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[samecgh]

Title: Orientation Confusion
Fandom: X Men/Veronica Mars
Prompt: Culture Shock
Medium: fic
Wordcount: 1141
Rating: G
Warnings: I haven't watched Veronica Mars in a while?
Summary: Bobby was planning on online courses and staying at the academy. His teachers thought he should go out. Doesn't explain why he ended up at Hearst.



August, 2005

All of the teachers encouraged him to do this. Bobby had been planning on online courses to get an Accounting degree and then teaching math while helping out with the finances and being on the team. Instead, they talked about needing to leave for a short time, finding an identity outside of the academy. It was great that he wanted to help out, stay and work with the school, but he needed to have something purely for himself. A life outside. Professor Xavier also said that it would be enlightening to see the world from a different perspective. See why they had to work on informing people about mutants.

Figuring further from the school would be better, he ended up choosing a smaller college out in California. The Professor could have helped him into Big Ten schools, or Ivy League, or even over into England and Oxford, but there was something about the college that caught his attention. The older man also agreed, as a smaller school would be easier to see people and persuade them, cautiously, though. Although, why California, the man didn't know. It wasn't about the mystery over rapes that had been plaguing the campus, or the town nearby that had gone through several terrible deaths either, no matter how much Kitty insisted. Something just called Bobby to the college.

Bright and sunny with a little more warmth than he was used to, Bobby got off the plane and stood around after getting the trunk that Scott dug up for use. Being far away, he brought clothes and small items, after talking to his roommate over what he could supply. The guy wanted to bring his electronics, TV, radio, alarm, microwave and refrigerator and that was perfectly alright with him. It took a while, but he found seniors that were greeting new, incoming students that didn't have connections so far. He approached the group and one of the guys did a double take on him. “Robert Drake?” he asked, confused.

“Yeah,” he said, “I go by Bobby most of the time.”

“All right, Bobby. I'm Danny. You got your papers, right?” he led, waving later to his friends and walking off. “Don't want to get in trouble already.” He tapped the backpack he had and followed the guy out to the parking lot.

Hearst College was bustling with new and old students along with their family and faculty. Bobby tried following the map, but he kept bumping into people and apologizing that he put it away and just went with the lines that were forming out of necessity.

“Troy? Hey, Troy!” He thought he saw the name for his dorm when someone came up by him. “Troy, why you ignoring me, man?” the guy asked.

“Umm, because my name's not Troy,” he said, confused. The guy didn't look familiar to him.

There was a surprised and confused expression on his face before he laughed, “Right, I get it. This is to avoid Ronnie.”

Ronnie? That makes no sense. Ronnie's still in high school. “I have no clue who you're talking about.”

“Troy, come on, it's Wallace.”

Okay, time to gently stop this guy. “Hi, Wallace, my name's Bobby,” he introduced. “I'm pretty sure I've never been a Troy.”

It took a minute for him to catch up. “Bobby?”

“Bobby Drake,” he repeated, holding out his hand.

The guy shook it. “Wallace Fennel. Damn. You look a lot like Troy.”

“I've gathered.”

“Sure you weren't adopted from a pair of twins.”

God damn freak. We should have never accepted you. “No, not adopted.”

He shook his head. “Damn, dude. I was wondering if Troy was still coming here and I thought I had my answer.”

“Well, maybe you'll still get it.”

“See ya later, Drake.”

“Later, Fennel.”

He did finally found his dorm and dropped his stuff off, his roommate's traces already felt by him taking the bed by the window and the mini-fridge and microwave already plugged in and other stuff out and waiting. Fine by him, he rather be away from the heater as well. Why would the place need a heater was beyond him.

Bobby went out later in the afternoon, after more of the students were settled and roaming about, interacting with other students. Several groups were going around to the new students, offering pamphlets and talking about their beliefs. A girl ran up to him and handed him a pamphlet on the Friends of Humanity branch. He should have known that the organization was out here. The crowds that he was used to was directly in his face and angry, boycotting places that were friendly to mutants. To see them quiet and willing to argue their position was strange. They were apparently friends with the Friendship of the Sun, something he didn't expect as they exchanged greetings. There were people arguing with them, standing by them with signs that showed the flaw in their bias.

There wasn't anything like that when he saw the groups shouting on TV. No one fought with them then. No one on their side.

California was a lot more welcoming and friendlier than New York and Boston. Aside from the FOH and FotS, he found environmental clubs and academic clubs. There were about five he was interested in and three others that had slipped in somehow and left their items. People waved and greeted him, a few mistaked him for Troy, again. A small blonde warily glanced at him and he waved before being shuffled toward a club that went up to the Sierras for snowboarding trips.

The area was not what he was expecting. Small colleges have the misfortune of being labeled as conservative and overbearing. This place was open in what to believe and think. Bobby liked that, because they weren't believing what their parents taught them. The Professor said that it was possible, but he, and others at the academy, didn't believe it. It was a relief to believe that there were open places in the world. Although mutants would have to come to California and other areas like it to find them.

The end of the night came and everyone started heading back to their dorms. Bobby got back just before his roommate. Settled down, he was going over the pamphlets when he heard the door open and a girl laughing outside. “Hey, no worries,” someone said. He glanced up, confused at the voice. It sounded exactly like his own. Did someone record it at one point? “I'm sure this time it's over. Besides, Mars is here and she will figure out who is doing this before the year is through. You can bet on that.” He walked in further, noticing he would finally be meeting his roommate. “Hey, man, I'm...” He stopped, staring. Bobby was staring right back, his roommate a mirror to himself.