&&&
"Well, this is a twist." Rogue said. "Your mom is the Professor's ex?"
"Yeah." Gilaad nodded.
"Did you know about this?" Storm asked Xavier. He shook his head.
"No. I did not." Xavier looked at Gilaad. "Don't misunderstand, the offer still stands for you to stay here but why would your mother…" Gilaad pursed his lips.
"My mother may have divorced you," he said carefully. "But she knows that there is no one better suited to working with and helping to control mutant abilities. She's a typical Jewish mother." He added with a grin. "Nothing but the best for her son."
"Unless you count keeping Legion a secret from the Professor," Scott said with a touch of distaste. Scott didn't like Legion, not the least because his existence as the Professor's son called his own father-son relationship with the Professor into question. Undoubtedly Scott felt the same about Gilaad. Fortunately, Scott kept his voice low enough for Gilaad not to hear him.
"So what is your power?" Bobby asked. "If you're the Professor's step-son shouldn't you be a powerful telepath?"
"He isn't actually the Professor's son Bobby." Besty reminded him. Gilaad nodded.
"My ability is a little hard to explain." Gilaad rubbed his hands together. Only now did the others notice that he was wearing gloves.
"Do you have a death touch?" Jamie asked excitedly. Gilaad shook his head.
"No. It's only my right hand that's…affected. I only wear both gloves because it would look strange wearing just one." He pulled off his left glove and started removing his right. "It's too freaky to walk around without it covered."
"Please!" Kurt said grinned. "Around here there is nothing around here that's too freak-EEEEE!" Kurt yelped as Gilaad held up his right hand. In the middle of his palm was an eye, the same green color as his regular eyes. It blinked once and several of the X-Men unconsciously took a step back.
"Told you," Gilaad shrugged with a touch of hurt as he put his glove back on his right hand.
"So that's your mutation?" Jean gulped. Gilaad shook his head.
"I'll explain the rest later." His stomach growled. "Um, if you don't mind I'd like to grab a bite to eat. It was a long flight and El Al airline food is kinda—" he shrugged indifferently. "Bleh."
"Like, I'll be happy to make you something." Kitty said.
"NO!" Everyone shouted.
"What are you trying to do, kill him?" Rogue demanded. "We'll have dinner in a little bit. In the meantime, maybe we should just take you on a little tour of the Institute…outside." Rogue and the others showed Gilaad the Institute's backyard (also noting the positions of the laser guns and defense grid).
"Hey you have a pool!" Gilaad said excitedly as he headed over. "Neat." He leaned over. "It looks like you have something in the—whoa!" He shouted as something grey leapt out of the water and dove back in, splashing water everywhere..
"Naomi!" Scott said as the water washed over them. "Quit it!"
Gilaad marveled as a dolphin's head poked out of the water and squeaked at them.
"Come on out and say hi to Gilaad." Scott told her. Naomi shifted from a dolphin to a cute, eight-year old girl with blue eyes and dirty blond hair and climbed out of the pool.
"Hello." She smiled shyly at Gilaad, her English heavily accented.
"Hello yourself." Gilaad smiled as he leaned down. "Are you Israeli too?" Naomi nodded eagerly and said something quickly in Hebrew. Gilaad laughed and mussed her hair. "Sorry, I don't turn into any animals." He said in English, for the other's benefit. "When did she get here?" He asked Rogue.
"She arrived two months ago." Rogue answered. "She didn't speak any English at the time."
"How did she learn?"
"Karaoke." Rogue pursed her lips. Naomi grinned and started to demonstrate.
"Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want, So tell me what you want, what you really really want, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want—!"
"Lord help us…" Rogue groaned. "She just had to borrow Kitty's CDs…"
"Do you have any family here?" Gilaad asked Naomi. She nodded eagerly and pointed.
"'Mira!" Rogue winced.
"Hoo boy." She groaned as Amira strode up to them.
"Naomi what's going…on?" She asked as she saw Gilaad leaning over Naomi. She took one look of Gilaad's Israeli looks and—more to the point, his IDF lapel pin—and froze like a deer caught in headlights.
