The first time Halley called the Xavier Institute, she told the truth, the whole truth, and was polite whilst she did so. She had spoken to a Miss Munroe, the admissions officer, who, once being told of her powerful mutation, had transferred her call to a Mr Charles Xavier, who had insisted she call him Charles. Halley told Charles she wanted to enrol immediately, so caught a bus to the school for a 1.30pm interview with Miss Munroe. The interview didn't take long and quickly turned into a meet and greet of staff and students. She committed all of their names to memory. She was directed to a bedroom, and was told that she should call her mother and tell her that she was safe.
Despite the kindness of the school, it annoyed Halley how no one was scared of her. She had never met another mutant, or told anyone about her powers, but she was surprised at how calmly everyone had reacted. Halley knew that this was a very self-indulgent way to feel, but she had spent the majority of her life knowing that she had the power to erase all life from Earth, simply by going backwards in time with a bottle of spray disinfectant and killing the first microbes, from which all life evolved. She wanted respect. She had power beyond these people's wildest dreams.
"I could kill you and you wouldn't even know you were dead" Halley snarled at a burly man wearing a smeared wife beater tank, faded jeans and leather boots, who had the audacity to glance at her as he had walked past her room.
"Hmmm, what was that, bub?" he purred, clearly amused at how angry she was.
"Fuck you" Halley screamed as she pushed past the man and ran through the halls of the school. She paused time and began ripping the fire extinguishers from their fixtures on the walls and filling the hallways with their foam. She then reached into her mind and let time start again. The students and teachers were shocked and scared by the foamy chaos that had taken over the building instantaneously. Halley held an extinguisher proudly above her head. She didn't care that they were angry.
"Cuuuuttttttt!" Halley yelled, "It's time for take two". Teachers and students alike stared at her in stunned silence. She shut her eyes and pushed against the flow of time energy in her mind, reversing the chaos she had just caused, reversing the interview, reversing the phone call. She was back at her own house with her phone and the Xavier's School advert in her hand.
The second time she called the school, she spoke with a shaky voice and arrived at the interview with fearful eyes. Her experiences the second time were much the same as the first, however this time, she already knew the names of the teachers and students at the meet and greet. She smiled to herself as she feigned crippling social anxiety and was guided by the soothing Miss Munroe to her room. This time when the one called Logan passed by her door, she met his eyes and deliberately looked away very quickly. In the interview, Miss Munroe had told her that Charles, a powerful telepath may be able to help Halley control her powers better, after Halley had lied and said that sometimes she found herself trapped for years on end in a world where time was paused.
"You have a very interesting mind, my dear" said a deep voice. Halley was sitting on her bed, twiddling her thumbs, and looked around her room in shock for the source of the voice. She realised it was inside her head.
"Have no fear, this is Charles Xavier. I'm going to guide you to my office so we can have a little chat, is that alright?" Halley nodded mutely and stood, waiting for some instructions to come.
"You're the first mutant I've come across with the power to manipulate time", said Charles, once Halley was seated across from him in his small, book-filled office.
"Hmmm?" she replied, deliberately nervous, "Are you in my mind now?"
"Of course not, dear, the mind should be one's place of true privacy. When I contact someone telepathically, I am always careful not to read deeply into their thoughts".
"Oh, that makes me feel...-"
"Safe?," offered Charles, "Because this school is a place where all mutants should truly feel safe. And while we are on the subject of mind, may I say, yours appears very unique, my dear".
"How so?" enquired Halley, somewhat fearfully.
"You have a jet of blue energy running through the dark cloud of consciousness, and in it I could sense all of past and future. That's how you control time, isn't it, my child?"
"Yes, it is. And Mr Xavier, sorry, I mean, Charles, while we're on the subject of minds, how close do you have to be to someone to read their mind, and can people block you from their minds?"
"With Cerebro, I can almost reach the entire world, and with training, yes, someone could stop a telepath from entering their mind, but it can also be done through physical means, such as a metal helmet or another reflective material" said Charles warmly, "Why do you ask?"
"No reason" said Halley as she flounced out of the room, "I'll be seeing you in, I dunno, about 3 hours ago. Ciao!"
Charles stared at the girl in shock as she ran out of his office. He knew he would be seeing her again. What he didn't realise was that the phone call they had shared that morning wasn't the first, nor would it be the last.
She didn't know why, but sometimes Halley felt the need to mess with people. While everyone around her struggled constantly to look good, she often felt the need to look bad, to do stupid things, because she knew she could undo them later. She felt sorry for Logan, the fire extinguishers, and of course, Charles, who had copped some crazy from her, but she knew they didn't remember now that she had turned back time, so she didn't feel bad about it.
Something about telling the truth about her mutation to Charles had felt wrong. She wanted to go to Xavier's, but not as a time-traveller. She knew she could lie to everyone except or Charles, hence, the reason she was lining her hats with aluminium foil, and shaping a smooth metal bowl to fit her head. She lined a sombrero with foil, and dipped it in silver glitter.
