Disclaimer: Hey, guys. I'm working on this as well as another story, Meet Kitra, and they may not be the best, not to mention late, so don't bug me! I won't bore you with the details, so I'm just gonna say; I don't own anything in this story except for Veil Hills, Tatiana, and her past, but I don't own Lance. So, read on!
Chapter 1: "I Wouldn't Want To Be Them"
Beep! Beep! I hear my alarm and immediately put my finger on the off button and push. I shove my covers off my very flippin' hot and sweaty body and swing my legs out of bed so that they touch the floor at the exact same time. I know it's lame, but I don't really care. I only do it 'cause my body's gotten so used to it that it's become a habit from when I used to think it was funny as a kid. As a kid. Those were the days. I always had someone to talk to, or to play with. But then he was taken away from me. Then everything was taken away from me; my brother, my undying happiness. The only thing I really still have is my best friend. Anyway, enough about the emotional back story; I have to get going, or I'll never make it to the fields to practice before school. I shower, get dressed, make my bed, grab my sports duffel, sprint down the stairs, and drop by The Head's office to let her know where I'm going. Once she tells me I can go, I fill my water bottle, grab an apple, and run out the door. I jog my way to the fields in the back of the high school at the edge of Veil Hills. That's where I live; Veil Hills, Washington State. Well, the Veil Hills Orphanage in Veil Hills, Washington State.
"Hey Daren," I say as I get there. Daren is the boy who lives on the next block, and he's my best friend. He's been my best friend ever since my brother was taken away to New York.
"Hey Tatiana," he replied in a surprisingly tired voice. I mean, sure, it is 5:15 in the morning, but he's usually pretty energetic. "I waited for you in front of your house, but you never came out. Why the hell didn't you come out?"
No wonder he's tired, I forgot to tell him that I quit that lame cheerleading so I didn't have to leave as early. But still, he's cute when he's tired. His black hair is a little long, and a bang falls over his left eye. He has paler skin that me, but not by much, and his eyes, his beautiful green eyes. They're shining with worry, and I feel so guilty.
"I'm so sorry, Darren. See, I quit cheerleading last Friday, so I don't have to practice as much. I'm sorry; I forgot to tell you I won't be here as early." I still feel guilty.
"Well, next time tell me. I was worried. Don't ever do that again." His worry and concern was obviously genuine.
"I'm sorry," I whine. "So, how 'bout I come early anyway and help you practice basketball?" I offer.
"That sounds good. But don't worry me like that again. Anyway, let's get started."
"'Kay, I'll go change," I say as I head over to the girls' locker room. I change and look at myself in the mirror. I'm wearing what I normally wear when I'm exercising or training; a pair of dark blue basketball shorts, a bright pink camisole, and a pair of black cleats. My hair's in pigtails, with a black headband. I pick up my small black and grey sports duffel, shove my regular clothes into it, and head out of the lockers. When I find Daren again, he's practicing his free throws, and failing horribly, at that matter. I call, "Try tucking in your elbow a little more, and shoot your arm up a little straighter!" I demonstrate my theory then grab my filled water bottle and take a drink.
Daren tries another shot and makes it. "Hey, thanks."
"No problem," I say. "Now, how 'bout a one-on-one soccer game," I ask, tossing him my soccer ball from my bag. "You take the first shot."
"Okay. Get ready to lose," Daren says, cocky as always. But then again, he wouldn't be my best friend if he weren't.
So we played a game, he won, but not by much. After that; we practiced martial arts, he helped me with my gymnastics, and I helped him with basketball. Then we showered, got dressed in our regular clothes, and started for school. But on my way out of the locker room, I ran into two girls. They were talking and laughing about something, then stopped when they saw me.
"Hey Sasha; look who's here. It's Alvers."
"No doubt trying to be cool. Right, Briana?"
They both laughed.
"Yeah. So, Alvers, tell us, where do you get your clothes? 'Cause they're terrible." Briana and Sasha were the 'mean girls' of the high school. They were senior idiotic, assy, wanna-be, bitches.
I'm wearing light blue fading jean short shorts, a violet loose spaghetti strapped top, a pair of violet fingerless leather gloves, and my favorite light green Wheely tennies. My light brown hair's brushed down straight just past my shoulders under a light green beanie hat. I usually wore this outfit, unless I had something special.
"My name is Tatiana, not Alvers," I say quietly, but they ignore me.
"And what about her hair? I mean, who puts pink with brown?" Sasha teases.
