Chapter III
The room Shela was left in was spacious and already full of her things. Her mother had sent them all over, and she was allowed to decorate and sort her stuff as she pleased. It was her room after all. The first thing she wanted to do was jump on the bed, as does any teen out on her own for the first time. But she found her limitation to be an annoyance in that aspect.
She looked around for her stereo and found it buried under a pile of boxes. With her being restricted to a wheel chair, she decided the best means of getting to the desired music; she had to empty the boxes of her crap before removing the box as a whole. So moving her chair over to the pile, she got to work on the nearest box. Fortunately it was full of cloths.
Pulling a pile of them onto her lap she wheeled over to the dresser on one wall and put them all in order so all her under garments and socks were in the top drawer while her shirts and jeans went in the bottom two. It was tiring and straining on her arms, but she managed to get through two boxes of cloths before calling it quits.
She was startled out of her relaxation when a loud pop filled the room, followed by the smell of brimstone. Whipping around, she found the fuzzy blue elf called Kurt. Her face softened when she saw who it was. "Oh, I'm sorry, vas I interrupting some sing?" He asked with a strong German accent.
"No, not at all, I was just putting some of my things away." Shela answered with a tired smile. "It would be easier if I had legs though," she laughed dryly. It was bitter irony. She never realized just how much she took the ability to walk for granted.
"I vas told to come help you vith that, actually." He put a nervous hand behind his head.
"Oh, don't worry about it; I'm fine on my own. Trust me." She lied. She knew she couldn't do it all on her own, but she was too stubborn to ask for help. If he offered it, then she would take him up on it, but she wasn't going to actually ask for help. That's just how she was. She didn't like to force someone into helping her and in her book, asking was a means of forcing.
"Are you sure you should be doing zat, I mean… you could hurt yourself more if you keep going."
"Don't worry about it."
"Vell… may I help you any vay?"
"If you want to, I'm not going to stop you."
"Just tell me vat to do." A sharp toothed smile made its way to his face as he stood at attention. She couldn't help but laugh at that point. He was too amusing. She nodded her head.
"Well, then. Ahem, under those few boxes over there is my stereo. If we pull that out first, we can have music while we work." She said with a wink.
"Ah, good idea," he returned and with a quick leap on his part, the boxes were moved and the stereo was in full view.
"Excellent! Now where should we plug her in?" She looked around and found the bookshelf had an outlet near by. She tried to pick up the stereo and speakers, but found it too awkward in a manual wheel chair.
"Here, just tell me vare you vant it." Kurt said cheerfully. She nodded her head and moved herself to the shelf. She directed him to put the speakers on the top self, and the system it's self on the second shelf so she could reach it. Kurt plugged it in and she set the tunes. 'The World is Black' by Good Charlotte started playing and she started dancing in her chair, swaying from left to right, lip sinking to the song.
That didn't last long however when she accidentally hit her broken leg on the side of the chair, sending sharp pain all through her body. She crumbled on herself and grabbed the assaulted leg in a vain attempt to get the pain to stop. A string of tears fell from her eyes as she hissed under her breadth.
Kurt stood behind her hand placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay? Vat happened?"
"It's nothing," she forced out, her breathing hard.
"No, it's not 'nothing'. You're hurt. I'll go get ze professor." Before she could say anything, he was gone in a puff of smoke. She was left now with a numbing leg and a large mess. She couldn't move too far around the room with all the now empty boxes lying about from her earlier cleaning endeavors.
She heard the sound of others out side her door, but didn't care, so long as they stayed outside the doors. She pulled a few of the boxes away and threw them at the door to make way for her chair. When she finally reached the unopened boxes, she opened one and found her beloved books. She had a passion for fantasy and music. They worked exceptionally well together.
She would read her books while listening to her music, giving her more to dream about while she slept. It also gave her more to work with when she sang. She would memorize songs and stories at the same time. That's how, when she sang, the air around her took on a different image and feel. When she sang, the world was her own.
Now, she played a dance song called 'What a Feeling' by DJ Rankin. It put her in a better mood and made her completely forget about her pain. She started putting her books on the shelf, taking handfuls at a time. As she put them on the shelf, she put them in order by authors' last name. Half the first self was now full of books when the door opened, pushing the empty boxes aside. A furry blue head peeked into the room and gave her a worried look. Kurt pushed the boxes out of the way more so the door could open all the way. When it did, it was not the professor who came in, but another furry blue person. This guy stood stooped over like Kurt did, but where Kurt stood on two toes, the new guy stood on all for limbs like a beast.
"Hello Shela, I'm Dr. Hank McCoy, but every one calls me Beast. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you properly when you woke up." He offered a large hand to her and she took it curiously. "I here you are experiencing some pain, but you seem to be doing just fine right now. Tell me, what happened?"
"It's nothing," she said waving it off as a second thought. "I just bumped my leg, that's all."
"What were you doing?"
"Dancing. Well, actually, I was putting some of my things away so I could get to my stereo. Kurt set the stereo up for me, so you don't need to worry about that."
"Vat about ze books?" Kurt asked. "I didn't think you vould keep vorking after all the hissing pain."
"No problem at all. The books are light enough if I only take a few at a time. And besides, I was in a cleaning mood. You don't expect me to sit around all day now do you?"
"Actually, yes, we do." Now it was Dr. McCoy's turn to speak. "You should only move when you need to. As I understand it, Kurt here was sent in to help you. The intention was to get you back in bed, not cleaning." His voice was stern, but kind at the same time. Now Shela was starting to feel bad. She had not meant to make any one angry at her on her first day there.
