Callie had been given directions to something they called the admissions office, where apparently someone who knew how stuff worked around here would get the paperwork ready for her. It wasn’t hard to find. The hard part was getting up the courage to knock on the bleeding door. She stood staring at its polished dark surface for about half a minute before doing an about-face and walking determinately over to the wall opposite her. There she half leaned, half collapsed against it with a silent moan of despair, and then employed herself with gently banging her head against the wall.

“What… is… wrong… with… me?” she muttered to no one in particular. At least that was what she thought. But then no one in particular cleared his throat, and she flew away from the wall like someone had wired a thousand volts into it. “Oh my gosh! Oh, I’m sorry, I… I thought I was alone in here.” She felt that precautious balance that she had created in her mind shift ever so slightly and clutched at her head in sudden panic – as if that would help – and tried with every fiber of her being to not to do whatever it was that she was about a hairsbreadth away from doing. When she was sure she wasn’t going to turn anything, or anyone, in the vicinity into mush, she looked up into a pair of rather stunning deep brown eyes
.
“Oh, man, you really frightened me, sir,” she said weakly, lowering her hands.

“I’m terribly sorry,” Alistair said to the young girl standing in front of him.
He had decided on a whim to enter the school and make himself known to whomever was the right person was. He had found that people tended to feel less threatened by him if threw himself into situations completely unprepared.
It hadn’t helped much with this girl, obviously, but on the other hand she seemed to be of a rather nervous constitution. Her body language suggested to him that this might have something to do with her mutation, since she seemed to be trying to control herself. This made him feel very sorry for her, and even more so when he took in her damaged hands, since he thought there was a good chance she might have done that to herself.
“I didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that, I often tend to move a little too quietly for people’s comfort. Tell me, are you a student here?”

Callie smiled weakly. "It's okay. I was just afraid that I..." She cut herself short before saying something that might alarm him. He seemed like such a nice person (and also, she admitted to herself, like someone Jonathan might refer to as 'yummy'), so she didn't want to say anything that might repel him. But maybe he was a mutant too?

"And as for your question, I... eh, no, I am not a student. That is, I've just arrived here, and I hope they'll take me in. I was just going to..." She gestured vaaguely at the closed door. "But I'm a bit nervous. I know that they probably have more powerful people than me here, but I'm still... afraid they won't let me stay. Because then I'll have nowhere to go, and..." Realising that she was babbling, she shut her mouth, blushing fainly. "I'm sorry, you don't want to hear this. It's just nerves."

“But of course you’re nervous,” Alistair said with a kind smile. “I’m guessing your power started to manifest rather recently, no? And about that, might I ask what it is, or is that too personal?”
Something about the way the girl was glancing at him gave Alistair the distinct impression that he was getting eyed by a teenager. It had happened before, he was a teacher after all and not always on university level only, but it was never comfortable. Mostly because the girls never seemed to realise that he knew about their interest in him.

Callie felt her stomach sink when he aksed what her power was, but then gave herself a good, hard mental shaking. This was ridiculous. She'd make herself ill if she kept getting worked up like this, and quite possibly she'd hurt others in the process too. So she drew a deep breath and thought, Here goes...

"Yeah, it did. I... I melted a steel bar I was holding." She held up her mangled hands with a wry grimance. "Apparently I make... stuff liquid. That is, I've only tried it on solids, but I think I could do gasses as well. It's only the same thing but backwards. Only, I don't think I should. I think it would be dangerous, 'cause the only gasses I have available are in the air and, well, I'm sort of using them for breathing." She gave him a rather sheepish grin.

Alistair realised very quickly just what the girl was capable of doing, and what she might have been close to doing to him when he’d scared her, and felt himself go a little weak in the knees. He made sure none of this showed, and channelled the fear that did leak out into the genuine concern he felt when he saw the girl’s damaged hands.
“Oh, but that’s horrible, you poor thing! Well… Oh, dear, I just realised we haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Alistair.” He began to extend his right hand, and then stopped himself. “Can you shake hands or are you still sore?”

Wow. He didn't even flinch! She'd probably been about to... to melt his skin or something, and he didn't even look nervous. Hell, he must have nerves of steel or something. And he probably was a mutant, right? That seemed like the most likely reason why he didn't seem even remotely frightened of her. Maybe he actually had nerves of steel for real. She felt an involontary smile tug at the corners of her lips.

"It's okay," she said, extending her hand to him a bit shyly. "I don't feel a thing. Literally. I know it looks a bit gross," she blushed, "but they are really perfectly fine. I'm Callie. Nice to meet you."