They were talking about how I dyed the tips of my hair pink.
"Definitely not me! It just clashes," Briana says, smirking at me.
They go on making fun of me for a bit, calling me a slut and a dork, when finally I just scream, "STOP IT! You little wanna-bes are giving me a headache, not to mention a really bad temper!" As I yell this, the ground underneath them starts cracking and comes up in large chunks, throwing them backwards. I'm watching this happen, and I realize I'm looking down at them, not up like I usually do. I look down to find that I'm standing on a floating piece of earth. I'm getting angrier and more confused by the second; and small rocks around me are rising. I throw my arms up in front of me to protect myself, but the rocks shoot at Sasha and Briana. I instinctively put my arms down and everything stops, then the pebbles and stones fall to the ground, including the rock I was standing on. When it starts plummeting to the ground (stupid gravity), I lose my balance and fall off of it, landing hard on my butt. I scramble to get up and run over to Daren, who's waiting for me in front of the boys' locker room.
When he sees me running and the tears streaming down my face, he immediately knows what happened. "It happened again, didn't it?" I nod. "I wouldn't want to be them. Well, we'll talk about it later, but right now we have to get to school." He starts walking away but realizes I haven't moved. He comes back and stands in front of me. "Don't worry; everything will turn out okay. You'll turn out okay. Now let's go." Daren always knows the right thing to say.
We get to school and the day goes on as usual. When school ends, we do our homework in the park, and then head up to the gym. We change into our workout clothes and start training. After about an hour and a half, he has to get back home and I have to get back to the orphanage. He drops me off and we both say goodbye, then I go inside. I tell The Head I'm back, go do my chores and head up to my bed to study. Once I'm up there; I meet up with Daniela and Jenni on the stairs to the third floor. That's how it is here: first floor-main room, kitchen, study, dining room, The Head's office, that sort of stuff; second floor-boys' room; third floor-girls' room. In the rooms, or, levels, I should say, there are, like, twenty beds and four bathrooms. We walk to the room together and sit down on Danni's bed. After pulling out our books, we each grab some paper and a pencil to start studying for our biology mid-term tomorrow. Only about twenty minutes pass and Yumi, Heather, Victoria, Genesis, and Annalae show up and join in. At 9:00 we all go to sleep. The next few weeks go on pretty normally, and Daren and I start to think that the past were just… freak accidents. On September 26th we were proved very wrong.
You see, that day, after school, Daren and I are on our way off campus when Briana and Sasha show up with their boyfriends, Ryan and Jay, not to mention a crowd. It all starts with a little comment; something about me being a slut, and it all goes downhill from there. There's yelling, fighting, attempts at punching and kicking, cheering from the crowd, and next thing I know I'm catching my balance on a flying hunk of rock.
"SHUT UP!" I scream. Rocks and stones are flying around me, my arms are raised in front of me again, and my hair's whipping around my face. The anger that's been pooling inside of me finally bubbles over.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Hey, what's going on here, Professor?" Scott asks.
"I'm not sure, Scott," Professor Xavier answers in his always calm voice. It's sort of like he has no emotions and feels no dread or pain whatsoever. He heads down to Cerebro to see what was going on.
DISCOVERED: NEW MUTANT SIGNATURE
EXTRAPOLATION COMPLETE
IDENTITY CONFIRMED
NAME: TATIANA ALVERS
RESIDENCE: VEIL HILLS, WASHINGTON STATE
AGE: 14
'Logan, prep the Blackbird,' Professor tells Logan telepathically.
'Roger that, Charles.'
'X-Men, meet at the Blackbird in 5 minutes.'
"I've had enough! I'm sick and tired of you and your idiot boyfriends, of you insulting me, and of whatever's going on with me right now. So just SHUT UP!" I pause. "Please," I say softly. "Just stop it, already."
"Did you guys see that?" I hear Briana scream. "She's a monster! She's evil!"
"NO! I'm not evil! I may be able to do things that you can't, I may cause destruction everywhere I go, and I may be a monster, but if there is one thing I'm not, it's evil!" Here we go again. You already know what happens; rocks flying everywhere, my hair whipping around, my arms up, my eyes glowing, kids cowering in fear of me.
"So where are we going, exactly?" Kitty asks.
"Veil Hills, in Washington," Logan answers in a gruff voice.
"Vhy?" Kurt asks.
"We're going 'cause there's a new mutant signature, and we're checking' it out."
