Sorry it took me so long to update this story. I just got so stuck on it that I wasn't sure how to get this chap started. Anyway, I do not own Michelle Branch or her song Everywhere.
Chapter Two
How could she have missed the sign? How could she have forgotten what today was? Kylie kept berating herself. How could she have forgotten that today was her birthday?
When she had returned home from the mall a rare sight had greeted her. Her parents. They had sat in the living room, waiting for her to return home. Her parents came home for only three things: holidays, parties/social gatherings, and birthdays. And it hit Kylie. It was her birthday.
She still couldn't believe she had missed the one sign that pointed to her birthday. All that week she had been having trouble controlling her powers, they had become unruly, tearing her to pieces, trying to show themselves to the world. That was the sign, the sign that they were making room for yet another mutation. What would it be this year? Already Kylie possessed superhuman strength, telepathic and telekinetic abilities, the ability to fly and become invisible, and she also had super healing. What else could she posses?
Sitting in her room, the door locked and barred against intruders (i.e. her parents and the help), Kylie tried to calm herself. She practiced her yoga breathing, taking deep calming breath after deep calming breath. But still her mind was reeling. Her parents had been planning a big party for her seventeenth birthday. Just great. What if her powers chose to show themselves at the party? Her parents and friends would freak! She couldn't let that happen.
Kylie got off her bed and walked over to where her guitar lay. Picking it up she placed the strap across her shoulder and sat down on the floor, gently strumming out a C chord. She sat for a moment, absentmindedly going over all the chords, warming up her fingers.
Her mind wandered back to the boy she had seen earlier at the arcade. She'd seen him before of course. He had often shown up with his friends at places that were frequented by Kylie and her own crowd. It was almost like the group of mutants wanted to be picked on. They almost searched out trouble. His face floated in front of her mind's eye as she strummed the strings of her guitar. Closing her eyes she quietly hummed to herself before starting on a song that she had been working on for awhile.
Turn it inside out so I can seeThe part of you that's drifting over me
And when I wake you're never there
And when I sleep you're everywhere
You're everywhere
Just tell me how I got this far
Tell me why you're here and
Who you are
'Cause every time I look you're never there
And every time I sleep you're always there
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know
That makes me believe
I'm not alone
I'm not alone
I recognize the way you make me feel
It's hard to think that
You might not be real
I sense it now, the water's getting deep
I try to wash the pain away from me
Away from me
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know
That makes me believe
I'm not alone
I'm not alone
I'm not alone
Whoa, oh, ooh, oh
And when I touch your hand
It's then I understand
The beauty that's within
It's not that we begin
You always light my way
I hope there never comes a day
No matter where I go,
I always feel you so
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know
That makes me believe
I'm not alone
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I catch my breath
It's you I breathe
You're everything I know
That makes me believe
I'm not alone
You're in everyone I see
So tell me
Do you see me?
She strummed the final chord and let the vibration of the strings die out. It always happened like that. On a good day at least. She could always write a song off the top of her head by just striking a chord and thinking about something that had happened that day. Why couldn't her life be as easy as it was for her to write a song? Why did everything have to be so complicated?
With a heavy sigh, Kylie put her guitar down and stood, stretching out the kinks that had formed in her back.
"Kylie," her mother's voice floated up the stairs, "Kylie it's time to get ready. Your guests will be here any minute."
The string quartet in the corner of the room played lazy classical music that made Kylie feel drowsy. Why did her parents insist on getting those ancient old men instead of a hip, cool DJ? Because this party wasn't really hers, that's why. Her birthday party was a front for her parents to get together with a bunch of their own friends and talk politics and business. Kylie and her friends were stuck in the small library, guzzling down beer that Brian had weaseled his older cousin into getting.
A light breeze floated into the library, rustling Kylie's soft pink gown, and sweeping her hair about her face. She breathed in the fresh night air and listened to her friends talk. Their voices mixed with those of the loud chattering adults. The sound resounding in her ears like a train. Her head ached and the light danced in front of her eyes, causing her to become dizzy and disoriented.
No, she thought, her mind reeling, not now. Please not now. Her hands began to tremble and a thin sheet of sweat covered her brow.
"Hey babe," Brian said, kissing her mouth roughly. Kylie could taste the alcohol on his breath. He had already downed at least three glasses. "Happy birthday."
"Thanks Brian." She said, plastering on a fake smile. He kissed her once more, then sauntered off to get another glass of beer. The smell of alcohol, expensive perfumes and cologne made her feel sick. Quickly, Kylie headed for the French doors that led out of the library and out onto a small balcony.
She sucked in the fresh air, hoping it would clear her head. The soft breeze cooled her feverish skin and her trembling subsided. A tear fell down her cheek and landed on the railing that she clung to tightly. Her breathing was slightly labored as she tried to take deep calming breaths. Exhaling once more, Kylie turned back towards the door and headed back inside.
