Penelope was a bundle of excitement as she sat in the passenger seat of her sister’s powder blue Prius. A silly smile was etched across her lips as she stared out at the passing world, watching the trees whip by from the edge of the street, smelling the grass that wafted in through the window, feel the warmth of the sunlight on her face. Outside was pleasant, and inside of her stomach she was just so happy that she could have burst into thousands of tiny pieces.

Today was the day. Today, they were FINALLY going to see the school that Chase had told her about. It seemed like weeks, MONTHS passed that Penelope had begged her sister to take her there. From everything that Chase had said about it, the place seemed so great. Mutants! It was full of mutants! People with powers just like her parents! Just like her!

She sighed gratefully. She was so happy to be taking a look at it. The other place, the Sanctuary place that Lilith seemed to like so much was okay, but Penelope always felt sad whenever she went there. She didn’t know why. But this place, the Mansion, it seemed like it would be so much cooler! So much more friendly.

“Are we there yet?” Penelope asked, squealing as she hopped around in her seat.

Lililth smirked, enjoying this time that Penelope was just being Penelope. She nodded her head as she glanced at her GPS. “Almost baby. Just a little further up.”

But Lilith didn’t even need to say that much. It seemed that as soon as she started to speak, Penelope caught sight of their destination. Up ahead she could see the looming rooftops of the mansion. Even from far away she was astounded by the sheer size. What was even better was that she caught the odd site or two of mutants! She could have swore that she saw some redhead floating through the air, wearing a thick metal belt!

Looming closer, she sighed in relief when she saw that they were approaching the large gate with security. They were finally here! And it looked so safe.

As soon as they came to a stop, Penelope giggled as she unlatched her seat belt and hopped out of the car before her sister.

“Penelope! Come back here!”

But she was far too excited. Her thick, finely curled hair bounced around as she dashed up to the gate. Clad in a pink t-shirt with a large unicorn on it, she smiled as she stuffed her hands into her jeans and pulled out a card that Chase’s mommy had given her.

“Uh! Excuse me!” she beamed as the kindly looking security guard came up to the fence. Already she could hear Lilith’s footsteps coming up behind her. “My friend goes here. He said he would show me around. His name is Chase. Can you get him?”

She felt a squeeze on her shoulder from her sister.

“Oh,” she said as she cleared her throat. “I mean, pleeeeease?”

Penelope was coming over to visit—of course, she they’d communicated beforehand about visiting the school, and Chase had done his best to prepare himself for her visit. He’d shoved the tornado of dirty clothes and toys under his bed, and then deemed his room “clean”. His shoelaces were double-knotted, his cargo pants were held-up by his “cool kids” belt, and he wore a striped, blue v-neck t-shirt. He was dressed to entertain, his hair was its usual, unkempt blond, and Chase was ready to play guide.

How one showed a girl around the school was a mystery to him—Gemma had affectionately referred to the get-together as a “playdate”, much to the nine-year-old’s chagrin. To think that he’d be showing a girl around school. What would the older boys say?!

Full of nerves and excitement, Chase had insisted upon sitting on the front steps of the mansion, his mother sitting behind him—she wanted to meet Penelope’s parent or guardian, and Chase wanted to not have to hang around long, and dart off with Penny as soon as he possibly could.

“Mommy, when will they be here?” the child groaned, his head falling into his palms, and his elbows resting on his knees.

“Soon, darling, soon,” his mother answered back.

…

The guard smiled kindly at the young girl as she trotted up to the fence, her young falsetto cutting through the air. She was here to see one of the students, and wanted to know if the guard could please get him.

“Of course, young lady,” the guard nodded as he replied, “But the driveway is very long. It will be faster to drive up there.” He turned his attention to Penelope’s older sister, and asked for some identification. Once he made note of who she was, the two young ladies were free to return to their car, and continue up the drive, for the guard opened the gate for them.

