Elise turned another hallway and still recognized absolutely nothing. Despair was beginning to trickle into the depths of her stomach. Ok, trickle was a lie. Flood would have been a more accurate word of description. It was a natural reaction after having wandered the hallways of the mansion for approximately an hour and half without seeing anything that would point her in a familiar direction. At least, that was what Elise told herself to explain away the mild sheen of tears that were beginning to rise in her eyes.

Bump. Creeeeek. Shick. Elise’s ears perked up at the noise and the tears seemed to leave her eyes. Noise meant very possibly other people, and other people meant directions. Problem solved. She followed the harsh noises to a simple door down the hall. They sounded metallic, harsh. That did not however deter her from opening the door and peering into the classroom. After all, the place was a school. It would be normal for there to be a shop class, for example. There were plenty of good, clean explanations for those distinctive sounds.

Opening the door as quietly as possible, she peered into the room to find… a garage. A big garage too. Several lines of cars, trucks, and other vehicles lined its walls. The sounds seemed to be coming from up ahead. Feeling a little anxious and out of place, for Elise had never driven a car, she tip toed farther into the room. Looking around in interest, and mentally cooing at some of the pretty cars, yes pretty cars, she finally spotted the shadow of movement up ahead. Tentatively she raised up on her toes to see if she could catch a glimpse of anyone. "Anyone there?” she asked, her voice carrying throughout the room.

Ahh the single life, Sam forgotten how great it was to have no one to call and hassle you for not giving them enough time, granted that wasn’t how he viewed all relationships but seeing as he was still a little bitter about the recent breakup, his mind wasn’t in the best place. Having no woman Sam decided it was high time he spent some time on himself so, other than his few classes he called off work for the most part, something he had never done before, and why was this you might ask? It was simple, to learn something he had been meaning to learn about for a while.

Socket in hand a few grease stains on his jeans and face Sam smiled at his cruiser before him and removed another spark plug. On occasion he looked over to one or two things, the sleeping Saint Bernard a few feet away from him who loved the fact that Sam took the day off to spend the entire day with him (at least so the dog thought) and the intro guide to motorcycles he had been reading up on, it was high time he learned the make up of the bike, sure he could ride with the best of them and could hijack a bike like nobodies business but when it came down to maintenance and upkeep, well he was as they say incompetent.

A few spark plugs lay out next to the intro book with a similar image on its page, according to this, it was recommended to replace them every few or more thousand miles, not only do they eventually lose their spark (what Sam decided to call it when they wear down). Sandpaper now in hand he started to sand a little bit of the plug and then looked at it through the single light that was overhead.

"Anyone there?”

In his surprise he dropped the spark plug and tried to lean forward to catch it forcing his crouched over position to fall forward resulting with his head hitting the side of the bike with a loud ding. ”Et ete te te, ouch!” he looked up rubbing his now slightly red forehead and looked around, ”Depends who is asking?” he said in response trying not to smile.

Sound of something falling and a bang, seemed to echo through the garage as Elise continued to peer up and over a nearby car, when finally someone stood up. Not the friendliest someone either, and that someone had an eye-patch. How piratical. Elise dropped down to her flat feet and walked around the car. "Well, um… I’m asking,” she finally said lamely, the full view of the motorcycle, dog and man coming into view. She smiled at the Saint Bernard. Her uncle had one.

From his forehead and where he was standing she figured he had hit his head on the motorcycle and it had been something else that had made the noise of falling. Glancing around she spotted something in the tight space between the motorcycle wheel and the concrete block that showed this was its own parking space. “Um, do you want me to get that for you. It looks kind of tight,” she offered pointing at the object with a smile. Smiles tended to make people friendlier, at least that was Elise’s experience in the matter. Plus, it never hurt to be nice, and her long, thin, piano fingers did come in handy.

