I haven't eaten in five days. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm not. The weird thing is, I'm not hungry. I figured out why around the crossover to Wyoming. Whenever I had stopped to take a break, all the lights around me would go out. I assumed it was leftover damage from Magneto, but I realized I was absorbing the energy. Without even trying, I was collecting the electricity around me to sustain myself. If I did this for the rest of my life, I would never be able to use electronics again. I'm too addicted to Doctor Who to never watch it again. In other news, my rib hasn't gotten any better. I think I'm straining it with my flying constantly. Maybe I'm using all the energy I'm sucking up for things other than healing. That all leads us to today. I had stopped to rest in a air conditioned gas station. I walked out, barely noticing the three-some that was walking toward me. Until, that is, one said, "Are you Kyra Quentin?" I stopped. The girl who had spoken was tall with long red hair. I put Sam's drumsticks in the back pocket of my trashed jeans and replied, "And who's asking?" The other girls looked like she was taken straight out of the 90s. She looked Asian, and wore a slick, bright yellow trench coat. She had wild black hair. The guy had smooth hair and glasses. He, undoubtedly, was a nerd. The people told me that they have a school where I can learn to use my powers. They said that they have a machine that can find mutants, and that was how they had found me. I knew my answer as soon as they asked me, but I didn't answer immediately. I didn't want them to know I was practically homeless, an orphan, and needed help and a home. Then I said, "Yes, I want to go." They looked relieved. "Come with us." the redhead said, "I'm Jean, by the way. This is Hank and Jubilee." She started to walk behind the station, but there was nothing there. Suddenly, a black jet appeared. I gaped, "That is what you guys came here in? I was expecting a school bus!" Jubilee shrugged, "There's no need for a whole bus when there's only one new kid."
"I'm the only one?" I asked. I would have thought they would have recruited more than one kid at a time. Hank spoke up. "We tried to get more, but you're the only one that is interested." Sucks for them, they're missing out on a ride in a jet. The bottom of the jet opened up, and I was led inside. Jean and Hank headed up to the cockpit, and Jubilee motioned for me to sit next to her. I let out an involuntary hiss as my side bumped both the armrest and the seat. Jubilee looked concerned. "Are you alright?"
"I broke my rib. I'll be fine." Jubilee certainly didn't think so. "Let me see." She demanded, "Hank might need to check it out." I lifted up my shirt to expose my side, and Jubilee whistled. The skin was purple and bruised, and it was swollen. "Ya, why don't I grab Hank." She ran up to the cockpit, and returned shortly with the man with glasses. He took one look at my side and sighed, "You're going to have to go straight to the infirmary. Why didn't you say anything?" I pulled my shirt down. "It's been almost a week, I figured I was almost healed by now." That was a lie. I knew I wasn't getting any better. Hank's eyed bulged. "A week, Kyra? You flew through two states with a broken rib?" I just shrugged apologetically. The rest of the flight was quiet, except for when I asked Jubilee, "So this school, does it just teach about our powers or does it teach, like, science and history?"