"Zhen vhy are ve going, Logan?"
"Because it's pretty powerful and it looks like we're gonna need all the help we can get."
"What's their power?" Rogue asks, obviously not happy to be there.
"Her power's earth minipulation."
"Cool. So she can like, talk to trees and stuff?" Kitty wonders aloud.
"Not that kind of earth minipulation, Half-Pint."
"Zhen vhat do you mean?"
"I mean rock and dirt and stuff like that. What you guys are thinkin' is nature. There's a difference."
There's a short debate about the difference between Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, Jean, and Scott until Logan said in monotone, "The difference is that she cuts apart rock, and she doesn't talk to plants. Besides, it doesn't matter. And we're here."
"Okay, X-Men, let's go," Scott commands.
"And be careful; we don't know what this girl can do yet," the professor reminds.
"We will, Professor, I promise," Jean says.
The X-men exit the Blackbird to see a teenage girl shooting rocks at people and standing on a flying rock. Her hair's blowing around her face in a wind that only affects her. Her eyes are slightly glowing white. Her arms are raised at her sides, and the higher she raises them, the higher the rocks raise above the ground.
Shadowcat looks at the students and says, "I wouldn't want to be them."
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to be us, either," Cyclops says.
"I'm guessing that's her," Rogue says sarcastically. "The one on the rock."
"Yeah, I'd say so. Come on, let's go!" The X-men run forward on Cyclops' command.
"DUCK!" they hear a voice from their left scream, and they can't risk ignoring it. They duck, and just in time for the rocks flying at them to miss.
"Thanks!" Shadowcat yells back. "Well, what do we do? We can't get close to her without being hit with rocks or ducking every 15 seconds, and I doubt that trying to talk to her will be any use."
"Duh," Rogue says.
"Just saying."
"Well."
'Professor, I don't think that there's anything we can do except defend these kids. What do you think?' Cyclops asks telepathically.
'Then I think you should do just that. Except maybe Jean and Nightcrawler could help a bit more. Tell the others to protect the students with you. This is their last day of school; we don't need them getting hurt. But tell Jean and Nightcrawler to stay where they are.'
'Okay, Professor,' Cyclops replies. "Guys, Professor says to defend these students from the rocks. Nightcrawler, you stay here with Jean to wait for Professor X."
Professor walks over to Jean and Nightcrawler. He surveys the overall situation and looks at his two students. "Alright. Nightcrawler; when I tell you to, I want you to teleport up to Tatiana, grab her, and bring her back down here, okay?"
"Yes, Professor," Nightcrawler confirms.
"Good. And Jean, when Tatiana is down here, I want you to help me penetrate into her mind to help her settle down. Do you both understand?"
They nod.
"Alright; go Nightcrawler."
Nightcrawler teleports up to her, or, me, and I feel him grab me around the waist, which sort of brings me back to my senses, but also just makes me even more mad. The rocks go flying and I struggle to move in his arms. Suddenly I can't breathe, but then I can, just as quickly as I couldn't. Then, even more suddenly, excruciating pain shoots through my head. Before I slip into unconsciousness, I hear him say, "I vouldn't vant to be zhem." Then I'm standing in the middle of a simple white room and look around. There's no one here but me, which isn't surprising considering it's my mind, and nothing else in the room but a tan wood French door in the middle of the wall across from me. The doors open and in walk two people; an old-ish looking bald guy and a red haired teenage girl wearing some kind of black and green spandex full-body suit and mask.
"Who are you people?" I ask.
"My name is Professor Charles Xavier, and I am a telepath. This is Jean Grey, she is also a telepath. We are mutants, people with special powers; just like you. You can manipulate earth, or rock, and possibly metal as well."
"Why are you here?"
"We are here to help you learn to control and use your abilities for good, to help people," the professor says.
"Where are we?"
"We are in your mind. But, right now I have to ask you to please calm down. Your anger is triggering your mutant abilities and you are hurting people around you, like your fellow students and my own. So please, take some deep breaths and calm down. We can talk in a moment."
I didn't know I was hurting people. I'm just so angry with Briana that I just can't control my powers. But with the professor's help and Jean's, maybe I can. I concentrate on calming down and take several deep breaths until my anger and fury fade into almost nothing. "I'm sorry Professor. I didn't know what I was doing. I couldn't think. I was just so mad at Briana. I'm so sorry," I say.
"It's alright Tatiana, perfectly alright. So, would you like me to tell you about mutants and your powers?" the professor offers.
