It took plenty of setting up and permission slips for the students who were still in contact with families, but Nate's field trip was finally a reality. There were voices of worry considering the state of turmoil in New York, but Nate was the first to assure parents that he would be personally keeping the children safe. As a mutant teacher, he was more prepared than most to back up that promise.

The students all piled into the bus and they were off to the museum. Nate and Sarah were in the front two seats, as the two adult chaperones. He seriously hoped bringing her along with a bus-full of young mutants would not be the perfect way to scare her the hell away.

It was a short ride, so he would go over the announcements and introduce Sarah to the bus in a moment, but it would be best to wait until they calmed down a tiny bit more. Until then, he'd just let them talk among themselves.

In the meantime, he turned his attention to Sarah with a grin. "So are you nervous?"

((OOC- Anyone who wants can just make a quick post establishing that they are on the bus, who they might be sitting with, ect. If anyone misses this, they can just catch up later.

We're only going to stay on the bus for one or two rounds ideally. We'll make it up as we go along.

Wheeeeeee.))

It was pretty difficult to hear each other when they were all talking at the same time. Usually, when that happens, people start yelling to be heard over everyone else's voices, yet none of the things they were saying was remotely important. It was mostly joking, making fun of others, laughing and just being noisy. Get the kids out of the classroom and the usual rules of behavior get broken.

Miles was in the thick of it all in the back of the bus with some of the older students. He was the one who said they were on a trip to watch 'old timey porn', because back in the day before the internet, TV, magazines or photography, the people of old painted their porn on canvas. Then some girl started saying it was art, not porn, and another guy dared her to explain what was the difference. Then a whole lot of joking and guttermind ensued, and they were all laughing, spouting ridiculous opinions just to get the girls on the defensive and ignoring the chaperones. They lowered their voices afterwards because there were younger kids present, but continued snickering and whispering whatever new nonsense they had come up with.

Deep in the back of his head, all kidding aside, Miles wondered if this was a good idea. Sure, professor Holloway had been planning this for a while, giving away guarantees but in the end he was just one guy and all of his students were mutants, so some of them needed some sort of special care and that might be too much for him alone to handle. Miles for one, did feel safe. He didn't like the idea of leaving his dogs behind, but with so many mutants around, it would be difficult for anyone to try anything against them, that is, as long as they remained in a large group and no one straggled off on their own. That was their best protection and professor Holloway, of course. Then again, didn't the professor have some kind of shadow powers? Wasn't the museum likely to have lamps all over the place? How can you cast a shadow when there's light everywhere?

Some protection.

Penelope was excited! They wre going to be going to see art today! Even though she was not officially a student at the mansion (maybe one day), she had managed to be allowed to sign up for this day. She persisted and persisted, but finally she managed to convince someone to let her go, so long as her sister signed off on the trip. Lilith was only too happy to agree. So long as Penelope was happy, there was little-to-no chance of there being an incident with Jezebel. Penelope was definitely glad for that.

With a smile on her lips, she bounced in her chair a little as she looked out the window, watching the world pass her by. Today she would actually get to hang out with friends who knew what it was like to be a mutant! It was exciting! Quite frankly, she just couldn’t wait to get things started.

That is why, sitting in her seat towards the middle of the bus, Penelope hummed to herself and kept glancing out the window. She was practically willing the world to drive by quicker, simply so that she could get there sooner. The young, dark skinned girl, dressed in rainbow colored overalls, a white t-shirt, and a stylish rainbow beret, fidgeted, but managed to keep her calm. The song that hummed through her lips was currently her only outlet for her nervous energy but it would be enough to get her to the museum.

She hoped it would be fun. How could it not be?

Grinning, she glanced over to the seat next to her to see if anyone had claimed it yet. People knew she was a chatterbox so anyone sitting next to her would obviously want conversation. It was a just a matter of who would be the lucky winner…

Chase was probably the youngest kid on the bus. And, because of his mutation, he’d been granted his own seat. There was just something quite uncomfortable about being wedged shoulder-to-shoulder with another person, and unwillingly turning into them. Chase was on the other side of aisle and just behind Mr. Holloway and the woman that accompanied him, in the /other/ front seat. He sat square in the middle, hands quietly folded in his lap, and eyes drifting between the floor and the window.

