Normal?

With Alexandra Darvis

In the time they had before breakfast Alex was assigned to a room and picked a few classes she thought might be useful. Her affairs were put in order, her car was put with the others and it was planned that she would go into town with Rogue and Shadowcat in the afternoon.

Upon giving a tour to the girl, Storm encountered a few small problems with her conventional education. Whereas the girl was familiar with a few concepts, despite never having used them, the girl seemed to have no clue as to the use of a toilet. Apparently she was used to relieving herself outside and didn't see the use of a porcelain bowl that had to be emptied. Safe to say, it was an awkward situation having to explain the necessity of using it.

Her shock of the washing machine and tumble drier gave Logan a good laugh and Storm another few minutes of explaining. Neither did Alex seem to understand the use of art, on which Logan wholeheartedly agreed with her, a fireplace or anything in the colour pink. The comfort of the beds was unfamiliar to her and upon showing her where she would be sleeping she at first neglected the bed, thinking it could not possibly be meant for her, and crawled inside the wooden closet.

At breakfast the situation became even more hilarious when she tried to store food in her backpack to save for when she was in desperate need for it. And she knew surprisingly few of the products they had set out for the students to use for their breakfast. Although that might have to do with the fact that she didn't recognise the fruits. It was an amazing discovery to her that bananas were actually originally yellow instead of brown. And although she had always avoided white furry stuff, she was sure that apples were supposed to taste a bit more like mud than this. She kept on asking the students around her if things were safe, and was not assured of it until they had tried it themselves before her eyes. Tatiana and Tinman, who had watch over breakfast that morning, were amused greatly by her behaviour.

Belamie, who taught Alex' first class and was the mysterious teleporter woman, had the privilege to have to explain the workings of a pen to Alex who had before only ever used pencils because they were much cheaper. Fortunately Alex was not paying attention to her fellow students at all, or she would have been intensely bothered by the laughter and whispers from her class. She hardly even noticed a girl sticking up for her as she clicked the back of the pen and tried to understand exactly why the point came out on the other side. Getting ink out of it was another miracle that she eventually had to give up on trying to understand halfway through the lesson. Unfortunately Belamie was already too far into the subject of the workings of the universe and other physics stuff to have Alex understand a single thing.

Shadowcat, who taught Alex' second class, had Alex completely distracted after someone's cell phone went off after ten minutes. The device was far to curious for Alex to ignore and the rest of the lesson the entire class and Shadowcat tried to explain the various functions of a mobile phone to Alex, instead of teaching philosophy and math as she was supposed to. But it was important to teach things like these to Alex who was mainly having trouble with the fact that it was a phone when it could do much more than the phones she had read about in the books she sometimes got. Because, yes, Alex did have hobbies, she just had no time to practise them, or money to do so. Reading books had taught her a lot, but since most of it had been classical literature, which her father had told her about, modern day technologies had slipped her notice.

Bobby, who taught Alex' third class after lunch, had the misfortune of wishing to use some technologies in his class. And whereas she didn't understand what he was doing with a laptop, the fact that the television suddenly started showing images scared her so much that she turned herself invisible and ran away. She was later found hiding under a table in the kitchen, but by then there were only five minutes of class left and Bobby really couldn't do anything anymore. His interesting lesson of showing slow motion images of elemental powers had completely gone to waste.

Fortunately for Maze, the telekinetic teacher of Alex fourth and last class, he had no trouble at all with Alex being more advanced in physical activities than any of the other students. She was fit, fast and, albeit not very strong, an exceptional fighter for her age. After all, Alex had fought with sticks, clubs and mainly daggers. She had more battle experience than all the other students combined and it was showing.

Afterwards she was in such a good mood that she had a bounce in her step as she went to Storm's office. Storm was awaiting her with Logan and Shadowcat, who were, despite Logan denying this, very interested in her. Alex' recount of her day put things into perspective for the teachers and it was decided that in the afternoon one of them should teach the girl about the appliances throughout the manor. Logan was, very unwillingly, volunteered for this job since Storm and Shadowcat both had a late afternoon class to teach. And also he was considered to be capable of relating to her the most, having lived on the run for several years.

In the end, he didn't regret it one bit. Because, whereas Alex was absolutely ignorant to everything ado with entertainment and comfort, she was clever enough to pick up on most of it within minutes. At least to the extent of Logan's knowledge, which didn't reach very far when it concerned technology. But since Alex had no desire to learn more about those thing than he knew it was just fine. She was far more interested in everyone's powers, the secrets of the building, the book collection and, surprisingly, card games.

