Welcome to Mutant High

Settling Into the X-Mansion

"So does everyone here have a gift, like mine, Professor?" I asked the kind-hearted man in the wheelchair and he nodded.

"Some of us have stronger powers than others, Winter. We have a boy here who can create and manipulate ice. We have a girl who can walk through walls. Jean, she can telekinetic-ally move things. She can telepathically hear certain peoples thoughts. Scott can shoot high powered laser beams from his eyes. Storm, she can create, control and manipulate the weather. I also have a colleague, who can control and manipulate metal. All kinds."

The Professor explained to me and I slightly nodded, thinking it was very fascinating that people had all these sorts of powers. Even though, next to them, I thought my powers were rather...boring.

"Now, don't be like that Winter." Professor X chuckled. "Your power is very unique. There are only few mutants who can control time by freezing it completely."

"Oh yeah, who else can?" I asked, rather excited to meet someone else who could control time like I could. My eyes were wide with excitement, my heart racing. I desperately wanted to know I wasn't alone in being a cause of what happened earlier today. If someone else had that power and they had been there, they could have stopped it. They would be the freak. We would be the freaks. The Professor surprised me when he said,

"Me." The two of us started to laugh and if you would have just been walking into the school, you could have sworn we had been best chums for my entire life. Like he was in fact, my Father. The Professor had shown me around the school, planning to get me back to Scott and Jean who were to show me to my room there in the X-Mansion. They had quite a number of empty rooms, to my surprise. The Professor knew a little boy who could add onto the mansion with his mind, he definitely came in handy when a new passel of mutants showed up at the door. Much handier than a contractor and construction man.

Or when Cerebro found several newly activated mutants. Which was a question that I absolutely had to bring up, now that I remembered. "Scott... he brought up that you found me using some sort of machine...Cerebro? Would it be wrong of me to ask how it works, Professor? He told me a little bit but couldn't exactly, explain it very well?" I felt wrong to bring it up; perhaps Cerebro was a secret of some kind? Perhaps I shouldn't know about it...

Hearing her thought, Charles laughed and nodded a bit. "I can explain it just a little better than Scott did. Imagine a map, coming into view..." the Professor held his hand out in the large foyer of the X-Mansion, as if pointing me towards a large map. "It can be of the world or just the city, Westchester, where we are for example. In the chamber which holds Cerebro, there is a color chart. Red for mutants and white, for everyone else. If I zoom in tighter, the mutants are in color...everyone else, black and white. It can locate every single mutant on Earth for me. I use it daily to find mutants in distress or mutants like you, newly activated. Using my telepathic powers, I locked onto you with Cerebro's help and realized your power and what had just happened by reading your mind."

It shocked me, what he'd just said. "You could read my mind from that far away?"

"Only with Cerebro's help of course. It enhances my own powers. If I wouldn't have been at Cerebro, I wouldn't have been able to hear your thoughts, because we aren't well acquainted yet. Now, take Jean, Scott and Storm for example. They've been students of mine for so long that I could hear their thoughts across the Pacific Ocean, maybe even further. I'm very in tune with them," the Professor tried his best to explain to the newest mutant.

"Wow... this is just so much to process. I never thought I'd have..." I felt a little stupid for what I was about to say, but I nonetheless went ahead and said it, knowing the professor would just read my mind anyway. "Super powers."

"Ah-ha! And don't you forget that Winter! It takes some of us years to understand that we are different and come to terms with it. You have just done in a day what some of us dream of doing ten, twenty years after finding out about our X-genes. Your powers are a gift, Winter. They are a super power and you will be trained here, to become a superhero." Again, the Professor had baffled me. I felt almost to the point of fainting, but Jean caught me all of a sudden with her telekinesis. Could this place have anymore surprises waiting for me?

"Scott wanted me to find you, so we could show you to your room?" Jean offered and I nodded a bit. I felt bad that the Professor and I had chatted so much; I'd kept the other two waiting for so long. Jean and the Professor shared a bit of a joke telepathically, the two of them grinning. It was obvious, now that I knew the both of them could read minds...but I still had no idea what they'd said.

I took a hold of Jean's arm and let her lead me throughout the Mansion, upstairs to where my bedroom was located. This was going to take a little bit of getting used to. I felt like I could get lost in this gigantic place...