"It's just like a real school. Every subject, and all the hoards of homework." The words were somehow comforting, like I thought my life could actually be normal again. When we landed, Jean led me inside the huge Mansion. I could feel everybody staring, and it was kind of unsettling. They must not get many new kids around here. We went down in an elevator and into hallway that was made entirely of metal. She led me into a room, and motioned for me to sit on a metal table. "Wait here, and Hank will be in a minute to check you out." I snickered at the word choice, but Jean pretended not to notice. Then I was alone. Apparently, Hank was the co-pilot and the doctor. I had to admit, this guy was talented. "Let me see." He said without emotion. I showed him my rib again, and he sighed. "It's infected. You're going to need a shot, some antibiotic, and I need to wrap you up." I grimaced at the mention of a shot, but nodded. Hank got to preparing the shot, and ransacked my brain for something to say. It was to quiet. "So," I finally said, "What is your mutation?" He held up the shot, "Maybe I'll show you when there's not so much delicate equipment around." A destructive power? Sounds fun. He gave me the shot, easing the needle into my side. "Ouch!" I exclaimed, surprised that it hurt as much as it did. Then again, anything touching it at all hurt so it's not surprising at all. Hank turned around to grab a roll of ace bandage. "Sorry if this hurts, but I want to wrap it tight so it heals straight." When he said tight, he meant tight. I clenched my teeth as he wrapped the bandage around my stomach and sides. When he was done he handed me two pills and a cup of water. "For the pain." he noted, "The professed wants to see you. He'll be waiting at the top of the elevator." I slid off the table and headed for the door. My movements felt stiff, and I wrapped my arm around my side in a poor attempt to make it stop hurting. "Thanks, Hank." I told him. The professor was nothing like I imagined. He was bald, young, and in a wheelchair. "Kyra!" he called, catching my attention. I tried not to look shocked, and not to look at his legs. I failed in both aspects. "Let's head to my office, just follow me." he instructed as he started to roll away. I walked along beside him as he went over the basics. "No alcohol is permitted. You will have to attend all your classes and do your homework. In my office we can officially register you. You will live in our dorms and after I get you registered I will show you where and introduce you to your roommate. Many of the students have mentors to teach them how to use their powers. Once I evaluate yours, I can find one that will work for you. Students are not permitted to leave the school grounds without permission. I know you are religious, so you can go to church on sundays. Oh, and I'm so sorry about what happened to your parents." I barely caught all the needed information. They really needed to just type it out. Finally we stopped walking on front of a tall mahogany door. I watched as the door handle turned and the door opened all by itself. "Did you do that?" I cried, "Is that your power?" The professor smiled knowingly. "I am a telepath."
"So you can read minds too?" I asked, "That's how you knew so much about me." I realized. I followed him into the room as he answered, "Precisely, and you can call me Xavier, you don't have to keep on saying 'the professor'." When I looked confused, he answered, "You mentally scream. For a telepath, your thoughts are impossible to ignore. It's just natural for certain people." His eyes flitted to a picture on the wall - a man in black. Xavier wheeled himself behind a desk with a computer on it. On my record, he put the general stuff. My name, age, birthday and mutation. Next he made me a schedule. The basics first, he said, after asking me what type of science I prefered, and if I wanted honors or AP level math and english. "Now for the extra curricular. I'm putting training on. What do you like to do?" I shrugged. "I love to read. I can sort of write, but I'm not very good at it." Xavier stopped me there. "Creative writing and study hall it is then. Study hall takes place in the library, and when you don't have homework you can read." He finished typing out some things, then said, "Your schedule is printing out in the library. I have a map for you here." The map he handed me looked hand drawn, and then photocopied. I thanked him and then left. As I walked, I didn't look up from the map until I noticed a peculiar smell. I looked up to see that the entire hallway was covered in blue smoke. It smelled notoriously like sulfur. Suddenly, in a puff of blue smoke, a boy appeared in front of me. He had to be the coolest looking kid I've seen. He had blue skin, pointed ears and a tail. Lines and patterns were etched in his skin, And his hair was long with blue highlights. He was wearing a red jacket, and had a big goofy grin revealing fangs. "Mein fehler! I did not mean to surprise you!" I just stared, not quite sure what to say because in all reality I was talking to a blue teenager. "No! You're okay!" I told him, surprised as Jubilee and Jean ran up, and I was grateful for some familiar faces. "Kurt! You're frightening her!" Jean scolded. Frightening was not the word I would use. I stuck my hand out to Kurt. "I'm Kyra. Your name is Kurt?"
"Ja, Kurt Wagner."
"Well, Kurt, I was just heading to the library to pick up my schedule. Mabe also find a nice book and corner or windowsill." Kurt looked confused. "Why do you need a corner?" I shrugged, not sure how to explain my reading habits to him. When I read, I liked to find small corners and scrunch myself in them. If there were none of those, then a nice window sill would also do the trick. "That's just where I like to read." I turned to Jean. "I am going the right way, right?"
