Recent Posts

>>“Well. I really like airplanes. I've had my license for two years, my pilot's license, that is. Also, I went to Egypt recently and took a side trip to the Serbian air force base. The original one. Did you know it was one of the first air forces in the world?”

Gemma arched an eyebrow. Talk about an unusual hobby for a girl. But she did have a pilot's license (she'll need to talk to Sam about that, whenever he decided to show up in the school he was supposed to be running), and she did seem to know what she was taking about. Also, Egypt? Serbia?...

>>“And this school has taught me the value of defending innocents, so I thought, what better way to do that then to help defend our country? Except I really am terrible at actually fighting anyone or anything, but I am good with planes.”

Now that sounded... true. But at the same time, made Gemma think about talking to Sam again. They needed to have a nice, long, serious conversation about the X-men. Among other things.

>>“The thing is, its going to be really really hard to get in. There's all this stuff I gotta do, and I don't know if I'll be able to do it all.”

"All right, let me see" she smiled, taking the list and looking at it. It was a long list. Long. Gemma hmm'ed and nodded, reading it. "Well" she looked up finally "You are not choosing an easy career path I can tell you that. But I think it can be done. First of all, let me look at your records..."

They should have the grades of their students in the system somewhere. Gemma was good at finding that. Typing away on her computer's keyboard, she glanced up again.

"Are you an X-trainee?"

>>"Yes, please,"

"Okay" Gemma smiled and nodded "Here is what we are going to do. You will get a room, and some clean clothes. You already know where the food is. I will talk to the teachers, and sign you up for classes - as long as you are here you will need to go to school, okay? But not right now, we will talk about it later."

She watched him eat his sandwich. He was so young. And already alone. She did not want to scare him off; but she had to ask anyway.

"Chase. If you want to stay here, you will need to tell me where you came from, okay? I need to know so I can make sure you stay here, and nobody shows up to take you away. I think this is a good place for you, as long as you would like to stay, but I need to know more about you."

>>"Yeah... I didn't think I'd sleep that long,"

Gemma smiled.

"Sleep is important" she nodded "It's good for you."

That was something kids tended to forget, and adults thought about constantly.

"So." she said, offering him a chair to sit down, and sitting down herself. "Do you want to talk about staying here for a while?"

She couldn't see why Chase would want to leave; she also knew she could have just kept him there, called Jorge, or something. But for now, she decided on a more peaceful solution. Talk.

>>“Do I get a mouse-earred hat to go with this wonderful trip?”

"Only if you want one" she giggled. Now there was an image...

>>“Well, here’s to hoping that luck is on our side today... Wow, I didn’t think I’d suck this bad at watching a little child.”

Gemma smiled and put some honey into her tea.

"You don't suck" she told him, leaning against his shoulder "You really don't. Parents are never perfect anyway, according to kids... we are barely okay at best."

That was her experience. You do the best you can, and you leave the rest up to nature and pure luck.

"It takes some getting used to" she added, musing as she glanced towards Lane "But you would have figured it out on your own, eventually."

>>"I think I'm good, Miss Gemma. Thank you."

"You are welcome." she smiled at him "Welcome to the Mansion."

Pulling the door closed behind her, she returned to the kitchen. Cleaning up did not take much time; she hummed to herself as she did. Once everything was in order, she went back upstairs to her room. Maybe she could catch a nap too. And then she had to figure out what to do with the runaway shifter boy. That is, if he was still there when she woke up...

>>"Naps are for babies... Okay... a short nap, and a sandwich, and then talk some more..."

Gemma smirked.

"Babies and grown-ups. I know I could use a nap sometimes..."

That is, most of the time. While dealing with children, Gemma really learned to value any sleep she coul get...

>>"Can I help clean up?"

"That's fine I'll clean it up. You just make your sandwich." she smiled, waving a hand "But thank you."

Once the sandwich was ready and on a plate, she walked with Chase upstairs to the boys' bedrooms. She knew the ones that were occupied, and found one that was not. After some rummaging, she even found bedsheets and blankets.

"There you go." she smiled at Chase "All yours. Sleep as much as you want, and come find me when you wake up. Bathroom's there, and my room is just down the hall on the other side, my name is on the door. Do you need anything else?"

>>"I'm okay. I just don't shift that fast. And, going from short, to tall, to short again... I'm just feeling a little dizzy."

And now Gemma was feeling guilty. She should have known better than to push the kid to show off his powers. It obviously took a lot more than she expected. And now he was trembling. She wrinkled her nose, then nodded.

"All right, Chase, how about this. We go find you a room and a bed, and you take a nap, okay? You need to rest after all this. And then when you feel better we can talk about the rest." she smiled. She was pretty sure Chase was going to stay in the school. But it was important to let him know that in the end, it was his decision.

Gemma cleaned up the table in no time at all, making sure she left everything he might want to eat.

"If you want another sandwich, you can take it up to your room."