"Wow, this place sure looks nice, much nicer than my old high school," said Tiannya Sapphire as she pulled into the parking lot of Bayville High School.
Tiannya had just moved to Bayville, New York and was having to start at a new high school right after getting used to it in Sacramento, California. Not that it was all that great. Tiannya wasn't very popular at all, even though she was very pretty and smart. She was always thought as the shy, strange girl that didn't want anything to do with anyone.
And Tiannya was strange, but not in the way you think. Tiannya didn't know it yet, but she was different than most of the students at Bayville High School, very different.
Tiannya was an orphan and her foster parents weren't very good at being parental. Tiannya was sometimes left alone for months because they couldn't resist traveling. They weren't bad people, just really bad parents.
Tiannya parked her old Camaro that she had gotten for her sixteenth birthday and grabbed her backpack. She was walking towards the front doors of the school when a car, going way to fast for a parking lot, turned a corner and raced towards her. Tiannya didn't have time to register what was happening. She was so surprised that she didn't even think to move. Just as the car was about to hit her, she was shoved out of the way from behind. When she got shoved she tripped. As she fell, Tiannya hit her head on the hood of a car and fell to the ground on her stomach.
The car kept on going, like as if the driver didn't even notice that they almost ran over Tiannya.
"Uhh..." groaned Tiannya as she tried to sit up. She felt dizzy, and had a really bad headache from hitting her head on the car hood.
"Here, let me help you."
Tiannya felt something fuzzy support the back of her neck and her waist. With the help, she was able to stagger up onto her feet.
"Are you alright? That was a close one, that jerk should be more careful. You are lucky that I was around."
Tiannya focused her gaze on the person who had saved her life. It was a boy that looked to be about sixteen, Tiannya's age. He had black hair that almost looked to be dark blue. He was about four inches taller than Tiannya and had a light tan.
"Uh, maybe I should go for help, you hit your heady pretty hard." The boy looked worriedly at Tiannya. "Oh, no I'm fine!" said Tiannya quickly, she didn't want to chance being in a hospital. She hated hospitals.
"Well, if you're sure." Tiannya didn't catch it before, but the boy had a light, yet noticeable German accent.
"I'm sure, thanks," said Tiannya. She pulled out of the boy's grasp and started to walk towards the school. But as she did her head began to spin and she nearly fell down.
"At least let me help you inside," insisted the boy as he caught her arm. When he did, Tiannya felt the same fuzziness as before when the boy was helping her up. Tiannya looked down at his hand, but didn't see any major hair. What was she feeling?
The boy noticed her looking at his hand and quickly pulled away.
Tiannya took the opportunity to hurry and walk towards the school. People were starting to crowd around and Tiannya hated being the center of attention.
"Oh, wait!" shouted the boy.
"I'll be fine!" Tiannya shouted back over her shoulder and pushed open the doors to Bayville High.
'Aw man, I hope she'll be okay' thought Kurt Wagner as he made his way to the entrance of the school. 'I can't believe I was stupid enough to touch her. I guess I am just lucky she didn't ask any questions,' he thought while looking at his hands. 'Why do I have to be like this?'
"Hey, Kurt, wait up!" Kurt turned around to see Kitty Pryde running toward him.
"Oh, hi Kitty," said Kurt as he opened the front door of the school.
"What happened? I saw that car almost run over the girl you saved. She was lucky you were there. What was her name; I don't remember seeing her last year."
"I don't know her name, I never asked, but I think she is new." Kurt mentally kicked himself for not asking the girl what her name was. The next time he saw her, Kurt would introduce himself.
"Kurt!"
Kitty and Kurt turned around to see who was calling for him. They saw Scott Summers and Jean Grey heading towards them.
"Uh-oh," said Kitty. "You're in for a lecture. I don't want to be caught in the middle of this, see ya at lunch Kurt, bye." Kitty jogged as quickly as she could from Kurt and his soon to be lecturers.
"Hey, wait! I think I'll come too." Kurt tried to walk away from Scott and Jean, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Kurt, we need to talk," said Scott in a serious tone.
