Kitty's Welcome Wagon

[Iceman]

It was the last class of the day, and there were only ten minutes left until classes were done for the day. But seventeen-year-old Bobby Drake was out early. He walked down the main hallway, whistling 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' as he went. The Professor had asked him to fellowship a new student, and had suggested that he leave his own class early in order to be sure to catch her when classes ended.

Bobby had a feeling the Professor was bribing him into it, and he didn't mind one bit. Though he'd have done it anyway, of course. Going to a new school was never easy, and especially when, like most new students at Xavier's, you'd just found out you were a mutant freak.

Bobby finally found the right room, one he'd never gone in before. He soon saw why; on the door it said 'LATIN ISN'T DEAD'. He stared at it curiously for a moment before turning the knob and entering the room. If this new girl was in Latin at thirteen, what was he doing helping her?

The students were talking amongst each other; apparently the teacher had given them the last few minutes to do whatever. Bobby walked over to the teacher and said something to her, receiving a nod in return. He then leaned against her desk and searched the room.

He knew just about all the faces in there, though he wasn't very close with most of them. So it was easy to pick out the new girl fairly quickly. He looked at her curiously from his perch at the desk.

[Shadowcat]

Kitty hadn't been without at least the semblance of tears behind her eyes for quite a while now. Everything had just happened so fast. You were supposed to like, like... have a while, before a change like this. Before your power kicked in and you got whisked off to boarding school.

It was too fast for her, and she was still largely in shock. She'd been going through the motions, heading to class and returning to her dorm when not in math or English or Art One or Latin, like now, and crying on the phone to her parents. She could hear the tiredness in their voices. They were tired of her nutso calls by now, tired of the phone bills, but she couldn't stop.

She knew no one. Her friends hated her, except the Modern Dance girls, of whom she'd always been vaguely afraid but who had sent her a cookie boquet and a badly-spelt note of encouragement. But her ballet friends, the people at school, her teachers, her neighbors... if they'd sent anything, it was just notes of disapproval. Her parents hadn't told her the half of it, she was sure.

So she was declining verbs. It was something to do with her brain.

At least she had been until a boy had come into the classroom and exchanged a quiet word with the teacher. He was somewhat older than herself, maybe fifteen; and he was staring at her.

Kitty schooled her eyes back down to her book. Just don't look at him and he'll go away, she thought to herself. And then you can get up and go back to your room and maybe give Mom a little ring. Maybe.

[Iceman]

When the bell rang and students began gather their things and file out the door, eager to find their friends and have some fun after a long day of classes, Bobby stood up and maneuvered around students and desks towards Kitty.

"Kitty Pryde?" he asked, tilting his head to the side an inch as he looked at her. "Hey. I'm Bobby. Bobby Drake."

[Shadowcat]

Oh G-d a person was coming towards her.

Kitty tried to rush through putting her things away, but keeping her hands tucked comfortingly inside her sleeves was impeding her progress. Desperately, she folded her worksheets inside her textbook and had almost made it away from her desk, but the boy managed to corner her.

"Kitty Pryde? Hey. I'm Bobby. Bobby Drake."

Kitty opened her mouth, but it was a half-beat before she could make any sound come out. When it did, her voice broke just a little halfway through the first word.

"Hi-i," she said. "I'm just..." she hugged her book as tightly as possible to her chest and tried to disappear behind her long hair. "I was just going back to my room," she said in a rush. "Am I in trouble?"

[Iceman]

Bobby tried not to show his thoughts on his face, but his smile turned slightly amused as she spoke at the speed of light. She reminded him of a rabbit he'd just scared out of the bushes. No wonder the Professor had asked him to talk to her.

"No, no," he said to reassure her that she wasn't in trouble. "No, I'm just here as the official welcome wagon."

Not wanting to sound like he honed in on new girls for his own pleasure, he continued. "It's kind of an unwritten rule here that the vets look out for the newbies and the younger kids. So, if you weren't doing anything, I was thinking maybe I could show you around? Explain some stuff, maybe answer any questions you have?"

[Shadowcat]

"No, no. No, I'm just here as the official welcome wagon."

He didn't look like a - oh. Wait. It was a metaphor.

She really needed to calm down.

