Rock gray, Mexican hieroglyphics covered the walls, which made up the restaurant. The wall and ceiling lights were crooked and the guitar players' awful music filled the small rooms. You could here people's exact sentences, the tables were so close together. A TV in the other room blared loudly to add to the noise. All around people stood and sat making it crowded and hot on this already muggy Friday evening. But such were the conditions of Toro Loco, home of the so-called 'best' Mexican food in South Orange, New Jersey.
If you looked at a certain table in the very back of the place near the kitchens, you'd see a stern looking lady with short brown hair, a crisp business like suit, and a thin body sitting politely with her legs crossed most lady-like, talking to a girl who looked about sixteen, give or take a few years. Her dark brown skin made her almost invisible in the musky light of the restaurant. She too looked extremely skinny like she hadn't eaten a thing in days, but she had.
The girls name was, is, Cassidy Grant. Me.
The lady, she called herself Principal Darkholme, was explaining something. I was tuning her out. Ok, not completely, but mostly. I knew what she was talking about though, moving from good ol' New Jersey, up to good ol' New York. I'd just heard the same thing from another group of people. A boy, calling himself Scott, and two others, Kurt and Evan. We'd met across the street in the Starbucks. I'd been in South Orange center for a good hour now listening to people tell me that I was a mutant. Now, I'm not saying that I doubted them, trust me on this. Some pretty weird stuff has happened to me, but I'll get to that later. Right now I just knew I needed to get home. It was way passed curfew.
"You'd be enrolled in school of course, but there'd be some…extra curricular activities you'd have to attend to." I figured she was starting to wrap it up.
"Thanks." I tried to look into her eyes as I talked, but I found I couldn't. It was too intimidating. "I'll have to think about it. I've had other offers, and…"
Her face scrunched up, like she was getting angry or maybe it was frustration, I couldn't tell. But it was this that told me maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the three boys.
"Xavier's brats." She hissed, shaking her head.
"Check." I whispered to a waiter walking by. I took out my wallet; we'd only gotten sodas. Principal Darkholme didn't offer to pay (which I thought was pretty darn rude), but smiled at me.
"See that you do think about my offer." She walked away. "I'm sure I'll be seeing more of you Cassidy."
"Thank you Ma'am." I said politely. Really I was a little worried about the way she'd said she'd be seeing more of me.
I paid the check, and glanced at my watch. Eleven PM. Cursing silently I hurried out the door and onto South Orange Ave. My house was only a few blocks up and it should have only taken me ten minutes to get there. The street wasn't very crowded, but then most small town streets aren't very crowded at eleven o' clock at night. Most people are at home in their beds, not out meeting with complete strangers. I walked up past the Blockbuster and stopped deciding whether or not to take the short cut at the ally ahead or to keep going up past the ally. Going past, I decided, would be a better choice, so me and my backpack-still heavy from school that day-started back up the street.
A slight breeze came up behind me. It felt good, and I looked up at a tree hoping for more. Sadly none came, but a hand did grab my wrist and pull me down into the ally-way.
I considered yelling 'Rape, rape' but decided against it. I brought my free hand down on the persons arm. He-I could tell by the voice- muttered 'ow', but kept the grip.
"Cassidy." The voice sounded urgent. I blinked in the darkness, and took time to look at my 'attacker'. It was Evan. The boy I'd talked to in the Starbucks.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" I glared at him, even though I knew he probably couldn't see it.
"Pietro's following you." His voice was hushed. He let my wrist go. "C'mon, Scott's car is over the fence."
"You've gotta be crazy if you think I'm getting into a car with two boys I don't know." I backed away, and for good measure took off one of my platform sandals and held it up like a weapon. "And what do mean someone's following me?"
"That gust of wind. Quicksilver's a pretty quick mover." He beckoned for me to follow him, but I stood my ground. "We'll drive you home, and explain on the way."
"Uh huh, sure-" Another gust of wind cut off my sentence. I stopped short and looked around. As I did, the ground shook a little under my feet.
"Go, over the fence." Said Evan slowly. Then he took out a small microphone-looking thing and muttered something into it. A second after he did the gust came again, and the ground shook harder this time. I was more convinced to move out of the way, and the fence was chain-link with a wooden board on the other side making it easy to climb. Problem was…getting there. The wind started again, and this time I saw a blur of green and gray. It skidded to a stop in front of the fence.
"Hey Cassidy." He spoke quickly. "Supposed to take you to NY with us."
I didn't respond, but raised an eyebrow in question.
"Oh, Darkholme didn't mention us." He said. "I'll introduce my self. I'm Quicksilver. My buddy who's making the minor earthquake, that would be Avalanche."
"Beat it Pietro." Evan turned towards him.
"You're hanging with him?" he looked disgusted. "I'm here to take you to some better people, than those X-freaks."
"I'm not going with anyone." I stated. "I'm fine right here."
