Chapter 2

Spencer stands in defiance at the first few of his mother’s words, and seems like he wants to continue arguing, but can’t seem to get a word in. He begins to listen, and as he does you see him start to deflate, he sits, and uncomfortably weathers his mother’s words, but doesn’t turn away or try to hide. His jaw quivers, and he presses his lips together as her tirade continues, and continues to shrivel. By the time she’s done, he is hunched over, eyes at the floor… so still you’re not sure he’s breathing, his usual familiar smile and amiable attitude has disappeared. You’re not sure if he’s embarrassed, ashamed, or beaten; maybe all three. His hair falls in front of his eyes and it's hard to see his expression, but you're pretty sure he's not willing to continue this argument.

Anyone who approaches Spencer gets a quivering outstretched hand gently keeping them away, and he walks through the back of the room in a long route around his mother to the door and disappears out of the classroom.

Fee watches Spencer leave, her instincts telling her to chase after him, her pride and fear of Mrs. Clairemont keeping her firmly planted in her seat.

Her eyes dart from Spencer's retreating form to Ellis, then to Ariel. This place was beginning to feel like home, but not in a good way. Fighting and arguments, disagreements hinging on the use of mutant powers... yep. Just like home.

Fee decided to keep quiet. She stared down at her hands clasped on the desk and focused her attention on her slate grey fingers.

Arthur sits defeated. ...had a chance to... start anew... but it looks like that's over.

While seated he does have a thought. He stands up... What if we refuse? What if I don't want to be a prisoner here anymore? Here is my demand: I require the opportunity to attend mass, to have a sense of normalcy... Part of why were are here is to learn about our abilities, but to also be a part of society. If you can't guarantee that we get that sense of normalcy, that chance to be a part and not closed off from the world, then I conscientiously object to using my powers while I am inside these walls, and consider actions to vacate this place.

I don't mind that you're studying me and what I can do. I do mind that you try to control me. If I wanted that level of control, I'd go back home.

Ellis seems distracted, and embarrassed. His thoughts are a jumble as he watches Spencer walk out.

Ariel tries to choose her words carefully. "Mrs Clairemont, you talk about us having the luxury of not knowing and not caring what you do, but I think that's part of the problem. You're keeping so much from us, and asking us to trust that it's in our interest to do so, but that just means we're left with so many questions we can't answer. What are we doing here? What's the real purpose of this school? Who's funding it, and what do they expect for their money? Why are there so many areas of the school we can't go? What rights do we still have? And if we wanted to leave, would you try to stop us?"

She sighs. "I really appreciate what you've done for us, giving us a safe space where we can use our abilities, but we don't know why, and that's scary! You say you've been straight with us all along, but you haven't really told us anything - all we have are our own crazy theories. You need to stop keeping us in the dark - we're mutants, we know first-hand that it's a scary world out there. That's why we expect the worst! Even from you."

She doesn't even try to stop Spencer from leaving. She only watches him balefully until he exits, and then her expression softens.

It's Wesley's turn to shine! He finishes standing up and tugs the front of his blazer forward with both hands to give it a stiffer appearance around the collar. "It shouldn't be a problem to take the boy to mass. It would be directly impeding on his constitutional rights as a citizen, as we do not have a proper place of worship or agreement with a pastor to make visits, here, at the school. There are night masses, I am told. In the main urban area of the city, of course, but it would be night and we could take a windowless van."

He continues to triumphantly press when Mrs. Clairemont's only response is to shut her eyes tightly as though she's beginning to feel the start of a headache, "I think the key thing that was left out, that has been overlooked, is that this is a temporary measure. To wait for things to blow over. Keep your noses to your books and you'll find that things have calmed enough for outings to resume again, as planned. Like to the zoo," he tries to suggest cheerfully as he adjusts the weight of his spectacles.

Mrs. Clairemont responds with careworn apathy, "Yes, the zoo," and then raises her chin to listen attentively to Ariel as she speaks up. Tentatively, she picks her words while inspecting her own fingernails for cleanliness, "I hear your request for more transparency. To some extent, I agree, I could be more forthcoming and encourage an air of openness. This school is founded on noble intentions for a brighter future for a vulnerable minority, but there is a pied piper of sorts. As far as each of you are concerned, you are a test group. The 'real'," she uses air quotes, "purpose being to study the early effects of mutantism on the psychological profile of young people and to develop effective learning programs so that they remain upstanding citizens, one way or another. This is part of the reason why it is so important to us that we maintain all the comforts of home, here. We are partnered with other research groups in multiple states.

