Sorry for the wait... I lost my train of thought and rewrote this chapter about... Hmm... five times. So, I don't know if it follows the story, but I've introduced characters! This story is going to unfold in its fullest soon enough, but bear with me for now.
It was morning, bright and… well, very bright. Lydia covered her eyes as she automatically opened them because of the alarm clock. She considered herself one of the lucky ones to have her own room, but that didn't stop her from muttering, "Annoying piece of junk." She immediately regretted how her little alarm clock suddenly fell apart and stopped working. That meant she'd have to set it… Again.
Down at the cafeteria, or at least what Lydia called the cafeteria, various teenagers were shouting to be heard over the others and several were using their powers to trick each other. For example, one of the boys with abilities in fire had just made a girl's eggs explode. She then shot two bolts of light at him, missing, and blinding another boy, who shouted and knocked over yet another teen. It was actually rather funny, but the antics stopped when Lain sat down in an empty chair and piled food onto her plate. Staring like that, the teens quickly drew her attention.
"Do I have something on my face?" Lain asked in confusion, blushing. She looked at the others, eyes wide and lips trembling, until one of them broke down and stopped staring. Others followed, but Lain had the distinct impression that they'd continue staring the moment her attention was diverted.
Lain ate anyway, giving herself over to Nina, who refused to be put down over anything. She cheerfully sipped orange juice and looked over at Kitty, who was whispering furiously and looking around. She giggled with the rest of them and when Nina got up to put her dishes away it only got worse. Nina seriously checked herself for anything out of the ordinary, but she found nothing. Unless she'd somehow gotten something on her face that was making everyone laugh, she didn't think that there was any reason for someone to be doing so.
Maybe she heard about us, Sophie offered darkly. Her voice trembled and Nina forced herself back into calmness. She couldn't afford to let Sophie out on them, not with all that giggling. Sophie hated when people laughed at her, mostly because of the things that had happened back home. None of the girls liked remembering their home.
They're probably just trying to haze us out, Ritzie, another one of the personalities offered. She was always offering logical suggestions, but she had the fatal flaw of never thinking anything could be wrong with her. And, by extension, that meant nothing the girls in her head could ever do any wrong either.
In any case, Nina skipped back to her room and pulled out her notebooks for the day. She didn't bother hanging around the campus of the institute before she walked to school with the other early birds who didn't have cars. Even they were a bit standoffish, though.
Aristotle, yet another girl, spoke up. I want to fly to school today, she whined, earning a series of groans. She always wanted to fly, but it wasn't always that she could. Nina wasn't feeling her best today and Lain wanted a break from the stares, so she gladly handed over the reins. Almost immediately, feet left the ground and Aristotle was forced to think about drowning babies to keep herself on the pavement. She couldn't help that any happy thoughts she had resulted in a change in her mass, but she didn't want to float to school. The wind could have been in the wrong direction.
However, the urge to take to the air won out and she hopped from roof to roof, passing all of the other students, although she always waved. When people she didn't know looked up, she was sure to hide and keep herself close to the roof, thanking no one in particular that her clothes were the kind that eyes just slid right past. No one really cared, though. Mutant hazing had stopped for the most part and people couldn't have dealt with the large crowd that would come to any mutant's defense. The teens this year were a little more levelheaded than the teen that had been in Scott and Jean's, as well as the others', classes.
But still, there were rules about mutants using their powers on school grounds, so Lain had to take over and walk the rest of the way. Her slumped form and natural tendency to look down gave her the image of a downcast child instead of a girl who was at the top of her class had could kick someone's butt without even having to resort to her powers.
The Xavier students were usually the first ones at school, so there was no surprise in Lain's eyes when she saw that Kurt was goofing off with a couple of boys she recognized as seniors. They smirked when she walked past them, which Kurt quickly noticed.
"Lydia!" he said with a big smile on his face. Before school hours, he was allowed to go out in his blue and real form, but he was choosing to be the "normal" Kurt today. Lain looked away and nodded to him, feeling the racket in her head increase with his proximity.
"So, are you friends with me today?" he asked, ignoring how shy she was being. The other boys watched, waiting for their friend to finish his little conversation. They knew that they'd be introduced, mostly because that was just who Kurt was. He was a good person and wanted everyone to be friends, with the exception of jerks.
"I'm always friends with you, Kurt," Lain told him, meeting his eyes for a moment before her gaze was focused on the girls who were looking in her direction and giving her various signs of encouragement. Now what did that mean? Lain was slightly confused, but she didn't care much about it and so turned back to the mutant in front of her.