"Yes, you are. We'll come with you, though. We have a free period now." I wasn't going to be one to reject friends on my first day, so I agreed and let the trio take the lead. The library was big. It had tall bookshelves lining the walls, with long mahogany tables stretching across the middle. It seemed that everything in this house was mahogany. In one corner was the printer. I took my papers off the top. One was my schedule. The other was my dorm number and roommate's names, Peter Maximoff. There was a note on the bottom that said, I'm sorry I had to put you with him. Peter can be hard to get along with. I decided that maybe I should take the book back to my room, and meet my roommate first. With a poof, Kurt appeared next to me. "You have Peter? Lucky, I'm with Warren" I didn't know who Warren was, but I was sure I would meet him soon enough. I was also sure that Kurt's could teleport, which seemed super handy. I collected a pile of books, waved bye to Jean and Jubilee, and headed to my dorm. It was on the top floor, on the very end of the hall. I walked in and studied the room. There was a visible line separating the two sides. One the used side, the walls were painted grey, but you could barely see the paint because the wall was covered in so many posters. There were bands, comic book characters, and a couple that were pure aesthetic: space, music, lightning. The other side of the room had plain white walls. There was a bed with a plain pillow and blanket, and next to that was a little table and a lamp. There was a sudden gust of air behind me, and a voice said, "Who are you?" I turned to find a boy dressed in black and leather, with goggles on his head and long silver hair. He looked like he was around twenty years old. It seemed that everybody here was older than me. "What are you doing in my room, kid?" He asked. There was another gust of wind and suddenly all my books were on the floor, and the boy was in behind me holding my papers. I just stood there, shocked. "Math? Chemistry? Boooring!" I tried to snatch my papers back, but suddenly he was standing on my bed eating a Twinkie. He threw the schedule onto the table, and remarked, "Rude! I am not hard to get along with!" I could feel my hands start to spark, and stuffed them in my pockets. "I beg to differ! Get down, give me my paper, and get back to your side of the room!" I yelled at him. He looked shocked, then grinned. "Why don't you come up here and make me?" He retorted. I glared, briefly wondering what would happen if i hit an actual person with lightning. Then I jumped-slash-flew up onto the bed. I jumped for the paper, but when Peter pulled it away at the last second I went sailing off of the bed. When I hit the floor the pain in my side reawakened, and I let out a little yelp. I put my arm around my side to protect it, and stood up. I then proceeded to electrocute Peter. As soon as I released the lightning I knew it was a mistake. Peter was thrown off the bed and against the wall. I ran over to find him laying on the floor, laughing. His hair was sticking up and his face was black. I couldn't believe I was worried. "Peter, are you alright?" I asked, rather angrily. "That was awesome! Help me up" Peter responded enthusiastically. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. He was still leaning on me heavily. I dragged Peter to his bed, and dumped him on it. He was still laughing. "That was crazy. Don't worry about it, kid, I heal fast. What was your name anyway?" I couldn't help but smile. "Kyra. So what can you do?" I collapsed onto my own bed, mentally making a note to pick up my books later. My body felt like sack of lead. "I never realized how tired I am." The lights flickered, the energy probably the only reason I was still conscious. "I'm fast. Faster than light, actually."
"Cool,"
"Y'know, you sort of remind me of my little sister." his comment caught me off guard. He didn't remind me of Sam at all, except for the fact that they both liked to antagonize me. But I had to say something. "What's her name?"
"Wanda. She's about your age."
"Is she a mutant?"
"Not yet, but me and my mom are pretty sure she is. Do you have any siblings?"
I was saved from answering his question by a woman who appeared in the door. "Are you the new girl?" She asked. I stared. It was Mystique. I sat up and swung my legs off of the bed. "That's me."
"Come on, I'll be testing your powers. My name is Raven." I followed her in silence to the elevator I had first come up in. In the enclosed space, I noticed something. "You have scales? That's so cool!" I gushed. Raven gave a mischievous smile. "You think? Watch this." her scales suddenly flipped over, revealing normal, white skin. It flipped back, and now the patch of skin was dark brown. One more time and it looked like it did before, blue and scaley. "So you're mutation is changing how you look?" I asked. Raven nodded as the elevator doors opened, revealing metal hallways. She led me to a door at the end of the hallway, it was round and decorated with a big X. It opened automatically. "This is the danger room. Basically, I will test your powers and see what you can do." Raven said. She had me demonstrate flying, moving metal, and exploding things other than rocks. I actually started to glow at times and I'm pretty sure the power almost went out a few others. Eventually I was allowed to go back to my room. I collapsed on my bed, hands sparking out of control. I held them up, watching the mini lightning shoot off my fingers. "How did it go?" Peter asked. He was laying on his bed, reading a comic book. I sighed, and nodding to my hands said, "They won't stop."