"It's kind of an unwritten rule here that the vets look out for the newbies and the younger kids. So, if you weren't doing anything, I was thinking maybe I could show you around? Explain some stuff, maybe answer any questions you have?"

Oh no, she was going to have to deal with people.

"Oh," Kitty said, her voice growing steadily more high-pitched and breathless, "I... um..."

She didn't know where anything was but her dorm and her classes. She had to stumble her way to the kitchens in the middle of the night and she forgot the way every time. She hadn't eaten in the mess hall once because she couldn't find it and maybe if she got it over with she could just go back to her dorm again.

"Okay," she said. "I don't really have any questions, but a tour would be... nice."

Get it done get it done get it done.

[Iceman]

Wow. Bobby wondered momentarily if he was that intimidating. Well, he'd just have to prolong the tour until she loosened up a bit. If that took all day, so be it. He could escort her to dinner and back and then to her room at curfew if need be. This little fish out of water was going to calm down.

"Awesome," Bobby said, rubbing his hands together and moving toward the door of the now empty classroom. "So, why'd you come to Xavier's? I mean...I just don't get the feeling that you thought it'd be a fun change." He looked back at her with a knowing glance, pushing the door which had closed halfway open for her once he went through the doorway.

[Shadowcat]

"Awesome. So, why'd you come to Xavier's? I mean...I just don't get the feeling that you thought it'd be a fun change."

He totally had her number. Kitty finally picked up her stuff, contained it in her messenger bag, and followed Bobby out the door.

"Um," she said. "I sort of... well. First a lady named Ms. Frost came to my house and wanted me to go to the Massachusetts Academy, but I didn't... like her. And then Mr. Xavier came, and I liked him more, so I was all signed up and I was going to come in at the new semester, but then I kind of - lost control. And I had to leave."

She missed Deerfield. It was a powerful thing, losing the place you'd spent your life and intended to spend the rest of it. Kitty had had no intention to go on to greater things. She'd been excited about marriage and babies, maybe teaching at the elementary school.

And now this.

"Why did you come?" she asked Bobby.

[Iceman]

Bobby was curious exactly how much she'd lost control, and what exactly that had meant, but he wasn't anywhere near stupid enough to ask her. The Professor had told him she could phase through things, and from what Bobby imagined that would feel like...He didn't want to know the details. 'I'd be feeling pretty squeamish, too,' he thought sympathetically, though he wasn't sure if that was the extent of her problems.

"Pretty much the same deal. When I started wearing a t-shirt and shorts outside in below-zero temperature, my parents started to wonder about me. Then one day I tried to cook hotdogs and set the stove on fire, and all of a sudden I put it out. With ice. Coated the oven, the counter, everything."

Bobby led Kitty down the hallway, toward the main entrance so he could show her the other wing. "An hour later, Professor Xavier called me. Then he told my parents he wanted me to go to his school for the gifted--And my folks nearly had a heart attack, hearing someone call me 'gifted'," he joked with a grin.

"So as far as they know, I'm at a regular old boarding school. So your parents know about your powers?"

[Shadowcat]

"Pretty much the same deal. When I started wearing a t-shirt and shorts outside in below-zero temperature, my parents started to wonder about me. Then one day I tried to cook hotdogs and set the stove on fire, and all of a sudden I put it out. With ice. Coated the oven, the counter, everything."

Kitty looked up at Bobby - way, way up - in awe. That was a pretty powerful power; if 70% of a person was water and he could just freeze it all... and the atmosphere's water content, and the oceans, and and and...

Normal 13-year-olds probably did not rationalize all the places someone could use water, did they? No.

"Wow," she said instead.

"An hour later, Professor Xavier called me. Then he told my parents he wanted me to go to his school for the gifted--And my folks nearly had a heart attack, hearing someone call me 'gifted.'"

Kitty smiled. He must have nice parents, to be so accepting of him. It didn't occur to Kitty that they wouldn't tell their folks. She told hers everything.

"So as far as they know, I'm at a regular old boarding school. So your parents know about your powers?"

"Yeah," she said. "Ms. Frost didn't tell them, but Professor Xavier did - I kind of fell through my bedroom floor, but they weren't there, so they thought I'd just been sleepwalking or something, but then he explained later... everyone was really nice about it."

