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Disclaimer- Don't own X-men
Rebound
Chapter 4- First Impressions
I whipped out of my stupor at the glamorous décor as soon as he said…that…word. Home? Not likely…
I regained my composure (as much as I'd had in the first place…), and stood with my arms crossed, facing them with a determined look on my face.
"This isn't my home."
Professor McBald and Shiny raised an eyebrow to this and smirked.
"Well, you are new here, but I hope that one day you will believe it to be." He smiled. The other two around them smiled down at me too.
I scoffed. Sure whatever.
"Excuse my manners Brooke, to my left is a senior member of the residents here at the mansion, Ororo Monroe. On the field her name is Storm. You may go to her if you have any problems or questions you need answering."
The said person, Or-…Oreo…Oregon? Miss Monroe, smiled, "I'm glad to meet you, Brooke."
While she was talking I was focussing on how white her hair was, I mean she didn't look a day over forty… Did she dye it white? Who doest that?
"And to my right, is another senior member of the mansion and leader of the X-Men, Scott Summers. On the field or in training exercises his name is Cyclops."
Scott? Like…Scotties? Isn't that a type of toilet paper? Heh…heh… I totally didn't catch the X-Men thing. Didn't care. That was going to come back and bite me later…
He nodded down at me.
"Err…Hi, I'm Brooke Stevens." That was all they were going to get.
Silence.
Well, this is awkward.
"Would you like a tour of the house then, Brooke? It would be most helpful considering you will be staying here for a while, I presume?" Professor X said, with yet another grin on his face.
You mean I have a choice about this? Well in that case…wait…I don't have anywhere else to go…curses!
"Sure, I suppose it couldn't hurt …"
"I will assume that you, Ororo, will be escorting Brooke around the mansion?" he turned to…Or..Oreo? Darn speech impediments!
"Yes, Charles," she smiled at me and beckoned me to follow her.
"I will be seeing you later Brooke, enjoy yourself," with that he went back out the doors, probably to where all those people were still standing.
"See you," Scotties called over his shoulder as he left with Charles.
"Well, shall we begin?" she smiled.
I nodded, 'sooner we start, the sooner we get it over with...'
"Where we are standing now is the is the foyer, basically the entryway, and in front of us are the main stairs that obviously lead to the second story." She gestured her hand towards the staircase, kind of like a Vanna White impression.
This place is really…really…I can't even think of a word to describe it, spectacular? No…Magnificent? No. Homey? Kind of…I'm not sure, I'll probably think of it later. For now, I think I'll just try to pay attention.
"This way now, Brooke," she walked to the right of the staircase and stopped at the beginning of a hallway.
She turned to face me and pointed to the right, "Those are Xavier's chambers and his office; you'll only need to go in there if you're told to."
I guess visiting him would mean I did a bad thing… well, that's what I got from the way she said it. It couldn't be a good thing to be paying visits to the headmaster, could it?
"To your left is Xavier's study, and to your right is the informal sitting room," she said and gestured to each room as she spoke.
"You sound like a safari guide," I commented and took a step into the sitting room to notice all the cushy chairs and couches, this looks promising.
"Some days I feel like I'm in one," she sighed but smiled quickly afterwards. "But it's worth it."
"Nice cover up…" I muttered and followed behind her.
"And here, if you haven't guessed is the library, where many of the students come to do their school work and such, rarely coming to actually read the books," she murmured. Looking around I figured this would be where Drew could stay for the rest of his life. Providing it had a bathroom and kitchen built in to one of the shelves…
There were shelves upon shelves of book of all kinds, (the rows were labelled) single person work areas, tables for group work, and computers against one stretch of the wall. There were curtains outlining the windows and lamps near most of the tables.
"Wow," I said kind of impressed. But books aren't really my thing – unless you count the time that I switched all the book covers on all my brother's books. It took him so long to get the right covers on all his books; I took a few of them for good measure too.
Good times.
"We still have more to see. Let's continue," she smiled and waited for me in the hallway. "Where was it you used to live, Brooke?"
I looked up at her, "I lived in New Orleans for a year, and before that was born and raised in Canada, in Cape Breton," I said, happy with something to talk about instead of the continuous silence.
"I thought I heard something in your voice - it must be the country accent," she smiled a little at that. "Did you like it there?"
Still a little touchy on the voice comment, I tried to tone down whatever it was she was hearing, "Yeah, I really did."
She stopped, "You really must miss it…" she trailed off. "To your right is the kitchen," she gestured to the swingy door.
Kitchen! I walked a bit faster, pushing through the swinging door eagerly. Once I entered the kitchen I gleefully took in the sight of cupboards adorning the wall, an island in the middle of the room, the sink behind that and the giant refrigerator stuck in one corner.
Paradise.
Not saying that I have an obsession with food or anything… I'm more like a connoisseur. I like food, cooking it, on the other hand… not so much.
I was tempted to go and open the fridge to see what kind of food was in this house when someone came in through the door that myself and…Storm…just came through.
"Good afternoon, Ororo," he…or it smiled toothily.
This person… was big! And blue! And… blue! And was wearing, a lab coat? And glasses?
"Hello, Hank, busy day in the labs?" she questioned and smiled back at…Hank?
"Oh, you know the usual, just monitoring a few experiments I have currently under observation." The blue guy looked passed her shoulder and saw me. Crap, I thought I had been doing a good job of hiding behind her too. "And who might this be?"
"This is a new student here Hank, Brooke Stevens," she smiled and moved aside so he could see me properly.
"Stevens? Well, it's about time you made your appearance, I must say! If you find yourself with nothing to occupy yourself some time over the next week I would greatly appreciate if you could spare some time to visit me in the laboratory."
