Chapter Two
I sat on the edge of my new bed, lazily flipping through the pages of a book. I was extremely bored. Charles had told me before he went back to work that classes wouldn't end for a couple hours or so. That left me with nothing particularly interesting to do, other than to look around. I was a bit nervous to do that though, as I wouldn't have someone to show me around, and knowing me, I would get lost. Sighing, I put the book down on one of the nightstands and walked out into the hallway. Closing my door, I contemplated my options. Should I traverse the grounds, with the threat of getting in someone's way, or should I explore the halls with the likely chance of getting lost? I went with the latter.
I passed by a few people I recognized as I strolled into the foyer. I spoke to Jean, Scott, and Mystique as I went past them. I poked my head into the entrance to what I supposed was his office, and found Charles focused on some paperwork. Biting my lip, I considered popping in to say hey, but I didn't want to disturb him. As I looked around the huge room, I found myself deep in thought. What may happen now that I know I'm a mutant. My friends may not understand, and leave me. Of course, there would be a few that would stand by me, also I have new friends here. Engrossed in my thoughts, I slammed into someone.
"Sorry!" Hank and I exclaimed at the same time. I had hit his torso, and the force of it made me fall onto my butt. We stared at each other for a few seconds, then busted out laughing. He helped me up, and I dusted myself off.
"Where ya heading to Hank?" I asked, anything sounding interesting at this point.
"The Lab." He straightened his papers and blinked when I was still standing there. "Do you want to come with me?" I beamed at him, lifting myself up on the balls of my feet.
"Sure!" I put my arm around his elbow, my abilities not kicking in, and motioned for him to lead on. He rolled his eyes with a smile, putting the papers under his other arm. We strolled arm-in-arm to the Lab. It was a bright room, full of test tubes, bunsen burners, and vials full of colorful liquids. It was a proper laboratory. I let go of Hank, and mosied around, oohing and aahing. He chuckled at my exclamations, and showed me around. He talked about a lot of science-y things, and I followed along, nodding every so often. I started to pay extra attention when he started to talk about genetic mutations. He went on about it for a while, most of it about normal mutations like hair, eye, and skin color. These were kinda dull, but occasionally, Hank would delve into ability mutations. Those interested me most, you know, since I am a mutant. As all good things must come to an end, he eventually ran out of mutation facts.
"That's pretty much all I know." Hank concluded after about an hour of summarizing just about every mutation, or so it seemed. "I could only go into the basics, Charles could probably teach you so much more than I can." I stood up straighter, interested.
"Charles? Really?" I asked, my tone innocent. Genetics had always been a interest of mine, and if Charles had a passion for them as well, we could have some interesting discussions. Well, to be honest, it is mainly a reason to spend more time with Charles, but I wasn't lying about my interest.
"Yeah, he got a Ph. D. in it, and his thesis was on genetic mutations." I raised an eyebrow.
"Wasn't that how the first X-Men team got started?" Hank glanced at me, confused.
"How do you know about that?" I shrugged.
"It was in one of the books I read in my room. It was originally called the 'G-Men', right?" He nodded. "I thought so. Whoever's idea it was to change it was a good one, I prefer X-Men over G-Men." He gave a quiet chuckle.
"Me too, kid." With this lovely bit of knowledge about Charles, I moved the conversation forwards, mentioning my fascination for chemistry. His face lit up, and we started a new discussion.
When the last bell for the day had rung, I bade Hank adieu, and walked back to the foyer. I spotted Jean and Scott in a small group and walked over to say hi. I met two people, Jubilee and Kurt or Nightcrawler, both of their names were fit perfectly. Jubilee was a happy looking gal, and she was always chewing gum. Nightcrawler looked the part, he was blue, had a tail, and kinda looked like a devil-bat (in a good way). I found out he was German, and we had a bit of a chat in german, as I had learned some in highschool, and have taken a few trips around Europe. Soon the conversation was over, as everyone had to put their books back and get ready for dinner.
"Bye!" I called as we parted ways. "Tschüss!" I added for Kurt. He beamed and said it back. I smiled to myself, this was going to be even better than I thought it would. After dinner, which I zoned out during, I found myself back in the foyer. I was leaning against a wall, deep in thought again (I found that I was a lot more unlikely to run into someone while stationary). I've been done with school for a year, but I guess that and college being inevitable wasn't enough. I smiled at that, and my smile grew as I remembered my graduation. My announcement as Valedictorian played in my head, and I almost didn't notice Charles right in front of me. I looked up, and jerked in fright. That man had the audacity to smirk while I was having a mild heart attack.
