xp_logs | Amanda and Molly

Visiting the mansion (again!) to upgrade the wards, Amanda discovers small mutants falling from the sky. Or at least a nearby tree.

Climbing trees wasn't very hard if the tree was a good tree, and Molly picked a good tree. It had to be a bajillion years old. It had a huge trunk and a lot of strong limbs. After getting to the top of the tree, Molly surveyed the land. It was kind of amazing. She was used to seeing all the snow while standing on it but up here, with all the trees everywhere and lots of snow, it was like they lived in a forest.

Molly stayed up there for a few minutes, trying to see how far she could see, until she got bored and peered downward. A slow grin crossed her face as she remembered what Wade said. After spying a particularly nice hill of snow, Molly stood tall on the tree and then leaped off, spreading her arms forward like Supergirl as she headed for the snowdrift in not quite slow motion.

For once, Amanda wasn't at the mansion to see Nico. Well, not solely, any way. The smell of spray paint and the slight rattle of cans in her book bag revealed she'd been renewing the mansion's wards after a season of snow and wet had faded the symbols, and now she was heading back towards the garage and her faithful car, humming something that sounded like the punk version of "My Way" under her breath.

Her reverie was interrupted, however, by the sudden explosion of snow to her left as a small person suddenly catapulted from a nearby tree. With a curse, Amanda dashed to the spot, hoping that if she had to Heal a broken neck that the mansion would understand the emergency use of the residents as a power source. "Are you all right?" she asked, dropping to her knees in the snow and trying to find which end of the kid was up.

A pair of tiny red ladybug snow boots poked out of the snow, wiggling back and forth. A sound was heard, though it was more like a giggle than crying as Amanda uncovered the snowed in tree jumper. At the moment she looked more like Santa Claus, snow covering her face and bright red cherry cupcake hat. She tried to brush it away, still giggling, her smile broad.

"I'm cool! That was really high, huh?"

She peered at the face for a moment before recognition set in and her eyes widened excitedly.

"Amanda! Right?"

"Yeah. And you must be the other new arrival. Molly, right?" Amanda was a tad taken aback by the enthusiastic greeting, but grinned as she reached out a hand to help the kid out of the drift. "Is jumping out of trees something you do, or did you save up the heart attack just for me?"

"Molly Grace Hayes!" she said, shaking Amanda's hand with her own red fuzzy gloved one.

"Nice to meet you for real!" Because you had to be polite, yep. Her mom taught her that. Except around strangers...then you weren't supposed to talk to them but she wasn't quite sure how you made friends that way if you couldn't talk to people.

There were some people who she knew not to talk to, though. But she kinda knew Amanda already so did that count? "I told Wade I was going to go climb a tree and he told me to jump into a snow drift! It was fun," she said. "Do you wanna try?"

If Molly had been expecting the usual adult response of "no", she was to be surprised. With another grin, Amanda handed the girl her bag. "Hang onto this for me, and I'll show you a magic trick," she said, before scaling the tree, a little slower and more carefully than Molly had.

Molly had indeed been surprised, and showed it by being slack-jawed as she took the bag, which was almost as big as she was, watching Amanda veeeery curiously as she climbed the tree.

"Like...real magic or pretend magician magic?"

"How about you tell me which one you think it is?" Amanda said, teasing. About fifteen feet up she paused, looking down and nodded, satisfied. Just enough height.

Without warning, she jumped, clapping her hands smartly together as her feet left the branch and her shielding spell flaring into life around her, a vague bubble-shaped shimmer that was hard to see against the light and the snow. As she landed, she bounced inside the bubble, turning a somersault and landing on her feet, clapping again to kill the spell. Kurt would have been proud of the acrobatics. "Ta-da!"

Molly was seriously beginning to think this was Hogwarts.

"WHOA!" she said, nearly dropping the bag in a scramble to shield her eyes from the sun to get a better look.

"Um...uh...that's...real magic?" she said curiously. Cause asking if she could tell her which one it was kinda confused her. Magicians couldn't do that, right? They pulled rabbits out of hats and stuff.

"Yep." Amanda couldn't help laughing at the reaction. "Tho' I do the other kind too." She reached forward and 'pulled' a quarter out from behind Molly's ear, an old trick from her street kid days, flipping it between her fingers before handing it to the girl. "We have two bona fide witches in the system. I'd be one of them."

So...there was often times when a young mind could be overloaded by too much awesome. This was one of those times.

Molly just stood there for a few moments, eyes very big as she looked down at the quarter before glancing up to her.

"I...well...huh..." She let out an astonished giggle, momentarily speechless.

Apparently it was possible to get Molly to be quiet. Amanda flicked some melting snow off the kid's hat. "So, how're you finding Xavier's?"

Molly glanced up from the quarter, nodding quickly. "It's good! Kinda..weird being around a lot of adults, though, y'know? Even Nico and Julian are like...seniors or something," she said, saying the word 'seniors' with a sense of reverence. Seniors were the cool people to hang out with, right?
"Can you teach me the quarter trick?"

Amanda wrinkled her nose. "Okay, now I feel old - Nico's my student and I forget she's almost ready to graduate." Her tone wasn't really serious, however. "And sure I can teach you. Inside, tho' - 's a bit cold out here."

Molly laughed. "Nah, you're not old. Old people got wrinkles and grey hair and stuff and walk around with canes," she said.

There were three categories, in Molly's opinion: kids, adults, and old people (her mom called them something about octopuses but she couldn't remember all of the name. She didn't think they looked like octopuses.)

"Oh, are you cold?" Molly said, glancing around. She didn't feel too cold. But she didn't feel that cold or hot a lot lately. It was kinda weird but that was okay.

She nodded quickly. "Okay. Can you show me like...quarters and pennies and like...bottle caps or is it just for quarters?"

"It needs flexible fingers and mine are getting a bit stiff," Amanda clarified. "And sure, you can do it with most small things. 'S all about being able to hide things until the last minute." She grinned. "And long sleeves. Those are awesome for hiding things in."

Molly proudly held up her arms. "I got those!" she said. But did that mean she had to wear long sleeves in the summer? That'd be really really hot. But New York was cold so maybe it was cold during the summer too.

"Come on!" she said, reaching out to grab Amanda by the hand and pull her inside. She wasn't in strong girl mode so it was pretty normal, but excitedly insistent.

Amanda chuckled and let herself be tugged inside. It was, she reflected, not so different from when Meg was little, and she realized she sometimes missed those days. "All right, squirt, let's make you the new David Copperfield," she said agreeably.

"Zatanna! Cause she's a girl!" Molly chirped happily, a bright grin on her face.

Magic was something that didn't just come from a wand, but from everyday, ordinary joys.