Chapter 4

!Warning – Description of Relative's Suicide and Physical and Verbal Abuse!

I didn't go to supper. I pretty much changed into pajamas and crawled into bed. Did she ask me if she could erase me memories? I wouldn't remember if she did. If I ask her she could lie. Very easily, I'm sure. She seems like someone who's used to a few lies.

I heard her come back in when it was long past dark.

"Lapse?" she said.

Well I'll give it to her that she sounds legitimately concerned.

She turns on the light and I pull the covers up higher.

"It's hard your first time," she says soothingly, "And I know you probably don't believe me, but we talked it over, you and I."

I don't believe her. She's convincing, but she wasn't very welcoming when I met, or rather, re-met her.

"I asked if I could demonstrate my power and you said yes, simple as that!" she says.

"Did you even tell me what it was first?" I mutter into my pillow.

"Yes, of course. I don't need Xavier's classes to know right from wrong."

I sit up and look at her. She smiles a little.

"Ok," I say, "Let's start over."

"For real?" she exclaims, jumping up and reaching towards my face, "Fingers on your temple and you won't remember a thing!"

"No! No, no, no," I shout, and jump back, laughing. I snap my fingers and she freezes.

I push all our pillows into the air above her and hide in the closet, snapping my fingers and focusing on the outcome. The pillows will all drop except for one, which will come seemingly out of no where once she starts looking for me.

She squeals, suddenly pummeled with cotton.

"Lapse!" she shouts good-naturedly, "Where are you?"

Then the last pillow falls.

I hear her laugh, albeit a little confused.

I freeze her again and make her go into the hallway. "I've got you, Blanc," I make her whisper.

I hear her in the hallway.

She comes in sounding almost a little frightened. "Lapse, how'd you do that? You all brainy all of a sudden?" she says loudly into the room.

I come out of my hiding place.

"Not brainy, no," I grin. I don't offer any explanation.

"Don't do it again," she says.

I approach her and hold out a hand.

"Let's make a deal," I say, "You don't erase my memory, and I'll take you with me if you're nearby when I freeze things."

She looks at me.

"Babe," she says quietly, "You might want me to erase you sometime."

"No. I can ask Xavier to do it, right?"

She shrugs, "Ok, then. Sure."

She spits in the palm of her hand and I cringe and do the same. The shake makes a solid, wet, slap. It's really quite final.

If I want to freeze around her, I'll have to be discreet.

The next morning, I'm surprised to overhear a phone call.

"I'm fine, mum. Really. My roommate's fabulous, she freezes things. Yes, I saw her at supper, she's right down the hall. Ok, I understand. I love you both. Toodles," Blanc says. She sighs.

"What's your home life like?" I ask. My voice is a bit gravelly from sleep. She turns quickly towards me.

"Didn't know you were awake," she says quietly.

"Well," I prompt.

"My parents are both mutants," she says, "My life's been really quite Ok. They were involved in the Brotherhood a while back, but I think they're clean now. They get along with humans just fine."

"The Brotherhood?" I say, getting up and choosing my clothes.

"You don't- what's your home life like, Lapse?" she says.

"My parents are," I sigh and turn towards her, "Well, I guess you could say they hate mutants. Or, maybe fear would be a better word. They don't know I am one. I guess with a mutation as discreet as mine I could stay hidden forever. Others," I think of Blossom, "Maybe aren't so lucky."

"So you don't know much then?"

"I beg your pardon," I scoff, thinking somehow that she was talking about how I was homeschooled.

"About mutants, silly," she tosses a sock at me.

I fling it back, "Well, I know some things. I guess."

"Well, there's a sort of Civil war going on between the Brotherhood and the X-Men," she starts to explain, "The Brotherhood are probably the reason your parents fear mutants. They don't want to make peace with the humans. They claim their time on earth is done, that mutants should take their place.

"The X-Men believe the opposite, and protect humanity. Or, they try. Media always seems to point out the wrong they've done."

I dress as she talks on and on about past battles and members of the different groups.

"All right, all right, I got it!" I shout playfully, "You're a nerd for this stuff."

She flashes a sheepish grin and we go for breakfast.

There's a class schedule up in the main living room. I search for my name.

"Mallory Reight," I mutter, running my finger up and down the board. I quickly copy the names and times I've found.

"You've got one on one with Jean Grey..," Blanc gapes.

"Who's Jean Grey?"

She looks at me like I've sprouted another nose.

"She's the Phoenix," she hisses.

Suddenly a boy teleports into the small space between the list and the crowd. There's shouting as he blocks the way for everyone but himself and Blanc and I look at each other with mischief in our eyes.

I grab her hand and snap my fingers.