"Charles! You scared the hell out of me!" I clutched my chest dramatically and he laughed. When I had calmed down, I spoke. "What's up?" I asked, fixing my jacket.
"Well, I was going to call you down here, but I conveniently found you standing right beside my office." Turned my head to the right, and low and behold, I was next to his office. My face went hot.
"Er, well, what is it." I stammered, hopelessly trying to keep my voice level. Charles seemed to find my embarrassment amusing, and he motioned me into his office.
"There is a few things we need to discuss, so it's best if we speak in my office." My pulse quickened as my brain went to the worse possible thing that could happen. My face grew hotter. He couldn't know, could he?
"Know what?" Charles asked as he closed the door. I didn't think my face could get any hotter and redder, but it found a way, of course.
"Nothing! Why are you listening to my thoughts?" I rushed, forcing my mind to go blank. He gave me a look that said, 'really?'.
"It's rather hard not to hear your thoughts when you practically shout them." Shifting, my panic ceased.
"Oh. Sorry…" He waved off my apology and rolled his chair behind his desk. There was a chair in front of it, and he motioned for me to sit. I quickly sat, wanting to get this embarrassing torture over with. It's ironic that just a bit ago I was looking for a reason to be here.
"First, I have called your parents again to tell them when to bring your things. They will be here in a bit." I nodded. "Second, you will train your abilities and learn our history. A few other classes, for those who have already graduated human school, are optional, but we prefer to have all of our students to take a class on it." I nodded again, I enjoy history. "Finally, and most importantly, us." Inside my head, I mentally screaming into a pillow, hoping he couldn't hear me. Externally, I just went pale.
"Um...us…?" My voice was shaky, and I hoped he wouldn't notice it.
"Your training." I breathed a small sigh of relief. "I was originally going to have Jean be your main teacher, but as that won't work right now, I will be your primary teacher." I nodded slowly, shocked. Was this a stroke of good luck...or bad? Sure, I would be able to spend more time with him, but it would also give me more opportunities to make a fool out of myself. Charles noticed my uneasy expression, but mis-guessed the cause.
"Don't worry, it won't be that bad. I've been told I'm a great teacher." He smiled, joking, leaning his head on a hand. "What do you think?" Damn, that was too close. I put on a confident mask, and look into his sky blue eyes.
"I think that sounds great, Charles." I stammered, mentally cursing my awkwardness. Smooth Crystal, real smooth. His smile broadened, shuffling some papers on his desk.
"That's great. Now, your first class will be Ms. Valdez's History of Mutants. In her class, you will receive your general day-to-day schedule. Just follow it, and some changes may be made in the future." I nodded and got up.
"Good night, Crystal." I smiled at him and waved.
"Good night, Charles."
As I was walking out, Hank grabbed me and told me my parents were here. I nodded, and found them waiting for me in front of the school. We hugged, promised to call and write, and they handed over my duffle bag. Kissing both of them on the cheek, I went back to my room. I took a quick shower, and changed into pajamas. My parents decided to be amazing, and had bought me school stuff, you know, notebooks, pencils, etc.
When I was done, it was around 9 pm, and everyone over 10 was awake. Instead of being social and locating my new friends, I sat on my bed and read. It was a fascinating book, volume one of a two-part set. It was about genetic mutations. Sadly, I read it quickly, and it was only 10. I looked at the bookshelf longingly, but I was to comfy to get up. Giving up, I put the book on one of the nightstands, flicked the light off, and snuggled under the covers. The stress of the day and the cozyness made me fall asleep in seconds.
I woke up to a loud, hard knock on my door. I mumbled something along the lines of 'five more minutes' before I zonked out again. The person, undeterred, started banging repeatedly on my door, probably waking everyone in the house who had the audacity to still be asleep.
"Crystal! Get up!" Jean yelled, but I didn't respond. "It's time for breakfast." My stomach growled, and I knew its position in this. Grumbling, I rolled out of bed with a thunk. I heard a muffled snicker behind the door as I fumbled around for some clothes and got dressed, and ran my fingers through my hair. Opening the door, Jean almost hit me in the face as she prepared to knock again.
