Hey! Thank for the reviews, they were really nice, so thanks a lot! I hope you guys like this chapter, it's the first official one for the story. Once again reviews would be welcome :)
Basically, it's just a recap and him arriving, meeting a few people and unpacking – nothing off the walls I'm afraid, just a little bit of his arrival.
Chapter 1 – Bellemont Academy for the Unique: the BAU
4th September 2013
In the time that Spencer had known Gideon, the path of his life had changed dramatically.
Lucky for him, when Gideon had met his mum, Diana, she was having one of her better days and the trio had been able to discuss the school – or the BAU as Gideon referred to it- and the prospects it could be to him; mainly that it was somewhere he could learn and not hide who he was, as well as being able to train and develop his gifts. Surprisingly to Spencer his mother had agreed that maybe it was the better place for him without him or Gideon needing to try and convince her, when Spencer had confirmed everything being said was true.
Over the week, the trio had gotten to know each other better – well mainly Spencer and Gideon because of the episodes his mum was frequently having but all the same. After a week with some 'persuasion' Diana had gone into a sanatorium, Bennington Sanatorium. Spencer had gone to visit every day however when he went most of the time she didn't recognise him and it hurt too much for him to stay or she got violent. So most of the time he and Gideon had been getting his belongings together and packing the things in the house in boxes for storage or for the BAU. They'd also been buying new supplies and clothes– well Gideon bought, Spencer protested to no result of the lavish treatment. As well the two managed, somehow, with Diana on one of her clear days to sell the house quickly and easier than they thought (of course Spencer had used his 'persuasive' powers to achieve this, gettingg bad headaches afterwards) to a couple desperate for a house in the area but with not a lot of money. Spencer got probably around half to two-thirds of the house's worth but he didn't care; it was enough to cover his mum's hospital bills for a year and it was a good hospital too, plus enough for a large storage locker (for a year too) to ship most of the furniture to sell later if he needed funds. With the few thousands he had left over, he had tried to pay Gideon back but the elder had refused to accept anything, even a penny off him.
"If I'm to act or be your guardian, Spencer, then I should pay for it, not you." Was the response he'd received every tried he tried to pay Gideon back.
Gideon over the few weeks had also explained about the school to Spencer and showed him a map of the school he had with him by chance. The school he explained was open all year for those who wished to stay all year or those who didn't have anyone else (whether because their family was deceased or because they'd been disowned/kicked out for having gifts) and had to really stay there; other than that it ran like a normal school with semesters for training and an education, and holidays so students could visit their families etc.
Before they'd left Gideon advised Spencer of an incident (nothing big Gideon had reassured him) that had occurred leading some hostility toward telepaths, and for now it would be a good idea to present himself as someone who's gift was that of super intelligence, which could actually work because of his IQ of 187, keeping the rest hidden from the other students. Spencer had been confused but didn't press Gideon, deciding to trust him instead as he didn't want to jeopardise his chances at the school.
After one last (and successful) visit to his mother and ensuring all was done, the two had left Las Vegas on the 1st and arrived in Virginia on the evening of the 4th, having decided to stay at motels for the nights and visit/stop in a few of the towns they passed through the various states.
As he stepped out of the jeep and onto gravel drive of the huge acre campus, Spencer observed the outside – the lawns and flowerbeds, the trees and gravel paths not to mention the beautiful 19th century red brick building itself, that made the school. It was breath-taking and he would have been shocked; however after the mental tour courtesy of Gideon, he knew exactly what to expect.
He looked up at the writing above the door, the same as the one on the Iron Gate at the entrance of the school grounds, 'Bellemont Academy for the Unique' and directly below in smaller writing 'A sanctuary for all those who need it'. His guardian, well that's how he felt about Gideon even after a short time, interrupted his thoughts.
"Welcome to the BAU, Spencer, we should unload your things and take them to your room." As they began to extract the suitcases and boxes from the back of the jeep, a woman with a sharp blonde bob in her forties came strutting down the steps of the building. He realised this was Professor Strauss, the 'principal' of the school.
"Professor Gideon, welcome back but I must speak with you. Now." Similar to the sweet low buzzing of Gideon's mental shield, Spencer felt one from Professor Strauss also and remembered Gideon saying all the adults had been trained to high resistance mental shields and students optionally could learn to have a basic one but it took so much effort and time, many of the students didn't bother.
"I'm afraid I'm busy at the moment, maybe later." Gideon replied with a sincere smile.
She looked at the boy standing beside Gideon and the boy returned the same curious look at her, both knowing who each other was – her from the calls and information Gideon had sent her about this 'child prodigy' even among mutants (she didn't shy from the term unlike her colleague) and him from what Gideon had 'showed' him.
