The mansion had recently become home to approximately 20 mutant children, but not the age group the mansion was accustomed to, these children ranged from four to six years old.
Since none of the current teachers had experience with such small children, Charles Xavier had taken it upon himself to find the most qualified person for the job.
Dr. Kathleen Bennet had a doctorate in child psychology and a masters degree in elementary education. To top that all off she was a mutant with, what Xavier presumed, great potential to be useful to the xmen.
Xavier watched as she pulled up in front of the school and hopped out of her red pickup truck. Scott greeted her at the door and took her inside to where Xavier was waiting in his office.
"Ah, Dr. Bennet, it's good to finally meet you." He shook her hand and she smiled shyly at him.
"Nice to meet you professor, but please call me Katie." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and followed him as he rolled out into the hallway.
"Well Katie, I thought I'd show you to your room where you can stow your bag, and then to your classroom to meet your new students."
She nodded in agreeance and they made small talk. When they finally reached the classroom they found complete chaos.
Children were running and screaming, and a blue man was chasing children around making animal noises, which they found hilarious.
"Is it always like this?" she asked, shouting to be heard over the noise.
"I'm afraid so, you can see why we need your help." He managed to pull the blue man out of his game to introduce him. "Kurt this is Katie, she'll be the teacher. Katie, Kurt will be your second in command here, there are enough students that we figured you'd need one.
"Nice to meet you fraulein." He took a deep bow and smiled a pointy grin at her.
She laughed a little and gave a shy smile to him, "Nice to meet you too. So what is going on right now?" she gestured to the chaos.
"Ve are playing a game, I'm not sure vat it is but I'm apparently vinning." He smiled and she couldn't help but smile back.
"Well I don't think that's quite safe." She pointed to a small green boy who was clinging to the ceiling and holding a toy out of a small girl's reach.
"I'll take care of zat." He told her before bamfing off.
Katie turned back to the professor who gave her a fatherly smile. "I'll leave you in Kurt's capable hands, when the school day ends storm will come and watch over the children until bed time, at which point I'd like to speak with you in my office."
Katie nodded, "Ok, who will put the children to bed and get them up in the morning?" she asked, wondering how involved her job was going to be.
"You and Kurt will handle that, however Scott is supervising them in the mornings before school, and Storm is supervising them in the afternoons."
Katie nodded, "Alright, I'll see you at three in your office then?" she asked.
He nodded and left her to tend to the screaming mass of children. She soon had the kids calmed down and introduced herself.
"My name is Katie and I'm going to be your new teacher." A small hand shot in the air, "Yes?"
"Will Kurt be going away then?" she asked, looking teary eyed at the thought.
Several other children started crying at that and clambered over to the blue man and hugging whatever they could reach.
"Kurt won't be going anywhere, you don't have to worry." She got up and started prying off of the man, who was starting to suffocate under the mass of small bodies.
"I'm not leaving, don't vorry." He told the children, making them sit back down to listen to Katie.
"Are there any other questions?" she asked.
The rest of the afternoon passed much the same way and she soon looked up to see a white haired woman in the doorway.
Katie made her way from the sleeping bodies and over to her. The woman smiled and whispered to her, "I'm Storm, you must be Katie."
"Nice to meet you." Katie shook her hand and smiled at her.
"How did you get them to nap?" she asked astounded.
"I read to them and gave them a snack." She said simply.
Ororo took over watching the children and Katie and Kurt were standing outside the door. They were find interacting while there were children as a distraction, but now that they were alone, they didn't quite know how to be around each other.
"I have to go see the professor." She said to break the silence.
"Ah, I'll show you to his office zen." He started leading the way, and Katie walked along beside him.
He was a rather handsome man: tall, toned without being over muscled, sincere eyes, and his skin looked soft as velvet.
She didn't stare, instead she started to pick the polish off her nails to distract her. "So what is your mutation?" she asked, looking at him.
"I'm a teleporter, watch." He stopped walking and soon there was nothing but a puff of blue smoke where he had been. She looked down the hall and he beckoned her to follow him.
"That's pretty cool." She smiled, catching up to him and walking beside him again.
"Sank you, vat is your mutation?" he asked, looking down at her.
She frowned, trying to think of how to explain it, "I'm not quite sure how to explain it, everything has energy right?" she asked and he nodded, "Even a still object has potential energy, what I do is I tap into that energy to move the object. Another example is the human body, it has energy flowing through it all the time. I can manipulate that energy to make someone fall asleep, or die." She said gesturing with her hands while she talked.
"I'll have to see you do it sometime." He said simply smiling at how cute she was.
She was short, about 5'3", and she had short brown hair cut just above her chin in a simple bob, her green eyes sparkled with amusement. She wasn't thin, but not overweight either, she had a curvy figure.
They reached the professor's office and he called Kurt in to sit in on the meeting.
"You two will be working together most of the time. You will be responsible for the children's bedtime and getting them up in the morning. Scott will take care of their breakfast and watching them in the morning. You two will be responsible for the children from 9 till 3, Storm will have the children until bedtime."
Katie looked at the bald man, "I think I can manage, although this is way more intensive a job than I thought."
"Yes, well with that settled Kurt I have some matters that I need to discuss with Katie alone." The blue man bowed and bamfed away.
"Katie you are aware of the xmen are you not?" she nodded, "Good, well if you are interested, you could start training with them to become one of the team."
The girl's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Really? But my powers aren't that useful." She said, making an unsure face.
"Everyone's powers are useful, and I believe yours have the potential to be very useful." He took out some papers. "I would like you to come with me and demonstrate your powers for me." He had her sign some papers and led her to the lower levels of the school.
"This is the Danger Room, we use it to train the members of the xmen." He wheeled in to the center of the room and watched as she took in her surroundings with interest.
"Wow, this is a very big, shiny, room." She said smiling a bit.
"Yes and it is also very hard to destroy, which is why it is so good at it's purpose, now I would like you to demonstrate your powers for me."
She looked around, "There's nothing for me to demonstrate with." She told him, clasping her hands in front of her.
"What would you require, to give me a full demonstration?"
She thought for a moment, "Some softballs and a person." She smiled, "Preferably someone who doesn't mind falling down."
The professor mentally called someone and waited patiently for them to arrive.
Ten minutes later a scruffy man walked in carrying a sack full of sporting equipment. "What did you need all this for Chuck?" he asked, dropping it on the ground.
"I would like you to help Katie demonstrate her powers for me." He gestured to the shy girl behind him.
"Hi." She stepped forward until she was included in the circle.
"Alright Chuck, but I better get some hazard pay for this." He stood in front of the girl.
Katie lifted her right hand and placed it on his neck, he instantly fell to the ground asleep.
"How did you do that?" the professor inquired, not surprised, just wanting to know what she knew about her power.
"I rearranged the energy in his body." She shrugged it off, "energy behaves differently when we're conscious and unconscious. I simply move it between those two behaviors." She stooped down and picked up a tennis ball.
"All objects have potential energy, and I can tap in to that to move the object." She watched as the tennis ball zoomed from her hand and bounced around the room at top speed before she stopped it and caught it out of the air.
"Very good, I would like to work with you on the use of your powers once a week." He told her watching as Logan regained consciousness.
Logan was not happy, but was soon calmed and they all went on their way. Katie left to her room to settle in.
To Be Continued. . .