Jane Park's Story

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Atheya was sitting up in her bed, surrounded by the many pillows she often slept with, her old and recent sketchings scattered along her wall. Beside her on her small dresser, her lamp shone a faint glowing radiance, just enough for her to read her aged and uncared for book that she held gingerly in her hands. She had found it in the library the night before, piled underneath a mound of uniformly old books. She had been searching for a copy of it for quite some time now, but the condition was less than satisfactory. Yet, she couldn’t say she really minded; She found older books that are torn and elderly (to an extent) hold more history, a story untold by the story inside.

The particular book she was reading at the moment was a classic that many knew of, “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The whole innocence of the children within the book with the harder more serious whole tone of plot in the book was a balanced she liked, that she would have thought hard for an author to pull off. She really did love the book.

Mumbling under her breath in a soft whisper laced with her English accent, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it,” She closed the wrinkled pages. That was probably the most popular line of the book, well, at least one of the many. It was something that she really agreed with, and understood to a complete detail. She had experienced things from people’s point of view, almost literally going into their skin at times. If that what you could call going into others thoughts and pasts through an invisible mind link between her and others. Yes it is a little hard to understand, but she often just referred to it almost like a wireless telephone. Brain waves bouncing off of others, blah blah blah.

Glancing over to the simple digital clock that rested right beside her lamp, its gleaming red light stated clearly that it was 7:02 in the morning. Removing the big black rimmed reading glasses that started slipping so it rested at just the tip of her nose, she set them down on top of the book. She figured now was probably a better time to get up, rather than when she originally woke at 5:30 after only getting around four hours of decent sleep. Being as her brain was always almost ticking and processing, she had a bit of insomnia. And by a bit, it was actually quite bad.

Swinging her legs over the side of her double bed the institute so generously gave instead of tiny twin ones, she hopped down, but tripped a bit over one of her acoustic guitars she had haphazardly left sitting on the floor. Doing a slight somersault so she didn’t just fall over, she sat up, and clutched the dark wood guitar in her grasp, saying “I’m sorry, Watson!” still in a quiet tone. She had a name for every one of her guitars, and would argue with anyone who doubted her theory that each of her guitars had certain personalities and souls. But that thought aside, she got up and put him on the stand with the others she had.

Rummaging through her drawers, she pulled out a make shift outfit for herself, a more lazy one considering it was a Sunday. Throwing it on quickly, she finished it off by slipping her phone in her pocket, and clasping on the oval locket she had worn every day since she was ten years old. Inside it held two pictures, one of her mother, and one of her Father. They had died and this was the only thing she really had left to remember about them. She still laughs at the slight irony of them both being Neurologists.

Slipping out of the room, she walked down the stone hallways, glancing outside the faintly fogged up windows as she continued down the long corridor of the girl’s dorm rooms. Making her way along the long stair way down to the main floor, she went into the large kitchen that all the students shared together. There weren’t many students at the school, only about thirty or so. The kitchen was a large enough space for everyone, so it really didn’t matter much. Opening one of the fridge’s, she noticed it was lacking some milk, one thing that really went fast in the institute. Opening up the other two, she found the same thing. Not only that but It seemed there was no more coffee left either when she went to go check for her “spirit” that she called it; a frightening thing really. It looked like she was going to have to go out and get some, hopefully before all the late bloomers of student woke up and grunted angrily and slurred unrecognizable words, glaring with their tired eyes. It had happened before and she could have sworn it was the bloody zombie apocalypse.

The good thing about this was that as one of the very few Superlative students, Atheya could actually go out into the city without having to have someone like a teacher or another student accompany her. One of the actual few rules in the Silhouette Institute was that a student of Medial or New Blood rank must, with no exception, be accompanied by a teacher or a superlative student like herself. When she first got to the school, actually only around a year back, she was infuriated at that rule. Her young rebellious nature seemed destroyed by that, but alas, she always found a way to sneak out. She had been a traveler before then, so staying in one place within walls was suffocating. She had grown a lot since that point. Now she was actually kind, and a little more laid back. Laughing and smiling, something that was very hard for her to actually do for a very long while.

“I guess I better go out then." She stated out loud to herself. Going out to get the food was a task that Superlative students where usually stuck with by the lazy teachers. She didn’t mind going alone, but it wasn’t the most fun thing to do. Yet again, neither was dealing with caffineless students

Adelina nodded to Xavier's plans to kick it later. She wasn't sure on what to do though. Adelina wasn't much of a planner herself so she figured they would just wing it. She then noticed his interest in Stephanos, as he kept looking over at his table. She too wondered why he would sit all by himself all the time. It wasn't like that before this year actually. Adelina and Stephanos came to this institution in the same year as New bloods. She remembers how loud he used to be, and now you would think she would be a completely different person she was thinking of. "Hey Xavier, I think it's of what happened last year," She began saying. "Do you remember the big explosion that took place in the north wing? Yeah that was Stephanos' buddies that did that," She continued. "That's why we had that week long break in the middle of the year. Boy did that feel good. And apparently His buddies were responsible for all the damage they caused. The school got it under control obviously, but from what I heard it was an attempt to break free." She finished with that. Adelina watched Xavier's face change from surprised, to amazed to worried back again.

