Disclaimer: Oh, if I were rich...
Professor Xavier sighed behind his desk. Kaylie had just arrived at the school, and though she was currently undergoing a quick lesson in blocking with Jean, he was worried about her. Over the years he'd had many different mutants with different backgrounds and stories come to learn or seek refuge at his school, but he had never run into a situation like this. If he was quite honest with himself, it was a surprise that this sort of thing hadn't happened before, considering the nature of telepathy.
If they'd found her sooner and given her training when her powers first emerged, Xavier wouldn't have been nearly as concerned. As it was, her particular background would make it incredibly difficult to teach her exactly what she needed to know. Not only would she have to learn to control her abilities, but Kaylie would have to regain her sense of self, something she had lost during the three years in the mental institution. He had seen her mind, had seen the mental and emotional confusion she felt.
It was a very good thing they had arrived when they did. There was no doubt in Xavier's mind that if she'd been left where she was for much longer, there would be no going back. She would have been lost, and no amount of training would have been able to help her.
However, they had come in time. Kaylie might not have been fine, but she would be. It would take time, but she could still learn to control her abilities and rediscover who she was, rooting her own personality and self with the help of the other students that lived at the school. Over the years, Xavier had discovered that friendship, companions, were incredibly important to whom one was as a person, and he was hopeful that as Kaylie learned, she would make friends here that would help her on the bumpy road to recovery.
The pile of essays on his desk demanded Xavier's attention. The paralyzed professor took a red pen from a drawer and began to read over the top paper, putting the new student from his mind. Worrying about the girl would accomplish nothing; she would be fine. A horribly misspelled word earned a red note on the paper, and Xavier bent over the pile, mind on the 'Ethics of Telepathy Usage' paper he was grading.
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Kaylie really hadn't had much to pack. All the institute had allowed her to keep when she'd been admitted had been a few outfits, most of which she'd either worn out or outgrew during her hospitalization. The only item of clothing she still owned from then was her jean jacket with green lining, the only item of clothing (besides her pj's) that she'd managed to save from the fire. Everything else had been bought for her to wear by the institute, which meant that it was all bland, in shades of beige and white, none of which she'd wanted to bring with her when she went with Professor Xavier and the other two teachers to their school; however, Mrs. Webber had made her pack it all.
When she'd gotten to the school, Professor Xavier had removed the blocks on her mind, letting a flood of emotion and thoughts enter it. Ms. Grey, or Jean, as she'd asked to be called, had immediately put up a barrier on her mind, but not before Kaylie had let out an involuntary shriek at the familiar, yet sudden, sensation of hundreds of thousands of thoughts rushing about in her mind. That had attracted the attention of a group of students that Mr. Summers, or Scott, had shooed away as Jean led her inside and brought her to a secluded room, where she'd lifted the barriers and given Kaylie a crash course in blocking her mind. After she had deemed Kaylie proficient enough to hold her own rather weak barriers for a day, Kaylie had been given directions to her new room where her new roommate was apparently waiting.
Now Kaylie stood in front of her new room, drinking in the sight of the plain wooden windowless door. It had been such a long time since she'd seen a normal door with a normal brass doorknob. "Fantastic," she breathed, opening the door slowly, reveling in the fact that it was unlocked.
Kaylie stood in the doorway, content to stand there and stare at the room. Color coated each of the walls, brilliant shades of green and purple, with yellow trimmings. Posters depicting what looked like bands added to the décor of the colorful room. There were two beds, two closets, two dressers, and numerous throw pillows and a bright red beanbag thrown haphazardly around the room. One of the beds was covered with a bright, striped comforter with a matching pillow, while the other was plain and neatly made. On the colorful bed a girl wearing a green jacket, jeans with random colored patches sewn on, and a red miniskirt lay, drumming her heels clad in flats against a purple stripe of blanket. Kaylie recognized her as one of the girls in the group that had noticed her when she'd arrived and her cheeks flamed red in embarrassment.
