I own nothing. Except Mattie
I love writing this story!
Meet and Greet
"So are you excited?" Jean asked as she pulled into the grounds of the Xavier Institute.
Mattie, who was suffering from abject terror brought on by nerves, smiled brightly and nodded over enthusiastically. "Uh huh."
Kurt leaned forward from the back seat and whispered quietly in her ear. "Nervous?"
"Oh God yes!" Mattie whispered back.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine." He told her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
A tall strikingly beautiful lady was standing by the doors waiting for them. She smiled at Mattie and extended her hand. "Welcome. My name is Ororo Munroe."
"Mattie." Mattie said staring at her in awe, she was stunning.
"Hey, you're here!"
Mattie looked behind Ororo to see a blonde girl heading towards them in a white and pink bikini. Mattie was starting to wonder what kind of place she had come to. Was she expected to wander round in practically nothing?
The girl waved and grinned. "About time. We've been waiting for you for ages! How slowly did you drive Jean?"
Jean ignored this comment.
"I'm Paige." The girl said grabbing Mattie's hand and pumping it enthusiastically.
"Mattie." Mattie told her. She felt like she should be wearing a badge with her name on it.
"The Professor asked me to come and meet you. We're sharing a room. I'll help you take your bags up. Then you have to come and meet everybody. We're in the pool. You did bring a swimming costume right?"
"Yes... I..." Mattie managed to get out as Paige drew her upstairs.
"Paige." Ororo called out. "Professor Xavier would like to see Mattie after you have put her things in her room."
"Okay." Paige called back, before turning back to Mattie. "So? Are you excited?"
"I..." Mattie looked awkward. She didn't want to start of her time with her new room mate by lying to her. But what could she say? That butterflies were doing a tap dance in her stomach.
Paige looked at her, and then grinned. "Nervous as hell?"
Mattie sagged with relief. "Yes."
Paige laughed. "Don't worry. We're not monsters." A frown crossed her face. "No matter what the media might say."
She threw open the door to a large spacious room with two beds, one of either side of the room. Both sides had a bed, chair, desk and wardrobe. One side of the room was spotless and looked unlived in. The other, while looking lived in, was neat and tidy with everything in its place. Mattie's heart sank. Her own room at home resembled a bombsite. She was a firm believer in using the floor as an extended desk, wardrobe, shoe rack, kitchen.
Paige threw the bag that she was carrying onto the bed. "Okay. We'll go see the Professor and then nip back here before we meet the others."
Mattie nodded and Paige led her back the way they had come before taking her down another corridor.
"I am never going to find my way around here." Mattie moaned.
"Oh I know!" Paige laughed. "I felt like that when I came here. Believe me my home is not very big. But before you know it you'll be roaming these halls like the rest of us."
She cast Mattie a sly glance. "So... What do you do?"
Mattie stared back, uncomprehendingly.
"I mean, your mutation, your power. What is it that you do?"
"Oh." Mattie shrugged. "I run." She zipped in front of Paige to demonstrate, then ran to the end of the hallway and back again.
"Cool." Paige grinned. "You and my brother Sam will have to have a race." Then she knocked on the door they'd reached.
"Come in." A voice called from inside.
Paige gave Mattie a push. "I'll be waiting here."
Mattie pushed open the heavy oak door and stepped into the room. A small fire was burning in the grate, the light flickering on the walls and carpet.
"Have a seat." The man sitting behind the desk told her. He was completely bald. Somehow whenever Mattie had tried to picture Professor Charles Xavier, and she had given him many different forms, none of them had been bald.
Professor Xavier chuckled. He looked down at a pad of paper that lay in front of him on the desk. "So, Matilda Drew. How are you?"
"Fine." She answered. Then she blurted out. "Only, Professor, I'd really much rather be called Mattie."
"Very well, Mattie it is then."
Mattie smiled. This wasn't so bad, she started to relax.
"I hope that you will enjoy your time here." The Professor continued, telling Mattie about the Institute and her new school, Bayville high.
