xp_logs | Lorna and Jane talk

Instead of Alison, Jane meets Lorna, and they talk about classes, New York, relationships, and the X-men.

Jane looked down at the slip of paper in her hand. She was looking for room 213. It shouldn't be too hard to find, right? It was even on the same floor as her own room, but somehow it was just being impossible. Like the kitchen. Because she got to the end of the hall and there was room 211 and 212, but no 213. And then back the other way the numbers were too high. She wandered around in circles a bit before finally finding the right door. Thank goodness! Jane took a deep breath and knocked hesitantly.

Lorna nearly didn't react at the sound, her attention caught by the somewhat bizarre logic of the paper in front of her. After a few moments, the meaning of the knock filtered through her concentration. "Come in!" she shouted, flicking her hand to pull the door open. She continued to mark the paper for a few more seconds then glanced up, shoving stray brown locks out her face as she did so.

The door in front of Jane opened on it's own. She peered inside and saw a woman sitting there, hunched over and writing something. "Um, Ms. Blaire? Can I, um, can I talk to you for a sec, please?"

Lorna blinked at the blonde in the doorway and quickly realized who she was, "Oh, hey, come on in. Alison...Miss Blaire isn't here. I'm Lorna Dane." She unfolded herself from the couch and stood to properly greet the new girl. "How can I help you?"

"Oh! Sorry. Um, I was just coming to ask her if it would be okay if I joined her Dance class, even though I'm a week behind, and if there was any homework or stuff that I needed to catch up on and, like, things. Actually, I wanted to take your cooking class, too, because Rahne said you were really good, but someone said it wasn't being offered this semester, so. I'm, er, I'm Jane, by the way. Nice to meet you, Ms. Dane!" She stuck her hand out for a shake.

"Call me Lorna. I'm sure Alison will be okay with that, she and Kurt are very easy-going." Lorna shook the other girl's hand and smiled, "I wasn't able to offer Cooking this term due to some recent health problems." She tugged Jane toward the couch then let go with a gesture that offered Jane a choice of seats, "How are you liking it here?"

Jane plopped down on the couch. "I like it a lot," she said, bouncing a bit. "You can go outside any time you want here! And everyone is very nice." She looked at Lorna closely. The other woman did look a bit tired. "Are you still sick? Have you gone to see Dr. McCoy? He's good at the poking and prodding, I think. I bet he could make you better."

"Actually, it's more Dr. Samson and I that are working on my problems. Dr. McCoy and I just have occasional check ups. And I'm better than I was, thanks." Lorna resettled herself onto the couch. She grinned, "This place is all about the exciting things to do. We usually manage to make our own fun around here but sometimes we go into town or the city for it. Have you ever been to New York?" Lorna tried to recall the information that had been released on this girl and figured she probably hadn't.

"I don't know. I don't think so. I saw a movie about New York at the institution. Do you go often? What do you do there?"

"Me? I shop." Lorna laughed, "There are lots of things to do in New York. See a show, hit a club, go shopping or to a museum. If you want to do it, you probably can. We go...as whim strikes really. Sometimes that's often, sometimes not. Several of us went to a show a little while back. We'll have to arrange another outing soon since you've never been. It's definitely an experience. I'm from Cali originally and New York just blew me away on my first trip."

"Cali?"

Must speak like a person, Lor, not a Valley Girl Lorna scolded herself with a purely mental eyeroll. "California. Southern California actually."

Jane nodded. "Right. Sorry, I'm a slow study. Er, are you a mutant, too? Doc Samson said that almost everyone here was, and Angelo was telling me about people -- like, he told me you are dating someone named Alex? -- but he didn't tell me if you have a power. I know it's nosey to ask, but..." She trailed off uncertainly.

Just hearing Alex's name made Lorna smile. She shook her head, "Don't worry about it. Slang takes time to learn and I'm willing to be you didn't hear much of it where you came from. And yeah, I'm a mutant too. Magnetism is my thing. Also green hair. Though I dyed it for a trip we took over break. " She stretched and caught a spoon in her hand then held it out to Jane, "So Angelo was giving you a run down of our cast of crazies?"

"Yeah. I took notes." Jane produced her notebook from where she had been keeping it, stuck down the back of her pants, and turned it to the relavent page before handing it to Lorna. "See? He said he probably missed some people. Can you help me fill in the blanks?"

Lorna took the page and studied it for several moments then started to giggle, "This is fabulous. You need to add in Scott, he's Alex's older brother. Formerly of the one breath couple ScottandJean and I think he's working on getting to the same status with Betsy. And I have this sneaking suspicion about Alison and Hank. Let's see," Lorna traced the lines with her finger for a moment while she thought, "you'll probably want to put all the X-people on here too. Just for accuracy."

"X-people? Do you mean Red X? Amanda was telling me about that. They're going to have a meeting soon and I was thinking of going."

Lorna chewed her lower lip, "No, though they should go on here too. I meant our worst kept secret, the X-men. The students originally came up with that name from what I hear but it's kinda stuck."

"Okay, now you have me interested. What are the X-men? Who are they? What do they do?" Jane had a bizarre mental image of a bunch of mutants with big X's painted on their foreheads running away from people with other letters on them. She stiffled her giggle.

"They're...well, they help out when they can. Before Red-X, there were times when mutants were really the people for the job. When being normal was actually a hazard. The X-men keep a lookout for those kinds of times and try to help out. They also try to stop mutants who think that carrying the x-gene means they are a master race and can hurt normals without consequences." Lorna didn't know how much of it she bought. The X-vision was a strange worldview to her, even now.

"Oh, okay." It sorta sounded like the X-men were super-powered paramedics and police officers combined, with a touch of social worker, too. Neat. "Are you one? An X-man?"

"No. I've helped out before but I'm not a team member. I just want a normal life, not one where a black leather catsuit is my work attire." Lorna shrugged. "Many of the teachers are though."

Jane raised an eyebrow. She had led a kind of sheltered life, but her friend at the asylum had explained all about black leather catsuits. Now scary/interesting images of various teachers in fetish gear were coming to mind. "I can understand wanting to be normal. I'd like to be normal, too."

"It's not a bad goal." Lorna handed back the relationship map, "Anyway, I hate to have to kick you out but I really need to finish grading these papers. But I'll tell Ali you were looking for her, yeah?"

"Cool. Thanks! Oh, and thanks for the tips about Scott. If you can think about anyone else to add to the, what did you call it? relationship map? to the relationship map, please tell me! See you later, Lorna!" Jane left, her mind buzzing with more information about her new home and the people in it.

"Later, Jane."