“I hope you and Chase have fun,” the guard said politely, chuckling at the curly-haired pixie. God, he loved kids. They were such characters.

Penelope was bouncing in her seat as she peeked outside of the car window. The guard had been incredibly sweet and said that he would phone ahead to have Chase meet them out front; she liked people who true to their word. As Lilith drove up the path, Penelope beamed brighter than sunshine when she caught sight of that familiar blond hair, the pale skin, and the nervous eyes. He had dressed nicely and he actually looked a little relieved to see the car pulling up. As soon as she felt like she could be seen, Penelope leaned a little out of the car and waved at Chase.

Lilith smirked, giggling a little at her younger sister’s antics.

“Baby girl, what’re you doing?”

“Making sure he knows it’s me, duh,” Penelope responded without leaning back into the car.

“That him?” Lilith asked as she finally saw the blonde boy. “He’s cute.”

The comment was enough to make a strange expression cross Penelope’s face. She leaned back into the car as she eyed her sister. The silence was enough to make Lilith blink and glance over at Penelope. Seeing the look on her face immediately made her suspicious.

“What?” she asked innocently.

Penelope just shook her head. “Just…ew…”

The thought of Chase being “cute” in “THAT way”, ick! Boys were icky! Her sister could have the strangest of thoughts at times. She sighed as she peeked out of the car again and saw that they were finally coming up to the mansion’s front door (that was a long driveway!!). When they had finally pulled to a stop, Penelope couldn’t help herself.

For weeks, ever since they had meet in the park, Penelope and Chase had been having phone conversations, talking about school, about when she would visit, about all the cool things at the school. Chase was basically her closest friend in the world right now and she had only seen him once! Seeing him again, well, that required a much grander entrance.

The belt unbuckled, the car door opened, Penelope was out of the car like a bullet.

“Chase! Chase! Chase!” she grinned and giggled as she ran as fast as her little feet could carry her. Then, suddenly, she launched herself into a flying hug at her blond, mutant friend, squealing with delight! Yup…she just glomped him…


((OOC: I hope that the phone conversations and the glomping are okay, Gina! If not, let me know and I will edit to a more subtler version ))

Penny was all-smiles and waving excitedly at Chase, and Chase quirked a faint, hesitant smile back, waving back as he stood. When Penelope leaned back into the car, Chase wedged his hands into his pocket and slowly began to make his way down the stairs. Gemma trailed behind him at a reasonable distance, there to exchange greetings with Penelope’s chaperone, if the need arose.

The car had barely drawn to a hault when, in a flurry of motion, Penelope undid her seatbelt, threw open the door, and launched out of the car. She was shouting his name excitedly, and Chase froze like a deer in the headlights. She was moving too quickly—what was she going to do?!—she ran towards him and, at the last moment, leapt in the air, barreling for Chase. The child could only open his arms to catch the girl, and was then assailed by a squeal only perceivable by dogs and dolphins. Chase’s expression was confused, and the hug was exchanged hesitantly, but he smiled faintly—it was not an attack. He was safe.

“Hi Penny,” the boy squeaked, “Good to see you again.”

As over-the-top as the girl was about seeing Chase once again, Chase was just as understated.

>> “Hi Penny…Good to see you again.”[/color]

Penelope grinned as she sat up, still on top of Chase though. Lilith had dashed over, smirking but trying to be stern enough to her younger sister to get off the boy. After several apologies to Chase’s mother, Lilith finally gave Penelope another stern warning, still an ever present smile on her face. Penelope nodded and moved onto her two feet, smiling down at Chase.

“I’m sorry Chase, Mrs. Taylor,” she said a bit formally. “I didn’t mean to be so rude.” As she said this, she reached down and offered her hand to Chase, to help him up.

Whether he decided to take her hand or not, Penelope would stand back and smile as she looked at her friend. They had had some good conversations over the phone and it was so good to see one another in the flesh again. Really wished that the two of them had gone to the same school, at least then the chances of glomping on him would have fallen to a minimum since she would see him every day. But, seeing as that was not the case, she needed to behave.