Mattie zoned out for a while, she was to busy thinking ahead to what Jean and Kurt had told her about the Institute, that they were part of a team called X-Men. That she could be part of that team, using her powers to help people. Saving lives. It sounded good. Like a worthwhile cause. Maybe she could even find something useful to do with her powers, other than run away.
"I look forward to helping you develop your mutant gift." The Professor was saying. Mattie snapped herself out of the thoughts and focused on what the Professor was saying. She wanted to develop her mutantness too. Although she hoped that doing that would be more than just boring lectures like this. Too late she suddenly remembered what Jean and Kurt had told her about the Professor. He was a telepath! And she had just called his lecture boring! To his face! Almost!
Professor Xavier laughed. "It's quite alright Mattie. I realise I was going on a little."
Mattie sank into her seat in mortification.
"You know how we academic types love to hear ourselves talk."
"Sorry Sir."
"Quite alright. I assure you I am not offended. I will try to shorten my speech." He smiled at her. "I know that Paige is anxious for you to meet the others."
Mattie got up, smiled briefly before hurrying to get out the room.
Welcome to the Institute, Mattie. She felt the Professors words form in her brain like Jean's had. Her ears protested that they had been left out of the loop. She turned as she got to the door.
"Thank you, Professor."
Paige leapt to her feet as Mattie stepped out the office.
"Great. Let's go." She dragged Mattie back to their room.
Mattie dug around in her bag and pulled out her light blue swimming costume. Paige pulled out a folded screen that was leaning against the wall. She pulled it out so that the four panels stretched the length of the room, effectively separating the two halves of the room.
"For when we want a bit of privacy." Paige explained. Then she busied herself on her side leaving Mattie to change.
"Did you like the Professor?" She asked.
Mattie nodded, and then remembered Paige couldn't see her. "Yeah."
"I was terrified of him when I first got here." Paige told her. "My brother had told me all these horrible things about him." She giggled. "Then I got here and found out that he'd totally made them up to scare me! How mean is that?"
Mattie thanked heaven that she'd been blessed an only child. She'd been spared all the teasing and practical jokes that siblings seemed to love so much.
"I got him back though." Paige confided. "I got out the baby photos!" She went off into a peel of giggles.
Mattie laughed. But really she was busy studying herself in the mirror. Her swimming costume looked like a Victorian bathing outfit compared to Paige and her ability to wear that tiny bikini with complete ease. She didn't seem at all worried about wandering around the Institute like that. Mattie on the other hand already wanted to cover herself up.
"Ready?" Paige asked.
"As I'll ever be." Mattie said, stepping out from behind the screen.
Paige nodded, seemingly satisfied with her appearance.
As they made their way out to the grounds Mattie asked Paige: "So what is it that you do?"
Paige grinned. "I do this." She started to pull at the skin on her arm. Mattie watched her in concern; maybe she had a skin complaint. Then her concern turned to horror as she saw Paige tear off her skin and casual toss it aside. But instead of blood and muscle, she saw diamond glinting at her where Paige's skin had been.
"I can change to any form that I need." Paige explained. "Steel, stone, rubber." She looked at Mattie's shock face. "Pretty cool huh?"
"Does it hurt?"
"Nope."
They walked out the doors to the garden, the sun was shinning down, and heating the ground around them, the downpour that had been threatening as they drove up seemed to have vanished completely. She could see the group round the pool and hear them as she and Paige got closer. There were people in the pool and lounging on the bank. She spotted Jean sunbathing on a towel with a petite brunette girl by her side, wearing a huge sunhat. On her other side sat a girl with brown hair with white stripes, she was fully clothed and scowling into her book Slightly apart, but close enough to chat lay three other girls, two with dark hair and one blonde. Three boys and a girl were engaged in a game of Frisbee on the opposite bank. In the pool itself were two boys playing volleyball and a set of triplets, Mattie guessed they must be triplets as they all looked so identical. The volleyball hit one of them and before her eyes another boy appeared. Now there were four of them. She blinked, trying to make sense of it. There was a puff of smoke and Kurt appeared in the air above the pool.
"Cannonball!" He shouted curling into a ball and dropping like a stone. The wave from the splash sprayed all over the sunbathing girls who squealed dutifully.
