Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC Jolan. All other characters are property of Marvel.
Chapter 4: A Meal to be Remembered
Location: XAVIER INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER LEARNING Time: 8:00 AM
3rd person point of view
The Dinning hall was buzzing with voices from over a hundred students as Nightcrawler escorted Jolanka through the large double doors. A wave of relief surged over Jolan when very few heads turned to meet her gaze; She had always hated being the center of attention.
Nightcrawler escorted her to a table with what seemed like older students and teachers. Jolan noticed Ororo, Wolverine and Cyclops from her rescue mission yesterday sitting near the head of the table. At the very end sat the professor with a small smile on his face. It seemed that Logan and Scott were in a heated argument as a red headed woman seated next to Scott just kept shaking her head. The scene in front of her brought a smile of her own to Jolanka's face. "Again," she thought, "ser is such an overvhelming sense of normalcy here."
Professor X motioned for Jolan to take the seat to his right and she graciously complied. Nightcrawler simply made his way to the other end of the table and pulled out a seat for himself. After greeting Miss Abendroth, the professor simply held up a glass and klinked it to get the attention of those seated at the table.
"I would like to introduce to you our newest student Miss Jolanka Abendroth. Miss Abendroth, these fine ladies and gentlemen are the members of the X-men: a peacekeeping organization we run out of the Institute. Perhaps after some training you will consider joining them."
Professor Xavier continued to introduce Jolan to the mutants at the table. A large blue apelike mutant in a three-piece suit was introduced to tally as Doctor Henry McCoy. Next was the red head from before, Doctor Jean Grey. Following the doctors came Bobby Drake, Katherine Pryde, Peter Rasputin, and a mysterious girl with the single name of Rogue. Of course all of the other students had code names, but Jolan was still concentrating on remembering just their real names. For a brief moment, she wondered why everyone here seemed to go by two different names, but she quick realized it was probably for security purposes.
Jolanka's point of view
My head turned to Katherine Pryde- Shadowcat or Kitty if I remember correctly- as she began to speak.
"So Jolanka, what's your power? How 'bout your mutant name? Where ya from? I heard Logan an' the gang picked you up in Germany… are you from there?"
The eager girl was about my age, and judging by her hyperness, I would say she was either a huge morning person with a love of coffee, or diagnosed with ADHD. Breaking out of my normal shy composure I joked, "vould you like me to answer your questions or are you kontent vith just askink more?" This brought a laugh from many of the mutants seated at the table and a sly grin from Kurt as he fought back a laugh of his own. Kitty seemed unfazed by the sarcasm and continued.
"Oh cool you really are from Germany. I love the accent by the way… It's kinda like Kurt's, but thicker. Is English your second language? Can you speak German?"
Before answering, I chucked to myself at the chaos coming from the girl. "To answer zyour questions Kitty: I vould rather not demonstrate mine povers in here and I do not have vat you kall a mutant name. As for mine nationality, I am in fakt German and grew up in Hof Bafaria, Germany. English is onze mine secont language, secont to German zat is."
The young Kitty Pryde simple replied, "coool" with a large grin stretched across her face.
From then on breakfast went by in a blur. A couple more questions were thrown at me and I answered them with relative ease. What I was more focused on was the food. I was Starving and the food was absolutely amazing; it was much better than the mush I had been eating for the past couple of months. And surprisingly… poison free. I was practically inhaling the stuff until Kurt shot me an amused look which practically screamed "Slow down or your gonna kill yourself with food." After that I made sure to actually chew before I swallowed.
At around 8:45 breakfast was over and Nightcrawler, once again, escorted me out of the dinning room. On our way out, Kurt introduced me to some younger mutants that had been seated at another table. Everyone here was so friendly I felt like I was in a dream. After being kicked out by my own family at age 15 when my powers manifested, I guess I just don't understand kindness anymore.
The tour of the mansion Kurt led me on was amazing. He showed me the dormitories of course and the industrial sized kitchen: were students were expected to make their own meals with provided food. Kurt told me that every once and a while, Professor X would throw a grand meal, with all of the students, for special occasions-like he did this morning.
Nightcrawler also led me to the medical wing were I had a brief conversation with Dr Jean Grey. I felt very uncomfortable when her eyes started to trail the scars on my body… that and knowing she may be reading my mind didn't exactly make me feel like unicorns and kittens. I think Kurt felt my discomfort with the young doctor and politely excused us from her presence.
We then made our way to the laboratories where I had a wonderful discussion with Dr Henry McCoy about the differences between physically showing and hidden mutations. What I found quite interesting was that we both harboured some jealousy towards normal looking mutants.
As it turns out, Dr McCoy, or Hank as he's told me to call him, actually made his physical mutation worse by trying to appear more "human". When I expressed interest in the methods he used to try to get rid of his physical mutation, Hank warned me against pursuing such a course.
The only thing Kurt had to say on the jealousy subject is that "people are onzee frightened of us because zey zemselfs do not understand". I could tell he wanted to say something else… but I guess he didn't want to voice all of his opinion just yet.
…
To be honest, I was a little bit upset about having to leave the laboratories, but Kurt insisted that we keep moving. He seemed eager to get to our next location: a little extra bounce in each of his quick, two toed steps. After a couple minutes of walking we reached another large wooden door.
"Zis is dah ving of zee school vith all of zee classrooms. And zis classroom just happens to be mine." Kurt said with a proud look on his face. "I teach all of zee German klasses here at sie mansion, but I also taken a few klasses myself."
"Oh, vat are sie klasses you take?"
"Vell, training for starters, I am in zee X-men after all. In mine free time I also taken an acting klass."
"I love seatre! Mine Eltern took me sere all zee time ven I vas little! Although I hafen no real skills mineself…"
I saw Kurt's mouth brake into a large smile, his overly sharp canines glistening under the classroom lights. Almost mesmerized by his by display of joy, I missed what the blue mutant was saying to me.
"Entschuldigen Sie, vat did you say?
"I said leibchen, zat you should joinen das acting class vife me! Don't worry about skills, for ser are students of all lefels."
My confused face relaxed and I let a small smile cross my lips. With a quick nod and gleaming eyes, I replied, "I vould love to."