"Well, these are my other friends, Mark and Ryan," Kurt told her, gesturing to the two boys he'd been talking to earlier. "Mark is on the football team and Ryan plays hockey," he explained further, pointing out that the attractive raven-haired boy was Mark and the redhead was Ryan. Both were obviously a hit with the ladies, although Mark was a little too feminine for Lain's tastes and Ryan seemed a little too slow.
Oh, who are you kidding? Kelly taunted. We all know you like the fuzzy guys. Lain popped one of her fingers before shaking hands with the both of them, silencing Kelly the whole time. Kelly only laughed and Aristotle made a few jokes that they wouldn't have expected from her. Even Ritzie laughed at the one about how she was only interested in guys from another species.
"I'm La—Lydia," she introduced herself, hoping that her slip of the tongue wasn't going to be caught.
"Hi, La-Lydia," the two chorused, making Lain's face turn dark with embarrassment. She could see now why Kurt liked these guys. They were both witty, even though the lame jokes were obviously the staple of their humor.
Lain suddenly wished that she could just sink into the dirt, but realized what she was thinking and stopped before the last word. Even so, she felt her books starting to tingle and her eyes widened.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go," she said quickly, swearing in her mind with words she couldn't possibly say with her mouth. Kurt looked surprised, but he saw the sand on her fingers and sighed. Those powers were pesky and she wasn't supposed to show people what she could do. It was one of the new rules that there were no powers to be used on the campus.
In the bathroom, Lain swore with her unsaid words. While she was alone, it wasn't so bad and her books were already in a pile of dirt on the floor. "Fuck my dumbass powers," she muttered, scooping up as much of the dirt she could get. Then she put her hands on the pile and wished with all her mind that it would go back to being books, or at least the shape and consistency of books.
It was then that three girls walked in and saw some girl leaning over a pile of dirt. The three laughed until they saw the pile move on its own and start to change color and shape. With widened eyes, they saw Lain pick up the books she'd accidentally changed and sigh, brushing past the girls without a word. They looked at each other, and then at the flickering lights that were just then regaining their circuitry.
That was the thing about Lain's powers. Although she could shift things into something else without trouble for a little while, it was much more difficult to turn it back. She had to borrow energy from the surrounding area, like the powers of movement, electricity, and even heat. It wasn't very convenient, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She needed those books.
Getting to class was a fairly simple procedure and Lain talked to the few acquaintances that were willing to speak with a so-called freak. They noticed the grainy look to her notebooks and sighed. Lain, since transferring in at the beginning of the year, had been charged thousands of dollars for ruining books, only to have them shown in perfect condition later. She just had too many accidents and her ways of fixing things left much to be desired.
"So, did you heard the rumor going around about Kurt yet?" one of the boys who had decided to talk to her asked. Lain shook her head, looking like she couldn't hear rumors at all. It was no surprise, being away from other people a lot of the time.
"Wait, do you mean the one where he's supposed to have had someone ask him out?" another girl asked, looking confused.
"I heard it was a guy," another girl volunteered.
"I heard he accepted," yet another boy said, snickering. The group laughed at that. Kurt was probably the straightest guy they knew. He was always flirting with girls and he'd probably never even thought about being gay, or so they thought.
"So, Lydia, did he get asked out?" someone had the gall to ask. Lain shrugged, feeling quiet and sighing. If it was true, her shots were blown out the window.
He would have been too unpredictable anyway, Sophie tried to comfort, giving Lain a mental pat on the back. Ritzie went on a monologue about how guys just didn't see the pretty girls in front of them until it was too late and that he'd come around again after they found someone who was smart, kind, funny, sexy, and sweet.
I don't think a guy like that exists, Nina pointed out.
No, he probably does, but he's married, Aristotle argued. Or he's old. Or he's a teacher.
The girls gave a collective retching noise at that. No one wanted to date teachers in that head. They were usually old or female or married or, in Beast's case, furry. None of them fit the image the girls had come up with for a perfect guy. Even acceptable guys were hard to find, especially if the girls wanted him single.
But Lain was distracted and snapped herself back into reality just as she heard the bell ring. She went and sat at her desk, letting class begin and listening intently to the teacher instead of the discussion in her head on the pros and cons of the acceptability of college professors or dating teachers ten years from now.