"Kurt!" The petite brunette snapped. "You like totally soaked me, and I only just got dry!"
"Sorry, Kitty." Kurt said clambering out of the pool. "Want a hug to make up for it?"
"Oh no!" Kitty scrambled up and started backing away as a dripping Kurt advanced on her.
"Come on Kitty." Kurt grinned at her. "A hug to say sorry."
"Your like, all wet." She giggled.
Kurt lunged at her, and fell right through her. Mattie watched as Kitty stepped though Kurt like she was a ghost. Then she picked up her towel and threw it at him. "Dry off, Fuzzy."
Kurt took the towel, waited till her back was turned then hugged her.
Kitty let out a screech before beating him away with her sunhat. "Fuzzy!"
Kurt was too busy laughing to defend himself and flopped down on the grass to dry off. He spotted Paige and Mattie and waved. Everybody turned to see who he was waving at and Mattie found herself under the scrutiny of the inhabitants of the Institute, her fellow class mates.
"Everybody this is Mattie." Paige made the introductions. "Mattie this is everybody." She then rattled off names, Mattie lost track after the first few, so she smiled brightly and promised herself to memorise names and faces later.
"Are you coming in?" The four identical boys asked.
"We would if you made a little room for us Jamie." Paige told him. "Pull yourself together."
Jamie grinned and three of him disappeared. "Better?"
Paige nodded and leapt off the side in a beautiful dive that carried her to the middle of the pool.
"Six point five." A boy with light brown hair said as she surfaced.
"Think you can do better, Bobby?" Paige asked. "Feel free to try."
Bobby smirked. "Just watch me." And he struck out for the bank.
The blonde haired boy studied Paige's arm, which still had a diamond stripe down it. "Been showing off sis?"
Paige grinned. "It's not showing off. Mattie wanted to know what I could do. I thought that a practical demonstration was better than a description."
"So that's a 'yes' then." He teased.
Paige stuck her tongue out at him and he splashed her.
"Sam!" She cried and splashed him back.
Mattie stood on the edge of the pool watching the siblings fight. They seemed happy enough at it. She assumed they must do this all the time as nobody else was reacting to them.
"Are you coming in?" Jamie asked her again.
"Is it warm?" She asked, dipping a big toe in to test the temperature.
Jamie nodded. "Come on in."
Mattie hesitated. It was warm out here and she wasn't too hot yet that she felt like cooling down. She would have liked to sunbathe for a while, but Paige was in the pool. Mattie wanted to stay close to the only person whose name she knew.
Then she felt something freezing on her back, she jumped in surprise and landed with a squeak in the pool. Surfacing she found Bobby standing on the bank roaring with laughter. From his elbow to the end of his hand was encased in ice.
"You took to long." He told her. "So I helped you along a bit." The ice on his arm melted off to reveal his normal arm.
"Bobby!" Paige looked mad. "That wasn't fair."
"Fair smair!" Bobby retorted still laughing.
Mattie reached the bank and pulled herself out of the pool. She stood dripping on the bank, which Bobby seemed to find even funnier. Mattie glared at him. Then, moving so quickly that she was a blur, she moved to stand in front of him. She paused briefly, so that Bobby had time to spin round and face her.
"Bye bye." Mattie smirked and raised an eyebrow before giving Bobby a shove. Off balance from turning to face her, Bobby lost his balance and fell in the pool.
He was already protesting as he came up for air. "Hey, you can't do that! I..." He was drowned out by everyone's laughter.
Paige high-fived Mattie as she slipped back into the pool.
"That's what you get for playing a trick on someone when you don't know what they can do." Sam told him slapping a friendly arm around him.
Bobby looked crestfallen then nodded. He grinned at Mattie. "I'll get you next time."
Sam grabbed the volleyball as it floated past him. "Doubles?"
"We're in!" Paige told him latching hold of Mattie.
Mattie rolled her eyes; clearly it wasn't worth arguing with Paige. So she let herself be dragged into the game.
