Chapter 3: A New Schedule
Andi woke slowly.
It was light in her room. Why was it light in her room? It was never this bright at six in the morning. She opened her eyes, turned over, and stared at the bedside clock she'd plugged in the previous night.
Eight o'clock!
She sprang out of bed. She was supposed to be up at six! Her morning jog of an hour would have to be skipped today. She slipped into the bathroom for her shower, thinking furiously. She was sure she'd set the alarm the night before, so why hadn't it gone off and woken her up?
She was supposed to start eating at nine, so she'd have to hurry if she was supposed to cook herself breakfast and eat before she started practicing. And she still had to find out where the piano was in this house! Her parents had asked if the mansion had one, and had been told that it did. But Andi couldn't remember seeing it during her tour of the school. And she really didn't want to go and ask the dorm mistress Miss Munroe where it might be.
Thinking about Miss Munroe made her stop in her tracks. The lady had said that she didn't need to worry about her parents' schedule, that she didn't need to worry about any schedules at all until the school term actually started. Andi thought it was tempting. Not to have to worry about anything, to be able to sleep late, go to bed whenever she wanted to, and most of all, free time to explore that fascinating library. Maybe she shouldn't worry…
Then the reality of her life set in. Dr. Hebron had told her to set aside her parents' schedule while she was staying with him. Then when she had, he had let her get away with it for a few days and then punished her for it. It was better not to risk it again. She couldn't afford having them tell her parents, or they'd put her back in that asylum.
She scrambled into the tailored pants and starched white shirt that was her only outfit. Her parents had focused on Dr. Hebron's instructions to provide her a rigid schedule to such a degree that they had even bought her the same clothes all the time. Her uniform. She didn't have anything else to wear.
She was already perspiring as she ran down the stairs. Halfway there she stopped. What if they had cameras hidden around here somewhere to record her movements? Her room at the asylum had cameras hidden all over the place; she had never figured out where all of them were. If she was caught running they'd probably tell her parents. She took a deep breath, stilled her pounding heart and breathing, then walked calmly into the kitchen. And stopped short.
Three of her teachers were already seated in the kitchen; Miss Munroe, Mrs. Summers, and Mr. LeBeau. Miss Munroe was wearing a long white nightgown and a white satin robe over it; Mrs. Summers was wearing a baggy, oversized T-shirt and skin-tight biker shorts that showed so much leg Andi was hearing her mother's voice ringing in her head screaming "Indecent!" And Mr. LeBeau…he was wearing a pair of shorts. That was it. Period. Andi's face turned bright pink as she saw the well-defined muscles, smooth chest with only a thin dusting of hair across it, and black shorts that she was positive were swimming shorts.
* * *
Jean heard the new girl come racing halfway down the stairs, and pause. The nervousness level went up even higher than it already was, and Jean decided she was going to have a chat with Charles, quite soon. There was no reason for her to be this nervous. If she was wound any tighter she was going to snap, and that didn't bode well for the long school year ahead. There had to be a way to loosen the child up a bit. Jean tried probing Alexandra's surface thoughts, to find out why she was so apprehensive, and found herself almost drowning in the music that thundered through the girl's head. She nearly dropped her coffee cup. The music was like a barrier between Alexandra's mind and the rest of the world; it was like the girl was using the music as a shield. It was the oddest way of shielding that Jean had ever come across; but she kept her face carefully pleasant and open as she turned to the child in the door. And what she saw startled her as much as her appearance was startling Alexandra.
She was dressed formally in a starched white shirt and black tailored pants. There were heeled loafers on her feet, immaculately polished. Her hair, though still damp, was elaborately done, and her makeup, what little of it there was, was perfect. Her nervousness level, however, was skyrocketing, and Jean decided that she'd better say something to put the girl at ease. "Good morning," she said cheerfully, telekinetically pulling a chair out from the table for Alexandra. "Did you sleep well?"
Alexandra stayed standing. Ororo looked at the uniform, looked at the girl, and said, "Alexandra, I believe I told you last night that your schedule would be impossible here. It is summer, child, enjoy yourself! Just because you are at school does not mean that school is actually in session! I heard your alarm go off this morning, and I slipped in to turn it off because I believed you needed more sleep. Jet lag can be quite fatiguing."
Andi stared with her mouth open. "That's not fair!" she burst out. "It's not fair of my parents to do this to me! They give me a schedule and expect me to follow it and then they give you instructions to circumvent me at every turn to see if I stay obedient! Is Dr. Hebron here too? Is he waiting to drag me back to the asylum? I've tried to be good, I really have!" Her voice was climbing octaves with each word until her voice was almost inaudibly high. She was wringing…yes, actually wringing…her hands, a movement that Jean hadn't seen from anyone in a while, and never from one of the students. And her legs were shaking so badly Jean thought she was going to collapse. Something is seriously wrong here, she thought, and did the first thing she could think of to do; she ran to the girl, wrapped her arms around the shaking body, and pushed Alexandra into the chair she had pulled out.
"Alexandra," she said firmly, projecting an aura of calm and control, "We are not circumventing you. We are doing what is normal for us, which is letting one of our students sleep in on a morning when there are no classes. I have no idea what this schedule is you are talking about, but I can tell you one thing. It is summer. There are no schedules for the students in summer." For a moment she wondered if the child had heard; Alexandra's eyes were glazed, and she stared in front of her uncomprehendingly.
Then the brown eyes cleared, some color returned to the white face, and a soft whisper came from the colorless lips. "He's not here?"
"Who?" Jean asked.
Alexandra's throat worked convulsively, and she said, "Dr. Hebron."
