I know this story isn't 100% accurate with the original storyline, but this is merely a bit of fun, something I thought up whilst munching on noodles one morning. It will take a while to get into the story, mainly because I do want to build a good character before actually including the rest of the characters we know and love. I hope you enjoy, I appreciate all sorts of reviews like constructive criticism or something like that...I'd say "Please don't give me reviews like 'YOU CAN'T WRITE, IDIOT" But I can't really stop someone who wants to XD So, without any further ado, on with the story!
My name is Melody Eve Grant. I am a mutant, a teacher, at Charles Xaviers school that helps people like me gain control of their powers and find a place to fit in. Since my only form of motivation died, it took me a while to be able to muster the brains and energy to write my life down as a readable story because up until now, I've merely been seeing the scenes flash before my eyes like nightmares. Sure, it's not the best thing that has ever been written and posted onto the world wide web, but I honestly think that the meaning behind my tale is something that will inspire others to really remember the good about life.
It was morning in New York City, the sun was out and basking amongst the bright blue sky, the clouds were in hiding and the birds were singing their happy little songs to the rest of the world. Or rather, to the small portion of the world that were actually morning people. This story actually begins In a dark, small room where shrill beeping pierced through the air. There were thick, blue curtains shut tight over the only window to protect those who slept in the room from the glaring rays of sun that would try and peak through the fabric menacingly, it's only goal in the morning was to burn out the delicate eyes of the unfortunate. The room was plain, anything that wasn't a cream colour was a shade of blue, giving the room a coordinated and appealing look. The floor was relatively clear except for the clothes that was worn yesterday being thrown down before they stumbled into bed.
The rattling alarm clock soon tumbled to the floor with a loud thump, the hand that swatted it away still outstretched from underneath the duvet and noticeably relaxed when the whining stopped and a blissful silence enveloped the room once more. However, that peace was quickly shattered as the clock came back to life, the beeping seemingly coming back with a vengeance and was unfortunately too far away for the flailing arm to reach. With a loud groan, the duvet covers were hurled into the air before being tossed at the offending item. A red-headed woman, hair resembling a wild, flaming bush than actual hair, glared at the duvet covered alarm clock, the muffled beeping still causing her to flinch in annoyance and her teeth to grind together.
"Why the hell do I even have an alarm clock? My sleep is way too precious for that" With a grumble, she forced herself onto sleepy, shaking legs and yanked the duvet from the floor. This caused the clock to fly a little ways into the air before falling down, landing on her toes and then tumbling onto the carpet. She didn't even have time to hiss and grip her throbbing foot before she watched the back of the clock clicking free and the batteries scattering across the floor. To stop herself from screaming in frustration, the redhead hurled the duvet onto her bed in a ball before pathetically tripping on the long pyjama legs that had snuck under her foot whilst she was off balance. With a loud yelp, the redhead fell to the floor with a dull thump, groaning pathetically as she pressed her face to the clean, blue carpet. Beside her head, a single battery rolled toward her almost mockingly.
"Good morning Melody!" came a sing-song voice from downstairs, the clattering from plates quickly followed after. Apparently the groans, thumps and bangs were a normal occurrence in this household, a signal that the young redhead was finally amongst the conscious. Melody hurled herself back onto her feet, the expression on her face the perfect picture of someone that knew they were going to be pulling their hair out by the afternoon. She waddled out of the death trap that she called her bedroom, careful not to stand on her pyjamas by yanking them up every few steps, something that at the moment certainly did all too classy. Staring forward, Melody was suddenly positive that maybe her day wouldn't be so bad. Like glimmer of hope, a ray of happiness, she gazed upon the open door of the bathroom. The sleepy redhead could have sworn she could hear a hymn beginning as she stepped closer to the place that would wash away the groggy, eternally pissed feeling. With sparkling eyes, she raised her foot to step inside the bathroom of all things glorious, but, before her foot could come into contact with the shockingly cold tile, she was pushed to the side, the gleaming smile of her younger brother Matthew disappearing behind the white wood before it was slammed in her face. To finalise everything, an audible click soon followed as he locked the door. Melody noticeably deflated, her eyebrow twitching ferociously as the eternal anger began to rise once again. Surely the redhead should have realised that in the morning there is no such thing as a happy beginning.
