Elizabeth's Sophomore Year
(Toynbee is a Junior in High School)
"What are you working on?" Pietro asked her. Elizabeth was studying at the boarding house today so she could spend more time with Todd. She was sitting on the floor with her notebook on the coffee table. Todd was sitting to one side of her and Pietro to the other while they played a videogame
"I have an Algebra test on Monday," Elizabeth grumbled, giving him a look full of misery.
"Sucks," he agreed, "We don't usually see you studying."
"I usually don't have to," she confided, her pencil tapping on the page of her notebook, "Most of my classes I can get a B without so much as cracking a textbook. I don't think I even opened my English textbook once last year. Algebra is not as bad as Geometry was last year, though. I barely managed a C in that class."
"She's smart, yo," Todd added, with a smile.
"If she's so smart why does she care about her grades?" Fred asked from the kitchen.
"None of that shit is going to matter for the rest of our lives," Pietro agreed, amicably.
"She's a good girl," Jason, the illusionist, chimed in from his position lying on the couch, "Good girls always go for the bad boys." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Jason was new, a freshman, at the boarding house and he liked to tease her and Todd.
"I want to go to college," Elizabeth explained, filling in one of the answers on the practice test, "I want to become a physical therapist. The programs for PT degrees in college can be competitive."
"Where do you want to go to college?" Todd asked, brow furrowed.
"I don't know yet. I'll probably start at the local community college for the first two years, just to save money," Elizabeth explained, "I can figure out where I want to transfer to my senior year of high school or while I'm getting my Associate of Science degree."
"So, is your mutant ability healing?" Jason asked, "Is that why you want to be a physical therapist?"
"No," Elizabeth said slowly, confused, "I don't have an X-gene. My only mutations are lactose tolerance and having green eyes, as far as I know. I want to be a physical therapist because I like helping people."
The boys exchanged looks. They paused the video game and there was a long silence.
"You don't have an X-gene? You're not a mutant?" Pietro asked, his eyes wide.
"You told me your mutant name was Whisper," Todd said, visibly upset.
"No, I didn't," Elizabeth was confused, "Scott nicknamed me Whisper when I got to the Institute because I'm so quiet. It's not a mutant name, it's just a nickname."
"Your last name is Xavier," Todd said, "How can you be his daughter and not be a mutant?"
"Mystique and Sabretooth have a son that doesn't have an X-gene," Elizabeth pointed out, her shoulders tightening and her guard going up, "I have a cousin with an X-gene. I did not win that particular genetic lottery."
"Okay," Pietro said, slowly, "But Mystique and Sabretooth's non-mutant son is a member of an anti-mutant hate group."
"I didn't know that," Elizabeth said it quietly, "That's sad-and horrible."
"So, what's to stop you from becoming an anti-mutant asshole?" Jason accused.
"I'm not an asshole," Elizabeth shot back, insulted, "If you knew me at all you'd know that nearly all of the most important people in my life are mutants."
"You're the only one that calls him Todd," Pietro pointed out, "You don't call him by his mutant name. Are you really okay with him being a mutant?"
Elizabeth shut her notebook, angry, "I love my family, the Institute, and Todd." She stood up, so furious she didn't know what to do with herself. Todd wasn't saying anything. The controller for the game hung limply in his hand.
"But you live at the Institute," Fred said, as he ate, "I thought the Institute was only for mutants."
"Her mother died," Todd finally spoke, sounding hollow and shocky, "She lives at the Institute because there's no place else for her to go."
"Todd?" Elizabeth asked, concerned, "Are you okay?"
"No," he said. He stood up and went upstairs to his room. Elizabeth started to follow him but Pietro, incredibly fast, moved and grabbed her arm.
"I think you'd better go," his tone was firm, "The Brotherhood is for mutants only. You don't belong here." Elizabeth was shocked and hurt. Her eyes burned but she wouldn't cry in front of them. In a flash that was faster that she could see Pietro-Quicksilver-had her backpack in his hand and was holding it out to her.
"Fine," she ground out. She grabbed her backpack and stormed out the front door.
Elizabeth walked home, miserable. She'd rarely felt out of place at the Institute, for all that she was the only non-mutant there. Occasionally, she'd felt not special enough, not magical enough, because she wasn't gifted the way the others were. Laura had finally come to visit the school near the end of the last school year. That was when Elizabeth had learned that Logan was sort of her Uncle, or at least close enough that Elizabeth had started calling him that. But Laura had been stiff, uncomfortable, when Elizabeth had gone to hug her. When she'd confided her insecurities to the Professor he'd reassured her that Laura's upbringing meant that familial affection was unusual for her. Sometimes adjusting to new things, even when they are good, can be difficult, he'd said.
By the time she reached the gate on Graymalkin Lane she had had a good cry. She wiped her tears away, unwilling to let anyone know how she was feeling. She walked through the entrance courtyard and the Atrium, giving students who waved at her with a shadow of her usual smile. She passed where she could have turned off to the Professor's office and she hesitated. Elizabeth decided not to talk to him yet. She continued to the back of the school to her room in the girl's dormitory.
She threw her backpack onto the bed and fell onto the bed. Elizabeth buried her face in her pillow and curled up, ready to keep crying. Instead, her busy mind wouldn't turn off and she kept thinking about what had happened and what Todd had done-or not done. She couldn't believe how he hadn't taken her side, Elizabeth thought, growing furious all over again. That jerk!
Elizabeth spent the entire day in her room, claiming to not feel well when Kurt and Kitty each came to knock on her door. She skipped breakfast, missed lunch, and finally went to scrounge for leftovers around two in the afternoon. She skipped dinner and woke up early in the morning, hungry. Elizabeth decided that one day of moping, raging, and crying in her room was enough. She refused to be the sort of girl who lost her mind over a guy who was too stupid to know a great relationship when one came up and grabbed him by the throat.
She packed her own lunch and ate an early and large breakfast on Monday morning. Elizabeth squeaked by the Algebra test, managing a C by the skin of her teeth. She thought it was completely unfair. Still, her own misery and scoring so low on a test she knew she should have done well on spurred her to bury herself in her schoolwork. Elizabeth was mostly able to avoid Todd in the school hallways. When she did see him she specifically did not look at him. She didn't tell anyone what had happened but it was obvious that something had happened. No one who lived at the boarding house was speaking to her and everyone noticed. Elizabeth started packing her own lunch early in the morning and going out to the bleachers to eat alone. She didn't want to see Todd in the cafeteria so she didn't eat with the students from the Institute.