Life was starting to return to a more stable place, which was just fine by Nate. He was questioning his decision to end things with Quin less, he was shaving somewhat regularly, he was sober at least four nights a week, and he was rounding into form as a teacher, or at least he thought so.

The job was rewarding, and it was honestly pretty fun, with the only noticeable exception being the paperwork. Nate had a small pile of memos and forms on his desk, but he would deal with them after the last bell.

It was one of his younger middle-school level classes, which was normally a nice way to end the day. There was the occasional brat to deal with, but he was blessed with a majority of great kids.

The assignment for the day would be a pair project to introduce the class to portraits. Each student would be paired with the student sitting next to them, and they would both take turns trying to sketch the other's face. He was not expecting perfection, but by going around the room he could give helpful tips. It was an easy way to wind down the school day.

When he was done explaining the assignment, he ended with, "And if you need me for anything, just raise your hand and I'll be there in a sec." With the rules set in place, Nate returned to his desk. The kids would need a minute or two to start things up, so he might as well use the time to look over one or two of his memos.

For a while, everything went well. The children talked amongst themselves as they drew each other, and most of them seemed to be having fun. And then, halfway through class -

CCCCRRRACK!

- one of the tables in the classroom disintegrated.

After a few moments of shocked silence, one of the boys sitting nearby turned to the teacher. “Mr. Holloway! Kaitlyn did it!” he announced, pointing to a small redheaded girl who lay next to a fallen chair in a pile of sawdust, splinters, and metal table-legs.

“But… but,” Kaitlyn sputtered indignantly as she scrambled to her feet, “You made me do it!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yes you did, Henry!” She insisted, punching him on the shoulder. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Ow...”Henry rubbed his shoulder, then turned to the teacher again. “Mr. Holloway, Kaitlyn hit me!”

CCCCRRRACK![/b]

Before Nate could even look up, his mind shouted, We were SO CLOSE to final bell! It was really going to be a whole day without an incident, but clearly that was too much to ask from a class at Xavier's.

The teacher looked up to catch the final scene of a clearly unexplained story. There was a tiny girl he could not quite place on the ground, and what could best be described as the remains of a desk set beside her as a young boy pointed.

And then the boy and girl were playing the blame game, as was the custom of pre-teens. The two (barely) stated their cases, and still, the only thing Nate could think was: This class has a Kaitlyn? Heck, he kept pretty good track of names and powers-- especially powers, and he could not remember any students whose talents would leave a desk like that.

Nate was going to walk out from behind his desk when it hit him. He splayed the small pile of papers he had before him, and one instantly caught his eye:

Of course there would be a new student memo.

Nate could do little besides sigh, grabbing the paper and walking over to the feuding students just as Kaitlyn gave Henry a punch square in the shoulder. For a new student, the girl was quickly making an impression.

The teacher positioned himself between the kids, placing a hand on both shoulders if for nothing else than to use his arm-span to keep them out of fist fighting range. "Alright, that's enough of that!"

Nate looked down at Kaitlyn first. "Now Kaitlyn, I know you're new, but you have to take responsibility for your mutation."

Before the young boy could laugh or even smirk, Nate turned his attention. "And you, Henry! You know better than to provoke someone into using powers in my class."

"But I--"

"No buts!" There was a small chuckle from the back of the room at the word "buts," but he was gonna let that act of immaturity slide for the moment.

Nate pulled away and took two steps back, not ready to go right back to his desk in case they decided to just brawl out their problems. "You'll both spend the class sitting on opposite sides of the room and get started on a two-pager about why I shouldn't make you write a six-page essay on the history of blue paint."

He could just leave the punishment at that, but Kaitlyn did actually initiate a physical altercation, and beyond that it would not hurt to talk to her about rules and etiquette for his classroom. "And Little Miss..." he took a peek at the paper in his hand to cheat a little, "Kaitlyn Faust. If you could remain after the bell after a bit," he commanded as he walked back to his desk.

He would finish his paperwork, looking through it carefully for any more fun surprises, and deal with any Kaitlyn-related issues after class.

