Chapter 1: How to be an X-Men and Be Famous

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My name is Adeline. Add-uh-leen. Adeline Evarista Dupes. I am 5 years old. I go to school with a lot of other kids. I live with my foster parents, Jody and Michel, and my foster brother, Gale. Jody and Michel are very nice to me, but they are not my mommy and daddy. I don't have a daddy because my real mommy said so. My real mommy's name is Sheila, but I'm not allowed to call her that. She smokes a lot and goes out a lot, so I was left alone most of time until a bunch of grown ups took me to live with Jody and Michel. I was really scared and asked what happened to my mommy. A nice man told me that she was in jail and I couldn't live with her anymore. When I asked what happened he got real quiet and said that she stole stuff and got funny cigarettes from bad men that made her sick. I'm not sure I believe him because my mommy always told me not to steal. There wasn't really anything for me to do except pack my little green backpack that my auntie had gotten me for my fourth birthday and go with the people to the foster home. A while ago I thought that my green backpack was for babies now that I was 5, but I took it anyways. Maybe it wasn't thatbabyish.

At first I was real scared, but Jody made me macaroni and cheese, which is my favorite food, and I felt much better. Gale is 8, and he thinks I'm a baby, so he doesn't play with me much, but he's still nice. One time, when there was a thunderstorm and I was scared, he stayed up with me and gave me half of his chocolate bar and we played "Chutes and Ladders" until it got quiet and I wasn't scared anymore.

I don't really like school that much. It's really big and I got scared on my first day. I'm braver now but the older kids are mean to me sometimes. They tease me and make fun of my pigtails. They make fun of my green backpack, too, which is kind of old and ripped up, but I still like it. Jody says it's because it's so loved. I say it's because I always drag it on the sidewalk when I go out. But the worst is a big boy named Matthew always tried to pick on me. He's in Gale's class, but Gale ignores him when he does mean things. He says my hair looks like straw and my clothes look funny and he makes fun of what I bring for lunch and my backpack and...just everything! I don't like him at all!

Today, Matthew took my lunch bag right out of my hands and stomped on it. I started to cry, but that just made him make fun of me more. Then his friends started to make fun of me, but the worst of all, I saw Gale laughing at me, too. I had to get out of school. I didn't want to be here anymore. I was just too sad. So I ran out the door and started to walk home. The problem is, I didn't know which way to go. So I thought about which way the bus takes and started walking. I was still crying, but I tried to think about which way home was. The houses all looked pretty, but that didn't help me because they all started to look the same, so I just kept walking, hoping I would be able to spot Jody and Michel's house soon.

A black van came up close to the sidewalk and drove real slow next to me. The window rolled down and I saw a really pretty lady with blond hair like mine and a pretty smile.

"Are you lost, honey?" she asked me. She sounded very nice, but I could only hiccup and nod in reply. She told me that she would help me find my home. That sounded great! I was tired and hungry and I just wanted to go to sleep. Maybe Jody would be mad at me? Would she yell and tell me to go back to school? I wasn't really sure what to do. I didn't want Jody to be angry, but I just couldn't go back to school. I was, what was the word…? "conflicted". I looked up at the van which was now riding beside me and then stopped walking when I remembered something.

"Thank you," I said very politely. "But I am not supposed to accept rides from strangers." I felt very grown up. School taught you not to get into the car with people you don't know, even though they were nice. The van stopped beside me, and the lady got this real mean face at me.

"Get in the van," she snarled. I did not expect that. I felt scared and stepped back, making me trip on the grass and fall backwards. She opened the door and walked towards me real fast. Behind her, a huge man got out of the passenger seat and followed her. He had long hair and an almost longer beard. His hands had scary claws on them and he had bad eyes that scared me so that I shivered. I was too scared to even yell for help as the lady reached towards me, but when she grabbed my arm, the strangest thing happened. The feeling like I had been scooting around on the trampoline started from my feet then went to the spot where the mean woman was touching my arm. I felt a little shock, and real fast, she screeched and pulled her hand back. I saw little white lights now popping up all over the arm she had tried to grab. They kind of tickled but also kind of felt like little pins poking into me, but not very hard. I didn't really know what to do except look up at the two of them. I was so confused and everything was happening so fast and weird that almost asked them what was happening, but all I could do was look up at them with my mouth wide open but no words coming out.

