Author's note: Chapter's 1 through 3 are Clare getting her powers, basically her origin story, feel free to skip ahead to chapter 4 if you want to see the canon character's as that's when things really get moving.
I do not own x-men, but I do own Clare
Chapter 1
The cold smell of winter was in the air, harsh and sharp on the nose. The smell of change, a smell Clare had always liked, she had always loved how the air changed as a new season came, but today, it was bugging her. The idea of the cold, and the snow, she didn't like the thought of it, and she couldn't place way, she had always liked the cold. Clare's 14 year old mind was buzzing as she tried to figure out the puzzle of her own mind. The walk to school was a long one, and while her MP3 player helped but only so much.
Clare wasn't someone that stood out a school that much was easy to see, she wasn't a cheerleader, and in a small town, that was a big deal. She was smart, got rather good grades without trying, but she didn't do much outside of school, she wasn't part of any clubs or teams, and had only a small group of friends. None of this bugged her though, Clare was happy with her life, or as happy as she could be, she believed things would be better when she went away from here, when she went to college, but that was still 3 almost 4 years away.
There was one small problem Clare had in her high school, one that went by the name of Rachel, Ray to her friends; Clare did not call her Ray. Rachel was just what you think she would be, that girl, that popular girl, that cheerleader. She wasn't the most popular, only being in grade nine, but she was one of the prettiest girls in grade nine, and Rachel knew this. She used it too, she liked when people fawned over her, she wanted to be told that she was beautiful. Most of the girls in grade nine wanted to be her friend; they knew in the long run that it would pay off. That one day Rachel would be the one ruling the school, at least from a student's point of view. There were those that weren't interested in being her friend, these where mostly those that worried their grades more then there social standing. Clare wasn't really one of these, she did care about her grade, but that wasn't why she hadn't made any moves to be Rachel's friend, the real reason was Clare wanted to be herself, and to be Rachel's friend she would need to be someone she wasn't, so Clare tried not to stand out. She knew that if you weren't Rachel's friend you where her enemy, this was a girl that only saw the world in black and white, and because of this misguided ideal, Rachel treated Clare like her enemy.
It seemed that this morning, there was no luck in the cards for miss Clare Laake, just as she got to her locker who showed up but Rachel. All Clare wanted to do was smash her face against her locker door, but she couldn't do that, so she turned to Rachel, and putting a quick, and very fake smile she said.
"Hello Rachel, how are you this morning?" Rachel didn't say anything she moved around Clare, pushing her locker shut to get to her own. It was very easy to see the differences between the two girls. Rachel was tall at 5'9" and thin, a little too thin for her height, were Clare was 5'6" and had more curves. Clare seemed healthier. Rachel had the classic popular girl blond hair, hair that one could tell was dyed, Clare's was just mousy brown. The one similarity between the two was their blue eyes.
After Rachel got her books out of her locker, she turned and looked at Clare, she wasn't making eye contact with Clare, as if she wasn't worth it. At last she said. "I hope that next time I'm here, you're not." She then left. Clare breathed a sigh of relief, she knew it wasn't a hope or request, Rachel was basically ordering Clare not to be at her locker when Rachel was at her's. Still she felt that she got off rather easy that morning.
Clare headed off to her classes, trying not to think too much about Rachel. She was worried, Rachel was the type of girl that could make your life hell if she wanted too, and Clare was only in grade nine, she had to step carefully so that she might survive high school.
At lunch Clare took her normal set in the café, things where as set as movies would have one believe, sure the same people normally sat together, but not always at the same time and it wasn't as horrible taboo to sit at the wrong table. Still though Clare liked her spot and almost always sat in the same place. As she sat eating her bagged lunch she watched the other students, just watched and ate almost mindlessly.
