Not
Myself
By Princess
Alexandria
Princess_alex24@hotmail.com
Rahne watched from the living room floor as the group moved to sit around the dining table again, but this time they put binders on the table rather than their dinner. Her enhanced hearing wasn't needed to listen in, they thought nothing of talking in front of the dog. That was what she thought would happen and why she risked contact. There was only so much spying that could be done from outside the house.
The teenagers seemed to get along with each other and genuinely care about Christy. Rahne's eyes traveled to Annie. Her nose had picked up the scent from that teenager and she'd been surprised to realize the girl was attracted to the older woman. At first she thought perhaps it was Jon or Eric, but she'd watched carefully and it wasn't. That comment about calling Christy Lezbo was another surprise. The idea that a woman like that could be using her sexuality to control at least one of the kids was horrifying. Rahne hoped that she was wrong, but she was going to be watching those two carefully. Some of the prejudice Reverend Craig had preached still hung around her, and she knew it wasn't right, but homosexuals made her uncomfortable.
"I've been reading those books and articles that woman sent us." Erik looked a little excited.
"Ms. Frost." Christy interrupted a little distractedly, "If you ever actually meet her you better call her Ms. Frost."
The kids seemed a little surprised that she'd interrupted them, or that she seemed a bit out of it. She did seem distracted. "Okay, well I think I can maybe start my own class soon. We can just cover her book a chapter at a time."
"Well, we have Jessi on Sunday, Jon on Monday, Annie on Tuesday, I do Wednesday, Thursday's our meeting…" Christy sighed. "Either we give up a Friday or a Saturday or we double up on Sunday. It's up to you guys."
Rahne tilted her head a little. These kids taught each other? What were they learning? She'd seen the training session Christy led in the woods last night, and that had been the reason she chose to get more involved in spying today. The woman had these kids practicing their powers in the nearby woods overlooking the Puget Sound. She was training them and pushing them to control their powers better and the Professor had asked Rahne to keep an eye out for anything like that. Even with the group not knowing she was watching them, she wasn't able to see what Annie or Christy's powers were, but the other three were powerful enough that they should be at the Xavier Institute. They could very well be Alpha level mutants.
"Well, the shooting range isn't taking all day." Jessi spoke with some authority. "but if this mental stuff is hard we might want to do the target practice first."
"We could move Annie's day to Sunday and get the girls done on one day." Christy suggested. "Then we could give Erik Tuesday."
"I have no problem moving to Sunday." Annie jumped in quickly.
"Tuesday is good for me." Erik added after that.
Jessi also handed a sheet of paper to Christy, while Rahne's eyes widened a little. Guns, they were learning to use guns. That didn't bode well. "Almost out of bullets again?" Christy wrote something down on the notepad in front of her. "I'll got get some before I come home tomorrow." Christy then glanced over at Rahne and Rahne made sure to not look too interested in what was going on. She barely managed to not bare her teeth in disgust when Christy added, "And I'll get her some dog food."
The meeting continued as they talked about a training budget, supplies they needed to buy, and lesson plans. They then talked about the students regular classes in college. It wasn't like anything Rahne had been through while going to school, but if the professor hadn't had the kind of money he did this could have still been helpful. She was almost impressed with the setup.
********
After the meeting Jon went to his room to study. It took him a moment to unbury his desk because his clean laundry had found it's way onto it. Wolf sat quietly beside the desk and he distractedly petted her. "You'll like it here." He told the dog and smiled at her. It had been a few years since he had a pet, and he was really hoping to keep her. Wolf seemed really trained already. She didn't get in the way or beg from the table.
"Jon?" Christy drew his attention away from the dog. "Can I talk to you?" He looked up to find her standing at his door looking into his small bedroom. His underwear and all his other clothes were sitting on the bed now. He really should have put them away.
"Sure, come on in." He smiled and moved to shove one of his blankets over his laundry so it wasn't staring at them. He then sat on the bed so that she could have his chair. The room was so small that it only had room for the twin bed and the desk. He'd had to buy a captain's bed so that he had drawers that wouldn't take up space. When she closed the door behind her on the way in he knew this was something more serious. He watched her sit down and pet the dog for a moment before looking up.
"I've noticed you and Jessi are getting close." Jon tensed up a little, worried about what Christy had to say. Christy sighed. "Both of you are adults, but what you do can affect the entire house. I just want you aware of that."
"We are." Jon felt his face blushing a bright red. He couldn't believe that Christy came to him to talk about this. If she was going to talk to them about it he would have figured she'd go to Jessi.
Christy gave him a weak smile. "I'm probably only telling you things you've already thought of, but I have to be sure. Erik's shields couldn't deal with it if you two did… anything… around him. At least not yet. And also, an unplanned pregnancy is all it would take to completely sink us all. Use more than one method of protection."