"Victor, grab her!" the lady that I now thought was not-so-pretty yelled to the big man. The guy with her made a noise like the lions I had heard on TV and reached his claws out towards me. More lights popped off my skin. I think I found my voice again because now I started to cry and yell very very loud.

A big red light hit the furry man, knocking him into the van and leaving a dent. I turned my head and saw a man with weird glasses on his face. The angry woman backed up and looked away from me at another man. She snarled again and ran to the van. The other man had messy hair and a hairy face, but what I really noticed was that he had three big knives coming out of each of his hands as he ran after the lady. I was shocked! I was trying to make sense of it all. I think that these people were mutants that Jody and Michel talked about from the news! They were very famous, I think. They were the X-Men! I felt brave all of the sudden because I knew they were there to protect me from the bad people from the van. I got up and started to yell.

"Come on! Go go go! You can do it!" Finally, the van's tires screeched and it was gone, leaving me and the two guys standing out on the sidewalk with a little crowd gathering around us. I got really excited as I recognized the glasses guy from the TV. My smile got huge and I clapped my hands together. The both looked at me, but I wasn't even scared of them a little bit.

"You guys are heroes!" I shouted. "You saved me from those bad guys! They were trying to get me to go with them in that van! I think they were gonna kidnap me!" I was so excited. The people that came out of the houses around us started to chatter.

"…saved that little girl…"

"…mutants from Xavier's…?"

"…the X-men team. Wow! Right here…!"

"…trying to kidnap that little girl…"

"…threat to the public…"

The guy with messy hair gave the other man a look that Jody sometimes gave Michel when they're late for something and he's not ready yet, then they both looked at me kinda' confused-like. Glasses guy turned around and faced all the neighbors.

"Alright, everything's under control here, now. There's nothing to worry about. Please go back to your homes while we sort this out." I giggled. He sounded real grown-up and strong! All those people spread out and went away from us. The scruffy man nodded and moved closer to me.

"Hiya', kid. Are you Adeline?" he asked in a voice like a rocky driveway. I felt proud, stood up straighter and smiled.

"Uh huh. And I know you! You're the Wolverine!" I said, feeling very smart. He smiled at me, even though it was a little crooked and the glasses guy made a funny nose with his nose. I turned to him, knowing his name, but forgetting it.

"I know you, too! You're Sy…Sigh…Psy…" I made my nose smoosh up as I tried to think real hard of what his name was. It was kind of a hard name to remember. "Clip-Clop?"

The Wolverine burst out laughing, which made me jump. Red glasses man gave him a hard stare but turned and looked at me with a small smile.

"I think 'Cyclops' is the name you're looking for," he said gently. I frowned and sighed a little. I was real close… I felt kind of bad that I messed it up. Even though he was smiling, he might be mad. I think Cyclops noticed that I was upset and walked up to me.

"It's alright, Adeline," he said, kneeling down and putting his hands on my shoulders. My eyes got real wide. "It's kind of a difficult name for a little girl to remember."

My eyebrows went down and I puffed out my cheeks. "I'm not a little girl. I'm 5 years old, almost 5 and a half," I huffed. Wolverine laughed again but this time it didn't scare me), and Cyclops smiled big.

"Oooh, I'm sorry. How rude of me. You're a lot older than I thought. You're almost a lady, of course. How could I be so silly?" he apologized. I gave him my biggest grin, showing off all my teeth.

"Oh, that's okay. It's an honest mistake," I said, nearly bursting with pride. This time, Cyclops laughed real big, too. "Do I really look older?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at him, trying to be like the pretty ladies in magazines. He looked stunned for a second.

"Ah, well, maybe a little," he admitted. I nodded, satisfied at his answer.

"Hey," Wolverine interrupted. "Ask her the question, Scott."

"Oh, that's right." He cleared his throat. "Adeline, how would you like to go with us to Charles Xavier's mansion?" I couldn't talk. I don't think I could even breathe right when he said that to me. I took a huge breath and almost twirled around.

"Oh! Oh, Mr. Cyclops, that sounds wonderful! This is a dream come true! You do not know how great of an honor it is!" I gasped. Uh oh… "But…" I slowed down, "I don't know… the reason I didn't go with the bad guys was because you're not supposed to go with strangers…" Wolverine and Cyclops looked at each other. I thought for a minute more. I really wanted to go. "I guess you guys aren't strangers, really… you're kind of like police, right?" Wolverine shrugged and made one shoulder go up.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

I nodded. "My foster mom, Jody, says that I can trust the police and should go with them when I'm lost or something happens to me." I looked at Cyclops. "Not that I was lost or anything," I said quickly.

