A small figure sat on the ledge of a window, her feet dangling out into the empty air. She was wrapped in a navy blue cardigan and black leggings, mismatching socks protecting her toes from the chilly autumn breeze. In her hands was a second-hand copy of Peter Pan, a crinkled scrap of paper acting as a bookmark. She was not reading at the moment; no, she was merely staring at the large, green expanse spread out before her. The backyard of Xavier’s was especially beautiful, she thought. There was a delightful courtyard area bustling with students, many eating their lunches under the clear sky, and a hedge maze that was as marvelous as it was confusing.

Whoever the mansion gardener was, he/she did an amazing job. Even from her perch, she could smell the mixed aroma of all of the flowers and fruits standing resilient against the changing seasons. It was certainly better than the disappointing view of the parking lot she had back home.

The fourteen-year-old could see why her brother had been so in love with the school. Despite her misgivings, she found herself slowly growing to like it as well. At the very least, the campus was beautiful. And her accommodations were quite nice, along with her roommate. Admittedly, she had not expected to be paired with a girl younger than her, but Kaitlyn was proving to be a delight and a wealth of information. There was so much about mutants she knew, so much that she could teach Alice. She envisioned a positive future for the two of them. Yes, it was going to be a magical roommate-ship.

In spite of herself, she smiled. It was no use, trying to resist the charm of Xavier’s.

She leaned a little further out of the window, wanting to feel the cool breeze on her bare face. Unfortunately, she bowed forward a little too much…and she fell. Out of the window. Thank the gods, she was only on the first floor.

She was not so thankful, however, when she landed on her face. Ow. She stayed like that for a few seconds before quickly looking up, checking to see if anyone had witnessed her embarrassing tumble. It would be just her luck if someone had...

The cool day signaled the onset of fall around here. It was in these times that Teddy actually started to not like living here. He was from theSouth and even their winters weren't all that cold. Especially in Florida. Either way, it was still a nice day and he was still outside. Ted just happened to be sporting his favorite pair of wind breaker pants and a dark green t-shirt that said 'BJJ' on the front and had a picture of the Brazilian flag on the back.

He rounded the corner, not really paying attention to anything when he saw some girl he hadn't seen before sitting on the ledge of one of the windows. It's probably, just someone enjoying the weather. He thought to himself as he got a little closer. It wouldn't be unusual to see people sitting outside, or even have their windows open on a day like this. Although, it was unusual to see someone fall out of their window and land on their face. Unfortunately, he'd missed the actual falling part. He had gotten distracted by some bird as it flew over head and chirped. Teddy snickered a little; that is until he got closer. "Hey are you ok?" He still had a bit of a grin on his face but he wiped it off as fast as he could. He hoped she wouldn't get upset with him for smiling and think he was making fun of her.

"Hey are you ok?"

Ah, life could be so cruel. Alice cringed as an older boy approached her, a smirk on his face but concern in his voice. She wanted to disappear. Or melt. (But alas, she had the ability to do neither.) And it didn't help that the boy was—blush—cute, either. Like lightning she pushed herself up, ignoring the aching in her bruised knees, and brushed the crinkled leaf bits off of herself. Face burning with embarrassment, she found that she could not meet eyes with the stranger, and instead focused them on the angry red marks appearing on her palms and wrists. Blood began to well up on one particularly rough scrape.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine..." she mumbled, giggling awkwardly. Her attempt at laughing it off was failing, but it made her feel a little bit better. Besides, the boy had been grinning earlier (she tried not to take it personally) which at least indicated that he had a sense of humor. And she'd rather with him than have him laugh at her.

"Um, you don't know where I could like, find a band-aid, do you? she asked, finally looking up the boy's face. Her book, momentarily forgotten by the shame, remained hidden and buried beneath a pile of leaves.

Um, you don't know where I could like, find a band-aid, do you?

Ted smirked again. He was glad that she was ok. "You haven't been here that long have you?" Teddy asked. He knew the answer to the question before she could answer it. "We've got an infirmary here, where we have a resident healer. So I don't actually know if there are any band aids in this place." Teddy smiled when she finally looked at him. He really couldn't blame her for being embarrassed; he probably would have been too if someone had seen him fall out of a window. Of course he would be a little more hurt than her since his room was on the second floor and not the first.

The awkward silence filled the space for a second before he finally asked her, "What were you doing in the window anyways?" Teddy figured that most people would just stand at the window, not sit in it if it was a nice day outside.

The boy asked her if she was new, and she instantly blushed even more. Not only was she a clumsy fool...she was also clearly radiating vibes of newness... Sigh. The worst part was that she had been asked that almost every day that week already, further proving how clueless she was.

"We've got an infirmary here, where we have a resident healer. So I don't actually know if there are any band aids in this place."

Oh, right. Her brother had already introduced her to the infirmary during her first day. How could she have forgotten about it? Well, it was nice that she could have her scrapes healed, then, though she didn't feel they really needed the work of a healer. They were just simple little cuts. But she nodded and started to follow the boy towards the infirmary.