"But you didn't hear it from me okay? Just between us two". She said, until she noticed a guy was right next to her. She turned to look at him, eyeing him. "How much of that did you hear?" She asked in a bit of a threatening tone. "Alright listen, you don't tell anyone that, and we won't have a problem okay?" She threatened him, and with that he nodded. Adelina went back to look at Xavier. as he now had another person in sight. Jane? She thought as she continued to look. I think that was her roommate this year. She wasn't sure, since they would always wake up and sleep at different times. Of course Xavier was back to looking at Stephanos. "Dude stop staring, he's going to notice and think the wrong idea." She warned him. That didn't work though, instead the opposite happened as he began to approach him. He asked for a seat, and called him by his nickname which was probably a bad idea. She was cautious sitting down on the other side waiting to see what would happen.

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Atheya was standing there, lost in her own head, in the middle of making a mental checklist of what to buy, but turned to look at the person who just called her – a familiar friendly face. Grinning she said, “I’m always up early.” She stated with a small laugh, walking up closer to Flynn, one of the other Superlative students. A friend of hers. “Just call me early bird, or girl who doesn’t sleep... or Atheya. Well now I guess I’m just rambling. Really am tired, I suppose.” She said a little sheepishly, shaking her head the slightest bit. She was about to ask him the same question why he was up in the early hours, it was obviously telling he hadn’t just woken up, but she was interrupted by yet another familiar face.

“Good morning to you too,” She grinned at Zac, yet another student who was in the same rank as the two. “How did you know?" She laughed, adding in "You must be a mind reader or something." She thought that was kind of funny. "But yeah, all out of milk and coffee and a couple other things. I was just about to run out, actually.” She said, her evergreen eyes flicking to one of the clocks at the wall, checking the time. It wasn’t actually that long ways away, she would take the school car and it took about ten minutes to get to the market she usually went to. It was a good thing that she spoke French although, saved a lot of time with that card. “Hey,” she said, glancing over at the two once more. “If either of you wants to go with me, I wouldn’t be against it. Might be able to stock up a bit, actually. I’m just going to go grab my list; I should only be a couple minutes. But if you guys have other things to do, that’s fine.” She smiled kindly, slipping away to grab a blank piece of paper that was often stacked oddly on top of one of the fridges in the kitchen. She also made sure to grab a pen as well. Plopping it down on the Island, she told the others in the room, all faces of people she kind of recognized. “Sorry about being low on stuff, especially the coffee. I’m just about to run off and grab some things. If there’s anything you want, write it down,” and rushed off out of the room and back up the stairs.

Walking back down the hall way to her room, she thought back to some of the faces in the room. She wasn’t really particularly familiar with the medial students, and she felt a little bad about that. Some of them had actually been there longer than she had. Atheya came to the Institute around only a year ago. She went through the whole process of being a Newblood, but was obviously advanced through that whole process. She practically skipped her medial years, that some never really come out of. She wasn’t actually the only superlative in the school like that, Zac was as well. It made her feel a little better, actually. Unlike many others, Atheya was, also, sought out by the Institute, having someone come literally get her. This wasn’t necessarily because they wanted her there, but they really just wanted her out of the reach of society, as she did stir up a bit of trouble. She was more advanced through the whole time she knew she had her powers, only because she could never turn whatever it was off. It was always progressing. Not only until she came to the Institute actually would she be allowed to figure out how to power off the mind links. But, there are some things she would never figure out how to do. It was more or less side effect, physical reactions to her head. She would get headaches a lot of the day, and had Advil hidden in any nook and cranny within the old building.

Opening up the door to her room quietly, she glanced in, still seeing her roommate Olivia asleep. She didn’t want to bother the girl by waking her up; afraid she might have already heard Atheya when she had a bit of a topple in the morning over her beloved guitar. Grabbing off the lounge chair in the corner her blue coat, she slipped it on. Grabbing a sticky note from the desk, she wrote a quick note, reading Morning! There’s not a lot of supplies in the kitchen, I’ve run out to grab some although and signed her name on the bottom, leaving it sticking to the door. Walking out of the room, she closed the door softly, letting go of the doorknob after she heard the small click.

