The redhead was shocked. A mansion student who didn’t know about the X-Men? How did that even happen?

But never mind the ‘how.’ This was Kaitlyn’s opportunity to let somebody know the truth, without all the lies they’ve already heard getting in the way. Finally, she might have somebody else in that entire school who was on her side!

“Well,” she began, “the X-Men… they’re pretty much a bunch of idiots who think they’re superheroes. They think they’re helping people, but most of the time they’re just going around making people’s lives worse. Especially if they’re mutants.”

Thus began her rant. The two turned a corner and started heading down a flight of stairs. Kaitlyn ran her hand along a polished wooden handrail that she’d already slid down dozens of times.

The look on Kaitlyn's face spoke volumes. Alice had committed some major faux pas, it seemed, in admitting to ignorance regarding the X-Men. She cringed and waited for the "omg how do you not know" to hit her in the face, but it never came. In fact, though her roommate was shocked, she began explaining what, or who, they were.

“Well, the X-Men… they’re pretty much a bunch of idiots who think they’re superheroes. They think they’re helping people, but most of the time they’re just going around making people’s lives worse. Especially if they’re mutants.”

Alice crinkled her eyebrows and tried to absorb what she was just told. So the X-Men were like the superheroes in comic books? Like vigilantes? Alice had heard of a few people like that, who dressed up and tried to clean up the crime in the streets. They usually ended up arrested...or shot. And yet there was a group of those sorts of individuals in the mansion? The way Kait was describing them certainly wasn't improving Alice's impression of the X-Men, to say the least.

"How do they make mutant's lives worse?" the fourteen-year-old asked, unsure of how anyone at Xavier's could achieve that. Everyone seemed so...tolerant, even prideful, of their mutation. And the image of mutants hurting mutants clashed with the pretty picture Toby had painted in Alice's head, as well.

“That part’s tricky. Uh, you know that drug, M?”

Kaitlyn didn’t wait for an answer. If Alice didn’t even know about the X-Men, well… “If a human takes it, they get mutant powers. The X-Men are taking out a lot of the guys that sell it, which is really stupid.” They made it down to the third floor.

“Back before some idiot decided to make it illegal, M was gonna be the best thing for mutant rights, ever. ‘Cause a lot of the humans who hate us feel that way ‘cause they feel like they’re inferior or something. Like, an inferiority complex. So if they could have mutant powers too, they’d prolly stop hating us so much.” Second floor. A small child hurtled down the hallway at seventy-five miles an hour. Kaitlyn ignored him.

“Plus, a lot of visible mutants can’t get jobs, cause most of the people who make jobs are prejudiced humans. They could make money selling M when that was legal, and they could still get away with it when only the cops were cracking down on it. But the X-Men have gotten a lot of ‘em put in jail. So most of ‘em either had to stop selling and go poor to be safe, or they had to get violent to keep out of jail. Which makes the cops and the other humans hate mutants even more.” First floor. Kaitlyn stopped and faced Alice.

“So, basically, the X-Men are helping to make sure people keep hating mutants, and that most of the jobless mutants stay poor. And pretty much everyone at this school loves them.”

Drugs? M? Alice shook her head at the query, cocking her head in even deeper confusion. She listened intently as Kaitlyn described the drug, how it was supposed to help mutantkind. The brunette did not know much about mutant-human relations, other than that they were pretty dour, but what her roommate was saying kind of made sense to her, however much it oversimplified what was likely a much more complex situation. She wasn’t sure if she particularly approved of the drug, though. Who would want the ability to poison people? Or burn them? Or hurt them in any other way? Sure, there were some “cool” mutations, but there were plenty of destructive ones too. But...she supposed that was besides the point Kaitlyn was making.

Alice gasped as someone rocketed past them in the hallway, just as the two girls made it onto the second floor landing. The rapidly retreating form waved in apology and called out a waning “Sorry!” as he turned a corner. She stared after him for a moment, heart still pounding and adrenaline still pumping, but Kaitlyn had no reaction whatsoever, and continued with her explanation as if a young boy had not just nearly collided with them at seventy-five miles per hour.

The fourteen-year-old struggled momentarily to catch up with what her roommate was saying―something about prejudice and jobs―and regained her bearings as Kaitlyn spoke about mutants making money by selling M, and how the cops and X-Men stopped them.

“So, basically, the X-Men are helping to make sure people keep hating mutants, and that most of the jobless mutants stay poor. And pretty much everyone at this school loves them.”

Kait had spoken so surely, as if there was no doubt what she knew was true, that Alice couldn’t help but feel a little outraged by the end of the speech.

“Those X-people are sneaky! Why does everyone here like them if they’re hurting mutants?” Really, who were the X-Men to take an honest living away from poor, discriminated mutants?

...But then she remembered that the “honest living” entailed selling drugs, illegal drugs. Now, she was no expert on narcotics, but she knew that some drugs became illegal for a reason, i.e. because they were/are bad. So didn’t that mean that M was bad for people? And that’s why it was no longer allowed?

Alice avoided her roommate’s gaze, unsure of how to question Kait without seeming argumentative. “But...maybe the drug was hurting people, and that’s why it was made illegal. People could have taken it and gotten bad mutations that made them hurt themselves or others,” she paused, gauging Kaitlyn’s reaction, “I mean, I want mutants to have nice jobs and stuff too, but maybe M just wasn’t the best way to do it...?”

Alice’s initial reaction gave Kaitlyn hope. Finally, someone who got it! Someone who saw what she was talking about!

Then, Alice started to come up with the same kind of answer that everyone else did. M is bad, they say. It’s dangerous, they say.

“Pfft. The only people who cause trouble when they use M are doing something stupid. Like using it somewhere crowded before they know how to control it. Kinda like with alcohol, it only gets people hurt when someone’s being stupid.”

They were just reaching the entrance to the dining room, now. It was a little quieter on the weekends, when the day students were gone and only the boarding students were there to eat. The drone of a hundred different voices permeated the dining hall and bled out into the nearby hallways, along with the aroma of something that resembled tomato sauce. They were serving Italian food again.

Thankfully, Kaitlyn had an ongoing truce with the noodle-manipulating kid. She and Alice should be safe.