[Iceman]

Bobby was surprised to hear that Kitty's parents knew about her mutation. From her scared state, he had assumed that she was possibly in a situation like his. He chuckled to keep from sounding like a downer, and said, "Yeah, my parents would probably flip if they knew about me."

"But we've managed to keep it a secret for a year now. They hardly ever visit here, I always go home to see them, and I think they're probably relieved to not be getting called in for parent-teacher conferences anymore."

He then paused, considering what Professor Xavier had told him about Kitty's powers, and Kitty's account of having fallen through the floor. "So...you can go through anything, then? And it's not voluntary?"

[Shadowcat]

"Yeah, my parents would probably flip if they knew about me."

Wait - his parents didn't know about him? Kitty looked up at him curiously. How could they not know? Wasn't he their son? Your parents were supposed to protect you and stuff. How could they do that if they didn't know everything about him?

"But we've managed to keep it a secret for a year now. They hardly ever visit here, I always go home to see them, and I think they're probably relieved to not be getting called in for parent-teacher conferences anymore."

"Oh," Kitty said. "Is that... normal?"

To Kitty, it was obvious that her question was directed to the infrequency of parent visits, which was more than a little unnerving. To someone else, though, it might very well sound like she was calling Bobby weird.

Of course, it was mutant school, so there was no telling whether or not that was an insult.

"So...you can go through anything, then? And it's not voluntary?"

"No, it's voluntary. Mostly," Kitty amended. "I mean, when I was at home, I didn't really lose control, I just kind of phased through the bathroom wall of the malt shop to see what would happen and I ended up in the kitchen. And that didn't go well."

She was quiet for a second. That had been four days ago. That was it.

"But yeah, anything," she said. "Me and my clothes, but sometimes what's in my pockets gets stuck, and I definitely can't take other people."

[Iceman]

"Oh...Is that... normal?"

Bobby wasn't quite sure how to respond to this, so he didn't respond at all. He could think of a few meanings she could have, and the answer to all of them was that no, it was not normal. But he'd given up trying to be normal when he'd realized it was genetically impossible to do so from there on out.

As she explained her powers, Bobby was stuck for a moment on 'malt shop' - momentarily, he wondered what decade this girl was from. He wondered if she'd met Jubilee yet; the two were polar opposites, but they were the only two he'd ever heard of spending their free time in a place like a malt shop.

"You'd be surprised what you find out you can do. The Professor is a genius when it comes to--Well, when it comes to everything, pretty much, but especially when it comes to powers. He's taught me how to make shapes. Here, look--"

Bobby cupped his hand, palm up, and placed the other hand over it, palm down. The air around him grew cold, as though Kitty were standing by an air conditioner, or an open door in the middle of December. When he moved his hand, though, he held an almost perfectly round ball of ice the size of a baseball. He tossed it up and caught it, examining it. "I'm still working on it. The Professor says I'll be able to make really detailed stuff someday. But, I mean...I'm just happy freezing stuff."

Bobby looked at her closely. "So, why don't you tell me about your secondary mutation? You know, the one where you have the uncanny ability to ignore the good stuff and let the bad stuff make you miserable?" He cracked a smile, one that said that she wasn't hiding her sadness nearly as well as she thought.

[Shadowcat]

"You'd be surprised what you find out you can do. The Professor is a genius when it comes to--Well, when it comes to everything, pretty much, but especially when it comes to powers. He's taught me how to make shapes. Here, look--"

Kitty gasped theatrically when Bobby removed his hand to reveal a perfect ball of ice, smoothly rounded - the size of a perfect snowball, except that of course it'd hurt a lot more. It was still a shock to her to see some of the people around the Institute, especially the ones with more... apparent mutations. Going from Deerfiled to Xavier's was a big shock. Her own power, innocuous as it was, had been surprise enough, but for there to be ice where there suddenly wasn't - it was like magic.

Kitty had always believed in magic. Until almost last year, in fact.

"I'm still working on it. The Professor says I'll be able to make really detailed stuff someday. But, I mean...I'm just happy freezing stuff."

A bit of a simple soul, maybe?

That was uncharitable. And he was being so nice, too.

