CHAPTER 5:
On Monday morning, Joe found himself sitting in the office of Bayville high, miss Munroe next to him. He'd had to come in earlier than the other students to sign all his paper work and meet the principal, and since Munroe was considered his legal guardian, she had to accompany him to oversee his enrollment. He had already filled out the files and was currently waiting to be beckoned into the principal's office by the office assistant.
Joe's thoughts were wary. Originally, he wasn't actually supposed to come to school that day. Jean had insisted that he wasn't up to it after his 'incident' in the danger-room two days before. It took a long time out of Joe's Sunday afternoon to convince the woman that he felt fine, and, finally, Jean reluctantly agreed to let him go on the grounds that he called her the second he began feeling odd.
"Miss Munroe and Mr...Harris?" Joe looked up from the school leaflet he'd been reading to the brown haired woman in her mid-fifties, who sat behind a desk on the other side of the room.
"Yes Dianne?" Munroe said, standing up and walking over to the woman.
"Mr. Lotry is free, please follow me." she smiled and beckoned the two to a door as she stood up from her desk.
Joe stood up, collected his bag and the papers he'd had to sign, and shuffled after the two women through a doorway and into a wide office. It's walls were covered in dozens of framed degrees from various universities. The head of a great Elk was mounted on the wall next to the doorway. Sitting at the back of the room, behind a handcarved Oak desk, sat a bald, dark skinned man in a white dress shirt and burgundy vest with matching tie. His suit jacket was hung over the back of his chair.
"Ororo!...always a pleasure to see my favorite principal!" The man grinned as he stood up, revealing his height as being at least seven feet tall, and walked over to Munroe, leaning over to hug the woman, who gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"It's good to see you as well, Ezekiel." she said as he lead her to a chair beside his desk.
The woman sat down, and Lotry turned to face Joe. "This is my new student Ezekiel, Joeseph Ewan Harris." Ororo said, crossing one leg over the other and placing her hands in her lap.
"Joeseph Harris! a pleasure. Welcome to Bayville high." The man offered Joe his large hand, which must have been the size of a shovel, and the boy shook it.
"Thanks, Mr. Lotry." the man beckoned for Joe to take the spare seat next to Munroe, who had been smiling the entire time.
Lotry chuckled, and went to sit in his wide backed leather chair. "Please, Joe, call me Mr Z...everyone does."
Joe smiled in reply and handed over his paper work, which Lotry took and looked over. He nodded and placed them on his desk. "Okay, everything seems to be in perfect order, I'll have someone come up an take you to your first class."
Joe nodded, smiling back.
Lotry pressed and held a button on his phone. "Dianne?...could you send someone up from room One-Seven-Nine please?"
A second passed. "Certainly Mr. Lotry."
The man stood up again, and walked to a espresso maker on the far wall. "Coffee?" he said over his shoulder. She nodded.
"How's Paul doing?" she took a small cup from Lotry, and sipped it politely.
Lotry shook his head. His demeanor suddenly changed from happy and charming to melancholic. "He still acts out. Pushed a younger boy down the stairs the other day. We had him tested the week before last to see if it was ADD, but..." Lotry shrugged.
Ororo shook her head. "It's a shame, he can be such a nice boy."
They group sat in silence for a few minutes, Joe was a little uncomfortable about how simple it was for him to be accepted. But his anxiety subsided when a knock the door made all three turn their attention to a petite girl with fair hair that hung behind her ears, and round green eyes that gave her face an incredibly youthful look, enter. She was dressed in t-shirt, coloured a very pale shade of purple, which fit her small frame perfectly, and black jeans that looked brand new.
"Mr. Z, Miss Ph-Phillips told me to come...up here...have I done something wrong?" The girls voice was very squeaky, and Joe noticed that her lip trembled as she spoke to the principal. She toed into the room hesitantly, giving a quick glance to Joe and Ororo beore returning her attention to Lotry and raising a pair of gloved hands to her chest.
"No, not at all Cassandra," Lotry beckoned for the girl to come in closer. "I want you too meet our latest prisoner," the man chuckled at his joke. "Joeseph Harris." Joe smiled, trying to look as genuine as possible.
"Hi" he said, standing up and offering the girl his hand. The girl winced, and he retracted his arm after realising he'd scared her. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to-"
"No, don't worry about it Joey," Lotry smiled. "Cassandra is just a little shy...aren't you?" The girl nodded awkwardly, then looked down.