"Of course not," he said with a nod. I relaxed a little. I knew I could count on him to understand.

"Oh… I think I should try to call Jody… Jody's not my real mom, but she's just as good. She's my foster mom. She might be worried. Oh no… she might be mad if she finds out that I skipped school… oh no, what do I do?" I didn't want to look like a crybaby in from of the X-Men, so I held in my tears as best I could, but one big one slipped past my eyeball and went down my cheek. Wolverine looked scared.

"Hey, hey, don't cry, kid. We called you mom-"

"Foster mom," I corrected politely. He nodded after he gave me a funny look.

"Right, we called your…foster mom, and told her what had happened. Your teacher had called and told her that you didn't show up after lunch. Professor Xavier had known that you might be in trouble, so he sent us to find and help you. Long story short, here we are."

"And what a story it is!" I triumphed, lunging forward to hug the handsome Cyclops. "I would have been toasted if it wasn't for you guys! And now I get to be an X-Men!" I squealed. Scott made a funny noise in his throat and Logan nodded again.

"Something like that. Come on," he said as a grey mini-van pulled up next to us. "That's Storm here to pick us up." He pointed to the dark woman with white hair in the driver seat. I decided that I liked her right away. Her skin was smooth and pretty and reminded me of hot chocolate, and her hair was like snow! I thought that only Santa had hair that white! But Santa was an old man and not very pretty. She smiled and opened the door to walk up to us.

"Hello there, I'm Ororo Munroe, but you can call me Storm, if you like." She held out her hand to me, and I shook it. Oh yes, I definitely liked her. Her voice was almost as pretty as she was, like nice little bells.

"Can I just call you Storm?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound too rude. "Your other name is too hard to say," I felt relieved when she laughed. She even laughed pretty!

"Of course," she said, looking at the two other mutant guys.

"Those two there are Scott Summers-" The dreamboat with red glasses gave me a small wave. "-and Logan Howlett." The handsome scruffy man grunted in reply.

"Cyclops and Wolverine!" I chirped happily. "They're the X-Men! I see them on TV sometimes when I stay up past my bedtime!" I lowered my voice and leaned towards her ear. "Only don't tell Michel, because I'm really not supposed to be up past 7:30," I whispered. She only laughed.

"Of course. Your secret's safe with me." She nodded and stretched her arm out towards the van. "We'll be taking you to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."

I gasped and put my hands on my cheeks. "I'm gifted?" She smiled.

"Most definitely. Did you notice what happened when Mystique touched your arm?"

"What's a 'Mist-keet?'" I asked.

"Mystique," scruffy man Logan corrected. "She's the woman who was driving the black van."

"Oooh, the bad woman," I made a sour face then thought about what had happened. She had jumped away because of the lights that came out of my arm… "Oh, yeah, I remember. What happened to me? Why'd she get scared?"

"Those things that came off your arm were sparks," Storm told me. "They are your mutation. As far as we know, you can generate electricity and shock people. It's not very strong right now, but it may become strong in time." I became very excited.

"Am I an X-Men now?" I burst out suddenly, no longer able to contain myself. The three grown-ups laughed and I felt kind of silly.

"Well, maybe not," Storm said. My shoulders drooped. I think she saw that I was kind of sad because she spoke again quickly. "But you might be able to be one if you train very hard and learn to control your powers." I instantly perked up and smiled.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to Xavier's so I can be an X-men!" I said very loudly, running to the van and climbing in. Scott and Logan walked behind me and I was buckled before they could even reach the van. I crossed my arms as they climbed in, too.

"Well, for a couple of guys who got to me in time to save me from bad guys just in the nick of time, you sure are slow when it comes to gettin' in a van when we're all in a hurry" I huffed, barely able to wait until we got to the gifted school. The two of them looked at each other, Scott getting into the passenger seat, and Wolverine sitting down next to me with a sigh.

"This might be one mission where I might be in a little over my head," I heard him mumble. I only clapped my hands and pointed to the open road.

"Onward, Storm, we have a whole world to save!"

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This is actually a filler story for when I'm not inspired to write another chapter for "Where the Angels Tread". The reason the writing style is so odd is because I'm trying to write it like a child would/as the thoughts of a child.
My apologies, but this is a bit AU, maybe, as Professor Xavier is still alive, and Warren and Gambit may show up later… Jean is also alive and well. Should I continue with this story?
Please review.