Disclaimer: I don't own, don't sue.
A/N: I'm going strictly by the movie here, so if my backgrounds don't match up with the comic or the show backgrounds, please forgive. With the movieverse versions, I was given a lot more freedom, so I went with that.
Thanks for your encouraging reviews, and sorry this chapter is so late coming. :)
***
The school cafeteria was nothing like other school cafeterias. It was small, quaint, with round tables and cushy chairs, sort of like the coffee corner of a bookstore. I was sitting in the back, out of everyone's eyesight in case Marie didn't want a lot of people looking at her. Being the new student was pretty tough. Especially since she'd come in in the middle of the night, on the X-Jet, with that scruffy guy.
Asking around between history and now, I'd managed to find out that Marie and that guy had been 'rescued' in Canada by Storm and Cyclops. They were both mutants. The guy's name was Logan or Lyman or something stupid like that. He had claws that came out of his hands. In the words of Jubilee, "What kind of mutation is *that*?" No one knew what Marie's mutation was. She had barely talked to anyone all day, excepting the teachers, and, well...*me*. I was kind of proud about that one.
I checked the clock on the wall. Two to seven. We were meeting at seven. My leg started to bounce -- I was actually nervous.
At my old school, I was weird. Well, before the mutant gene kicked in, I was normal, at least. A friendly, well-liked kid. And then puberty hit, and I was a freak. Not because of a changing voice or a growth spurt, but because one time I was left in the middle of the period to get a drink, and as I bent over the spigot, the water froze halfway to my mouth. I stared at it, a perfect, icy arc, and I couldn't prove that I'd done it, but I knew that I had.
I knew I was different, and I was the only one who knew, not even my parents. So from that day on, I just shut off from the world. I kept to myself, in the hopes that no one would find out my secret. People started to whisper behind my back, and I was given weird looks at all times of the day. And no one even knew the horrible truth. That I was different. A freak.
Then one day, I took a little too long at my locker, hoping to miss the bus and have to catch the late one -- that one was always empty. I wandered the abandoned hallways, my footsteps echoing, and as I passed the water fountain, I couldn't help but wonder the extent of this...*thing* that I had. I didn't call it a power yet. It wasn't a 'gift'. It wasn't a mutation. It was just *that thing*.
Occasionally my showers would turn icy, and my soft drinks were always cold, even if they'd been in the cupboard rather than the fridge, but I'd never *tried* to freeze anything.
So I stood in front of the water fountain where I'd first discovered my ability, and I stared at it long and hard. I touched the side of the fountain, and the steady stream that had been coming out froze at my touch, crystallizing. I had done that.
"What the hell..?"
I turned around, and saw this kid staring at me. His eyes were huge and frightened. He was looking at me like I was a freak of nature...I was a freak of nature.
"It's not what you think," I said, holding up a hand in a stopping gesture. His fearful gaze now rested on my hand, as if he was terrified that I was going to turn him into ice. He took off running.
The next day, word had gotten around that Bobby Drake was abnormal. The whispers started up again, but they were worse this time. Scared. Angry. I was afraid of what the other kids might do to me. But when I got home, there was a woman waiting for me inside, sitting on the couch, talking to my parents. Tall, pretty, red hair. She introduced herself as Jean Gray, and said that she'd found out about my incredible abilities, and that she ran a school for the gifted, and wanted me to attend.
My parents, of course, were thrilled. They thought I was special, smart. They didn't know that I was 'special' in a different way. On the one hand, I wanted to get out, but go to a whole new school and be 'special' there?
Dr. Gray asked to speak to me alone, and when my parents left, she explained that the school in question was a school for other people like me. So I wouldn't be alone and scared and feared.
So I went. And at Mutant High, I was accepted. I was friendly again, I was well-liked again. I fit in. I wasn't different. Everyone else was just as bizarre as me. I liked it here.
So I was nervous. Because here, I was normal, and I was a normal guy asking a beautiful girl out, and it was seven now and she wasn't here and I was freaking the hell out.
Then I saw her walking through the front door, looking around uncertainly. All eyes instantly turned to her the second she walked in the room, and she looked like she wanted to bolt. I waved at her, and smiled encouragingly. She half-smiled at me, and as she walked over, everyone returned to what they'd been doing.