"What were you doing in the window anyways?"

Alice nearly choked. How to answer that question? The truth just seemed so foolish. "Uh...I was...I was just reading and stuff...and there was this nice breeze..." Her face heated up again as she stumbled over her words. Ah...I'm an idiot...

"If I had to lean so far out the window to see something I think I would have just grabbed some binoculars." Teddy said to her, being a little bit of a smart alek. The two continued walking along the path back to the front of the mansion where he'd come out of. Teddy realized that he'd actually never introduced himself to her.

"My name's Tedd...er... Ted by the way. What's your name?" he stumbled over a root that was sticking out of the ground, and managed to, a little less than gracefully, catch himself before he tried to mimics what she'd done out the window. Why was he about to tell her that his name was Teddy? It's not like people called him that a whole lot. Some did, but some didn't. That and he thought that it might sound a little childish.

A lot of things could be determined by just a name and unless it was given as a pet name or something he had no real intention of telling her that's what he goes by. He'd been lucky enough, in the past few minutes at least, to avoid talking about his powers or her powers. His usually got a awww reaction from people and that's not exactly how he wanted to meet new people.

"If I had to lean so far out the window to see something I think I would have just grabbed some binoculars."

"Ah...but I wasn't looking...I was just feeling the breeze..." she trailed off, deciding that she would not refute him. She wanted to keep at least a sliver of her pride intact. The older boy's tone was not exactly that accommodating, anyhow.

She nodded as he introduced himself, stumbling over his name a little. It was a tad strange, but she decided to let it go. "I'm Alice. Alice Tyler," she said, offering Ted her hand and a smile, "Um, thanks for taking me to the infirmary, by the way. I know I'm kind of clueless."

Alice skipped into the mansion behind the blonde boy, feeling a welcoming, warm draft hit her as they traversed inside. It was not a particularly cold day outside, but she did not mind the warmth of the indoors either. A few students were lazing on the couches, flipping through channels or chatting to each other. She thought she might hang out there after their little excursion to the infirmary.

"So how long have you been at the mansion?" the girl asked, continuing to smile, "I'm new, aha...Been here for a week."

Ted smiled and shook the hand that was offered. "It's no problem." Teddy said as they continued towards the infirmary.

"I know what you mean. I can't even count how many times I got lost or turned around in this place." Ted admitted. The inside mansion was a lot warmer than it was outside but he was going to enjoy the outdoors once this little trip was over.

There were a few kids siting around in the lounge and they all looked pretty comfortable. That might be a good place to end up too. It'll all depend on how energetic he feels afterwards.

So how long have you been at the mansion

"I've been here about three years now. Going to school and trying to learn more about my powers the whole time. Unfortunately I'm not sure how much I've learned about it."

It was true. He'd been here for three year and he still didn't feel like he was making much progress. Or at least not in the direction that he was hoping for.

They were almost at the infirmary and it wouldn't be long before Alice's hands would be all healed up.

Ted shook her hand and commiserated over the size of the mansion and how easy it was to get lost in its vastness. She smiled knowingly and nodded. She couldn’t count how many times she’d gotten lost either, and she hadn’t even been at the school for that long.

"I've been here about three years now. Going to school and trying to learn more about my powers the whole time. Unfortunately I'm not sure how much I've learned about it."

“Ah, I see,” Alice replied, “That’s pretty much why I’m here too. To learn how to control my mutation...” It was not the most heartening topic, but it seemed to be a common theme among the mansion students, particularly those with deadlier mutations. “But you feel like you haven’t learned that much?” she asked, a little worried. Whilst Toby had had a great experience at Xavier’s and had gained much control over his mutation, it seemed the same could not be said for Ted. “Why’s that?” And would that happen to her? That lack of progress?

“Ah, I see," "That’s pretty much why I’m here too. To learn how to control my mutation...”
“But you feel like you haven’t learned that much?”
Why’s that?”

Ted was silent for a minute. He'd never really thought about why he hadn't learned much. Finally he supposed that he had an answer for her. "Well..." He began. Ted was still trying to get his thoughts in order. "My power is very interesting. And it's not one of those that you can easily train. It's not dangerous... Just odd."

He smiled. There had to be an easier way for him to explain this. "I can transform into any stuffed animal I can touch." He didn't want her to feel like there was no one around to help learn about powers and that she'd been fed a bunch of lies so he continued.

"There seems to be more kids here with dangerous powers that might require a little more... personal attention, than some of us others. I think the school favor, not in the sense of they hold some at a higher sense of purpose than others, but favors in the way that there seem to be many more teachers available for training the more dangerous mutations than some of us, less than lethal's, as I like to refer to myself." Teddy smiled.

Maybe her mutation was dangerous, but that's what he'd seen in the time that he'd been around the place. He was still trying to get with some of the other shape shifters to learn about how to expand his powers. It was tricky to find people with like powers, because they didn't go around with a tag on their shirt saying what they could do. Teddy only hoped that she had better luck learning about her powers than he'd had so far.