Who: Bobby Drake and Charles Xavier When: Summer 2001 Where: Xavier's School, Westchester, NY What: Bobby Drake moves into the school and meets the professor for the first time. Rating: PG
It was summer, and Bobby felt like he was about to melt. This wasn't an unusual experience for most people, but Bobby's case was more literal than most. Ever since his mutant power manifested a couple of months ago, he stopped feeling anything but comfortable in colder temperatures. The warm side of the spectrum, on the other hand, just made him uncomfortable.
His mother, Madelyne Drake, was a flurry of activity as she arranged his room and made all kinds of small talk about the mansion and the school and how lucky Bobby was to attend it. Bill, his father, just made grunts in occasional places, as he was the one who was doing the heavy lifting with Bobby's stuff.
All those words and activity served to disguise the gigantic elephant in the room: Bobby was a mutant, just like his cousin Dinah. His power was different, but it was still messy. And they were hoping that by moving him to the school, they could nip his 'mutant problem' in the bud. All their neighbors knew was that Bobby's grades had awarded him entry in a school for the gifted. That was still correct, but the Drake family wanted to spare as much embarrassment as possible. So his problem wasn't talked about.
So Bobby was absolutely dreading the arrival of the school's principal or headmaster or whatever. Because then the subject would have to be talked about. Now he had an idea what some of the gay kids at his old school had gone through.