“Wow, the school is so big and I think I saw a girl flying earlier!!” she squeaked in delight. She then turned and craned her head up to look at Chase’s mom. “Wow! You’re very tall and pretty!” She grinned as her head snapped back to Chase. “You have a great home!”

Lilith, once she got the okay from Chase’s mother, smiled a she leaned down and held out her hand to shake Chase’s. She looked strikingly like Penelope, except the curls in her hair were large, darker.

“So you’re Chase. It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” Lilith said with a smile.

Penny grinned successfully, having pinned the boy, and Chase smiled faintly back, scarcely breathing. An older, unfamiliar lady chastised Penelope and sternly instructed her to get off of Chase. The girl did so, and the boy sat up stiffly, his face flushed as Penny apologized. She extended a hand to help him up, and the blonde accepted it, pulling himself to his feet.

“It’s fine,” Chase said quietly, “I just wasn’t expecting it is all…”

He smiled faintly at Penny, wedging his hands into his pocket as she chattered about things she’d seen and to Gemma, before turning back to Chase.

>> “Wow, the school is so big and I think I saw a girl flying earlier!! Wow! You’re very tall and pretty! You have a great home!”

“There are lots of people who can fly here,” Chase acknowledged, nodding his head. For as high-strung as his friend was, Chase was just as calm, the total opposite. Gemma thanked the girl with a laugh at the compliment, and then Penelope returned her attention towards Chase. The little boy answered with an casual, “Thank you.”

The parents spoke, but once they were done, Penelope’s… whatever-she-was extended a hand towards his. He’d been practicing some, lately. Part of his practice was not being blindly horrified of being touched. His control needed to be better than that.

> “So you’re Chase. It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Nice to meet you,” Chase mumbled, shaking her hand and ducking his head. He didn’t know or remember her name from any of the multiple phone calls he’d had with Penny, but at least he’d shaken her hand, “Thank you for letting Penny come play with me today.”

>> “Nice to meet you… Thank you for letting Penny come play with me today.”[/color]

Lilith smiled and nodded. She commented to the much taller woman that Chase was such a polite and well-behaved boy. Quickly the conversation between the two women began to start up and Penelope was left to turn her attention onto Chase and Chase alone. The rest of the talking seemed to be too grown up, but it was understandable. Lilith rarely spoke to other people, at least not that Penelope had seen, so to see her actually talking to someone with interest was a marvel to the young girl.

She knew that Lilith’s contact with other people was rare because of herself. Penelope feared that Lilith did her best to keep people away because she didn’t want them to get hurt if being around Penelope accidentally brought out Jezebel. She was just trying to look out for other people. But…at what cost.

At times Penelope felt bad. She didn’t know what to do to fix it except do her best to be a good girl and keep Mrs. Tickle away. But, it definitely seemed as if Lilith was having a good time, maybe it was time for her to take her leave so that Lilith could be with people (around) her own age.

She tugged at Lilith’s hand.

“Lilith, can Chase and I go look at the school? Pleeeease?” she asked sweetly.

“That’s up to Ms. Taylor here. Ask nicely.” Lilith smiled.

Penelope nodded and turned to the tall woman again. “Please, Ms. Taylor, can Chase so me around the school? We won’t cause trouble, promise.”

Only when she received an answer from the woman did she smile, turn to Chase and beam. She was eager to explore…

Chase stood by quietly as the two women conversed, his gaze drifting to Penny inquiringly. Penny, in-turn, was watching him. He didn’t want to sit around while the grown-ups conversed, but was too soft-spoken to ask to be pardoned. Luckily, Penelope spoke-up, tugging at her sister’s hand.

Her sister deflected the inquiry to Gemma, and Gemma smiled warmly as Penelope reiterated the question.

“I don’t see why not,” Gemma said with a shrug, before turning to her son, “Try not to get into too much trouble.”

