September 1st, 2:50 P.M, 1963
It was afterschool, and I just received a letter from home so I was outside reading it under one of the trees, blowing gently in the wind. Charmy and Raven were with me as usual, and they read over my shoulder.
"I can't believe this...no where in here do they mention about what I told them about me being a mutant!" I yelled, throwing the letter onto the ground, where the wind picked it up swiftly and made it fly away. Raven looked at it grimly and a dark bubble appeared around the letter, floating it back to them, where she reached her hand inside and grabbed it.
"I could have done that..." Charmy muttered.
"Yes. And burned it to a crisp. My method was safer." Raven snapped.
"Easy you two..." Suddenly something caught my eye, I looked over at where Rema sat, under one of the old oak trees.
Never before had she so lonely. Tomorrow was the day that her father had died ten years earlier. Looking up into the clouds, she whispered to herself, "I miss you so much, Daddy." This was one of those rare moments where Rema had wished that she was dead.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you." Came a calm voice. Looking up, the reptilian saw Hank. "I saw you through the window and thought you'd like to talk."
"What's there to talk about, Beast?" Rema asked.
"From what all I'm seeing, there must be quite a bit." The fuzzy blue mutant chuckled.
"I don't like to talk. I've always preferred being alone." She explained.
"It only seems that way because you've never talked to anyone, hence the outburst you had your first week back. But talking with someone can really help, especially if that someone understands the problem."
"How can you understand my problem? You don't know what I've been through."
Hank felt sorry for Rema. She isolated herself from everyone, even from people just like her. "Why don't you tell me one problem you think we both have."
After a few moments of thinking, Rema looked at Hank. "Even though we have physical mutations, you're a super genious. I'm just a southern belle from a freak show. Out of the two of us, I know I got the short end of the stick."
"That's not what I really think when I see you, Regina." Rema had never heard Hank use her real name. "I see a beautiful woman with incredible talent. Why she considers herself a freak is one mystery I'll never be able to solve."
Hank watched as the scaly-green mutant looked at him. He cupped her cheek, watching her mysterious eyes searching his. When he felt her not panic, he slowly leaned forward, letting his actions speek for themselves. But before his lips could reach hers, Rema gently pushed him away. "No offense, Hank. But I wanna keep our relationship professional."
Hank backed off a little. It hurt. First Mystique left him, now Rema was rejecting him. He couldn't take it, the heart ache was becoming too much.
Rema noticed the intensity in her teacher's eyes. Her own widened in realization. She stood and ran as fast as she could. When she entered the mqnsion, she wasn't watching where she was going and ran into Ashleigh. "Sorry, Sugah!" Her southern accent coming out in her panic.
"What's wrong, Rema?"
"Do you remember when Lewis liked me more than you?" Ashleigh nodded before Rema continued. "Well, he didn't really like me. It was that time of the year for me. When I shed my skin. Whenever that happens, my pharamones go in a frenzy. It's the time of the year I need to mate. Any man near me will think that they love me."
"Okay. Glad to know that there wasn't anything wrong with me. But that doesn't tell me why you nearly ran me over."
"Well, I'm about to start shedding again. And apparently, Beast, with his heightened animal senses, is being affected by my pharamones. And he nearly jumped me outside. If normal mutants act the way Lewis did, imagine how Beast, a mutant with sensitive animal senses, will react when I actually shed my skin."
Ashleigh's eyes widened after the situation was explained.
"What was that about?" Charmy asked aloud, watching as Rema ran from Beast, leaving him there still stunned.
"I don't know..." I answered.
"Well lets go find out." Raven said, for some reason interested in this event. She stood up and the two followed her to the door, where they walked inside.
As we did, the first thing we saw in the foyer was a guy we didn't recognize make his way towards Nicolas. This new boy had sandy brown hair, wearing average clothes (t-shirt and shorts) and was average height.
"Hey homeboy, name's Brodie Boy, I hear ya name's Nicolas?" the new boy held out his hand.
Nicolas looked at Brodie shaking his head as he smirked slightly "You heard correctly but I'm nobody's homeboy" he said the last word distastefully, looking over at the group that he'd come from seeing Kaja and smiling over at her with a wink.
Kaja came running over almost running into Brodie from the couches. She looked at Nicholas with wide eyes before putting her face in a masked expression. "Hello Nicholas, How are you today?"
"Aw c'mon man! We're all friends here!"
"He's not interested in having friends." Charmy said outloud, making others in the room look at us, like Sami and Hector who sat on the couch. Hector blushed just the slightest bit and cleared his throat. I ignored Charmy's comment and walked further in, taking a seat on the opposite side of Sami and Hector, Charmy sitting on the arm next to me and Raven standing by him.
"Hey everyone." I said, trying to keep the atmosphere light in the room.
Kaja looked over at us and waved. "Hi guys!" She welcomed before turning back to Nicholas.
"The guy with the stupid name is right I really ain't looking for friends" Nicolas waved them off pulling his cigarette free from behind his ear and then lighting up again not caring about those around him as he inhaled deeply, also ignoring Kaja. I felt Charmy tense up beside me and growled.
