"Cassie!" Jake exclaimed, looking up from his lunch.
"Hi Jake," Cassie replied, closing the distance.
She sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around him in a huge hug.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"You decided not to come home for the summer break."
"Cass, I - "
"Your powers are under control now. I could understand you not coming down over the Christmas break because they weren't then and you didn't want to hurt anyone but..." Cassie shook her head. "You've got better parents than other mutants here. Yours still love you and aren't going all anti-mutant on your butt."
Jake smiled and shook his head.
"I haven't..."
"I'm hugging you and you haven't frozen me yet," Cassie replied. "Maybe you haven't got your power under your control to your standards, but you can come home for the summer break, y'know. You're past the risk of freezing people thing."
They matched eyes.
Meanwhile, at a neighbouring table, Joelle smiled.
"Remember that?" she said to Matt.
"What?" Matt frowned.
"You used to go all freaked out whenever anyone got too close to you in case you got them addicted to you. You even pushed me away. Just like Jake has been doing."
"It's not the same thing."
"Yeah it is," Joelle disagreed. "You both avoided people and pushed them away and were obsessed about controlling your power, and neither of you is yet satisfied that you have mastered it yet. And both of you needed a girl to pull you out of your shells, whack you over the head and go 'Hey, you don't need to be a perfectionist, you have the primary control you needed not to hurt people. The rest will come in time with experience. Now come and socialise with me, you great oaf!' Whack!"
Matt laughed.