“Here’s your stop: Xavier’s Sister School for Mutants,” said the cab driver after he pulled up in front of the gates. His tone had a strange tinge of apprehension and distaste. The way he said mutants made Haylee more than a little uncomfortable. He grabbed the small lever hidden next to his seat and popped open the trunk of his cab.

“Thank you,” his passenger responded evenly while she paid him his fee. She wasn’t sure what to say to her driver…he hadn’t been the most pleasant person during the ride. He started off as a fairly nice man, but when she mentioned her destination his demeanor quickly shifted to the one demonstrated now. The cabbie stepped out of his yellow vehicle and walked around to the trunk to get out his customer’s many bags. He swiftly plopped them carelessly onto the ground, as if he wanted to get it over with and leave as quickly as possible. Haylee resisted opening her mouth while she watched him sloppily take out the last of her things, and thoroughly regretted giving him a tip. After shooting her a look that apparently meant their business was over, the taxi driver promptly reentered his cab, put it in reverse, and drove away.

“Thanks for offering to help carry my bags in, jerk,” Haylee muttered under her breath. She started to gather her things and attempt to carry them all at once. After dropping more than a few, and a few choice words every time one fell, Haylee gave a heavy sigh and let all of her luggage fall out of her arms. Great fresh start, she thought contemptuously. Okay, so she was more than a little cranky. But who wouldn’t be if they got their heart savagely ripped out and torn to ragged shreds, forced out of and shunned by their school, and shipped off to a new one for mutants? After another pitiful try at carrying all of her bags at once, Haylee decided it was a lost cause. How was she going to get past the closed gates anyway, right? It was then that she noticed the call button.

Oh, well that makes sense, she thought as she mentally kicked herself for being such a bumbling idiot. She reached for the button, her hand starting to tremble as it got closer. As it brushed against the shiny device, Haylee let her hand drop. The feelings of anxiousness and fear she had been ignoring for the past week resurfaced, reasserting their grip on her throat. Haylee Yoon, the girl who had always insisted that she was fearless, was scared to death. The events of the past few weeks had crushed her attitude and trust, and ignoring her feelings probably wasn’t the best way to cope. Oh, and she had just found out she was a mutant, on top of everything else. Come on, it’s not like you can change anything now. Stop being such a drama queen. You’ve been enrolled in this school. Besides, what do you have to be afraid of? Everyone here is just like you. You’ll be fine. Come on. Push. The. Freaking. Button. And tell whoever answers that you need some help carrying in your bags.

Spurred on by her thoughts, she raised her hand again, index finger in ready position. After a deep breath (Okay, maybe a few deep breaths. And a little hyperventilating.), Haylee mustered up whatever courage was left inside her and pushed the button.

Garrett had been setting up a security monitor in his office, connected with the camera at the gate of the Mansion. It was logical to him that if he were to truly be the 'face' of the Mansion, then it made sense that he know who was in front of said face. He'd been on the phone with Johnny in security, trying to get the technical details fixed. " It's still fuzzy. Yes. I connected that already." Reaching behind the small color monitor, he carefully unscrewed the jack and straightened it up and screwed it back on, crystallizing the picture.

When he stepped back in front of the screen, he could see what appeared to be a new arrival at the Mansion. He looked through the growing stack of paperwork on his desk as he spoke to Johnny. " Yeah, it was my fault. I fixed it. Yeah, I see her. I'll take care of it. Yeah, bye." He noticed the paperwork for the girl arriving. The description in the file for Haylee Yoon matched the person outside. His eyes scanned the words written therein. It appeared her public school had basically exiled her over her being a mutant. It looked like an excellent PR opportunity and he made some notes about the school for later perusal.

Making his way out on the grounds, he could see the cab driving off. Dressed in khaki cargo shorts and a oversized green T-shirt, Garrett stepped up to the control panel, smiling at the girl and pressing in the combination code to open the gates. He kept running through his head that he was Public Relations, not a guy. PR, not a guy. PR , not a guy. Of course it was yet another beautiful girl. Maybe one day there would be a horribly disfigured creature that he could relate to. Or he could meet a guy at the gates one day. That would help.

He approached her and began slinging bags with straps over his shoulder and picking up suticases. " Hey. You must be Haylee. I'm Garrett Wills, Director of Public Relations here. Pleasure to meet you. Come on in and we can get settled and talk about your future here. I'm sure it will be bright." He waited for her to step through the gates before closing them again and securing them.