"I'm sorry sir." She said looking down at her lap in shame.
"Don't worry about it, but next time, be more careful. Now you should go down for lunch, I doubt you've eaten in a wile." He said with a smile, causing Shela to lift her head towards him.
As he said that, Shela's stomach gave a quiet growl, though all in the room heard it. Shela's face flushed and she looked down at her lap again.
"Here, how about I take you to the kitchen and help you get somezing to eat?" Kurt offered with another one of his sharp toothed smiles. "Und after that, ve can finish putting you're zings avay together."
Shela nodded her head and he took her down the hall. They passed many others on the way to the kitchen, all giving Shela and Kurt strange looks. Some even stopped and stared at the two as they passed. Once or twice, she caught a student calling them freaks, or other such words. It was grating on her nerves, and more than once, part of her wanted to reach out and hit them. She wanted to hurt them and hurt them bad and it scared her.
For a long time, she had to fight with her inner demons like this one, but never had they been so domineering. If it weren't for her own self control, and the fact that she was handicapped, she might have acted on those wishes. She sang a song in her head, like she always did in these cases and immediately started to calm down.
She was so calm; she didn't notice she wasn't moving anymore. "You have a vary beautiful voice," a thickly accented voice said from behind her. She was startled a bit and hit her leg again.
Wincing in pain she remembered Kurt was taking her to the kitchen. "I'm sorry; I kind of forgot what was going on for a moment." She said with a smile. "What did you say?"
"I said you have a vary beautiful voice. You vere singing and it vas beautiful. Vhat song vas zat?"
"Oh, um, it's Fields of Innocence, by Evanescence. I can let you hear the actual song if you'd like." She said with a light blush.
"And you look beautiful ven you blush," he said with a smile, only deepening the blush. She looked down at her lap and waited for the heat in her face to pass. Before it had the chance to however, she was passing a doorway into a kitchen. "So, vat vould you like?"
"What? Oh, um… what is there?"
"Hum… Vell, let's see…" He opened the fridge so she could get a look at what there was. "Vat looks good?"
Shela's eyes widened at the selection. There was so much, she couldn't decide. She settled for tuna, feeling an incredible attraction to fish, crackers, and a tall glass of apple juice. She quickly ate the tuna on the crackers, licking her fingers when she was done.
"Vow, someone vas hungry," Kurt said laughing at her cat like behavior. She blushed again and stopped. Picking up the glass, she slowly sipped the clear amber liquid when another boy came in the room. He glanced at Kurt and Shela and had to take a double take.
"Whoa, uh… hello um… Dude, Kurt, who is she?"
"Her name is Shela, and she's new. Shela, zis is Scott, but we call him Cyclops." Kurt said, introducing the two. Shela nodded her head looked down in her lap. Scott just stood there, still confused as to who he was looking at.
"So when did she get here?" He asked Kurt, seeing Shela didn't want to talk any.
"Three days ago, you helped bring her here. Remember?"
"That's her? I couldn't recognize her without the blond hair. I like the red better, it fits her." The last statement got her to look up at him, though keeping her head down. "So how's your leg?" He finally directed at the girl.
"Hurts," she said simply, her voice barely over a whisper. She took a drink of her apple juice and looked in her lap again.
"I'm sorry. Hay, if it will make you feel any better, I could always hurt Logan for you…"
"Hn, I'd like to see you try, one eye." A gruff voice said from behind a now pale Scott. "So, how you doing kid?"
"Fine thank you," she said with a smile.
"You don't look fine." He said, looking at the cast on her leg. He took a deep sigh before saying, "look, kid… I'm sorry about that."
"Oh, please don't worry about it. I've broken this leg before, falling out of a tree. Of course last time, I was the one who fell on the log, not the other way around." She started laughing, while the others just looked at her funny. No one ever got her weird sense of humor.
"Ok… You had a pretty sweet voice up there, but one thing still confuses me. How did you slam us into that wall?"
"Um…" her face lost all color and her tail flicked with nerves. "Ah, it was my voice that did it." She finally whispered.
"What was that," the older man asked, giving her a funny look.
"It was my voice," she said a little louder, causing the room to shake a little. She wanted to disappear again, like she did back at school, but she knew she wouldn't have been able to get vary fair. Not in a wheel chair. On crutches, yes, but never in a wheel chair. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Vhoa, that vas… Awesome!" Kurt said pulling himself back on the stool he fell off of.
"No! No it's not!" She yelled at the over excited Kurt who fell off the stool again. Quietly she said, "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to yell at you…" Pulling herself together, she wheeled herself out of the kitchen and tried to find her way to her room, leaving the three boys to their shock.
She had a small idea as to where she was going, but after the elevator, she was lost. When she got off on the third floor, she made her way down the hall, passing room after room, not one feeling familiar. To make things worse, her arms were getting tired. Her last inkling of hope however did not go unnoted. Coming down the hall towards her was Dr. McCoy. She smiled brightly and made her way towards him. "Hello doctor, how are you?"
"I'm doing well, though I should be asking you that question. What are you doing here, and isn't Kurt supposed to be with you?" He asked sternly, though he wasn't without kindness.
"Well you see I left Kurt behind with Logan and Scott. I didn't feel vary comfortable around them." Her eyes were back to her lap as she trailed off.
"Hum, I see. Well, is there anything I can do?"
"Um, help me find my room? I kind of forgot how to get back there, and I really want to finish putting my things away."
"Of course, follow me."