"Um…" She searched for something to say, only to feel muted surprise touch her mental shielding as her voice jolted the teen on the bed out of her thoughts.
"Oh, hey!" The girl sat up and swung her feet off of the bed. She rose and walked towards Kaylie, holding out her hand, smiling. "Name's Jubilee. You're the new kid, right?"
Kaylie nodded, a smile of her own creeping onto her face, accepting Jubilee's hand and shaking it once before letting go. "Yes. I'm Kaylie." Her eyes flickered back to the room once more. "Finally, color," she whispered.
Jubilee laughed. "Most people don't like coming in here. I've had Rogue tell me more than once that my room looks like a rainbow exploded in it."
"It's amazing," Kaylie told Jubilee firmly. "I haven't seen this much color since – it's been a while," she finished lamely. She received an odd look for this and she sensed a flicker of confusion come from her new roommate, but it passed as quickly as it came.
"So," Jubilee started. "I'm supposed to give you a tour of the Institute – what's wrong?"
The word 'institute' had caught Kaylie by surprise and she flinched. She felt concern push its way through the myriad of emotions that pulsed at the edge of her mind and a hand touched her shoulder. Kaylie instinctively pulled away from the touch that reminded her all too much of the touch of a concerned therapist. "I'm okay," she quickly reassured Jubilee. "I'm sorry. What were you going to say?"
Jubilee gave her a searching look and Kaylie shivered under the gaze of the older girl. "Well, I can give you a tour now or you can get settled in this mess of a room," she finally said, waving a hand back at the colorful bedroom. "What'll it be?"
"Explore," Kaylie replied instantly. Jubilee grinned.
"Come on, then." The older teen closed the door and motioned for Kaylie to follow her as she started off down the hallway. Kaylie followed, eyes taking in the polished wood floors and walls as she walked. "It's so different here," she murmured quietly.
"Good different or bad different?" Jubilee asked, half-twisting to look at the petite redhead.
"Good different," Kaylie replied, a sort of half-smile on her face as she remembered stark white walls and the jangling of keys. "Very much so."
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"This place is confusing," Kaylie declared after fifteen minutes of following Jubilee through a maze of hallways. Jubilee shrugged.
"It does take some getting used too," she allowed. "If your brain's stuffed full with directions that you're going to forget in a day, would you like to take a look around outside? It's nowhere near as confusing as inside."
Kaylie was fully aware that her jaw dropped a good inch, but she really didn't care. It had been years since she had been outside – walking into the school didn't count. She had been ferried inside immediately and hadn't gotten a chance to look at the grounds. "Yes!" she exclaimed as soon as she remembered how to speak. "I miss the sun," she added plaintively, much to the confusion of Jubilee.
"Okay," she replied slowly, leading Kaylie through another hallway that brought them to the front foyer. Kaylie stared at the impressive double doors that she hadn't had a chance to admire earlier. Jubilee pushed open the doors and walked outside, leaving Kaylie to do the same behind her.
Kaylie blinked in the bright sunlight, trying to adjust to the sudden increase in light. "Bright, bright, bright," she muttered to herself, shielding her squinted eyes with her arm. After a moment she let her arm drop and her eyes widened as though her brain had completely forgotten the bright sunlight that flooded into them.
Green grass, plenty of leafy trees, a basketball court, and, thankfully, a thick, white cloud that had just passed over the sun, which was the only thing allowing Kaylie to actually look around without being blinded. Kaylie stared at it in awe, trying to look at it all without falling over, something she was dangerously close to doing as she twisted in place in an attempt to see everything. "Sun!" She grinned, flung her arms up into the air and raced down the steps, miraculously managing to keep her balance, and flopped down onto the grass, tilting her face up to the sky, eyes closed. "Wind! Grass!"
