Chapter 2

Given that nobody was significantly hurt during the weekend's events, you are each expected to attend your classes per usual starting Monday morning. The first class is not quite a class per se as much as it is a homeroom, a thirty minute block in which you are able to waken up fully, have candid discussion with a teacher over a wide variety of topics, or perhaps evaluate some thoughtful quote or mind-twister to start the day off with provocative insights.

Usually, Wesley leads homeroom. He's here, sitting at the desk with his glasses so low on his nose while reading the periodicals that they seem like they might slip off. But this morning, two others wait for you, Eugenie Clairmont who leans back against the desk at a relaxed stand, and beside a younger girl, somewhere in her teens. She has dark skin, with kinked hair a shade lighter, and stunning honeyed eyes which are kept downcast to her own shoes, nervously.

Eugenie greets each of you with a professional smile and waits until you're all seated before she addresses the group as a whole, "We have a new member to add to our happy little family. I would like to introduce you to Liberty Pierce. She'll be moving in later this week, but has chosen to join us today to get to know everyone."

Spencer is up and ready for classes uncharacteristically early. You attribute this to him sleeping all weekend. His appetite is similarly disposed, as you enter the kitchen area, most of you realize over the course of your time there that he has probably eaten the equivalent of all of you put together. He is still chewing as he enters the classroom, and you're pretty sure he has some food stashed on him. Presented with any expectant looks, he will offer you a piece of bacon or a waffle, but you hesitate, wondering what else has been in the pocket of his varsity jacket… of which you know he has several.

He smiles at the new girl on his way in, catches his scowling mother off-guard by leaning over and giving her a peck on the cheek, and then, as he walks by Dr. Pryce’s desk, an apple appears on it and he gives Dr. Pryce double finger guns as he walks backward to his desk at the back of the class, bookless. Spencer rises from his seat after the introduction: "Liberty! Cool name! I'm Spencer, Spence if you want! This is us! There's Logan, the tall one; Arthur... not so tall, I'm the blond one, Ellis is the quiet one, Fee is the pretty one, Ariel is also pretty, but you're more likely to remember her wings... There's a test later, were you paying attention? As long as you're a mutant, you'll probably fit in just fine here!" To the rest of you this is curious, as at this point in his statement, he usually emphasizes how much he's NOT a mutant. "Pardon me, Ms. Clairemont... dangerous mutant."

Arthur gets up in the morning about 6am and will find a quiet spot to pray. Normally, he would take his bible and meditate over some passage of scripture, but he doesn't carry one anymore. When he's in a spot to be alone, he'll take off the glove on his right hand. A Celtic cross adorns the center of the back of hand, along with what appears to be a Catholic rosary. He starts at one of the rosary and begins morning prayers. I have no idea if you can hear me, or even want to anymore... and he spends about 30 minutes. After that, shower and head down to breakfast.

Not used to the wide array of things to eat for breakfast, he settles for some eggs, bacon and a muffin. He's eating an apple as he comes into the homeroom, immediately eyeing the new face in the room.

"And you are... a new mutant? student? A new member of.. Spencer, what did we decide to call ourselves again? Alpha Flight or something?... Anyway, I'm Arthur.. pleased to meet you." After the greeting, he'll walk past Wesley's desk, and swipe the apple from the table, if he can get away with it. With or without the apple, he'll head towards the back as well, next to Spencer.

Logan wakes up and gets dressed like usual. Quickly heading to the kitchen, Logan manages to grab a couple waffles and a handful of bacon before the hurricane that us Spencer makes it all disappear.

With nothing better to do, Logan heads to class and as he enters the room he notices the new girl. Smiling and giving a polite nod, Logan takes his seat.

Once everyone is in and Spencer gives his welcome speech, Logan can't help, but to bust out a quick laugh. Smiling at the new girl Logan casually says "you must forgive our goid friend Spencer, he's unusually chipper this morning." crossing his eyes at Spencer, Logan settles down for the class.

"Nice to meet you, Liberty," Ariel says politely, then conspiratorially stage-whispers, "Pay no attention to Spencer. 'Pretty' seems to be the only way he can think of to describe girls, but it's okay for you to also have a personality. We'll teach him some more adjectives eventually."

Giving Spencer a wink, she takes her seat for class.

Ellis gives an awkward half-smile as he follows Spencer into the classroom and sits. He was getting used to it just being Logan, Arthur, Fee, Ariel and him. He's skeptical about someone else getting added into the mix, even if its someone their age.