"Dammit Matt!" She roared, raising her fist to slam on the door. However, before the skin of her palm could touch the painted white wood, she inhaled a deep and slow breath, counting to 10 under her breath. Inhaling through her nose and letting out her a puff of air through her mouth dramatically she allowed herself to calm down. Slowly, Melody turned away from the bathroom door and focused her sights on the stairs, the smell of a sweet breakfast wafting up. With that, her stomach let out a growl and she headed toward the stairs/looming death...breakfast first and then a quick clean up? It was a better plan than screaming at her brother through the bathroom door for the neighbours to hear. Unfortunately they already questioned the sanity of this family and a one sided shouting match probably wasn't the best way to get onto their good books. That's if the gossiping fools even had good books, Melody assumed that once the chittering groups turned their backs from one another they would be spreading rumours about each other. With a quick nod and another deep breath, Melody began her careful descent down the stairs, warily eying up any object that was too close to her feet. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, she mentally cheered, a huge grin covering her face making her sleepy expression look somewhat drugged. It can't be too bad a day if she hadn't fallen down the stairs, right?
Rubbing the sleep out of her bleary eyes, Melody waddled into the kitchen and was greeted with aromatic, comforting smell of blueberry pancakes. Removing the hands that were rubbing into her sleepy face, she let out an animalistic hiss as the rays of sun seemingly glinted and sparkled around the pristine white kitchen, burning her delicate eyes.
"Oh, stop being a baby, Melo-dramatic!" Came an amused voice, the use of Melody's nickname caused her to slump forward. The redhead was positive that there was a cloud growing above her, refusing to disperse and today there was going to be one hell of a storm on her head. Before the slowly awakening redhead, her older sister Kristina seemingly danced around the kitchen as she swiftly placed pancakes on three plates, picked them up with quick and gentle fingers before balancing them all on one arm expertly. Melody visibly winced, half expecting the plates to instantly tumble from their place and crash onto the floor, maybe a few globs of pancake would end up in their faces and of course, the syrup would end up in their eyes and hair. However, she was pleasantly surprised when she sister had no such problem, she merely placed the plates on the table, a small smirk on her face as she watched the redheads expression.
"Mel, I am not the one with the powers of bad luck, am I?" Chortling to herself, the brunette continued to skip around the kitchen, throwing open cupboards to grab glasses before tugging the handle of the fridge to grab the juice, skilfully ignoring the growing depressed aura that emanated from Melody who decided to sulk in the door way. Despite her personality and outlook on life, Melody was born a mutant...that isn't so bad, right? Well, the redhead was born with the power of bad luck, jinxing of sorts. With a little concentration she could make cereal catch fire, curdle milk and probably set off a dead bomb despite how impossible she was sure it all was. Unfortunately for the redhead, she didn't want to cause bad things to happen. Not to others and definitely not to herself, her powers just didn't sit right with her. Her father would always lecture the grumpy redhead, he would say "If you don't love your powers, you don't love yourself. Of course, if you don't love yourself then your powers are going to react to that and lash out at you". Her powers had allowed others to be able to class the mutant redhead as clumsy, very few people trusted her with holding breakable things. Melody had little to no friends at her workplace because they all seemed to have caught on to the fact that hanging around with the ginger was a serious risk to one's health. In fact, the only people who had stayed in her life was her family and sometimes she would think that maybe they only stayed out of obligation. No sane person would willingly stay in the same house as a walking, talking bad luck charm.
During her depressive musings, Matthew came charging down the stairs. His long black hair swinging behind him that he quickly tied in a low ponytail before he threw his school blazer on the back of his chair. With a huff and a bright smile aimed at the sulking redhead, he plonked down onto his seat and began cutting the pancakes on his plate into bite sized chunks.