"Gather 'round everybody." Kylie's mother called to the crowd, "It's time for the birthday girl to cut the cake." Her mother drew her into the middle of the crowd where a giant cake sat with seventeen candles stuck in the top.
The night was slowly winding down. The cutting of the cake would signify the end of the party, as it always did, and then everybody would go home. Kylie was looking forward to that. Except for the small shakes she had gotten earlier, nothing big had happened with her powers. But she couldn't take the chance that they would pop up soon. The sooner she blew out the candles and cut the cake the sooner everybody would leave and she would be free to let her powers show.
Everybody was singing happy birthday to her, but their voices seemed far away to Kylie. She could barely hear them. She saw their smiling faces, the fake smiles that were always plastered on those of their social circle, but their faces ran together into a single image. They were all clapping, their hands moving at an alarmingly fast rate. Kylie closed her eyes for a brief second, before opening them once more and trying to focus on the dancing flames atop the gaudy white cake. She leaned over and blew on the candles.
Staring up at the large mansion that was housed behind a wrought iron gate, Kylie felt as if her whole world had crumbled under her feet. It was all over. She was now one of them. If she had tried to deny it before it was now no longer possible. No longer would she be accepted in her home, her friends would turn their noses up at her if they saw her. But would she truly be accepted by the mutants? Surely not. Not after what her friends had put them through. She had no choice though. She had to try.
Kylie gathered up her courage and walked down the long driveway to the front of the school. Her hearth was pounding and her feet ached from running all the way there in her high heeled shoes. She had lost control of her powers, and was now an outcast like all the other mutants. The picture still ran through her head, the very moment that her whole life had changed.
She leaned over and blew on the candles. She didn't know how it happened, but as her breath left her lips, a great gust of wind traveled through the room, knocking things off the shelves and wiping the skirts of the women's dresses about their legs. All of a sudden a searing pain shot through Kylie's head and she crumpled to the ground, her legs having lost any and all strength. She gripped her head, trying to stop the pain. Storm clouds formed on the ceiling and large drops of rain fell. Powerful wind swept through the room, swirling 'round and 'round till it formed an ugly looking cyclone. It traveled through the room, destroying anything in its path. People ran screaming from the room, trying to get away from the rain and tornado.
Kylie screamed. She felt as if she were being ripped in half. Tears streamed down her face, but the wind whipped them away as quickly as they could fall. Then it all stopped.
People looked out from behind the few pieces of furniture that remained intact, and from behind corners and doorways. They were all looking at Kylie, their eyes boring into her as she lay on the floor still griping her head. She couldn't look at anyone.
"She's a mutant!" Cried Brian as he grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. "She's a damn mutant!" he threw her away from him. Kylie looked around her. She had always wondered how people would take it if they knew she was a mutant. Now she did, and she would do anything to take back that knowledge. She looked at her parents; their looks of distaste biting deep within her soul.
"Get out," her father seethed, his eyes blazing, "get out now you freak." Tears came fresh to her eyes at her father's words.
"Daddy..." she said.
"You are not my daughter." He spat. Kylie's heart felt as if it had been torn from her body. She turned around and around, looking for a sympathetic face. There was none. Her vision blinded by her tears, Kylie ran out of the room. She could hear voices and footsteps behind her, but she paid no attention to them. She stumbled towards the door and yanked it open before falling to her knees on the front stoop.
"To think I kissed a mutant." Brian's voice bit through the cloud that had formed around her mind. She felt him yank her to her feet. "I'm gonna make you pay bitch." He spat at her, pulling her towards the small stand of trees that lined the driveway. His fingers bit into her skin, but Kylie was too stunned to do or feel anything. "Now I know why you were so quick to defend those other freaks all the time." His voice was dangerously low, the way it got whenever he was about to beat the crap out of somebody.
"What are we gonna do Brian?" James asked. Kylie hadn't heard the rest of Brian's friends come up behind them.
"What we always do to mutants." Brian said with a sick laugh as he pushed Kylie up against a tree. She looked up into his eyes. The coldness, the hatred, bit her sharply. "Any last words bitch?" he asked menacingly, placing his hand over her throat in a vice like grip. Kylie's mind began to work once more. Instantly she was herself again. Quickly she brought her hands up and pushed Brian away from her so roughly that he flew across the driveway and landed on top of a car. The sound of the car alarm brought the rest of the guests running out to see what was going on. As Brian's friends went to see if he was okay, Kylie took the opportunity to run. She ran and ran and didn't stop till she had reached Xavier's school.
She reached up with a trembling hand and knocked lightly. She wasn't sure if she wanted somebody to answer; she wasn't sure if she wanted to be known as one of Xavier's freaks for the rest of her life. But she knew one thing. She would be safer here than anywhere else.
Well, hope ya liked the chapter and will review. Hopefully it won't take me so long to put up the next chapter.
Lady-Snape7, deppfreak, TheAlmightMasterT-Chan, and melodie568: Thank you all so much for reviewing the first chap of this story. I hope you all will continue to read and review.