>> “Because, you get to live with mutants! You get to be around people just like you!”

Chase nodded, looking around at their surroundings as Penny gestured broadly. He wedged his hands in his pockets, smiling placidly. Mentally, he echoed, “People just like me.”

“A lot of them are older,” Chase corrected, giving Penny a smile. If they were to be specific, that meant that most people weren’t just like him. But they were similar, at least genetically.

>> “People with all sorts of powers, abilities, and differences. People who are just as different as you so don’t feel bad when your powers get a little…well…crazy.”

Chase rolled his lips together and hummed, as he began to protest, “My power doesn’t get-”

His voice cut off as he recalled that one time he’d tried to help Locke. When his powers had gotten crazy… and he’d almost killed another student because mentally, physically, Chase was someone else entirely. The child shivered at the tail-end of the recollection, and murmured, “Doesn’t make it any less scary.”

Fortunately, the change of subject was abrupt, so Chase wasn’t forced to dwell on his comment for too long.

>> “Come on! You said you’d show me the whole school.”

“O-kay,” the boy sighed, still wearing a smile, “I can show you classrooms, and the kitchen, and we could get a snack… then we could go outside.”

The boy was more musing aloud to himself, than he was informing Penny of what he intended to do. But he was also announcing this so that Penny could cast her vote on the options.

Chase tried to object to most of Penelope’s praises towards the school, but she really didn’t bother to listen to them. To be honest her mind was gone, whisked away into fantasies in which she lived here, that her mutation was accepted and that she didn’t harm anyone. To be honest, that couldn’t be too far from reality, could it? Jezebel liked mutants. If Penelope lived amongst mutants then that should keep her happy, right?

It seemed like the best train of thought. Why else would Jezebel suddenly quiet down whenever Penelope herself would talk to Chase? It seemed that even Jezebel knew she could ruin this chance to really be amongst her kind so she took the easy road of quiet and solitude.

Penelope couldn’t be more thankful for that.

She smiled and turned back to Chase, her tour-guide. She was ready to see more of this place.

>> “O-kay…I can show you classrooms, and the kitchen, and we could get a snack… then we could go outside.”[/color]

Her smile was a beaming smile.

“That sounds awesome! Lead the way!” she grinned. Quietly she waited for him to take the lead and followed after when he did. “So, um, you’re mom seems nice! She reminds me of my mom. Does your dad come here too?”

>> “That sounds awesome! Lead the way!”

Chase smiled as broadly as he could. Which was, for once he actually showed teeth. Maybe even chuckled a little. Penelope was so excited to see his school, and Chase felt so useful showing her around This would be so much fun.

“Okay,” Chase said, sticking out a foot. He swung his leg, using the momentum to turn his body, and took an enormous step, “This way.”

This was the first of many enormous steps down the hall as he showed Penelope the way. He stuck his arms out to help keep balance as they walked. A couple of questions rose to mind, but Chase quickly swallowed them. His questions were never very good. Luckily, Penny thought of a question first.

>> “So, um, you’re mom seems nice! She reminds me of my mom. Does your dad come here too?”

“Oh, my mommy is very nice,” Chase agreed, nodding his head. He was getting out of the habit of adding “adoptive” to the front of that word. Sometimes it still popped up though, Jorge was still “Jorge” in front of Jorge and Mama, but Jorge was “Daddy” in front of other kids, and in Chase’s private mind. Who knew, maybe one day, Jorge would really be “Daddy”, and not just like one.

“My Daddy sometimes comes her to visit Mommy when he’s not working,” Chase explained, “But he doesn’t work here. My Daddy is a police officer! He fights bad guys! Like this one time—this one time, I went to work with him! And this mean man, he had a gun! But don’t tell my mom--!” Did Gemma know? Well, it was better to play it safe, “—And Daddy, Daddy turned into a giant water-man. He was like—woosh! Swoosh! Ba-boosh! And he defeated the bad guy!” Each sound effect was, of course, accompanied by broadly-sweeping arms to emulate how water!Jorge moved in the showdown between him and the bad guy.

In a moment of unguarded-ness, Chase had also spilled to Penelope that Jorge was a mutant as well as he. And yet, the child thought nothing of it. He hummed and came to a stop at the beginning of the next hall, gesturing with one hand towards the first of many uniform doors, “This is where the classrooms start. I am in the kindergarten-to-fifth grade class because there is not a lot of us. It's at the other end of the hall, so I'll show you it... but the big kids go to class up here. The oldest kids are down here.”