"But my personal convictions for this program are so strong that I wanted my own son to be apart of it. It is why your curriculum has an abnormal amount of philosophical courses as compared to the average high school coursework which contains... None. We hope to distill within each of you a strong personal code of greater responsibility for yourself, what you're capable of, justice, honor... Jedi virtues? I guess you could say we're training each of you to be jedi knights in a sense."

"As for why I've called for a stop to outings... Paranoia spiked recently. There's a street drug that induces physical changes. It's being passed to children." She makes a tight, uncomfortable smile. "And it's making them act crazy. But if there's a mutant charging at you and acting aggressively, it doesn't quite make it to the normal civilian's mind that this person has had their mind melted by some drug or another. All they see is a dangerous mutant, and it makes them think that maybe that's what all mutants become, eventually dangerous."

She inhales deeply before finishing her monologue quietly, "It's why I'd rather have you, and Olivia stay here until whomever is circulating this drug is caught and it stops becoming tabloid fodder. But it seems unfair to single you both out, when you are all a team."

Arthur has an odd thought. "Ms. Clairemont, you know my background and my... history... with the law. Could it not be a prudent thought to find out more about this drug from... say... a thief's perspective? Already anticipating a 'no', he continues on. "I saw what those thieves tried to accomplish and I'm pretty sure I can find them. Why not send me to find them and get a few samples for you to study? Or, if we want to take a far nobler route, I get information on their, forgive the term, lair, and make an anonymous phone call to the authorities?" He makes a brief smirk.

"Plus, I'm good at causing a distraction."

Fiona finds herself uncomfortable with the current subject. When criminals wanted to hurt innocents, she was able to stop them. It made her feel good, but more importantly, she had felt powerful. She liked feeling powerful. She wasn't sure if that was what she was supposed to feel. It sounded like they wanted her to be a good guy, and good guys didn't use their powers because they liked the feeling of power over others, they used them to help the innocent.

But experience had taught Fiona that unless she was the most powerful, someone else would hurt her or those for whom she cared. She liked being here, among her peers, with others who at least understood how it felt to be so different. But she also liked the feeling of beating those idiots in the mall. She wanted to do it again.

She didn't think she was a "jedi", as Mrs. Clairemont said. In fact, she was pretty sure that the part she liked best was closer to the "dark side." Did that make her a bad person? Was she destined to turn to the dark side like Darth Vader? She was staring at nothing and paying no attention to the others in the room as her thoughts took her on a journey of her own.

Spencer appears in the doorway, looking confused and his eyes are glazed over a bit.

"Ms. Clairemont... Mum? (you're not sure you have ever heard him address her this way) you say we have the luxury of not knowing what you do, but there's just so many questions, and then you pop this on us. I don't know what to think anymore.

When I said "brief us", I meant for you to tell us your expectations, not foretell the future. You have Dr. Pryce for that*." He grins as if it's an inside joke. "If you've taken sponsors and grants to support the school, you have to report results. Could you just tell us what you need, and maybe we can just give it to you, rather than having to monitor us 24/7, and try to measure us without us knowing?"

He points to the CCTV cam, and few other places around the room that look innocuous, but now look suspicious to you.

"I do appreciate what you've done, but I don't get why, so I'm hesitant to cooperate. You may have been straight with us, but we're not your business partners or sponsors or legal entities at arms length, we're neck deep in... whatever this is... with you. You say you have your 'strong personal convictions', but we don't, and don't know yours either... maybe we don't need the luxury of not knowing. Maybe we need to partner with you for the right reasons, your reasons, knowing the consequences of our success or failure, the REAL consequences, the consequences YOU'RE dealing with. Our "team", those are your words, could have a goal other than to butt heads with you. We're not children, and you want to make us into responsible adult citizens, so can you experiment with treating us that way?"

His voice trails off, despondent. His eyes cross momentarily, and presses one of his hands to his brow, one of his eyes squinting, blinking away pain, maybe.

I don't even know why I'm here! These guys all have awesome powers... I got a prodigious nose bleed and slept through the weekend, if I'm a mutant, I'd say it's pretty disappointing."

Spencer wavers a bit, leaning on the door frame, and suddenly his nose is gushing bright red blood! His legs fail as he slides down the door frame to a sitting position and slumps forward and face down on the floor, catching his head on one arm. It's more as if he fell asleep quickly rather than fainting or falling unconscious.

Arthur, still standing from his proposal to Ms. Clairemont, rushes over to Spencer and helps him up. You okay, man?

Wesley remains oddly quiet, looking at Arthur with... interest, and occasionally shifting eyes back toward the Headmistress...

