Beep-beep-beep!
"Why is your fridge complaining?" I asked, pulling my bowl of cereal closer.
Jean Grey pulled a plastic milk carton out of it and slammed the door shut. Only after that did the infernal machine stop complaining and beeping like crazy.
"Something with the electronics," the redhead replied, starting to pour milk into the bowls. "I've been saying for a while that we should call a repairman, but somehow, we never get around to it. It's not that bad, but if it starts beeping in the middle of the night, it could wake up people in the rooms next door! Luckily, no one lives there."
Storm grabbed a spoon and started tapping it impatiently on the table, waiting for Jean to serve her too.
"Cereal with milk, boo!" Jubilee Shen Li stated categorically, earning a smack on the back of her head from me.
"Watch your language, young lady," I said, giving her a stern look. "I'm starving!"
"We should have grabbed a snack at the gas station," the brat continued.
"They only had horse meat hot dogs," Monroe remarked dramatically.
"Hmm, give me your cereal," Li sighed dramatically and reluctantly pulled her bowl of cold food closer.
Personally, I would have preferred to warm the milk, but I didn't have the energy to be picky. We'd only had hot coffee for breakfast, so we were already starving. But as it turned out, breakfast at the mutant school was already over, and we missed it. Someone had asked for seconds and ate the extra portions.
Upon learning that the girls and I were seriously hungry, Jean volunteered to feed us and led us to the staff kitchen. At least that's what I called it in my head. The kitchen seemed way too small for a place where dozens, if not hundreds, of students from a private school could fit. Besides, they wouldn't keep beer in a fridge with general access, which I noticed next to the milk.
The cereal with milk was a bit of a disappointment, but there was no choice. There weren't any pots of homemade borscht in the fridge either, so I ate what I was given.
While Ororo and especially Jubilee lazily poked at their cereal, I quickly finished my portion and even thought about asking for seconds, but I held back. Instead, I decided to make small talk with the bored-looking Jean.
Strangely enough, the redhead was one of the few people who didn't repulse me. He didn't wear a ton of makeup, didn't outline his brows, and didn't paint his lips like some other members of the "weaker" sex in this world.
The only thing I could criticize was the blood-red nail polish, but he didn't even have pierced ears, so I could forgive him some quirks. As long as they didn't burn out my eyes or fry my brain, it wasn't that bad.
"So, what do you guys even eat here?" I asked. "Cooking for such a crowd must be a real pain!"
"Probably, ha-ha," he scratched the back of his head and laughed. "I honestly have no idea."
"What do you mean?"
"The thing is, we don't cook here at school. We have a hard time finding staff. It's tricky to find people who are completely loyal to mutants. With our current staff, we can barely handle this many students. So, all our food is delivered from the city once a day. We just warm it up and divide it into portions."
"And when do you usually get your deliveries?"
Living on just cereal and milk was the last thing I wanted. My young body craved meat—keep that healthy stuff to yourselves!
"Closer to lunch," he smirked, correctly interpreting my eager grin. "Oh! Good thing you reminded me, I need to call and order a few extra portions. The number of people keeps growing, but the deliveries stay the same."
To my surprise, Grey didn't get up from his seat. Instead, he closed his eyes and placed his index and middle fingers on his temples. Across from his forehead, at some distance, I suddenly noticed something strange. Sometimes, if you look closely enough, you can see how the heated air shimmers over a campfire. This was something similar, but the ripple had a faint reddish-pink tint, which is what made me notice the anomaly.
"Done, Gretta will call," he said, opening his eyes.
For a moment, I was confused, not sure what I wanted to ask next. But after a brief thought, I decided I'd have a chance to learn more about this "Gretta" later.
"What did you just do? Telepathy?"
"Noticed, huh?" the redhead grinned. "I'm not as good as the professor, but I can still pull off some tricks!"
All I could do was nod mechanically. Yeah, yeah, tell that to the Phoenix, as they say. Though now the situation with Jean was becoming a little clearer. Apparently, in this world, Charlene Xavier did something similar to what happened in the classic X-Men movie trilogy.
Somehow, when Jean was still a child, learning to control his powers, Charlene was able to seal them in a bottle. As a result, Grey now seemed pretty pathetic in terms of his abilities. Oh, I don't want to be around when this smiley guy starts having nightmares.
Wait a minute! What if Charlene was talking about this very case? What if the first "demon" she defeated and sealed away behind seven locks actually belongs to Jean Grey?
"What else can you do?" I asked, purely for formality, and got exactly what I expected.
"Watch."
Jean concentrated for several long seconds and once again produced that barely noticeable pink haze in front of his forehead. Then, my empty cereal bowl, which had been sitting in front of me, floated into the air and slowly drifted toward the sink. Well, that was to be expected.
It was doubly disappointing that the guy thought his current abilities were... achievements, sorry for the tautology. But I wasn't going to be the fool who told Jean that he could do better. Let him keep enjoying his ignorance, I still wanted to live! No matter how powerful my current body was, I wasn't ready to face a telepath and telekinetic empowered by a cosmic entity named Phoenix just yet.
"Cool!" I said, forcing a smile.
He smiled again and, checking his wristwatch, became a little more serious.
"Alright, ladies, time for some of you to head to class!"
"Tch," Jubilee clicked her tongue and stood up from her seat. "Marius, see you tonight!"
"Ororo, you too," Jean added.
"Tch," the blonde mirrored the heavy sigh of the Asian girl and also stood up, looking sour as she headed out of the kitchen. "See you, guys."
Heh, does it seem to me, or does the teacher hate going to class even more than the student?
After sending the girls off, Jean decisively began cleaning up the dirty dishes. Not that he was washing them by hand, no. He simply loaded the plates into the dishwasher and calmly started the machine.
"Come on, I'll show you to your room," he offered.
It just so happened that, even though I hadn't received immediate help with my problem, I still decided to stay at the mutant kids' base for a couple of days. Charlene didn't refuse me this opportunity. The telepath seemed very downcast since she had unintentionally led me to a very interesting idea. She probably felt like the fat wizard who let slip the secret of Horcruxes to a curious student.
I think Xavier was secretly relieved when I asked to stay at her school for a couple of days. She was worried I'd immediately start looking for a suitable telepath to kill and steal their powers. It was surprising that she even let me go with Jean. Not that I seriously thought about absorbing the crazy power of the redhead, but from the outside, he did seem like a pretty weak telepath, so he'd have been perfect for my purposes.
Yes, as I understood it, I didn't have to absorb someone super powerful. All I needed was the ability to operate with my mind and restructure it at the most basic level. I think prolonged meditation could help with that just as well. I'm not sure which will happen first: I reach the necessary level of enlightenment or Masquerade drives me completely mad.
Jean, the redhead telepath, and the Phoenix's favorite vessel took care of my accommodation. He decided to put me next to the other teachers, as I flatly refused to sleep in the same room as the older boys at the local school. No way! I saw those guys, and if they locked me in a room with them, I fear that by morning, someone might be missing a couple of students!