The room is silent and people around us are stiff. I spot blossom, only a few steps behind me and reaching to tap my shoulder. Blanc starts dragging the boy out of the crowd.

I grab blossom's feathery hand and try to pull her into the lapse with us somehow. This proves impossible.

"Lapse, help me out!"

I turn and help Blanc maneuver the teleporting teenager. He has blue eyes and blonde hair and a smirk that could break a mirror.

Blanc catches me staring.

"Don't you dare," she says, "He's definitely not pretty in his actions."

I blush and walk faster. We take him outside.

"Do the brainy thing, make him teleport a few feet off the ground a couple times."

I look at her in surprise.

"Don't you think that's a bit mean?" I ask.

She shakes her head.

I look at the boy.

"If you say so."

I concentrate. The boy will sputter, face down in the grass. He'll get up, teleport, fall, three times.

I snap and the scene drags to life. Unfortunately, we didn't look to see who was watching.

The boy and Blanc freeze, and I'm not the one who froze them.

What are you doing, Lapse?

I spin around. This wasn't the Professor's voice. Standing directly behind me is a tall woman with bright red hair.

"I..," I say, my voice heavy with guilt, "He cut in front of me. Us. When we were all looking at the chart. So I, uh, we thought I'd just..."

"You wanted to punish him," she says.

"Kind of," I admit.

She smiles, not unkindly.

"I hear I am to tutor you," she says.

My eyes open wide.

"Jean Grey," I stutter, "So nice to meet you, I-"

"No need to feel embarrassed, Mallory," she says, "freshman have gotten into much worse trouble than your harmless prank. But I do hope you take something from Xavier's Ethics class."

I still feel a little like I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar, though.

I look back at the still scene.

"So.., you can do what I do, huh? And what Xavier does?"

"No, I can't do what you do," she smiles, "Only the two of them are frozen."

I take notice of our surroundings. The grass bends slightly in the breeze, someone looks out the window nearby.

"So, you're brainy."

She laughs and it's like music.

"Yes, you could say that," she says. A man in the distance calls her name.

"I'll see you when classes start," she says. She raises an eyebrow, and snaps her fingers with a grin.

"You used my trick!" I shouted at her back as she walked away. I just wanted to hear her laugh again.

Blanc and I leave the boy confused on the lawn. I don't think he even knew it was us who took him out there, he barely glanced at us and our dew-dampened slippers. I'm disappointed to find that there's no real breakfast in the kitchen for us, just cold cereal, toaster waffles, and instant oatmeal that we'd have to microwave.

Blossom stands in the corner of the dining room with a red Solo cup and a spoon. She eats Lucky Charms in silence.

"Hey, Blossom," I call, waving her over. She makes her way around the dining table. I've saved a seat for her.

"I'd like you to meet Blanc, my new roommate," I tell her, gesturing to the seat on the other side of me. I lean back so they can shake hands.

"My roommate's not here yet," she says, "She'll be arriving the day before classes start."

"That's tomorrow then," Blanc tells her, "Today's Saturday."

"Oh," Blossom says with a shy smile, "I'm a bit nervous for it."

"Nothing to be nervous about," Blanc says kindly, "I mean, Lapse and I got along famously after we had a little spat."

"You had a fight?" Blossom asks me.

"Kind of," I say, "Blanc erases memories. I don't remember lunch yesterday, or the first time I met her. She says I agreed to it, but I couldn't quite know that, could I?"

She shakes her head no, absolutely enthralled by our drama, and I'm reminded again how much younger than we are she is. Maybe because of her home life, the Professor thought he'd take her in early.

"So, we did argue, but it kind of ended in a pillow fight and an agreement never to use our powers on each other, ever. When she's in the room," I elbow Blanc, "I have to take her with me when I freeze."

"You don't have freeze powers," blurts a loud-mouthed kid from across the table, "I saw you, you and her," he points to Blanc, "disappeared when we were at the board today."

"Well, what if I did that?" Blanc asks him, annoyed.

"No way, I was listening to your story. You erase memories," He points a meaty finger. It stretches out like rubber across the table and pokes her in the nose. She bites at it as it shrinks away, and the boy laughs.

I notice now that we've caught the attention of almost the whole table. This kid's yelling is almost annoying enough that no one can pay attention to anything else.

"I just call it freezing," I say, "I'm Lapse." I hold out my hand to shake his, smirking as I hold my other one under the table for Blanc and Blossom to touch. At the last minute, I realize this will make it impossible to snap my fingers, so when the boy's hand reaches out I quickly touch it with my little finger and snap.

He laughs, confused at my pinky finger touch, then he looks around at his quiet classmates.

"Whoa," he says, not yelling for once.

Blossom, Blanc, and I finish our cereal quietly, while he takes a toaster waffle from the kid next to him. As he takes a bite, I snap again. The kid starts shouting at him. My friends and I leave the table.