The kids around him were chattering raucously amongst themselves. Chase was not among the rowdy multitude, however. He was humming to himself, a tune that was not particularly recognizable. An idea seemed to dawn on him, and he looked around the bus. Mr. Holloway was talking to that weird, unfamiliar lady, so Chase turned to his side.

“D-do they have, uh…” he began shyly, addressing the unfamiliar face beside him, “I m-mean, do you kn-know if they’ve got comic books at the art museum? ‘c-‘cuz that’s art, isn’t it? In a way?”

Chase wore his typical “human” face, the blond-haired, freckle-faced boy with a narrow frame and bony limbs. His eyes, however, were still revealing. They kept flickering with iridescent anxiety, in the range of orange and brown. There was just a lot of people, a lot of really loud ones. And a lot of older kids. Maybe, if the weird lady got far enough away from Mr. Holloway, Chase could follow close behind him. Or just stand on the other side of him away from the weird lady… yeah.

His eyes darted to Mr. Holloway and Ms. Weird Lady, before darting back towards the student he'd addressed, the lava-lamp of nervous colors still swimming in his iris.

No class! was perhaps all Alice could think as the bus rumbled onwards to their destination. Sure, she enjoyed art class and more or less enjoyed museums, but the real perk of going on a field trip was missing school! Especially Algebra class, ick. (And possibly maybe hopefully spending time with Mr. Holloway.) To her right sat her roommate, Kaitlyn, with whom she chattered freely, though it was hard to hear each other over the collective din in the yellow vehicle.

Her hands moved freely and animatedly as she regaled some eccentric dream she had the other night, and she was so absorbed in her story that she didn’t even notice if Kait was paying attention or not.

Alice was buzzing from too much sugary cereal and excitement anyway; her self-awareness was at an all time low.

The pair sat fairly center on the bus, not too close to the high school students who were laughing raucously in the back. The brunette couldn’t really associate with the older students, because A) Half of them thought she was weird, and B) She was still too new. In her short months at the mansion, she barely got to know half the students going on the trip, much less befriend them, so she clung to her roommate as much as she could.

“Hey, do you know who that lady is?” she asked Kait, indicating the raven-haired chaperone who was currently chatting with Mr. Holloway.

Butterflies swam in Sarah's stomach as she sat with Nate in the front seats of the bus. She wasn't sure if the nerves were due to being in a vehicle with people she didn't know, something that always bothered her, or just because it was the first time she had been near so many mutants knowingly. Even if she didn't care about whether someone was a mutant or not, the only one she knew was Nate.

>>"So are you nervous?"

She the turned to Nate with a small smile. "Just a little. Nothing that won't go away," she assured.

She could hear bits and pieces of conversations going on between the students behind them. There wasn't really anything she could put together, but some of the snips made her wonder if she and Eric were as rambunctious as the children around her.

>> "Just a little. Nothing that won't go away."

Sarah was a trooper, and Nate was not doubting that the woman would handle the day well. She had the personality for people, and the kindness for kids, and after not passing out the day she met Parker, she had shown the wherewithal to expect the unexpected. "That's the spirit. Besides, you can trust that I will be doing whatever I can to make this easier for you. Which reminds me."

While the bus was rolling slowly down busy New York streets, Nate stood from his seat and entered the center lane of the bus. It took a moment for the bus to give as much attention as he could hope for. The entire time he stood there, and indeed the entire time they were on the bus, part of Nate's focus was trained on the shadow fort protecting Victoria from the sun.

Finally, it was quiet enough to speak. "Alright, first of all, thank y'all for signing up for this, and I hope we all have a nice time enjoying some art and just getting out and about. This should go without saying, but I expect y'all to be on your best behaviors. You're representing the school and a he..ck of a lot more." With all the tension and turmoil in the city, Nate did not need to go into detail about how important it was for a large group of mutant kids to behave well.

