Please take note that some of these characters are not mine! Many of them belong to my RP friends from the Underground. Streak/Trinity and Silence/Boyce © dollerhoney, Tarrien/Rei and Lizette/Lotus © Z. All other characters belong to me, unless they are property of Marvel Comics and the nice Xmen people.
Chiara stared at her feet, she barely even breathed she was so nervous. She only just held the letter in her hands, scarcely breathing.
My dear Chiara,
I hope that you accept my apology that I could not see you off today. I wish you the best of luck at Xavier's Academy and hope that you visit often. Remember to keep up your instrument practice and write me letters from time to time.
Italy is fascinating; I will bring you here at the opportune time.
Affectionately.
Your Father,
Lord Niles Ian Allen Myste.
ÔAffectionately' didn't cover her father's behavior. Chiara sighed, openly. The last thing her father had said to her was: "Your eyes look very sad today, Chiara." That was two months ago. He didn't even have a pet name for her.
He ceased to realize that her eyes always looked sad. They were the same color as the underside of a rain cloud and her most striking feature. Chiara hated her eyes, they always showed her emotions, which she usually tried to hide. She liked her hair. It was the same color as darkly stained mahogany. In the sunlight it glittered because of the thin strands of gold lacing through it, remnants of her mother. In the shadows, her hair looked black, it hid her well.
"You can come in now." Echoed the voice in her head. A shiver coursed now her spine and she stood up and went into the office, closing the door behind her.
Chiara hadn't pictured Charles Xavier in a wheelchair, yet there he was, low behind his desk, bald and half-smiling.
"Welcome to my school." He said. Chiara stared, she didn't want to speak. "No doubt you are quite nervous." He said. Chiara nodded. "I'll just go over your information with you to make sure it's correct, then we'll take you to your dorm." He said. She nodded again. Xavier took a piece of paper off the table and scanned it with his eyes.
"Chiara Amelia Myste, age 16. Previously attended Andrew Hall for Distinguished Students." Chiara twisted her mouth at this. Xavier glanced at her and then went back to reading. "Father is Lord Niles Myste, mother is deceased." He looked at her, but Chiara didn't move. "Your mutation is the manipulation of electricity, creation of electricity and highly distributive static presence. Interesting." He said, Chiara down up at him.
"That's all correct," she said.
"You'll be in a dorm with Yuako Chanda. She's a nice girl, I hope you get along." Xavier said, moving his hand along his left wheel. Chiara nodded.
"Do you have any questions?" he asked.
"Is there a piano?" Chiara almost blurted out.
"In the recreation room." Xavier smiled. He pressed a side panel and spoke into the speaker.
"Ororo, you can come and collect her now." He said bluntly. The door opened and a woman with shocking white hair and dark skin stood in the doorway. "Storm with show you to your dorm." He said. Chiara nodded and started for the door.
"Before you go," Xavier interrupted, "may I ask a question?" Chiara nodded again. "How did you discover your power?
"I blew up at computer." Chiara said quietly.
"Accidentally. I hope." Xavier smiled again and for the first time that day, Chiara grinned back. Just as she and Storm were leaving the reception office and walking down the first corridor, a blonde girl ran by, almost knocking Chiara off her feet.
"Trinity!" Storm warned. The girl stopped and looked back. "Watch where you are going.
"Yes, sorry, Storm." The girl said, twisting a strand of rainbow colored hair. As Chiara watched her bright green eyes changed swiftly to lavender in a moment. The girl blinked and ran off.
"That is Trinity Koussa. She's usually so cautious, I wonder what could be the urgency." Storm said, taking Chiara through a maze of confusing staircases and corridors. "The students are all in class currently, your dorm will be empty." Storm said, pausing at the top of a stairwell. She opened the nearest door of a passage and stepped inside.
Two beds, a bookcase, desk and two tall lamps stood plainly making an easy living quarter. There was a calico cover on the empty bed pillow. A small snake slithered under the florescent light of a clean glass tank.
"I hope that you'll be comfortable here." Storm said, Chiara realized she had a light accent, but she didn't know where from. "I teach at the school. If you ever have any questions, you can ask me or any of my colleagues." She smiled warmly. Chiara smiled back.
"Thank you.
"I understand it must be hard. It was for me when I first found my mutation." Storm comforted. "In that envelope on your bed you'll find you class schedule, a map of the school and a list of requirements and rules as well as a calendar" She said, gesturing a yellow envelope on the pillow of Chiara's bed. "You can go and look at some of the school if you want before the students are out of class.
