Chapter 3

I realized that I was being foolish, to hide out in my room from everyone because I was afraid of my power. I knew I couldn't be the only one here to feel that way so I sucked up my courage and walked out into the hall.

This was a quiet section of the mansion. There wasn't anyone here. I went toward what appeared to be a common room that I had seen the night before on my way to the kitchen. There were a few kids sitting around talking and there was a girl and boy playing thumb war and she had gloves on her hands. As I watched them I knew the boy wanted to kiss her and I heard her say that she didn't want to hurt him. It felt better knowing I wasn't the only one.

As I continued to walk I noticed a couple of the students whispering to each other while looking in my direction.

Had they seen what happened earlier? I thought.

I continued along the hallway when a woman with white hair greeted me.

"Hello,Lydia. My name is Ororo Monroe. The professor has asked me to assist you as you develop your power." She smiled and led me outside.

"I don't really want to develop it. I want it gone." I was afraid the only way to get rid of it was to die, and then what would be the point?

"Well, there's no way to get rid of a mutation, but you're not alone in being afraid of your power. Many of kids here were runaways, afraid of what they were, afraid they would be shunned by society and many of us are."

"So, what's your power?" I asked.

"I can control the weather." She simply said.

"Like, any kind of weather?" I was shocked.

Her eyes went white and the cloudy sky cleared up. "Yes, any kind of weather." She smiled.

We approached a stone courtyard and in the middle was a pile of sticks.

"The concept of this exercise is simple. Try to get the sticks to ignite."

"How do I do that?" The manifestation earlier was purely by chance.

"Concentrate on trying to do that." She sat down to watch me.

I stood there and stared at the sticks. I tried to imagine them bursting into flame but nothing happened, not even a spark. I looked to Ororo, who most people called Storm and then I decided to try something myself. I went over to the pile of sticks and placed my hand on them and thought about when the house went up in flames, what I was feeling. I concentrated hard but soon there was smoke and then a spark and soon the sticks were aflame.

Storm got up and congratulated me. "Now, that that's accomplished, manipulate it." She said.

"What? I don't understand." I watched the flame dance about on the smoldering sticks.

"If the house when up as fast as the professor said would have been hard to accomplish. He thinks that not only can you create fire; you can manipulate it as well. Try to make it do something, grow higher or lower, make it almost go out to only burn brightly again."

I stood before the flame and held my arms out on either side. Slowly I concentrated trying to make the flame grow, but it didn't work. I was thoroughly exhausted later so Storm said we could stop for the day and I went back to my room to rest.

I slept through dinner again and was hungry this time so I went back to the kitchen, checking around for Kurt or anyone who might see me. I took a sip of the orange juice then found some dinner rolls and I warmed them up in the microwave then went to sit outside while I ate them to look at the stars.

I was sitting there after I finished just entranced. The sky was so clear here, not so where I'm from. Oh, you can always see a few stars, but not like here. Soon I noticed someone walking toward me.

"Guten abend," he replied when he came closer.

"Good evening, yourself, "I replied.

"You speak German?" He asked with a smile.

"Only a few words or phrases. Not enough to carry on a conversation." I smiled back at him. He did have a nice smile and his teeth seemed incredibly white against his dark blue skin. There were symbols all over his face and I imagined they went all over his body, but I was a little nervous to ask about those.

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier,Lydia." He looked down.

"Nothing happened, I just got nervous, and that's all. I can get nervous easily around people I don't know." I looked back up at the sky.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" He whispered.

"It certainly is." I kept looking, locating different constellations that I knew, and remembering the myths about how they were created.

I then noticed that Kurt wasn't looking at the stars but at me. I looked back at him, expecting him to say something, but what he did say took me by surprise.

"Would you like me to pray with you?" He kept his eyes on mine.

"For what?"

"For your power to be under your control." He placed his hand on mine.

"I'm not sure if that would help. My faith in God has wavered since the house went up in flames." I looked back up.

"God hasn't abandoned you,Lydia. He puts us through trials to teach us something, but we are not always sure of the lesson, sometimes long after the trial is over."

"Ok, you can pray, but I don't think it will do much."

Kurt got out his rosary and placed his hand on top of mine and bowed his head. I did the same. I couldn't really understand what he was saying, he was praying in German. I did appreciate the gesture. When he was done he still held my hand. Again his other hand came and pushed some hair behind my ear. When he kept his hand on the side of my face I didn't jerk away this time. I felt more comfortable around him. Maybe it was because he prayed with me, or maybe it was because I was coming to grips with my power and the world of mutants, slowly. His eyes were locked on mine and I found I was loosing myself in them. He leaned in closer to me and I met him halfway when our lips met. It was a soft, gentle kiss and I found my hands traveling up his arms. When our lips parted he looked back into my eyes for a moment, and then whispered, "Goodnight,Lydia," and he walked back inside.

I just stood there a little stunned by what had just happened, even though I was a willing participant myself. Soon I decided that it was getting late and went back inside and went to bed.