"I'm up…" I mumbled, rubbing my face. She looked me over and giggled.
"What?" I looked down, trying to see if anything was out of place. She waved her hand up and down.
"Your face doesn't match. Your hair is tangle free, your clothes are perfect, yet your face looks like you've been in a coma." I glowered at her.
"Thanks Jean…" I drawled sarcastically, rubbing my face again, and I noticed something was missing. "Where are my glasses?" Jean giggled again, and pointed to the top of my head. I growled, and shoved them down. She laughed as I stomped off, not really sure where I was going. Having pity, she led me to the dining room. Actually paying attention, I saw many spread out tables, and on one side of the room, breakfast was laid out. Scanning the table, I found it.
"Coffee." I murmured, speed walking to the godsend. In my peripheral, Jean shook her head. She leaned on the edge of the table as I fixed my coffee.
"I wouldn't have pegged you for a coffee drinker. You seem like more of a tea person." I shrugged.
"I like tea, I just need coffee in the morning." Jean chuckled. "I mean it! Without it I get a killer headache!" She shook her head again, and we loaded our plates up with breakfast. I followed her to a table, where our friends were. She sat next to Scott, and I sat next to Kurt. On the other side of me, beside Jubilee, was a dark girl with white hair. I gave her the most friendly grin I could muster with my coffee level so low. I held my hand out, and prayed my powers wouldn't be ornery.
"I don't think we've met, my name's Crystal Manner." She was powerful, I could sense it, but thankfully my powers didn't act up. She shook my hand firmly. She had a great handshake.
"I'm Ororo Munroe, but I prefer Storm." She had an accent, but I couldn't place it.
"So, you have control over storms?" At the time, I found this a pretty reasonable question, but the others found it dumb. The snickered, and I glared at them, and Storm grinned.
"Yeah, something like that." I gave her a fist bump.
"That's cool." The others told me their powers as well. Kurt could teleport and sort of camouflage himself, Scott could shoot lasers out of his eyes, Jubilee could shoot balls of energy (or fireworks as she called them) from her hands, and Jean was telepathic, telekinetic, and had another power not even Charles really understood. I patted her hand.
"Yeah, I've seen it first hand." I gave a dramatic wince, and she jokingly slapped my arm. Joining in, Scott imitated my scream, and I imitated his dumbstruck look. The others might not have seen it, but they got a kick out of our performance. At the time of the episode it might've sucked, a lot, but now it was funny. In a dark way… Soon, the bell signaling the end of breakfast rang, and we cleaned up.
"So," I asked to no one in particular. "anyone have Ms. Valdez for History of the Mutants for their first class?" I was hoping at least one of my friends would. Jean and Storm nodded, and I sighed in relief. We all went to get our stuff, then Jean and I met Storm at the door. The teacher was a kind-looking lady, and she smiled as she handed me my schedule and a textbook. I went to sit beside Jean and Storm, but Ms. Valdez stopped me. When everyone had settled down, she cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Good morning, class. There will be a new student joining us today." She motioned to me, and all the eyes were on me. "Her name is Crystal, and I want you all to help her out, it's her first day of classes." She gave my shoulder a squeeze then let me go. By this time my face was burning and red. I hated when teachers would introduce me to the whole class like that. With an empathetic look, Jean patted the seat between her and Storm. I sped-walked to it and quickly sat down. Once I had gotten my things out and the muttering around the room died down, Ms. Valdez started class.
The class was only an hour, so it was over quick. I had a break before my next class, but sadly Jean and Storm didn't, so I was alone. My break was only 30 minutes, so I didn't have to wait long. I spent my break outside watching the others train. My break and next few classes passed in a blur, and soon it was 12. We had lunch, then I had a bit of time before I was to see Charles, so I cleaned up a bit. Brushing my short hair, I pulled it back in a braid. I was in a black tank top with stars, and a loose pair of dark blue jeans. When I was done, I sat in the foyer to wait for Charles.
'Hello.' I jumped as Charles's voice filled my thoughts. I looked around, but couldn't find him.
'Where are you?' I thought, glancing in his office. It was empty.
'This is your first test, find me.' I swore under my breath, and his laughter bouncing around my head.
'Concentrate.'