"Why would you want them to?" I didn't answer, and went to pull the map that Xavier had given me out of my pocket. It burst into flames. I blew it out frantically and dropped it on the bed where I wouldn't have to touch it to see it. It was scorched, but still readable. "So dinner is next? And the dining hall is upstairs, next to the… uh… ballroom? Why does a school have ballroom?"
"For the dances and parties. " Peter said matter of factly, "Anyway, you can go with me and my friends, since you burned your map." As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" Peter called, and the door opened to reveal a long blonde haired boy. He looked like a punk, to put it simply. "Who's sparky over here?" The lights flickered in response. Peter put his comic down and stood up. "Warren meet Kyra, kid meet Warren." I pulled myself out of bed. "You're Kurt's roommate, right?" Warren nodded, the beckoned to Peter. "So, you coming to dinner?"
"Ya, but she's coming to." Warren scowled in response. "I'll just go by myself, maybe I'll find Kurt." I looked pointedly at Warren. But then, as I reached for the map, I realized that my hands were still sparking. I'll just have to memorize the way. As I walked my hands stopped sparking, and it was safer to touch things. It turns out finding the dining room was pretty easy when every other student was going the same way. "Hey, Kyra, wait!" a voice behind me called. I turned to see Jubilee pushing through the crowd towards me. "So, you like the school?" she asked. I nodded, "it's great, I can't believe everybody here is a mutant." Jubilee grinned. "There's this dude, Scott Summers, who has a car. We like to take it out every once in awhile and go see a movie, go to the mall. You want to come after dinner?" I frowned. "It's sounds fun, but isn't that against the rules?" We entered the dining room and Jubilee pulled me into a seat between her and Jean. "The professor knows, he's fine as long as we're careful." Across the table sat Kurt and a boy who I hadn't seen before. He was wearing odd red sunglasses. "This is Scott. Scott, this is the new girl, Kyra." Jean introduced. Scott shook my hand, but in a moment the dining hall fell quiet. Xavier was coming in, and he took his place at the head of the long table. That, I assume, marked the start of dinner because people started eating. I hadn't eaten in a couple weeks, so while I didn't usually like fish tonight it was delicious. After dinner, I followed the foursome down to a garage, to a cool red car. Kurt teleported into the back, and patted the seat next to him. "Come on, Kyra." I was the last person to get in and when I was buckled Scott drove off. The gate opened automatically, and after we exited the long driveway we entered New York city. "Whoa!" I breathed. "I take it you've never been here?" Kurt asked. "New York? I've never even been close! It's so big!" The other three overheard us. "You've never been to the big apple?" Jubilee shrieked, "We have to show her everything." She told Jean and Scott up in the front. That started a heated discussion about where they needed to take me. Kurt suggested several cathedrals, while Jubilee wanted to go to an amusement park. Eventually they actually asked me, and by then I had already made up my mind. "the Statue of Liberty," I answered. The entire car moaned, and Scott finally spoke up. "That's so basic! only tourists go to the Statue of Liberty! I'm deciding where we're going, and that's final." After some swerving and going over the speed limit, we stopped at a… library. "I'm bored already!" Jubilee whined. Jean joined in, saying, "I hate to agree Scott, but there's a library at the mansion - what's so special about this one?" Scott led the way inside. "First of all, the library at the mansion only has law and science books. This library is different. Ciao, Henry!" The librarian waved back. "You want the usual, Mr . Summers?" He had a thick Italian accent. "Yes, please." Scott answered. I watched, stunned, as the librarian turned to the bookcase behind him and pulled on one of the books. There was a click, and the bookshelf next to it slid open to reveal a staircase. I could smell pizza and marinara sauce floating up from the room below. Henry led the way down the stairs and we emerged into a brightly lit italian restaurant. "Take a seat," Henry said, gesturing to a table, before he left.
"Why didn't you tell us you knew where a secret restaurant is?" Jubilee cried. Scott shrugged. "Maybe because you never asked. anyway, me and Alex used to come here all the time, so I figured it was the perfect place to bring the new girl."
I ended up going back to the mansion that night with after the best Italian food I've ever had, and a few new clothes, courtesy of Jean. Peter was asleep when I got there, looking slightly like a burrito. I crawled into bed, falling asleep before I hit the pillow.
