Authoress's notes: you all have no idea how much the reviews mean to me. Really. So many compliments – and I'm so glad to have a few regulars. It's exciting! The one comment that seems to be repeating is that the story is smooth -- for which I'm so glad. This is, after all, a repost. I got as far as chapter 5 last time before taking it off. I worked on it a bit more, and now I feel more confident about writing it. Makes me go fuzzy all over!
Reviewers' Response:
Married 2 Hugh Jackman – hehe, nice new name.
chelsey-pudge – hi! Amanda's interaction with the guys... she's just this casual girl who's fun to be around, so they like her ;D
Moose the Ice Queen – gah! I noticed that one too! It annoyed me sooooooo much! I mean, I guess they didn't know they were going to get more into the whole Pyro issue in X2, so they didn't think about the actor too much...
Ranger-Xion – realistic! Descriptive! Yay! Thanks!!
Rowena Zahnrei - ooh, thanks! I'm very glad I reposted after working on it a bit more; I feel that it really is smoother :D You know – I just spent a 2 days about a week ago re-reading An Unsung Hero; I understood a few things better this time, having looked through a few comics references... it was nice to read such a well-written story again! PS... I left the cranky hair just for you! :)
Silverone3 – all right, thanks for the timetable. I suppose I can leave it like it is... I don't feel like messing around with it too much. You know, I actually do kind of understand what you meant about Kurt -- even if you don't find him attractive physically, he's got a really great personality. So kind and shy and cute! Did you have fun on your Halloween party? We don't celebrate it in Israel, so.
Chapter 7: Training With Professor X.
"Professor Xavier?"
"Yes, Kitty?" Xavier looked up from his plate, smiling at her.
"Amanda and I want to plan a Halloween party."
"Well, it's a wonderful idea. Did you ask everybody?"
Kitty nodded eagerly. She and Amanda and Kurt had been roaming between the tables of the cafeteria for the past quarter of an hour, asking everybody's opinion. This also gave Amanda an opportunity to meet anybody she had not yet met.
"Almost everybody agrees, Kitty," said Amanda, coming up to stand with an elbow resting on Kitty's shoulder. "All we need is your approval, Professor Xavier."
"And I grant it wholeheartedly, Amanda. What of the students who do not wish to come?"
"They don't have to," Amanda shrugged.
"But anybody who does come has to wear a costume," said Kitty, grinning.
"All right," said Xavier, "then it's settled. We shall take the children shopping for costumes this weekend. Any volunteers?" he looked around the table, at Storm, Scott, Logan, Hank, Bobby and Rogue.
"We'll all go," said Rogue. "We'll need costumes too, after all."
"I think I'll pass," said Dr. Hank McCoy, shaking his furry blue head. "I'll come to the party, but I think I'm a bit too ... conspicuous, out in public."
"Ja, me too," said Kurt. "I should be able to find a suitable costume, however."
"Excellent," said Xavier. "I shall put up a notice on the notice board."
"Great," said Amanda, and turned to go back to her table with Kitty and Kurt when Xavier called her back.
"I'm happy to see that you've already acquired a few friends," he said. "I don't think you've met Dr. McCoy, though." He gestured at the huge, blue-furred man sitting two seats down. Amanda smiled at him.
"Pleasure to meet you, Dr. McCoy."
"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Norron. And call me Hank," he said, smiling back. Amanda noticed that under the blue hair on his face, he wore thin round glasses. He seemed a smart, interesting person.
"Well then, you call me Amanda."
"All right then."
"Okay then."
The pair looked at each other for a few seconds before Rogue began to giggle. The professor joined in, and gradually the whole table loosened up. "Won't you sit with us, Amanda?" said Xavier. Amanda shook her head, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
"No, I'm sorry, I've promised Kitty and Mel... I'm starting to really like those two."
"Very well then. I think tomorrow would be a good time to start with your telekinetic training. How do you feel about eight-thirty?"
"Eight-thirty's great. Where should I go?"
"Meet me in the entrance hall."
"Great. See you in the morning!"