She took a look at the other students not in her grade, it was interesting to watch, it seemed that by the time one got into grade 12 the social boundaries seemed to break down to a point that no one cared if the other was a cheerleader or not. That would be nice, but then again, maybe it was only something that happened with this group of grade 12s. There was the chance that nothing would change between the students in her grade. As Clare watched, once again lost in her own thoughts, she saw a group of boys heading towards her. She looked to the side and saw that she was the only one at the table. She nodded to herself an moved to the edge the table to let them have some were to eat.
Once they sat down Clare glanced over at them, they were in her grade, and she knew a couple of them. They were all rather good looking; Clare had art class with three of them, one of which always created a distraction for her. Ryan Norman, he was very attractive, and seemed friendly enough. Clare had yet to work up the courage to talk to him, and she didn't know if she had it now. She reached into her bag and pulled out her MP3 again, an easy way for them to ignore her and for her to ignore them, which at the moment was more important.
The boys say down and didn't pay her any mind. She listened to her music and they ate. Just as they were leaving Ryan turned back, he pulled on one of her head phones and said.
"Hey, you're good at art right?" He sounded a little worried. Clare was a little too dumbstruck to speak so all she did was nod. "Good" He said quickly. "I need your help then…I'll talk to you after class." Again all Clare did was nod, and he left.
Once he was gone, Clare felt like an idiot she should have said something. She was mentally kicking herself all through her next class. Science, and just because the teacher was evil they were talking about evolution, a topic that had once again become taboo, since some people believed mutants where the result of evolution, and the next step of human evolution. Her teacher seemed to want to set a spark to the match of this topic too. Being a small town, very few people liked the idea of mutants, and even less believed the whole evolution theory.
"There has even been a name given to what most people call mutants, just like humans are really, Homo sapiens, or Homo sapien sapien. Mutants are referred to in the scientist community as Homo sapiens superior…"
"Well aren't they a little full of themselves then!" One of the students called out. The teacher, Mr Lehrer gave him a cold look and said.
"Well, Ethan, why is it that you say this." Clare smiled to herself, this was a clever way to punish him for speaking out. Ethan, did not look to pleased though.
"Well sure they have powers they normal people don't have, but to call themselves 'superior', I donno but to me it seems that there powers aren't always that helpful. Like there's a couple out there, Kurt Wagner, umm, I think the other's McCoy something or other…."
"Doctor, Ethan, Dr. McCoy." Ethan nodded and started up again.
"Yeah, well there mutation makes them blue how is that an evolutionary advantage?" Clare couldn't help but pipe in at that moment, she had looked into mutants and the 'X-men' she found it all very interesting, thought she understood why no one liked to think of them as the next stage of evolution, as that meant that humans or Homo Sapiens where no longer the top of the food chain, and based on the past, the less evolved always died out.
"You're wrong there." She said softly, and everybody looked at her, as she had never talked in class before. "Kurt Wagner and Dr. McCoy's mutations do not simply make them blue. Mr. Wagner also has the ability to teleport, and Dr. McCoy is super intelligent, with animal instincts and strength, and I don't think you can say that either of those things are not helpful."
The debate continued for the rest of the class, Clare speaking more then she had before. She knew her stuff and she wasn't about to give up, because in the end no matter what one thought about mutants, their powers where helpful. The unfortunate result of all this was though, it made her look like she loved mutants, someone even asked her if she thought it would be right for the mutants to kill all the humans. All this ended up with Clare heading to her art class rather miserable. She had almost forgotten that she had promised to help Ryan.
When she got to class though, he headed straight for her. It turned out that he was having trouble with some of the art history.
"I'm sorry Ryan, my art history notes are at home. We didn't need them today so I didn't bring them." She told him, surprised she was able to keep her voice even.
"Well then…I'll just have to come over tonight." He told her, nodding to herself. They had a test soon and she understood why he was rushing this. She bit her lip a little as she thought, her parents where working late, and it's not like anything was going to happen. There was no way Ryan had any interest in her, not when she knew Rachel was going on dates with him. She nodded slowly and said.
"Yeah we can do that."