It started again, right then, at the worst possible time it could. My stomach started churning, making me sick. The two boys stopped talking as they watched me fall to my knees and barf up my dinner. It happened often, and had started about five months ago. I'd throw up about three hours after I'd eaten something. I couldn't keep anything except liquid down. My parents had noticed and asked a lot of questions. Was I sick, on pot or speed, was I anorexic, was I bulimic, even was I pregnant. I'd gone to the doctor and he said I was fine, in perfect health, but I kept throwing up, almost exactly three hours after I ate. Even if it was just a grape or something, it would come up. So when someone had called my house asking to talk to me about my 'problem' I went. And there at the Starbucks had been Scott, Kurt, and Evan.
"Are you ok?" Evan seemed seriously worried as he bent by my side. "Here I'll help you." He put his arm around me and helped me stand on my shaking legs. "Pietro get out."
He laughed for a second and smirked. "Bye Daniels doesn't really matter anyway. You won't have her for long." He left in green and gray blur. I guess his partner left too, because the ground shook no more.
"Can I take you to the car now? Please?" Evan looked at me hopefully.
"Don't have much of a choice right now." I felt my stomach swishing around looking for something else to expel.
"There's a hole in the fence so you won't have to climb over. It's there." He indicated to a place where the wire had been severed leaving a nice square opening. Evan went through first and pushed the wood up. A spike seemed to slide out from his arm. It flew through the air and pinned the wood to the back of a building so it would hold up with out squashing us. Now that the wood was gone, the red convertible sitting in the parking lot was visible.
"You remember Cassidy?" Evan put me in the back seat along with Kurt. "She's feeling sick. I told her we'd drive her home."
"Sure." Scott turned around. I noticed he was wearing a uniform of some sort. Evan and curt were dressed in normal street clothes. "You're on 77 Colgate Court right?"
"Yeah." I tried to ignore my stomach. "I won't even ask why you knew that."
He smiled and turned the keys to start the car.
*~*
"Looks like Auntie O and Jean beat us here." Evan observed the van parked in the driveway as we pulled up in from of my house.
"Who?" I asked vaguely, I was still feeling sick.
"You'll meet zem." I recognized Kurt's German accent.
"I can't believe my parents are still up at this ungodly hour." I muttered to myself, leading them up the steps. I hoped the door would be open so I wouldn't have to stoop down for the key under the flowerpot. I twisted the knob and the door opened leading into our living room.
My parents were sitting on the couch and two other people, a girl and a women, were sitting in two arm chairs. They were talking to my parents who had looks of astonishment on their faces.
"…The throwing up is being caused by the different toxins entering her blood stream. By throwing up her body is adapting. When this is over she'll be made up of many different poisons and chemicals that she'll be able to inject into people or just extract them from her body." The woman stopped and looked up at the four of us standing in the doorway.
"Cassidy!" My mom jumped up from her seat. "Where were you? You said you'd be back by ten."
Typical parents. They've just been told that their daughter is a mutant and all they can think about is her curfew.
"I had an unexpected meeting." I said truthfully.
"You weren't sick again?" asked my dad from the couch.
"A little." I admitted. "Um, what's going on?" I figured it might be better to leave my little adventure with Avalanche and Quicksilver out of this.
"This Ororo Munroe and Jean Grey." My mom indicated to the people on the chairs. "They were just explaining the source of your stomach problem."
"And?" I wanted to hear it again and make sure my ears hadn't been playing tricks on me. Jean calmly repeated what Ororo had just said to my parents.
"Toxins?" My mouth gaped open. "How's that possible? They'd be killing me."
"No," Ororo shook her head. "Your immune, at least to the ones your body stores. But the professor thinks you might be able to retain other poisons. Say you're stung by a bee, or bitten by a snake. That poison would be made a part of you, and your body would keep reproducing it like it's doing now to the ones you have already. But if you can't control the toxins and empty a portion of them out they could overdose your body to a level even it cannot handle."
I blinked silently at this explanation, then bit my lip, and pointed behind at the three boys behind me. "When I met them earlier they were talking about a school…an institute they called it, for mutants. Would I be going?"
"Your parents say it's your choice." Jean smiled. "They've agreed to let you come if you want."
Well. I was good and ready to say yes, now that this piece of information about 'overdosing' had come up, but then I remembered the lady in the Toro Loco. Darkholme.
"Tell me," I glanced at Scott, Kurt, and Evan. "What's the name Darkholme mean to you? She didn't seem to like you very much."
"Darkholme." Scott muttered. "Explains Quicksilver's …"
He stopped catching the 'no' I was mouthing at him. I lightly pointed to my parents. He nodded. "Where'd you see Darkholme?"
"Toro Loco. The Mexican place across from where we met. She um, wanted me to consider her offer. But now that I know who she's got working for her, I've disposed of it."
Kurt grinned. "So you're coming back to ze institute wiz us?"
"Gimme a few days." I looked back at my parents. "I've got to pack and make some goodbyes."
They nodded understandingly. "Would Monday be good?" asked Ororo.
'Three days' I thought. "Sure. I'll be ready. Meet me at the train station above the Bluemoon dinner."
"Time?" asked Jean.
"Early." I shrugged not really caring.
"Nine then." She said. "We'll be there."
*~*
(Please R/R. Thanks)