Hey. I know, I just finished one story, I should give myself some time to relax. But this idea came to me and It was too good to pass up. Warning: This story contains Scott/Jean and Anti-Xavier. If you are not a fan of either, I suggest you bear with it or not read.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Prologue
"Jean, it's another girl...." Katherine heard from the waiting room. She looked around at her abundant crop of brothers and sisters. Two sister, three brothers. Things would be even now. The odds, the votes, the games that Jenna insisted that she was too old for. Another little sister. This placed her in the exact middle of everything. Grampy Xavier would be so pleased. He always had a treat for her, a piece of candy or a seashell. He would be waiting for her when Uncle Kurt drove them home.
"Get that MUTANT CHILD away from my hospital!" Katherine heard. Screams began to fly from the room where Momma and Daddy had disappeared into earlier. Katherine heard Momma scream. She quickly jumped to her feet and ran towards the room where Momma had gone earlier. She peeked into the room. A baby was slowly floating across the room to her mother's outstretched arms. Her father was lifting his glasses up from over his eyes. Suddenly Katherine felt herself being knocked into the room. A doctor came running as fast as possible into the room, a small syringe in his hand.
"Don't worry, ma'am, it'll be ok," he whispered, trying to approach the baby that was protectively wrapped in Momma's arms. He jabbed the needle towards the baby. Katherine watched as the doctor flew out of the room and the door shut.
"Momma?" she whispered. Both Momma and Daddy glanced in her direction. "Momma? Why isn't the baby screaming like James or Haley?" Momma lay back in her bed, her arms still wrapped around the silent child. Daddy walked to the door and opened it, motioning for Katherine's other siblings to enter the room. He pressed a button on his watch and suddenly, out of nowhere, Uncle Kurt appeared. He motioned for all of Katherine's brothers and sisters to grab hold of him. Katherine warily did herself, but she let go a few seconds later. Uncle Kurt and her brothers and sisters were gone. Katherine slowly crept over to the bed where Momma was still laying. She pulled herself onto the bed and looked at her mother and the new baby.
Without warning, Katherine jumped off the bed and plastered herself against the wall and screamed. Momma and Daddy looked at her, horrified. She didn't understand why they weren't screaming too. It was the only appropriate response. The baby didn't have any mouth or nose. The baby was quite obviously a mutant.
~~~10 Years Later~~~
"Katherine, I'm not kidding. Get down here now!" she heard her mother call. Katherine flipped her diary open, ignoring the call.
Today James shapeshifted into a hawk. He soared around for awhile, obviously very scared. Tom and Pat had to fly up to him and bring him out of the tree he was hiding in. I thought that after seeing Mom fly around that he'd be used to it. When James came back down, Mom coaxed him into turning back. When he finally reappeared he was so proud of himself! I've never seen James so psyched. It was like a candle was lit inside of him. He marched around proudly for a few minutes, then changed back, a little more confident. He flew to Grandpa X's office and landed on his shoulder. I don't know what happened, but when he got back he had the same superior smirk on his face that everybody else did.
"Katherine. NOW!" she heard her mother yell. Katherine quickly shut the book and shoved it under the bed where Jenna wouldn't be able to find it. She ran quietly down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Yeah?" she asked, catching her mother in mid-yell. Her mother's red hair hung limp down her back. She wordlessly pointed to a pile of letters on the table.
"You've got mail. But help me first," she commanded. Katherine looked groaned under her breath as she began to help her mother unload the dishwasher and set the table. She knew full well that her mom would and could have done it on her own, she just didn't. Like usual, too many dishes were piled into her arms. Katherine tripped under the weight and five plates tumbled to the ground. They stopped an inch away and seemed to hover. The weight pulled itself out of her arms and all of the dishes seemed to put themselves away. Her mother sighed and looked away. Katherine didn't need to be telepathic like her to sense the disappointment. It seemed like she had inherited her parents' looks, red hair and brown eyes, but not their gifts.
She walked over to the table, the chore forgotten. The letter sat on the table, inviting her to open it. Dejectedly she looked at the return address. It was from PoetryCorner, a contest she had entered months ago. All tired and depressing feelings left her as she excitedly ripped open the envelope.
"Mom, they wrote back!" she called over. With much less enthusiasm, her mother walked over and watched as Katherine ripped open the envelope.
"Dear Katherine Summers," she began. "Thank you for your poetry entry. We receive thousands of entries a year for our contests. The choice is a hard one to make and unfortunately, your poem was not chosen for the finals. Please continue to submit and support PoetryCorner!" Katherine sighed and threw the letter into the trash.
"I know how much you wanted this," her mother began, trying to be supportive. Katherine whipped around. She knew her mother would only be proud of her when and if mutant powers surfaced. Katherine looked up at her mother's face. They both knew that it was the exact truth, that her mother didn't truly care about the contest. Katherine opened her mouth to make a rude response when Haley and James came barreling into the kitchen. Haley began to shoot the table legs with little streaks of ice.
"Mommy, Grampy Xavier's here." James said. He turned into a hawk and flew out of the kitchen. Haley let out a giggle and followed him, taking dignified steps. She held open the kitchen door and allowed Grandpa Xavier to wheel his chair into the room. Her mother's face automatically lit up and she rushed over to the side of the tired and gray old man.
"Katherine, will you excuse us for a moment?" he asked. Katherine nodded and walked out of the kitchen. She stopped right outside the door and stood as quietly as possible. She could faintly hear her mother and adopted grandfather speaking.
"...the tests we ran last week..." she heard her mother say.
"Negative...I don't know how to tell you this Jean, but your daughter does not carry the X-Gene. Katherine isn't a mutant and all of her brothers and sisters are..." Grandpa Xavier's voice faded to a point where Katherine couldn't hear it anymore, but she didn't need to. She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She ran into her room, her refuge, and pulled her diary back out from under her bed. Without thinking, she opened it to the very last page in the book.
They're all mutants. I'm not, she wrote. I'm too different.