Greased hand on his forehead Sam rubbed it slightly before looking to the person who worked her way through the maze of vehicles to get to him, ”Can I ask who is ‘I’m’ cause that isn’t very descriptive.” Sam responded with a smile now letting her know he was as friendly as can be on his day off. From the corner of his eye he saw Bruno lift his head and sniff the air to the new person and then lowered his head, his eyes staying fixed on her to make sure she didn’t have any food on her.

”Err, if you’d like!” Sam said surprised she was offering to help a total stranger, now suddenly interested in the girl’s story he looked to the spark plug that he dropped and then to the girl. Sure he could have gotten the plug with out much more effort than it would for the young woman reach out and get it but he decided not to shoot down her offer less he would come off as rude.

Looking over to Bruno and seeing the small outline of the top of a cooler that he brought out Sam looked to the girl, ”Would you like a drink? I have two orange sodas and a grape one.” standing upright he stretched his back and yawned and walked over to the cooler making sure not to step on his guide. Walking by his massive dog Sam bent over and patted him on the head with his grease free hand, which soon traveled to the cooler.

Opening it up and removing an orange soda for himself Sam waited to hear her response before he removed a soda from the cooler if she wanted one, ”So can I ask what your doing this far back in the garage?” if she didn’t want to tell him it was no big deal it was the school’s garage after all for all he knew she had a car in here that she was looking for.

“Oh,” Elise said with a little laugh,. “Specifications kinda slipped my mind. I’m Elise Bredson,” she said motioning to herself, clearly relaxing after Sam’s smile. Walking over to the wheel of the motorcycle, she glanced back over her shoulder at the man as if on second thought. “If you don’t mind me asking, who are you?” Elise asked with a little wrinkle-nose smile. Bending over she picked up she object and walked it back over to the man.

“A drink? Oh my goodness, that would be amazing. Grape, please,” she said a large grin spreading across her lips as she accepted the cool beverage from his hand. “Thank you so much. I think I’ve been parched for that last three hours,” she added popping the lid off the soda before taking a long sip. The lovely, bubbly concoction slid down her throat and relieved the thirst that had driven her out of her room in the first place.

Elise stopped drinking, OK maybe it would be better categorized as chugging, at the man’s question. Blushing lightly she ran her hand through her hair, causing it to fall in messy waves. It did, however, remove her bangs from her eyes. “Well, I’m actually terribly lost. I was trying to find my way to the kitchen and somehow ended up by the garage, where I heard you working. I was hoping you could give me directions or draw me a map or something,” she admitted glancing down at her toes before looking back up at the man. It was then that she noticed a streak of grease across his forehead. She couldn’t help but giggle a little. “Um, you have some grease right here,” Elise added, motioning towards her own forehead.

After she introduced herself Sam exchanged the grape soda for the spark plug and nodded his head in thanks. Opening up his soda he too took a nice cool chug from it and let a small sigh out when he had his fill. Closing the cooler he tossed the spark plug back to his makeshift workstation and it landed on the book with a small clink. ”Name’s Sam,” he said not giving his last name figuring it was for the time being irrelevant.

Besides he much rather have a conversation with him other than be too afraid too if she figured out who he was, not a lot of the students wanted to have a lengthily conversation with Sam, something about him being a teacher and leader of the X-Men, he doubted the eye patch helped much at all. It was his day off after all and there was no reason he would have to play big dog on campus. ”Three hours, long time to be parched,” Sam said as he walked back over to the bike and sat down at his station picking up some sand paper and setting his beverage down.

Picking up the sparkplug he began to remove some of the grease from the plug just like the book said and continued to converse with Elise, ”Yeah, well you kinda took a wrong turn, the kitchen is the other way, from the entrance,” he looked at her then pointed to his own head where she pointed out he had some grease. Knowing his grease stained hand had well, grease on it he reached up and rubbed the mark on his forehead smearing it about making more of a mess than anything else.

”Better?” he asked flashing her a playful grin before turning back to the spark plug, he knew it was worse than before, it was his day off after all he had every excuse to be dirty. ”Out of curiosity, who gave you a tour when you first came here, and how long have you lived here? I thought it was the greeter’s job to show the new resident around?”