Jon's face felt hot enough to start a fire, but he managed to nod. He hoped that this was all she had to say. Christy was staring at him and he wished he also had the power of invisibility. "I have been thinking about teaching a sex ed class, the kind they don't really do in High School." Oh God, No… Jon pleaded in his mind. This was not something he wanted to learn sitting next to his girlfriend with the others looking at them and knowing they were the reason they had to endure that. "What do you think?"
Christy was just waiting quietly for him to form his protest. "It wouldn't be comfortable."
"If we just did some research and maybe bought some books do you think that when someone was ready they'd pick them up?" The tone of Christy's voice made it clear that if he said no he wouldn't, that class was going to happen.
"I'm sure that would work."
"Well good." Christy gave him a slight smile. "I'm actually qualified to teach Sex Ed. I had more classes in that than computers. My minor in college was gender studies, but most of the classes I took for that had to do with sexuality."
Jon latched on to the small bit of actual personal information she'd given him. She was usually very quiet about her past. "But you teach computers? How did you get that job?"
Christy smiled, "I have a Bachelors in Psychology, a Minor in Gender Studies, and Master's in Education. I've learned computers on my own, but with the shortage of computer teachers they were desperate enough to hire me."
Jon's constant blush started to fade as the talk steered away from sex. "You must have been in school a long time."
"Oh Yeah." Christy sat back a little in the chair. "So, about the books for our new library. I have some, but I'll need to buy a few more." Christy's grin became teasing, "You straight people have it tough, birth control and everything. Don't envy that." His blush started up again. "You could check out some of my lesbian sex books. They are about pleasing a woman." Her grin was plain wicked as she stood up to leave.
"Oh God." He muttered in his embarrassment. She was doing it just to torture him now. Did she actually have books like that? No, he couldn't let anyone see him… she had books like that?
"You think talking about it or reading about it is embarrassing, but starting to have sex and realizing you don't have a clue… is worse." Her voice was a little deeper in a sudden seriousness. "I know this is uncomfortable for you, but I'm here if you need me."
Jon didn't like that she was so easily able to realize he was a virgin. He just nodded distractedly as she left. Wolf stared after her for a moment before leaving his room to follow Christy.
********
Eric was laying on his bed with the book on Telepathy resting on the pillow in front of him. He wasn't starting classes for another month, so this was the perfect time to work on all this. The hum of sudden embarrassment pushed past his wall easily and it made him curious as to what was so bad Jon felt like this.
He was looking forward to teaching the others about mental shields, because their emotions were so easy to pick up. It wasn't nearly as bad as living in the apartment with over eighty people in range, but it was still distracting. Too distracting for him to study until Jon calmed down, so he glanced around his new bedroom. Christy told him that if he wanted he could paint his walls any color he wanted, and after seeing her bedroom he believed she meant ANY color.
His parents were coming for dinner tomorrow night to see where he was, so he'd left his posters off the walls for now. He knew Christy wouldn't care, but his father would be mortified if he put up those posters of women in Christy's home. He'd told him to dump them, but Jessi had whispered to him that Christy might even like them. She'd grinned at him teasingly, but they all knew Christy was gay. Among themselves they even joked that it was her mutation, but they never did that around Annie. She took teasing like that too personally.
Annie was the one that battered at Erik's shield the most with her frustrated love. The other's just thought that Annie was teacher's pet and didn't really resent her too often for it, but Erik knew better. He had the class to not say anything, but he could tell that Annie was being the responsible one, the one to remind them all what they had to do, because she felt she was protecting Christy from the hassle. It didn't take long for an Empath to figure out the workings of this house, and in less than a week of actually living here he knew where Annie stood. Feeling the girls emotions fluctuate around Christy told him so much more than when he'd go to the movies with her and the others while living in his own home.
Both girls loved Christy in their own way. Christy had saved both of them from a harsh life. Erik could understand that to some extent. The human woman would fight for any one of them. She didn't need to say that, and Erik didn't need to be able to read her emotions to know that. It was in her eyes whenever she thought any of them were hurting, and it didn't hurt to hear the stories Annie had about Christy standing up to Annie's father. He'd seen pictures of Annie's dad, and he wasn't a lightweight. Christy wasn't tall, and wasn't strong, but Annie was convinced that Christy would have fought for her that day if she had to, and Annie thought that Christy would have won. Of course, Annie thought Christy could do anything.
He could hear someone come downstairs and watched through his open door as Christy moved to sit at her computer with Wolf right on her heels. She sat there for a moment before speaking. "Erik, I was thinking of signing up for a martial arts class."
"So why don't you?" He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Jon's embarrassment had faded.
"I have those shields." Christy was suddenly leaning on his doorway glancing at him. "I don't want you to think I'm ditching your class, but… I'm not going to get anything out of it am I?"
Erik concentrated on her and let his power consume him. He could feel the others in the house, and he barely even had a sense of where she was. He pushed as hard as he could towards her and there was still nothing. "No, you're Fort Knox. I don't know if you could make it any stronger."
"I shifted you to Tuesday because that's when the class I saw was." She looked so apologetic he just shrugged. He wished she knew how to make that shield of hers because he would have loved to have one like that. "I want to learn enough to start to teach some of it."
