xp_logs | New home, new roommate, new life

Maddie and Layla meet. Snark, sarcasm, swearing and strudel follow.

Maddie groaned as she pushed open the door to her new lair, tugging the ancient suitcase behind her. The events of the past 48 hours were just beginning to sink in, as was the fact that she was a) now a mutant and b) abandoned in this old mansion in New York and attending a school for mutants. That was on top of being forced to participate in a bank heist, and having to endure the post-Thanksgiving shopping hoard.

"Worst. Vacation. Ever," she declared, dropping her bags and preparing to flop on the couch. Until of course, she saw the girl laying on it.

"Who are you?"

Layla looked up through a mess of hair that had fallen out of the low pig tails she had tried to tie it back into. She pulled an earphone out and looked at the newcomer like she was possibly an alien that had just beamed down. "I'm wayward mutant number thirty-nine, who are you? And why are you in my suite? Did the blind kid give you a key to my room and tell you to come fuck with me?" Matt was so not a fan of her, which was fine by Layla, but it also meant she wouldn't put it past him.

"Uhhhh cause the spiky red lady told me this was my room at the end of our little tour?" Maddie shrugged. "Cause apparently I'm a mutant or something."

"I prefer 'alternate capability life form,' personally," Layla responded with a completely straight face. "It really adds to my mystique and allure." She paused. "Or some shit like that. So you get to be my very own special roommate? Did anyone tell you that they have a hazing ritual that involves new kids having to walk around on a leash outside their suites until they've been here for six months or another newer kid shows up? A more experienced and established resident must lead you around at all times."

Maddie glowered and sunk onto a nearby chair. "You honestly expect me to believe that?" She scoffed and shook her head. "I've been a new kid enough times to know that is complete bull crap. So don't even try it. I'm not some stupid kid from the middle of nowhere. And I have a massive headache, and you're only making it worse. Which room is yours so I can put all my crap away?"

"If you believed that I would have known you were a fucking idiot," Layla pointed out brightly. She sat up properly, tucking a leg under her even as she reached for another pumpkin strudel. They were basically heaven and she would shank anyone who tried to say otherwise. Or, you know, just hoard her strudel. Whichever. "That one's mine," she said before taking a bite and pointed to the room whose door was slightly ajar. "That one's empty." She pointed to the shut door on the opposite side of the common area. "If they get more girls, though, we end up with roommates. There's four other girls here and they're all in one suite, two to a room. So, really, you're insanely lucky all you're stuck with is me."

Well now that the business of where her room is was done, Maddie thought it might be a good idea to check it out. Her body, however, thought otherwise now that it was settled comfortably in a chair. "I'm a mutant," she said wearily. "My parents dumped me here. I've never shared a room in my life. And I'm hungry."

"This. Sucks."

"I'm not playing the 'whose life sucks worse' game with you because I probably win and it's fucking lame to try to make someone feel better about their life by making them pity you for yours." She reached over and grabbed her plate o' strudel and offered it out. "But I've got apple and pumpkin strudel. Some's just apple and some's just pumpkin but some is apple-pumpkin. It's awesome."

"I wasn't aiming for a game of suckitude," Maddie sighed and leaned out to accept one of the pastries. "It's like all this crap piled up into a huge shit bomb." She took a bite of her strudel. "Holy crap this is good. Where did you buy this?"

"I didn't," came the nonchalant reply. "And, dude, that sucks. Like, the whole 'suddenly shit is weird and now I'm in a weird place' thing? Not on. And it like legit blows, so I get that. But a lot of people around here are eight shades of crazy perky about life. It's kind of disturbing. Like, I can get down with the perky, but not like all. the. time. You know? But some people are cool. Artie? He's awesome, but mute. Matt's all like boy-sensitive and kind of stupid about shit. Korvus is sorta...uh, weird isn't right. He's like getting used to America and shit. He's from India and was a slave or something like that?" Layla obviously wasn't sure on the details there. "I haven't really talked to him much outside of like self-defense, which we're all required to take. Sarah's awesome. Meggan's pretty cool. Well, Meggan without the wings. There's another Megan with wings and pink hair but I haven't talked to her much either. I've been here for, like, not even two months. So, you know, not the authority on shit. It's alright, though. I've been worse places and known people in way worse places. At least it's a mansion. You can hide from people if you want."

It was probably better to let her new roommate prattle on and half-listen, Maddie figured, than it was to interrupt. She figured that Layla would keep going regardless of anything, and besides there was strudel to be consumed. As her parents had decided that Thanksgiving this year was a perfect time for a vacation, there would be no leftovers at home anyways. No leftovers meant no pie to stealthily eat at breakfast, insisting to her mother that apples were a fruit, and pumpkins were totally a vegetable, so she was really eating a healthy breakfast. But now that there was strudel, and while it wasn't as traditional as pie, it was still good. Like, really really good.

"Wait. You said you didn't buy this," she asked, picking up crumbs and licking them off her finger. "So is there some magical strudel fairy here? And do they make pie as well? Because, pumpkin pie is one of the best things ever."

"Obviously I stole it from 7/11 when I went dumpster diving," Layla deadpanned. "It's cool though, it was all in wrappers and they weren't even punctured. It was a real find, you know? Usually it's like half-eaten food and hoping no one's got like mouth herpes and shit."