Making her way quickly back down the steps, she stopped on the last one as she felt a small buzz and a jingle come from inside her pocket; her cell phone. Taking it out, she opened the new text message from Jane, and read. She began typing back a message, simultaneously as she began walking back into the kitchen to grab the list. Stopping at the entrance way, she glanced up and saw Jane, and slipped the phone back inside the pocket. Walking up to her, she gave a friendly smile. “Jane! Morning to you. I got your text and sure, we can work on it a bit more, I had nothing I was going to do today.” She spoke, her British tone adding in the extra charisma she always seemed to carry around with her. She liked Jane, she was a sweet kid and she actually enjoyed mentoring the New Blood quite a bit. Walking back over and around the Island, she grabbed the list and said “Any last things you guys want?”

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The steady thudding of footfalls drowned out much else, the music blasting through his ear buds was really background noise to the rthymic motion of the mutants feet. Repetition. Rhythm. Routine. With every elongated stride, Charlie inhaled, then exhaled both air and energy. Out through your nose, in through your mouth. Thankfully the process was a quiet, harmless one. His pores didn't glow a sickly green as he expelled the excess radiation or anything, rather the bright tint to his eyes might have been known to dull just a tad instead.

Eventually, those footfalls came to an abrupt halt. Charlie's lips ceased their silent counting as dipped to touch his toes. A quick stretching routine later, and he had his hands in his hair, head lulled back - cool down walk in process. Killing two birds with one stone, the New Blood traversed the courtyard back towards the dormitories. Not in any rush, the fresh air did wonders to the kid who'd been awake for several hours already. Thus was the way of things when you're sleeping schedule was all out of whack. At least, no nightmares. Those stopped years ago, while he'd spent some time his previous 'institution' - if you would call it that. Appreciative that his head was that much clearer, Charlie rolled his shoulders and pressed one against the nearest door. On today's agenda...make a visit to the library, and chemistry lab.

Piecing together the rest of his day, he removed his headphones and took a leisurely stroll through the halls towards his room, with a detour into the kitchen. He stopped short, swiping the back of his hand across his forehead, eyebrows suddenly furrowed. Head on the swivel, he surveyed the room a moment. The fuck was everyone doing in here at all once? Charlie spoke up, but mostly to himself - words audible but directed at no-one in particular. "Apparently I missed the memo..." The memo sent out by Professor Xavier summoning all the X-men to the kitchen island on the third Sunday of the month.
The mutt, the witch doctor, the other mutt - all of 'em, congregated in once place in desire of sustenance as it were. To be fair, he wasn't much different in his reasonings for being there.

Still, as he weaved his way through the gathering of his peers, he stuck his water bottle under the faucet, casting a lazy, green-eyed glance over his shoulder. Whatever lull in the conversation his remark might have made, if it even made one, was over by now as requests were being thrown from this way and that at the Superlative Female. The one that could supposedly mess with memories. Somewhere amidst the chit-chat, Charlie chimed in a second time with a curt inquiry. "Pass it here?" Water bottle now capped, he extend an arm and snag it out of the grasp of whoever it had been handed off to last. With the pen in hand, he scribbled down his requests on the bottom of the piece of paper, whilst adding a title at it's top as well.

Things Atheya needs to get.

Coffee
Whatever
Milk
Whatever
Oranges x3
Bananas x2
ButtBatons, x4
Whatever
Chips
Booze
Pot of Gold
Granny Smith's Apples, not those red fuckers.
Whatever
Whatever
This # 991-555-7244


Handing the list back over to it's owner, he was aware that the last little scrawl of information may garner some attention, and it was meant to. Still, he had his reasons. Real reasons. He needed to chat with someone who'd been here for a little longer than most, pick their brain a little. But not before he checked out some books and jotted down some notes. In passing, Charlie took a swig of H20 and offered up a dismissive wave over his shoulder, pausing only to spare Lacy a complimentary quirk of his brow as she nibbled on a random slab of meat. "Smells good." He murmured through a straight face, making it really quite difficult to tell if he was mocking her, or if he was serious. Nonetheless, they'd all disperse soon enough, whether to shop, or other. Charlie on the other-hand, was off to speedily shower and change before trekking over to the library to do some important research.

Before Adelina knew it Xavier grabbed her hand, and felt a slight spark which as odd. He then began to stutter at the realization of him holding her hand. That got her in a good mood, but nevertheless what came next was quite a shock. He had to go and cancel their plans. Plans that were planned last week Monday. Xavier said he had to go work on a last minute paper thing, and left. Adelina was shocked an a bit annoyed that he cancelled but he look truly sorry so she let it go. One quick look at the teacher that read Stay away from him and left for her room. It was getting late anyway. She wondered if she would see Jane in their room. Come to think about it, Adelina never really had a full conversation with her. No matter. Adelina was tired and she was gonna go to bed. Hopefully tomorrow's lesson is a great one. She cannot wait for Fire lesson, they are going to be awesome.