Logan leaned casually against the tall pine behind him, feeling the bark through his flannel shirt. It was colder than usual for December, and he was starting to wish he'd brought a jacket. Not that he was cold, exactly, just not as comfortable as he might be -- there was a reason he spent the winters in Westchester, after all. Another ten minutes and he could call it a day. Actually, he could call it a quarter. Teachers were required to show up for the first five days, to give students time to make last minute changes to their schedules. If there were no students by that point, Logan was off the hook for another winter. He lit a cigar. In three years, he'd never had a student, and each year he enjoyed pointing out to Scott how carefully he had followed Scott's rules -- after all, he couldn't control whether students wanted to take the class, could he?

With five minutes to go, Logan heard someone approaching, making slow progress up the steep path to his "outdoor classroom." It was possible that they wouldn't make it before his time was technically up; still, he was curious to see who it would be. Whoever it was, they walked with a shuffling sort of gait, and for all their slow pace, they didn't sound out of breath.

When the figure finally rounded the last bend and came into view, Logan felt a surge of surprise. It was a kid, one of the new ones, he thought, but it was hard to tell with all the winter clothes he had on. The kid shuffled to a stop a good ten feet in front of him. "Sorry I'm late, professor," he said. And then he yawned.

Logan frowned. Something weird was going on. He never had students, and this one was too young to meet the pre-req anyway. Was he there on a dare? A prank? "What are you doing here?" Logan said gruffly.

The kid blushed, or maybe his cheeks were just red from the cold, and he stammered his way through an answer. "Um, well -- I'm sort of here for class?" He rushed on before Logan could say anything. "It's just that -- my power -- and my parents told everyone I had mono, except I didn't -- and one of the girls said maybe you would understand."

Logan was going to kill Jubilee once he got back to the mansion. "You're not here for Wilderness Survival," he said.

"Not exactly," the kid said, sounding exhausted after his previous burst of words. "I -- maybe it would be better if I just --" There was a half-second pause. And then the air twisted, and where the boy had stood there was a slightly droopy-looking grizzly bear. Logan tried to step backwards and ran into the tree he'd been leaning on. Then the puzzle pieces seemed to slot together all at once. Bear. Tired bear. Winter.

"Come with me," Logan said, pushing away from the tree. He wasn't sure what Jubilee had told the kid, but yeah, he understood how it felt to fight your instincts. Surprisingly, the bear was much more graceful than the boy, and followed Logan without hesitation.

There was a storage building tucked into the hills a few minutes away. It held tools, and all the trail equipment that no one ever wanted to transport back and forth from the mansion. No heat or lights, but at least one of them had a fur coat, and it seemed both cave-like and safe enough. Logan made an expansive gesture as he opened the door. They both entered, and Logan shut the door again, sitting down with his back against it. If a bear could look grateful, this one did, and it slumped to the floor by Logan's feet. "Hey," Logan said. "You need me to wake you up for anything?" The bear rolled it's head from side to side. "Okay." Logan shrugged. "Sack out."

In seconds, there was a slow, rumbling snore coming from the bear. Logan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, then changed his mind. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. This was going to be the best class ever.