Chapter 6
!Warning – Mild language!
My first class is at eight, and then the week flies by. I'm busy with all sorts of schoolwork. It's light schoolwork, but it keeps me occupied all the same.
My first one-on-one session is on Friday, and it's only then that I realize that not all students get tutoring like this.
I decide to bring it up with Jean Grey when I see her.
"Well," she says, "To put it bluntly, some students show more potential than others. We normally wouldn't train any of you at all, at least not to fight, but we are in a time of dire need."
"Whoa," I say, "whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm learning to fight with my powers? How even?"
She smiles. "We won't start with combat. Let's just.., see what you can do."
"Ok," I say under my breath, following her into the yard.
"All right," she says, "You see that man over there?"
The man who I saw drive her away the other day stands beneath a tree at the other side of the field.
"You mean your boyfriend?"
She looks at me, "What makes you think he's my boyfriend?"
"He picked you up earlier. When you caught Blanc and me in the yard."
She nods. "Well, people other than a date can drive you places, but I can see why you'd assume. Things have gotten complicated. I'm not really sure he's my-"
I snap my fingers and walk up to the man. He has some cool sunglasses with red lenses. I take them off to see that they were holding back a bolt of energy.
"Let's fix your aim, then," I say to myself, pushing his head to the sky. The bolt of red energy still sits in the air. So I take the glasses and try and use them like a net. It absorbs the red energy; it no longer exists. I pocket the glasses. Then, I take my time. I go back to my room and get one of Blanc's blouses. I take a chair from the dining room.
I feel a bit awkward as I bend the man at the waist and sit him in the chair, and even more awkward when I take his jacket for myself and squeeze his arms into the blouse. The effect will be great, though, I tell myself. Then I look around the yard for more inspiration. I see, in the distance, Wolverine, watching Jean Grey.
"Maybe you're what makes Jean's relationship complicated," I say to the still man. He has a rough face and arms, but no scars. He probably likes to pretend he's a tough guy, but his hands are uncalloused. I don't think he's worked a day in his life.
I take off his dog tags and lift him to remove his shoes. The way my lapses do gravity is really fun to mess with. I try and put him down the way he was before so that he doesn't lose balance.
I put the shoes and dogtags on the other man, stand back where I was, and snap my fingers.
"-boyfriend," she finishes. Then all hell breaks loose.
A beam of powerful red light shoots into the sky, causing everyone except me to cry out in alarm.
Then I hear Wolverine shout. He races across the field towards the man in the chair. "Scott!" he bellows. He must have noticed the shoes. Then I see blades shoot out of his fists, one of which he holds to Scott's throat.
"Give it back!" he yells at him. Jean looks once, bewildered, at me, then runs across the yard. I follow quickly behind.
"Stop it!" she shouts at them. Scott's eyes are squeezed shut, Wolverine holds the collar of the blouse I put him in in one hand, and presses his fist-knives to Scott's throat with the other. I hear him yell something about the tags.
I snap my fingers and give myself a moment to breathe. I should've expected that something would go wrong.
I put everything back: the blouse, the glasses, the chair, the shoes. I pick up wolverine and take him back to where he was. His muscles are tense; I have trouble forcing him into a more relaxed standing position. Scott I simply can't stand back up. He's too tall for me to pull him up, and I don't feel like pushing on his butt.
Instead I sit him in the grass. I take Jean back to where we started out. Then I picture the start-up. They'll stay quiet. Quiet and confused. Then who knows what'll happen.
They do stay quiet. Then Wolverine hesitantly steps towards Jean and I. "What the hell," he mutters at us.
"Sorry," I squeak. I'm sort of tucked behind Jean, frightened by the outburst I just saw. I misjudged the guy once, I'm not doing it again.
He points at me. "She did this?" he very nearly growled.
"Logan," she says, "Meet Lapse."
"Lapse," he says under his breath, raising an eyebrow and holding out a hand.
I very carefully shake it. I tilt my head to look at the place on his knuckles where the knives came out.
He stares at me.
Jean smiles, a little stiffly, in my direction.
"Excuse us for a moment, Lapse," she says. She and Logan walk towards Scott, probably talking about me.
I sit in the grass.
"Do you know what happened just now?" I hear from behind me.
I turn to see a boy approaching. I'd guess he's about my age, even though he's much taller than I'll ever be.
"Pardon me?" I say, staying seated.
"I was just over there," he points towards the driveway, "I came to go to the school. I was just about to go in and register actually, but I, ah, heard a commotion of some kind?"
His green eyes sparkle and his smile is open and honest. I pat the ground beside me.
"You interest me," I tell him, "Why were you walking to the school?"
"I've been on my own since I was fifteen, so..," he counts on his fingers, "A little over a year now."
"And..," I prompt.
"And I heard about the school through a series of friends of friends and I decided it would be the best place for me. At the moment at least."
"Well, I'm sorry to say you're a little too late. Classes started today," I say, "I don't know what the registration limit is, but I have the feeling it's over by now. But, then again, the Professor seems like a lenient person. Or, maybe not lenient. But kind, for sure."
He nods, his long dark hair bouncing.
"I'm Lapse, by the way," I say, holding out a hand.
"Nice to meet you." His handshake is confident. "Call me Coleton."
I tell him exactly what it was he overheard. He starts laughing halfway through and doesn't stop until the end of my story.
"Comic genius," he says, and I blush at the compliment. I wish Blanc was here. She'd nip this flirtation in the bud. Instead, I get flustered as we talk. He has charm seeping out of his ears. And what a lovely shade of caramel those ears are.
He tells me his parents are super rich, but super neglectful. He pretty much lived on his own his whole life, so it was second nature once he actually left home. They never knew his plans. They also never knew he was mutated.
He demonstrated to me, his eyes changing from green to a fiery red and a deep humming coming from deep in his throat. The ground around him starts to vibrate with sound, pebbles from the path we're sitting near scattering into the grass. I feel it start to affect the ground deeper and deeper down. Some part of me that I can't name aches with the sound.
I shiver once he's quiet.
"I've never gone farther than that," he said, "but if I built up my stamina, I'm sure I could make an earthquake or something." His eyes slowly fade back to their regular green.
"Who's this?"
Jean stands above us. The boy immediately stands, holding out a hand for her to shake.
"I'm Coleton Rockefeller, I was hoping for a place here at the school?" he says, suddenly exhibiting a more professional brand of charming.
"You're free to go until your next class, Lapse," Jean tells me. Coleton follows her away, looking back at me once to wink.
Hey guys! Sorry for the wait there. I just started as a freshman in college, and I'm trying to balance everything right now. Don't you worry, though. This is high on my list of things to balance. Please feel free to send me private messages if you want to chat! I'm having some difficulty responding to reviews, and I think the format favors those as more of a one-way form of communication. I have a few chapters lined up and I'm working on more as I speak! (I'm also taking a writing class, so hopefully I'll be improving!)
-flutterbye
