xp_logs | Victor, Dori, & JP - Introducing the Borkowskis

Victor Borkowski arrives on campus and gets his first taste of Xavier's School weirdness.

"This is it?" Victor asked, leaning forward between the gap between the front seats as they pulled into the driveway of the mansion. This place was massive. He'd seen pictures, and the television special his parents had taped, like, ages ago, but even still he'd failed to appreciate just how large Xavier's was.

"It's something, isn't it?" Richard Borkowski said encouragingly, peering out at the house. "Very impressive. Matches its reputation nicely, if you ask me," he said with a smile for his wife and son.

"I hope I don't get lost," Victor replied uncertainly. He slid over to one window, fingers leaving sticky prints against the glass as he looked over the manicured lawn. "Do you think they let people play Frisbee on the yard, or does this look like the 'Keep off the Grass' kind of place?" he worried.

"I'm sure it's very friendly", his mother tried to reassure him. "I hear they have some quite young children here."

He didn't reply, only watched the mansion grow bigger, tongue flicking against his teeth. When they parked, he got out of the car but made no move towards the door.

Doreen had heard the car before she could see it or smell it and then watched the car pull up from her tree. She made her way from the tree to the roof easily - it wasn't that far of a jump for her and then was down in front of the front of the people, and the new green boy, "Hi! How are you? Are you new? My name is Doreen but people call me Dori; I saw you drive up!"

Victor blinked, not quite sure how to take the ball of energy with the squirrel tail. "I'm Victor, but you can call me whatever you want," he said with a slow smile. "And yeah. I'm new. You're a student here?" he guessed.

"Yeah, I started coming here back in April," Doreen said, "I really like it. Do you need someone to show you around? I can show you around. Are those your parents?" she said, looking behind him, "Oh, this is my friend Monkey Joe," she said, holding out her friend/pet who was sniffing curiously.

"Yeah, this is my Mom and Dad," he said, distracted somewhat by the squirrel sniffing him. "Um. Hi, Monkey Joe. I think we're supposed to be meeting a teacher, or someone...?" he said, turning to his parents.

"A Mr. Beaubier," Richard said, smiling at Doreen, although there was a spark of curiosity in his eyes at the squirrel.

"Oh, I know where he is! Or at least where I can find him, kind of. I mean, I know where his office his and he teaches English and I'll go find him, or you can come with me if you want. Sometimes I can find people by the way they smell, not to mean they smell bad-" she paused for a breath.

A dark-haired man in a tie and button-down shirt appeared at the girl's side between one breath and the next, giving her an amused look. "I should hope not. I will have you know that I always shower in-between lakings." He turned his attention to the small group who had disembarked the van and offered his hand to Richard. "The Borkowski family, I assume? Jean-Paul Beaubier; I am supposed to give you the grand tour." He smiled over at Dori. "I see my students are already undermining my attempts at seeming punctual."

"Oh, I wasn't undermining, I just saw them coming by and thought I'd say hi," Doreen clarified brightly, "You'll like him, he's really nice," she promised, looking at the new kid. Who, she decided, looked pretty cool. Not that she'd trade her tail for scales or anything. But still, cool.

"So good to meet you," Richard said warmly, giving Jean-Paul's hand a firm but not crushing shake. "The school certainly looks impressive from the outside! I can't wait for the proper tour. We really want to make sure Vic gets settled in comfortably..."

Vic was still trying to catch up; between the squirrel girl's--Dori's--chatter and the sudden appearance of one of his teachers, plus the overwhelming size of the mansion, he felt like he was a half-step behind everyone. At his mother's gentle nudge, he stepped forward. "Hi. I'm Victor. It's nice to meet you," he said politely, hands in his pockets. He tried to avoid shaking hands when possible; people didn't always react well to the sticky. "What subject do you teach?"

Jean-Paul didn't seem to take offense. "Literature for the most part, but I will be teaching French in the coming term with Monsieur Colbert's assistance. Otherwise, I teach Flight and tutor some of the other students in aspects of their powers that we have in common. In my case, that would be speed, flight, and some agility, though Sefton is the one you would want for actual acrobatics training. And I think I am getting ahead of myself." He considered making a joke about first-tour jitters, then decided against it. "Would you care to join us for the tour, Doreen?"

"Okay! I can help. Monkey Joe and I know where a lot of stuff is now too," she said, and looked at Victor, "Don't worry, it seems really confusing but you'll learn your way around really fast. You'll see."

"Cool," he said with a smile, falling into step next to Dori behind Jean-Paul and his parents. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm going to be a junior in the fall," Doreen said happily, "How about you?" she asked brightly.

Victor started to relax a little; Dori's joy was infectious. "Same. Where are you from?"

"Beverly Hills," Doreen said brightly, "Which really isn't as great as it sounds," she amended. After she grew her tail and manifested, Beverly Hills wasn't really as awesome as she remembered. But that was okay. "I like it out here though."

