Yvette, Jean-Paul - Wednesday morning

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

New teacher meets new student.



Jean-Paul had planned to spend the morning working out, not hammering out a rough lesson plan for the semester. Inspiration hadn't cared a whit for his plans, however. In short order, he was half-lost in the stacks of the library, arms full of books, a bagged breakfast sitting on top of the pile -- sooner or later, his stomach would force him to come up for air, and he didn't intend to lose much time to the demands of his body.

Yvette loved the library - the quiet, the fact it was usually easy to avoid people, and above all, the books. What she didn't like was the height of the shelves. At five feet tall, there was a limit to how far she could reach, and the staff tended to frown on her climbing the shelves, even with her protective gloves on. With a sigh she looked longingly at the book she wanted, and then set off to hunt down one of the elusive footstools.

Intent on their respective goals, the two mutants rounded the same corner without any awareness of each other until Jean-Paul nearly tripped over Yvette. Luckily for both, instinct allowed him to flit out of the way of a collision, but not with anything like grace. He wound up juggling his books for several seconds before a desperate grab finally ended the spectacle with the books secured against his chest and the brown paper bag clutched between his teeth.

For her part, Yvette had backed away as soon as she'd realised what was happening, and was staring at Jean-Paul with round, horrified eyes. "Oh, I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, well aware of the potential disaster that could have been. "I did not hurt you, did I?"

It took a few moments of shuffling books before he was able to free up his mouth to answer.

"Only my pride, mam'selle, and you'd hardly be the first." Jean-Paul regarded her for a moment. The face was easy enough to place, but names were harder when they were only from files and not from actual acquaintance. "Yvette, am I right?"

"Yes," she said, peering at him with bright blue eyes to satisfy herself she hadn't sliced any of his clothing in the near-miss. "I am sorry, I am usually much more careful of the people, but I was being, how you say? Distracting? I was looking for the step to be reaching a book."

"That is easy enough to fix." It was a bit unnerving to witness such a intense concern in the stare of so young a child, but Jean-Paul supposed that Yvette's powers warranted such scrutiny. "Which book?"

"Great Expectations. My friend Tommy is suggesting it and he is usually reading the good things." She pointed back along the row of shelves, to where the Dickens collection was. "I like the poetry better, but he is saying I need to be 'expanding my horizons'. And my English," she added wryly. "I am still needing the dictionary for many things." She looked at the pile of books in his arms. "You are doing the teaching work, yes? Or do you like to be reading so much?"

"A little of both," Jean-Paul confessed. "But right now, I am doing research for the class I'll be teaching in a month or two." He scanned the shelves for an instant, following the girl's direction, then hovered for a moment to fetch the book. There was a faint element of showing off involved, but while he was more than tall enough to reach the shelf without flying, Jean-Paul wasn't feeling quite confident enough to stretch with his arms full. "This one?"

"Yes, thank you." Yvette felt a stab of envy as she saw his feet leave the ground. While she was used to being short, being able to fly would have been a nice compensation. "You are teaching the literature class, yes? May I be asking what books you are thinking of using?"

"Finding material that would work across a your age ranges took some thought, but I am considering having you students take the Grimm Brothers' tales apart over the semester. Have you read those yet?" Jean-Paul headed toward a free table.

"The fairy tales, yes? Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread house?" Yvette followed in his wake, tilting her head slightly in curiosity. "I have not read those so much, but I know the stories."

Jean-Paul nodded approvingly, setting his stack of books on the table. "The same, though we may not cover that particular tale, or it may be a different version from the one you know. Done right, I think this course will wind up being history as much as literature. Of course, that means I will have some prep-work to do; Germanic history was not a focus of mine."

"It is sounding very interesting. You were studying the history at the university?" Yvette asked, curious to know more about this mysterious new teacher.

"Yes, though mostly on the Punic Wars and the eventual fall of the Roman empire. By the time I realized what I was doing, I'd taken enough courses to have a minor classical history," he said, half-joking. "And you, mam'selle? What will you be doing when you go to university?"

"Well, it is depending on the scholarship - my mother cannot afford to send me to university." Although it was likely not to be a problem, with the Institute. "I want to work for the Red Cross, but I am not sure what I should be learning."