Back in my room, we do girl stuff. Chatting and throwing pillows at each other. I bring out some candy. (Always prepared)

Then we start to talk about our families and Blossom gets really quiet.

"My mom's pregnant, actually," Blanc says, "the kid's pretty much guaranteed to have the X gene, but there's a bit on nervousness on my parent's part. What if she's human?" Blanc shrugs, "I honestly wouldn't mind it, but I don't know if my dad would be as easy going about it."

"If I was your parents," Blossom says quietly, "I wouldn't be easy going about it."

We turn to her in surprise.

"Humans are cruel," she says, looking at the pillow she's clutching.

"That's not true," I say gently, "Most humans are kind. And maybe understanding."

She looks at me condescendingly, something foreign and frightening on her face.

"Maybe a few are kind, Lapse, but certainly not most."

I'm uncomfortable.

"My parents never loved me," she says, "Most certainly not after they found out about my mutation. I was always careful before Xavier came by, only using my vines to protect myself when my parents were too high or drunk to remember it the next day.

My older sister, though, she knew. She was there the day my hands turned green, sprouted feathers. She was the only light I had, and she-" Blossom chokes, but she doesn't cry, "She killed herself last year."

I want to hug her, but Blanc beats me to it.

"Her body hung in our bathroom for days before my parents wondered where she was. They dumped it in the river, noose still on, and I never heard a thing about it again. Our city isn't the kind of place where a body in the reservoir is strange.

"After that, I couldn't take the abuse anymore. I was lucky, they never seemed to notice my green hands, and I was able to hide when either of them were angry. But not after Xavier came. They were mad at me specifically, then. They jeered, of course, 'what makes you think you're special enough for a gifted school?' they said, 'you applied to some fancy academy so you can cart us off to jail, is that it?'

"They hit me and hit me," she shakes her head now, as if they're still doing it, "And I just... couldn't. So I shelled up. They couldn't touch me in there. They tried to move me, but I latched to the door frame, the light fixture. I'm sure it looked like a jungle, the net I made.

"And they did what I'll never forget," she says, "They started blaming each other. 'You have the monster gene!' 'No, you have the monster gene!' and back and forth like toddlers," she says, cracking the same condescending smile she gave to me earlier, "And that was when I finally felt more evolved than them."

Blanc nods as though she agrees, but I just feel sick to my stomach.

"You should know, Lapse," Blossom says to me, "You should understand! You think your parents would love you if you told them you were a mutant?"

"Yes," I say, even though I'm not nearly as sure as I sound, "Yes I do."

I pull out my cell phone and dial my home number. Blanc and Blossom watch me curiously.

"Hi sweetheart!" I hear my mom say, "Your father and I were just talking about you. Here, I'll put you on speaker."

I do the same, shushing the others.

"So," my mom says, "How's the school?"

"It's great," I say, trying to sound confidant, "I met my roommate, she's British."

"How interesting," my dad says, "she came all the way just to go to this school?"

"It's very exclusive," I say with a smile, knowing he'll be impressed.

"Mmm," he says, "that's wonderful. It will look great on your records."

"Yes," I agree, "But I actually called you for a reason."

"Oh?" my mom says in the distance.

"There's something I need to tell you, and you may want to sit down."

"What is it sweetheart?" my mother says, closer to the phone now.

"I, uh..," I say, starting to feel too anxious to feign bravado.

"You can tell us, my dear," my dad says, but I can tell he's a bit worried.

"I'm a mutant."

The words hang in the air, and the only noise coming over the phone is a slight electric buzzing. I look from the phone to my new friends. They're staring at me with both worry and suspense.

"Could you... say that again?" my dad says.

"I'm a mutant. This is a mutant school. Professor Xavier invited me here because of it."

I can imagine my dad shaking his head.

There's another long silence and I start to feel very worried.

"We'll-"

And that's all I need to hear. I slip a hand under my thigh and snap my fingers, trying to keep perfectly still so it doesn't look like I've moved when I unfreeze.

My mind is racing. Do they care? Don't they love me? I don't want to find out what they'd actually say.

I picture my parents and start envisioning what was most certainly going to be a 'we'll call you back,' as a 'we love you anyway.' I hope my power works long distance and snap my fingers again.

"-call you back," my mom says, and I cringe. I don't let my tears fall just yet.

"Don't bother." I tell her, and hang up.

I look at Blossom, a sob threatening to dig it's way up my throat.

"I guess you're right."

Hello again! Hope you're enjoying Lapse's plights. Please let me know what you think! Have I made any mistakes? I'm completely open to story ideas and constructive criticism. If you had a mutant power, what would it be?

Thanks for reading!

-flutterbye