Penelope giggled. Chase was silly. Why was he walking like an airplane? It certainly wasn’t the hall for it. And, on top of that, he certainly wasn’t making the sounds required to emulate an airplane. But Penelope wouldn’t point that out to him. Instead, once he said “This way” she figured it would be best to oblige.

Arms out…One foot stepping in front of the other…and she was copying him as she followed him from behind. She could only assuming that walking like this was required for the hall. Sometimes schools had weird rules…

>> “Oh, my mommy is very nice,”[/color]

Penelope grinned and nodded. She really did like the woman. Maybe she would get to talk to her again sometime!

>> “My Daddy sometimes comes her to visit Mommy when he’s not working…But he doesn’t work here. My Daddy is a police officer! He fights bad guys! Like this one time—this one time, I went to work with him! And this mean man, he had a gun! But don’t tell my mom—And Daddy, Daddy turned into a giant water-man. He was like—woosh! Swoosh! Ba-boosh! And he defeated the bad guy!”[/color]

Penelope was all too eager to hear about Chase’s dad! If his mom was nice, surely his dad was nice too, right?

But her blood started to turn cold at the story that Chase told. He said it, that awful phrase, ”My Daddy is a police officer!” Penelope couldn’t help the shiver that ran down her spine. The very idea that her knew best friend was the son…the son of a police man! Those awful, bad, terrible people that took her parents away from her and hated all mutants! Worst of all was the very fact that he was a mutant!!! Penelope…she just…she couldn’t wrap her head around any of it! This was not supposed to make sense in her world and it didn’t!

Chase, though, sounded so excited as he recounted the story. He really was proud of his daddy, but that could only mean that he didn’t know the truth. He didn’t know that cops were the bad guys did he?! Unless…unless he was brainwashed! Maybe the police sucked out his brain and reprogrammed it so that he would like the police! Ugh! So scary!

She did her best to swallow her fear and remained behind Chase as he walked. She couldn’t alert him. If he knew she was scared of police, he may tell his cop father and the man could come and try to take Penelope’s brain too! She would have to be sneaky.

>> “This is where the classrooms start. I am in the kindergarten-to-fifth grade class because there is not a lot of us. It's at the other end of the hall, so I'll show you it... but the big kids go to class up here. The oldest kids are down here.”[/color]

Her mind refocused on the conversation and Penelope did her best to smile and nod. The school really did sound good but the fact that they had a police man visit all the time unnerved her. At least the place with the golden doors didn’t have police!

She nodded to Chase with a smile. “T-The classes, they all look wonderful,” she said. “What’s your favorite class?”

Chase was wholly oblivious to his friend’s change in attitude, and went-on rattling about the classrooms excitedly, gesturing towards various doors, and moving on occasion when his attention focused elsewhere. He liked this tour guide stuff. He could show off how much he knew—or at least, how much he thought he knew.

>> “T-The classes, they all look wonderful. What’s your favorite class?”

“I like math,” Chase said brightly, “And science. I’m good at those. But we don’t get to move around like the big kids. We’re usually in the same room. Except for if you’re better at reading or math. I’m not that good though.”

Chase bobbed his head, swinging his arms from side to side, “What about you, what’s your favorite subject?”

>> “I like math…And science. I’m good at those. But we don’t get to move around like the big kids. We’re usually in the same room. Except for if you’re better at reading or math. I’m not that good though.”[/color]

Penelope was listening. Honest! She was! The main issue was that she was still shaking in her boots over the revelation that Chase just dropped on her. His daddy, his own father…was a police man! Nooooo! Policemen were SO dangerous! She knew that first hand! How could her very own best friend have a daddy who were like the ones that killed her parents!

The very idea…it was just so scary. Penelope liked Chase, a lot. He was a good friend. But this whole idea that he had a daddy like that was startling. She really didn’t know what to think about it.

But she wouldn’t say anything yet. There was no need for it. For now, she was just going to play it cool and hopefully she could stay friends with Chase without meeting his father. That was really her only, most viable option.

>> “What about you, what’s your favorite subject?”[/color]

“Huh? Oh!” he blinked as she regained her attention onto the small, blond boy. She had to keep her focus otherwise he may be suspicious. She smiled at him again as she walked by his side. “Oh, um, I like art class. Math is scary.” she grinned and beamed at him. “Maybe you could help me with my homework one day?”