xp_logs | No way back: An interesting discovery

Hope makes an interesting discovery about an old friend.

Ding dong... Ding dong....

Hope could hear the bell outside, alerting the inhabitants of the house to her presence. Hopefully she would be received well. The rumors at the garden party had varied... pregnant, drugs... the last possibility had her wondering the most though... a physical mutation and the reason why she was here now. Perhaps Amy and she had not been the closest of friends before, knowing each other mostly from violin class, but if the last rumor was true...

Her thoughts were interrupted when the door swung open and a women in her early forties stood in the door opening.

Mrs. Wright was surprised, to say the least, when she opened the door to find a teenage girl standing there. Amy's friends had long since stopped trying to visit, and Calleigh knew she wasn't allowed to have friends over. "Hope?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow. "What can I do for you?"

"Hello Mrs. Wright." Hope pulled a sunny smile on her face. "I am home from boarding school for a few days and I was hoping to visit Amy. I haven't spoken to her in quite some time."

"Oh..." The woman's expression shifted a bit as she looked away for a moment. "I'm sorry, dear, that's...probably not a good idea. Amy isn't really feeling well today."

"I am so sorry to hear that. I hope it's nothing serious?" Hope tilted her head. "I will be staying in town for a few more days. Perhaps one of those would work better."

"It's just a bug," Mrs. Wright said, a bit distractedly. "I don't know if she'll be better before you leave, though..."

So Mrs. Wright did want to keep her away from Amy. "I hope her allergies are not acting up again. I remember how sore her eyes were during violin class once." The rumors at the party had mentioned seeing something strange about her eyes, so perhaps this would draw a reaction...

Oh no, no, not her eyes," she said quickly. "She's just...not feeling well. Bit of a fever, upset stomach...she hasn't said anything about her eyes, though, no."

Something was definitely there, but oblique references were clearly not going to work here... "Mrs. Wright, someone told me Amy has manifested..." Pure honesty might work. There was no need to mention the other rumors though. "I thought she might appreciate talking to someone who knows what that is like."

The denials died on the mother's tongue as she stared at Hope in pure shock. "What...What are you...?" Slowly her expression settled, though she couldn't hide the surprise. "You're one of them?" Was what she finally settled for saying, quietly. She hadn't found it in her to say "mutant" yet. To associate her oldest child with that.

"Perhaps we can step inside." Hope suggested gently. As soon as she was inside and the door closed behind her, she continued: "Yes, I am a mutant. And Amy is one as well, is she not?"

Mrs. Wright shook her head - not in response to Hope's question, but in pure denial. She'd tried so hard to pretend everything was normal, but it wasn't. And they all knew it. "I don't know how it happened..."

Hesitantly Hope reached into her purse and pulled out a few leaflets and a brochure she had brought with her. "Perhaps these will explain some things?" She held out the papers for the woman to accept. "I brought one for Amy as well."

She accepted the papers with shaking hands, though made no effort to look at them. "I don't..."

"Mom?" A new voice called as Amy made her way down, curious. They didn't get visitors very often. Who was her mother talking to?

"Hey Amy. It's good to see you again." Hope greeted her friend as she made her way down the stairs. She had to blink once at the yellow eyes in Amy's face, reminding her strongly of the eyes of a bird of prey. "I was visiting my parents and wanted to stop by."

Amy froze when she saw Hope, then jerked back, preparing to turn and run back upstairs, though it was obviously too late. Hope had seen. "No, it's okay sweetheart," Mrs. Wright said quickly, though a bit hesitantly. Amy's sharp eyes swiveled to look at her mother. How was this okay?

"I had hoped we might be able to catch up." She had seen her friend freeze and tried to keep things as light as possible. "I think much has happened since the last time we saw each other." Hope did not want to drop the bomb of her own status as a mutant with her friend standing there on the stairs.

"Why don't you two go upstairs?" Mrs. Wright suggested quietly. She needed time to process this, to look at what Hope had given her. Amy hesitated for a long moment before nodding and hurriedly turning away, hiding her eyes from view.

"Alright."

"I have to say, it looks quite stunning." Hope commented as she followed Amy up the stair, trying to break some of the tension that was all too palpable around them.

"What does?" Amy asked, a bit stiffly, as she led Hope to her room. She didn't understand why her mother was suddenly okay with her having visitors. It had been months since someone who wasn't family had been allowed in.

"Your new look, so to speak." She waited until Amy had turned around, but she still refused to meet her eyes. "I am not making this up..."

Amy fidgeted uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at Hope. Her gaze ended up zeroing in on a small spider in the corner of the second-floor landing. "I look like a freak," she muttered after a moment. It was the truth.

Okay... now how was she going to do this? "Why don't we sit down for a moment?" Hope asked, ignoring Amy's statement for the moment.

The other girl made a face as she settled down on the edge of the bed, gesturing for Hope to take a seat wherever. She was still looking anywhere but at her old friend. "So what's up?"