"Go ahead and take it." He felt a little disappointed. He'd wanted to show her how carefully he was planning his lessons, since he was the expert here.
"I'd like to spend a different night going over your lesson plans, and I really need you to teach this seriously. These mental skills are something that they all need to have. There are some not so nice telepaths out there that could take advantage, and I'd rather they had some defense. I'm relying on you. I can't do this."
He sat up on the bed and nodded. What the others taught was interesting, but Christy gave him the impression that what he was teaching was vital. They all needed him for this. "I'm working hard on it. I'll have it ready to go. This book she gave us is going to be easy to work into lessons. She even has practice exercises and everything."
"She probably set it up for a class." Christy leaned against the wall to talk because he was taking up his full size bed and had no chairs. "She teaches telepathy."
"An actual class?" Erik was a bit surprised and his voice got a little louder. Christy just smiled at him.
"I told you that school is different." She pushed off the wall. "I'll let you study. I'm going to call and sign up for that class tomorrow. Then I'll get to learn how to kick your asses. Every teachers dream come true." As she walked away she continued to talk "The English teachers at school should take it with me. We can have a student ass kicking once a quarter. It'll be great."
"You better have good health insurance Teach, cause you are getting bruised." He grinned as he rolled back over to work. Wolf glanced in at him before curling up in his doorway.
********
Christy got home a little late. The traffic on the bridge was worse than a normal Friday. When she drove up and saw the unfamiliar car she grimaced. Erik's parents beat her there. Jessi's car was blocked in by their car, which left the garage door Christy used free. Jon's toy truck was parked on the gravel next to the garage. If Erik or Annie got a car they'd have to start using the street for parking.
Once she parked the car she put the bag from the gun shop on the floor of her car and covered it up with her jacket. She didn't want to explain why they had a gun in the house or why they all practiced with it once a week. She wished that they didn't need that kind of information, but she was betting that her some of her students would have a gun aimed at them some day, and just thought it better for them to be familiar with them. This was a dangerous world for mutants, and she just wanted them as prepared as possible.
She pushed those dark thoughts out of her mind before opening the door and going inside. These were the first parents she had to deal with. She'd only seen Jon's dad in passing while getting his truck for moves, and the girls parents were hardly going to visit and if they did Christy might actually need her guns. Erik's parents were the only ones to actually want him here. They saw this as an opportunity, where Jon's parents just thought of it as a place to live.
God, she hated talking to the parents of her regular students taking computer classes. This was a whole life class and she was afraid she'd say something to make them doubt their decision to have him here.
The extra leaf for the dining room table was in and the chairs that had been in various bedrooms were collected so that seven people could eat at the table. The smell of lasagna hit Christy as she came up the stairs to see the parents and Erik sitting at the dining table while Jessi and Jon were cooking. Where was Annie?
A glance into the living room showed Wolf laying in front of the coffee table, but no Annie.
"Hi, you must be Christy." The Hispanic man smiled at her from his seat at the table. "I'm Marcus, Erik's dad."
"Nice to meet you finally." Christy smiled and went into the dining room for the introductions. He actually wanted to shake hands, so she did. She wasn't normally a hand shaker.
"This is my wife Sarah." He indicated the brunette next to him. She was smiling pleasantly as well. "We are so grateful for your help with Erik."
Sarah spoke up. "He says you already have helped him with his shields."
"Well, shields are something that need to be practiced." Christy was just getting ready to quote bits and pieces of Emma's book to sound more knowledgeable in case they started asking questions. "And giving his mind a break from all those people in your apartments seems to be helping." She looked over at Erik. It was awkward to talk about him like this with him here, but parents always seemed to do that. "We like having him here." She gave him a slight smile to acknowledge his obvious discomfort with being the topic of discussion.
"Dinner will be ready in a half hour." Jessi told them.
"Thanks Jessi." Christy gave the girl a grateful look. Christy was supposed to be home in time to make dinner tonight, but the bridge traffic was so bad that she got home an hour late. She had no idea how Erik's parents beat her here. They must have gotten across before the car accident happened.
She turned to her guest that obviously had a few questions. "I'll be right back. I have to check on something." She smiled at them and headed down the hall to knock on Annie's door. "Annie?"
Annie opened the door and Christy slid inside. "What's up?" She asked a quietly.
"I don't feel like visiting." Annie looked a little depressed. Christy just tilted her head and studied her for a moment. She was just a little older than Erik, and her father had kicked her out. These parents loved him and were checking to make sure this was a good home for him.
"Okay." Christy spoke gently. "Dinner will be ready in half an hour. Do I tell them you're studying?"
"I'll just take Wolf out for a walk." Annie started to put her image inducer on. "I just… I'm not comfortable."
"It's okay." Christy smiled. "If I could get out of this I would too, but I have to be the responsible adult. They seem to think I'm in charge around here. And some idiot gave them the impression I actually know what I'm doing."
Christy went back out to the firing squad and sat down while Annie got Wolf on a leash and left.