"Amira? This is Gilaad Rotherot. Gilaad? This is Amira al-Batani." Rogue winced and prepared for the fireworks.
"She's an Arab?" Gilaad asked neutrally.
"I'm not just an Arab. I'm a Palestinian." Amira answered in the same voice. "Naomi, come here." Naomi looked uncertain but moved towards her adopted big-sister.
"What exactly are you doing with an Israeli girl in your care?" Gilaad asked, his tone promising trouble if he didn't like the answer.
"Nothing that concerns you." Amira said stonily.
"If you kidnapped that girl from her parents—" Gilaad started.
"Her parents?!" Amira hissed. "They did to her what your country did to me: they spat us out because they didn't consider us human." Naomi bit her lip and started to cry softly. "Let's go." Amira said quietly.
"Wait, I didn't mean to—" Gilaad started but whatever else he was going to say died on his lips as Amira glared at him, her face full of fury.
"You're both students here." Rogue reminded them, hoping to head off an explosion. Amira, her back so stiff that it was a wonder her spine didn't snap, struggled to maintain her composure. "There's nothing to be gained by hating each other."
"Is that so?" Amira said darkly. "Excuse me." She said to Rogue as she stormed away. 'Accidentally' knocking Gilaad aside with her shoulder and headed inside, taking Naomi with her.
"Is everything all right out there?" Ororo asked as she poked her head outside.
"Define, all right." Rogue winced.
&&&
Sooraya had just finished unpacking her things when Kitty and Jubilee poked their heads into her room.
"Hi, Sooraya isn't it?" Kitty asked. Sooraya nodded. "I'm Kitty and this is Jubilee."
"I am pleased to meet you." She said softly. "May I help you?"
"Well we thought that since you were new here that we could, like, help you adjust and stuff." Kitty said.
"If you ever need us for anything like pointers in the Danger Room, or where to meet guys, or where to get the best make-up or designer clothes or anything, just call us!" Jubilee said.
"I thank you for your kind offer, but I do not wear make-up. Or have need for new clothes." Kitty and Jubilee looked at each other as if to ask just what kind of girl was Sooraya.
"Like Sooraya, welcome to the twenty-first century." Jubilee said with a pitying look. "Ditch the bee-keeper suit and join the fun!"
"I like my burqa and the modesty it affords me." Sooraya replied.
"Dinnertime!" Jean called telepathically, summoning everyone to the dining room. As everyone took their seats—Amira made sure to sit on the opposite side of the room as Gilaad—Professor Xavier started to say a few words.
"Everyone, it gives me great pleasure to have our two latest students—Sooraya Qadir and Gilaad Rotherot here with us. It is my hope that as we learn to work together to build a bridge between mutants and the rest of humanity, we also build bridges to bring us all closer together to one another."
"So, like I guess you're glad that Sooraya is here now, right Amira?" Kitty asked her.
"Is it nice having another Muslim to talk in your own language?" Jean asked. Amira looked at them crossly.
"Do you say to Kurt that it must be nice to have another Catholic here when Roberto came?" She asked. "I don't like being patronized."
"I'm just asking what it's like." Jean defended.
"So the next time someone new shows up should I ask you what it's like having another Christian in the house?" Amira challenged. "And while I like her just fine, it's still small minded to assume that because we're the same religion that we ought to get along. And for your information, Sooraya and I don't have a common language. She's from Afghanistan. I'm a Palestinian."
"So?" Amara asked. Amira held her head.
"So…Palestinians speak Arabic. Peoples from Afghanistan don't."
"Don't all Muslims speak Arabic?" Kitty wondered. Amira wondered if all Americans were this ignorant or if she was just in a particularly ignorant group.
"No," Gilaad jumped in unexpectedly. "Arabic is the language of Islam, but that's for religious use. Non-Arab Muslims—Persians, Turks, Kurds, Pakistani, Indonesians, Bosnians, and so on—generally can't speak or understand Arabic beyond that. Do you think that just because Kurt's Catholic and Catholics pray in Latin that Kurt can carry on a conversation with a Roman or something?" Gilaad asked.