"Is that enough reflective material for you, Chhhaaarrrllliiieee?" she crooned to herself. She was bored of visiting Xavier's school, and so decided this would be her final trip. She had gone back in time so that her second interview had never occurred, just as she had done with the first. She wanter her third trip to be real, the series of events that other people would remember, not just her.
She left a goodbye note for her mother, and packed some of her belongings in a bag, before finding the time to burn the things she didn't care about. She knew that she didn't want to arrive empty handed at the school this time. She took a bus to the stop nearest to the school, and pulled out her mobile, and the advert for Xavier's School.
"Hello, Xavier's Institute, Jean Grey speaking, how may I help you?" said a polite female voice.
"Hellooooooo, may I please speak to the Admissions Officer of this fine facility?" Halley cackled.
"Of course, one moment." Said the voice very cautiously. Halley, as usual, sought the theatrical. If people didn't notice her for her powers, at least they'd notice her personality. She put it down to the fact that life felt so inconsequential to her. She could start her life over, from birth, if she really wanted to.
"Hello, this is Miss Monroe, Admissions Officer, how may I help you?" said the considered voice of Miss Munroe.
"Ooooh, hi darl. Is this that mutant school, y'know what I mean, don't ya?" twittered Halley in the most annoying voice possible.
"We are a school for gifted young people. May I ask why you're calling, Miss- "
"Miss Halley's my nameeee, like the comet., and I'm calling coz I think I might be, y'know, a mutant, coz I got these blue eyes, and blue eyes are kinda rare y'knooww".
"Well" sighed Miss Monroe, "it sounds like you are seeking admission to our school, so how about you email your latest school report and any other relevant information to us, and we'll see if you meet out criteria."
"Or…" squealed Halley, "I could pop by!"
Miss Munroe sat with her head cradled in her hands in pure exasperation.
"I don't see how it can hurt", the older woman muttered.
"I'll be right over then".
"Do you need me to give you an address?" said Miss Monroe, just as Halley hung up on her. Miss Munroe slumped onto her desk in exhaustion, wondering if this so-called Halley was a prank caller or a sociopath, or just straight up stupid.
Halley cut off the stream of time energy in her mind and effectively paused Earth.
I wonder if the entire universe is paused too, contemplated Halley.
She kicked a rock on the side of the road, which remained suspended in mid-air, rather than falling back to Earth. Without time, gravity had altered effects.
She completed the short walk from the bus stop to the school rather quickly, although, she mused, instantaneously, to all those around her. She made her way through the hallways to Miss Munroe's office, knowing from her previous trips to the school exactly where it was. She snickered as she entered the office to find a frozen Munroe in the throes of a fit of frustration.
"Oh, honey" soothed Halley to the frozen woman.
She made her way to a wooden chair behind the admissions officer in a large empty area of the room that was probably used for meetings. She straightened her clothes, smoothed her hair and grabbed her compact from her bag and quickly freshened her makeup.
"A timeless beauty, you are." Whispered Halley to herself, before restarting the flow of time energy in her mind, and set the world spinning again.
Miss Monroe let out a groan and sat up straight in her chair again. For her, the phone call with Halley had only ended seconds ago.
"Ororo?" enquired a man's voice, "Can I have a word?" said Logan as he stepped around the corner into the doorway of Munroe's office. He immediately spotted Halley sitting behind the Admissions Officer's desk. His eyes widened with shock, but before he could say anything, Halley burst out with,
"Logan, is that you?", causing Ororo to spin to face behind her desk with lightning speed.
"Who are you?" cried Logan and Ororo in unison.
"Don't you remember meee-eee-eeee?" whined Halley, aware she was being far more irritating than was needed.
"My blue eyes make me unique", said Halley, hoping to make Ororo remember the phone conversation.
Ororo's eyes widened, "But I spoke to you less than thirty seconds ago" she gasped, "How can you be here already?"
"I said I wanted to come in, didn't I?"
"How did you know my name?" growled Logan, now more angry than shocked. Halley realised that she hadn't really though through using the names she had learnt from previous visits to the school. She collapsed under the weight of her embarrassment, her theatrical tendencies had gone too far. She had made a fool of herself and she could tell she had been assessed as a mad-woman, rather than a potential student. There wasn't a single good answer to Logan's question, so she quickly scrolled back through time in her mind, looking for the most recent chunk of paler time energy, signifying a period in which she had stopped time. Once she found it, she mentally opened it, springing her back to the moment in which she had been walking towards Miss Munroe's office, about to sit behind Miss Munroe in the wooden chair to surprise her.
Not wanting to repeat what had just happened, Halley ran downstairs to the dining hall, where lunch appeared to be in full swing. Time stood still as Halley heaved her bag onto an empty portion of the long table, and then clambered up after it, careful not to bump any of her (soon-to-be) fellow students. Halley stepped carefully along the food-laden table, proceeding until she was standing directly under the chandelier. She reached up and tipped it sideways, then did the same to the chandelier above the other end of the table, so that they would swing wildly when she started time again. She positioned herself once again in the centre of the table, and smoothed her hair down. She was excited and nervous, hoping that her need for attention wouldn't lead to any further embarrassment.
"Action" she bellowed, as she once again reached into her mind…