"So, why don't you tell me about your secondary mutation? You know, the one where you have the uncanny ability to ignore the good stuff and let the bad stuff make you miserable?"

"I don't - " Kitty started hurriedly before realizing, oh yeah, he was kidding.

Genius.

"I don't ignore the good stuff," she said. "I just... I didn't get any time to get used to... everything. I mean. I had to leave, like, three hours after I first used my power. Just 'hey, you're a mutant' and I get stuck on a plane with a backpack full of clothes and my parents just sort of sent my stuff after me."

She pulled her books close to her chest again. "I guess there's just not that much good stuff to see."

That was depressing.

[Iceman]

"That's tough," Bobby agreed upon hearing her story. "But, I mean, they're not forcing you to be here, right? If you absolutely hate it, I'm sure they'd let you leave. And you came, which shows somewhere you know you can handle it."

Bobby tossed the iceball in the air repeatedly, each time watching it's flight as he tried to get it all the way to the ceiling. Somehow he managed to hold his concentration despite the distraction. "And at least you've got parents. A lot of people here, when their powers pop up all their friends and family run off. Seems to me like you've got it pretty lucky. We both do."

Bobby's words, for once serious (though any time he was serious, he played it off by the casual tone of his voice and by doing stupid things like trying to break a ball of ice on the ceiling), surprised even himself.

So to break the potential impression that he might be a serious, no-fun kind of guy - as though that would be a bad thing to Kitty - he tossed the ball up in the air and quickly held his binder and French book in both hands. As the ball fell down, he swung the books back and used them as a baseball bat, crashing into the ball and sending the chunks that didn't completely shatter on contact sailing down the hall.

There were a few groups of stragglers still left in the hall, and Bobby called out to alert them of the projectile. "FOUR!" As the ice ball landed on the carpet a good ten feet ahead, the students who hadn't already been watching the goings-on turned to see the ball hit the ground, then turned to see Bobby. Very few were surprised, and most grinned and laughed at Bobby's antics.

Bobby grinned and gave a nod to a couple of guys who were a grade below him, who were on his basketball team, before turning his attention back to Kitty. "So let me show you this wing here. It's got the kitchen, the den; pretty much all the house-y rooms."

[Shadowcat]

"That's tough. But, I mean, they're not forcing you to be here, right? If you absolutely hate it, I'm sure they'd let you leave. And you came, which shows somewhere you know you can handle it."

Internally, Kitty wondered what else she was supposed to have done. Couldn't stay at home, obviously, not when everyone knew. And it was either home or here, or the Massachusetts Academy, which was probably close to the same thing, but without Professor Xavier.

The Professor had been the only nice thing about the Institute for Kitty thus far. Well, Bobby was pretty nice. But she wasn't too sure of him yet. He might be faking for nefarious purposes of his own.

This made perfect sense in Kitty's head.

Her eyes followed his ice-ball comically, large and round in her small face.

"And at least you've got parents. A lot of people here, when their powers pop up all their friends and family run off. Seems to me like you've got it pretty lucky. We both do."

"I guess," she said doubtfully. It would be awful to have no one but the Professor. Even if her parents were starting to get sick of her constant calling.

Kitty jumped as Bobby suddenly thwacked the ice-ball down the hallway, making a small squeaking noise and throwing one hand up to cover her face. It was why she had never been able to play soccer or any other ball sport: constant, paralyzing fear of being hit with a ball.

"FOUR!"

She was going to die by ice-ball. Bobby did have nefarious purposes of his own.

"So let me show you this wing here. It's got the kitchen, the den; pretty much all the house-y rooms."

"Um," Kitty squeaked, inching her books farther up her chest to protect her neck and face, "...okay..."

Please don't kill me.

[Iceman]

Bobby noticed her jump and didn't bother to hide his laughter as he shook his head, looking sideways at her. He didn't say 'I threw it away from you,' though he thought it. He also didn't ask her just how long she'd been out from underneath her rock.

"My bad," he said laughingly, before letting it slide off his back and launching into a summary of the history of the mansion. When he didn't remember parts, he made them up. Like, Xavier's relative had added the heli-pad in 1930-something, when he didn't know if they even had helicopters back then. And more noticeably, that a female mutant with power over nature had built the hedge maze up around her boyfriend when he broke up with her, and that the poor fellow had never been seen since.