"If you have any questions or you need anything, you know you can come to me. You can also ask this lovely lady beside me." Oh yes, Sarah was going to appreciate that introduction. "Miss Jackson is a clever artist who might know as much about art as me. Maybe." There were a few chuckles at the comment, reaffirming Nate's knowledge of just how cheesy his humor was.

"We'll be there soon, and at that point Miss Jackson and I will lead everyone into the museum. NO STRAYING. Can't say that enough. With the group. All the time. Okay?" Most of the students seemed to look with some sort of affirmation. "Okay."

Nate returned to his seat and turned back to Sarah. "See? Today's gonna go just fine."

The professor's 'no straying' warning was something Miles intended to respect. He may have been joking and being noisy while in the bus, but once they were outside he could be very responsible, specially now that he was without his dogs. Gosh, he felt so naked without them.

He could barely see 'Ms. Jackson's' dark brown mane from where he was sitting, but apparently the professor was not alone in the chaperoning gig. He didn't even see her when he got in the bus (too busy talking) and Miles wondered what her mutation was. Maybe she was a heavy hitter, since Miles knew some of the staff at Xaviers had some crazy powerful abilities. Was she even staff? He didn't know a lot of the adults, but he had seen them around at least and her face was pretty much new to him.

He couldn't even see Victoria, all alone and hidden in her fort, though he recognized some of the other students sitting ahead of him. The rainbow beret was leaning over the window, her owner watching everything pass by and surprisingly quiet. There was also this blond kid he had seen around the school and somehow made him remember fuzzy glimpses from that crazy dream he and a lot of other people had, though most of the details from their meeting there completely escaped him.

Miles got up from his chair, deciding to change seats. He left the teenagers in the back to continue doing their loud talking and moved forward, passing by a brunette and her reddish haired younger friend, then plopping down without much fanfare on the seat right in front of them, where Penelope stared out the window and hummed.

"Hey, Penny" he greeted her, then wondered if anyone called her that. "I was sitting in the back there, thinking how lonely and dark it must be on the shadow fort Victoria is in. She can't have any light, but I figure she can hear sounds? What do you say we visit her seat, just to let her hear a couple of friendly voices, telling her everything is going to be all right?"

The boy across from him grunted in disinterest, and Chases’ eyebrows stitched in reply. How rude! His gaze went to his folded hands again, a small pout stitching at his lips. Mr. Holloway stood up at the front of the bus, surveying his students for a moment. Chase lifted his gaze expectantly. Not like he had to quiet down at all. Chase already was quiet.

It was then that Mr. Holloway spoke.

It was the usually “good behavior”, which also entailed telling the kids how they could go to him or… Weird Lady… for any questions they might have. Mr. Holloway called her Miss Jackson, Chase didn’t count on remembering. To him, she’d be weird lady. No matter what, they had to stay with the group. It was then that Mr. Holloway sat back down and began talking to Weird Lady again.

“Mr. Holloway?” Chase called out. His voice was louder than usual for the boy, and the unmature tenor cut over the din of most the other conversing students, “How long is “soon”?”

“Can you believe this kid?” the boy next to Chase whispered in a not-so-quiet voice.

“Can you believe this kid?” Chase echoed in the boy’s voice, looking rather discontent as he redirected his attention towards Mr. Holloway.

Penelope looked up, trying to lean just a tiny bit in order to hear the man speaking. She had yet to meet him but she knew that he was one of the teachers at the mansion. She was always taught to treat her teachers with respect so she could offer him the same courtesy. So far he seemed nice so that always shined brightest in her book. She would definitely be on her best behavior…even if exploring on her own wasn’t allowed.

Sad. Sometimes the best adventures came out from exploring on your own. Too bad.

Turning her attention back to the window, she looked outside and smiled as she watched the passing buildings and people. She wondered if any of those people knew that this bus was fully of mutant children. It could very well be possible but there were not guarantees. It really was not like any of them truly looked like mutants. Maybe that was for the best. Humans tended not to like a lot of mutants gathering together. It made them nervous. She couldn’t understand why, though, and simply chalked that up to just misunderstanding.

So, quietly, after the teacher stopped talking, Penelope returned to humming her nameless song and simply stared out at the word before her.

