Megan's first day; meeting with Yvette

[x-welshpixie.livejournal.com]

Megan meets Yvette while practicing flying her first day after school
The autumn air was cool and damp, reminding Megan of home as she took a quick hike around the small campus. After today's lecture on controlling mutant powers, she was searching for the perfect spot to practice flying. The dust... well, she had it pretty much under control. Sort of. But she couldn't summon it at will, like she could with her flying ability.

Megan scanned an open, grassy area. There were a few benches and trees around the perimeter, but not a lot of foot traffic today around this part of campus.

"Perfect," she thought aloud. She didn't want to embarrass herself in front of too many viewers, but she didn't mind running into a few classmates either. Unzipping her black hoodie and piling it on a bench, she suddenly felt very exposed. She always wore loose clothing to disguise the presence of her delicate dragonfly-like wings, and even though her wings weren't considered unusual here it was a tough mindset to break. She rubbed her hands together, both to warm her hands against the chill and to establish focus on the task at hand.

"Flying, right," she thought, trying to imagine herself weighing light as a feather. She focused on her feet, willing them to float up off the grass. It was hard to consciously pinpoint what muscles to use in order to fly. But for some reason, this was the easiest way she'd found to get her wings to start beating on their own.

Five minutes later, Megan was gliding slightly above the wet grass. Hovering in place was hard, but flying at a walking speed was easy if she focused on it. Slowly she began to rise off the ground, centimeter by centimeter.

"Look, I'm flying!" she said to herself, pleased that she had retained the skill after so many months of not using it. She looked around, surveying the surroundings from a meter up, then quickly reddened as she realized a fellow student was observing her from a few meters away.



Yvette had been on a run through the woods. For her, this meant stripping down to just the body suit, pulling off the protective gloves and socks and running through the brush on all fours, without her usual careful movements and manner. She hadn't expected company (although with the number of students who liked to use the woods as a retreat lately, perhaps she should have!), and she would have normally just slipped away without being seen, except she'd been captivated by the sight of the new girl's wings.

"Oh, I am sorry. I did not mean to be startling you" Yvette apologised as she realised she'd been spotted. "Your wings... they are so pretty! I had not seen them before."

Megan quickly regained her composure and glided closer to the girl to introduce herself. She was small, of a height or shorter than Megan, but it was hard to tell from the air. She recognized the dark red skin and hair but couldn't quite remember the name that went with this fiery visage.

"Oh, thanks!" Megan replied as she landed a comfortable distance away, close enough to be conducive to conversation but not so close as to violate the girl's space. The small young woman before her commanded an intense presence.

Unconsciously, Megan toyed with a few strands of her own bright pink hair. She and the other were both small, brightly colored young women, lacking visible pupils. If anyone else had been at the edge of the misty, gray woods today, Megan and Yvette certainly would have commanded their attention.

"You've Yvette!" she remembered suddenly. "Hi, I'm Megan Gwyn," she said cheerfully. "I, uh, don't think we've officially met."

Yvette straightened to a more human stance and scraped a few dead leaves out of the spikes of her hair with her long fingers.

"Yes," she confirmed. "We did say hello on the journals, but that is not so much the same as meeting in the person." Her eyes glowed brighter, her version of a blush.

"I did not mean to bother you in your practice. I did not know there was anyone in the woods today. Do you like to fly?" Personally, she thought Megan looked like a fairy from a children's storybook, and was thinking it was a pity they'd already done Midsummer Night's Dream at the local theatre. Megan would have been perfect.

"Ah, don't apologize. I'm glad we got to meet!" Megan nodded for emphasis, and old habit, as her airy, musical voice didn't usually convey a lot of emotion.

"Truthfully, I don't fly much. I forgot how fun it was." She really wanted to ask Yvette about her powers, but that would be rude, wouldn't it? "Do you usually run through these woods?" she asked instead. "It seems so peaceful here." She crossed her arms against her body, feeling the chill acutely now although Yvette didn't seem to be affected by it in the least.

A peaceful place in New York. She would never have imagined. She'd thought it would be all high-rise offices and apartment complexes, a fast pace of life where she'd have to run to all her classes and try to cram study during lunch most days.

"At least you are having the space to be flying more often. And the company too, if you are wanting it - there are some students and some teachers who fly also. Miss Jan, the RA, she has the wings a bit like yours, actually."

Yvette looked down at her mud-stained bodysuit, a little embarrassed. "I like to be able to run sometimes. My powers... I must be careful all of the time, that I do not hurt someone or damage something. In the woods, I do not have to worry so much. And yes, it is very peaceful - that is part of the reason why I like to come here. It is not so noisy as the mansion!"

She smiled at the last to show she wasn't upset by the noise of those she lived with.

Pixie brightened at the mention of someone with wings like hers. Professor Xavier had told her that there would be other kids at the mansion who could fly, although not all had wings. The professor also told her that there were other kids with powers of a toxic nature. Megan wondered if she would meet them as well.