"Hello, Spencer. I'm Professor Strauss, although I'm sure Professor Gideon has told you who I am, welcome to my school. Professor Gideon has informed me that you wish and are going to keep your gifts hidden for a while, given the recent circumstances that might be a good idea, and that you wish to display yourself as someone with the gift of 'super intelligence' , is that correct." He gave a simple nod in response to her, "Very well then. But I will remind you; it is expressly forbidden for students to use their gifts against other students or teachers in harmful, threatening or invasive ways to bully or benefit yourself. All staff are trained with high resistance mental shields and students have the ability to have a basic shield to prevent mind reading or control by others. If I find you have any of these things without that person's permission, I will punish you. I will not tolerate the invasion of any student or staff's privacy. Is that understood?"
"Y-y-e-s-s Professor Strauss. I understand." He knew he spoke fast but his new principal was hard to keep up with, a side effect of being able to speak, write and read almost every language – a universal translator Gideon had called her. The nod he'd given was returned, before continuing.
"Good. I trust you will settle in and already know your way around the school courtesy of Professor Gideon, your room is 163. Welcome to the BAU. Jason with me, now," Gideon threw an apologetic smile at Spencer and the boy did the same and passed him the keys – "Miss Jareau! Mr LaMontagne! Seeing as how you are wandering the ground aimlessly, please help our new student with his luggage." With that the adults disappeared into the building, leaving the boy with the two approaching strangers.
He continued trying to get his stuff out of the car, he didn't realise how close they were until he heard a voice making him jump.
SMACK!
"Ow –"
"I'm so sorry!" Rubbing his head, Spencer looked at the two teens. The girl was a head taller than him, while the boy, stood a few inches taller than her. Both had slightly tanned skin from days out in the sun but Spencer could tell they naturally were a creamy pale colour. While her eyes were a clear baby blue and her hair was chest length, thick and golden; her counterpart however had murky blue-green eyes and his short hair was dark yet sandy containing a mixture of natural highlights. They bother were wearing jeans and a t-shirts with trainers.
"Hi, I'm Jennifer Jareau or JJ. This is William LaMontagne jr, but call him Will," The teen gave Spencer a cheerful wave. "I hope you settle in here, the BAU is a great place to be." Nervously he accepted their handshakes, desperately not wanting to exchange germs but he gave in, not wanting to seem rude.
"Hello JJ, Will. My name's Spencer. Spencer Reid. It's nice to meet you and thank you for your help." He was itching to read their minds but the threat of Professor Strauss prevented him, he really didn't want to be in trouble on the first day there.
"It's alright kid, it ain't a problem. So… what can or do you do?"
"I – erm – oh – I'm, well you could say that I'm super smart." Will looked up from the suitcase he was pulling out from the jeep and the one he was passing to JJ.
"A brainiac, huh? We've already got two, I think, so you oughta fit in pretty well." Unsure if he was being mean or not, Spencer took a brief peek into Will's mind and smiled when he saw there was no malice to the statement.
"Spence, where's your room?" JJ cut into Spencer's peeking and caught him slightly off guard.
"It's room 163."
The glance quickly exchanged between his new friends didn't go unnoticed by the young mutant; however he couldn't tell what the glance meant…
"Ok, let's go!" JJ walked briskly off, Spencer was sure a tear was in her eye, up the steps with a suitcase in one hand and a box in the other.
"JJ, hang on, I'll get the door –"His jaw dropped when JJ walked through the door, not open, walked through it.
A closed door.
"Yep, she does that. It's kinda JJ's thing, why open a door if you can pass through it?" The chuckling voice of the southern boy, maybe Louisianan, made him close his mouth.
"C-can you-"
"No. JJ walks through walls, I climb them, ya know…erm… like a squirrel up a tree."
"That's, eh, cool. You scale walls and your girlfriend climbs them, you both have ways of saving time." He mentally scolded himself for saying 'girlfriend' and as Will went to ask how he knew, he quickly responded that he'd seen them holding hands up the path.
"Who's she?"
Spencer had stopped in the foyer at a shrine, where the framed picture of a girl older than Will or JJ with tanned skin, hazel eyes and shoulder length chestnut hair was. A plaque underneath read 'Elle Greenaway, a hero to all the gifted and the world. 16th February 1995 – 15th April 2013'.
"A friend… She was our friend, taken by someone because they couldn't accept what they were." The solemn voice silenced any further questions he had and the painful images Will was sending out made Spencer refute any attempt to read his mind. The one thing he did pick up though was it was a good idea to keep quiet about his reading ability, given that Elle's killer did the same and he could detect that Will and JJ had some hostility towards telepaths as a result.
The walk was silent and Spencer was trying but struggling to not read the new minds that were shouting out to him, however he sensed more than a few people had similar feelings toward telepaths, feelings similar to Will and JJ.
He gulped nervously, 'I guess this is the 'incident' Gideon was talking about, yeah… it really wasn't anything big, great, this is going to be easy…'
Not the most exciting chapter I know but I wanted to just give a little bit of how Spencer feels and we've meet some more of the gang and their gifts. I hope the ending was alright, I wanted to leave it like that it shows later it might cause some issues about Spencer revealing his actual gifts. (Hope that makes sense.)
Reviews once again are welcome, thanks :)