Lotry stood up and walked over to the girl, putting his hand on the much shorter girl's shoulder. "Cassie, could you please guide my new student around school today?...I'm sure your help would be appreciated." Cassie looked up at the man and the two smiled.
"Y-yes Mr...Z." turning back to Joe. She turned and walked out the door, leaving Joe wondering what the hell he was supposed to do.
"Go on Joeseph, I'll have Lachlan check up on you later." Ororo said, handing him his bag. He nodded, shook Lotry's hand again, then walked out after the girl.
0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0
Joe had to run to reach Cassie, who took remarkably long strides for someone so small. "So, how long have you gone here?" he said after a moment, trying to form a rapport with the girl. Cassandra stopped suddenly and stuck her gloved finger into his chest.
"Alright, listen. Zeke wants me to lead you around, but I'm not going to be your friend okay?...So you do what I tell you, then go back to hanging out with your weirdo Xavier friends." She turned on her heels started up the corridor again, leaving Joe with his mouth hanging open.
'What the hell just happened?' he asked himself, looking after the girl, who hadn't slowed down.
"Are you coming?" he began running after the girl, but was careful to not get too close to her. He didn't want to get screamed at again by this 'shy' girl.
She lead him down a flight of stairs and through another hall, until they reached a classroom that Joe would have guessed was almost directly beneath the principal's office. Cassie stopped and pointed for Joe to enter, which he did, then followed him into a room with a whole bunch of students surrounding a table in the centre, where a woman with curly brown hair was pouring something into a large glass beaker.
"Miss...Ph-Phillips?..I-I have the new boy." Joe's eyes widened, and he looked around to Cassie, who'd suddenly lost all her venom and become shy again, with her hands raised to her chest.
"Ooh, hello there, you are?" the woman said from behind a pair of large plastic glasses.
"Joe Harris...Miss Phillips." he said, looking around at the dozen or so students whose eyes were glued to him. The only one who wasn't looking was a boy who stood next to the teacher. It was Lachlan.
"Fantastic...Take a seat where it's free then come watch this"
Joe nodded, dropped his bag on an empty desk near the back, then walked over to stand next to Lachlan, who gave him a curt nod before turning back to the teacher's experiment.
0oooo0ooo0ooo0ooo0oo0oo0
The lesson went by quickly. All of it was spent watching Phillips pour various chemicals with ridiculously long names into beakers filled with chemicals with other ridiculously long names. By the end, He had almost fallen asleep. Chemistry bored him more than anything.
At the end of the class, Joe noticed that Cassie had left without him, but he didn't mind because the girl scared him a little bit. Instead, Lachlan told him to follow him and brought Joe down the hall to an over-sized canteen, where hundreds of students sat eating some sort of slop from trays. A giant golden bird was painted on the far wall, with the words 'GO BAYVILLE HAWKS' in bright red accompanying it.
Joe followed Lachlan to the back, where he found the rest of the Xavier students sitting together in what, due to the teens having such different styles and attitudes, looked like a scene from the breakfast club.
"YO, JOE...HOW'S IT GOING BRO?." Leapfrog cried as the boys approached, crouching on the seat and waving a fork wildly, the process of which made the teens at the tables surrounding theirs turn their heads. Leapfrog held out his fist and Joe bumped it to be polite.
"What's up?"
Joe took a seat on the end, and Lachlan sat next to Grace opposite him. He looked down to see what the others were eating. It wasn't the mushy slop that the rest of the teens were reluctantly dining on.
"Jean makes our lunch," Harmony said from her spot opposite Toro, taking notice of the young man's puzzled look. "Here." she reached underneath the table and pulled a small tupperware container from her bag, handing it to Joe, who pulled off the lid to find a pleasant looking concoction of vegetables and rice.
"Thanks." He took up a plastic fork and began picking at his food.
The meal went on, and not much happened. Apart from the usual 'How are you liking school?' cliche questions of course. It was when Joe turned to look out at the rest of the cafeteria that he noticed Cassie sitting on the other side of the room, surrounded by group of students even quirkier than their own.
One sat with his legs propped on the seat, his back leaning against the wall where the table stood. Joe couldn't make out his face, as a blanket of bright blue hair covered his eyes, and an oversized pair of head-phones hung over his ears.
The next was a girl, who Joe could have easily mistaken for Grace. Pale blonde hair, a perfectly straight back. If it weren't for the fact that Grace sat right across from him, Joe would have bet money it was her.
The third was boy, dark skinned, with matching hair and eyes, and a very sour look on his face. Then sat Cassie, who had her arms crossed in front of her. Joe couldn't tell if she was in 'shy' mode or not at the moment.