Marie sat down.
A/N: I'm going strictly by the movie here, so if my backgrounds don't match up with the comic or the show backgrounds, please forgive. With the movieverse versions, I was given a lot more freedom, so I went with that.
Thanks for your encouraging reviews, and sorry this chapter is so late coming. :)
***
The school cafeteria was nothing like other school cafeterias. It was small, quaint, with round tables and cushy chairs, sort of like the coffee corner of a bookstore. I was sitting in the back, out of everyone's eyesight in case Marie didn't want a lot of people looking at her. Being the new student was pretty tough. Especially since she'd come in in the middle of the night, on the X-Jet, with that scruffy guy.
Asking around between history and now, I'd managed to find out that Marie and that guy had been 'rescued' in Canada by Storm and Cyclops. They were both mutants. The guy's name was Logan or Lyman or something stupid like that. He had claws that came out of his hands. In the words of Jubilee, "What kind of mutation is *that*?" No one knew what Marie's mutation was. She had barely talked to anyone all day, excepting the teachers, and, well...*me*. I was kind of proud about that one.
I checked the clock on the wall. Two to seven. We were meeting at seven. My leg started to bounce -- I was actually nervous.
At my old school, I was weird. Well, before the mutant gene kicked in, I was normal, at least. A friendly, well-liked kid. And then puberty hit, and I was a freak. Not because of a changing voice or a growth spurt, but because one time I was left in the middle of the period to get a drink, and as I bent over the spigot, the water froze halfway to my mouth. I stared at it, a perfect, icy arc, and I couldn't prove that I'd done it, but I knew that I had.
I knew I was different, and I was the only one who knew, not even my parents. So from that day on, I just shut off from the world. I kept to myself, in the hopes that no one would find out my secret. People started to whisper behind my back, and I was given weird looks at all times of the day. And no one even knew the horrible truth. That I was different. A freak.
Then one day, I took a little too long at my locker, hoping to miss the bus and have to catch the late one -- that one was always empty. I wandered the abandoned hallways, my footsteps echoing, and as I passed the water fountain, I couldn't help but wonder the extent of this...*thing* that I had. I didn't call it a power yet. It wasn't a 'gift'. It wasn't a mutation. It was just *that thing*.
Occasionally my showers would turn icy, and my soft drinks were always cold, even if they'd been in the cupboard rather than the fridge, but I'd never *tried* to freeze anything.
So I stood in front of the water fountain where I'd first discovered my ability, and I stared at it long and hard. I touched the side of the fountain, and the steady stream that had been coming out froze at my touch, crystallizing. I had done that.
"What the hell..?"
I turned around, and saw this kid staring at me. His eyes were huge and frightened. He was looking at me like I was a freak of nature...I was a freak of nature.
"It's not what you think," I said, holding up a hand in a stopping gesture. His fearful gaze now rested on my hand, as if he was terrified that I was going to turn him into ice. He took off running.
The next day, word had gotten around that Bobby Drake was abnormal. The whispers started up again, but they were worse this time. Scared. Angry. I was afraid of what the other kids might do to me. But when I got home, there was a woman waiting for me inside, sitting on the couch, talking to my parents. Tall, pretty, red hair. She introduced herself as Jean Gray, and said that she'd found out about my incredible abilities, and that she ran a school for the gifted, and wanted me to attend.
My parents, of course, were thrilled. They thought I was special, smart. They didn't know that I was 'special' in a different way. On the one hand, I wanted to get out, but go to a whole new school and be 'special' there?
Dr. Gray asked to speak to me alone, and when my parents left, she explained that the school in question was a school for other people like me. So I wouldn't be alone and scared and feared.
So I went. And at Mutant High, I was accepted. I was friendly again, I was well-liked again. I fit in. I wasn't different. Everyone else was just as bizarre as me. I liked it here.
So I was nervous. Because here, I was normal, and I was a normal guy asking a beautiful girl out, and it was seven now and she wasn't here and I was freaking the hell out.
Then I saw her walking through the front door, looking around uncertainly. All eyes instantly turned to her the second she walked in the room, and she looked like she wanted to bolt. I waved at her, and smiled encouragingly. She half-smiled at me, and as she walked over, everyone returned to what they'd been doing.
Marie sat down.