"You always make the best pancakes, Krissy!" Praising his older sister through a mouthful of food, something that caused both girls to groan childish "Eeeeews". With a shrug and a hum of approval, Krissy finished slicing the pancakes that she had placed at Melody's seat at the table, quickly moving away the knife that she had used so that she didn't cause any accidents. Melody carefully trudged toward her seat, sighing happily when her rear end came into contact with sturdy wood and nothing exploded around her.
"Thanks Matt!" Melody watched as her sisters happy expression swiftly turned devious as she eyed up the seemingly sparkling clean and immaculately dressed younger brother. "So, you going all out to catch the eye of that guy, hmm?" Melody almost laughed as Krissy wiggled her eyebrows at the furiously blushing teen who shoved a large portion of his pancake in his mouth as a distraction. The redhead then looked down at her own plate, the pancakes were neatly cut and a fork was placed beside them. The three siblings had learned the hard way that allowing a mutant of bad luck to hold a knife was never a good idea and despite the fact that it made the redhead feel like a child, she knew that it was to keep her family from having to explain how a knife had ended up embedded in the wall, or worse, in one of them.
Perking up slightly, the redhead began to shovel the food into her mouth, wincing slightly when she stabbed her lip with the prongs before shrugging and continuing.
"S-shut up! That's not it!" Matt's face was now even more red, his pancakes were long gone, no longer providing a good distraction from the taunts of his sister. You probably wouldn't guess it since Matt is incredibly slim, but he could eat twice his body weight and eat it fast.
"What's his name?" Melody asked, immediately regretting the question when Krissy began to repeat it in order to get the teen to answer. One thing that people noticed quickly about this family was that the youngest and the eldest seemed to have switched places. Kristina was indeed the eldest but could easily pass off as the childish and hyperactive younger sibling; especially when she was placed next to her younger brother. Matthew was incredibly mature for his age, or rather he was good at acting mature at the right times. They were complete opposites but complimented each other, especially when Melody was involved.
"I am not telling you! You'll end up searching for him on facebook!" He hissed back, standing up quickly to place his plate carelessly in the sink. Kristina slinked behind him, her arms draping over his shoulders from behind and gripping around his neck so that she couldn't be pulled away.
"What's his naaaaaaaame?" Melody watched the two siblings wrestle each other; Matthew attempted to pry the arms of his sister from around his shoulders but let out a frustrated groan when they refused to budge. The black haired teen then decided to try and step forward, hoping that the impossibly strong woman would lose her grip but the uncontrollable giggling that left the smaller woman's lips made him realise his efforts were in vain.
"No!" another step, another giggle.
"Give me a naaaaaaaaame"
"Dammit no!"
"Naaaaaaaaaaaaa-"
"Mel! Help!" The redhead merely shrugged, not really knowing how exactly she was going to help.
"aaaaaaaaaaame!"
"Andy! It's Andy Sheerwood!"
A shocked silence filled the room, the occasional scraping of Melody's fork breaking it momentarily as she continued to scoop slices of pancake up from her plate and into her mouth. Matt, who was still red in the face, watched as Krissy let go of his shoulders and quickly righted her suit, her face completely stoic. With a deep breath and a quick cough to clear her throat she gazed into the pale blue eyes of Matt.
"I have something I must do in my bedroom" before she quickly scurried up the stairs. The two younger siblings watched after her in confusion before glancing at each other, Melody holding her fork to her face with a small slice of pancake dangling from the end, almost inside her still open mouth. It was then that everything seemed to click together and Matt stormed up the stairs after his older sister who had long since locked herself in the confines of her bedroom.
"Don't you dare go searching for a picture and you had better not add him!"
