Adeline's neck began to grow sore. Gaping up at the gigantic building, Adeline couldn't quite believe this place was where she would be living, and going to school. She understood now, how one house could house an entire school's worth of people. Her family's house in New Orleans was by no means small. Especially after living in a trailer whilst traveling with the circus. But this place...

"Wooooooaaaaah...."

The three mice scrambled over Adeline's head and shoulders, all eager to get a better look, desperate to explore. Hushing them, Adeline took the handle of her suitcase, and began wheeling it towards the front door, wheels grinding along the bitumen. With a clump, clump, clump, she made it up the steps and to the building. Hesitation bit down on her. Did she knock? Or could she just walk in the front door? Leon had gone ahead of her as she had gotten her suitcase out of the cab, so surely it was alright to follow in after him. With a nod to herself, she opened the door, and stepped inside. A quiet gasp escaped her lips as she glanced around at the marvel of the mansion.

Clearing her throat, she peeped up, hoping to find a teacher, or someone who could help her get settled in.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

Locke had heard people joke about how the term "slept like a baby" wasn't as accurate as "slept like a college student on break", and now that it was summer he could understand it. Having gotten through his first year of college Locke was now faced with a few months of rest before the academics began again. And rest he certainly was doing. He was going to spend a little bit of time with his family back in San Francisco before college started up again in the fall, but for now Locke was staying at the institute. For the first time since he was a little kid Locke was sleeping in to noon or later. Amazing how he had managed to make it through an entire year with as little sleep as he got. On a summer day as nice as this one there wasn’t too many people that wanted to stick around inside the school, and Locke himself was about to head out. He loved the summer, when the weather turned hot Locke went barefoot and wore less layers. He didn’t stay inside much, wanting to soak up the warmth.

He actually was on his way down the stairs and out the door when it opened, heralding the arrival of yet another student. One that seemed rather timid Locke gave a half smile and continued down the stairway. He was a rather quiet sort himself, and knew how impressive the Institute could be. His very first night he had been down in the Danger Room, got stuck in a wall there, and saw things that no normal person should bare witness to. He also over the following weeks had grown use to the layout of the institute. It could be confusing for a new student. Seeing as nobody else was helping the new student to find their feet, Locke was going to end up playing tour guide.

Maybe it was that he had spent too many times watching movies with Chris and Mai, but Locke suddenly had a vision of himself being introduced as “Tour Guide Locke” by the similarly named Barbie in the second Toy Story movie. He chuckled a little at the thought, running a hand in his hair, still messy from sleep, to try and minimize the look of his dead eye. His hair wasn’t long enough to shade it entirely, but maybe he could make it distract. ”Hey.” Locke managed, then chewed on his bottom lip. What next to say? “Um, welcome to Xavier’s Sister School for Gifted Youngsters. Please don’t make me say all that again.” The name of the institute was a mouthful and Locke liked to use as few words as possible. “I’m Locke. Earth stuffs.” There. He had effectively managed to give her a name and answer the inevitable question of "what do you do?" in one breath.

A boy came down the stairs, and answered. So that meant that somebody was home. He had the look of somebody who had just woken up, his messy hair giving him away. Adeline figured he must have been an older student. He introduced himself as Locke, and she stared at him slightly puzzled as he said 'Earth stuffs'. It took a moment, the gears in her mind grinding away.

"Earth...stuffs? You mean...?" Click. "Oh! You mean your power? Cooool!" Her mind raced at the possible implications of what 'earth stuffs' were. Maybe he could manipulate the ground, like the ninjas in her favorite cartoon? Make walls, and domes, and mud traps, and...

"Oh! I'm Adeline. Ummmmm...mouse girl! And this is Basil, Speedy, and Mega Mouse Man. A trio of squeaks in greeting from the rodents perched on her shoulders and head. "I'm supposed to live here now. But I don't know what I'm supposed to do to do that. I think I'm meant to write something, or fill something out...

She glanced past Locke for a moment, still entranced by the place. It was like some sort of palace! Like something out of a movie, or a story that her Dad used to tell her.

"What's it like living here? Is it fun? I met someone in the city who told me some stuff, and he made it sound like it was a fun place." She wriggled her nose, out of habit, and her whiskers wriggled in synch. "Are you a student? Do you study here? What are the classes like? Are there many people who live here?"

Adeline wiped the palms of her hands on the hip of her jeans, and bit down on her bottom lip. The reality of living somewhere different was setting in. Somewhere away from her family and extended family. And questions were tumbling out of her mouth of their own accord.