For the rest of the day Mattie listen intently every time someone said a name. She tested herself by trying to figure out who would answer, she had to guess before they answered or it didn't count. For an extra point she also had to name the person who had called out in the first place.
"How are you doing?"
Mattie looked round at the girl talking to her. Rahne. She reminded herself, her name was Rahne.
"I'm fine." She said with a friendly smile.
Rahne grinned back at her. "No. I meant at your game. How are you doing?"
Mattie felt herself flush. "You... You noticed?"
"Only because I did something similar when I first came here." She glanced at Mattie and her grin broadened. "And the fact that you mutter the names under your breath."
Mattie smiled despite her embarrassment. "So how was I doing?"
Rahne laughed. "Not to bad. But you keep mixing up Amara and Jubilee." She pointed to each girl. "You wouldn't do that if you knew them."
Jubilee looked up. "You talking about us, Rahne?"
Rahne nodded. "Yeah." Then she turned back to Mattie. "Just watch." She whispered.
Jubilee stood with her hands on her hips. "No fair." She grinned, spoiling her attempt at intimidation. "Spill."
Amara was also standing. "Hey fur ball. Say what you have to say."
Rahne mealy grinned and leaned in as it to whisper something to Mattie. The two girls couldn't stand it any longer and marched over to Rahne and Mattie.
"Nice to see you ladies decided to join us." Rahne said looking innocently up at the two of them.
Mattie began to giggle as she noticed both Jubilee and Amara trying to control their smiles.
"What's the goss?" Jubilee asked.
Rahne explained about Mattie's attempt to learn people's names. "And I though that a little interaction with the subjects would make it easier to remember."
"So how do you like it here so far?" Amara asked Mattie.
Mattie shrugged. "I like it. I mean there are loads of people, and I can't remember everyone's name, and I have no clue what to say to anybody. But, you know." She shrugged. "I like it."
"It gets easier." Jubilee told her.
Rahne and Amara nodded.
"And soon you won't be bale to remember how strange it all was." Amara said.
"Until someone new shows up, and reminds you." Rahne chimed in.
Mattie smiled. "Can I fast forward to then?"
The other girls giggled and Mattie started to feel that she would be alright here.
When Mattie woke the next morning it was still dark. She glanced at her alarm clock, which was still busy ringing, and recoiled in horror when she saw the time. She hit her alarm until it stopped ringing and burrowed back under her cover.
"You have to get up." Paige told her from across the room.
"No I don't." Mattie disagreed. "The birds aren't up so neither am I."
"I don't think that Logan is going to except that as an excuse."
Mattie blinked in the dark under her cover. She hadn't met Mr Logan yet, but she had heard him described. He was tough. And the morning training sessions were hard work. She didn't want to go.
"He hasn't even met me yet. He won't notice if I'm absent."
"Yes he will and you do not want to piss him off."
Mattie grumbled and snuggled deeper under her cover.
"Come on Mattie." Paige was now sitting on the end of Mattie's bed. "It's fun. Using our powers, learning how to be an X-Man. Besides, I want to see what you can do." With that she grabbed hold of the cover and pulled it off Mattie and on to the floor. Mattie gave a shriek of protest as she was suddenly confronted with the cold morning.
Paige picked up a blue and yellow suit and threw it at her. "Come on. Let's go!"
Mattie stood in the huge room that Paige had called the Danger room. Everybody else was there as well. And so was Mr Logan. He was grunting orders to people getting them set up into groups and working out.
"Paige?" Mattie whispered.
Paige shook her head. "Not when I'm in uniform."
Mattie looked confused.
"When we're in uniform, when we're X-Men, then we go by our code names. I'm Husk."
Mattie glanced back round the room. Great! So she had spent the whole of yesterday desperately learning people's names. And now she had to learn a whole load of new names! Fantastic!
She saw Mr Logan, Wolverine she corrected herself, glad that Husk had filled her in on his code name at least, looking in their direction.
"Husk. Go work with Boom Boom and Multiple." His gruff voice snapped.
Husk snapped off a smart salute and made her way over to Jamie and Tabitha. Well Jamie had to be Multiple. Mattie guessed. So that meant that Boom Boom was Tabitha. That would make sense, she thought as she saw her create a little ball that exploded. Maybe figuring out people's code names wasn't going to be so hard.