"All typical of the outdoors," she heard Jubilee agree. A shadow passed over her eyelids and Kaylie opened her eyes to see said teen standing over her, hand held out as an offer to help her up. "How long has it been since you've been outside anyway?" she asked as Kaylie took her hand and used it to pull herself to her feet.
Instead of answering, Kaylie gave Jubilee a sunny smile. "Thanks." Nothing would ruin her good mood now. Not even the terrible sunburn she was positive she'd have by the end of the day. She wasn't about to guarantee instant depression by explaining how long it had been, which would inevitably lead to the question why. She had no intention of going inside until she was bodily forced to – either that, or until it got too cold for her to be outside anymore. "Isn't this fantastic?" she asked, not really expecting an answer, spreading her arms wide and relishing the feel of the wind blowing through her hair.
Jubilee was spared the conflict of deciding whether to answer or not by the arrival of a group of people. Kaylie watched as one girl detached from the relatively small group and jogged forward to come to a stop in front of Jubilee, brunette hair swinging in her ponytail. "You're really hard to track down sometimes, you know that?"
Jubilee smiled. "It's a gift," she answered simply, then pulled Kaylie forward, who had been hanging back behind her, having recognized the group of kids as the group she had accidentally caught the attention of earlier. "This is Kaylie. Kaylie, meet Kitty."
"Oh, hey." Kitty held out her hand for Kaylie to shake. Kaylie tentatively took it and shook, before letting go, allowing her hand to fall to her side. "You're the new kid, right?"
Kaylie nodded. "I'm sorry about earlier," she tried, only to see Kitty shaking her head.
"Don't worry, you didn't interrupt anything actually important," Kitty reassured her. "All you did was stop John and Bobby from arguing. Again." Kitty waved back at the people behind her, most of whom were inching up steadily, in a generic fashion, making it impossible for Kaylie to tell who she meant. "For people who are supposed to be friends, they sure do argue a lot."
"Yeah, you've known each other for what, three years?" another girl piped up. She had a distinct Southern drawl and dark hair with white locks of either side of her face. Kaylie peered past Kitty to get a better look and noticed that not only was she wearing gloves, but her clothes covered most of her body, something Kaylie was certain wasn't a good thing in the warmth of the sun.
"Isn't that hot?" she asked curiously. A part of her mind really wanted to ask how she'd gotten white in her hair when she couldn't be more than seventeen, but the nearly-sensible side of Kaylie's mind clamped down on that question before it could actually be asked. If she wasn't willing to explain personal things, she couldn't see why a complete stranger would be willing to.
The teen shrugged. "You get used to it. Name's Rogue."
Kaylie was about to reply when a tall boy pushed his way to the front and stared down at her, smirking. She met his gaze, then followed his body with her eyes, taking in the old jeans and faded T-shirt. "So," he said after a moment. "The new kid's a midget."
"John!" Kitty reached forward as though to slap him, but he sidestepped easily.
"I'm not a midget," Kaylie insisted. John raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. "I'm not! You're just really tall."
Silence filled the air, a silence that was quickly broken by Kitty's giggles. Jubilee broke down next, and soon even Rogue had joined in. A kid in the back was grinning. "She got you there, John," Kitty said, fighting back a grin when John shot her a glare. "You have to admit, she got you there."
A/N: O.o. Usually I don't use emoticons in my A/N's, but this definitely calls for a: O.o. Seven alerts?! Wow. Just....wow. Only three reviews, but that's still a much better response than I thought I'd get for this story. HeeHeeHee01, you officially get a virtual cookie. I've got chocolate chip and oatmeal. Take your pick. So, here's chapter two, and Kaylie has somewhat settled down. She's by no means back to normal, but the mental blocks are helping a lot. This chapter was originally supposed to end just after Kaylie said "Very much so." but I decided to be nice and give you a longer chapter. What thinkest thou? SOOOO now that I'm done babbling, please review? All reviewers get a slice of virtual pie!