"Your options are hardly limited and you still have plenty of time to decide on a focus. The overall goal is admirable, though. This place seems to breed that sort of attitude." Jean-Paul's stomach growled lightly, as if to mock his words and he rolled his eyes in response. "The beast stirs." He reached for his breakfast. "Care to join me?"

"The Red Cross was helping my family during the war, and the Red X is the very good way for me to be using my powers to help," Yvette explained, and then she giggled at Jean-Paul's stomach growling. "I would like that, yes. Perhaps you can be telling me more about your time here before?"

"If you like." Jean-Paul shrugged lightly and fished a couple of winesap apples out of the sack and offered one to the girl. "I do not think there is all that much to tell. Xavier offered me a job, I accepted. Then my sister needed my help, so I left. Well...Shiro did irradiate me somewhere between all of that, but it was not on purpose and I got better. I think I would rather hear about you."

"Thank you" Yvette said, taking the apple. She peeled off her glove and set it aside, before beginning to cut it into pieces with her sharp fingers. "I am not such the interesting person, Mr. Beaubier. I was coming here when I was fourteen and I have been here for two years now. I like the poetry and to make things with the carving - Mr. Logan was teaching me, before he went away."

"You said that your family was caught in a war. That couldn't have been easy."

"The war in Bosnia, yes. I was born before it was finished, in the Red Cross camp." Yvette nibbled at a slice of apple. "We went to Kosova later, to live with my mother's family. They... did what they could for us." It was as diplomatic as she could be, considering how her mother had been treated by them.

"Where is she living now?" Jean-Paul's stomach rumbled at him again and he remembered to start eating his own apple.

"Kosova. She works in the factory and has the apartment. I think sometimes she is lonely, since I am being here. She is sending many letters." She smiled a little. "It is good that she cannot use the computer, or there would be the email every day and I would have no time to be doing my school work."

"Not the worst reason in the world for missing out on homework, but there is something more personal to letters anyway. I prefer them to email anyway, but I'm still something of a luddite."

"Luddite? Please, what is this word?" It was a new one for her.

"Strictly speaking, a luddite is someone who opposes the advancement of technology. More commonly, though, the word is used to describe someone who is simply unfamiliar with technology and so is reluctant to use it." Jean-Paul chuckled. "In short, I'm an old fuddy and my impressionable years were spent among the same, so I never managed to catch up with the rest of the world, so far as the new tech goes."

"Oh, I am understanding. The person like my mother - she does not like the technology either." Yvette's eyes grew brighter with the understanding. "Some things are hard for me, with my hands. Like the bank machine, with the card. I can push the buttons, but I need the person to be putting the card in the machine for me and to be taking the money out."

"I'm afraid I don't even have that good a reason. Just a bit set in my ways sometime."

"That is my mother, being set in the ways." There was definite irony there. "So, may I be asking what your powers are? You can fly, yes?"

"Yes. Mostly my powers are centered around speed. I run very fast and fly fast as well. I have good reflexes normally, and they speed up the faster I move. A good thing, I think, or I'd find myself running into things very often." After a moment, "I used to be able to generate pulses of light with my sister, but that was a while ago."

Yvette glanced at him again with those blank glowing eyes and nodded. "Nori, she is a little the same, I think," she said, slicing another piece of apple off and popping it into her mouth. She waited until she had swallowed before continuing. "She eats the electricity and uses it to run very fast. She had many bruises when she was learning to be doing it, because she was not so good at the stopping."

"Excellent propulsion, lousy brakes -- that does sound familiar. Merci, Yvette. I wasn't aware that there was a speedster among the students, even a part-time one."

"Nori is not such the good student, but she is the good-hearted person, I think," Yvette replied. She liked Nori, even if the other girl probably thought she was a goody-goody. "I think she would like the person to be helping her with her powers, even if she cannot fly."

Jean-Paul smiled a bit and set his apple core aside. "Should I mention you by name when I ask her about this?" he teased.

"Oh no, that is okay." Yvette's cheeks would have been flaming if she'd been able to blush. "I am sure you would have been hearing about Nori from the other teachers."

"In addition to my speed, I have the amazing power to be selectively oblivious about the existence of other people until they are knocking on my door. Or crawling in through my window, as the case may be. In any case, it certainly doesn't hurt that you've given me a heads up, does it?"

"If you are saying so." Yvette finished her own apple. "And if you are needing any help, you can just be asking me."