No issue with admitting that I was, and still am to a degree, fascinated with stories about mutation in the human population. X-Men may have been an extreme, but it was actually Anne McCaffrey who initially introduced me to the idea with her Talents' series of books...X-Men definitely allowed for a little more daring imaginings though!
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She was human, but she wished she wasn't. She was envious, not hurtfully so, but envious none the less, of the students here who were mutants. Mutant High was so affectionately called because of them. Some of the students, like her, were human, but they were quickly becoming the minority as more and more mutants were being enrolled. Quiet and a loner, she was forgotten, most often not even noticed against them, and yet she watched them with envy. Hidden deep behind her Gothic persona and dress she longed to be one of them, she longed, strangely enough, to belong. And deep down, she felt that with them was where she could.
The wanting ached and burned inside of her, so she climbed. Any, and everything she could, she would climb. The trees, the lockers, even the school. At one time or another she had managed to climb every public building in town. Except the mansion. The X-mansion. Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted. Gifted, another word for mutants, she thought sullenly. She slouched in her bell tower seat atop the school, letting the bitterness course through her, afire in her veins.
Mutants and humans alike, she was nothing to them. Shadows of nothingness, background noise, the kind you don't even notice the first time you hear it. But it didn't really matter, or at least that was what she tried to convince herself. That she didn't really fit in with either group. A human longing to be a mutant, no matter what, she was an outcast, would always Be one. She didn't even bother to climb back down for her class when the bell rang. How many times had she missed Jean Grey's class now? And the telepath had never even noticed. Not that she would, she was too busy looking out for her precious mutants.
She turned and punched her fist into the brick of the wall, letting her frustrations fade away and pain replace them, again and again she drove her clenched hand into the wall, never once wincing. Pain was good to her, it was the only thing besides climbing that seemed real to her. The only other thing that could break through the fog that had become her life. Calmer now, she made her way back to the ground and headed towards the front gate. She was tired of school and people for the day. Instead, she headed for the climbing gym. Well, it was more of a park than a gym with all kinds of structures, not just walls to climb. Half the time it also doubled as a paint ball area, something else she was very good at. They knew her there, and as use to her mid-day visits as they were, and they would let her in.
"The guys from the Mansion have it booked today Jules," the attendent called everyone that.
"Even the Challenge?" she felt like breaking a sweat today and the Challenge was best for that. The hardest part of the park, it was the only thing around here that she had to work at to climb.
"Nah, they're eyeing it, but haven't tried it yet, I'll add you to the list."
"Thanks," and she slipped in the entrance door. She knew to be careful when the people from the Mansion, aka mutants, were working here. She'd seen what could happen if they weren't able to control their powers. That's what they were here for in the first place, to practice their control.
Sitting on a bench, she slid on her tennis shoes and dropped her sweatshirt and wind pants to the floor to reveal figure hugging black jeans and a tight black sports bra. Pulling her hair up into a high ponytail she clipped her CD player firmly to her jeans at the small of her back and put the headphones over her ears, hard rock blasting out at her. Clenching and unclenching her gloved hands, she did a few slow limbering stretches and then moved to stand in front of the Pyramid. This was her favorite and she reserved it for her particularly stressful days, which were, unfortunately, not all that far and few between. It was huge, roughly an upside-down pyramid shaped pile of welded metal. It was constantly being added to, especially after she scaled it, or so it seemed. She enjoyed not only the climbing challenge it offered, but that it had a level of danger to it. All raw metal and endless numbers of possible paths through and over it to the top. Just touching it sent a thrill through her. Focused completely, she pulled herself up on the first hold and into it.
Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Logan, and their students watched the seemingly fearless young woman slid effortlessly and almost fluidly through the proven deathly trap of scrap metal.
"Is she insane?" Scott asked incredulously.
"No, I've seen her finish it before. More than once." Logan just leaned back to enjoy the show. He had seen her do this before, several times, and he was no less in awe of her skill each time.
"Intriguing." Xavier also watched closely. The girl's movements were almsot too perfect, even for an experienced climber. Was it possible....?
"And she's human too. No mutancy at all." Logan had just answered everyone's unspoken question. Xavier's heart fell. There were so few new mutants easily found these days.
"She's good." Bobby proclaimed.
"Yeah, good enough to think she was one of us," Logan watched for just a moment more and then turned as the others had, back to their own training.
"One is rarely aware, these days, of such talents being natural to a human and not some facet of mutantancy." Charles Xavier thought to himself before he too forgot about the young girl. For when they were finished for the day, she was already gone.
The next morning, she did not appear for school at all, and that afternoon, a body was found, floating in the river that ran by the Mansion. Bobby had found her, and not even recognized her, no one did. When a search of her house was finally made, her computer was found on, an article open on it, an assignment the girl had, due in Jean Grey's class.
'We matter too, humans, non-mutants, and there are those of us who envy you, enough to want to be you. we may be background noise, but we matter too....'
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