"Please," I beg. So once he gives me the whole x-gene, special birth, learn to control, and we should use them for good lecture I just look at him and Jean in awe. How could they know so much that very little other people do? "Professor?" I ask.
"Yes?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Anything. I'm always here for you."
"Am I evil? Like Briana said." The question's been bugging at me since she'd said it, and I need to know for sure that I'm not evil.
"That, Tatiana, I cannot tell you. Only you can answer that question. I do not think you are evil, nor does Jean or Kurt or any other of my students, for that matter, and I believe that you have made it quite clear earlier that you do not think you are."
"Professor X is right, Tatiana. I don't think you're evil, or a monster," Jean adds, remembering what I said. "You just don't know how to control your powers yet. And we can help you learn to." Jean is just like Daren; she knows just what to say to make you feel better.
"Thank you. So, can you get out of my head so I can come back into consciousness?"
"Of course, I'm sorry. We'll talk more at the orphanage," Professor X apologizes.
They leave my mind and I come to my senses. I see a group of people leaning over me, and they're all wearing suits similar to Jean's. I'm guessing that these are the other 'X-Men'. One of them is blue and furry; he's the one who's cradling me in his arms. His touch is so gentle, so soft, and it doesn't feel like he hates me, hates what I am and I don't necessarily mean mutant, 'cause he's obviously one. I slowly reach my hand up and brush his face. His fur is as soft as his touch, even though he only has three fingers on each hand (which is totally weird). "Who's the fuzzy guy?" I ask. I know it's kind of odd for me to say that first thing when I wake up, but I can't help being curious. "He's cute." Oops. I didn't actually mean to say that out loud, but at least he's blushing. It's a weird contrast with the blue, but it looks even more cute especially 'cause he's smiling, showing extremely white, wait, are those fangs?
The fuzzy guy says, "I'm Nightcrawler, but my real name's Kurt. Vhat's your name? Ve never had a chance to ask."
I giggle, "You mean when I was beating you up with rocks? I'm sorry about that by the way. Oh, and my name's Tatiana. Judging by your accent, I'd say you're from… Bavaria, Germany. Am I right?"
"Ja. How did you know?"
"I just do."
"Vell, Tatiana; ve should be getting you out of here, 'cause I don't think you're going to get a very good velcome from your friends." Man, even his accent is cute.
"Oh, they are NOT my friends. Hey, does anyone else speak German here?" I ask.
"Nien. Vhy?"
I consider this fortunate statement. I wait for a moment, then say, in German, "Na ja, siehe, ich nehme Deutsch für meine Sprache Klasse, plus ich zusätzliche Klassen und Studium in der Sprache, so bin ich besser als der Durchschnitt 14 Jahre alt. Was ist Ihre Sprache Klasse? Ist es Spanisch?" That means: Well, see, I take German for my language class, plus I do extra classes and study in the language, so I'm much better than the average 14 year old. What's your language class? Is it Spanish?
"Uh, ja, es ist Spanisch." That means: Uh, yes, it is Spanish in both German and Spanish.
"Cool," I say. "Oh, sorry guys. And, Kurt; Supongo que los otros niños en la mansión de un poco de español, así que vamos a tener que utilizar el alemán, si se habla y no quiere que nadie entiende. Me gusta que hable español y alemán, sin embargo, porque soy demasiado trilingüe. Yo hablo español como primer idioma, Inglés como mi segundo, Y el alemán como mi tercera." In Spanish, that means: I take it that other kids at the mansion speak a little Spanish, so we'll have to use German if we talk and don't want anyone to understand. I like that you speak Spanish and German, though, because I'm trilingual too. I speak Spanish as my first language, English as my second, and German as my third.
I see some of the other kids look shocked at what I just said, and I see some others just look bewildered at how I'm so unfazed at what just happened, and still fluent in both German and Spanish, but I only pay attention to Kurt, who just says, "Wow. Quiero decir, eh, sí, está bien." That means: Wow. I mean, uh, sure, okay.
"Cool. Glad we could work that out. Anyway, come on, it's this way to the orphanage," I say.
Disclaimer: Well how about that? I'd say Tatiana's got some pretty strong opinions… and memory plus future. Read the next chapter to find out who she is and why she's so sensitive. Now, why don't you put your hand on your mouse or track pad, move your cursor to the little Review button at the bottom of the screen, click, and post; okay? Check for the next chapter, probably later rather that sooner.