"Are you sure?" She tried to keep the amusement out of her voice, but she was a terrible liar and even worse at concealing her emotions. Andy was clearly expecting a lot out of himself, but from Maya's perspective he was incredibly teen angst.

"Look," the kindness in Maya's voice shone through above anything else. She wasn't preaching at him, she was honestly encouraging him to continue. "What I've done is not a perfect solution. I don't get nearly as much out of the carpet as you did when you pushed it forward. Go squish in the hall carpet. It's not saturated anymore, but it's also not dry.Your towels, on the other hand..." She could lead a teen to the answer, but she really couldn't make him find it. If he didn't put it together that his power was far more useful in tandem with Ghost's then he just couldn't see it... yet. Teamwork was definitely an acquired skill.

"If you're sure you don't mind the water spray that escapes, I'll scoop up as much of this as I can." Hopefully the walls would be okay. Provided that Andy gave her the go ahead, Ghost went to work.

>> "Are you sure?"

Shrugging, Andy didn’t say a word. He was frustrated, mostly at himself. He wanted so badly to be better, to do everything right, but he just couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried, he always seemed to fail. Even his own genetics were against him. Not only did his powers suck outside of water; he was also gay. He tried so hard to make his powers suck less, practicing every single day and night, and he tried so hard to like boys less… He was even considering asking Allegra out on a date, even though he knew in his heart that it wouldn’t work out.

Lost in a swirling pool of self-depreciating thoughts, Andy didn’t even realize he was letting two soaking wet towels drip all over the floor, reversing all the work he had done to scrub the hallway floor dry.

>> "Look. What I've done is not a perfect solution. I don't get nearly as much out of the carpet as you did when you pushed it forward. Go squish in the hall carpet. It's not saturated anymore, but it's also not dry. Your towels, on the other hand..."

Ghost’s tone of voice changed, and Andy lifted his hopeless gaze. She couldn’t do it all herself? She needed his help? He wasn’t useless? Andy asked himself, his spirits rising, before raising an eyebrow in confusion. “My towels?” He glanced down. “Oh, shit,” he spat out, then rushed to the bathroom to do his thing.

A few moments later, Andy came back with a smile on his face and a renovated sense of hope. I can do this, he thought as he knelt down on the floor and spread out his fingers with the intention of pushing every single drop of moisture out of the carpet and into the bathroom.

>> "If you're sure you don't mind the water spray that escapes, I'll scoop up as much of this as I can."

“That won’t be a problem for me…” he assured her, grinning. “Let’s get to work.” With that, Andy wrinkled his brow and reached for his powers, channeling all of his energy and focus through his fingertips. His grin widened as he watched the dampness in the carpet move toward the bathroom door, dry patches forming almost instantly in front of his hands.

I can do this.

Drama.
Drama, drama, drama.
She'd barely muddled through that with Jude and that had made her smart enough to leave Andy alone for now. The kid had to realize it for himself. If she pointed it out, it'd be like picking on him. She didn't want to be that guy and she definitely wasn't this kid's mom.

So instead, Ghost stepped lightly through the puddle that was the boy's room. Having fallen once already, she was already half sopping. She gave herself a good shake and then started to spin up another little miniature tornado. One tornado at a time, she emptied the bulk of the water with little bits of spray escaping to freckle the walls and bedspreads and desk tops.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was their solution.

"How you holding up?" Maya waited in the bathroom for the carpet to be done before padding back across. She did her best to wring her skirt out as much as decency made possible.

Both hands outstretched, Andy continued crawling along the damp carpet, repelling as much moisture as he could, until he reached the bathroom door. Then he stopped, took a deep breath, and reanalyzed the situation. The bathroom floor was still wet. Adding more water to it would probably be a bad idea. He needed Ghost and her tornado powers to dry off the bathroom floor a little more, but where was she? Andy lifted his head and glanced around the hallway, which was empty, save a handful of nosy students who apparently had nothing better to do than watch him from afar. Oh, how badly Andy wanted to yell at them to mind their own business and get lost, but he couldn’t.

Ugh. If only his powers were better. If only he could bend water to his will like Mr. Cervantes. He wouldn’t even need Ghost’s help. Hell, none of this would have even happened...

>> "How you holding up?"

A voice came from inside the bathroom. Andy turned to see Ghost… and a much drier bathroom floor. It was as though she read his mind. “Great! Everything’s great,” he assured the X-Woman enthusiastically, some frustration bleeding through his voice. “All I gotta do now is…” Taking a deep breath, Andy placed both hands onto the carpet once more and, as he exhaled, expanded his psionic repulsion fields as far as they could go. Instantly, what looked like a gallon of water poured out into the bathroom.

“You’re up, Ghost,” Andy said with a grin, before looking behind him to see if there was any more dampness left in the carpet. “I think that’s all of it… Well, most of it.” Dammit.

Was that sarcasm she detected? Maya opened her mouth to say something but a last little gush of water came from the carpet to wash up against her bare feet. Right. There was still work to do here.

> “You’re up, Ghost,”

That sounded like the kind of teamwork she was used to.

"One water spout coming up." She spun it up much the same as she had the others, first scooping the water toward the middle and then starting a rotation that splattered droplets over nearly every surface. She'd worked hard as a kid to direct her power without any helping cues from her hands or any indication at all that it was her weaving flows of air. Now that her life didn't depend on the secrecy, she'd gotten more lax in somatics.