-X-
"Amanda. Amanda, wake up. Com on now, you don't want to be late for your training with Herr Professor, do you?"
Training.
Professor Xavier.
Late.
Amanda opened her eyes. "Shit. What time is it?" she asked Kurt.
"Only seven thirty, but if you want to do anything else before eight-thirty, then you'd better get started."
"Ugh, yeah. Thanks, Kurt." She got out of the bed, unaware of Kurt starting to blush, as she was wearing nothing beyond a pair of boxer shorts and a sports bra. "I don't know what I'd do without you." She kissed his cheek as she sleepily made her way to the bathroom, gathering a pair of jeans and a T-shirt on the way. Kurt thanked God for his blue skin, then waited politely as Amanda showered and dressed. He smiled at her as she came out of the bathroom, braiding her hair.
"Guten Morgen. That was quick."
Amanda shrugged. "I'm not into long showers. And besides, I'll be needing the extra time for other things."
"Such as?" said Kurt.
"Breakfast," Amanda grinned. "I'm sure you're hungry too. And I also have to find the entrance hall before eight-thirty itself rolls around."
"I could help you with that, you know," Kurt offered her an arm. "Shall we go down to breakfast, Fräulein?"
"Such a gentleman," remarked Amanda as she took it, and the two of them headed to the cafeteria for breakfast with Kitty and her friends.
-X-
"Good luck, Amanda."
"Thanks, Kurt," Amanda smiled as he teleported out of the hall after having helped her find it. Professor Xavier arrived a few minuets later, which was still four minuets before eight-thirty. He smiled at her.
"I always appreciate students who arrive on time," he said, and Amanda grinned sheepishly.
"You'll have to thank Kurt for that. He woke me up; otherwise I think I'd have slept through the morning."
"Hmm. Perhaps you ought to purchase an alarm clock."
Amanda chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind. So what's up for today's lesson?"
"Enthusiastic, are we?"
"You have no idea." Amanda rubbed her hands together, both nervous and excited at once.
"Follow me." Xavier led her to his office, where he motioned for her to sit at the chair near his desk. Amanda sat somewhat nervously; she had never done well in offices.
"No need to be nervous," said Xavier, smiling at her. "I won't give you a detention." Amanda put a hand to her temple and frowned slightly, saying, "Quit snooping. If you want to know how I feel you can always ask. You don't have to poke around my brain, no matter how subtle you thing you're being."
Xavier smiled, much to Amanda's surprise. "I was merely testing you," he said. At Amanda's blank look, he continued, "I wanted to check how sensitive you were. If you felt me in your mind, then I daresay you'd be quite hard to notice yourself."
"You mean, when I enter somebody else's mind?"
"Yes. But we'll leave that for another lesson. Today we'll focus on telekinesis. As you know, I assume, telekinesis involves moving objects using one's mind alone. Do you remember ever doing something like this in the past three years? Mostly by accident. Perhaps sometime when you were emotional, or scared, or –"
"Does bored out of my mind count?"
"Excuse me?"
Amanda shrugged. "I was sitting in the kitchen in my apartment. I was bored. Booooored to death. So I looked at one of my coffee mugs on the shelf. I looked at it, and I looked at it, and I looked at it, and after a good half an hour of staring at the poor mug, it dropped to the floor. Broke into a hundred teeny-tiny pieces, my favorite coffee mug." She pouted.
"Hmm." Xavier ran a hand along the armrest of his wheelchair. "That's peculiar. I suppose boredom could also qualify as an intense emotion…"
"Oh, that particular boredom was intense," Amanda confirmed with a slight grin.
"Well then. If you've done it before by accident, then I'm sure you'll be able to do it purposely." He reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a marble. He placed it on the desk, holding it in place for a few seconds to be sure it would not roll around. "Now. I want you to try and move this marble, using only your mind. In order to do that –"
Xavier stopped as the marble in question rolled to the left. He frowned and put it back in its place at the center of the desk. "In order to do that, you must –" he stopped as, once more, the marble rolled to the left. He reached out to take it but, as though avoiding his grasp, the marble rolled around again. Xavier gave chase, his fingers grasping at the marble, until he looked up and saw Amanda grinning. The marble stopped rolling around crazily.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Xavier questioned.
