Chapter 2
*Author's note: thanks for the reviews, everyone! It means a lot!
Charles
Charles Xavier sat in his custom-made leather wheelchair. He watched his students from the window of his office as they sat outside for lunch. There were so many of them, so many mutants.
There was a loud knock on his door that disrupted his absent daydream. "Professor?" Asked a young voice from behind him.
"Yes, Scott. Please come in." He replied, smiling and gesturing to the seat at the other end of his large desk. "Thank you for joining me." He said as the young man sat down opposite him. He felt rather bad for Scott, he looked very tired. However, he had chosen to place them together as roommates for a reason. He hoped soon this his idea would pan out, and the two boys would grow and become stronger because of the situation.
"You wanted to see me about your physics class?"
"Yes, well that and I must admit I did have alterior motives for wanting you to come here today." Charles stopped and studied the teen's impasive face for a moment, thinking of the best way to proceed. "I am a mutant." He said finally.
Scott suddenly looked very uncomfortable as he squirmed around in his seat. "I don't really know what that has to do with me, sir."
I think you do, the Professor said directly into Scott's mind, making him nearly fall out of his seat in surprise. You can shoot blasts from your eyes, can you not? The last sentence was more of a statement than a question.
Scott simply looked down and did not say anything in return to the Professor's bold statements.
"It's alright, Scott. You are in a safe place. Besides, I'm what's known as a telepath, so I can read other's thoughts. I try not to invade other people's privacy, but it can be difficult when they are nearly screaming their feelings."
"Yeah," Scott replied finally, "I'm a mutant."
The Professor smiled at his young student, "being a mutant is not something to bs ashamed about, Scott. At least not here. I believe that you will have more in common with your new friends than you think."
Scott looked up and gave him a confused look. "Do you mean...?"
"Yes, Jean, Hank, Bobby, Ororo, Kitty and many others also possess the elusive x-gene."
Scott smiled a little when Professor Xavier said Jean's name, but otherwise didn't reply.
"You may go. I know you must want to speak with them about this new information." Said Charles.
"Thanks, Professor, but what about physics?" Scott replied.
"You're much smarter than you think, Scott. If you put some effort in I think you'll surprise yourself." Grinned the Professor. Scott nodded and left the office to find his friends.
Jean
Jean Grey sat on the lawn facing the entrance to Greenfield High School, listening to Bobby try to explain why the movie "Nacho Libre" was so funny. She tried to drown out the noise by distracting herself with the thoughts of everyone around her.
Hank was going over his science homework for the eighth time that day, Peter was trying to figure out the english word for pizza, and Anna-Marie was thinking of ways to kiss Gambit without putting him in a coma. Jean blushed and looked down when a particularly vivid image of the pair flooded Anna-Marie's mind. Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly when a faint British accent spoke.
Jean, what have we been talking about? You cannot invade other people's privacy like that.
Sorry, Professor. Replied Jean through telepathy. She tuned back into the not-so-witty banter in front of her.
"You just don't get it." Bobby said.
"What is there to get?" Hank replied. "The jokes aren't funny, and there is no plot."
"Maybe you're just not mature enough to get it." Bobby muttered
"Or maybe I'm too mature to get it."
Jean sighed and placed her head in her hand so that it was tilted at a 45 degree angle. She sat up suddenly when she saw a lanky boy with red glasses and tousled brown hair walking hurriedly towards the group. He sat down quickly and Jean smiled at him, happy to have a distraction from the conversation.
"Hey, um..." Scott started and then stopped again. He looked away quickly and avoided Jean's eye contact. "Never mind."
"No!" Jean protested with a wide smile, giving Scott a friendly punch on the shoulder. "What were you going to say?"
"Not here." Scott pulled her off of the grass and lead her along by the arm and then turned back to the group still chatting. "You guys can come too, if you want."
"Come where?" Someone said from behind them, but Jean followed Scott and didn't answer.
They stopped behind the football field bleachers, hoping to be out of sight. This did not work quite as planned though, since there were at least eight of them.
"What's wrong, Scott?" Jean inquired.
Scott looked down for a moment, he seemed scared. "I was just talking with Professor Xavier. He said some... interesting things."
The group shared a knowing look with each other. The chat with the Professor was something that they had all been through. "He said that we were mutants, didn't he?" Said Warren finally.
"Yeah."
There was an awkward silence for a moment when no one really knew what to say after that. Eventually, Kitty broke the silence. "So, like what can you do?"
Anna-Marie elbowed her in the gut, making her squeal in protest. "What's your problem, Anna-Marie? Someone would have said it eventually!"
Scott seemed sort of afraid, but not so that he wouldn't answer. "I can't really do it here, it's kind of dangerous."
"I know the feeling." Anna-Marie muttered.
"Dangerous in what way?" Jean asked.
"Well... I can shoot optic blasts out of my eyes. If I hit one of you guys then it'll send you flying back pretty far."
"Maybe I can help!" Bobby said excitedly. He lifted his hands in front of him and began to form a huge wall of ice beneath the bleachers.
"Cool!" Scott said in awe. He lifted his ruby glasses and shot a beam directly at the frozen wall. It shattered into a million pieces, causing the students to duck in cover.
"I see what you mean about dangerous!" Said Ororo.
The group sat down beneath the bleachers and began to talk.
"Wow." Scott said after they had all described what they were able to do. "So you really are all mutants. Why are there so many of us at Greenfield? I was the only one in my school before this."
"The Professor tracks us down using a device called Cerebro, then invites us to come to this school." Hank replied.
"So are there others, then? Or is it just this group?" Scott asked.
"No, there are others. Logan, a boy named Kurt, Betsy Braddock, Remy Lebeau, plus the Professor is always trying to track down young mutants so that he can train and protect us. Oh, and there is another group that's lead by Professor Lenshur, though I would stay away from them." Jean explained.
"Wow." Scott muttered. "And I thought that I was just going to have to hide like at my last school."
"Well, you can't exactly just tell everyone about your powers here. There is still a human population that isn't aware of us." Warren said while stretching his huge wings. "But with us, you can be however you'd like."
"Uh oh." Said Bobby, he looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Supper has already started! We gotta go!"
The rest of the group stood up to leave, but Jean noticed that Scott did not stand up with the rest of them. "You go on ahead, we'll catch up." She told the group, sitting back down beside Scott.
"Your loss!" Bobby called back.
"What's up?" Jean asked Scott.
"It's all just a lot to take in." Scott admitted.
"It's like that at first, but don't worry. It'll get better." She smiled.
"Yeah, I think it will." Scott returned her smile and lent forward slightly, so that their faces were almost touching. His hand reached under her chin and lifted her face up. He then kissed her softly on the lips, sliding his tongue in after a moment.
Jean kissed him back, settling into his soft skin and tongue. She pulled away after a moment so that she could get a better look at his face. "Wow." She said, stunned.
"I was so nervous, I didn't think I would be able to do that." Scott smiled back at her and lent forwards for another kiss. They stayed there for a while, neither of them wanting to move despite their growling stomachs. Eventually, Scott pulled away. "The others are going to be wondering where we are." He said.
"Yeah," Jean agreed, leaning on his arm affectionately as the walked out from under the bleachers.