"So what do they speak in Afghanistan? Afghani?" Wanda asked him. Gilaad shrugged.
"Afghanistan really isn't a nation; it's more of a collection of tribal and ethnic groups, each with their own customs and language." He explained. "The Pashtuns, Balochis, and Tajiks all speak languages from the Iranian family, Turkomen and Uzbeks speak Turkic languages. Arabic is from the Semitic family so there's no connection between Arabic and any language from Afghanistan—"
"Thank you, Mr. Data." Scott interrupted.
"How do you know so much?" Jean blinked. Gilaad shrugged.
"I studied ethnic and linguistic groupings in school before I—" He paused.
"Before you joined the army, isn't that what you were going to say?" Amira asked, not even looking at him. An uncomfortable pause settled over them. Ororo looked over at Sooraya, hoping that she might provide a line of conversation that wasn't so potentially explosive. She paused when she saw that Sooraya hadn't touched her food.
"Sooraya, you're not eating anything, is everything all right?" Ororo asked. Sooraya shook her head. She picked up her plate and started to head back to her room.
"Sooraya? Usually we eat together." Ororo chastised her. Sooraya shook her head again.
"I cannot eat here. I would have to remove my hood." She explained.
"Then do it, we won't mind." Ray shrugged.
"I…cannot. I cannot show my face in mixed company." Sooraya explained.
"I'll go with you." Amira said. "For some reason, the quality of the company around here has gone down." She pointedly didn't look in Gilaad's general direction. Naomi looked at Professor Xavier.
"Can I go too?" Xavier tried not to sigh.
"If you wish." He hadn't even finished when Naomi bounded after Sooraya and Amira.
"So much for togetherness." Logan grumbled.
&&&
"Thank you for dining with me." Sooraya told Amira as she shut the door to their room behind her and removed her hood.
"Believe me, it's no problem." Amira said, struggling to calm down. She exhaled. "Sorry for the scene. I guess that's not how you wanted to start your stay here."
"It is all right." Sooraya said. "For my part, I do look forward to rooming with a fellow Muslim. Being alone in one's faith is…difficult." Amira nodded.
"I understand. But I feel that I must be honest with you, I am not as…faithful as you in matters of religion." Amira admitted. "Additionally, I—" She paused and turned her head away. "—I'm bisexual. If you wish to change rooms, I'll understand." Sooraya placed her hand on Amira's.
"I would be happy—and honored—to be your roommate. "Would you care to join me for evening prayers?" Sooraya asked. Amira smiled.
"I would be honored." Naomi tugged on Sooraya's sleeve.
"Why do you cover yourself up?" Naomi asked innocently.
"Because I like the modesty it affords me." Sooraya answered gently, stroking Naomi's cheek.
"But you're pretty!" Naomi protested, bringing a blush to Sooraya's face.
". Naomi," Amira said to her little 'sister.' "Why don't you go downstairs and do some karaoke with Penny?"
"Yipee!" Naomi whooped. "Lord almighty I feel my temperature rising, higher and higher it's burning through to my soul! Baby baby baby you're gonna set me on fire!" She sang as she trotted out.
"Remind me to thank Peter for letting her listen to Elvis." Amira said as she shook her head. "Shall we?" She said to Sooraya.
"Yes."
Amira and Sooraya headed to the bathroom for ritual ablutions, washing their faces, heads, arms and legs with water before heading back to Amira's room and setting up the prayer mats. Prostrating themselves in the direction of Mecca, the Holy Muslim City, their heads touching the floor, they began to pray.
"La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad -ur-Rasul-Allah." The girls chanted. "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet."
As Amira prayed with a companion for the first time in years she felt for the first time…content in her faith.
Unfortunately the knowledge of an Israeli soldier living with her in the Institute dampened the good feelings she felt.
Amira tried to tell herself that she could simply avoid him and the trouble he brought with him. Somehow, she couldn't make herself believe it.
&&&
Coming up next time…Slumber Party time! Beware!