"Just yesterday," replied Amanda. "In the kitchen. Kurt taught me."
"Kurt? How did he manage that?"
Amanda shrugged. "It was my idea, mostly. I convinced him that his teleporting could be similar to telekinesis. He told me to relax and ask the glass to move."
"Ask it to move? Well, I suppose that's his approach. Today I'll ask you to try it a bit differently than glasses. This marble –" he placed it on the table. This time Amanda let it be. "This marble is very small. I see you can manage to move it around. Do you think you can you lift it?"
"Um – I can try." Amanda concentrated on the marble. Come on… please? Oh come on, Manda. If you can move it left and right then you can move it up as well. Gradually, the marble rose a bit, hovering inches off the desktop. It wobbled there for a second before dropping once more. Amanda sighed. "It won't work..."
"Try again," said Xavier, gently but firmly. "Don't give up after just one try."
"Oh don't you worry, Professor. I'm not the kind who gives up so easily. I'll be here till dinner if that's what it takes."
Amanda concentrated hard. The marble rose again, and this time it stayed in the air, hovering at Amanda's eye-level. Amanda concentrated on keeping it there.
"Well done."
Amanda jumped. The marble dropped to the desk. "Sorry," she looked at Xavier. "You startled me."
"Ah, then we need to work on that, don't we? Lift it again. Concentrate on keeping it in the air."
Amanda nodded and concentrated again. When the marble was in the air again, Xavier spoke in a quiet, soothing voice. This time Amanda was ready for him, and the marble stayed airborne – instead of blocking out his voice, she let the cultured tones wash over her, without disturbing them nor they disturbing her.
"Very good." Xavier took another marble from the drawer and held it next to the first one in the air. "Do you think you can manage another one?"
Amanda split her focus. Half went to keeping the first marble in the air, while the other half she used to support the second. It worked.
"Can you move them around?"
Amanda concentrated. The first marble moved around the second, like a planet orbiting the sun.
"Wonderful," said Xavier. "A few more?"
Amanda never took her eyes off the marbles as she nodded, though the orbiting marble slowed down a bit. "Try me."
Slowly, Professor Xavier added marble after marble, until Amanda was spinning a dozen marbles up in the air. He chuckled as she arranged them to form a smiley-face, then a heart, then a question mark.
"Excellent," he said, holding up a small cloth bag. Once by one, Amanda guided the marbles into it. Xavier closed the bag and handed it to her. "I want you to practice with these marbles every day. Tomorrow we'll work on your telepathy. I think you've quite a lot of potential. Also..."
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"I was merely wondering... how do you feel here, so far?"
Amanda grinned. "So far, so good. The company's much better than where I used to live, and the food's good."
Xavier's eyebrows rose. "Well, I must say that's the first time I've heard that."
Amanda laughed. "When you've been living on coffee by day, beer by night, and junk-food in-between for too long, even cafeteria food could be delicious. Besides, the food here is much better than normal cafeteria food." She stood up. "Thanks for the lesson. I'll practice, I promise. Same time tomorrow?"
Xavier nodded. "Why don't you ask Kurt to show you the classrooms? Perhaps you'll get an idea of anything you'd like to teach. It can be anything, Amanda; you don't have to settle for teaching the kids mathematics. Be creative. I'm sure you'll think up something outrageous."
Amanda smiled at him. "Was that a complement?"
Xavier smiled back at her. "I suppose so, yes."
"All right then. Now, where can I find that blue mutant of mine...?"
"I believe he is in his room at the moment. Ask him to give you another tour."
"Will do, sir." Amanda gave him a salute and stepped out of the office, making her way up the staircase and to Kurt's room.
Authoress's notes: hehe. This chapter was fun to write. I loved the bit with the marble. The idea came to me in the shower, as usual. I swear, my muse must be a water nymph or something :::shakes head in mock-sadness:::