"Talk about what?" said Kurt with frustration. "How I saved a girls life?"
"No, how you saved a girls life by using your powers," contradicted Jean.
"I didn't use them to save her life-"Kurt was interrupted by Scott. "But you did use them to get over to her. Kurt, what if someone saw you? What then?
"Are you saying that it was wrong to save that girls life?" Kurt asked.
"No," said Jean patiently. "Look Kurt, Scott and I just want to make sure you understand that we need to keep are secret hidden until the professor sees otherwise. It goes for all of us, under any conditions.
"That isn't right! I know that we are just trying to fit in, but it would be wrong to let somebody get hurt when we could do something about it. I got to go; I am going to be late." Kurt said as he walked down the hall to his class.
Scott and Jean watched Kurt leave. "The professor will want to talk to him about this," said Scott. "I know," Jean replied. "But I do think he did the right thing." "Me, too," agreed Scott. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."
With that said, Scott and Jean made their way to first period.
'To think this is only the second day of school,' thought Scott.
Tiannya was certainly not fine. Her first through fourth period classes were torture. She was late to all of them, and the teachers made her stand up in front of the class to introduce her self. The boy that had saved her life wasn't in any of her torture classes, so Tiannya still didn't know his name. She didn't know why she wanted to see him again. She just did, and she hated it. To top it all off, she still had that massive headache. It just wouldn't go away.
Tiannya stopped at her locker and dropped her books off. While she was doing that, her headache started to get worse.
"Ugh," Tiannya moaned. "Why won't this thing just go away?" Tiannya stood there until she heard the lunch bell ring.
'Well I can't just stay here' said Tiannya to herself. 'Let's just get lunch over with, besides, it can't be worse than classes.'
So she got some money from her locker and walked into the cafeteria. Tiannya got into the salad line; she didn't have much of an appetite thanks to her headache. When she got her "food" Tiannya realized something. She didn't know where to sit.
'Aw, man, what am I going to do? I can't just sit with people I don't know, but what else can I do?'
"Um, hello, would you like to sit with me?" said a voice from behind. Tiannya turned around to see who was making the invitation. It was him, the boy who saved her!
"Uh, ya thank you." Tiannya couldn't believe it; the very boy she wanted to see was in her lunch! And he just asked her to sit with him! This was even better than having him in one of her classes. But she still hoped that he would be in at least one of them.
"Ok, come on, we sit over here," the boy said as he lead Tiannya toward a table that already had five people.
While they were walking, Tiannya got the courage to ask, "Oh um, before I forget, what is your name?"
"Kurt, Kurt Wagner, what is your name?" "My name is Tiannya Sapphire." Wow, Kurt Wagner. What an interesting name.
"Well Kurt, I never really thanked you for saving me today."
"Oh it was nothing." Tiannya noticed that Kurt was blushing. She liked that.
'I wonder if he likes me,' Tiannya mused. "It was certainly not nothing. I am pretty sure I would be in a hospital right now if you didn't push me out of the way. Did anyone ever see who the driver of that car was?"
"No," replied Kurt while looking at Tiannya. "The car just drove out of the parking lot and down the street. Nobody saw who it was. They should be more careful."
"Oh," said Tiannya. She was really starting to like the fact that Kurt was worried about her.
"Is this your first year at Bayville?" Kurt asked. "Ya," said Tiannya. "I am a sophomore." "Me too," Kurt said.
"So you have to get used to high school all over again?" "Ya," Tiannya said. "But my first day has been pretty eventful." Kurt laughed "If you call having to be saved by me from a crazy driver eventful, then yes, very eventful." Tiannya laughed with him. Kurt made everything sound funny.
'Hmm… Funny and modest, I am really starting to like this boy.' Tiannya admitted to herself.
'I wonder if he lives near the school, or if his house is farther away,' Tiannya thought. Tiannya could just see Kurt picking her up from home and school everyday. 'That would be nice.'