Locke raised an eyebrow as the young girl’s mouth became uncorked and words spilled out of her mouth at an astounding speed. It seemed that younger teen girls had the amazing capacity to speak at supersonic speeds. Forget having a mutant gene, having a double x chromosome was a guaranteed super power. Or maybe it was just that Locke tried not to waste words. He was a writer, but he tried to use only what words were necessary. In his introduction he had used less than thirty words, where as Adeline had in thirty seconds set that standard flying out the window. Did she even take a second to breathe in all that? Although he was still in his teens, Locke suddenly felt like that old man that people joked he was. There wasn’t that large an age gap between the two, but maturity wise was another matter.

The mouse girl thing seemed to be pretty self explanatory. It was one of the nice perks about having a physical mutation. People didn’t ask you what you did, or look at you strange when you told them you hadn’t learned their weight yet. From what Locke had observed, physical mutations also tended to make the mutant more accepting of other’s oddities or defects. Chris had been startled when he first saw the dead eye, but a large portion of that might have just been because Locke had kept it hidden so well. These days Locke didn’t feel the need to hide behind his hair anymore, and he actually could look at someone in the face without feeling like he needed to be wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask. Looking Adeline in the face was a little hard though. His growth spurts had not stopped yet, and Locke felt himself towering over her. Mouse girl indeed.

Or maybe it wasn’t so much her physical stature, but rather the trio of mice that rode about the girl the way you saw parrots on pirates. They were tiny things, looking up at him with curiosity and maybe a bit of nervousness? Hard to tell since they had noses that were twitchy. “’sup?”Locke addressed the rodents. They could not answer him, or at least not in English that he could hear or comprehend. Unless she had a cage tucked away in the suitcase those mice probably would be running loose about the school, not a good thing if you wanted to avoid them getting eaten by other’s pets. Locke had no critters of his own. Instead he had little siblings. “Ms. T probably knows what paperwork you have to fill out, if not we can find someone. I was a student here, but I’ve graduated from high school. Just spending time here until the fall semester starts up again. The classes here are like any other school, and yes, many people live here. Some with cats, so be careful with Speedy, Basil and Megaman.”

The three mice all perked up at the mention of cats being at this place. They all began to shuffle around nervously, sniffing the air for such possible predators. They remembered the time spent in Adeline's house when she had to go to school, when they weren't traveling around. When they were moving, they were safe. They spent most of their time in nice open fields, or with Adeline. Staying in one place, with cats around... That was dangerous business.

{"Adeline, what do we do!?"}, Basil squeaked worriedly.

Adeline hushed him down, giving him a reassuring rub on his head. "Shh... You'll just have to be careful. Stay with me for now. No wandering off without me knowing, alright? That goes for all of you," she said, giving a particularly stern glare at Speedy. The mice stirred uncomfortably, before simultaneously scurrying down her jacket, and into the safety of her pocket.

Turning her attention back to Locke, she asked the question she was about to ask before being interrupted. "Who's Ms. T? Is she the principle? Is she nice? When you said 'earth stuff' before, what did you mean? Can you, like, control the ground? Can you make a mud wall??? Because I saw someone do that on a cartoon! But that was before I learned that people with superpowers are called mutants. Only, I don't think he was a mutant. He was a ninja."

Make that questions.

Okay, so that non-sequitur hadn't been intentional.

"So, if you graduated, does that mean you go to college?" she asked, getting back to more normal, everyday subjects. "My uncle went to college, so he could learn how to do all the business for our circus."

The mice were cute, Locke supposed. They looked like they were having a conversation with Adeline, which he was going to believe was entirely. After all, she did say that she did mouse things. Why not have the ability to talk to them? He waited patiently while they discussed whatever the mice had to, getting only half of the conversation. Maybe it was all about his warning of the pet cats since she was telling them to stay near her? He wondered how many students would really be startled by the presence of little rodents. After all, this was a school where people did things like make people out of stones, or had bug buddies. Not that everyone liked seeing insects, but mice had that whole fuzzy factor to them, which made them cute to people. Adeline’s talk with her little companions had distracted the motor mouth from Locke, and he could almost forget how quickly she said words.

Only problem was that she wasn’t distracted for long. Soon enough she was asking him more questions than he could keep track of. “Mud wall? Cartoon?” Locke asked, unsure as to where her line of questioning was going. He knew that she had touched on Ms. T, but that had been just a few syllables that he had been able to pick up amongst her flood. “Hold on, take a deep breath. I’m still half asleep.” As proof of that statement Locke broke into a large yawn. He had only managed to get the idea that he was a cartoon character of some sort, or maybe a ninja. What?

Further questions were asked, ones that she had had to take a breath before asking him about. “Yes I’m in college. I’m on break right now.” Honestly, was the girl capable of an ounce of patience? Or did she need to say everything that came to her mind as quickly as possible, like if the words did not get out of her mouth she would explode. Once more Locke was left trying to sift through the rush and find anything that he could understand. “Alright, so there’s a cartoon with ninjas and a circus?”