Melody let out a sigh before the pancake slipped from her fork and landed on her legs with a sticky squelch. Instinct caused her to jolt slightly, her hands reaching down slightly in an attempt to catch her falling breakfast, however her knuckles knocked the side of her plate instead. This caused said plate to swing forward, the rest of the gooey pancakes to fly the short distance between the plate and her face, her eyes and mouth screwed shut as the syrup that Kristina had applied generously over their pancakes sliding down her face. The shock of having something hit her in the face, of course, caused her to slam her body backwards out of pure instinct and an audible snap caused the redheads eyes to widen and a yelp to tear from her syrup covered lips before the chair and her body tumbled to the floor, the now broken chair leg laying harmlessly next to her winded frame. Melody gasped for air, wiping the syrup the best she could from her face before attempting to flick the gooey substance off of her hand only to have it fling itself into her eye, a hiss leaving her lips. Deciding that movement wasn't the best option right now, Melody slumped onto the floor and listened to the thumping as Matt slammed his fist on what she presumed was Kristinas bedroom door. Slowly, she sat up, careful not to place her hand on the puddles of syrup because she knew that it would make her slip and fall back onto the floor. It was almost comical how her brothers and sisters place at the table was always left immaculate whilst hers somehow managed to look as though someone had let a bomb go.
"Crap...that was just unlucky" she mumbled to herself, resigning herself to the fact that today, her powers really were going to act up.
After carefully taking her accident prone form from the kitchen floor, her brother and sister had rushed down the stairs and had ordered her not to touch a thing that had been scattered around. Their previous argument momentarily forgotten in light of Melody's burst of unlucky vibes. Quickly, Matt dragged his sulking sister up the stairs, ordering her to relax and get ready for the day. Melody groaned, skulking toward the bathroom as she began to plan her day.
Since Melody was a walking death trap, they had long since decided that when her powers act up like this she should spend the day inside the house...preferably not moving any further than needed. Before she closed the door, muffled talking could be heard as well as the clanking of dishes and cutlery, something that made a wave of guilt wash over her instantly.
"Oh come on, can't I just have a decent shower?" Melody groaned, twisting the knob of the shower left and then right, frustration etched on her features as water refused to leave the showerhead. With one particular vicious tug, ice cold water spewed from the small holes, the force causing the showerhead to come lose, land on the floor of the shower and promptly soak the redhead who simply sighed in defeat. She swiftly picked up the squirming pipe and placed it back onto the stand before promptly removing her soaked Pyjamas to quickly cleanse her body of the syrup and grime.
Her life wasn't always this bad, Melody's powers seemed to fluctuate. Certain days she could be perfectly normal, her powers would be in complete control and she wouldn't so much as spill a single crumb on her clothes. However, many days were like this one, where everything went wrong.
Melody quickly dried and dressed, deciding on simple blue jeans and a plain, purple V-neck shirt. If something bad happened she really did not want to be wearing anything that she didn't want damaged. It was only when she finally situated herself on the large, plush brown sofa in the living room did she allow herself to relax, wiggling her toes that were comfortably hidden inside her fluffy green socks. Melody never was one to try and look fashionable, she wore what she thought was comfortable and sometimes that got people saying she dressed like an old person – her sense of style was apparently so off. Leaning back on the chair that she was comfortably sat, she eyed her siblings who, compared to her, looked perfect. Her sister was slipping on her kitten heel shoes on the chair opposite her own, the black faux leather looking impeccable. Matthew was stood next to the door, glancing toward the window whilst tugging on his creaseless blazer, waiting for his group of friends to walk by so he could run out and greet them. It was times like this that she really looked at her two siblings and wondered what the hell went wrong with her.
Kristina Grant was a natural beauty. Her eyes were a rich, forest green and her skin always seemed to be a healthy tan. Brown hair always looked soft, shiny and never had a strand out of place as it framed her thin, young face perfectly. She had a good job, she was a manager at The New York Times and was popular because of her original ideas for stories. Currently she was wearing a white blouse, black pencil skirt and a black blazer on top. Skin coloured tights with black kitten heels were always a must for her, she always said that heels made her feel feminine and bold. Krissy loved make-up and was always willing to fight that wearing makeup did not make her less of a woman and that if a man complained about her make-up usage then they were placing too much value on her appearance. Of course, this made her want to make sure her make-up stood out even more due to her naturally challenging personality and she often opted for bold, bright colours.