When dinnertime came around she had actually conversed with other students and mastered controlling the temperature in the room by turning up the thermostat. The ease with which this life was lived still astounded Alex. It seemed to good to be real and she felt like it would all fall apart very soon. At the dinner table people crowded around her because of her novelty, as always happened with new students and Alex was asked lots of things. Logan was laughing at this until she fled to his side.

'Lex, what are you doing here?'

'You scare them, so scare them,' Alex whispered in his ear as she warily looked at the students who were now all talking amongst themselves.

'Wait, what?'

'They keep on asking very difficult questions to which I don't know the answers. I don't like it.'

'What kind of questions?'

'"What is your favourite movie?" "What is your favourite food?" How am I supposed to know what my favourite food is when there is so many different kinds? And what is a movie?' At this Logan burst into laughter really loudly as did Maze, who was sitting close to them and had heard everything.

'Oh, my dear girl, you're in for a treat if you've never seen a movie,' Maze laughed as Alex furrowed her brows in question of their actions.

'What is it?' Alex asked naively and now having many more people hear this another round of laughter started. 'I don't get it.' This only caused more laughter and for the first time Alex felt something uncomfortable growing in her chest. She didn't like this feeling. There was something wrong with her and she didn't understand. Never had she felt this stupid or helpless. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be where all these people laughed at her! Just like that she was gone.

Invisible she made her way through the hall and escaped to the garage where her car was parked.

She climbed in the drivers seat and curled up on the bench, the way she used to sleep. The smell of the musty car comforted her slightly, but the memory of all students laughing at her wouldn't leave her alone. She felt so silly for coming here. This way of attacking seemed so civilised, but it struck unexpectedly and it hurt. It felt like betrayal. She was not in any danger, but yet they made her feel just like the families who had sold her out to her pursuers had. Hot tears burned in her eyes and she buried her face in the seat cushions to wipe them away. Even after a year the car still smelled like her dad. Maybe it was the other way around and her dad had smelled like this car. The smell of mud and time and beans. Her own scent at the moment didn't fit this anymore. She used to smell of mud and of sweat and, more often than not, of blood.

Now she smelled like soap and toothpaste. She used to cherish the time this was the case, but at the moment she couldn't find the comfort she needed in it. She wanted her dad here now. She wanted him to tell her that he would protect her with all he had. She wanted him to appear out of nowhere and tell her he had recovered from his wound so they had to get moving really quickly.

'Dad,' she mumbled in the dirty material of the car seat.

'Lex?' She shot up.

'Dad?' but as soon as the words had left her mouth she saw Logan approaching.

'Not exactly, but they sent me after you.' Alex looked away and pulled up her knees so they fit against her chest without touching the large steering wheel. Logan stopped at the window on the driver's side and looked at her.

'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine,' she mumbled with less conviction than she had intended to. Logan sighed and walked over to climb into the passenger's seat.

'You know, you're a terrible liar,' he sighed.

'Am not.'

'Are too. At least at this moment you are.' She didn't reply. 'Look, what happened in there was harsh, but nothing can change that.'

'I don't understand it,' Alex replied out of the blue, causing Logan to look at her. 'They didn't put me in danger. They didn't sell me out. They never attacked me. Then why do I feel hurt? Why do I feel betrayed?'

'You've never been embarrassed before?' Alex shook her head at this. 'Suppose that's a good thing.'

'How can it be a good thing? It makes me weak,' she snapped.

'It's not a really pleasant thing anyway.' Alex looked down at her knees again. 'So far, you've held your own pretty well.'

'I don't understand this type of fighting,' Alex said.

'It's not a fair war,' Logan replied. 'The only way to come out as a victor is to show them that you're above it.'

'What do you mean?'

'I have no idea,' he replied and this brought a small smile on her face.

'Still, I seem to be so far behind.'

'If it matters, I think you're doing great,' Logan said. 'You've been here only a day. It will come in time.'

'Thanks, Logan.'

He ruffled her hair: 'Don't sweat it, kid.' A short silence fell between them before Logan spoke again: 'So, you gonna come up for dinner?'

'I don't want to go back there,' she replied less sadly, but still not completely recovered.

'Okay, then how about I take you to see your first movie and then we'll grab something to eat in town, deal?'

This caused a smile to break out on her face: 'I'm driving.'

'You'd better, only you're short enough to fit in that seat.'

'I'm perfectly normal length for my age,' she huffed back as she started up the car.

'Sure,' Logan said snidely as he leant back in his seat while she took off.

'Why are you not smoking?' she asked after they had left the school grounds.

'What?'

'Why are you not smoking?'

'I dunno, should I be?'

'It reminds me of my dad when we were in Russia.'

'Russia?' Logan asked as he pulled out a cigar and lit it. 'Where the hell have you been?'