"I would imagine it's very different," he said, although to his eyes, Xavier's was more like Beverly Hills minus the palm trees than it was anything that could be found on the Illinois prairie. He glanced at her tail, not sure if it was polite to ask. On the one hand, he'd gotten pretty used to people asking him about being green, and this was a school for mutants. On the other, this was a school for mutants--maybe you weren't supposed to bring it up. And besides, Dori hadn't really asked. "How long have you had Monkey Joe?" he asked instead.

"I met him a couple of years ago after school," Doreen said, "He's really nice and he doesn't go after people, well, not normally, he doesn't like this one guy with curly hair, but he knows not to do that. And a lot of people here feed him so he's getting kind of fat," she said brightly but nuzzled her friend so he'd know she didn't mean anything bad by it.

"Want me to show you around while Mr. Beaubier shows your parents around?"

The notion of Monkey Joe 'going after people' was a bit worrisome, but he was distracted by her next question. "Oh, um. We could tag along with them and you could show me around after my parents leave?" It was possible that Victor was maybe having the tiniest bit of separation anxiety. Not much. But just a bit. "I'm sure there's plenty to see."

"Yeah, it took me forever, so I suppose it will take twice as long to show it all off," Doreen mused.

While Victor and Doreen were chatting, Richard was giving Jean-Paul an increasingly thoughtful look as the other man gave a running narrative of the various amenities and facilities of the school. "I'm sorry," he said when Jean-Paul paused, "and I'm sure I'm going to make a fool of myself here, but... I just made the connection." He laughed, flushing slightly. "Jean-Paul Beaubier. The Olympian, yes?"

Jean-Paul managed to hold on to his smile; he was quite proud of himself for that and told himself firmly that sniping at the newcomer's parents would not help with making a decent first impression of the school.

"You would be correct, yes. Though, obviously, not so much these days."

"Oh, of course. It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate here," Richard said, with a sheepish smile. "Amazing where our lives bring us sometimes, isn't it? How do you like teaching here?"

The speedster stole a momentary glance over at Dori acting as secondary tour guide, and it was suddenly a bit easier to keep his expression sincere.

"Rewarding, if more of a day-to-day challenge than my training regimen ever was. I understand that you and your wife are both teachers?"

Richard nodded, the sheepishness fading from his expression, replaced by a mixture of lively interest and restrained excitement. "I have to admit, as much as we're here for Vic, I've just been really looking forward to hearing more about the school and the curriculum, too."

"Daaaaaaaad," Victor rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "You promised not to nerd out. At least not where people were watching."

"I promised not to nerd out, Vic - I didn't promise not to get nerdy at all," Richard said, almost mischievously. "You have to cut me a little slack here."

"Just don't start talking theory or anything," Vic grumbled as if it were the most embarrassing thing in the world, even though he couldn't quite hide a smile. "Not until we're behind closed doors. Sheesh."

"If it helps, Victor, the teaching 'newb' thanks you for your efforts," Jean-Paul said, trying not to sound as if he meant that too sincerely. "This will only be the start of my second semester in front of a classroom," he explained, "but let me see if I can make this sound at all cogent without quoting directly from the brochure. We do try to weigh the curriculum in favor of a standard education, but depending on the circumstances, it can lean more heavily in the direction of practical application of powers. Fortunately, we are well-staffed here and have a very small student body. Between the two, we can fairly easily adapt our teaching plans to the needs of individual students, though we try to keep students to something like a standard class schedule with their peers as often as possible, to keep them from feeling as if they are being isolated."

"You'll have to forgive me if this is too forward a question," Richard said more seriously, "but do you have many students with mutations like Vic's? That shared experience is something we could never really give him, back home."

"I suppose that depends on how much like Victor's mutation you mean. Individual mutations may have some characteristics in common, but are usually unique on a personal level." Jean-Paul nodded at Doreen. "Some of the residents here have obvious mutations, we have several students with enhanced physical characteristics, and the Monsieur Sefton I mentioned previously climbs walls. Nonetheless, aside from some of our non-resident teaching staff, all of us here at the school do have mutancy as a shared point of commonality."

"There's someone else who climbs walls?" Vic asked curiously, not sure if he was excited or apprehensive at the notion. "What's his..." He stopped, not sure what the polite way of asking his question would be.

"Agility, teleportation, and looking like world's most debonair Smurf," their guide supplied helpfully. "I think you will like him; most people here do. Do not worry too much over asking people about their abilities -- it is typically the second or third question most of us hear, and if we do not feel like discussing it, we do not."

"This practical application you were talking about," Richard said. "Is it done one-on-one? I'm just very curious about the approach taken. It's a unique sort of situation from a teaching perspective."

"Daaaaaaad..." This time Victor's whine had a bit more weight to it. "I'm sure you and Mr. Beaubier can become Facebook friends and talk all about it for, like, months to come. Besides, aren't we meeting the headmaster later?"

"Ah, that reminds me. There is also a school-specific journal system that you will need to sign up for. It mostly just a way to facilitate communication between the students, staff, and some of our graduates that still like to keep in touch. But come along, I will show you the dorm set-ups first..."