xp_logs | Sooraya and Yvette, Tuesday afternoon

Sooraya and Yvette talk a bit about their motivations for staying at the school after the laser scare.

Even though Sooraya and her fellow students lived in a large, beautiful mansion with state of the art technology behind every wall, sometimes it was the simple things that brought the most pleasure. Like, for example, getting mail.

Sooraya had just returned from the mail room with an armful of letters and magazines addressed to the various girls who lived in her suite; she loved bringing the mail up because it usually brought smiles to everyone's faces.
Yvette was sitting at the coffee table, alternating between her English-Albanian dictionary and a thick volume of Dickens - Great Expectations this time - and as Sooraya came in, she batted absently at a long curl that insisted on falling over her face. It dragged across the cuff of her long-sleeved shirt, fraying the material, and she made an impatient noise. Her expression brightened, however, at the sight of Sooraya. "Hello!" she chirped, then noticed the other girl's burden. "Ooh, it is the mail time already?" Her regular letter from her mother was due.

"Yes... I think you have a letter," her suitemate replied with a grin, setting down the various letters and subscriptions on the kitchen counter in a neat heap. After divulging herself of the light jacket she had been wearing (it was quite chilly outside, and some of the hallways were even a bit cold for her tastes) she began to sort through the pile, separating each girl's mail into a tidy stack. "Here it is," she announced when she reached Yvette's envelope, eyes skimming over it just long enough to ascertain that it was from the girl's mother.
"Eee!" Yvette clapped her hands together, eyes glowing. "Please to open for me, Sooraya? I do not want to be cutting the letter." Which had happened on occasion.

"Of course." Carefully Sooraya opened the well-sealed envelope, pulling out the pages inside and flattening them with her fingers before crossing the room to where Yvette sat and handing them over.

"Thank you." Yvette took the pages with glee, and began reading. After a moment, however, she frowned, eyes dimming somewhat, and lay it aside. Under her breath, she muttered something in Albanian that didn't sound entirely polite.

By now Sooraya had finished sorting the mail and had poured herself a glass of juice, glancing over at Yvette curiously. "You are done reading so soon?" she asked, a bit surprised and impressed.

"No," Yvette replied, sighing a little. "But if I am to keep reading, I will be losing the temper, and that would not be a good thing. My mother, she is wanting me to come back to Kosovo again. The evacuation... she does not think this is a safe place for me."

"Oh." Making a sympathetic face, Sooraya once again came across the room, this time to take a seat on one of the chairs around the coffee table. "I think many parents have thought this... I have not been to another school before, but I think it is very unusual for such a thing to happen there. You have told her that everything is fine, and there is no danger anymore?"

"Many times," Yvette grumbled. "She does not listen so much. To her, I am still the small child." It was said with the wounded dignity of all fifteen of her years. "This is the best place for me to be learning my powers, and for the schooling. Mama does not always remember that." Tilting her head at Sooraya, she asked: "You were finding your mother again, yes? What is she thinking about this school?"

"My mother was very happy to hear of the school; I have never been at one before, and it is a dream she had for a very long time for me. But..." Here Sooraya's expression grew a little furtive, and she drew her feet up to the cushion of the chair. "I do not think she knows all the things that happen here. I have not told her of all the dangers because I do not want her to worry. She is very used to living in a dangerous place, but she would not want it for me here."

"But if you told her the danger, she would let you go home again. Or to another school, where there is not the superheroes in the basement." Yvette gave a little, wry smile. "Is it important that you stay here, Sooraya? It is to me."

"Oh yes, it is very important," said the Afghan girl with a serious nod. "I will not want to be in any other school but this one. Because of the training for the powers, but also for other things too. I will not want to leave my friends. And I will not want to not learn the things I am learning here."

"Which is being more important than the danger," Yvette supplied. "This is why I am choosing to stay also, when Mr. Summers is asking us to decide. If I go home... I cannot help make things different."

It was a daunting idea, the thought of being able to make a noticeable difference in the world. Still, Yvette was right; that was why they were there. Sooraya nodded. "Yes. It will take a long time, I think, for me to do a thing that will change anything. But I will like to try, and this school is what will help me. The same way it will help you."

"We are making the small steps, with the Elpis work, yes?" Yvette said, sounding hopeful. "It might not be the saving the world in the big jet, but it is still important. And maybe when we are older, we can be doing more, like Mr. Dayspring and Mr. Angelo do."

"But with not so much yelling or giving ourself a headache," Sooraya added wryly with a grin.