“Nice to meet you, Sam,” Elise said tossing and catching the soda cap. Turning away, she perched on the nearby bicycle rack. Sipping occasionally from the bottle she continued to play with the cap. Her playing quickly became more elaborate, from tossing with one fingertip and catching it on another, to rolling the cap across her knuckles. The whole time she watched and listened to the man carefully.

Elise’s blush rose higher on her cheeks at Sam’s comment on how long she had been thirsty. “Well it felt like that, but compared to what some people experience, it probably wasn’t that bad, but yeah, the drink helped. Thanks” she said, trying her best to show that she didn’t mean it had actually been that long, just that she was thirsty. Plus, she didn’t want to sound like it had been a life-threatening situation or anything. She also didn’t want to be thought of as someone that exaggerated everything. That would be terrible and thoughtless.

“Well, its kinda complicated. I got a tour a couple weeks ago when I came by to check out the place, but I only officially moved in yesterday. Koga, I believe, gave me the tour, and Silver Streak helped with everything else. It took me a while to decide that I actually wanted to join and therefore tell my parents,” Elise said, looking down at her knuckles. The tricks with the cap continued and they helped her focus. Looking back up she smiled lightly, “They did a great job. I just have some trouble with remembering whether something was a right or left turn, obviously”

Bending over and setting his drink down Sam followed suit and sat back in his designated workstation for now and picked up the spark plug he tossed a few seconds before. Eyeing it once he deemed it clean enough and he placed it back in its fixed location and he picked up a wrench and started to tighten it into place. ”Your welcome,” Sam said satisfied with the spark plug now back where it was supposed to be.

Leaning over and lifting his bottle to his lips he took a sip of it and then leaned over and turned a page of his guide. According to his book it was also high time he got the oil changed on the bike as well so doing as it said he placed a bin under the bike and rummaged through a nearby toolbox. ”Well congrats on the recent move in,” Sam said with a grin, ”Trust other than getting lost your not having any problems right?” he asked as he picked up a funnel and went turned placing everything he needed right next to the bike.

Removing the oil drain cap he let the black liquid drip out slowly before he went to work on anything else, reaching for his drink again he took a sip and looked to Elise with his good eye, ”Well that’s good to hear that Koga was a help. He’s a good kid fast learner, and it’s also good to hear that Streak did his job, he happen to give you a map?” Sam asked curiously as he looked back to the fluid momentarily before turning his attention back to Elise.

Looking around for his bottle of oil he shifted his gaze from Elise over to Bruno, ”You mind handing me that bottle of fluid?” Sam asked curiously before picking up the funnel and placing it above the drain cap to where the oil was supposed to go in so said the guidebook, ”How did your parents take it?” Sam asked as he started to screw the drain cap back on seeing as the flow of black fluid had ceased. ”I mean, being a mutant then deciding you wanted to come here. Must have been difficult to handle huh?” Sam asked curiously more for his own personal questions than one of a teacher.

“Nope, I haven’t had any issues at all. Everyone seems nice, so I have nothing to complain about,” Elise said with a shrug. Blushing slightly at his question on the map, Elise laughed lightly. “Yeah, I got a map. I just managed to leave the map in the kitchen yesterday, so I haven’t been able to recover it. It was a silly mistake on my part.”

“Oh, yeah sure,” she said leaping down from the bike rack, and grabbing the oil she handed it over to Sam, before wiping her hands on her jeans. “Are you changing the oil?" she asked peering down at what he was doing curiously. It seemed like the most likely explanation due to the dark liquid, but Elise, honestly had no idea.