And the last was another boy, with very slick blonde hair, dark green eyes, and an extremely smug look on his face. At first thoughts, Joe assumed he was a male model or something, due to the expensive looking dress shirt he was wearing, and the fact that most of the girls in the cafeteria-apart from the girls at their two tables of course-had their eyes glued to him.
"Who are they?" he asked, pointing over to the other table with his fork hand.
The group-apart from Grace and Lachlan-looked over to where Joe was pointing, and laughed.
"What?" Joe said, obviously not getting the joke.
"That's Eric and his gang," Harmony said. Her voice was full of spite, and she pursed her lips.
Joe put down his now empty container and leant in. "You don't like them?"
Harmony smirked. "It's that obvious?," Joe grinned. "I don't like them because-"
"She doesn't like them because she has a crush on Eric, and he'll only hang out with them." Leapfrog cut in. Toro snorted into his food, which was three times the size of everyone else's.
Harmony shot Leapfrog a scowl before turning her attention back to her food. "Why do you want to know?"she said, not lifting her head. Joe could tell she was blushing.
"No reason, it's just Cassie was the one who guided me to class and...well...she's kinda weird." He shrugged, then turned back to look at the girl.
"They're all weird," Leapfrog said. "They're nothing alike, but they'll only hang out with each other." He threw down his container and yawned.
"Their not weird...they're just from the same orphanage, so of course they'll stick together." Harmony snapped back at him.
Leapfrog smirked. "See," he said to Joe. "Old Harm's won't let anyone speak ill of her precious Eric" he said the last part in a sing-song voice, much to Joe's amusement.
0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0
At the end of the day, Joe got a lift back to the mansion with Harmony and Leapfrog. The others had various sports practices to attend.
When they arrived, Joe found Jean and Scott waiting in the hall, dressed in their uniforms. Jean's was jet black with a dark green V shape patterned on the front, and her redhair was held back behind her ears by a headband. Scott's suit was a bleak navy colour with a yellow belt and epaulette's emblazoned with golden X's on them. Instead of his glasses, a gold visor with a single bright red lense covered his eyes.
"How was your day?" Jean said, walking over to Joe and placing her hand on the boys forehead.
"Good...thanks for lunch." he replied half-heartedly, his focus was on the woman's soft skin pressing against his face.
Jean smiled. "Your welcome...but I meant how did you feel?...any headaches?," Joe shook his head. "Good." She took her hand off of Joe's head and walked back to Scott, who was grinning.
"What?" Joe said, a puzzled look covering his face.
"Go check upstairs," Scott said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the banister. "We'll wait for you."
Joe gave the man another odd look before heading up the stairs, the other students following him. Harmony took off up the opposite staircase to Joe and Leapfrog.
Joe reached his room at the end of the hall and, when he opened his door, his jaw actually dropped when he saw what was lying on the bed.
A uniform. Not quite like the others. Made especially for him.
He dropped his bag and lifted the suit off his bed, rubbing the fabric in his hands. It was navy, like the others, with the yellow X belt buckle. But the biggest difference was the sleeves. On each one, a thick yellow stripe trailed from the wrist up around to his shoulder blades. Joe thought it was cool.
"You like it?" he turned to see Jean and the others standing in the doorway.
"Yeah...it's awesome. Thanks."
She walked in and sat on his bed, the others followed but stayed standing. "I hope it fits. We took your size from some of the clothes in your wardrobe but...well they vary." the two smiled to each other.
"It'll be great thanks...everybody, thankyou." he said, nodding to his cohorts to show his gratitude.
Scott grinned widely. "Well that settles it. Get dressed and Leapfrog will bring you down to the danger-room for your first real session." he looked at Harmony as he spoke, who smiled awkwardly.
The group filed out of Joe's room, who closed the door after them, and began undressing. It was official.
He was an X-man.
0oo0oo0oo0oo0
Suited-up and ready to go, Joe stretched his shoulders to allow the suit to mold around his body. It felt a little odd at first, he'd never worn a bodysuit before, but quickly became accustomed to it.
He left his room, meeting Leapfrog outside the door, getting a thumbs up from the smaller boy as he saw Joe for the first time.
"Savvy,"
The two walked down the stairs and into the hallway that held the elevator passage.
"You ready for this bro?" Leapfrog said as the two entered the elevator bay.
Joe nodded in reply. "I'm ready, just a little nervous that I'll go off again...you know."