Whom is smirking right back at Arthur. "I'll make you a deal. I'll make you all a deal. You want to be a little detective-spy, do you? Then you'll read Plato's Alcibiades I and II, and pass an oral exam. If each of you, and I do mean each of you as whole, a collective... Yes, even Liberty, then I might consider that as a team you are mature enough to voluntarily make an investigation effort of your own. How does that sound."

The word 'mum' almost startles her. Forget the rest of the children, when had she, herself, last heard Spencer use that word? And when did he even enter the room again. For a moment she tries to regard him as a teacher but as he keeps speaking, a hint of warmth takes her that could be confused with vulnerability. ... And increasing uncertainty the more he reveals about the conversation that he really shouldn't have been able to have heard. When she'd been responding to Arthur and Ariel, the door was closed!

She doesn't quite have a chance to begin to respond to him, at least, not before she notices the nosebleed. She's too late to catch him from slinking to the floor--not against high schoolers while she's in stilettos--but she crowds him along with the others whom presumably also will get up to check on him. "One of you, grab him by the other shoulder," she instructs, her voice wavering. "We need to get him back to the infirmary. Wesley, I think a long weekend is in order. Cancel classes for the day."

Liberty doesn't rush over. She's barely pulled out of shooting Ellis a wounded, and angry expression! She stands up partially and then just sort of awkwardly stays near her desk... Nearly all of that went over her head, more or less.

While everyone is focused on getting Spencer some medical attention, Ariel moves over to talk to Liberty. "I promise it's not always like this," she says, then with a weak laugh, "Some days nothing mad happens at all. Um, how about we get you settled in? I'll show you where the dorms are."

Arthur will help Spencer back to the infirmary with whomever wishes to help. After Spencer is taken care, Arthur does something quite unlike himself.

He heads back to his bed and finds the Plato book and begins to read. I have the skills necessary to find them, maybe even... neutralize? is that the right word? eliminate? NO.. that's definitely not the right word. I can stop them. Who knows? Maybe they heard of Puck's crew back in Atlanta. I still have some credibility there... Well, if Puck would let me back into the group... Stop thinking about that, Arthur David James... you need to study for this exam or you won't have a shot at it... Or at least an easy shot at it...

He'll spend most of the day reading, trying to understand what might be on an exam and jotting notes.

Fiona rushes to Spencers' side as he collapses, tears in her eyes. What is happening to him? Why does he keep passing out? Please, God, don't let anything happen to him. Her skin changes color again, but not in its' normal way. Usually it moves through the color spectrum - grey to green to blue to violet to red, but now her skin seems to be mostly violet with patches of grey fading in and out of existence.

Once in the infirmary, Fee remains by his side. She doesn't know what else to do. She feels useless, helpless, and the combination frustrates her, settling her complexion to a light grey. She is desperate to communicate with him. They still haven't had a chance to talk about anything, and her feelings are a jumbled, confused mess. Before she is forced out by Mrs. Clairemont or whatever medical staff will eventually make her leave, she leans over and whispers into Spencers' ear.

Eventually she wanders back to the dorms, trying not to let her worry show. She smiles, puts on a happy face, and helps Liberty get situated, offering to share anything she has that Liberty might have forgotten. She really does want to make friends here, but her mind keeps returning to Spencer.

Liberty nods solemnly with Ariel while making a nervous, dry-mouthed swallow. "Yeah, I still need to unpack. Is that guy's super-power really fainting and getting nose-bleeds?" As Ariel leads her up to the dorms, she makes casual talk about normal, mundane things.

The rest of the day passes by quietly. Eventually, Spencer is discharged from the infirmary once he's woken up again.

Arthur looks at the radio after the odd message came across, but will continue to read when Spencer comes in and lies down.

About an hour after Spencer rests, he will go gather the others. Spencer wants everyone to meet up in the common room to talk about this exam coming up. I'm gonna go wake him up.

jHe returns to jostle Spencer awake. Hey, man. how ya feeling?

After Arthur goes and alerts everyone, Liberty pulls herself away from unpacking with the other girls with an, "Already?"

The common room seems prepared for everyone already. Credit perhaps to Arthur or it's simply how it was arranged the last time everyone sat down in the room to play games together. Liberty takes a seat to herself and waits for the others to arrive, and for Arthur to get Spencer to wake up.

Fee accompanies Liberty to the common room and sits near her, but with empty seats on either side of her in the hopes that Spencer will take one of them. She seems nervous, a little jittery, but her skin color is green to blue, which by now everyone has figured out means she's feeling pretty good. She smiles as her friends enter behind her.