You Know Me

After more than an hour in the Professor’s office she finally felt that she understood Amy a bit better. The poor girl was painfully shy and did her best to stay as far from the attention of anyone as she possibly could. Her Mother worked two jobs and was rarely home, having little or no time for her daughter, and was completely unaware of her mutation. She’d been too scared to tell her Mother fearing that she wouldn’t love her anymore.

Amy had been teased unmercifully, to the point that school had become a traumatic event for her. Being stuck in a school full time was a bit more than she was able to cope with.

She explained to the girl that this was no regular school. She told Amy in great depth of her own painful journey from Meridian, Mississippi and of meeting Logan in Laughlin City, in Northern Alberta, Canada. She told Amy about everything, including Sabretooth’s attack on a frozen back road and of being forced to man a machine as a stand in for Magneto. She ran her fingers through the white streak in her hair, “That’s how this happened.”

“Amy, honey, Logan and I have been very close since we were brought here together. I heard him having a nightmare one night and tried to wake him, but his feral nature caused him to attack me when he woke, driving his claws through my chest without realizing it. They came out my back and punctured my lung and grazed my heart. The only way for me to save myself was to touch him, which could have killed him, but I had no choice. I felt positively wretched about it, afraid that I had harmed him and scared to death that the other students would hate me because I’d used my power on him, but no one judged me. This place isn’t like going to regular school. Everyone here knows what it means to be different. To them, you’re just the same as they are and they will welcome you with open arms if you’ll let them, I promise you.”

“What if they don’t like me?” Amy frowned. “The kids at my other school all said I was weird.”

She took Amy’s hand and led her from the office, “I think you need to see the place that you’re going to be calling home, Amy. It’s actually a wonderful place to live. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t still be here after ten years, now as a teacher, but still here nonetheless.”

The first place she took Amy to was the cafeteria, which was milling with kids. She introduced Amy to Paige Guthrie and to Angelo Espinoza before moving on and showing her a couple of the classrooms and the recreation room as well as giving her a brief tour of the grounds.

“I know you’re scared, honey. I completely understand how you feel, but I’m going to ask you to do something for me. Will you?”

“What do you want me to do?” Amy asked as she stared up at the mansion from the basketball court in the side yard.

“I want you to promise me that you’ll give this place a week. Then I want us to sit down and talk and see how you feel about things. Can you do that for me?”
Marie asked, smiling as she saw Paige coming from the house.

“Yes, I guess.” Amy shrugged.

“Honey, there can’t be any guessing. I want your promise, your word that you’ll stay here for a week and give this place a chance before you go running. In return, I promise you that I’ll be here for you whenever you need me. All you need to do is call me.”

“You promise?” Amy asked hopefully, a tremble of fear riding on her voice at the thought of trusting anyone not to inflict more emotional pain on her.

“Oh, honey, I do, I swear to you.” Marie smiled as she put her arm around the younger girls shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “You have to give things a chance or you’ll never have anything wonderful in your life.”

“Ok, I promise.”

“Miss D'Ancanto, Monet and Jube and I wanted to ask Amy if she’d like to join us. We’re going to watch a couple of chick flicks and just hang out since there aren’t any classes today.” Paige smiled as she neared.

“How about it, sweetie, would you like to hang out with the girls? Or would you rather go get some sleep, like I’m going to do?” Marie smiled as they fell in step with Paige going back to the house.

“I guess I could hang out and watch a movie.” Amy shrugged doubtfully.

“Alright, why don’t you both go inside and have fun. I’m off to bed, I’m afraid.” Marie yawned hugely as she left the girls. She met the Professor in the hallway when she started up the stairs to head for bed.

“Thank you for your help with Amy, Rogue.” He smiled as he watched her climb the stairs.

“It’s alright, Professor. I hope you spoke to Paige and the other girls about treading lightly with her?”

“Yes, I have. I don’t wish to send you all out after her again.” He assured her as he turned his chair toward the kitchen. “Sleep well, Rogue.”

“Night, Professor.”

When Marie let herself back into her bedroom she was rather surprised that Logan wasn’t there. Unfortunately she was simply to tired to go looking for him, but fully expected that he would return before long. She donned the silk cat suit and pulled the shades to darken the room before falling into bed, asleep as she hit the pillow.