The little tornado hopped up on the edge of the bathtub and twirled it's way down to the basin of the bathtub before becoming unstable and sloshing around and down the drain.

Freshly spattered with more water spray, Ghost went back to wringing her skirt out over the tub.

"You seem awfully hard on yourself, Andy."

There was still some work to do and Andy couldn’t help but feel disappointed in himself. How did he ever expect to join the ranks of the X-Men if he couldn’t even clean up his own messes in a timely manner? He felt as though any other mutant at the Mansion would have been able to do a much better, much faster job. Just look at Ghost! She was doing most of the work and he was… pushing water. That was all he did: he pushed water and nothing else!

Andy tilted his head back and let out a frustrated groan before realizing Ghost was in his presence, observing his every move. His every slip-up. He had to be cool as a cucumber always, especially under pressure. Or at least that was how he thought all the X-Men were.

>> "You seem awfully hard on yourself, Andy."

Ghost looked at him as though she saw right through him and it made him feel very uncomfortable. Could she read minds, too? On top of all the other awesome, helpful things her mutation allowed her to do? Or was it really that obvious?

Taking a sharp breath to regain his composure, Andy picked himself up to his feet and folded his arms across his chest. “Not hard enough. If I want to pass my X-Trainee exam, I’m gonna have to be able to do more than just squeegee floors...” He averted his gaze in a mixture of shame and sadness. How stupid he was to even think he’d be able to pass. He couldn't even pass Chemistry.

Oh, great, now he felt like crying.

> “Not hard enough. If I want to pass my X-Trainee exam, I’m gonna have to be able to do more than just squeegee floors...”

She shot for neutral to encouraging as far as her facial expression went. He needed the encouragement. He didn't need someone to point out how silly he was being. If he couldn't see that himself, he was reallllllly not going to appreciate it from the outside.

"You're right," she admitted. "You probably won't be squeegeeing floors as far as trainee tests go, but everybody starts somewhere. The first thing I did was move leaves around. Like raking. The most inefficient way to rake imaginable, in fact."

Ghost had been lucky that her power was subtle. Looking out the window and watching the wind blow the leaves around was easily written off as daydreaming. Back in the days when her powers, and so many other's powers, had manifested it had been illegal to be a mutant. Now, here they were openly talking about it. No fear of police intervention. No big deal.

She couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head. They'd come a long way since then.

"It's good to push yourself and to have goals, but it's not good to get stuck in a negative feedback loop and get down on yourself. You made some good steps today. You made a mess, yeah, but then you worked to solve your own problem with the resources on hand. Chin up, Andy. That's a good foundation."

Tears prickled the corners of Andy’s eyes, threatening to spill out and make him look weak.

No, he told himself, wrinkling his brow as though in anger. He wasn’t going to cry. Not here. Not in front of an X-Man.

>> "You're right.”

Andy lifted his frustrated gaze from the still-wet (though not nearly as wet as before) carpet and sniffled.

>> “You probably won't be squeegeeing floors as far as trainee tests go, but everybody starts somewhere. The first thing I did was move leaves around. Like raking. The most inefficient way to rake imaginable, in fact."

“Really? That’s all you could do? For how long?” Andy asked, eyes wide with surprise before realizing that she could just be saying that to make him feel better.

Shrugging his shoulders, he added, “I’m not like you, though. I can’t move water in the same way you can move air… and I don’t think I ever will. Trust me, I’ve tried...” Andy lowered his head as though in shame, although he knew it was nothing he had control over. Even Mr. Cervantes said his powers, although water-based, worked much differently than his own.

>> "It's good to push yourself and to have goals, but it's not good to get stuck in a negative feedback loop and get down on yourself. You made some good steps today. You made a mess, yeah, but then you worked to solve your own problem with the resources on hand. Chin up, Andy. That's a good foundation."

No longer feeling like a complete failure, Andy picked his chin up at Ghost’s request and managed a small, hopeful smile. “So you think I can pass? If I keep training... How will I know when I'm ready? How did you know when you were ready?”

> "...For how long?”"

"Years? I don't want to discourage you. Things were different then. We had to be a lot more careful about showing what we could do so less was actually better." If her mom hadn't helped her, would she have worked with her powers at all? Or would she had tried to deny them and as a result be weaker now?

"The second half of my abilities, ghosting which is what I'm known for now, that didn't even kick in until years later, that's for sure." Ghosting had come naturally to her, but not when her power first showed up. She hadn't even dreamed it was possible then.

> “I’m not like you, though. I can’t move water in the same way you can move air… and I don’t think I ever will. Trust me, I’ve tried...”

"Right. And that's okay. You need to let go of what you can't do and focus on what you can. You did this." Maya spread her hands and indicated the carpet. "This would have taken me hours and even then it'd probably still be damp. So, we do different things. Because of that, we're stronger."

> “So you think I can pass? If I keep training..."

"Yes. I think you can pass. But you're going to have to work for it. Maybe more than the people like me who have a clear path to improvement laid out. The most important thing is that you're willing to try."

> "...How will I know when I'm ready? How did you know when you were ready?”

"I wasn't ready." She shrugged. Maya had tried not to be an X-man and for a time, she'd succeeded. "But there was a need. Be aware of what's going on and step up if you see something. Things are more settled and organized now that there's no internment camps and mutants are legal, but that doesn't mean that injustice doesn't happen. Just... don't let it happen when you're around and you'll be a hero before you know it."