Amber paused, and Gemma wondered for a moment if she was going to answer the question at all, or maybe give an easy explanation to her absence, and time spent as a dinosaur. In the end, she told the truth, or what Gemma assumed was the truth, since it was probably not easy to admit.

>>"I can't live alone in the woods all the time, can I? It's hard, sometimes, to find the right balance between the human and the not human. It just felt like the right time to come back. Like I could face the human world again. For a while, I felt like I could't."

"That is a very mature decision" Gemma nodded "And it probably wasn't an easy one."

For someone so young, for such special powers, Amber had to make a lot of tough decisions, and be aware of a lot of things other people her age might have taken lightly. For mutants with strong powers, sometimes it was easy to get lost in what the could do, and lose touch with everyday life.

"I am glad you came back for a while. Please let me know if I can do anything to make your time here easier... I know moving from one type of an environment to another can be a process sometimes. And I am happy to help with your studies as well. You seem like you are a smart lady, I don't think they will be much of a problem."

Whether it was a mature decision or not, Amber didn't know although Gemma was right that it wasn't easy.   She shrugged her shoulders.
 It came down to the ability to maintain a grip on her sanity and the survival that came along with it.  For a time it seemed like she might have been able to simply exist alone forever, but as the months ticked on the slow realization that human contact was needed became apparent.

"I appreciate the support.  For now, all I want is to go back to school.  I have no idea what my future holds, how I'll get there or how much of a handicap being a zombie girl is going to be but I've got the do something, right?"  She offered up a sardonic smile.  "I want my life to be more than just a struggle for survival, going back and forth between fighting and hiding.  I want to do something, maybe something important.  I just don't know what, yet."  It was hard to even think about the great, black abyss that was years to come.

>>"I appreciate the support. For now, all I want is to go back to school. I have no idea what my future holds, how I'll get there or how much of a handicap being a zombie girl is going to be but I've got the do something, right?"

"Well, that's what this school is for." Gemma smiled softly. She was happy that the Mansion managed to be a place where students felt safe returning to, and that it could provide them an environment where they could study, and be normal students for once, without the added stress of trying to fit in. Sure, mutant kids were not saints either, and they did typical kid stuff, but at least a zombie-dinosaur girl had the opportunity to come home and go to classes.

>>"I want my life to be more than just a struggle for survival, going back and forth between fighting and hiding. I want to do something, maybe something important. I just don't know what, yet."

"That's completely normal, I'm afraid" Gemma chuckled "You are not required to know those things right away. Most people don't. It took me a long time too, to figure out what I wanted, and I did a whole lot of other things before I got there. The best thing to do is to take things one step at a time, and try things you have not tried before. Eventually, you'll figure out what you want."

"There was a time that I liked school," she said thoughtfully.  It felt like a very long time ago in a different lifetime only distantly remembered.  How had things managed to change to much in such little time?  In a mere handful of years she'd gone from a shy, sick introvert into something dangerous and, at times, barely human.  She was still an introvert though, so maybe that counted for something?  A common thread across the years of her life?

At least some part of her life was normal because gods knew none of the rest of it was.  Was that the case for all mutants or was her experience unusual even among the unusual?  "I'm sure I'll figure it out in time.  If nothing else, I could make a great paleontologist, right?"  She grinned at the thought.  Who knew more about prehistoric reptiles than she?  Of course, the fear of becoming some twisted scientist's guinea pig was probably enough to keep her away from that particular line of work.

"How did you decide you wanted to be a counselor and especially one working with mutants?"

>>"There was a time that I liked school. I'm sure I'll figure it out in time. If nothing else, I could make a great paleontologist, right?"

"Definitely. But only if you want to be." Gemma chuckled at the suggestion. Amber definitely had the unique powers to become an accomplished person in the field of science... one way or another. She would still have to study, obviously, unless she wanted to be the demonstration tool rather than the researcher, but the joke was still funny. And who knew, maybe in time science would help her use her powers to find out more things about past, present, and future...

>>"How did you decide you wanted to be a counselor and especially one working with mutants?"

It was not the first time Gemma had heard that question, but it did not bother her to tell. She smiled as she answered it.

"I worked in schools, and I liked helping people... counseling came first, and when I started having mutant students, I found out that I was an adapted, and that my aura sometimes helped them take a break from their powers... or learn to control them better. So it made sense to me that where I could help best was a mutant school..."

There was time to decide the direction of her future.  Probably.  If she was feeling optimistic about her chances of continuing the almost life she currently lead.  And oddly enough, she did feel just a little bit optimistic.

Amber wasn't surprised that Gemma had an answer ready in hand for her question as it was unlikely she'd been the first one to ask that question nor was she likely to be the last.  "I guess, in some ways, it must be just has hard to find out you're an adapted as it is to find out you're a mutant.  It still kind of makes you a freak, right?"  The use of the word 'freak' was a tricky one.  Most 'normal' humans thought of mutants as freaks and some mutants embraced the term as something to be desired.  Amber herself wasn't quite sure what she thought of the word, but in this case it seemed appropriate.  "Or does being an adapted make you and ant-freak?"  She offered a bemused smile, her tone of voice conveying that the questions wasn't entirely serious.

>>"I guess, in some ways, it must be just has hard to find out you're an adapted as it is to find out you're a mutant. It still kind of makes you a freak, right?... Or does being an adapted make you and ant-freak?"

The conversation got slightly derailed as Amber got interested in the technicalities of being adapted, rather than her future school career. Gemma decided to indulge her, since the more she knew about people, the more chances she got to decide what she wanted to do, some time in the future. Besides, those were questions she definitely wanted to answer.

"Well, I do not like that word for either." she pointed out "It makes me atypical, since from what I know adapteds are more rare than mutants... but there is nothing freakish about it." she shrugged "But you are right, finding out about it and then learning how it affects others has been a long process. I think that is the same with mutations, as well as many other things."

Amber didn't feel like a freak and didn't consider either mutants or adapteds to be freaks.  Despite everything, despite her sensitivity to the sunlight and her disturbing appearance, these things were simply the prices she had to pay for the gifts she'd been bestowed upon birth.  If others saw her as a freak it was only because they had no way to know about the many wonders possible through taking on different forms.  In a way, she felt sorry for them.

"Thank you for talking with me and helping me get enrolled back in school.  Can I go now?"  Social finesse had never been something she'd learned very well.  What the future held she still had little idea, but at least now she had a few things to think about in making those decisions.