And so Kaitlyn found herself in the back corner of the classroom, staring at some stupid pieces of notebook paper because stupid Henry decided to use his stupid mutation on her. It really wasn’t her fault. She was just trying to tell Henry about how the X-Men were making life more difficult for mutants, but Henry had to get all mad at her and use his power to paralyze her. Kaitlyn wasn’t used to being paralyzed, so she panicked. Clearly, then, all of this was Henry’s fault, and he was a huge jerk who deserved all of the blame.

…though, to be fair, maybe she shouldn’t have been so dismissive about the “X-Men saved his parents” thing. That was kind of a big deal to him.

Anyway. She needed to work on that paper. She had enough stupid crap to deal with from her Algebra class without a writing assignment from freakin’ art class. Two pages about… what again?

“Why I shouldn’t have to write six pages about blue paint.” She groaned, allowing her face to collide with her desk and stay there.

Several minutes later, she had an epiphany. Both pages were done before the bell rang.

First page: “I DON’T THINK THERE’S A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE HISTORY OF BLUE PAINT.”

Second page: “EVEN IF THERE IS, IT’S PROBABLY REALLY BORING, AND YOU WOULD FALL ASLEEP READING IT.”

Done!

This masterpiece of academic writing used the largest font size Kaitlyn could manage by hand. After class was over, Henry bolted out the door faster than anyone else. Kaitlyn approached Mr. Holloway and set her two-page paper on his desk.

“It really wasn’t my fault,” she blurted.

The final bell chimed and Nate remained at his desk, looking at his planner as students were collecting their things and making hasty exits from the classroom, as was the end-of-the-day custom for students who were more than ready to resume their preferred activities of video games, television, sports, and puppy-love.

Oh my, he was honest to goodness turning into an old man.

His thoughts of looming elderly behavior were interrupted when a paper slid onto his desk from the boy-half of the class's earlier incident, along with the most mumbled "sorry" uttered by human lips and an Olympic-level sprint out the door. The paper and its sloppy handwriting reminded Nate that he had his own brief after-class plans with the new girl-slash-possible natural disaster.

Kaitlyn came to the desk and placed her paper down, immediately defending herself for the event. Before he replied, he read the assignment she handed in: it was not a difficult task since it was two large, capitalized sentences.

After Nate flipped the page and read the second half of her anti-paint argument, the teacher let out a howling laugh. It was not professional, but she managed to be funny and still provide herself with a logical defense.

Nate cut off his own laughter, but he was still smiling when he took off and cleaned the lenses of his glasses. "Sorry, that was just clever." No sense in lying.

Since the girl was quick to claim innocence, Nate was quick to assure her she could relax a bit. "Listen, I'll let you tell me what happened in a second, I promise, but I'm not too worried." Which was a weird thing to say after a student decimated school property.

"It's your first day, so I'll cut you a break." He returned his glasses to the bridge of his nose, adding flatly, "But please try not to punch anyone else." The tables were insured, but fighting could end up as something worse.

"First, I'd like to ask you a question or two since they didn't give me much info before sending you in." In this case, "not much info" was "New student Kaitlyn Faust will be joining your class this afternoon." Yep, no other information needed about a pint-sized mutant. "So Kaitlyn Faust-- do you have anything you prefer to be called? And what kind of mutation lets you do that?" he asked, pointing to the remains of the desk that a custodian would be collecting within the hour.

Kaitlyn honestly didn’t expect him to react so well to her paper. In spite of how much trouble she had probably gotten into (on her first day of class, no less), she grinned. “Thanks.” She certainly felt clever when she wrote that, too.

Hearing her last name made her shift uncomfortably. “Just call me Kaitlyn. Don’t use my last name. And… my mutation makes stuff blow up. It’s actually pretty lucky that he froze me up with my hands on the table, or I coulda blown up the whole room.”

She paused for a moment. “’Course, I only blew up in the first place ‘cause Henry paralyzed me, anyway.”

Nate clearly struck a nerve by calling Kaitlyn by her full name. It was probably wisest to avoid last names at Xavier's until he knew a students backstory a bit more, considering plenty of students had family histories that ranged from strained to tragic. He decided to simply smile and say, "Well, Kaitlyn is a lovely name."