As is often the case when he meets new people since he started at the Academy, he lets his mind wander, perhaps a little haphazardly and invasively, into that of this new girl.

"My bad, Ariel. Never mind what I said then, guys, Ariel has a personality. Beautiful is also in my vocabulary; fine, lovely, pleasing; enticing may give the wrong connotation or overtone, but there's also stunning, angelic, or conversely bewitching or if you'd rather and older word, maybe resplendent, refined, or even statuesque? I personally like pulchritudinous, but I'm afraid not many girls would take it as a compliment nowadays! There's a sudden pause, and he's nodding and smiling expectantly like he's made a joke and he's waiting for you to laugh, but gets crickets instead. His smile fades, he curls his lips under his teeth and he turns, shaken and wide-eyed toward the window. You can see he's trying to be subtle about his hand moving from his pocket to his mouth.

Fee is sitting in the front row when everyone else arrives. Now that she's "home" at the school, she's back to her comfortable style of dress, showing off her light green skin like she can't do in public. She smiles and waves at everyone as they come in. She's been keeping to herself mostly since their outing, mostly out of embarrassment for overreacting the way she did. She really wishes she had a little better control over her emotions.

When Spencer passes by, he mouths a message to her that makes her smile and nod.

She greets the new student along with everyone else. "You have the coolest name. Welcome to the Academy. It'll be nice to have another girl around."

Fee laughs when Ariel takes a jab at Spencer, and giggles at his human thesaurus routine. She collects herself quickly. The last thing she needs is to come across as some sort of giddy school girl with a crush, especially when that's probably exactly what she is...

"Mhm, mhm," Ariel nods along, a little sarcastically but also unable to help being surprised and a little impressed by Spencer's vocabulary. "Anything in your thesaurus of a brain that's not related to physical appearance?"

Spencer smacks his lips, and finishes chewing... "Sure Ariel, how about snide, derogatory, sarcastic, vituperative... shrewish?" He claps a hand over his mouth, wide-eyed, and looks away again, this time he seems determined to keep himself quiet by stuffing his face with food. At this point you're not even sure where he's keeping it all, or putting it, never mind where the words are coming from.

"Ouch, geeze. Hi Liberty, I'm Ariel, the shrewish one."

"Contrite, compunctious, sorrowful, apologetic... sorry?" Spencer hides his face in his crossed arms on the desk, like he's fighting it, but can't stop. You can't tell if he's laughing or crying, but he's quivering and making periodic whimpering noises.

Fiona turns to look back over her shoulder at Spencer, an expression of concern on her face. She looks at Ariel, offers a weak smile, then looks back at Ellis. She tries to get his attention, flashing him the what's going on with Spencer? look he must be used to getting from everyone by now.

"To be fair, I started at pretty, but..."

His first few words are muffled as Spencer's head rises from the desk. He looks like he was about to say more, but then thinks better of it. He turns to Liberty instead:

"Liberty, if it doesn't offend you I think you're pretty, also, but you're going to have to balance your own judgement now, because apparently all girls are judged the same in my eyes. Unfortunately, in order to correct this philosophocally and restore my credibility, I would have to supply a contradictory judgement, and call someone ugly, in particular, to someone I haven't already called pretty, so as to not contradict myself. This is not something I'm willing to do, especially in your case, and I'm saving Ellis as a scape goat for other things, so take it for what it is." He smiles, putting an arm around Ellis and pats him on the shoulder jokingly.

"Welcome to the debate club Liberty..."
Spencer pushes back his sleeve to read a watch that's not there...
" ...or is it time for drama club already?"

Spencer leans over toward Arthur: He tips his head and moves his eyes in Ariel's direction.Spencer comes away from the exchange smiling and Arthur's head nods facing away from you.

Arthur will chuckle a bit at the comment Spencer made, and start to work on his confiscated apple.

Logan randomly pulls put a quarter from his pocket and begins to roll it along his fingers. As a smile slowly forms on his face, he concentrates on the quarter.

To anyone watching, the quarter seems to melt, yet it doesn't burn Logan. Acting with a mind of its own, the small bit of liquid metal sways around and begins total shape. Soon a small metal figurine of a knight solidifies in Logan's hand.

Smiling Logan hands it to Liberty "You'll have no problem fitting in."

"So with all that out of the way... Liberty, what can you tell us about yourself?"