"I don't think you should let them meet her", said Peter, shaking his head.
"Why?" asked Charles as he fished through Peter's mind, wading through images of blood, pouring through the carpet, staining Tia's feet. There was also a strange crystal lion. It must all be one of his dreams.
"She's not nice", Peter said bluntly.
"Why do you spend time with her?" Charles chuckled, wondering if Peter could possibly articulate everything that swam around his head.

"Tia's not mean, she's just not nice, and she's a little intense. I don't think she'd gel with the other kids", Peter tried to explain, "and you know she'll get no sympathy, they're all younger than her too."
"How old is she?" Charles asked, intrigued to hear what Peter thought.
"I'd say, maybe, 17?", Peter both asked and answered. Charles neither confirmed nor denied.
"She's probably just unusual because she has so few friends and sees people so rarely. She just needs to be re-socialized. She needs that chance." Charles said firmly. Peter sighed, he decided that Charles was probably right. But then again, wasn't he always?


Tia knocked on the heavy wooden door, her heart racing as she waited for someone to answer. She glanced behind her, watching Peter unloading the car and handing a small suitcase to Stella, his younger sister. Peter looked up, and Tia smiled nervously at him, to which he responded with a wide, cheeky grin. Tia turned and just about peed her pants when the squeaky wooden door swung open to reveal the smiling face of someone Peter referred to as 'Hank'.

"It's good to see you all", said Hank in his usual awkward way. Tia smiled up at Hank briefly, but ignored the following conversation in which Hank and Peter exchanged small-talk. Her eyes had wandered to the opulent interior of the mansion, its grand furnishings, luxurious marble floors and sweeping staircases. Tia snaked past Hank and inside the door, ignoring Pete's call of, "What are you doing, Tia?"

She shuffled her feet along the ground, enjoying the coolness of the tile, and mentally cataloguing everything in the room. But the item she kept coming back to was the grand piano, a shiny, lacquered instrument sitting in the centre of the room. Tia tilted her head as she sized it up. She'd been quite a good piano player as a child, she'd taken lessons and had always practiced every afternoon, like all good girls should. Will it fit in my apartment? The short answer was no. A grand piano was so not going to fit in her lounge, but she couldn't stop staring at it. She began to flex her mind, awakening her mutation. She was fixated, she couldn't let it go.

"TIA!", Peter yelled. He'd been calling her name consistently for a few minutes now, but she'd completely failed to notice.
"Yes?" replied Tia, her head whipping around, her thoughts confused. She was still thinking about the piano, but now she was looking somewhere different. She supposed it had been inevitable.

Tia blinked, as everyone does.
In a flash of dark wood and incredible noise, the piano appeared in front of Tia, right in the middle of the circle of Peter, Hank and Stella, and herself. Tia was lucky it hadn't landed on any of them. Stella screamed at the sight, covering her ears with her fluffy hair to try to block the noise. Hank's eyes widened, not understanding what had happened, but Peter turned straight to Tia.
"Why did you do that?" he growled. Tia sucked on her bottom lip. She didn't have an answer, except,
"Oops?"
Peter frowned at her. He knew it hadn't been deliberate, it was just embarrassing. He couldn't even begin to imagine how embarrassing it was for Tia.

As the small group of them walked towards the dining hall to meet some of the other students, Tia kept her head low. Her eyes watered. Sometimes she wished she wasn't a mutant. She wouldn't even wish her own mutation on her worst enemy.


"I'm so glad you all made it today", Charles began, "Hello, Tia. It's good to see you again". Tia gave Charles weak smile with her watery eyes. Charles had already scanned her mind and knew of the piano incident.
"Are you going to put the piano back, or will I?" asked Charles, causing Tia to stare at him with wide and horrified eyes.
"How did you know?" she asked, before remembering the great crashing noise the piano had made as it moved. Maybe, it had been quite obvious.
"Telepath, remember?"
Tia nodded. Charles smiled kindly at Tia, "I was only joking", he said, "I'll make Hank move it".
Tia laughed a little. Tia was one of the few people that Charles had ever met who hadn't ever been scared by his telepathy. Usually everyone, even other mutants, sought reassurance that he wouldn't delve deep into their thoughts, but Tia had never asked. She wasn't' even worried by the thought of it. There wasn't room for more fear in her life- she was already so afraid of herself.

Tia smiled at the group of children as they swarmed around Stella. They were all around Stella's age, a few years younger than her and Peter. The group of youngsters swarmed after Hank as he led Stella to her new room, with Peter in tow, trying to look calm as he began to fully realise the fact he would no longer have his beloved sister with him all the time, he could no longer protect her.

"Did you do anything nice for Peter's birthday?" Charles asked as Peter left the room. Tia flinched a little and remembered the lion she had attempted to give as Peter's birthday present.
"I was planning on having a little party here", Tia replied calmly.
Charles raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. The piano was still on his mind as he wondered where Tia would be getting a cake from.
"Please, just… pay the bakery back later", said Charles.
"I always do", said Tia, trying to give her most sincere smile, which was met by Charles with a scowl. I'm a liar, and he knows it.


Tia formed an image in her mind, a fluffy round sponge cake with jam and cream between layers, of which there would be four. All coated in chocolate- no, blue- no, chocolate icing, chocolate flakes, Peter's name piped on it in blue, blue swirls, strawberries, silver glittery candles, a true spectacle of a cake. The type only found in the best bakeries. The cake flashed into existence and Tia couldn't help but smile. It was truly the best cake ever.

Tia pushed the kitchen door open with her hip as she walked into the dining room. She smiled at the group in front of her, Charles, Hank, Peter, Stella, and about 10 other children. And she began to sing…
"Happy birthday to you", and soon everybody had joined in, "Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Peter, Happy birthday to yooou!"

"Hip hip…"
"HOORAY!" the children chorused.
"Hip hip…"
"HOORAY!"
"Hip hip…"
"HOORAAAAY!"

Everyone cheered as Peter blew out the candles. His wide smile split his face in half, he was so happy that someone had remembered his birthday. He felt like he really had family here at the Institute.


More chapters coming very soon (I've done quite a bit of writing!)
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as usual…
PLEASE REVIEW!