Chase smiled, “Promise we won’t.”

The children turned their attention towards one another, and Chase gestured to Penelope to follow him as they walked towards the front door. Wherever they went, it would be inside first.

“What do you want to see first? There’s a lot to do,” Chase explained. He was being polite. Penny was here to see the school, and he didn’t want to bore her with boy things like Lego’s and sports and other such things, “We’ve got… um… food, if you’re hungry. The library… I could show you the classrooms… and there’s lots of stuff to do outside.”

>> “Promise we won’t.”[/color]

Yesh! Penelope wanted to jump up in triumph. Both she and Chase had managed to avoid boring conversation with adults. That really could be tedious; just standing around, listening to adults as they talked about things that were either above her head or were simply too boring to pay attention to. But, the fates had decided to shine their blessing upon Penelope and Chase by granting them a reprieve! A bright smile and she nodded to Chase.

Chase gestured. It would have been rude for Penelope to not follow. After all, he was the tour guide.

Eagerly the colorfully dressed girl followed Chase into the building. Instantly she was in love. She was at a similar place for mutants, some place called the Sanctuary, but this place just seemed to be so much more grander. The décor was elegant, it was warm, and most of all, there was just an energy of being inviting and understanding to everyone that walked in through the doors. Penelope felt like this place was home.

She smiled at that.

>> “What do you want to see first? There’s a lot to do…We’ve got… um… food, if you’re hungry. The library… I could show you the classrooms… and there’s lots of stuff to do outside.”[/color]

‘You pick!” Penelope beamed. “I would like to see all of it. It’s so big though! How long have you been here? Are there more kids? Are the teacherss mutants too? Is your mom a mutant? What can she do? Who is that?” she asked as she pointed to gray girl with wings and horns whistling to herself as she strolled through the halls. “OH! What’s that?!” Penelope giggled as she ran off, following the glint of something shiny.

>> “You pick! I would like to see all of it.”

All of it…?

“Oh,” Chase responded, his gaze dropping to his feet. Seeing everything would take a while. And careful planning. What would they do first? What if he had to retrace his steps? Or zig-zag? What if Penny didn’t like it.

>> “It’s so big though! How long have you been here? "

His cohort began to rattle on excitedly, and after one question, torrential inquiries began to spill forth from her.

>> “Are there more kids? Are the teachers mutants too? Is your mom a mutant? What can she do? Who is that?”

Chase was silently pensive, distracted in an entirely different fashion than Penelope, but when she exclaimed “OH!” the boy was shaken from his thoughts. He looked up just in-time to see her retreating form.

>> “OH! What’s that?!”

“Hey!” Chase gasped, stumbling a few steps before scrambling after her. Once he caught up, Chase slowed to a more leisurely trot.

“What are you chasing?” he inquired.

Penelope simply couldn’t help herself. She was in a den of happiness, to say the least. Her parents always talked about mutants and the need for them to gather together for the greater good. And here she was, standing in such a place that was a homage to the power of mutants. Everyone worked together and, from Chase’s descriptions, worked to allow each and every mutant to not only help themselves to a better life but to help those out in the world who really needed it.

It was everything that her parents dreamed of, and more. Well, it almost was. The truth of the matter was that Penelope didn’t know their views on humans. She didn’t bother to ask that much of Chase since it was such a serious question, but she could look and observe for her own. It was this fact that she disagreed with her parents on, though. She didn’t think that humans were weak-minded roaches long overdue for extinction. She always thought humans were pleasant and always well. So with hope, and prayer, she willed this place to be just like that.

But she would find that out on her own.

Instead, rounding a corner, a burst of speed brought on by curiosity and childhood delight, nearly brought her running into a man with silver skin. The man, some kind of security person from what she could tell, moved on without giving her a glance. Penelope could only stare in wonder, though.

>> “Hey!...What are you chasing?”[/color]

Penelope beamed as she turned back to Chase.

