Yes, I'm still alive. My muse has been quite temperamental as of late, so I'm going to force it to get its head together. Not always the best of ideas, so I apologize in advance if this chapter is crappier than the others. But--Good news! School's almost out where I live, so I'll be free to write more. Besides, summer helps my muse recover from exams.
Oh, and note: I'm just going to give Kurt his accent phonetically now, since I don't want to mess anyone up, especially myself.
Anyhow, on with the story!!
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Chapter 4: Of Masquerades and Midnight Charades
A few days after Maya woke up, she received a private visit from Scott. For a while, he shifted his weight awkwardly as she simply stared. Finally, he blurted out,
"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come into apologize right then. And I'm sorry about what Bobby said, too. But who could blame him? I mean, it's been over a month and you still haven't gotten off your high horse to become friends with the common people!"
He had only come to apologize, but he ended up letting out his feelings. After he spoke, he began to consider the stupidity of his actions. That was when Maya laughed. Her laugh would have been a normal, pretty laugh, were it not for the fact that it was filled with a bitter feeling.
"You think I'm on a high horse? I don't consider myself any better than you are--you or anyone else. I just don't want any friends. I don't need friends, and frankly, friends are nuisances, distractions. It has nothing to do with me thinking of myself as better than anyone. And I'm sorry too. You caught me at a bad time. Just one thing, please--If my eyes ever turn completely white, just have someone shoot me down. It would be for the best."
Scott nodded, and then left quickly, very uncomfortable with all of that, and slightly more confused about who Maya really was.
A few hours after Scott left, Maya shakily stood up, hand gripping the bed's headboard for support. It was a few days before she was supposed to get up, considering that she had been hit pretty hard, along with her other injuries. They weren't particularly serious, but she was supposed to rest and get better.
Slowly, she walked along the hallway and onto the upper level. She made her way up the main staircase before her legs gave out. Fortunately, she was off to the side, so no one could see her or step on her.
A few minutes later, Kurt came bounding up the stairs, his image inducer turned off for the time being. That was when he noticed Maya, who was attempting to get up, and quite obviously failing.
"Maya, vhat is wrong? Vhy are you up already?"
"I felt like getting up. I'll be perfectly fine. Just leave me alone." Maya's answers were short and curt, as usual.
"Vhere are you going?" There was more than conversational interest here, although Kurt hid it.
"I'm just going to my room. Now will you leave me alone?"
That was when Kurt picked her up and, while carrying her, teleported to her room.
And that was when Maya slapped him.
"Vhat?" The slightly confused elf asked.
"I told you to leave me alone. I could have made it on my own!" Maya said. "Now, please put me down!"
Kurt put her down, still supporting her as he led her to a chair. "Look at you! You can barely walkâhow could you have made it to your room on your own?"
"I would have made it somehow."Maya's voice was now flat as she answered defensively.
"If you say so. Just please don't slap me again." Kurt turned to leave.
"Kurt?" Maya's voice came to him, almost timid sounding.
"Vhat now?" He asked, now exasperated.
"Thank you."
Kurt left the room, shaking his head as he did so. He would never, ever, understand girls, especially not Maya.
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Nope, not going to end now. It's just not long enough. As for the following section, I give all credit of the idea of Roberto's sickness and the Night Club to Ayaia of the Moon, who, I might add, is an extremely talented fanfiction writer. Many thanks to her fanfiction, which gave me some ideas for this next part.
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Things went relatively smoothly for a while. True, Maya did pin Bobby to the wall and force him to watch Barney until someone found him, but that was soon forgotten by most of them.
One night, a figure crept out of the room, walking down the hall briskly. It was in the middle of the night, and it was mostly still.
That was, until Roberto stepped out of the shadows. "Hello Maya. Are you all right? You seem a bit pale."
Maya nodded tersely and managed to say, "I'm fine," before running into the bathroom and heaving audibly.
"That doesn't sound too fine to me. Are you bulimic or something?" He tried to ask that question quickly, and turned his eyes down as Maya looked at him.
"Thank you for your concern, but no, I'm not bulimic. I have lots of memories that I try to forget, and some of them aren't very pleasant. Need I say more?"