Soon after she pushed the button, she noticed a friendly-looking man stride out of the mansion towards her. She started to grab what she could as he opened the iron gates, regretting bringing so many bags. She probably seemed spoiled or high-maintenance.

>>> “Hey. You must be Haylee. I'm Garrett Wills, Director of Public Relations here. Pleasure to meet you. Come on in and we can get settled and talk about your future here. I'm sure it will be bright.”
Haylee did her best to smile despite the cheesy future talk, as the man, Garrett, picked up the rest of her belongings.

“Uh, nice to meet you. And thanks for helping me with my bags… I don’t know why I brought so many…” She replied, her voice winding down to a murmur as she finished her last sentence. She studied Garrett as they walked through the gates. He was pleasant, as expected for a PR director, but seemed a bit young for the job, or any job, really. She tugged at her jean shorts as he punched in the code to close the gates, and made a mental note to ask him what those codes were. It wasn't like she was going to stay holed up in her room the whole time. She was in New York City, after all.

“And honestly, I just want to graduate. That’s my sole goal for my time here.” Might as well be truthful, right? She wanted to get out as soon as possible. And it’s not like she had a choice of schools, either. What other place would take her? She had a big mutant stamp on her files, so it didn’t matter how good of a student she was or how involved she was. The mutant label would deter any and all others besides this one. Haylee followed her guide as he led the way inside the school. It looked bigger on the inside than the outside, and had a nice, airy feeling. She did her best not to like it.

“Uh, nice to meet you. And thanks for helping me with my bags… I don’t know why I brought so many…” Garrett merely grinned as he carried the baggage. " Well, hopefully because you intend to stay for a while. I'd be more surprised if you came to live here with one bag." That's what he had done, but he had come fresh off the street, ready for delousing. Oh, how times had changed. He felt her anxiety as he punched in the numbers on the gates. " You aren't locked in. Just buzz Johnny, our gatekeeper. He'll let you in and out., We've had some security issues lately, so this is the best way to do things currently." That sounded much better than the truth.

"And honestly, I just want to graduate. That’s my sole goal for my time here." Putting the bags down inside the foyer, he couldn't argue much. " Well, that should be the primary goal of all the students here. It's really a bare minimum. Hopefully we can also teach you about how to use your gift as well." He had already brought the welcome packet with him, picking it up from a table in the foyer and handing it to her. It contained a new Welcome letter he had typed up, the obligatory Mansion map, though his new version only contained the public areas. Also contained was the questionnaire. He handed her a pen.

" Why don't you have a seat over in the living room and we'll cover a few things. Primarily, what is your mutation? Mine is neural manipulation." Best to get the show me yours for mine business out of the way.

>>>"Well, hopefully because you intend to stay for a while. I'd be more surprised if you came to live here with one bag."

Haylee gave a small smile of gratitude at Garrett’s nonchalant dismissal of her surplus amount of bags. The smile instantly changed when she heard her greeter address entering and leaving the school. Security issues? Oh that sounded fun. There weren’t any crazy psychos at this school, were there?

>>>“Well, that should be the primary goal of all the students here. It's really a bare minimum. Hopefully we can also teach you about how to use your gift as well.”

The brunette suppressed a snort as she laid her bags down aside where her guide had. Was this guy serious? Frankly, the bare minimum was her maximum, and she had absolutely no intention to further explore “her gift.” She hadn’t even told her family, save for her mother, of recent events. They only knew that she had transferred to a boarding school in NYC for “better opportunities.”

She took the packet and pen and obligingly strode over to the collection of furniture, perching on the armrest of a blue suede chair. On top of the packet was an official-looking letter with “Welcome to Xavier’s” in bold on top.

>>>“Primarily, what is your mutation? Mine is neural manipulation.”

Ah, her mutation? How would she even define it? Oh, I’m just a walking thermostat... “Uh, I don’t really know how to describe it. The counselor that helped me with transferring here told me that it has to do with thermoregulation, but I’ve really just begun to understand it so...” God, how stupid did she sound now? “Basically, I can change someone’s internal temperature.” Something completely useless and easy to hide, fortunately.

“What exactly is neural manipulation?” Haylee asked, trying to draw attention away from her bumbling, dim-witted explanation of her mutation.

