Rebound

Disclaimer- X-men. Me. No.

Chapter 3- Awaiting company

The rest of the trip was spent with me with me slumped down in my seat in a huff, with lots of emotions running around my mind. Confusion, sadness, anger, and frustration. Confusion, because I don't know where I'm being carted off to, sadness because I was basically rejected by my mother, anger because my mother ditched me, I'm being sent somewhere and I haven't even granted them permission, and frustration because telepaths hear everything AND I still have macaroni surprise on my pants!

"Calm down Brooke, we're almost there," Jean coolly said from the front of the chopper.

Hmph. Easy for her to say…

I sighed and looked around for something to distract me from thinking depressing thoughts. But, of course, looking for something to distract from depressing thoughts made me start to think about the depressing thoughts anyway.

Why is this happening? What did I ever do to deserve this?

Well…

There might have been the occasional candy I took from my brother… Or shampoo that I took from mom (it smelled good!)… Or walking on our neighbours' lawn (ignoring the sign that says not to) and then teasing their dog (it barks too loud in the morning!)… Or forgetting to take our dog out a couple of times… Or not cleaning my room… And playing an honest prank or two on my brother before he moved… but his hair grew back eventually (eyebrows and arm hair included)!

I never said I was a saint.

I sighed. It's just never going to be the same now. No more me and mom time, which meant no midnight ice cream runs whenever she deemed it a worthy occasion – or just whenever we wanted a snack – no more spur of the moment trips to the park, at our old house in Cape Breton, to go roller skating, no more watching my mom paint, no more smell of the lilacs wafting through the windows in the morning till the evening.

…Evening.

No more sunsets.

Of course I realized I wouldn't be watching them with anyone after my dad passed away, but I haven't even been up to watching one myself ever since he left. While I was cursing all insane drivers, Jean came into view, walking from where I guessed was the front of the chopper.

"We're just landing now Brooke," she smiled and kept walking past me.

Um, hello, then aren't we forgetting something?

I looked down at my seatbelt in agony.

When it clicked and I was finally freed.

"You're welcome, Brooke."

You'd think it would have been easier if they never belted me down to this seat in the first place and she could've just undid it herself, without the mysterious telepathy thingy…

Jean walked back towards the front of the chopper and sent me a look, one that I figured I'd be getting for a while. I looked right back at her and made a show of finally being out of my seat and able to stretch my arms and legs.

Oh, sweet freedom.

I walked over to a little window in front of my seat and had to stand on my tippy toes to see out of it properly.

Gasp.

That place was just as big… bigger even… than my new… well, old now… place in New Orleans. There's a lake and pool and everything! So many windows! And how tall is it exactly? It's kind of hard to tell since I'm in a chopper hovering above it. So many questions were running through my mind at this point…

Are we landing here?

Is this where I'm staying?

How many people can even fit in there?

Do they leave mints on your pillows?

Is someone standing behind me?

And sure enough when I turned around to see there was a person standing between me and the death seat. I noticed that he didn't have to go on his tippy toes to look out the window and just looked out the window above my head.

Wait a minute…

He?

"Some view, eh?"

Was that some sort of cheap shot at how I couldn't see completely out the window? Just when I decided to ignore him, I realized something.

That voice…

He was the one who made the childproof seatbelt comment!

I turned around to face him again so I could etch the culprits face into my hit list. He was walking away.

"Hey!" I called to see if he'd turn around.

The fiend turned on his heel and looked at me with a grin on his face.

Then I made my second realization in the past two minutes. Record? Yes indeed.

He was kind of good looking…

I shook my head to clear away the thoughts and instead glared at him and turned away.

"Drake. Bobby Drake."

I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was once again standing behind me. With his hand stretched out.

"Oh…um…Brooke Stevens," I looked down at his hand suspiciously and paused a few seconds before tentatively taking it with my own.

There was a pause where we just stood there, shaking each others' hands gently, he looked down at me and smiled and I returned the gesture with one of my own.

He grinned again, "Welcome to Xavier's."

Ah…I see, I took my hand back and crossed my arms, turning back to the window that I couldn't see out of.