Then there was Matthew Grant. His hair was sleek, long and dyed black. At the moment the 15 year old boy was going through the "Black is my one true colour" phase and wouldn't even listen to Melody or Kristina when they explained that black is a shade, not a colour. The two older siblings almost cried when they applied the thick, black dye onto his glorious brown locks before deciding that it actually did suit the little guy. His skin was a beautiful ivory, not a single mark marred his perfect skin and his eyes were an icy blue, shockingly contrasting his hair. He was wearing a navy blazer, a white shirt with a matching navy tie tied neatly and properly. Simple black trousers and shoes were on his legs and feet.
Looking at her two siblings, Melody couldn't help but feel like she had unknowingly pulled the short straw. She had long, ginger hair that no matter how much she conditioned, primped and primed could never achieve the glossy finish that her siblings had. Instead, it merely fell around her face like a fluffy mess and she would constantly have to sort out any stray hairs that wandered too close to her eyes. Melody was proud of her hair, however...she shared her hair colour with both of her parents plus her siblings always complained about how much they wished their hair was the same colour. Her skin was pale, freckles dusting across her cheeks that she thought made her look childish. What really bothered the young redhead were her eyes. Melody Grant had Heterochromia.
Her right eye matched her sisters perfectly, a forest green that one would expect a redhead to have. However, her left eye matched her brothers, an icy blue that, in her opinion, made her look slightly crazy. What was worse was that Melody was completely blind in her blue eye, the strain this had on her only working eye meant that she suffered from migraines every other day.
Despite the odd fit, the Grant siblings loved each other. Noticing Melody's mood, Matthew and Kristina leaned on either side of the sulking redhead, both pressing their lips to her cheeks before leaning away from her swatting hands.
"God, guys! Do you have to be such saps!?" Dramatically rubbing her cheeks, Melody half heartedly scowled at her siblings who simply giggled and grabbed their separate bags.
"Of course we do! Don't worry, you won't be so unlucky tomorrow. Just stay safe inside the house!" Matthew quickly ran out of the door upon noticing a small group of students wearing matching uniforms, a distant 'goodbye' was heard as he slammed the gate shut and ran into the centre of the group of children. Kristina quickly yanked the redhead from the sofa, ignoring her stumbles and yelps of surprise before they unnecessarily leaned forward in a crouch at the front door, peering around the frame of the door so the children didn't notice that they were currently spying on them, this probably helped them feel a little more sneaky. They both narrowed their eyes at the small group that he had run off into, eying up each of the children in turn with a scrutinising gaze. There were five in total, three boys and two girls. Melody recognised one of the younger girls as the next door neighbours child and wondered if she had the incredible knack for gossiping as her parents did. However, she had a job to do at this moment in time.
"Which one is Andy?" Melody asked, eyes not leaving the laughing teens as they all greeted their black haired brother. It was when she noticed how her brother suddenly became bashful that her eyes narrowed even further.
"The blonde one at the front – really loud" They both nodded slightly, elderly sister mode switched on as they watched the blonde boy and Matthew begin to laugh about something that had been said.
"I dunno...seems like a pretty boy to me. Did you see how he was constantly checking to see if his hair was still fluffy?" Kristina laughed at Melody's face as she mocked the actions he had made, this of course caused the red hair atop her head to resemble a bush once again. Upon noticing that they no longer had anyone to stare at, the brunette clapped a hand on her sisters shoulder reassuringly, a sympathetic smile gracing her face before she finally took a step outside.
"Don't forget to keep an ear out for the phone! Mum and Dad should be home today. Then who knows, maybe they will finally take us back to England!" Both of the girls laughed before waving goodbye. The Grant family originally came from Scotland, their father soon moved them all down to England for a job offer that he says he "Just couldn't refuse". This obviously meant that the three siblings had very prominent English accents that was usually the focus of teasing, but they didn't really care. Soon, business caused the family to move to New York before their parents left for a week's work trip, children staying behind because of education and their own work.