She seemed very quiet and deliberate. Both good things in general, but it made for a slow process of reading the new arrival. As she stook a seat and opened the packet, Garrett took his own seat acrooss from her, looking at the bags. It made sense to install some kind of elevator into the Mansion, perhaps one with a secret way of entering into the lower areas where training commenced. He'd have to get with Sam about that, he thought as he listened to her explain herself.

"Uh, I don’t really know how to describe it. The counselor that helped me with transferring here told me that it has to do with thermoregulation, but I’ve really just begun to understand it so...basically, I can change someone’s internal temperature.” Garrett found this very interesting, his eyebrows raising in a Spock like manner. " That is a very interesting and potentially deadly gift. Surely you would want to work on that, to ensure your own safety as well as the safety of others. My own gift, neural manipulation, governs the manipulation and control of nervous systems. I can contreol my own sensations and those of others. Our gifts are very similar in a sense, considerign they have the capability both to help and harm, they are invisible, and they both require a great deal of control. I hope you'll consider training with us to discover this control."

>>>“That is a very interesting and potentially deadly gift. Surely you would want to work on that, to ensure your own safety as well as the safety of others.”
This time, the seventeen-year-old could not repress a snort, and quickly covered it up with a cough. All her mutation did was make people a little colder or warmer, a far cry from “deadly,” or even interesting. As to control, she really wasn’t having any issues with it. And if she never used her mutation, then there would be no problem at all, right? Not to say she hadn’t experimented a little over the past few weeks…

To be truthful, Haylee really wasn’t interested in Garrett’s description of his mutant ability. She had merely asked about it to cover up her prior ignorance. She skimmed through the mansion map while he explained, circling places worth noting with the pen he had provided, pretending to be attentive with a random head-nod here and there. She caught the bits about how his mutation was similar to hers however, but dismissed them when she heard the word “harm.” Really, he was acting like she could go kill someone.

>>>“I hope you'll consider training with us to discover this control.”
Oh, of course. I would absolutely love to. And I’m not being sarcastic in any way at all, she thought, tempted to say it out loud. Instead she merely said, “I’ll think about it,” fully intending on not thinking about it. “So, Mr. Wills, are you just the HR director here?” The girl asked, changing the subject. She didn’t feel like talking about mutations anymore.

The longer Garrett observed miss Yoon, the more he saw quiet confidence as flippant indignation. She merely had nothing to say because she wanted to get on with the program, get to her room and be done with the general interview. Now the number of bags and the attitude about her mutation was becoming crystal clear. She wanted to be in a human school, but couldn't. She resented being at the Mansion, fearing it was full of illiterate freaks. She didn't even care to actually hear about Garrett's mutation, the snort clearing that right up.

Her decision to 'think about it' came off so disinterested that Garrett had to really choose his words carefully, remembering he was Public Relations, but for a much different reason this time. If she didn't think she could kill anyone, maybe the first time she made someone hypothermic and they went into a coma it might register. Garrett returned the fake smile. " I also work in the Infirmary with our resident healer, the DocProf. You'lll see it on your map." Business and formality she wanted and she got it in spades. Garrett fished a key from his pocket and tossed it over to her. "The key has the room number on it. You'll find the corresponding room on your map. Anything else I can help you with?" Probably not.

Something abruptly changed in Mr. Wills, and Haylee felt it. Perhaps she hadn’t done such a good job of faking her interest in whatever he had been talking about. She flipped back to the mansion map as he answered her question and took note of the infirmary. Maybe “resident healer” meant school nurse? “So the infirmary is like…the nurse’s office?” She wanted to know in case she ever needed a Tylenol. Taking another look on her map, something in the lower part of the building caught her eye. “What’s the Danger Room?” She couldn’t resist asking. Who wouldn’t ask about something called the danger room?

Garrett had tossed the key to her while she was still asking her question, and it took her by surprise. She failed to put her hand up in time to catch it, and it glanced off her ring finger and landed on the hardwood floor with a loud clank. The seventeen-year-old glared down at the key as she bent over to pick it up, but plastered a smile on her face again as she got back up and faced the PR Director. She resisted narrowing her eyes and glowering, like she normally would’ve if someone threw a key at her face. Instead, she kept her eyes wide and her teeth bared…in a nice way.

>>>"The key has the room number on it. You'll find the corresponding room on your map.”
“Do I have a roommate?” Haylee asked as she examined the number on the key. This was the vital question.