When he'd first arrived, Jackson had had his priorities straight. After hopping buses for nearly two days to get here, he'd felt grimy and unkempt (and not to mention trapped). He had immediately sought out a staff member and expressed his need to settle into a dorm immediately so he could clean up, grateful beyond words when she had understood and passed him off to a much sterner man. Some basic rules were laid out with a "here's a pamphlet, now hit the showers" leading to the professor's abrupt departure. The best part? Jackson didn't smell like the bus anymore. No buses, no cigarettes, and no crying babies. Just Jackson and his new college life...or so he told himself. The institute catered to mutants of all ages, so maybe it would feel more like high school all over again. The very idea of it had given him goosebumps; hopefully, this would [i]not[/i] go over like high school.

At the very least, Jackson had been neither the first nor the last to arrive; he'd gotten in the day before, and students were still arriving. Tonight seemed to be an important cut-off, however, seeing as the banquet would be taking place. Delicious. From his perch on the back of a couch in the student lounge, Jackson laughed at the witty one-liner someone in the small group he'd drifted into had told. However, his attention drifted between the group and the doors that led in and out of the room. With each opening and closing, a new gust of air would bring new information to him, hushed conversations tickling his ears before falling into background noise again as the air settled. He could feel himself sit up a little straighter every time it happened, and it was beginning to grate on his nerves. Was everyone a straggler? Sure, there were two pairs of footsteps every once in a while, but it seemed like everyone was either entering or leaving as an individual.

Maybe whiling away his time in the student lounge wasn't such a great idea after all.