Tiannya was so wrapped up in her thoughts about Kurt that she didn't notice that they had arrived at the table.
"Hey guys," said Kurt. "This is Tiannya Sapphire, this is her first year at Bayville and I said that she could sit with us. Tiannya this is Scott Summers," Kurt pointed to a boy with ruby red glasses. "The girl next to him is Jean Grey."
Tiannya noticed that Jean had striking red hair. 'I highly doubt it's natural' Tiannya thought to herself.
"The boy on the other side of Scott is Evan Daniels."
Evan was an African-American with shocking blonde hair.
"The girl across from Scott is Rouge."
Tiannya wondered why Kurt didn't say Rouge's last name. 'Maybe she doesn't like her last name.'
"And the girl across from Jean is Kitty Pryde."
"Thanks Kurt we can introduce ourselves," said Kitty as Kurt and Tiannya sat down.
"Well sorry," said Kurt "But if I let you introduce yourself you wouldn't stop talking and Tiannya wouldn't know anybody else's name."
Tiannya could tell that Kurt was joking and laughed along with the rest of the group. He was just so great! If only he liked her back. It was a possibility, he did ask her to sit with him.
"So Tiannya," said Jean when the laughter stopped. "This is your first year at Bayville? Where did you live before?"
"I lived in Sacramento, California," Tiannya said a little nervous for being put on the spot.
"Whoa," Evan said with surprise. "You had to move across the country? Man it must be weird living here."
"Not as weird as I thought it would be, except it isn't nearly as warm," Tiannya said back.
Right after Tiannya replied her head began to sear with pain. What was going on?
"Ahh," moaned Tiannya. 'Stupid headache, I thought it went away!' Tiannya thought with frustration and tears in her eyes.
"Tiannya, what's wrong?" asked Kurt, looking at Tiannya with worried eyes.
"I don't,-AH!" Tiannya screamed with pain as her head started to feel like it was on fire.
The table started to shake and food was thrown all over the place. Kids started to scream and run out of the cafeteria. Only the teenagers at Tiannya's table stayed in the room.
Tiannya was slowly losing conciseness but she still had enough wits to hear Scott say "Jean, what is going on?"
"I don't know Scott I'm not doing it! I can't even control this. It is too strong. I think Tiannya is doing it!"
"Kurt, Kitty," Scott commanded. "Get Tiannya out of here. Go to the institute, I think she is a-"Before Tiannya heard anymore, she was lost to the pain in her head, and everything went black.
"Kurt, Kitty," Scott commanded. "Get Tiannya out of here. Go to the institute, I think she is a mutant. "Rouge, Evan, and I will meet up with you later. We are going to help Jean find everyone who saw this and erase their memory. We'll also clear it up with the office that we are all excused from classes. Hurry, before anyone sees you here!" Scott, Jean, Rouge, and Evan ran out of the lunch room in pursuit of any witnesses.
While Scott was talking, Tiannya passed out and Kurt caught her before she hit the ground. Kurt lifted her up into his arms and turned her face so he could see it. Even while she was out cold, Tiannya still looked like she was in pain. Kurt was worried about her, but was happy that there was a chance Tiannya could be a mutant. Then Kurt wouldn't have to hide anything from her. But even then, she might not like what she saw.
"Common Kurt, you heard Scott!" Kitty said "Hurry and get us out of here!"
"Ok, hold on." Kurt said as he made sure he was touching Kitty and Tiannya.
Bamf!
In a puff of smoke, they were gone.
Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep… 'What is that?" Tiannya wondered. She tried to open her eyes, but it felt like they were glued together with cement. And her head hurt.
'I guess my headache never went away,' figured Tiannya. 'What happened and where am I? Oh I better not be in a hospital." With that horrifying thought, Tiannya opened her eyes and looked up to see Kurt watching her.
"Professor, she's awake!" Kurt shouted with relief as he ran out of the room. 'Probably to get this professor person,' Tiannya thought.