Kaitlyn described her power, and Nate quickly understood what happened to her desk. The fact that it could have been the fate of the whole room... well, that was less comforting

And she quickly snuck in the fact that Henry apparently paralyzed her. He rememebered that paralysis was indeed Henry's power, so it was somewhat easy to believe her on paper. "I see... well, I will definitely be talking to him about that, because I have a strict 'No Powers Against Classmates' rule in this class." He filed that under a list of rules no one seemed to follow.

"Still Kaitlyn... you need to be careful." He had to take a firm stance for the safety of the girl and the entire class. "He was a punk, but you need to keep control under stress. You have quite a gift. It's amazing." Most mutations were amazing, and instant-explosions were no exception. "But it can be dangerous if you slip."

Nate wanted to be careful so he did not make Kaitlyn feel like she was being pushed or judged. "I only say it because this school wants to take gifted youths like you and give you the control to be your best." It was a mantra Nate was proud to take up after working with the Mansion kids for a few months.

Mr. Holloway was being surprisingly cool about the whole exploded-table thing. Even more so because Mr. Holloway knew it was an accident. With relief out of the way, gears turned in the back of her head.

“It’s just… I don’t think anyone can help me control it,” she admitted. And the hopelessness in her voice was sincere. “I’ve been trying, for years,” she shrugged and nodded towards the remains of the table, “but stuff like that still happens. I can’t really stop it.”

And if this was going to be a life-long problem for her, Kaitlyn decided, she might as well stop trying to hide it and start taking advantage of it. If her mutation wouldn’t get her in trouble in the event of an accident, and she had a reputation for causing accidents, she could get away with all kinds of stuff.

Kaitlyn had quite a disappointing outlook for her power, which Nate could understand to a degree. It was not an understanding brought about because of past experience, since Nate's shadow control was not inherently dangerous or hard to control when it manifested. If anything, Nate could see the problem of having an uncontrollable part of one's life that gave no real signs of ever improving, and theft was not even on par with spontaneous destruction.

"I can't promise it will be something you gain total control of, but I'm saying not to lose hope. The staff here will work with you and push you to new heights." Nate hoped that, if his upcoming request was approved, he would have more than just an art class so he could personally offer more of that help. "You've been trying hard, but you're still so young. You've got plenty more time to grow." Taking a better look at the pint-sized young girl, his word choice was at the very least multifaceted. "The point is, you might surprise yourself."

As he spoke more, it dawned on Nate: he had a somewhat fair parallel to her situation after all. "For instance: I manipulate shadows." His shadow rose from the ground on cue, forming a dark obelisk, before shrinking back down. "Recently, I've mutated to shift into that shadow. Wanna know when it happens? When I'm in danger. Wanna know when it doesn't happen? On command." He rolled his eyes; it was still a sore point for him that he had no control of his new abilities.

"I have no control now, but I'm d--darn sure gonna keep trying." He caught himself and just barely managed to self-censor. "So for the sake of school desks everywhere, don't give up yet," he added in an attempt to lighten the conversation a bit.

Kaitlyn smirked, just as much at the self-censorship as the desk comment.

“Well, I guess it’s better than it used to be.” She tried to sound optimistic. “I used to blow everything up whenever something startled me, but I couldn’t do it on purpose. At least I can do that now.” And it took her almost a year to even get that much control. “I just can’t stop it from going off when I don’t want it to.”

Now that Kaitlyn thought of it, some of the Sanctuary residents were probably happier with her at the Mansion. Fewer accidents for them to clean up after.

She was silent for a moment.

“Mr. Holloway, why does everyone here like the X-Men so much?”

It was a note of optimism to know that Kaitlyn was already well on her way to controlling her power more completely. Obviously, she had the right to be paranoid about never obtaining true control, since she fit under the umbrella of "mutants who could hurt the ones they love," but Nate wanted to believe that there was hope for the young girl.

Nate expected their conversation to pretty much wrap up there and the new girl would be on her way, but Kaitlyn caught him off guard with a question out of left field regarding the X-Men.