>> "Hey, Penny…I was sitting in the back there, thinking how lonely and dark it must be on the shadow fort Victoria is in. She can't have any light, but I figure she can hear sounds? What do you say we visit her seat, just to let her hear a couple of friendly voices, telling her everything is going to be all right?"

She jumped when she first heard the voice and then the sensation of a sudden sitting. She turned to see who it was and grinned wide when she saw it was Miles. Miles was pretty cool! Even if he did talk a lot, he was nice and he even entertained both Victoria and herself awhile back. It was very sweet of him to do. She would consider him her friend.

Then he mentioned Victoria and her mouth opened wide!

“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” she muttered and nodded fiercely to Miles. “Come on, let’s go,” she said as she climbed out of her seat, grabbed his hand, and pulled him along to the nest of darkness that Victoria had constructed for herself. The poor thing…

Kaitlyn wished she was sitting at the front. Periodically, she looked around her seat to get a better look at Victoria’s sun-proof cocoon, wondering if it was lonely in there, wishing she could talk to her. All Alice’s talk of weird dreams made Kaitlyn uncomfortable; it made her think of her own most recent dream, which had Lori in it. She was happy in that dream, which just made Kaitlyn more upset the more she thought about it. And she was thinking about her own dream instead of listening to Alice’s story.

>>”Hey, do you know who that lady is?”

The redhead snapped out of it long enough to look at the lady Alice was talking about. She didn’t look like anyone who worked for the Mansion as far as Kaitlyn knew, and by now, she felt like she could recognize all of their faces.

“I’m guessing it’s Mr. Holloway’s girlfriend. What do you think?”

Then, Kaitlyn noticed that some people behind her were planning on moving to the front and saying hi to Victoria. She cursed herself for not thinking of that, too. There were already too many people crossing the length of the bus to visit the vampire girl; it was probably too late for Kaitlyn to join in, herself. It would get too crowded up there, and Mr. Holloway would probably make them all go back to their seats.

>>"That's the spirit. Besides, you can trust that I will be doing whatever I can to make this easier for you. Which reminds me."

Sarah wondered what Nate was up to as he stood up in the bus. Not the safest thing to do while moving. She listened politely to his words about behavior. She hoped the students didn't cause too many problems, but they were bound to happen.

The beginning of introduction he gave for her had caused her cheeks to heat. However, a nice eye roll came at Nate's joke. She took the next few moments to actually look at the group of the kids on the bus, trying to decide who would cause trouble and who wouldn't.

>>"See? Today's gonna go just fine.

Another eye roll. "Well not now that you've jinxed us," she stated dryly before going back to scanning the crowd.

In the days leading up to the field trip Victoria had spent numerous times chatting with her friends either individually or in groups about the event. It sounded like a great time! Seeing art and other cool and interesting things all in one place would be a joy to experience. All the beautiful things!

There was just one little…ok...MASSIVE problem! Mr. Halloway said the trip was going to be during the…gulp day time. Now she couldn’t go! The mere thought of being outside during the day horrified the girl. Did he want her to burn? No, he wouldn’t want that. He was always so caring of her condition. But there wasn’t anything that could be done. She would have to miss the trip and then feel worse when her friends would return and tell her how wonderful it was.

For several nights the red-eyed girl ran such thoughts through her head and she would cry her little heart out every time. She sooo wanted to go with her friends and see all the pretty things. Her friends meant a lot to her for different reasons, but she loved them for those reasons.

There had to be a way for her to go. Thoughts of allowing herself to ride in a sealed container with no way for sunlight to enter crossed her mind. It wasn’t the best of ideas but at least she could go with her friends. Right?

Early in the night before the trip Victoria went to her teacher to talk with him about the trip. She expressed her wanting to go, but that was quickly followed by her dreadful fear of being out during the day. Mr. Holloway did what he could to try to comfort the girl. He told her of an idea of how to get her to the bus and that he would have a special fort for her on the bus where she could hide. He added that he would use his ability to make sure no light got to her to keep her safe. Then he reminded her that most of her friends would be there as well. Kait, Miles, Penelope and others she might become friends with.

