i've got a vision of blue sky and dry land.

I'm going to be gone for a couple of days, if I don't spend a few nights in the lab I might not be able to pull my Eco grade back up by the end of the semester. And I know it's stupid to be freaked out by the idea of being away, it's not like I'm really doing much here right now, but I'm freaked out anyway so please call me if anything happens. I mean, I'll just call you guys if you don't, so you'll end up talking to me either way. I think I'll be back on Friday.

Call me if anybody else wakes up, okay? And stay safe. I'm starting to sound like somebody's mother now.

( Brandon )

We're all here. I mean, physically, everybody's accounted for.

I don't know which is more ridiculous, the idea that only perfect moral examples deserve birthday parties or the idea that having killed someone is somehow unusual here.

My parents have been trying to get me to come home and visit for at least a month now, it seems only fair to go see them now that the memorial service is I've had time to decompress from finals. Try not to burn the school down while I'm gone, okay? I mean that.

( Brandon )

Wow, I didn't know anybody else had seen that picture. I hope the rest of them aren't floating around out there too.

Thanks, though. I think vacation probably suits most people.

All this talk about skinny dipping and naked sunbathing is making me feel overdressed.

Call it a hunch, but I'm pretty sure Rahne doesn't have man-boobs like those.

This is all starting to remind me of that old Twilight Zone episode where the government wants to find out how quickly the people in a small town will turn on each other, and they run an experiment on Maple Street. They cut the power to all the houses except one, with no explanation why that one house was spared, and then they just sit back and time how long it takes the rest of the people on that street to decide that one family must be pinko commie supporters and start throwing bricks through their windows. "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," I think it was called. It might have been Soviet spies running the tests, it's been a long time since I saw it. Anyway, the point of the episode was that it didn't take very much or very long for them all to tear each other apart.

If this is going to be a Sadie Hawkins dance, I guess that means I'd better act fast before someone steals away my first choice. Brandon Kobel, will you go to the dance with me?

People need to stop asking me when I'm taking the cure before I just give up and stop leaving my dorm room. I mean, how many times do I have to say this? I'm not sick. I don't want to be cured.

( Brandon )

Is it just me, or is Ms. Beaubier deliberately choosing sex questions?

1) Well, I'd be kind of a hypocrite if I reacted badly. I'd have no problem with it.

2) The last time I was attracted to a woman, I dealt with it by dating her. That seemed to work out pretty well. It's probably not how I would handle being attracted to a family member, though, since that would be creepy and extremely disturbing.

The election results need to come in faster, I don't know how much longer I can deal with not knowing. All the campus political groups are at each other's throats.

Maybe next October we'll get to stay ourselves all month, for a change.

Oh, what a beautiful library! I've never seen so many books before in my life, I didn't even know so many existed. How strange, finding something so wonderful in such a frightening place. Perhaps there is more to

I'm a little frightened by the amount of time I spent in the biology lab this past weekend, and I don't think it bodes well for my free-time future this semester. I mean, I understand that we have to put in time outside of class or we won't learn anything, but I think I'm developing a permanent squint from spending so much time looking into a microscope. Is that supposed to happen before senior year? Anyway, hopefully I put in enough time in the last few days, and next weekend I'll be able to get back to Xavier's. The memorial garden is probably full of weeds already.

I heard we had a dramatic new arrival. Anyone interesting?

( Brandon )

I've been thinking about trying to get this tattoo removed. It's kind of expensive, but I don't want this thing reminding me of the camps every morning for the rest of my life, and I don't want to have to make up an explanation for why I got inked instead of taking my finals. Explaining away the new buzz cut is going to be enough of a challenge. I'm telling people I accidentally set my hair on fire cooking on a gas stove, I'm pretty sure that's believable given my cooking history, but a badly done tattoo is a little harder to pass off as an accident.

Anyway, I have an appointment on Wednesday to start getting this thing lasered, as long as the doctor thinks it'll work on the ink. I don't know if anybody else has been thinking about trying it, but I can let you know how it goes.

Okay, I don't want to be maliciously slanderous or anything here, but I'm pretty sure my bio professor hates teenagers. There's just no other explanation for the number of in-depth lab reports she wants handed in before finals start. Anybody who wasn't trying to punish her students just for existing would have cut back by this point.

It still feels weird passing on updates instead of seeing you guys every day, I guess maybe I'm not going to get used to it after all. I was hoping to get back to visit a little more than I did in the last month or so, but I severely underestimated how busy I was going to be toward the end of the semester. I mean, I thought I'd at least have weekends free to head home for a while. Apparently you don't get those after March. You're all still alive and in your original undamaged condition, n'est-ce pas? I feel like I need to check on that every once in a while. Let me know if I've missed anything interesting and/or important - I'm counting on all of you to keep me up-to-date.

Oh, and Rose says hi. She's leaning over my shoulder as I type this, and she says she won't let me click 'post' if I don't pass the message along.

Rose wants to come visit Mutant High.

I'm honestly not sure whether this is a good idea or not. I mean, I think it's great that she's this comfortable with having a mutant roommate when a few months ago she'd never even met one before, and in a way it's kind of nice that she's interested in my background. It's like she wants to learn more about my culture or something, and I think it's sweet. I wish more people were that accepting. But I just can't quite shake this feeling that bringing her here would be like taking her to the zoo, that she'd be looking at my friends the way people look at a prairie dog exhibit, and I don't know if I'm really okay with that.

So, somebody help me out here. Am I being reactionary and paranoid, or am I right in feeling a tiny bit sketchy about all this? I can't tell anymore.

My roommate, Rose, had never met a mutant before she met me. I can't decide if I think the faculty did this on purpose, as a form of immersion therapy, or if they honestly just weren't thinking when they paired the two of us. The look on her face when I walked into the room with my alien skin and honeysuckle growing in my hair was absolutely amazing, I wish I'd had my camera out in time to capture it. She's actually pretty cool, though, now that she's gotten over the need to stare at me when she thinks I'm not looking. I think this whole 'venturing back out into the real world' thing is going to work out.

Did everybody make it back from break safely? The answer ought to be obvious, but with us you just never know.