Wolverine stopped in front of her and looked her up and down. "What's you name kid?"
"Mattie."
Wolverine sighed. "Nope. Your code name. Charles did give you one right?"
Mattie nodded franticly. "Yeah he did."
She though back to the meeting she had had with Professor Xavier before she went to bed the night before. He had explained to her about the X-Men and the reason for having code names. Then he had told her what hers would be.
Wolverine was staring at her, waiting. "And it was?"
"Oh. Sorry." Mattie apologised. "It's Chase."
Wolverine grunted. "Okay then, Chase. Let's see what you can do."
While the others worked in groups, Wolverine put Chase though her paces. He had her run from one end of the room to the other as fast as she could, then he made her do it again only faster. Then he had her kicking and punching at a punching bag to gauge how fast she could fight. Then he tested her reflexes by tossing rubber balls at her. They didn't hurt, but they stung as they connected. After the first time she was hit, Chase decided not to get hit anymore.
"Your reactions are fast." Wolverine told her, pausing from throwing the balls at her. "You'll get better." Then he hurled another ball at her. Chase dodged it and then leapt to the side to avoid the next one.
By the time that Wolverine called a halt to the practice session Chase was panting.
"Alright. You'd better get going or you'll be late for school." He told them. There were assorted cheers for the end of practice and moans for the thought of school.
"School!" Chase sighed falling into step with Husk and Jubilee. "After all this, we still have to go to school?"
"You did good today." Jubilee told her. "You should have seen me after my first training session!"
Husk nodded. "You get used to it."
"Great!" Chase sighed again.
They got back to their room and Mattie changed, showered, breakfasted and got everything ready in a mad blur.
They all piled into various cars, fighting over who got the best seats. Paige grabbed Mattie and she found herself in Bobby's car with Sam, Paige and Ray and Amara.
They arrived at school early thanks to Bobby's disregard for the speed limit. "I thought I was the speed monster." Mattie muttered to Paige as they leapt out the car.
"Na, you're just a monster." Bobby told her with a grin.
Mattie treated him to one of her blackest stares.
"Hey look!" A voice rang out. "The X-freaks have got themselves a newbie."
Slouching against the school gate were four boys, looking like they were only at school because they chose to be.
"Oh great." Sam sighed.
"Who are they?" Mattie asked.
"The Brotherhood." Paige told her.
"Mutants." Ray supplied.
"Really dumb, ugly ones." Amara put in.
"We don't waste our time talking to them." Bobby added.
Sam opened his mouth to comment, then, deciding that all had been said that needed to be said, closed it again and nodded him agreement.
"Like we want to talk to you, Drake." The largest boy said.
The leader, a boy with brown hair down to his shoulders stepped forward and pointed at Mattie. "Who do we have here?"
"Yeah." The smallest boy added. "Like there aren't enough of you lameos already."
"Back off, Lance." Ray said squaring up to Lance.
The fourth boy, a tall thin creature with blonde hair so pale that it was almost white pushed himself off from the gate and approached Mattie.
"New girl huh?" He glanced back at the others then stepped forward again. "Well let me welcome you and take your bag for you." Grabbing Mattie's backpack he raced round her three times before racing up the road and back to the safety of the Brotherhood. He turned with a laugh to where Mattie had been standing.
She wasn't there.
Spinning he found her behind him, she had followed him move for move.
Before he could react she had rammed her fist into his stomach. He doubled up in pain, the air forced out of his lungs. "That's mine." She told him, grabbing her backpack from his unresisting hand. Then she turned and walked, very slowly back to where Paige and the others were waiting for her.
"To bad Maximoff." Bobby called, throwing a lazy arm around Mattie. "Looks like even our newest members can beat you guys."
They headed into the school leaving the Brotherhood muttering curses after them.
"You alright Pietro?" Fred asked.
"She could move like you." Todd said. "Like, really fast."
"Where'd they find her?" Lance wondered.
Pietro didn't answer; he had no answer to give.