Maddie rolled her eyes. This was going to be fun. Well, probably not. "You really suck at this 'make the new girl feel welcome' thing, you know that?"

Layla shrugged. "Is it my fault you leave yourself open like a blinking neon sign? Anyway, I made it. Pie is only theoretical but there's a really perky chick who teaches cooking that you can probably talk into making pie. If you can deal with the ohmygod perky long enough anyway."

"Whatever. For all I know this place could be like in Harry Potter," was the more than slightly sarcastic reply. "You know, except for not magical. And I don't deal with that level of perky until I've had at least 2 cokes. Anything before that is totally not my fault."

"Then you might wanna get like a sugar high rockin' first. Yoda says she's like legit perky...all the time. It's sort of scary. Our chick RA is like that too. And all...optimistic." Layla said this almost as if it was a bad thing, and definitely like she found it suspicious. No one was that happy all the time. But, like Artie had said, maybe she used it to cover up the whole deadly to touch thing.

Sunshine and optimism and rainbows and unicorns; the thought caused Maddie to scowl. She didn't want to be here. No one asked her if she wanted to a mutant, and now she was going to be surrounded by people who were all "OMG. It's so awesome that you're a mutant, and so awesome that you're here." Barf. She wanted to go back to Alaska (something she never thought would ever cross her mind, ever), but the base probably wouldn't like a fledgling mutant around. Her only hope was that her being a mutant was a mistake, a false positive.

But at least her roommate didn't seem to be exploding with glitter and fairy dust. So things could be worse.

"You know. You never did tell me your name. I'm sure red lady told me, but I wasn't really listening."

"Oh, dude, sorry. I'm Layla. And I'm not actually usually in the suite that much but cold and snow and icy ground kind of takes away what I'm usually doing most of the time." Layla gestured to her skateboard propped up near her doorway. "Still figuring out what to do with my time now. So, you know, if you're like super antisocial chick or whatever you can probably hide out in here. Just sayin'. What's your name?"

"Maddie, short for Madelyne," she wrinkled her nose. "But only my mom calls me that. And my grandma. And all my real crap is back in the frozen wasteland of Alaska." Another eye roll. "So I have no idea what I'm going to do, or whatever. Can I have another strudel thing? They're like really good."

Layla slid the plate across the table to sit in front of Maddie. "Dude, go for it. I can just make more anyway." Then she raised an eyebrow. "You're from Alaska? Seriously? Like polar bears and eskimos and shit? At least there's daylight for like 10 hours in winter here or whatever, right? Plus, the city is like an hour away. Your parents gonna send you your stuff or did they disown you 'cause you mutated and shit?"

It was difficult to scowl whilst enjoying such a delicious dessert item, but Maddie managed to do it. There were nice things about Fairbanks, sure, and she could even enjoy them. But when it came down to it, it was just too freaking cold. "It's already below freezing there," she remarked sourly after she had finished her bite. "I never knew there were snow tires for bikes, or skateboards just for snow. But my parents will be sending some stuff, and I'll get the rest of it when I go home for Christmas. Well, not all of it, but the rest of the stuff I can't live without."

"They don't have a problem with me. But since I don't know how to control whatever my mutation is supposed to be, it's safer I stay here. Not that we even know if the Army will let me stay around anymore. I mean, we're not living on base, but who knows with those guys. So yeah, I'm stuck here. And I should probably stop eating all your strudel and go set up my room and have a nap or whatever."

"Wait, you don't know what your mutation is?" Color Layla confused. "For real? Then how do they even know you're a mutant? That's weird. If you like suck the life out me or something could you try to do it when I'm asleep? That seems really fucking uncomfortable to be awake for. But, hey, at least you don't slice shit up on contact like Yvette, the red RA." After a pause Layla very seriously asked, 'It doesn't involve controlling zombies, does it?"

"Something about how this guy was targeting mutant kids and how he knew I was, I don't know. Whatever." Maddie rose and crossed to her discarded suitcase. She may have still been in denial about the whole psychic thing Jean and Haller told her about. Plus, revealing to your new roommate that it might be possible that you'd be able to hear her thoughts sometimes would probably lead to a freak out. At least on Maddie's end. "So your guess is as good as mine. And if I suck the life out of you, then you won't have to worry about what my mutant power is. Cause you'll be dead, duh."

"Yeah, but it could suck while it happens," Layla pointed out. "Like being the clothes in one of those bags where you attach the hose of the vacuum and it sucks all the air out. You know how much it must blow to be the clothes when that happens?" The blonde wrinkled her nose and shivered. "It's like...being mummified but really quick like those time laps flowers blooming and shit. And I'm like almost totally sure I can't raise myself as a zombie."

Maddie shrugged and rolled all her current worldly possessions toward the barren room designated as hers. "Well, let's hope that isn't my power then. 'Cause you'd be screwed" she said as the door began to close behind her. "I'm going to go sleep and hope when I wake up this was all a bad dream. Bye Layla."

"Peace." Layla watched her disappear into the empty room. At least Maddie didn't seem that bad. She could have done worse for a suitemate. Maddie could have been incessantly cheerful. Then Layla would've had to throw her out a window.