With a deep sigh, Melody closed the door carefully before sauntering toward her chair, eyes lighting up when she noticed her favourite book "The Lament of Sky" by BB Wynter perched on the arm rest. It was a genius book written by one of the best minds she could ever hope to delve into. It was a dark, magical and gothic book, it had completely caught the redheads attention the moment she lifted the perfectly designed paperback. The story itself had so many twist and turns you'd probably end up with emotional whiplash by the end, but what really caused her to love the author was the fact that the mysterious face at the front of every book was something that the author had painted herself, It was the image of one of the main characters. Melody sighed wistfully at the thought of her favourite book. However, before she could take a single, cautious step toward her safety zone, quick and loud rapping was heard at the front door causing the redhead to jump slightly, the hallway mirror cracking at the increase of her powers.
"That's seven years bad luck" she chastised herself, running her hand through her wild hair quickly before turning back toward the door.
Thinking that it was her sister coming back to collect something she had forgotten (they rarely get any visitors) the redhead twisted the handle quickly before tugging the heavy door open.
"Did you forget someth-Oh..." Instead of her sister, stood before her were two men. They both looked as though they were in their mid thirties. One stood tall, his steely gaze and huge muscles certainly did intimidate her, but the two prominent spikes of hair on either side of his head that resembled animal ears kind of took away from the threatening aura. The other man was sat confidently in a wheelchair, his ruffled brown bed hair looked as though he had ran his fingers through it, probably out of nervous habit. What unnerved the redhead the most was the friendly smile that he wore and the gaze in his eyes that simply screamed "I know everything you are thinking". In fact, she would probably prefer the "You mess with me and I'll cut you" aura from the grumpy looking man next to him.
"Uhm...sorry. I thought you were someone else..." Melody shifted awkwardly, half expecting them to actually tell her why they were here at this point. Instead, the gruff man grunted, muttering something that sounded like "Obviously" under his breath whilst the other continued to smile, gazing at her. An awkward silence soon followed, swallowing the three of them. To the redhead, it appeared as though the man in the wheelchair had drifted off into his own thoughts just as she had opened her front door.
"So..." She trailed off before realising she would actually have to ask the question "How can I help you?" This seemed to wake the gazing man from his daydreams who noticeably shook himself before schooling his features.
"I apologise. I am Charles-" He motioned toward himself "-and this is Logan-" The tall man grunted once again, something told the redhead he wasn't actually social "and we would just like to have a chat with you" The men seemed to look at her as if expecting her to understand what exactly they meant, like the words that just fell from their lips had some sort of secret message that she should have understood. Instead, Melody merely forced a polite smile onto her face, ready to reject the strangers.
"I am sorry, I am busy at the moment. Maybe you could come back later, ok?" She went to shut the door only for a large hand to grip the wood, forcing it open. What happened after that could only be called completely unlucky. The large man took a step forward into the house, his mouth open to speak to the wide eyed redhead. However, instead of words, a very loud and not-so-manly yelp left his mouth as he tripped up the small step leading into the house. This forced the door open pushing the redhead to the side and into the jacket clad coat rack that promptly fell onto the shocked woman. The thumping of the coat rack against the wall had shook the cracked mirror on the other side of the hallway, the glass slipping loose from its frame and falling toward the man who was sprawled on the floor, a similar look of shock covering his face.
Then, with lightning quick reflexes, large metal claws erupted from the knuckles of the man on the floor and sliced the thin glass effortlessly so that it fell harmlessly either side of his face. Melody peeked from behind the curtain of jackets at the two men, a nervous smile formed on her face when she noticed the exasperated expressions they both wore.
"Oops?"
If you see anything I need correcting like silly spelling mistakes, feel free to tell me. I know I haven't mentioned the other siblings abilities but that was intentional, I want those abilities to crop up naturally in the story.