Why did Mansionites like the X-Men? It was one of those questions that Nate never really gave a second thought. "Um, I guess it's a couple of reasons." Which he would now proceed to list off the moment they came to his mind. "I guess some people like the ideal of mutants and humans cohabitating. Besides that, a lot of the kids here know people on the X-Men personally." Having a personal connection to the X-Men certainly motivated someone to hope the team's missions went well.

It was an odd question because Nate was used to the kids at the Mansion looking at the X-Men through the lens of black-and-white, good-and-evil. "I take it you don't feel the same?"

“Not really,” Kaitlyn shook her head.

“I don’t get how they can go around telling everyone they’re helping mutants, then turn around and do all the stuff they’re helping the cops with in Brooklyn.” She shrugged. “And I guess the kids here don’t know how badly the X-Men are messing it up.” Those kids didn't know what it was like to live where she lived. They didn't understand how the world really worked, like she did. And when she tried to tell them, they'd just get mad, like Henry did.

“Before someone made a law against M, the guys who made that stuff did more to make humans stop hating us than the X-Men ever did.”

Kaitlyn's response was very unlike what Nate would typically expect from a pre-teen mutant. Her opinion was very thought-out; regardless of whether Nate agreed with her or not, he certainly had to respect her coming to her own opinions based on experience and evidence. It took guts to have an opinion that was so opposite to most of her peers.

It was pretty clear that the girl did not come from the most typical home life; a regular kid would not have had such a fully developed opinion of a street drug like M. Kaitlyn's young life was clearly different than most, which made a former street urchin like Nate curious.

"That's a very interesting take on mutant politics," he admitted, interlacing his fingers in front of his mouth, considering his response. "Not many kids your age take such an anti-X stance. I personally like what the X-Men seek to accomplish, but no, they aren't perfect, and some decisions they make are flawed." He personally did not have an opinion of the X-Men's cooperation with the police, but he also had three of four huge biases when it came to the police in general and the MRC specifically.

The argument for M was still very interesting. "The M thing though... well, maybe there is some good there, but there are some big kinks to work out. I still have wounds from some feral werewolves and a stone-fisted gang leader that are healing thanks to that drug." He wanted to be careful when talking about his street-activities with students; his encounters with M-related crime were accidental, but his actions were still technically illegal and vigilantism.

He did not want to scare the girl off with questioning, but maybe Nate could fish for a detail or two. "Did you happen to know the guys involved with M production? Seems like you have some history with the stuff."

“Not really,” she shrugged. “Nobody does, except maybe some of the gang bosses.” The lie was so well-practiced that Kaitlyn almost believed what she was saying. “But most people where I come from know people in the distribution.. And those guys prolly wouldn’t have to be so violent if the cops and the X-Men didn’t keep trying to fight them for stupid reasons.”

Hazel eyes looked up to meet Nate’s. “Know what? You’re the first person here who didn’t get ticked at me for talking about this stuff.” Back at the Sanctuary, mutant politics came up in conversation all the time. Of course, back at the Sanctuary, most people tended to agree with sorts of things Kaitlyn would say. Usually because she heard it from them first.

Well, the girl shut him out when he asked about her possible knowledge of the M drug. She was probably telling the truth, and if she was not, that was her secret. Nate knew how important secrets were to keep, but it was always sad to see those secrets kept by someone so young.

The idea that M-Users were violent because of how targeted they were by the law might have some merit in many situations, but his situations were a bit different. "I'm not so sure about the werewolves, since they just couldn't handle their new bodies. And the gang leader... well, let's just say I'm in favor of, if nothing else, keeping M out of the hands of evil people. Especially evil mutant-haters." Maybe there was some sick poetic humor to a mutant-hater using a mutant power to hurt mutants, but Nate just found it sickening.

Kaitlyn seemed surprised by Nate's tolerance of the subject, which earned a chuckle. "Darlin, I know well enough that life is full of shades of grey. I won't give you a hard time for what you believe, because there's merit there. Just..." Nate looked over at the remains of a desk, "Remember everyone has their own opinions. And if someone's set in their ways, you just smile and move on." It was the same as arguing politics; everyone had a right to be set in their opinions, and everyone else has the right to walk away because arguing would be fruitless.