@viewsredâ | v: paperthin hymn /Â you shouldn't give up on the dreams in your mind.
   Growing up, within confines of Xavierâs mansion (âSchool for Gifted Youngstersâ) Rachel had made it a point to not ONLY be on time for her classes, but to be the punctual person her parents had groomed her to be. Every single day it was the same routine: wake up by 6 am. Breakfast by 7. In class by 7:35 am (no later than 7:30 for Rach). She sat in the same seat, placed out the same pens and paper and relied on heavy note taking for all her educational necessities. Rachel would be damned if she was going to be stuck in this school for the rest of her life, she had always been determined to be a good citizen, set a clear and clean example, one that would make her parents proud. -- However, that was also heavily the problem. With everything that had taken place, and Logan leaving? Rachel had hit her mark when it came to restless behavior. She had been so very sheltered ALL of her life. Supervised trips to museums and mundane exploration of New York, but never truly having the opportunity to go it on her own. Yes, she was merely 15. Yes, she was still Scott & Jeanâs responsibility...but didnât she warrant enough trust to at least go out for some ice cream by her lonesome? WITHOUT Xavier attempting to prod into her head like some science experiment?    Watching Logan drive off (on her fatherâs bike) that day, broke her heart. She knew he needed to find the answers he yearned for, but he had been a worldly beacon, a perspective -- a spectrum of light she had never seen before...and, he had become family. She knew he would return, but at least he had been granted freedom to do as he pleased. And as ridiculous as her logic was behind that (being an angst ridden teenager and all), she had always harbored the mind of an adult (for the most part). Even now on the edge of turning 16, she had a mind much a-kin to a 40-something-year-old.
   Rachel slipped from her balcony of her suite in partial tears, fingertips gliding against cold marble and stone as she returned inside folding her arms tightly over her chest. Quietly, she remained within dorm until she slipped into vacant hallway with lightly packed bag over her shoulder. She could make a clean break...she could slip right out of there, shield herself from being tracked -- it would be so EASY.  Rachel knew what she was capable of, and that was perhaps the biggest reason that Xavier along with her parents had kept her sheltered...but you cannot keep a wild thing caged for too long, lest it find a way to ESCAPE. This entire scenario had been premeditated, something she had hoped for, something she had imagined...what she had not entertained was the crippling guilt that suddenly settled in the pit of her stomach as she neared the front door to the mansion.    She neednât turn around to know who was standing there behind her, she felt his presence. Fingertips curled tighter over the handle of her duffle-bag, and she refused to turn about, emerald eyes set on the double-doorway before her. All she had to do was keep walking.      âYou know as well as I that you canât change my mind.â -- but she could change his.