Roberto quietly said "No," as Maya washed out her mouth and stepped out of the bathroom, albeit a bit unsteadily. Suddenly, Roberto pushed Maya out of the way and went into the bathroom himself, repeating her actions.
"I'm sorry if I caused you to be sick," Maya said, looking slightly anxious.
"No worries," Roberto said as he washed out his mouth as well. "It's just that--my powers, they're connected to the sun, right? At night, there isn't too much sun, and around the middle of the night, sometimes I get sick. Not all the time, but sometimes. Kind of like how pregnant women get sickness in the morning."
"I see. That makes sense." Maya turned to go back to her room.
"Maya, if you aren't going to sleep, you might want to join the Night Club."
Maya turned back to him, asking, "What do you mean? You aren't trying anything funny, are you?" Her tone was threatening enough, but her voice was lined with tiredness and in the moonlight, the circles beneath her eyes were even clearer than usual.
"No joke, I promise. Just follow me." Roberto led Maya down the stairs and towards the kitchen. Opening the kitchen door, he announced dramatically,
"And I present to you--the Night Club!!"
The opened door revealed a crew of the X-Men and some of the New Recruits sitting in a circle of chairs, talking and laughing, although quietly. They grew silent, however, when Maya entered the room.
"It's okay, guys. She's like us too." Roberto's words seemed to make them relax slightly, and they started saying their names and why they couldn't sleep, almost like an alcoholics meeting.
"I'm Kurt. I'm here because sometimes I have nightmares about the dimension that I teleport to."
"I'm Jamie. I'm here because I can have two of me sleeping while I'm down here, so I needed something to do."
"Ah'm Rogue, and Ah'm here because sometahmes I have residual nahtmares or suppressed memories from people Ah've absorbed."
"I'm Scott, and I'm here because I get the power of my beams from the sun. I'm not as bad as Roberto, there, but I still don't like the night. Besides, I have to keep an eye on all of you."
"I'm Roberto, and you already know that since my powers come from the sun, I don't like the night, or the dark. Besides, I can get all of the energy of sleep from the sun in a few minutes, if it's sunny."
Then, they all turned and looked at her expectantly.
"I'm Maya, and I'm here because I can't sleep. I have some bad memories that I try not to remember, but they come back at night as nightmares."
With that, Jamie was next to her, asking exactly what her powers were. He wanted a full and complete explanation, all the while explaining that he could understand because he could read more than one book at once so he was smarter than a lot of people. Amazingly enough, he said all of this in one breath.
"I can summon and control crystals, and--I'm not too sure about all of the technicalities."
Jamie's eyes brightened. "Cool! Does that mean you can create jewels?"
Maya laughed, for the first time not sounding bitter. "It's not that hard, but creating too much of them at once can take a lot out of me. Here," She said the 'here' as she created a figurine of Jamie's head, making the colors out of gems. When she was done, she handed it to him. It was a similar likeness, and Jamie hugged her.
"Thanks! I can't believe you made this for me! This is probably worth a lot but I really like it so I won't sell it!"
The hug put Maya off guard, and some of the others noticed, laughing at the awestruck expression on her face. Eventually, she formed her mask of indifference again, explaining to Jamie,
"It's not that cool of a power. Some parts aren't very fun, trust me." Her eyes looked slightly sad as she said that.
But, for the first time in a while, Maya opened up to the other students, albeit only slightly. But it was a start. They saw it as she started to chuckle at their jokes, or help wake one of them up from a nightmare they were having, but they didn't really notice because it happened so gradually.
Professor Xavier saw it, and noticed it. He smiled as, right before he went to sleep, he looked in on the kitchen with his powers and saw a group of teens sitting around in a circle, all of them laughing.
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Yay!! I think that I actually made a not-so-crappy forced Muse chapter. I'm hoping that my character isn't turning into a Mary-Sue. As I said, I'm hoping for a few more reviews, please don't kill me for delaying finishing off this chapter for so long, and you should look at Ayaia of the Moon's work. It's really good, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten my inspiration for this part from it!
