Chapter 5:

Eve was 15 minutes early to her first class on Monday morning. It was the Advanced History class with the older students and she had prepared a rigorous curriculum for the semester. The last class, Eve had taught had in the 1720s at Cambridge. She felt confident though that she would be able to keep a captive audience. After all, she had all the gritty details that no one else would have.

She had manifested a smart outfit that conveyed professionalism and intelligence. A long black midi skirt that met a silk black blouse at her waist, stockings, and plain pointy-toed black heels. She had put her hair up in a knot with a pencil again and added a pair of square thick rimmed glasses for effect rather than for practicality. I look quite the school marm, she had thought as she eyed herself in the window. Hopefully, that would ward off any distasteful distractions from the students.

The students began to trickle in and she was happy to see some familiar faces. Piotr, Jubilee, and Marie were there and sat up front, happy to support their new friend. With them was a young man with curly brown hair who identified himself as Bobby, a boy with longer, blonder hair whose name was John but preferred Pyro, a young girl by the name of Ziggy who she found out was a bit younger than the other students but had skipped a few grades because they were too slow, and a young woman by the name of Karma. Though Eve did not have strong psychic abilities herself, she could sense them and had developed an immunity to psychic attacks from living with her siblings. Eve sensed Karma's strength immediately.

They all sat down as the bell rang and looked at Eve expectantly.

"Good morning class! My name is Professor Mutentaret. Welcome to Advanced Ancient History and Culture." Eve smiled mischievously as she watched some of them slump in their seats. A friend of hers at Cambridge had said that the best way to make an idea stick was to shock people.

Swift was always such a character, thought Eve. Time to take a leaf out of his book.

Eve banged her hands on the desk and shouted loudly, "Sex! Gods! And War!" Nearly all of the students jumped, now wide awake."That's what we're going to be talking about this semester. How each of those things defined a civilization. We're going to start with Greece and Rome-where war and sex were so much a part of life, you'd think you were back in the 1960s." The students laughed and all were paying close attention, realizing that this wasn't going to be an ordinary History class. "Then we'll move over to India and China, and finally to Ancient Egypt. How did each society rule their people, conquer new lands, and of course, enjoy the lives they were living?" She winked at them and they laughed again, shocked that they had a teacher who seemed so...cool. "Now, what comes to mind when you think of Zeus, the ladies-man?"

She continued through the rest of the class, interactively involving them in sharing what they already knew and filling or correcting the gaps. She would stop to share an anecdote about some of the people they discussed every once and while. The class was particularly shocked to learn that Achilles' "heel" became his weakness because of poor boot craftsmanship. Achilles was too stubborn to get a real cobbler to make his shoes and insisted that he could make them himself, causing a weakness in the sewing construction. "Let's hope that a few thousand years of historical shame will teach you all to know your limitations," she joked.

The class ended with all of them having chosen a theme for their semester projects. Most of them connected their projects to their own powers which caused them to forget that it was a school assignment as their curiosity took over.

The bell rang and the student's filed out. Bobby and Marie lingered behind to walk out with Eve. "That was a really great lecture, Professor Eve," said Marie. "How do you know so much about something that happened so long ago?"

Eve smiled and decided she didn't mind telling them, since they were X-Men in training anyway. She leaned into them and whispered,"I know so much history because I lived through it. Part of my mutation"

Bobby and Rogue gasped. "Wow, Professor. That's so cool," said Bobby. "Can I interview for my project? I want to talk about homosexuality as normal in Ancient Greece."

Eve nodded, "That's an excellent topic choice, Bobby. I'd be happy to help you out. Let's meet next week sometime." Bobby smiled and walked off to his next class.

Eve touched Rogue's shoulder and said, "I just want you to know that I saw the way you reacted to Remy at dinner the other day and if you ever want to talk, I've obviously dealt with my fair share of flirtatious jerks."

"What did they do to you?" Marie asked innocently.

"Well, one of them made me fall in love with him and then ran away when he realized that I wouldn't use my powers on him. I realized that everything he had said to to me was just a way of getting me to give him immortality. Thing is, I knew that immortality is not a gift. It's a burden."Marie looked down, "Men can be such idiots." Eve nodded.

Marie shuffled her feet a little awkwardly. "I know he's not the right person for me, but sometimes he's just so charming that I can't seem to stop myself from being drawn to him."

