"So....where're you goin'?" The woman spoke quietly. I looked around. The bus stop was empty, only the black woman and her boy were there, sitting on the bench. With her kid in her lap and her fuzzy grey sweater, she almost looked like a bear clutching her child protectively (you really got to hold on to your kid in this kind of a neighborhood). She had deep brown eyes (bear-eyes) and wiry black hair, and a kind smile she flashed my way when she asked me the question.

I shuffled my feet, scattering the crunchy autumn leaves around me, and kept my eyes down (she must not see them). "I'm going to my new school," I replied quietly. "Oh, that's nice," the woman said. She was obviously the kind of person who had to always talk to someone, or else she'd probably talk herself to death (you know the kind of person I mean). "Jeffy here," she nodded down at her son, "he just started kinder garden up at Woodson Elementary." I noticed she said this with pride in her voice, like it was one of the top school's in the state, or something. I knew all it really was, was a cheap school with less than twelve teachers.

"That's.....great," I commented. Keeping my eyes down, I shifted my backpack and brushed my hair into my eyes, trying to hide my eyes even more. "Well, it is real nice, specially fo' my baby," the black woman said, "Only thing I could really complain about at Woodson is that problem they have with mutant kids tryin' to sneak in all the time." I felt my back stiffen and the hairs on the back of my neck prickle up. The black woman snorted in disgust. "Wish them mutant's would just learn their place and stay away from our kids." I could feel my power start to tickle at the back of my brain, begging me to use it. "You know," I said coldly, "I don't think mutants are bad. After all, they are HUMAN, aren't they?" The black woman looked at me in shock. "Human? No way! They aren't human! Those muties do nothing but cause trouble." She looked at me in disgust. "What are you? Some kind of mutant lover?" She said 'mutant lover' with a kind of spitting, distaste. Like you would say a dirty word, or something.

I could feel my anger begin to boil inside me. I kept it down, but just barely. I knew how to control my power, but the anger I felt was still difficult to contain. "Why do you hate mutants?" I asked, shaking. "Because they do no good fo' nobody!" She replied. "That's not true!" I screamed. The black woman stared at me in surprise. Than fear.

Oh, shit. I knew that look.

She had seen my eyes.

"JEFFRY, RUN!!" She shrieked. Confused, the boy fell off her lap. Running as fast as she could, the woman pushed her son across the street, trying to get away from me. Right at that moment, a huge dump truck came down the road, heading directly for them. Double shit. I knew there was no way the driver could avoid them, even if he tried. I also knew I had a choice. They could be bloody smudges on the street if I wanted it. I could feel my brain telling me to let them die. To kill all of the mutant-hating humans. 'Why should you care,' it whispered to me, 'They are only humans. They hate you and kill your kind. They deserve to die.' I shook with the effort of holding my power back. Only a few seconds were left to choose. The driver of the dump truck had seen the woman and her Jeffy right in front of him, and had hit the brakes. 'Kill them. Why should you save those who hate you?' I opened my eyes as wide as they could go. "Because it's what's right." The truck was inches away from them now. Screaming in terror, they clutched each other, watching their death coming for them.
I let my power go.

a few seconds later

I let the woman and her son go, and they landed on the sidewalk. "Get the fuck away from us!" the woman cried, clutching her Jeffy to her. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I did not bother asking why, or trying to understand why they hated me, even after I saved their lives. I have already been through that. I simply turned around and ran. Letting the tears come, cooling me down, shading my eyes once again.

I knew then that I had to find this school and that Professor Xavior guy I had heard about. Maybe he could give me answers. Maybe not. All I knew was that I was a mutant, and that I couldn't let people die. All I have is my hope.
So, I ran down the road toward the school, and my future.

The End (of the Beginning)