"Thank you." Chiara repeated, Storm smiled one last time and then left.
Chiara glanced around the room, then at the envelope. Her life was full of envelopes. Letters from her father, neatly folded notes on the fridge, envelopes slipped under her door and the red envelopes her father gave her on special occasions that were full of money.
She crossed over to the snake tank and tapped on the glass. The snake followed her with one lazy eye, while the other was closed.
Chiara picked up the envelope and tipped the packet out of it.
Her schedule contained all the normal subjects of a 16-year-old. A few of the classes she did not recognize: Power Manipulation, Mutant Studies, and Concentration Class, none of it made much sense.
Except now she knew she was a mutant. She also knew that if she concentrated hard enough, she could shut down the monitor of a television or computer for a short amount of time, but that was it.
Chiara put the envelope down and picked up the map. She saw the rec room, a floor down and a corridor across from where she was now. She slipped through the door and down the nearest flight of stairs. Around her she could hear the murmuring of classes in session. A grandfather clock ticked nearby.
The mansion was beautifully decorated with fine carpeting, tapestries, paintings and statues. Chiara moved along the floor, trying to find her way about. She found the living room, which was a start, a huge screen TV and a few couches and chairs littered part of the room. The other was filled with a large oak table, presumable useful for study sessions.
Chiara checked the map, the rec room wasn't far now. Almost immediately, chatter and laughter began to echo around her as the classrooms emptied. She froze, not knowing what to do. The grandfather clock rang for three o'clock, the students were now free to go.
Students began to pour into the living room, bouncing onto couches and joining up with friends. Many of them looked like normal kids, others were more striking. A girl with ashy-grey hair passed her, knocking into her arm. She apologized and went on her way, but Chiara noticed the sudden occurrence of ice crystals forming on her arm. She brushed them away and stood quietly, waiting for someone to notice.
After a while, she slipped into an empty room, only to find it was the one she'd been looking for. There was a pool table, a couch, a piano and some dartboards, but other than that it was scarce.
Holding her breath, she tiptoed over to the piano and sat down. Pressing down as hard as she could on the soft pedal, fearing someone would hear, she began to play.
She was just finishing the first section of Jesu Joy of Man when she heard voices coming closer from the living room outside.
Suddenly, two figures burst into the room and reeled back in shock at noticing her presence.
"New kid!" one shouted, as if she were some kind of animal.
"I'll go, it's okay, I just wanted to practice." Chiara blurted quickly, getting up quickly and making to run for the door.
"Whoa, don't worry, we just came into play pool." The other said. Chiara raised her dark eyes to them, and realized they were two boys. One was tall and lanky with a mop of messy brown hair on his head and strangely magenta eyes. The other had spike brown hair, tipped black, that must have taken a stylist hours to dye correctly and his eyes were dark green. Around his neck hung a small silver ankh pendant on a black cord. Both of them looked older than Chiara.
"So, you're new?" asked the taller one. He seemed to be infatuated with the word. "What's your name?
"Chiara Myste." Chiara said, frankly, she didn't know what else to say.
"Add McClain." Said the tall one.
"Simon Erickson." Said the other. "Go ahead and play your piano, we don't mind." He shrugged, starting for the pool table. Chiara slipped out the door before he could notice she'd disappeared.
She began to try to find her way back to the dorm room. Someone had turned on the big screen, the sound waves passed to her through the walls of the corridor.
She had no idea where she was. A sudden whoosh of air passed her and she whirled around. The girl from before was walking quickly down the corridor.
"Hey." Chiara called after her, without even searching for a name. The girl stopped and looked at her.
"Can I help you?" she asked. Chiara noticed she had a streak of rainbow through her hair and now her eyes were blue.
"Yeah, I'm new and I really can't get back to my dormitory." Chiara bit her lip. The girl shrugged and came to look at her map.
"Easy, it's one corridor left from here and then up the girls staircase." She said. "I'm Streak, by the way."
"Storm said your name was Trinity." Chiara stammered, trying not to sound rude.
"Yeah, my code name is Streak. Trinity makes me sound like some nun." Streak said.
"Oh." Chiara nodded. "I'm Chiara." She said after a pause.
"No code yet?" Streak said. "Oh well, we'll find one for you soon enough." Chiara smiled weakly, she didn't really know what Streak was talking about. "Hey!" Streak laughed suddenly, "Yuako's your roommate! Come on, she's in the library, I'll take you to meet her."
And before Chiara could protest, Streak grabbed her wrist and ran off, so fast they were barely touching the ground.