"No one's here who isn't supposed to be here," Jean said firmly. "Who is he?" She took a firmer grip on Alexandra's shoulders and chose her next words carefully. "What did he do to you, to make you so afraid of him?"
"Nothing." Alexandra said. "Nothing." She shook Jean's hands off and sat up straighter. "I'm fine. I'm sorry for disturbing you." She got up and literally fled the kitchen.
Remy spoke first. "Dere somet'ing wrong wit' de p'tite," he said. "Shouldn't be dat nervous dat young. What de hell happen to her?"
Jean shook her head, sat down, and took a long swallow of her coffee. "I haven't the foggiest idea. Damn!" She rubbed her aching temples. "I've got a headache now."
Ororo fished around in one of the cabinets and came up with a bottle of aspirin. Jean took it and shook out a few into her hand. "I've never seen shielding like that," she said. "Ororo, she's got something like a radio set up in her mind, and it plays constantly. She's using it like a shield, a protective barrier, between her mind and the outside world. If she weren't so controlled and so sure of herself I'd swear she's trying to deal with a new empathic sense, not an already developed one."
"Could be dat she never got proper training?" Remy asked, leaning over the table.
Jean shook her head. "That's impossible. It would have been the first thing she learned when her parents first discovered her empathy." She finished her coffee. "Ororo, do you know if Charles is awake yet?"
They were interrupted by the soft strains of the piano in the formal living room being played. Ororo stared at the clock. "It's nine-thirty," she said, more to herself than anyone else.
"What's special about nine thirty?" Jean said.
"Alexandra's parents want her to practice her piano lessons every morning from nine-thirty until eleven thirty," Ororo said softly.
"I haven't even met them and I already hate them," Jean said determinedly. "Why would they put her on such a rigid schedule? And her clothes! This isn't a private school, she doesn't have to wear a uniform, what are her parents thinking?"
* * *
Andi was thinking of the same thing as her fingers strayed up and down the ivory keys. She knew she didn't have to practice; Mrs. Summers' reaction to her unintentional outburst had shown her that they really didn't have any intention of making her follow her parents' schedule. But right now, she couldn't think of anything else to do. For the last year she had followed the same schedule every day; now, to suddenly have someone take it out from under her, she felt at odds with herself. She had no idea what to do with herself. If the school's faculty had no intention of following the schedule, then why had her mother given it to the headmaster? Why had they sent her here at all?
Maybe her parents didn't know that the faculty wasn't following the rules they had set down. Maybe the teachers here thought the idea of a set schedule was as odd as she had thought it when it had first been set for her a year ago. Maybe they thought it was crazy and had simply decided not to follow it, like she had initially.
That was impossible. Andi paused as her mind fumbled for explanations. The faculty here must know that her parents had enough money to make some unpleasant things happen to this school if their wishes weren't met. Just as Andi had been punished when she did not meet her parents' expectations, surely the faculty knew that if they showed any sympathy to her they would be asked to leave the school because her parents complained, just like all the teachers in the past who had helped Andi briefly slip the tight stranglehold her parents had on her.
It was terribly confusing here. Andi rested her forehead on the cool ivory keys and closed her eyes as her concentration, and therefore her shield, threatened to crumble. She pulled her 'song of the day', Mozart's 40th symphony, to the forefront of her mind, and concentrated on it for a moment, willing the music to become louder and louder and louder until the faint background hum, the sound of the faculty's minds all around her, was lost in the tidal wave of sound. When it was firmly in place, she picked her forehead off the keys and began to play again, much better and perfectly on key.
* * *
Jean tapped on Charles' door. "Charles?"
"Come on in, Jean," he said. She opened the door and walked in, sighing as she flopped into the chair in front of his desk. "I just had an interesting run-in with our new student," she said. "She came into the kitchen looking for something to eat so she could stick to this schedule her parents apparently told her she has to follow. She got extremely upset when 'Ro told her she'd turned her alarm off to let her sleep. Charles, is there something wrong with Alexandra Sanderson that we should know about? Her nerves are wound so tight I swear she looks like she's going to snap at any moment."
Charles handed her the piece of paper with Alexandra's parents' schedule on it and sat quiet as Jean read it. The redhead was shaking her head when she reached the end. "My God, Charles. When does she have time to simply be herself? They can't honestly expect her to follow this!"
"Indeed," Xavier said. "I said the same thing; but they apparently do expect her to follow it, and judging from the sound of the piano downstairs, she will do her level best to fulfill her parents expectations."
"But this isn't normal," Jean said. "Charles, if it were me, as soon as I was out of their sight I'd be trying to get as far away from a ridiculous schedule like this. They're not here. No one's watching. So why is she still doing this? Did her parents threaten her…" Jean trailed off. "I bet they did," she said, her green eyes wide. "That explains everything."
Charles leaned forward. "What does?"
"Down in the kitchen, she mentioned something about a Dr. Hebron, and an asylum, and being afraid to go back if she didn't follow her parents' instructions exactly. I bet they threatened to send her to an asylum or something if she didn't." Jean looked grim. "Charles, was there any mention in her file about an asylum?"
"No." Xavier said, "The Sandersons did mention that they had found a psychiatrist to treat her disruptive behavior, and that she had spent a year in a juvenile facility for mutant children, but there was no mention of an asylum."
"Kiddie jail. For her. Charles, there's something really wrong with that," Jean said.
"Yes there is." Xavier said, "I am going to do some research into this Dr. Hebron. In the meanwhile, see what you and the others can do about getting her to open up a little more."
Jean nodded. "Well, she didn't have anything to eat this morning, so she should be hungry by now. I'll have her join us for lunch, and maybe we can get her to open up a bit."
"Do that." Xavier nodded, and Jean left the office.