Disclaimer: I own nothing
Edit: I learned I need to check for continuity and spacing errors. Otherwise things get confusing
"Can you really make fire?" John asked, eagerly.
"Yeah. I just think about it," Josh held his palm out, and a small ball of fire appeared, "And it happens."
"I can only manipulate it," the teen sighed. He ran his hand over Josh's; the flames flickered and grew.
"So? It's still pretty impressive to just manipulate fire. There's fire dancing and all sorts of other tricks. Plus, you could suffocate, expand and divert dangerous fires."
"Yeah. Just what any kid always wanted. To be a circus fireman," John snorted.
"Keep a lighter on you. Just in case," Josh shrugged.
He rose and rested a hand on John's shoulder. There wasn't much else Josh could do to help the kid. Maybe if he had the proper tools a blow torch could be attached to John's wrist. Or something similar to that. Josh had other things on his mind though; things that were more important.
Charles had picked up on a gathering of mutants. An "undercover" mutant was sent in from both the Brotherhood and from the mansion. As much as no one wanted it to happen, one of the younger students was sent. The girl had very minor telepathic powers, she could only read someone's mind if she came in contact with them, but she had a way with plants. They responded to her touch and moods.
"Mr. Brown! Such a pleasure to meet you," Dr. Whitaker's voice boomed.
"Yeah, you too, Doctor."
Creed reluctantly shook the man's hand. Jacob stood close by his side; books in hand. Whitaker led them into his office, and the two mutants took a seat. Victor's eyes scanned the room. He was looking for a swift exit if things took a turn for the worse. Jacob pretended to be engrossed in one of the books.
"Car working just fine?" Whitaker asked.
Creed blinked for a moment; Mystique never mentioned that. Jacob casually brushed his skin against Creed's. "She said your car was broken," the thought echoed in Creed's mind.
"Yeah," Creed said.
The two men went through all the paperwork it'd take to enroll Jacob. Creed signed and scanned page after page. Whitaker gave a rough outline of what the classes would be like. He talked about the campus, and even offered a short tour ("Maybe later," Creed responded).
Jacob tried to pick up on stray thoughts; there were plenty. He could clearly hear his soon-to-be fellow students in their classes. He picked up on a few teachers and the secretary. In his head he smiled. Jacob's powers were expanding; Xavier's lessons were helping.
Whitaker carefully set a folder on his desk. It was a plain red folder. No identification markings anywhere. Creed straightened in his seat. Jacob glanced at it and thought nothing of it. He tuned the men out, focusing on the students he couldn't see.
"What's this?" Creed demanded.
"Jacob," Whitaker said, "Please wait outside my office."
Jacob snapped back into reality. Creed looked pissed (he always did anyway); Whitaker was trying to smile. Jacob nodded and left the room. The secretary handed him a stupid magazine for him to read. The boy pretended to be interested in it, but he was trying to listen to the adults in the room.
"I can't do it," he thought furiously. He was confused. A few minutes prior he could hear anyone in the school. Now he couldn't hear anything. He scrambled to remember what Xavier had said. All that came to mind was the training with the little girl.
"Sometimes there are barriers keeping us out. Erick has a helmet; Jean and the professor have mental barriers. A lot of people have mental or physical barriers we can't see," she had said.
"So that means we can't get in?" Jacob had whined.
"Sometimes. Physical barriers are harder to break than mental ones usually. A few people here have very strong mental barriers that you and I can't break."
"Miss Grey, Prof. Xavier and Wolverine."
"And my mom. Us even. Some normal humans force a mental barrier on themselves that can... um... It takes up a whole room," Kelsey motioned.
"It radiates around them? How? Are they really mutants too?"
"I'm not sure. Jean says it's because they're so scared of us they force a barrier onto themselves and what they want to protect. It's weak, and they're easy to break. Because it's untrained and not part of their genes, they never notice it."
That was it. Whitaker was so terrified of mutants that he inadvertently developed a weak tolerance to protect his brain. Jacob focused on Whitaker alone; Creed was just a random variable in the room. It took a few seconds, but he broke Whitaker's feeble mental block. Creed was screaming at him in his head.
"Can you fucking hear me or not?" he demanded.
"Sorry!" Jacob apologized, "There was a block. What's the folder?"
"Papers. Had to sign them. Since you're 'adopted' and all. It gives them permission to dig through your medical records and ancestry to figure out if you're a mutant or not."
"I'll pass this on to Mystique."
Jacob reiterated Creed's message to Mystique. She, in turn, told Magneto; he informed Charles. Charles informed the Xmen. It was a nifty chain of information. Except somewhere in the line, critical parts were withheld. "Somewhere" being the part where Magneto told Charles; "critical" being the background check part. Charles and his mutants only knew that Jacob was accepted, and that Whitaker had them sign papers proving Jacob's normal-ness.
"What's a type of cell that's cannot regulate its cell cycle?" Storm asked her class.
"Mutant gene," someone mumbled.
"Benign," Rouge said.
"Good. Anymore?"
"Malignant?" Bobby offered.
"Yes, yes," Storm nodded.
She continued her lecture on cellular regulation and division. Josh was sitting in the back of her class. He tried to listen intently, but in the end he resorted to passing a small fireball back and forth with John.
"Josh, I don't mind you listening in my classes. You're not usually a distraction, but please stop playing with fire," Storm said dismissively.
Josh made a fist and extinguished the ball. "Sorry."
"Is this really that boring?"
The class looked guilty while trying not to say "yes" aloud. Josh, unfortunately, didn't mind telling Storm the truth. She glared at him.
"Sorry," he said again, "My dad was a geneticist. I got this stuff almost every day growing up." He walked to the front of the class, "Do you mind?"
Storm shook her head and stepped aside.
"Division and cancer is boring. Let's discuss something more interesting... Us," Josh decided.
"Mutants?" someone asked.
"More specifically, our mutant gene. Anyone know where it comes from?"
"The environment?"
"Wrong," Josh shook his head, "Those are carcinogens." He wrote the word on the board. "Carcinogens are from the environment; they're the cancer causing cells." He paused to let students write it down. "Mutations occur in the DNA of a cell. What does 'DNA' stand for?"
Blank looks from the class. Storm sighed and gave them a "I'm disappointed in you" look. Josh winced when he saw it.
"Deoxyribonucleic acid," Rouge said.
"Fantastic! Thank you. More specifically, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence. That's the DNA's sequence of a cell's genome, DNA or RNA sequence of a virus," Josh wrote more words on the board.
"So it's a sickness?" someone asked.
"It's a change in the DNA sequence. A permanent change," Josh started drawing a diagram. "Mutations can alter the amino acid sequence of a protein encoded by the gene."
"Where do they come from?" someone asked.
"Mutations are familial, so they come from our parents. It could just skip a generation, or it kicks in under times of high stress or emotions."