These people are clever.

Trying to get me to be happy by having a good looking someone be the first to welcome me here.

I'm on to their little tricks and schemes.

"You know, the window, is up there," Bobby pointed up to where he was level with the window.

I looked up. Not wanting to feel as embarrassed as possible, "I know I was just admiring…the texture… of the metal of the chopper?"

Great recovery.

"Ah, I see," I could feel his smirk from behind me.

I mentally slapped myself and brushed past him walking towards where he had walked out of, hoping that Jean was there. And luckily she was.

She was talking into a little intercomish thing, I figured it was a sort of walkie-talkie, and was talking to people in the building below us.

"Preparing for landing. Brooke hold on to something." Surprised that my name was said; I just nodded and looked for something to hold onto.

Something…

Anything…

Fine.

I went to my last resort and sat back down in the seat. Except without putting the seatbelt. Ha. Take that.

That's when the sensation of descending came and I lurched forward a bit.

And we landed.

"That was quick…" I mumbled and stood from the seat, hoping to not have to go anywhere near it anytime in the near or far future.

"Come on, squirt," Bobby said casually as he walked by.

…

Squirt?

Am not!

I grumbled and followed him with my head down looking at the floor.

"Oof!"

Since my head was down I didn't notice that Bobby had stopped walking. Hence I collided into his back.

"Sorry…" I grumbled. Not knowing if he heard, and honestly not caring if he didn't.

He just grinned, again, and stood waiting humming to himself. Something that sounded awfully like a song out of 'Grease', which just so happened to be one of my favourite movies. Nah, he couldn't be a Travolta fan.

The door on the side of the helicopter opened in front of Bobby and me. Jean stood on the outside of it down on the ground.

How did she get there?

Bobby hopped out, put his hands in his pockets and went to join the group of people standing a few feet away all facing my direction. He turned and joined the line up.

Were they waiting or something?

Jean offered me a hand and I took it timidly; still unsure as to why there were so many people watching my arrival.

I jumped down, not as graceful as I'd hoped, and stood there.

I was getting a little uneasy standing there with so many people looking at me. Maybe they noticed the macaroni? With that thought I turned so they'd only see the part of my outfit that wasn't tarnished with Tuesday's macaroni surprise.

Then I heard a humming sound, and the crowd parted to let a bald guy in a wheel chair through. Was the chair floating?

Weird.

"Welcome Brooke, I'm glad you could make it." Old guy said with a slight smile on his face.

"Oh, um…ok," Was my intelligent answer.

My name is Charles Xavier, you may call me Professor X, which most of the younger students deem myself.

I nodded slowly, and then realized that no one else would know what I was nodding at and stopped.

Would you care to follow me inside?

Not much of a question if you ask me. 'Cause it wasn't as if I had a choice.

The crowd stayed parted and let us go through, with me edgy because I didn't know any of the people around me, and there was still crap on my pants. I avoided eye contact on the most part until Bobby caught my eye, smiled and me an over exaggerated thumbs up. I ignored him and kept following the wheel chair thing.

I noticed that there was a woman with dark skin and white hair, and a man with brown hair and red… sunglasses walking along side the Professor guy talking quietly.

I took the opportunity to take a sigh of relief from being out of all those peoples' gaze, and look at what was around me.

This place was huge! It had two levels, and it looked like there were different wings of the house, and there was a garage, a bigger then usual one anyway, there was so much…area! Great big front lawn with a circle driveway, I can't even imagine what the back yard would look like. In the distance I could see the beginning of a forest. That could be promising.

"In here, Brooke," the lady said. She was standing in the doorway holding open the door for me.

"Coming," I said quietly, and walked to where she was waiting, and into the mansion.

The trio stood in the entryway smiling at me.

I stood there gaping at everything around me. It was much nicer than anything we had at home… Everything here was beautiful and I was so entranced with looking around that I missed the amused look the three adults exchanged at my expense.

"Welcome home, Brooke," Professor X said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey readers (well I hope anyway..), please review! It'll let me know to keep going..not to keep going.. so do me a favour kay? Review!

----Saor