Kaja raised an eyebrow at Nicholas. Almost Disapointed he wasn't answering her. She wasn't showing it though. She pulled on one of brodie's sleeves and tried pulling him over to where Charmy and I sat, "Come on Brodie, let's go say Hi."
"Okaaay then...how about we be acquaintances then, and work up to friends?" Brodie said, still not backing down. Then he turned to Kaja. "Maybe Dylan and Alek will be interested in this little pact too, we can hang out together, it'll be great man."
"I'd rather contract a deadly illness thanks." Nicolas said in a fake cheery voice, smirking over at Charmy.
"Okay then!" Brodie said in a higher pitched voice, then let Kaja drag him to meet us, where all of us but Raven shook his hand. Then he seemed to notice someone, and thats when I did too. Sitting next to me was a girl around the same age as us. She had her black hair in a pixie cut with green eyes behind glasses. Her ears had piercings in them, three in one, four in the other. She wore jeans and a regular t-shirt with sneakers. I noticed on her hands were oversized rings on almost all her fingers. "Hey there, what's your name? I think you're new right?"
The girl gave him a small smile, but didn't look him in the eye yet.
"What's your name?" he asked her.
"Quinn, Quinn Delmond." She smiled at him.
"Well welcome to Xavier's school!" Samantha said to Quinn, jumping at the opportunity to make a new friend.
"Thanks!" Quinn said getting excited. "But are there always so many people here?"
"Well, if you think about it, it's a relatively small school. There's only a handful of people in the school!" Samantha informed her.
"Still too many people."
Dylan and Sean walked into the foyer their arms full of chips and popcorn. "Sup everyone, we got food!" They said together and they walked over to Kaja and Brodie, then set the food on the coffee table in the middle of the couches.
"Cool, food!" Kate said, entering the room with her book in hand.
Brodie looked up at Kate, grinning. "I don't think I've met you either cutie, what's your name?"
Charmy and I smiled like little kids given candy and starting to eat some of the food. Raven grimaced at pur happy behavior. Brodie also looked at Dylan with a smile.
"Dylaaaan! My main man! Missed me?"
Dylan grinned and put out his hand to give his homey their 'secret' Handshake. "Pow man, Yo Brode, course I missed ya. Wish ya could have gone to New Orleans with me tough."
Brodie iniciated their secret handshake, laughing. "Yeah I wish I could have too! But ya know my parents, I'm surprised they let me here! Hey, you remember Hector right?" Hector stood up and shook Dylan's hand. "I'm tryin' to find him a woman this year!" Hector blushed furiously.
"Sure..tell everyone..."
I giggled at this, Charmy laughed at the boy.
"Nice, he's looking for a girlfriend! I think its sad that he needs 'help'." he commented.
Dylan laughed at Hector and shook his hand. He grinned at Brodie a somewhat evil gleam in his eyes. "Ya know, We could always hook him up with miss fine looking Echo over there." He said as he pointed between us.
I blushed furiously, glaring at Dylan. "What?" Hector blushed even more as well.
"I'm Kate" she said shyly once he was done talking to Dylan, holding out her hand. "What's your name?"
Brodie took her hand and kissed it. "The name's Brodie Boy, I'll give you reason to remember it."
Kate blushed at the gesture, not sure how to respond. Then he winked at her.
"Okaay Brodie..." Hector said, pulling him away from Kate. Then he harshly whispered in his ear just loud enough for us to hear by the couched, "Your supposed to be helping me out remember? Not helping yourself! Once I've got a girlfriend, THEN you can hit on other girls." Brodie frowned.
"But my friend, I've already found you the perfect girl!" and he pushed him over to where I sat, and Charmy growled at them.
"Not too close, or I'll burn your eyebrows off." he muttered at them, raising his hand to show them a fireball he just conjured. The two took a step back.
"Stop it Charmy, its not like their gonna hurt me..." I told him, forcing his arm down, and the fireball was extinguished.
"You're a fire starter, too?" Kate asked, glad she might have found someone with a similar power to herself.
Charmy looked at Kate and tilted his head.
"Yup yup, what, are you?" he asked, but Dylan pulled her away to talk to her privately, much to Charmy's disappoitment.
Lindsay walked in, confused.
"Hey has anyone seen Proffesor- whoa." Lindsay stopped her sentence when she noticed how many people were in the room.
"Oh... hi." She did a small wave. She cleared her throat.
"Soo, has anyone seen Proffesor X?" She looked around quickly.
"He's in his study!" Samantha answered. She jumped up and walked over to her. "I'm Samantha! But people around here call me Sam."
"Thanks... Sam. I'm Lindsay." Lindsay turned around to leave the room, and saw Echo blushing furiously. "Hey Echo! Hey Kaja!"
I grinned. "Hey Lindsay."
Raven leaned down so only Charmy and I could hear her. "Didn't we come in here for a reason?" she asked.
"Oh..right..." I said, and Charmy nodded. Silently we got up while the others talked and walked away to find Rema.