Popping back into a perfect posture, Elise seemed to squirm momentarily at the older mutant’s question. “Well, it was a bit of a shock for them really, but it explained a lot. I think my parents were more upset at the sudden complete loss of value of twelve years of intense music training. My dad took that one pretty hard,” she said looking down at her feet that were shuffling ever so slightly. With a shrug she looked back up and pasted a small smile on her face, “They took to the school pretty well though. I guess they figured with the music gone, what else could I do? Ya know? Open up the possibilities and what not?”

After the fluid was handed to him he nodded his head slightly, ”Supposedly that is what is happening. I happen to be illiterate when it comes to this stuff, so I figured on my only day off I’d try to educate myself on the subject.” pointing to the book next to him he smiled and then looked back to the fluid and the funnel he just placed. Opening the oil jug he started to pour the contents of it down the funnel and he added, ”Also cleaned a spark pluck and replaced the breaks, this is the last bit I needed to take care of.” Sam said as ceased pouring for a second to make sure the fluid was going down.

”Sudden loss of twelve years of music training? You happen to lose the knowledge some how?” Sam asked as he watched the fluid drop trying not to acknowledge the squirm she did a second ago. She was not forced to talk but, if she was willing to share Sam wasn’t going to stop her. ”I take it music is pretty important to him?” Sam asked as he added a bit more fluid to the funnel and then sealed the jug of oil then removed the funnel.

Despite the smile she was wearing now he had the feeling the subject was becoming a bit difficult to talk about, he never knew his parents but he knew if his father had expectations for him and he didn’t manage to live up to him he’d feel pretty rotten about it. ”You know we have a music room here right?” Sam asked curiously standing up after sealing the oil cap to the bike.

Crouching down and moving a few of the tools he smiled slightly, ”I stop in there from time to time, I happen to play in there every know and then. Nothing big but I can play a bit.” Sam said trying to lighten the mood a bit, before he nodded and added, ”And possibilities we have, just need to know the right people!” Sam said with a small smirk as he lifted his glass bottle or orange soda in Elise’s direction before taking a sip.

“Woah, well, if you did all that, you know way more than me. I’m absolutely clueless about cars,” Elise admitted easily, a truer smile touching her lips. That smile quickly drifted back to its original location. His question was a little too close to home. No loss of knowledge, but the loss of the ability to use that knowledge. Elise sometimes wondered which was worse. Pushing her hair behind her ear and letting her bangs hang down over her eyes, she looked back down at her feet.

“Naw, my mutation is the amplification and manipulation of people’s emotions through music. Amplify an auditorium full of emotions and the reaction won’t be pretty. Its nasty enough with one or two. I never want try it on a stadium,” she said, her feet moving back and forth ever so slightly across the garage’s concrete floor, “You can’t be a musician if you can’t play in front of other people.”

Without thinking she began to count beats in her head, her foot shifting ever so slightly at each beat. It calmed her. The simple rhythm was all she needed to centre her mind, to stop the swirling thoughts, the frustration, the general anger at what had happened. Elise closed her eyes for a moment, and she felt the calm stillness fill her. For a moment, Elise was perfectly still.

Letting out a breath quietly, Elise looked back up, her smile pasting itself back on her lips. “Yeah, you could say music is important to him. He teaches composition at Julliard. Music is basically his life,” she said a small laugh escaping her nose. It sounded mildly bitter, but an honest twinkle touched her eye. It was obvious she loved her father.

She clearly cheered up at the mention of the music room. “I love your guys’ music room. Its lovely, and its as sound proof as I’m likely to find. Its one of the main reasons I was finally convinced to join,” she said her enthusiasm growing with the subject. Her ears even seemed to perk at his mentioning he played an instrument. “You play? What?” she asked with her usual bell-like laugh as she tipped her bottle right back at the man before tipping it back and swallowing the last remnants of the drink. She tried to let her darker thoughts disappear with the dark, purple liquid.

Sam smirked when she said cars, ”Well I know how to do that with cars as well Motorcycles are the problem for me.” he took a sip of his beverage and then let out a small laugh to let her know it was kind of his brand of humor. Sam kept his mouth closed for a few moments when she looked down to her feet and brushed the hair out of her face.