Truth or not, it got them to the TV room. "Here's the den," he said, pausing for a moment and waving through the doorway. The OC was on, and Bobby wrinkled his nose at the middle-school aged girls watching it in silent protest of their viewing choice. They turned and, upon seeing him, fell into a fit of giggling and prodding each other and whispering back and forth.

Bobby acted as though they weren't acting like love-sick drama queens, and nodded to them with a smile. "Hey, girls," he said, and his voice was devoid of any flirtation. Just friendly. Hey then continued on his way, pretty sure that any introduction he made of Kitty would make her melt into a puddle on the floor out of embarassment.

"And here's the kitchen," he said, entering this time. "The fridge is pretty much always stocked, with just about any kind of food imagineable."

[Shadowcat]

"My bad."

He was laughing at her.

He had a right, she supposed. Kitty was completely ridiculous, after all. She'd just crawl into a hole and die now, thank you very much.

She followed somewhat sullenly as Bobby rambled about the history of the mansion, some of which she wasn't sure was true. For one thing, the first controllable single-rotor helicopter to enter large-scale production hadn't been sold until 1942 (duh); for another, somehow she doubted that a girl would get away with essentially killing her boyfriend by hedge.

Though apparently boys could kill innocent bystanders by ice-ball, of course.

"Here's the den."

Girls about Kitty's age, some maybe a year younger, were watching the OC. Kitty couldn't believe she'd forgotten it was on. Oh, dang, now she'd missed a week, and she'd never be able to catch up...

Bobby tacitly acknowledged them and, to Kitty's eternal joy, moved past without making her say hi.

"And here's the kitchen. The fridge is pretty much always stocked, with just about any kind of food imagineable."

Kitty leaned against a counter, looking at the kitchen itself. This couldn't be the main kitchen; too many students to be cooked for in such a small space. But she wouldn't be allowed in the main one anyway.

She wondered if the magical fridge stocked latkes. She liked latkes, but her mom didn't cook much, so they were only available during high holy days - sometimes only Hannukah.

Probably not. Plus, they were fatty. Kitty had almost been dropped from her ballet company at home for weight limits; she should start dieting, maybe...

"Cool," she said vaguely. It was good to know, anyway. Everyone had to eat.

Kitty suddenly remembered she hadn't in a while.

Dang.

[Iceman]

“So, the Professor said you dance. That’s pretty cool. What kind?” Professor Xavier had told Bobby that Kitty was very passionate about ballet, but Bobby figured that if he wanted to get anything more than one-word answers out of the timid girl he’d have to start low and work his way up. Maybe by next week she’d be forming full sentences.

Bobby had taken it on as a personal challenge. He’d get her to loosen up if it took…Well, he had no idea what it would take, but he wouldn’t rest until he found out and then did what it took to make her feel at home.

“You hungry?” Bobby asked as he opened the fridge and began peering around the healthy stuff, which were set in the front in hopes of enticing the students to eat healthy but were generally just shoved around to get to the more appetizing-looking junk in the back. He grabbed a Sprite and looked over his shoulder to Kitty, leaning on the door of the fridge.

[Shadowcat]

“So, the Professor said you dance. That’s pretty cool. What kind?”

"Ballet," Kitty said. "Pointe. It's the kind with the special shoes."

Sigh. More of the world should be able to accurately delineate between different styles of ballet. She wasn't even going to go into the fact that she did French pointe, not Russian, or that it was modern-inspired rather than traditional.

"I did a little jazz too, for a while, but I didn't like it much," Kitty continued. "It's kind of... spastic."

Plus she couldn't do that jazz face thing. It gave her cheek cramps.

Bobby opened up the fridge and started poking through it a little, asking Kitty if she was hungry. She was. Extremely. Oh, but - it didn't matter now, did it, if she exceeded weight limits? It wasn't like any of the local companies were going to take her...

Still, if only because it was another comforting habit, Kitty took an apple from one of the bowls on the counter and held it up so Bobby would see if she was eating. Her parents had always been weird about that.

"Do you do any sports or anything around here?" she asked. "I mean, I guess it's probably too much to ask for there to be a campus studio, but what else is there?"