"This place is so big and beautiful," I complimented and Jean nodded, opening the door to the room where Scott had began to unpack my things for me and put them away in nooks and the closet too of course.

I blushed rather heavily, hoping he hadn't found my, well, you know or anything of the sort. I noticed Jean laugh a little, she must have been listening to me again. "Thank you, Scott." I thanked him quietly and sat down on the bed, gazing around the room. "All of this is mine?" I asked the two elder X-Men and they nodded.

"While you're here, anything in the Mansion is yours. Unless of course otherwise noted," Jean teased, tagging Scott in the shoulder.

"Oh shush, Jean. I didn't know the Professor had specific cookies in the bottom drawer of the fridge that he liked and they were marked PROF X ONLY." Scott whistled innocently while chuckling. I raised a brow at this, so Jean explained.

"Scott's first week here according to legend, he was caught by the Professor reading his mind, stealing cookies out of the Professor's specially marked container." Jean laughed rather heartily. "The Professor will share, but he doesn't like snoops trying to steal his cookies."

"I'll keep that in mind," I giggled softly.

"And by the way," Scott started, "if you want a roommate, just let us know. Your room definitely is big enough to accommodate another person. We wouldn't want to shove you in with someone right off though, so, don't worry about it for now." He finished and I nodded my head.

The thought of a roommate in the future did sound pretty cool. An eternal slumber party since we'd live together. I smiled but then looked a little worried when a look came over Jean's face. I couldn't help but to notice it. She turned to Scott and said rather sternly,

"Grab Storm and meet the Professor at Cerebro. He wants me to stay here with Winter." Scott nodded at Jean's words and took off out of my room in a rush. I chewed upon my lower lip rather heavily and laid back on my new bed, looking up at Jean.

"Is the Professor in trouble? Does he need you too? I don't mind being alone. I can finish unpacking," I said quietly and Jean smiled, sitting down at the edge of the bed of the newest X-kid.

"It's alright. He's just found a new mutant and her powers are kind of dangerous, like yours were at first, when we were afraid that you wouldn't be able to control them at all. So he wants Scott and Storm to go aid and assist in whatever way possible." I nodded somewhat at Jean's kind explanation. I heard my stomach grumble a bit and I blushed some, "I bet you're hungry. From the sounds of it, you haven't ate all day." Jean made that assumption without even happening to read the young girl's mind.

"Let's get you something to eat then. I'm sure there are others in the kitchen at this hour." That sentence though, it made me rather shy. I would be meeting the other students so soon?!

"I don't... I don't know if I'm ready to meet anyone else. What if someone makes fun of me or...?" I asked worryingly and Jean couldn't help but giggle herself, patting my back gently.

"I assure you, kids are nicer here at the Institute. These kids have been through humiliation themselves and most certainly don't bully. You won't get judged due to your looks or your powers. Plus, I'll be there, remember? They're kind of scared of me." Jean grinned and I couldn't help but raise a brow. Jean didn't seem scary to me, whatsoever. Without even happening to verbally ask, Jean heard my question.

"Not scared, scared. Intimidated. I'm a teacher here, so are Scott and Storm. We graduated from actual training years ago. Hence why we're X-Men, Winter." Slowly I nodded,

"that explains quite a lot then," I let out a soft laugh and got the courage to get up off of the bed and head out of the door with Jean right behind me. I started to wonder though...would I ever graduated from "X-School" and be an X-Men too one day?

Hearing Xavier's voice within her mind, Jean smiled;

"You're good with Winter, Jean. I'm surprised you haven't surprised us with a child of your own yet." The Professor teased, it had been a personal joke between he and Jean for years that she'd be a fantastic Mother to a gifted child.

"She's already like a mini-me Professor... a daughter to me." Jean said within her mind, knowing the Professor was listening. Charles replied,

"To me as well. All of you are. Now, stay out of my cookies." At that sentence, Jean couldn't help but to burst out into laughter, earning looks from everyone currently in the hallway, including myself. She and the Professor must have been talking...without verbally talking...again. These telepathic gifts were going to be the death of me! Curiosity is going to kill me!
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Word Count: 1,767

A new chapter should be up soon!