“Nonsense, it looks like you’ve hurt yourself very badly, that’s all,” Alistair said and enclosed Callie’s hand in his. While he was shaking it he added, “Now you make sure they teach you a lot of physics and chemistry here, and if they don’t you can call me and I’ll do it. I’ll give you my chard.” He let go of her hand and rummaged around in the inner pocket of his chocolate brown jacket to find one of his business chards.
“Oh, I should probably explain or you’ll think I’m some kind of pervert. I’m a teacher, just not employed here. You can google me.”

"Oh, I really didn't think you were..." she blushed faintly and and bit down on her tongue before managing to finish with something as deeply embarassing as 'interested in me'.

"And that's very kind of you, sir. I've been thinking that myself, actually. I'm terrible at science, so..." She gave a small, awkward shrug. "But if you're a teacher, I suppose that explains why you're here. You seemed a bit old to be a student." She grinned at him. "Were you also going to in there," she nodded at the door to the admission's office, "or were you just passing through when I was making an arse of myself?"

Alistair smiled widely. “My dear girl, I haven’t got the faintest idea.” Not finding a business card in his inner pockets he searched the side pockets and found a couple. He took one out and offered it to her. “I just thought I’d tell these people I exist so that they can make use of me if they want. They’re the largest mutant organisation I’ve managed to find that are this open about their operations and whose general opinions seems to run along the same lines as mine.”

Callie received the card with a smile and glanced at it, only to find it full of word and contractions like 'Dr', 'Master of Science' and 'PhD'. "Wow, I can see why they would find use for you," she said, impressed. She didn't ask why someone with so many impressive titles would offer to teach a fifteen year old girl which end of the periodic table went up, but she sure wondered. Maybe he was some kind of pervert...? Nope, that was just wishful thinking. He seemed far too decent. "But does that mean you... I mean, do you just specialize in working for mutant orginizations, or are you... uhm...?" She squirmed a bit, hoping that she wouldn't insult him now.

“A mutant? Yes I am. All that fancy scribbling on my card is a result of it. I have what would probably be called ‘super-intelligence’ if we were in a comic book. But I do sort of specialize in working with mutant organisations, since mutant children and youths are so often in great need of teaching and a lot of people are unwilling to help them, though I try to get assignments teaching ‘ordinary’ humans too. I think it’s important to show that we aren’t monsters, don’t you?”
He put his hands in the pockets of his pants and shifted his weight from his heals to the balls of his feet and then back again a couple of times. He was glad to see that the girl seemed to be relaxing a bit more, she sorely needed it. He hoped she didn’t think he was rambling on too much, but she didn’t seem to be showing any signs of boredom or anxiety to end the conversation so hopefully she wasn’t too annoyed by talking to him. He often worried a little when engaged in casual conversation that he made it last for longer than people were comfortable with.

"Oh. That's cool. I'm sort of jealous of you now," she said with an impish smile. It was quite possible that he looked even more attractive now that she knew what his mutation was. "That actually sounds useful, if you know what I mean. And yes, I think you're right. But you know, I'm not all that surprised people think we're monsters. I mean, I feel like a monster, so I definitely understand why others should think I am one." She smiled a bit wryly. "But since we're here with the same mission, maybe we could knock on that door together and I wouldn't feel so terrified?"

The girl’s attempts at discreet flirtation did not go unnoticed by Alistair. He couldn’t help but think that there was an almost adorable quality to it, and it was very understandable, if misguided. He was a young man who she apparently found attractive, and he was being kind to her in a situation where she badly needed comfort.
Adorable… but a uncomfortable. She could hardly be more than sixteen. Well, there wasn’t much he could do about it, he wasn’t flirting back, and if he became more reserved ‘just because’ he’d just make her feel sad and stupid and that was unnecessary.
“It is kind of neat, yeah,” he said and grinned back at her. “But don’t you ever feel like a monster, lady, because I can tell you’re not one, and I have several degrees to back up that statement. Now, as you said, let’s knock on that door and see if we can get us some guidance.”

Stop blushing, you moron! You're acting like an idiot! He's just trying to be nice to you. Argh, he's a genius, he might notice!

But she couldn't help it, so she blushed and mumbled a quiet, "Thank you for saying that," before clearing her throat and forcing herself to stop acting bloody awkward. "Very well, then. I'll try to do this right this time." And swallowing audibly, she walked up to the door and knocked on it.

No going back now.
...help...!