When school was done, Lain had heard no less than fifteen different rumors concerning Kurt and a certain someone, who was probably male. They ranged from Kurt being asked out to Kurt asking someone out, with an outrageous rumor that supposedly insisted that the person had flung himself on Kurt and they'd been caught making out. Kurt heard that one and his blush almost shorted out his little watch, making his entire appearance glitch for a moment.
Lain allowed herself a smirk despite how self-conscious she was feeling that day. She loved how Kurt added more rumors to the mill when he walked up to Mark and Ryan and gave them both big hugs. And Lain noticed that they weren't the typical male-on-male hug, where they stood about a foot apart and patted each other on the back. No, it was a full squeeze-and-throw-out-any-personal-space hug. Lain was pulled in after a moment just to make the circle complete.
The girl smelled only the strong scent of body wash from Mark, who had just gotten out of gym, and the sweet smell of Kurt's fur. Ryan smelled like cigarettes, but he couldn't have been the one smoking him or she would have picked out other signs, like yellowed teeth and fingernails or the bloodshot eyes she associated with smokers.
All in all, the hug was nice, but Lain felt too constricted with the boys around her. Struggling, she pulled back and her smile was lost. She didn't like being hugged so tightly and Kelly was shouting in her head about how boys had no respect for females and that they'd probably wanted to feel her up or something. Lain put a hand on her temple, closing her eyes and sighing. Kurt noticed, so his hug was shorted and he put a hand on her shoulder. The friendly reminder that he was still there made Kelly shut up, at least for a little while.
"Are you okay?" Kurt asked, smiling as Lain looked over at him in surprise.
"I'm fine, but Kelly is practically screaming," Lain told him, trusting that no one else would get it. She banked on people not knowing about how she was several people unless she told them. If word got out about it, she'd have no end to the people who claimed she was doing it for attention or the people who wanted her to switch personalities on command. No one liked being a freak, but Lain didn't want things to end up like a circus.
"I'll take you home today," Kurt offered, holding up one hand. "Wait here and I'll be right back." He walked back over to the guys, talking in a low voice, before running off. Mark and Ryan settled on a table and gestured for Lain to sit down. She did, but warily. They were two big, burly guys she hardly knew, after all. Who wouldn't have been wary?
"So, how long have you been friends with Kurt?" Ryan asked, looking like he was about to laugh. His grin was a little comforting and Lain relaxed a little. Kelly was still grumbling about pedophiles or something, but Nina was practically leaning forward in her mental seat. It was a funny feeling.
"Since the day I moved to the institute," Lain told him, adjusting her backpack. Mark leaned forward and put his face in one hand, cupping his chin. The movement was a little awkward and his pose seemed forced, but Lain wasn't interested in watching the boy closely. She was talking to the voices in her head instead of the people around her.
"That means you're a mutant, doesn't it?" Ryan asked, looking curious, much like his friend had. He also took one of the classic thinker poses, leaning forward to entwine his hands and rest his chin on top of them. Together, the both of them looked like a painting by some deranged man intent on making the viewer of his pieces feel uncomfortable.
"I am, but that means nothing," Lain told them. She smiled a small smirk that meant very little. It said nothing about her mood and even less about what she thought about.
"So what are your powers?" Mark asked.
"I'd rather not make it known," the girl replied, wishing that Kurt would appear. If he could use his powers on campus, it would have been so much easier for them both. She wanted to just go home. The boys were making her uncomfortable with their intense stares.
"Why not?" Ryan questioned. "I mean, if you have something cool, you should just tell everybody. It would earn you some respect."
"I don't care. I don't like talking about my powers."
Before the boys could interrogate further, Kurt walked too quickly to meet back up with the girl. "Let's go home," he said with a hesitant smile. "I'll see you later, Mark, Ryan." Lain stood up and her hands brushed against Ryan's things. The book on top was the last thing to touch her fingers, but in that moment, Kelly and Lain came to a decision. The boys wanted to know her powers, so she'd show them.
"Keep dancing, boys," she told them, winking. The top book turned to a small statuette, just like the statue in her dreams. With her mind so focused on the image, she had put plenty of details into it, and it would stay that way for a while.
The statuette was a dancer, much like a statue someone had shown her in her childhood. The boys looked astonished at it, poking the thing while Kurt led her out of the school. The both of them looked around warily. They'd learned, even the newest students, that the use of powers was enforced much more seriously than any other rule. If Lain had been caught, she would be in trouble.
The two of them went home without a hitch, but Lain wasn't completely happy. There were still whispers going around and she was sure that not all of them were about Kurt. Call it her sixth sense, but she worried that she'd somehow given herself over to the powers of the gossip mill.