Leapfrog grinned and elbowed him in the side. "Don't worry about it dude, just don't blow me up or whatever." he joked, pressing the button for the danger-room.
Joe smiled awkwardly, his throat was dry and his arms were shaking.
In an attempt at taking his mind off what may await him, Joe started to ask questions about the other boy, who leant against the compartment's back wall. "So, where are you from?...you know, originally?"
"Want to know the gang huh?," Joe shrugged. "Fair deuce...I was born in Wisconsin, parents moved there from Nevada about a year before they had me...went to school there...had some friends...played in a band...then one day, I just started jumping real high," he shrugged, looking over to Joe, who nodded. "That's basically it."
The doors opened and they walked out into the viewing room. "You were in a band?...that's so cool." Joe said.
Leapfrog nodded without looking at Joe. "Bass man," he fingered an air-bass as he spoke. "You play anything?" they reached the rest of the team, who surrounded the computer console on the far wall.
"Yeah...some guitar and piano. My mom made me take them."
Leapfrog nodded. "Cool bro...we should jam sometime." the boy jumped up and into his crouching position on a computer desk.
The two turned their attention to Jean and Scott, who were fiddling around on the computers, setting up some training sessions for Joe's first day.
"Alright," Scott said, turning to the group. "Joe, Jean and Harmony are going to work with you, to try and draw out your powers," Joe nodded, trying to look as confident as he could. "Maybe you could give us a little show later?," Joe nodded just to keep the man talking. In all honesty, he was still unsure that he could control them.
"Great. Liam?, I've set up some obstacles for you. You're going to work around them while I have some target practice," he grinned at Leapfrog's stunned expression.
"Don't worry, I won't even use a fiftieth of my power. The most you'll feel is a sharp sting." The boy's face didn't change.
The group walked into the elevator again and rode it down to the floor, finding a large area that looked much like a children's playground, apart from the fact that there were a few pendulum blades and a series of shock wires set up along it, and then another area on the opposite side with a few targets and weights set-up.
Scott and Leapfrog headed over to the first area, and the others split off to the smaller one.
"What are these for?" Joe asked, surveying the different equipment that littered their area.
"We still don't know exactly what your 'orbs' do," Jean said, placing two fingers to her temple and using her other hand to lift a few of the large weights off the ground in an attempt to make a larger space. "Maybe they lift things, maybe they're a weapon. We don't know."
The three gathered in the middle, not paying attention to the sounds of Scott's optic blasts as he fired at the acrobatic Leapfrog, who scaled the different climbing nets and walls, navigating the various hazards along the way.
"So, what we're going to do is have you release your energy while I control your mind. I think that if I can focus it, we might be able to get a reaction."
Joe nodded, taking a deep breath as Jean took position behind him and placed her hands on his head.
"Good luck." Harmony said to Joe as she took half a dozen steps back. He nodded in thanks and took another breath before closing his eyes.
He felt ill all of a sudden, as the energy from Jean flowed into his mind.
'Alright Joe,' Jean was talking to him from inside. 'Do what i told you...focus, breath, and relax..release all of the stress in your body'
Joe did as he was told. Focusing on nothing but his breathing, and, after a moment, began to feel fuzzy.
'I CAN FEEL IT JOE...KEEP YOUR FOCUS...AND RELAX,"
Joe let all of the tension in his body leave, and a sharp pain shot into his eyes, causing him to open them, revealing the bright colours as they began clouding his vision.
'GOOD JOE...KEEP YOUR FOCUS...I CAN ONLY TO DO SO MUCH,'
Joe did as he was told, keeping his breathing deep and rhythmic, feeling his body lift off the ground a little, before a sudden pain broke his focus and a flash caused him to blackout...
"Joe?...Joe can you hear me?"
The boy opened his eyes. "Where am I?" he found himself looking up at Jean, with the others hanging over her shoulder.
"You're on the floor...you did well though, we managed to form two of your orbs."
Joe shot up from his back and into a sitting position, bracing himself with his arms. "Really?...it worked?," they all smiled. "Awesome." Jean put her hand to his forehead again, and checked his eyes for their response.
"I think that's enough for today." she said, taking away her hand and standing up.
Joe quickly jumped to his feet, the sudden rise made him lose balance for a second, but he managed to regain his composure. "No. I'm fine, really, I just need to focus more, that's it." The group turned to him, all with serious looks on their faces.
Jean turned to Scott. "Well?"
The man looked back and shrugged. "You have to admire his determination," Joe smiled. "Alright everyone, back to it...we've got alot of work to do before we can truly call ourselves a team."