“That silver guy,” she said pointing to the man who rounded the corner and disappeared. Bouncing with excitement she turned back to Chase. “This place is awesome! There are mutants everywhere!”

Chase finally caught up with Penelope as she stopped to explain what she was chasing after.

>> ”That silver guy. This place is awesome! There are mutants everywhere!”

“It’s a mutant school,” Chase reiterated, grinning. Of course there were mutants everywhere.

He looked about for said silver guy, but he was gone now, though.

“You probably saw Shawn, the security guy,” Chase said, “Wanna see if we can catch up with him? Come on!”

Chase started jogging ahead of Penelope, grinning broadly, “Can’t catch me!”

>> “It’s a mutant school,”[/color]

Penelope grinned and lightly stuck her tongue out at him for his snarkiness. She knew that he was right though. She didn’t need to be so excited over absolutely any and everything that was around her. After all, this was a school for people exactly like her so why should she be surprised when she actually saw a mutant with a really cool power? Maybe it was because it was so rare these days to actually meet a mutant face-to-face without worrying about people turning on them.

Whatever the case, Penelope WAS excited and people were just going to have to deal with that. She grinned wide as she turned back to face Chase.

“You…are so lucky,” she beamed.

>> “You probably saw Shawn, the security guy…Wanna see if we can catch up with him? Come on! “Can’t catch me!”[/color]

Penelope blinked is surprise as suddenly her young friend bolted off ahead of her. Shaken from her startled state, the young girl laughed loudly as she began to chase after…well…Chase!

“Hehehe Cheater!!”

Chase bolted ahead of her, allowing himself to giggle as Penelope laughed and bolted after him. Boy, he’d tricked her!

>> “Hehehe Cheater!!”

Chase grinned, and came to a halt at the intersection of the halls, cheerful eyes skimming for Shawn’s silver form. He was nowhere in sight, at least down the hall that he’d been seen slinking down.

“He moves fast,” he commented to Penelope upon pausing, “I hope we can catch him! Or, who knows, maybe we’ll run into someone else. There’s lots of people to see here.”

The child began to jog again, his feet padding lightly on the floor.

“What do you mean, lucky?” the boy inquired, gaze skimming about before drifting back towards Penelope.

>> “He moves fast…I hope we can catch him! Or, who knows, maybe we’ll run into someone else. There’s lots of people to see here.”[/color]

Penelope was giggling when she finally came to a stop next to the boy. She sighed as she looked down the halls. So far there was still no sign of the silvery man that they had been chasing but she was not going to let that discourage her. Even if they had decided to continue down a wrong hallway, there was just still so much more to explore. Therefore, NO path they picked could be wrong, right?

She sighed and smiled as she turned her attention back to her new friend. Just the idea of know that there was so many people here made her feel all the better. So many people, and all of them mutants too? It was just…almost too good to be true!

Taking a second to breathe, she smirked as she turned back to Chase. She was very glad that the pair of them had become friends.

>> “What do you mean, lucky?”[/color]

She tilted her head. What was he talking about? She thought for a moment and remembered that she did call him lucky for living in a mutant school. How could he NOT know he was lucky? Obviously she would have to let him know.

She paused, huffed a little as she blew some of her curls out from her face. Little hands on her hips, she tilted her gaze towards him.

“Because, you get to live with mutants! You get to be around people just like you!” she beamed happily as she gestured to the whole school. “People with all sorts of powers, abilities, and differences. People,” she shrugged, “who are just as different as you so don’t feel bad when your powers get a little…well…crazy.”

She darted her look away. It seems that in her time she had yet to tell him of her own abilities. She knew she couldn’t keep it a secret forever, but maybe just a little while longer? Penelope really and truly didn’t want to scare him off. Though a true friend would accept her whatever the case, she didn’t want to push it. Not yet.

She smiled as she turned to him.

“Come on! You said you’d show me the whole school,” she beamed.