"I am concentrating!" I growled, but there was no response. A kid near me gave me a weird look, but ran off when I glared at him. I stood still, closing my eyes. The ever present murmur of thoughts was itching at the back of my mind, and I tried to single out the Brit's thoughts, to no avail.
'You're going to have to try harder than that.' I was starting to get extremely frustrated. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself. Behind my closed eyes, I imagined I was Charles, and where I would hide. With a bit of a dropping feeling, a vision filled my senses. What I was seeing was a bit fuzzy, so I breathed in my nose and smelt...books. I smirked and headed to the library. I tried to look like I was just casually going to the library, but my excitement showed. As soon as I opened the door, I glanced around, looking for Charles. I frowned when I couldn't find him, after looking up and down the aisles. Eventually I just stood for a moment, confused. I was sure this is where he is...
"Boo." I jumped, holding back a scream as I whipped around, glaring at Charles. He was sitting in front of one of the aisles I had just been down.
"How did you do that?" I raised my eyebrows, impressed. He just smirked, put two fingers on his temple, then he disappeared again. I walked slowly to where he had just been, and reached out. As I expected, my hand collided with something squishy. It was Charles's face.
"Hey!" I giggled as he reappeared, rubbing his cheek.
"Sorry Charles. Still, how did you do that?" I was as excited as a kid in a candy shop. I put my index and middle fingers against my temple, but nothing happened. He shook his head with a bit of an eye roll.
"I just do that to focus. As for my disappearing act, I was altering what you were perceiving." I cocked my head.
"Like an illusion?"
"Precisely."
"That's cool." I smiled at his surprised expression. We were standing in the middle of the non-fiction section, and I noticed a few books on genetics. I looked around and spotted the partner of the book I had read last night.
"Hey!" I plucked it off the shelf and inspected it. "I was going to look for this!" It was called Mutations in Genetics, a thesis, Volume Two. I grinned, then I noticed something odd. The author had his picture on the front cover, but he looked extremely familiar. I hadn't noticed it last night. Scanning the page, I gasped when I read the author's name. Charles Francis Xavier. Charles, freaking, Xavier. I almost dropped the book, but my love for books and it being a library book helped me keep it clutched in my hands. Charles rode over, and glanced at the book and frowned.
"You've been reading my thesis?" He asked, gently prying the book from my hands. I nodded, swallowing.
"Yeah, I found the first part very interesting, but I finished it quickly, so I was going to look for the next one."
"Where on Earth did you get the first one?"
"It was on my bookshelf."
"Hmmm…" Charles opened the book and cringed. "God, why did I think that pose was a good idea?" I looked over his shoulder at the picture. Nothing seemed odd about it, but I noticed the fingers on his temple, and I snorted.
"Well, I doubt anyone noticed." I patted his shoulder, and took the book back. "Also, where is the librarian?" Charles looked a bit uneasy, and tried to keep a blank face.
"I may have told her to take a break…"
"When will she be back?"
"I told her to take an hour, so, 45 minutes…?" I frowned at him.
"You thought it would take me an hour to find you?" I was slightly insulted, though I knew he probably didn't mean to insult me. He shrugged, his cheeks slightly pink.
"You're more powerful than I thought." I scoffed, but quickly realized I had just scored, if I played my cards right, about 45 minutes with Charles Xavier. In a library. My lucky day, I thought, holding back a smile. Putting the book back, I put a finger on my lips, thinking over my words. Judging by Charles's expression, he noticed my gesture, and looked a bit curious. I tried my best not to blush, like I usually do, at his attention.
"I was wondering…" He leaned back, his eyebrow raised. "if along with training my abilities, you could teach me genetics?" He looked shocked, not expecting this.
"You could always get Hank to teach you…" I shook my head.
"No, I want you to teach me."
"Why?" The buzz that signified his presence in my head wasn't there, so I thought over my options. 'You're the hottest of the teachers?' Not a good idea. 'You're one of the only teachers I fully listen to?' That'll probably get me a lecture.
"Your book taught me more than all of my teachers ever could. So, if you taught me yourself, I could probably pass an entire college course in a few weeks." Yes, stroke his ego a bit. He looked shocked, then pleasantly surprised.
"Well, I guess I can find the time. Alright then." Unable to stop myself, I gave a little air punch and let out a small, victorious 'yes!'. Charles stared at me in a mix of confusion and concern.
"I-I mean, thank you!"
"You're welcome….I think."