”Ah!” he said taking a sip of his drink and then sat down on his rear and then looked to the girl who looked reluctant to talk any more on the subjects relating to her father or her mutation. It was sad when mutants thought of their ability as curses, his mutation was a curse once as well up until he made the first steps of trying to master his mutation.

”Julliard huh?” he responded with a warm smile placing the drink down to his side and placing his arms around his knees. ”Very good school,” he added taking a second to choose his next words to attempt to make it easier to talk about the subject. He kept his mouth shut for a second and the responded to her questions, ”Harmonica been playing since I was a kid, and I’m mediocre with the violin, though I haven’t played it in a few months.” ‘Thank You Romania’ thought Sam silently to himself as he shifted his weight and reached for the soda.

”Do your emotions have any effect on people when you play?” he asked curiously thinking a bit of Kealey and her ability to feel people’s emotions and the ability to influence them.

Dreams aren’t what they used to be. Some things sat by so carelessly. Smile like you mean it. Smile like you mean it. The song played out through her mind as she did just as the Killer’s song said to do. She smiled, and she smiled just like she meant it. There was a reason her parents hadn’t found out about her mutation. Elise even let out a small laugh at her mistake. It sounded completely genuine. Save some face, you know you’ve only got one. Change your ways while you’re young. “See, absolutely clueless. I thought cars and motorcycles were basically the same on the inside, but configured differently.”

Elise fiddled with the soda bottle. And someone’s playing a game, in the house that I grew up in. “Yeah, not just very good. It’s the best,” she said with a wink, her smile still painted across her face. The bottle began to spin between her finger tips, before stopping suddenly at the mention of the harmonica. “You play the harmonica?” Elise asked clearly intrigued, “I’ve been teaching myself recently but I haven’t gotten that far. Its harder than the piano. I swear.”

At the further question about her powers, the bottle began to spin once more. Smile like you mean it. Smile like you mean it. Smile like you mean it. “Yeah, but only when I’m like really emotional or attached to a song. You know when there’s a song and every time you hear it, it makes you super happy or cry, or whatever. When I play any song that affects me that way, instead of just amplifying the listener’s emotions, I kinda nudge them into feeling the song more like I do,” she said, her smile sticking to her face as her hands moved with the bottle to the cadence of her words. It almost danced between her fingers. Oh no, oh no no no. Oh no, oh no no no.

The young woman smiled before him and he got the feeling that there was something hidden behind it, call it intuition from one who strays from the truth when need be to another. ”They are, same parts for the most part just smaller and in different locations on the bike.” There was a pause after she spoke and she stopped playing with the bottle in her hand. Which Sam simply nodded when questioned about playing.

He smiled in return when she said she was trying to teach herself how to play, ”Never learned the piano, Harmonica just clicked with me and it probably helped a bit it was one of the few things I could carry with me growing up.” said Sam as he placed his greased stained hand on his chin now leaving some smudges there. Knife, a watch, the clothes on his back and then the harmonica, those were really the only things he was able to carry around back in the day, everything else only got in the way, you couldn’t really sneak around with a back pack full of books or a stake out with a television set.

Scratching his chin more he listened to what Elise had to say about her powers and then he reached for his bottle of orange soda and took a sip of it. ”Maybe you should try to overcome the sad emotions when playing a song so no matter what your playing you make them feel happy about it.” he paused and then looked towards Bruno who was still laying about waiting for something to do.

”You know I happen to be a teacher here, and part of my job is to help you learn how to control your abilities, because a musician who doesn’t want to pay in front of an audience just won’t do will it?” he questioned as he thought more about giving Kealey a call to help with the situation, she would be able to help Elise a bit more than him she after all was familiar with feeling and influencing other’s emotions.

“Oh good, I’m not completely ignorant then,” Elise said with another bright smile. The bottle stilled in her hand, and she tried her best to stop fidgeting. She wasn’t overly successful. Sam’s liberal smearing of oil on his face wasn’t helping. She was getting a very strong urge to just grab his face and wipe it off herself. Yeah, she was having one of those moments.