With the conversation lasting a looong time due to Victoria’s deathly fear, she eventually gave in to Mr. Holloway’s ideas and his reassurance.

The next…day Mr. Holloway greeted Victoria at her room door. The girl had on one of her beautiful dresses. This one was blue and white with several big bows on it and long sleeves. He told her that it was overcast and some snow was falling. This helped ease her fear…a little. She was ready to place herself in her teacher’s care more than ever though signs of unease were obvious.

She grabbed one of her large hooded cloaks and put it on pulling the hood up. The cloak draped down to her feet so she was nearly completely covered except her face. Drawing the hood down as far as she could Nate then used his ability to surround the girl in a shadow bubble and walked her to the bus.

Not thinking of what others might think of seeing Mr. Halloway guiding something hidden in a shadow and then making sure whatever it was got into the “fort”. Victoria tried to make herself as comfortable as she could by deciding to lay down on the bench. Some might think she was some sort of animal or something. Her “fort” was then protected by her teacher and the little blonde girl was submerged in darkness. She heard lots of people talking about various things, but she couldn’t pick out her friends’ voices yet.

Professor Holloway's shadow fort was one of the weirdest things Miles had seen in a while. It was like light simply refused to enter a space determined by him, where a girl was now sitting and hiding from sunlight on a bus chair. Like a weirdly shaped bubble of pitch black... stuff, and yet made of absolutely nothing. It was as if someone had taken a picture of the scene and then painted over Victoria with a large, black marker.

Miles approached Victoria's seat, holding on to the handles as the bus moved, followed by Penelope. He offered the younger girl the seat next to Victoria and remained standing, holding with both hands, his head lowered and a knee leaned over the back of the next seat for better support.

"Hey, Victoria. It's Miles" he said, saying his name because if he couldn't see her within the shadow fort, it was very possible she was completely blind from everything around her and she may not be able to recognize his voice immediately. "The bus is moving and we're halfway there, I guess. You're not missing much where scenery is concerned. Once we get there, you won't need the shadow fort, so don't worry and don't be scared. Also, I brought you a friend..." he said, urging Penelope to talk with a nod from his head. "You've got lots of friends here and we're all looking after you."

Miles wasn't sure of this, since he didn't know which kids Victoria hung out with. There was the vaguely familiar blonde boy who was close to Penelope's age, the reddish brown haired girl who was likely a bit older (also vaguely familiar) and she was sitting next to a girl closer to Miles' age than Victoria's. The rest were farther away or weren't even paying attention.

He motioned with his hand for any of them to talk, just so she'd hear their voices and hopefully felt she had company all around her, instead of being alone, enveloped in total darkness.

Penelope moved her way over to the dark mound that made Victoria’s resting place. She had heard that Victoria was extremely sensitive to the sunlight, something to do with her powers, so it really didn’t make a whole lot of sense for her to come on this trip. But, considering that Victoria probably wanted to hang out with friends, she could understand why she wanted to go. Besides, once they were inside, it should be safe, right? Art museums didn’t have a lot of windows, did they?

Well, she didn’t know. She assumed though!

Back to the situation at hand, though, she could only imagine what it was like for young Victoria. To have to hide in the darkness like that, unable to talk or chat with the rest of the friends that she had already made at the mansion. It was sucky. But Miles was right, that didn’t mean they couldn’t talk to her!

Penelope beamed a she plopped into the seat next to Victoria’s shadowy fort.

>> "Hey, Victoria. It's Miles…The bus is moving and we're halfway there, I guess. You're not missing much where scenery is concerned. Once we get there, you won't need the shadow fort, so don't worry and don't be scared. Also, I brought you a friend...You've got lots of friends here and we're all looking after you."

“Yeah!!” Penelope beamed happily! She waved at the fort, momentarily forgetting that Victoria probably couldn’t see her action. Not wanting to move or mess up the protection that Victoria had, Penelope tried to steer clear of it, but leaned in enough so Victoria could hear her. “Don’t worry, Victoria! I got your back! And we’re going to have FUN once we get there!”

Penelope Peyton Pepper, optimist extraordinaire!