"I had hoped we could catch up. We haven't spoken in a long time. Especially after I heard the talk at the garden party..." Hope trailed off.

"Yeah? What's the rumor of the week?" She asked with a small bit of humor. She knew it changed a lot - Calleigh loved telling her what people were saying about her from week to week.

"I think no one was quite sure. The theories of you being pregnant or addicted to drugs were quite popular. But not as popular as the rumor you were a mutant." Hope stated with a small smile.

Amy actually laughed at that. "Well thank god for small miracles." Her parents had done a good job at dodging questions and planting the false rumors, she'd give them that. "Funny how no one ever realizes when they actually know the truth, isn't it?"

"Some people have seen your eyes. They didn't quite know what they saw though." Hope warned her gently. "When did you manifest?"

She raised an eyebrow at that, suddenly suspicious. She'd been trying not to pay attention, but... "You're taking this all rather well, you know."

"Let's just say I have met a few mutants during my time in New York and I have gotten somewhat used to the interesting variation mother nature has created." Hope joked, a small grin covering her face. "My dance teacher last school year has blue fur an a tail."

"...What?" Needless to say, Amy didn't really understand what Hope was going on about.

Hope bit her lip. She was probably being too careful. "Amy, when I suddenly left for boarding school last year, it was because I manifested myself."

"..." Amy definitely didn't know how to react to that. "You're...you're a..." Much like her mother, she couldn't bring herself to say the word either. Mutant.

"I am a mutant..." Hope confirmed with a nod. "... just like you." She'd let Amy sort through that first.

But...she still looked normal. A small part of Amy couldn't help but find that unfair. "You are?" She finally managed to say quietly. She couldn't wrap her head around it.

"I am." Hope just confirmed it again, letting Amy figure out any questions she had.

She only had one question, really. She wasn't really sure how to ask it though. "What...what do you..." What did she do? It clearly wasn't an obvious...mutation...so then what?

"What I do is called astral projection. I can hover outside my body, a little like a ghost." Hope explained simply. "It might be easier to show you though."

Amy stiffened a bit at that. "Oh...Okay," she said after a moment, hesitantly, though she honestly wasn't sure she wanted to see it.

That might have been a little too quick... "I can also show you later if you want." She offered, pausing a moment before continuing. "I came because I wanted you to know you are not alone. I have had a lot of help last year to deal with my manifestation and everything that came with it. But I didn't know if you had anyone."

"It's...alright," Amy said after a moment. Though the truth was, no, she didn't have anyone. Her mother had locked her away and her family didn't know how to handle this. And neither did she.

"My friends at boarding school... they helped a lot." Hope finished up what she had wanted to say. "How did you...?" She gestured to Amy's face.

Amy fidgeted uncomfortably, looking away. "My eye color started changing first," she murmured after a moment. "Remember, they used to be blue? Well one morning I woke up and they were kind of...darker. I didn't think much of it, sometimes eyes get darker, right? But then they sort of...stopped being blue. They were a lighter version of this-" She waved a hand at her face, "and then they just kept getting darker. And then...I don't. I got home from violin class one night and they just started hurting. It lasted all night, I couldn't sleep. And well..." Another hand wave at her face. "Yeah. Mom walked in to get me up for school and screamed."

A sympathetic wince stole over her face as Hope replied: "That must have been a shock indeed. And then?"

A shrug. "And then I became a prisoner." There was a note of bitterness in her voice. "Mom and Dad stopped letting me out of the house, and if they did have to let me out, I had to wear sunglasses no matter what the weather was like. But...for the most part I've just been stuck here."

"Did they talk to anyone about what was happening? Or did you have the chance to speak with someone?" Hope inquired gently, fighting to keep her face even. While what her parents had done, sending her away like that, was harsh, this was even worse.

"No," Amy replied shortly. She didn't really want to talk about this. "They thought it would be best to just hide it."

"That might work for a bit, but I do not think it's going to work long term." Hope mused softly. Again she reached in her purse for a sheaf of papers. "I brought some information... there are some places in there if want assistance..."

"They won't let me," Amy said, shaking her head. She knew her parents would never let her go to anyone for help. It would ruin them if her secret got out.

"I understand... It's why my parents send me to boarding school... But...there are several other options. I know there are special websites you can visit or centers with help desks you can call. Places you can visit when you leave to attend college. If you go further away, no one here has to find out. And if you need, I know people who have access to way more possibilities..."

"I don't know..." She was fairly certain college had stopped being an option all together when she'd woken up with bird eyes. Plus, she wouldn't feel right going around her parents. No matter how upset she was with the situation, they were still her parents. Right?

She placed the brochures and leaflets on the desk. "Why don't you look through them and think about it? I can come visit you again if you want too and we can talk about it some more?"

Amy eyed the brochures warily - she could read the title on the top one from where she was sitting. "Yeah...sure." She didn't really want to talk about this again, though. "So...you're boarding school is in New York, right? That must be kind of cool." Change the subject. That always worked.