xp_logs | Genosha: For Free Trade: On The Buses

Adrienne musters her charges into the bus for the trip to the protest.

It was the first time in the school’s history that an honest to goodness yellow school bus pulled up in front of the door to load on staff and students. In truth, it was only a half sized one, but it was still authentic. Xavier had insisted on it; in part, he said, so the students could feel like the rest of the busloads coming in from other HeliX school programs, and in part to disguise them somewhat. In a field full of buses, they wouldn’t draw attention or stand out. It left Adrienne with a clipboard and a check list to herd her students and chaperones on board.

This was the first time Adrienne had been in charge of a school outing this large and she was in organizational overload, nerves eating away at her. Was she insane, taking a bunch of kids to a mutant rights rally in the middle of New York? What if some Friends of Humanity dicks showed up and caused trouble? She’d severely underestimated the degree to which she actually cared about these kids when she’d suggested going to the rally, clearly. “It’s not too late for everyone to stay here and watch a film about Soviet foreign policy in the inter-war years!” she mumbled hopefully as students passed her and boarded the bus. “No? No takers? Damnit.” She fumbled in a pocket for her lighter before remembering she didn’t smoke anymore and it was sitting on her coffee table. So instead, she reached for her St. Barbara medallion for comfort. But it wasn’t there. She’d left it at Vanessa’s the last time she’d stayed over. Oh yeah. This day was gonna go great.

The trip into the city was proving uneventful, which had been the hope by the staff. Taking teens to a protest always had some element of risk, even with trained X-Men riding shotgun. Adrienne had been on the phone with some of the former students who lived in the city and were attending. Organizers had blocked off an area for them to join the other protesters as a single group. There was also a note from Garrison, indicating that he’d be there too, ostensibly ‘on-lunch’ to help keep an eye on things.

Twisting around in her seat, Yvette smiled at Sarah. “So, is this your first protest?” she asked in a teasing fashion. She had her hair bundled up in her titanium hairnet and her skin was covered from toes to finger-tips, a concession for the crowds they were expecting.

Sarah grinned and shook her head. “Nope, been to a whole bunch before. It’s pretty much what we do in Washington, y’know.” It was de rigueur for the nation’s capital, and given her parents’ heavy involvement in politics she’d been to more than her fair share. “How about you, Yvette?”

“Nothing so big before, just the HeliX rallies,” Yvette confessed. “I have to admit, it is exciting.” She glanced around the bus. “And it is good so many are coming. Even if Ms. Frost made it a class outing.”

“Hey, I’m just glad to be back home for a minute,” Matt put in, head back and knee up on the seat a little as he caught the wan rays of the sun, “Westchester ain’t New York City.” Even if he wasn’t actually going home or anywhere familiar to him, it was still The City. “Maybe we can get lunch or something at Gray’s Papaya. I love that place. Or pizza. I miss good street vendor pizza.”

“There should be plenty of them around.” Sooraya commented, looking up from a few pamphlets she was reading. “Even though I don’t really know that part from New York... I just hope everything will go okay today. I think things will be pretty crazy. What do you think, Maddie?” She asked the young redhead on the other side of the aisle. “Not that we aren’t used to that...” Sooraya muttered quietly to herself.

“Whatever.” One riot was enough for Maddie; at least until she could, you know, do something about it. There was no way those FOH douchecanoes were going to win the war, those poopy-faced buttheads. “I still say we sneak off and go to JFK and see the Space Shuttle. Cause, I mean, seriously? Space Shuttle. You can’t tell me that’s not completely awesome. Seriously. Total no-brainer.”

Megan nodded absently, not really listening to what Maddie had just said. She was fiddling with her mp3 player, trying to find songs that would inspire the right mood for the rally. “I’ve never been to a protest before. As like, a participant. Do they work?”

“They do.” Korvus stated factually. “Gandhi’s tactic to overthrow the British Raj was protesting almost exclusively. There is also a long history of protests working in America, such as during your Civil Rights Movement.”

“What’s a Raj?” Molly said. She was excited they got to do something in a class where they got to go out on a field trip. They used to do that a lot in school back in California but it was mostly like museums and like a bakery and stuff.

“Are we gonna go to protests a lot?”

Cause she’d went to that last one a few weeks ago and that one was exciting and now they were going to another one. People really protested a lot, she guessed.

Artie shrugged and typed “I don’t know. I can live without them really but... eh.” He shoved his synthesiser into his pocket and went back to staring out the window, bored.

"About twenty minutes, ma'am." The driver announced, as he pulled the bus into the city.