"You... worry that you might hurt someone?" Megan asked, feeling increasing empathy for Yvette.
"I, ah, well it's not *that* bad, but I could cause someone to go temporarily crazy. Sort of like an acid trip," she added brightly, remembering the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

Crap, why did I mention that? Me and my big mouth, she thought, cringing a little.

Yvette blinked. "You have the... drug powers?" she asked, confused and curious. "Or you are the telepath or empath, who is making people think they are drugged?"

"Oh, I'm not telepathic. It's like pollen," Megan explained, trying to make light of it as much as possible. "No way do I have mind powers. I'm not even really that good at school. Do you think our school is pretty difficult?"

She was changing the subject, she knew, but she wasn't really used to talking about her powers. Until today, she had only discussed her powers in detail with Professor X. At least Yvette hadn't seemed weirded out. Maybe they would talk more later, and she could learn about Yvette's powers too.

"Oh! You are like Laurie! Only she has the... pheramones? I think that is how they are called. She makes the hormones to be making people's bodies react."

Yvette's bright blue eyes caught Megan's discomfort - while she didn't want to make the new girl feel awkward about her powers, she also wanted to be able to reassure her she wasn't a freak. So many of the new students had gone through bad experiences.

"She could not control them so much when she was first here, so she had the air cleaning filter that she wore around her neck, so she did not effect people so much by accident." Yvette smiled and turned to the last question.

"The classes can be difficult sometimes, but there are only the few students here, so it is always easy to get the help, perhaps better than the school at home. You are not from America, are you? Your accent does not sound the same."

"Air cleaning filter, hmm?" Megan said with interest. I wonder if I could use something like that? Not that I really need to, but it might come in handy...

"It really is a different world here," she said after a pause, smiling. "You're right, I'm not from here. I'm from Wales. And the people here at the school... the teachers, the students... they probably have already come up with solutions to problems I was having at home with my powers. Like how to fly properly--that took me ages to get right! And I still don't like to fly too high off the ground." And what to do about my dust... there's technology here that I didn't dream existed. Maybe they have some kind of shot that would stop it in an emergency. Like there is for peanut allergies.

"You, ah, have an accent too," she added, drifting back from her short reverie. "Where are you from, Yvette?"

"I am Albanian," Yvette informed her. "But my mother is living in Kosovo now. I have been here... the three years now." She blinked, surprised it had been so long. "It only seems like the short time! But yes, this is the very good place to be learning. Not just about the powers, but about what we can be doing, to help other people and to make the difference, yes?"



"Help people, yes," Pixie said softly, unable to think of a specific use of her powers that would help anyone.

"So you've been at this school for three years? What kinds of advanced things are you learning?" she asked, glancing at the bench several meters away where she had left her hoodie. She was beginning to get very cold, but she wasn't quite ready to end her discussion with the upper-classman yet. She was learning so much, and still there was so much left to uncover.


"I am the member of Red X - this is the Red Cross program that allows for the mutant students to use their powers in helping with disasters," Yvette explained.

"And I am still with the New Mutants, which the Professor would have been explaining is the training team for the students, to make them cooperate and to be learning about their powers and such." She held up one razor-sharp hand.

"I am still to be learning control myself, but I am getting better. One day, perhaps, I will be able to be touching people, I hope." She tilted her head as the other girl shivered a little. "Would you like to be going back inside? I am happy to keep talking with you in the warm place." Embarrassment entered her voice. "Although I will have to be collecting my clothes on the way."


Megan didn't need any more encouragement to go inside.

"New Mutants--that's my team," she said, before skipping over to the bench to collect her hoodie. She folded her wings together, all four of them neatly fitting together as she pulled the black sweatshirt over her head. Normally she preferred the zip-up kind, but she really liked the Flogging Molly design on the back.

"Let's get your things and go to the warm place," Megan said as the returned, pushing her pink hair back in place. She wondered if Yvette's red skin protected her from the New England climate, and if it was tough not being able to touch people. Megan wondered a lot of things about people, but was very conscious about asking prying questions.

"Red X... that sounds brilliant. I wonder what I'll end up doing. Is there an Art Club?"

Yvette chuckled as she led the way back to the stump with her street clothes on it. Megan's enthusiasm was infectious, as well as adorable, and the older Albanian girl felt almost mentor-ish as they talked. Strange, when her height and manner of speaking tended to make everyone forget she wasn't twelve.

"There are the very many options," she replied, in response to the question. "And I am sure you will be finding something you will like. As for the art... if you are liking that, I have a friend for you to be meeting." The image of Kevin dealing with the perky fairy-girl was almost too amusing.

"And if we are lucky, Julian might be making the hot chocolate in the kitchen. It is, how you say? His specialty?"


"A friend who likes art? And hot chocolate?" Megan's face lit up in the biggest smile. She felt the last apprehension she had about her new life in New York melt away. These weren't regular people at this school--they were awesome people. And she was sort of like them. She realized she didn't have to worry about being popular anymore--there were friends here, real friends who were prepared to accept her as she was.