Tiannya saw that she was in a bed and hooked up to at least three different machines. "Hey, what's going on? Where am I?" Tiannya looked around to see that she was in a room that looked homier than a hospital. That was good news. She also noticed that Jean, Kitty, and another woman that Tiannya didn't recognize were also in the room.
"Tiannya," Jean whispered. "Are you ok?" Kitty also whispered, "How do you feel?"
"I guess I'm ok, but I feel like I have been hit with a ton of bricks and run over by a bus. Now where am I?"
"I believe I can answer that question." Tiannya turned her attention away from Jean and Kitty to see Kurt and a man in a wheelchair, come through the door. The man looked to be about fifty years-old and was totally bald. Not your average person, but at least he looked nice.
"Who are you?" asked Tiannya.
"My name is Charles Xavier and you are at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youth," said the man as he wheeled toward Tiannya's bed. "You were brought here after you passed out. Your little show caused quite a lot of disorder but don't worry, we have it all under control. Jean made sure that you were properly excused from your classes.
"Don't worry Tiannya, your safe here," reassured the older African-American woman. Tiannya had almost forgotten about her.
"We have tried to call your parents, but we can't seem to get a hold of them," said Charles Xavier.
"Ya," said Tiannya "They are on a cruise for about three more months. I know that seems weird, but I can totally take care of myself." While Tiannya was talking Kurt came over to her bed.
"Tiannya," he said, "It's going to be okay." Kurt put his hand on hers.
"Ok, why is it that every time you touch me I feel something fuzzy?" Kurt immediately pulled his hand away.
"That's it," Tiannya said. "What is going on? Why are Kitty and Jean here, what is the Xavier Institute, and more importantly why am I here?!" Tiannya yelled. She was starting to lose it; she wanted to get out now. Tiannya tried to sit up, but her head started to spin and Kurt helped her lay back down.
"I want answers, now," demanded Tiannya.
"Alright," said Charles "Kitty and Jean are here because this is where they live. The Xavier Institute is for very gifted youth and you are here because you are a very gifted youth."
"Ok, that made absolutely no sense," Tiannya said with frustration.
Right after she said that, her head started to hurt really bad again.
"Oh, not now," moaned Tiannya. She shook her head to try and get rid of the pain. When she did, she saw a vase floating in midair, right above the bedside table, where it usually sat. "What the heck!?" yelled Tiannya as she realized what the vase was doing.
And it just floated there, at least, until Tiannya's head stopped hurting. The vase started to fall the instant Tiannya stopped feeling pain. Right as the vase was about to crash to the floor, it floated back up and placed itself on the table.
"Did-did I do that?" Tiannya stammered.
"You almost dropped the vase, yes," said Charles. "You also made the tables and food float, back at your school. Tiannya, because you can do that is the reason you are here. Tiannya, you're a mutant."
Tiannya just sat there for a moment. When she got out of her dazed stupor, she got the courage to ask, "A what?"
"A mutant," Charles said again.
"And what exactly is a mutant?" Tiannya asked. She noticed that Jean and Kitty had left the room after the vase incident. Tiannya hoped that Kurt wouldn't leave. He was the only one she trusted here.
"Mutants are humans with unnatural abilities," said the African woman.
"Ok," said Tiannya. "Is everyone that lives at the Xavier Institute a mutant?" She said this while looking at Kurt. He looked away.
"Yes," said Charles. "Ororo, here has the ability to control weather. Kitty can phase through any object. Kurt can teleport, and I have the power of telepathy."
"Ya, okay, let's pretend I believe you. If I'm here it must mean I have powers, so, what are they?"
"Well, we know that you definitely have telekinesis, but there is a possibility that you have more than just that one power," declared Charles.
"How many powers do mutants usually have? Tiannya asked.
"It is common for them to have one or two and in some cases even three, but never more than that." Charles clarified.
"Charles," said Ororo. "I have to see to some business, if you need me, I will be down in the danger room."
"Yes, thank you Storm," he replied as she walked out the door. 'Why the heck did he call her Storm?' Tiannya wondered. What is with these people?