Biting her lip, she restrained herself, barely. Thankfully, the man began to talk once more, meaning Elise had something else she could focus on. Not being able to carry much around as a kid caught her attention. It wasn’t really an average statement, so it was what stuck with her. “Were you an army kid or something?” she asked innocently enough trying to think of a possibility why a child would move around so often. Not many happy reasons came to mind, but Elise tried her best to be an optimist.

Feeling another power statement coming on, Elise backed away from the older mutant. It was easier to lie from a distance. Bouncing back onto the bike rack, she placed the bottle between her knees so that her hands were free. Yup, and a power statement came out of Sam’s mouth and one that Elise couldn’t help but mildly hate. “That wouldn’t work very well. If I’m forcing it, I can’t manipulate as well, and with every happy song there is someone out there who has a sad memory to it. I can assure you, no matter how happy a song I play, some one out there will sob. Trust me, I‘ve tried,” she said motioning vaguely in front of her to signify out there.

There were other reasons she had decided always playing happy would be a bad idea, a lot of those were related to her own views on music. With those thoughts getting a little too personal for Elise’s comfort, she tried to focus on something else. With the bottle out of her hands, her hair was the next best thing to fiddle with. Pulling her hair back into a loose pony tail, she tied it down with a band from her wrist. Those always came in handy.

The movement didn’t really help that much. She still felt like she was only telling half the story. Feeling guilty she tried her best to finish the explanation. “And, it wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t really be music otherwise. Music is expression, everything you can’t explain. If I start faking it, I’m not really making music. I’m making noise, and,” she said, turning her gaze somewhere down near Sam’s shoes, “I’ve never wanted to make just noise. I always wanted to make real, personal music.” Her voice grew quieter as she spoke. The last few words were almost a mumble.

At Sam’s last statement, Elise’s gaze stayed near his shoes. The little voice in the back of her head was yelling at her for letting the conversation become about her and her powers. Just watch, now they’ll sign you up for a special appointment, because you’re weak; you’re not good enough. Elise’s jaw tightened ever so slightly. Stop being such a self-pitying creature. It gets you no where, the voice lectured, its tone stern. Elise could still feel her cheeks tight from smiling. At least, I look like I’m enjoying a private joke, she thought to herself wryly. The voice in the back of her head continued to yell at her until she looked back up at the other mutant. Her lips were still curved into a small smile.

“Do you mind if I ask a bit of a personal question then?” she asked, her tone almost that as if the idea had popped into her head as a second thought. Without waiting for an answer the girl ploughed on, “Have you ever been in love?” She had to speak before she got all nervous and twitchy again. That wouldn’t do, and as far as Elise and the voice in the back of her head were concerned, she was not going to look like some self-pitying, helpless girl to another mutant, not again. “’Cause if you have, you probably know that feeling when everything is so damned perfect that is just hurts so bad, because you know it won’t last, or that feeling when everything’s gone and its this endless tunnel of t agony and you just want to stop breathing, because you just can’t take it anymore. It wouldn’t be fair to me or any listener if all I played was happy songs, because then they wouldn’t experience the pain especially not their way, and you know what? Screw it. The best moments are painful, because they show us just how alive we really are. Only the living feel pain, and every individual feels it differently. I sure as hell want to keep on living, and I want to live it my way. I doubt there is a single person out there who, if it really came down to it, would want it any other way.”

For the first time, Elise’s voice didn’t waver an ounce. Even her hands stayed moderately still until the end. However, once she heard her teeth click shut at the end, what she had just done sunk in. Not only had just kind of lectured at a teacher, she had cursed too. The blood left her face. Grabbing the bottle from between her legs, Elise leapt down from the bike rack. The only thought that ran through her head was how she was going to get out of the garage without getting into too much trouble. The options looked bleak.