'Everywhere.'

The cinema was a whole new experience to Alex and it probably wouldn't have mattered to what kind of movie Logan had taken her. Alex visibly enjoyed every second of it and to Logan it was more entertaining to watch her than the movie. It was a simple movie with nothing exceptionally complicated about it, but she loved it. All the time she stared at the screen, and seemed to blink as little as possible in order to capture every frame and preserve it in her memory. Logan himself couldn't help but smile at the sight of the girl who finally seemed to act as young as she truly was.

Even compared to the other students she was rather young. Most of the mutants didn't have their powers showing until the age of fourteen or fifteen, bringing them to the school around fifteen or sixteen. There were a few exceptions, but those younger students more often then not formed a special class in which they took a slower course to learn about powers. Alex had been thrown on the fast track and was keeping up with it, jumping ahead at times. The gaps in her knowledge were made up for by excessive skills in other areas.

When the movie was over she happily followed him into a brown café that, according to Logan, sold great steaks too. Alex was happy with basically anything they had presented her so far, but she definitely shared Logan's tastes, including his appreciation for beer, chips and a good steak, which may or may not be of great quality. With Logan ordering a beer for her, they had a slight problem however, seeing as she definitely didn't look old enough to drink.

'I'm sorry, Miss, but could I see some identification, please?' the waiter came up to them after having talked with the manager.

'Look,' Logan started.

'That's alright, just a second,' Alex pulled her bag on her lap. 'I get this all the time. I just look young for my age. Ah, there it is.' And she showed him an Australian driver's licence that said she was exactly 21 years old. Logan raised an eyebrow, which the waiter luckily didn't see, but he didn't say anything until the waiter had gone to process their order.

'You got a driver's licence?' he asked in a hushed voice.

'I got three,' she replied with a light grin. 'My dad thought it might come in handy. But my Australian one is the only one on which I'm old enough to drink here.'

'You,' Logan didn't exactly know what he was going to say. 'I'm starting to like you more and more, kid.'

'Could say the same for you,' she smiled as their dinner was put down in front of them.

On their way back Logan had squeezed himself into the adapted driver's seat because Alex had been starting to doze off after she'd finished her meal. Despite the drive being only four miles he was glad when it was over. As he parked the car in the garage he looked at the side and found Alex to be fast asleep. He got out of the car and picked her up in his arms to carry her up to the mansion. Inside the manor it was dark, and only a few lights lit the way for the few night creatures that resided there. But as he reached the bottom of the staircase he was approached by Storm.

'Logan, where were you?! We were worried sick and, oh my god, what happened to her?'

'Be quiet, she's asleep.' They put Alex in bed first before they talked.

'You have any idea how worried we were?! The two of you were suddenly gone.'

'I know that too, Storm. But it was either this or have her stay hidden in her car for the evening. So I made a judgement call.'

'You could at least have told us.'

'I didn't think of that at the time.'

'Fine, fine. So where did you take her?'

'To see her first movie and then to Carl's,' Logan said.

'Did she enjoy it?'

'You should have seen her face,' Logan smiled to himself as he recalled the expression she had worn during the movie.

'That's good,' Storm said. 'But it's late, Logan, you should get some sleep.' Logan expressed his agreement and was about to turn to his quarters when Storm spoke up again: 'You would have made a great dad.'

Alex was not a difficult child at all. She took care of herself and asked for basically nothing. They noticed that on her second day there. She was everywhere on time, got in no one's way and went to discover things herself. Her curiosities were nothing but a source of amusement for most of the residents of the manor. Still she stood out very clearly. Around lunch time on the second day Rogue and Tatiana went to buy some clothes with her. She picked her clothes on nothing but her ability to move in them and how warm they kept her. Rogue and Tatiana had to intervene and make sure she got different clothes for different types of weather, and clothes that weren't completely mismatched. However inconvenient this may have been in the moment, it was no real problem and remained visible in nothing but the funny story afterwards. Even Alex could look back on it with a smile.

No, there was one real problem with Alex and that became visible the night. As she told later she had not been able to fall asleep as she hardly trusted the other girls around her. But she could overcome that eventually and fall asleep. It was two in the morning when hell started. A thudding sound woke up three of the girls in the room where Alex was tossing and turning in her sleep. She had knocked over the lamp on her bedside table as was violently fighting monsters that weren't there.

'Alex?' One of the girls tried.

'No, don't,' Alex mumbled in her sleep.

'Alex, wake up, you're having a nightmare.'

'Don't… Dad.' The pain was etched on her face and the girl decided to shake Alex awake. But as soon as her hand even came close to the sleeping girl a blue spark sprung from Alex over to the kind girl. It burned the girl and she screamed out in pain, waking up more of the students on the first floor.

