core credits, credits that are vital to graduation. You need twenty-two to graduate and he's missing three of those—math, science, and Spanish. Taylor had a good laugh over that one, but he's hoping she'll stop laughing long enough to give him some extra tutoring.

So, all he has to do is get those credits next year, pass a few exams, and graduate. Hell, they're even letting him stay on the hockey team, although it seems like his coach would rather he move on to better things. Casey wonders if there's an adult league he could join if the school benches him too much.

Honestly, that's the part that bums him out most, almost more than April graduating without him. Hockey is the one thing other than vigilante-ing that gets his blood pumping. Sure, there comes a point when he can't keep playing with high schoolers, but still...

"Are you gonna go in or...?"

He nearly jumps out of his skin, until he realizes that Destiny is standing in front of him, humanized and ready to go. Casey blinks at her, then looks at the streets around the school. Where there's Destiny...

"The guys are on their way," she promises, folding her arms behind her back. Sometimes, he wonders if April isn't the only psychic one. "I came on ahead to see how you were doing. Andy said you had left, so..."

"You went to my house?"

"I was worried you were holed up feeling sorry for yourself."

He flaps his lips. "Please, me? Feeling sorry for myself?"

"I know, I know, it was foolish of me to think that the ever-so-proud Casey Jones would stoop so low."

She bows low at the waist, sweeping one arm to her stomach, and Casey puffs up his chest. After a second, they burst into giggles, and he's sure that her tail would be wagging a mile a minute if it weren't hidden away by the patch.

She wipes her eyes, taking a few breaths. "Okay, okay," she says. She comes closer to him, reaching for his tie. "So, how is the famous Casey Jones?"

He almost lets his default bravado fly off his tongue, but he stops himself. Destiny focuses on his tie, smoothing it as best she can, and he lets out a long sigh. She looks up at his face, tilting her head.

"Is it weird that I'm relieved, but not?" he asks.

"How so?"

"I mean, I should want to be free of high school. Go out in the world," he says. "But at the same time, high school is like...familiar. And safe. Feels like I can avoid adulthood for a bit longer."