Eve patted her back and said assuringly, "I understand. Just don't forget that you deserve to be treated like the queen that you are. You have more value in your little pinky than Mr. LeBeau has in his whole body. You should find yourself someone who will treat you like the best person they know, with respect and passion." Rogue smiled and nodded before running off to her next class.

As Eve waved goodbye to her, she saw Logan watching and leaning on a doorframe at the end of the hallway. He was looking at her with a curious furrowed brow, as he chewed on a cigar.

Eve realized that even from so far away, he would've heard their exchange and she turned back to her next class, as her face burned.

Each of Eve's classes continued much the same way: the students would get shocked into finding that history could be fun and then become so enamored with Eve's teaching style that they would forget how boring they used to find the class and just listen to her tell stories. They always left muttering phrases like "It's incredible" and "I didn't realize ancients were so cool and crazy."

On Thursday, Jean and Storm had invited her to go shopping, wanting to get something for going out dancing the next night. After classes were finished, they headed to the nearby strip with a few of the classier boutiques. They hated the styles that the young kids wore nowadays. Too strippery. They knew that sexy was classy.

Eve searched through the racks and handed stuff to Jean and Storm to try on. She had explained to them her own "wardrobe" early on and they were immediately jealous of her infinite choices. She told them that she would definitely help them find something fantastic, and that she would then try on a few different styles to get an idea of what might look good. She hadn't been to a club in decades, so she admitted that she might be behind on the current fashions.

Jean had found a dress in an emerald green chiffon that showed off her long legs. It had beautiful long flowy sleeves and a higher neckline that she was going to pair with a long gold necklace. Storm had picked out a deep purple wrap dress that cinched in at her waist and accented the light shades of lilac in her mostly stark cotton white hair.

They then watched as Eve tried on a few different styles and finally after much urging from Jean and Storm, decided that tomorrow she would wear something a little more revealing than she normally would have chosen around students, but they insisted it looked incredible on her.

As they paid for their purchases, Jean winked at Storm and said to Eve, casually, "So you've been spending a lot of time with Logan lately." It wasn't an accusation, just an observation, but it still took Eve aback.

"What? Oh, well, we just have a lot in common. You know, the whole, regenerating part of our mutation…" She had spent every morning with him and they had even spent a few evenings watching movies in the game room together.

"Uh huh," said Storm and Jean together. Eve didn't know why but she felt she had to defend herself, "No, really. He's helping me to review my combat skills. And he's easy to talk to. Not judgy or pushy," Eve said pointedly at them.

"Okay, okay," said Jean.

"You know, Eve," Storm added, "Logan may not look like a teddy bear but he actually is quite a gentleman. He probably respects you too much to come right out and say how he feels."

"So?" said Eve, flushing.

"Just something to think about," said Storm. "Come on, let's get back to the mansion."

Eve didn't sleep that night. She kept wondering about what Storm had said.

"He probably respects you too much to come right out and say how he feels."

How he feels...did he...like her? Eve didn't know if she liked the idea of that or not. She had been so careful not to put herself in those types of situations, because she knew all too well how it would end. Either they would feel smothered by her need to care for them or she would realize just how young they were.

Yes, Eve wanted passion in her life. The two times that she had it, it had enveloped her completely. There was no greater feeling than loving someone completely and knowing that they feel the same way about you. But when you haven't picked from that tree in such a long time, you forget how addictingly sweet the fruit is.

The more Eve thought about him, the more she realized that Logan was someone that she enjoyed being around. When they talked, she felt like they shared a secret that the rest of the world didn't know anything about. Logan was the first person she had met who wasn't a close relative that understood the passing of time like she did. He knew the pain of watching people you love die. Because he'd done so many things, he was able to know what he did and didn't like, as opposed to trying everything just because you can. Eve appreciated that in people.

Beyond how he connected to her mentally, he stirred feelings in her stomach that she hadn't let herself know in hundreds of years. His arms were strong and his skin was soft. The way he stared at her when they were sparring was so intense and she had discovered that there were flecks of gold in his frosted blue eyes. The eyes said everything about a person. Philosophers said they were windows to the soul. When she was in her depression phases, she would harp on that her eyes were pitch colored so her soul must be the same. But in reality she knew that her eyes showed the collected experiences she had had over many years. Logan's eyes were like that. The eyes of a strong man.

A man? Not a kid? No, Logan definitely wasn't a kid. Maybe I do like him?, she worried.