Current time: 3:03 PM Friday
She had been so occupied the last week with the students, training, her own family and her friends that she didn't have any time for herself. Jessie was busy with school, and she had been looking for a job as of late, The Professor had offered her a job there, but she respectfully declined, telling him that at the moment the school had so many memories of her dad that she needed to look elsewhere at the moment. He understood but didn't withdraw the offer. One of the other students quickly took advantage of the offer though taking it in step quickly.
It was at a time when she was out on the town with her friends that she saw the help wanted sign for a museum that had just recently been built. She'd gone inside and talked to the owner who usually would tell people to look to their site for applications, but she was impressed by her initiative so instead of telling her to jump through the hoops she was hired on the spot. Jessie was so happy that she almost skipped the rest of the way back to the car when it was time to go back.
"Well you're happy." Donna acknowledged her friend's demeanor, who just smiled back to her partner in crime.
"I got a job!" She said happily.
"Really, where?" She asked now excited for her.
"The new museum." Her giddiness could be heard in her tone.
"The museum, really!? You've got to be special to get a job there…" Maya another girl said looking back to the two.
"Yeah, its not like retail, they got special stuff they gotta do every day and night." Donna said nonchalantly,
"Yeah, I know." Jessie replied to her friend.
"Like make sure all the artifacts are still inside by morning, so they don't turn to dust." Jan the clown of the group said making the others laugh with her reference.
"Hahaha, yeah. That'd be fun." She laughed back.
From there they went shopping, then home. They'd been back at their house for a little while now. Around 2 weeks. Everything was going fine. They had good neighbors that mostly kept to themselves except for some, like the Heath's that came over every so often to visit or to offer them to hangout. Ororo couldn't have been more thankful for them and their antics.
She'd found herself drifting back into her old habits of tuning out of reality in order to save the planet and its inhabitants some elemental stress. It wasn't easy to do after her husband's death, but it wasn't something that gave her much choice. The team had needed her once since then and being that this was a diplomatic matter as well as a partial combat situation she couldn't have thunder and lightning rolling in the distance while trying to talk down regular everyday people. That would just be like cocking a gun after agreeing to no shooting. She didn't have her neckpiece that time, it was all her and only her.
Since the day her daughter Jessie came back to them drenched in rain and tears from visiting her father for the last time, she'd been putting herself to the test to see how much she could go without it. To her pleasant surprise it wasn't as hard to get back into as she thought it would be. Darn. If she were any different she might think herself a psychopath due to how many times she'd had to desensitize herself like this.
She lifted her head and face and blew out a quick breath. A couple of the kids birthdays were coming up soon and while she had no problem getting them what they wanted and needed and knew some others would to she also knew this would be their first birthday without one of the most important people in their lives… She was thankful that today two of the men at the mansion had decided to take Kendall for a little adventure.
Hank was Kendall's favorite besides her dad, and Forge wasn't too far behind. The few doohickeys and gadgets that he'd come up with for her and her siblings had made them fonder of him than they would've been in general. Not to mention the fact that he was Native American had their interests peaked as well, as their father had some unique experiences with the Indigenous peoples up in Canada and a little in the USA as well.
Kendall was hanging out with her two Uncle's Beast and Forge. They had told her of course that everyone called them by their aliases which she used. They were both tickled though when she referred to them as spies with super-secret names which was why they had code names in the first place which is how she explained it to her mom whenever her mother said otherwise. Ayotunde was there to, but he wasn't paying as much attention to the men as he was to the Southern young woman they all called either Marie or Rogue.
It wasn't a secret that Ayotunde had a crush on the beautiful woman, but he liked to believe that he and he alone knew about it. Though A few of the kids had talked about how cute it was to see the little boy being shy and blushing around her. Sometimes Kendall would tease him about it to which he would either fiercely deny it or intensely defend it. Depending on his mood at the time.
"What's that?" The little girl asked pointing to a shiny object by the table, he looked over and seeing what she was referring to smiled.
"That's my expandable biodegrading dissolvable waste-bin extraordinaire." He said the name with pride a moment later realizing it was probably too much for the children's brains to take in at the moment.
"It's just a fancy trash bin I made for him when he had too little space in here." Forge said as he entered the room saving the more complex man from having to simplify his own statement to which he gave a thankful look.
"Wow." Kendall said impressed by the name that her blue fluffy Uncle had given it.
"What's it do?" She aske a moment later.
"It kaboom's things!" Ayotunde said exuberantly spreading his arms in a show of pizazz.
The men in the room laughed not expecting the response, but rolled with it nonetheless.
"In a sense yes it does. It takes the things put inside and breaks them down into tiny molecular particles that can then be used to fertilize soil."
"Oh…" Both children said at the same time trying to understand what the man said.
The rest of the day was fun for them all.