'Dad!' Alex now called out in sheer panic as her dream seemed to be getting worse. At that moment Shadowcat burst through the door and quickly observed the situation. After all, she had night duty that evening and she had to fix this.

'Ivy, go to Tatiana and have your hand looked at. The rest of you girls, go to the homeroom.' Shadowcat quickly ordered before kneeling next to the thrashing girl. 'Alex, Alex, can you hear me?' But Alex heard nothing but her memories. She was completely wrapped up in the past that nothing came through.

'No! Don't take him!' A blue spark hit Shadowcat who was forced to take her distance. Her volume was increasing and out in the corridor students were crowding around to see what was happening. This also drew the attention of the teachers who were waking up from the commotion.

'No. No!' Nearly every member of staff was now gathered in the small student dorm in which the trashing girl was getting more and more violent every second. Sparks went flying to everyone who approached and they hurt. Only Tinman seemed to be unaffected by the spark, but as soon as he touched her she screamed so loudly that their eardrums felt like they were about to explode. With a shock she woke up and not immediately recognising where she was she started throwing plasma grenades at her supposed attackers. Tinman protected them as well as he could, but the room was basically being blown to bits with already a hole in the ceiling and a second window to the next room.

Of course it was Logan who took the risk: 'Lex, calm down.' He stepped away from Tinman's cover and pulled her against him. The smell of smoke, mud and time seemed to calm her down and she tightly held onto Logan.

'Dad, don't leave me. Please, don't leave me.' Logan sighed and motioned for the other teachers to leave the room, which they did very willingly with the girl being so very unstable. In the corridor they were met with a crowd of uneasy students that had to be directed to the right places.

'Lex, look at me.' Alex let go of him a bit and turned her face up so their eyes met.

'Logan,' immediately all reality seemed to crash back onto her. 'I'm sorry. I didn't… Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought they had caught me again.' She flinched away and held her hands close to her chest as she trembled over her entire body.

'Lex, calm down. Calm down. No one's mad at you.' She seemed to calm down at this a bit. 'You had a nightmare, right?' She nodded slowly as tears started forming in her eyes. 'You, eh, need to talk about it?'

'It hurts, Logan, it hurts so bad.' A tear escaped her eye.

'Wowowow, don't start crying now. Let's just go to the kitchen, okay?' Alex, who was still shaking nodded and followed Logan out into the corridor where there was still a pack of students. Immediately she turned herself invisible and stuck close to Logan as they made their way downstairs. Once they arrived in the kitchen Logan shut the door and Alex became visible again. They sat at the kitchen table opposite of each other.

'So, this happens more often?'

Alex nodded: 'Every night.'

'I know what it's like,' Logan sighed.

'You also have nightmares?'

'Every night,' he replied using her words on purpose.

'What are they about?'

'I don't know. I lost my memories years ago, and in my dreams I see flashes of them. They're not very happy.'

'You're lucky,' Alex said. 'If I lost my memories I'm not sure I'd want to get them back. There are so many painful things…'

'Yes, but they also have moments worth remembering. Right?' Alex nodded and they sat in silence for a moment before Shadowcat and Storm came in.

'Alex, are you alright?' Alex nodded and wiped away the treacherous tears that had marked her cheeks.

'I'm fine. I'm sorry for causing such an uproar, and for the damage.'

'Don't worry too much about it,' Storm reassured her. 'One of the good things about a school full of mutants is that there is always someone to help you with everything. Jake and Kyle will probably enjoy this even.' She smiled at Alex. 'What we need to do is find some other arrangements for you since this is not a good option if you are to have more of these nightmares. We could set you up in a single room, but I don't know if that would help.'

'I can just sleep in my car,' Alex concluded. 'They're a bit less bad when I do that.'

'That's not gonna happen, kid. Don't want you to destroy the garage.'

'Then what else?' Shadowcat asked.

Logan sighed, realising the situation he'd gotten himself in: 'Put her in the room across mine. If she has another nightmare, I'll go check on her.'

'Are you sure, Logan?' Storm asked.

'I seem to be capable of calming her down. Better make use of that, right?'

'You really shouldn't have to. I'll just leave, I'm too much of a problem to you.'

'Sit down, kid. After the trouble you've put me through, I'm not just going to let you leave. You're part of this group now, start acting like it. It's a mismatched bunch of freaks, but they look after each other.' Alex smiled at this and agreed.

A day later she was moved into the new room, but upon deciding that it was far too big for her she moved herself into the broom closet next to Logan's room and gave the large room to the brooms and buckets. It didn't take long for Logan to not have to get up every night anymore.