The idea for this story dawned on me after my reading a TCP, in which a shapeshifting girl gets stuck in the body of a chicken which in turn gets eaten by her parents. The beta was Moviemom44; I, personally, don't own any rights to the X-Men for it's the intellectual and financial property of Marvel. The items I described as belonging to Brianna in this story, in turn, actually all belong to me in real life – though I'm not that untidy.
The Matter of Practice
A group of teenage girls were looking with curiosity at the unmoving body of the girl around whom they gathered. There were four girls of different races – Sarah, who was black; Jasmine, a Caucasian; Liz, who was half Native American; and Sakura, a short, slim daughter of Japanese immigrants, who was always emphasizing her origin with a smile of pride. Even if she was born here in the States, barely spoke Japanese and had no idea about how to wear a kimono. The four of them certainly made a well balanced racial profile.
But the fifth teenager, lying on her bed in the dormitory, seemed to belong to a race which even didn't evolve on Earth. She was blue all over, with her short wavy hair the color of purest white and eyes as golden as no one could have. Unless they were a mutant, which the unmoving girl was.
Alice had the power to shift her consciousness into inanimate items which was what she was doing now - trying to move her mind out of a big plush elephant standing on the table in the neighboring room. The toy belonged to Leshawna, Jasmine's roommate. She got it from her boyfriend for her last birthday three days ago, as if she was still a little girl.
That was the limitation of Alice's power. She couldn't always use it at her will. Getting into an item was as easy as a pie but getting out of it was a much more difficult task, taking her always about five minutes. Although she was making progress in recent weeks due to her exercises, observed by her school friends who accepted her fully. Maybe but for Brianna...she was even shorter than Sakura, had her short spiked hair painted pink and hated Alice. Just because she was a mutant. But she was the last person Alice was thinking about now. All she was thinking about now was coming back to her body.
"Hey, honey, are you here?" asked Sarah in her characteristic deep alto, touching Alice's naked blue arm, so unlike her own; brown, plump and completely human.
The aforementioned opened her all golden eyes and smiled. Her eyelids fluttered.
"Yes, I'm back".
"You are doing really well," said Jasmine, a mild mannered girl with a shock of curly blonde hair and big, innocent blue eyes. "This time it was just three minutes. Sakura was looking at her watch all the time".
The Japanese girl nodded. "Two minutes and fifty two seconds to be precise," she said. "I'm sure one day you'll be able to get out in less than a minute… ten seconds maybe. Or even instantly. You only need to practice".
"I will," said Alice. "What a pity I can't move objects I'm in. I'd scare Brianna. She would leave school instantly and go back home. She wouldn't ever tease me".
Liz, a tall and bony girl with a braid, who didn't speak until now, opened her mouth for the first time since Alice started her practice.
"It would be great," she agreed. "I hate her too. You could scare her every now and then. Imagine: she would be opening her handbag and her own purse would jump out of it and hit her on her face. Or, she could be sitting on her chair and it would jump out from under her. She would think it was ghosts!"
The five girls giggled at this rather pleasant image. None of them liked Brianna.
"I could do it," said Alice. "I could go to her room and get into some things she has in there. It would be great if I ever happened to learn to move them".
The girls nodded. The blue skinned teen closed her eyes and concentrated. She was out of her body now, observing the room of her enemy. She could see her lying on her bed with several of her things lying about. A small, pink pillow with two embroidered hearts and the "Love" logo in one corner. A copy of "Pandora" by Anne Rice with a hand made green bookmark stuck between its pages. A pink Nokia mobile phone. A blue pen with Tinkerbell on it. A black t-shirt with a scene from Starcraft and another one, with a big, smiling face of Minnie Mouse, pink, innocent and cute – not fitting their owner's personality at all. Amber beads. An MP3 player. Used tissues. Even a single hygienic pad in its navy blue wrapping. Not used this time, how nice.
"What a mess," Alice thought. "Is she always so untidy so as to keep all her stuff on her bed? Can't she clean it up?" She took a closer look at the things lying on the bed. Which one to choose? The Tinkerbell pen? No. The vampire novel? No. Well, life as seen from the perspective of a feminine hygiene product would be funny. Alice concentrated, looking at the pad. Her essence came into it. The world became all soft and white.
Alice's friends were wondering what Alice was doing for so long in Brianna's room. It was five minutes since she left them. The last time took her less time. Someone knocked on the door. The girls shivered, wondering what they should say to their guest about Alice's state she was in. But well, after all, everybody knew what powers she had.
Liz came to open the door. "Come in," she said, without seeing who was coming in since the door blocked her view of the person paying a visit to their room. But the others saw who it was.
"Hi, Brianna," said Sakura.
"Hi," said the guest. "I was wondering if any of you could loan me… you know, I just started my period and I'm out of pads. I just used the very last I had".