"Um…sure?" I was a little surprised at his comment.
"Most excellent! Oh pardon me, I'm Doctor Hank, but it would be please me if you addressed me as Hank," he smiled and at the same time grabbed something out of the fridge. He walked over to me and shook my hand, "I shall see you soon, Miss Stevens," and with that, he departed as quick as he came.
"You'll have to excuse him, he gets a little into his research," she laughed a little.
"What does his research have to do with me?" I wondered aloud and turned to her with a confused look on my face.
"I'm not sure, you'll have to ask when you go down to see him," she walked towards the door to continue on with the tour. "Coming Brooke?"
I walked to follow her as my answer.
She went right across the hall and into another room, "This is the informal dining room, where we eat, more or less together, most evenings."
I looked in to see a long table with lots of chairs around it.
"This is where you'll be eating a lot of your meals," she said.
Go figure.
We left that room and continued down the hall to a bigger room.
"This, is the living room," she gestured and moved aside so I could see it all.
"Wow," I said again, and took in the plush carpet, cushy-looking couches and chairs, the giant TV on one wall, and the fireplace against another.
I resisted the temptation to jump onto one of the couches. They just looked so comfy!
"This is the formal dining room, we use it for holidays and occasions that are deemed special by the Professor. Actually, tomorrow will be one of those nights, so you will most certainly be eating here. The dinner tomorrow night is so everyone can meet the new intake of students. We've had quite a few new faces join us this past month."
I nodded in understanding. Well, understanding that I'll be finding a good hiding spot between now and then.
There was another fireplace against the wall, and there were giant windows around the room too. The table was shaped like a 'U' and there were chairs surrounding it on all sides and even a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
"Classy," was my only comment.
"And now for the second floor," she smiled and led me to the staircase.
Looking up them I groaned. So many stairs!
She was already halfway up them, and I was standing there at the base, glaring at them.
"They won't hurt you, Brooke," she smiled.
Sigh.
"Stupid stairs…" I grumbled and climbed them one step at a time.
I was a bit out of breath by the time I got to the second floor.
"You'll get used to them," she said encouragingly.
"Yeah…sure…" I managed.
"To your left is the girls side, where we have our own bathroom, and rooms, some are single, some are doubles, no boys are allowed to come onto this side of the second floor and the same goes for us on their side. Which is the right side of the floor." She pointed down the hall on the right side of the stairs. Where I thought I smelled something that smelled like gym socks and old cheese.
"Will I get a single room?" I asked hopefully. Not wanting to share a room with someone I didn't know.
"Luckily for you yes, a new student decided she would prefer sharing a room with another new student - leaving a single room for you," she led me past a wooden door which I figured to be the bathroom, and three doors passed it and on the left side of the hallway we stopped.
I looked up at her. "Is this it?"
She nodded, "It has only the essentials – a bed, closet, dresser, desk, and mirror. We'll need to go shopping to get whatever else you need to make the room more to your liking."
I nodded and turned the knob.
She forgot to mention that it had a window seat. That immediately caught my attention. I've always wanted one of those. The desk was against the wall in front of the door, and walking in I saw that the closet was to my left as soon as I walked in, and walking in a but further I saw that the bed was around the corner, and the dresser was in the furthest corner.
"Swanky," I commented.
"Well, it still needs a few things but we'll get them soon. Shall we finish the tour?"
She showed me where Xavier's chambers were, so I knew never to go there, whether on accident or on purpose, and the playroom.
"This is the playroom," she pointed towards a door.
"A playroom?" What, are there babies here?
She opened the door to show more couches and a cool looking mat covering a hardwood floor, and against a wall was another big TV, not as big as the one in the living room, but big anyway, and then there were all kinds of game systems, and games were on shelves covering the walls! Wow.
"Not exactly what you had in mind was it?" she asked.
I shook my head.
At this point I heard the door opening and the sounds of voices, lots of voices, coming in the doors.
"I guess everyone is coming back in now. I'm sure you'll get your chance to see the sub levels soon enough, oh, the door to the right of the entry way leads to the basement, which has a TV room, with more game systems and games and movies, as well as the laundry room, and computer room and a storage room."
I nodded, thinking I'd check it out later.
The voices were getting louder now so I figured the people were climbing the stairs.
"Well, that's all for now I think, my room is the attic and you may come and see me with whatever you need," she finished warmly and walked towards the staircase.
I nodded; I was too distracted in thinking about how I would be able to avoid as many people in the mansion as possible to notice the mat that covered the floor at the top of the staircase. By the time I did notice it, it was too late, my foot slid under that little tuft of mat that stuck out and allowed me to trip over it. Before I could stop myself and gain my balance I was already free falling down onto the landing in front of all those people climbing the stairs! It's the macaroni experience all over again!
I heard laughter and felt the embarrassment come. There's definitely no way I could show my face ever again!
The laughter then tuned down a bit and I looked up from where my face was on the floor to look at my audience. There were still traces of laughter on their faces but other then that, they looked plain confused.
Thinking I knew what they were confused about I looked down at where I knew my hands to be.
And saw that they weren't there again.
Thank god.
I didn't know how long the disappearing act would last so before I became visible again, I got up and booked it to my room, three doors down from the bathroom. I opened the door silently and shut the door quietly behind me.
I breathed a sigh of relief and felt the same tingling sensation that happened earlier that day and knew I could be seen again.
I slid down with my back against the door.
"Curse you first impressions!"
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There's Chapter 4 for you! Hope you liked it, any suggestions you have or comments, or anything, just press that little button, a little note changes a writers view on a lot of things, so review please!
Saor