Peering into the lounge room the adults tend to use as an escape from the students, I look around trying to spot my mother. It's silent within, but I can feel my mother's presence. After a second, I spot the her red hair peaking over the arm of the couch.

Walking in, I take in the room as I approach my mom. There's a half finished chess game on the chess board; probably ongoing between my dad and professor X. I can see Kirk's knitting in the corner by the fire place, and Storms magazines are spread across the coffee table. I smile thinking of all the memories I have from within this room.

Watching Christmas movies, playing twister and laughing as Dad and Hank are intertwined in rather unnatural positions (Uncle Hank won and dad accused him of cheating with his feet). Having girls night with Storm and Mom, painting our toes.

Pulling myself from memory lane, I look at mom. I know she sees me, but she's spread out on the leather couch, reading one of her nasty romance novels, that has a very attractive, half naked, man on the front.

"You just going to stare at me?" She asks without looking up from her book.

I consider this for a second, and then carefully crawl on the couch and position myself so that I'm laying on top of her. After I've made it so that I'm laying between her arms that are holding up her book, she finally says, "can I help you?" Her voice is amused, and unfazed by our current arrangement.

Deciding to jump to the point, I ask, "Mom, have you ever been scared of your own powers?"

At this question, I feel her book rest on my back as she cranes her head trying to read my face, but I'm looking forward, towards the blank TV.

After a moment, she gently replies with, "Yeah, I have." She pauses and then asks, "Sweetheart, is this about last week?"

I shrug, and she's quiet for another moment. Then she pats my back, "sit up." Reluctantly, I slide off her, and sit on the couch sideways, legs crossed, as she mimics my position, facing me. "Talk to me, love." She tells me, grabbing my hands and pulling them into hers.

"I..." A sigh escapes my lips as I try to figure out what I want to say, "Do you remember when I destroyed all the stuff on your dresser?"

Her eyebrows raise slightly, surprised by this choice of topic, but slowly she responds with, "When you got your kinetic abilities? Yes, I remember it very well."

I press my lips together, "yeah… I had a dream about it the other night, and I guess… I guess, part of me feels like that again."

Mom scrunches her brow, clearly trying to follow me, but struggling, so I continue, "I mean, I have this sense of dread in my gut, but I don't know why... Like- like, my body knows something that I don't. It feels similar to the fear I experienced when I was five, but this time, I don't know what's causing it."

"I see."

When I look up to her, she's giving me a sympathetic look. "Sounds pretty scary."

I nod, but don't say anything, "And you were pretty hesitant to learn how to control your powers for awhile. Getting you to use them was like pulling teeth, or trying to get your brother to eat broccoli."

I smile at the reference. Nate will literally eat anything, but broccoli. Him and mom once had a stand off at the dinner table for more than an hour, before dad convinced mom it wasn't a battle worth fighting. Eventually, she and Nate settled on some celery and called it good.

"I'm not scared to use them. I love my powers." I say earnestly, "seriously, they make folding laundry way faster… but, it's like there's a disconnect between my brain and my body."

Mom rolls her eyes at the laundry comment, but says, "Charles told me you're still having headaches?"

I wince at this shared information, and think back to my conversation with Professor X a few nights ago. "maybe," I admit, with another shrug.

Mom looks at me, trying to read something, "this is just a theory, but maybe your powers are about to grow."

I look up at her surprised as she continues, "your body remembers how scared you were that day and so does your mind. You worked so hard to shut everything down, and it kept firing back with a vengeance."

We both think back to when I was little and of the broken TV, endless food thrown across the room, and a lot of broken toys.

"So, like a growth spurt?" I ask, confused.

"Potentially." Mom says with a shrug.

"But, how… I don't get it. I mean, I know my powers have gotten stronger and more developed as I get older..."

"As I said, it's just a theory." I'm still scrutinizing this information, somewhat annoyed at the idea of my powers getting a growth spurt instead of my height. I'm only 5'5" and it drives me nuts being so much shorter than everyone else in my family.

"Honey, look at me." When I do, mom says, "I've been scared of my powers, and as a result tried to have a tighter control on them. You and I both know this has negative consequences. You get hurt, and others can potentially get hurt as well. The more control you try to have, the less you have as a result."

I nod, knowing all of this, as I've heard this lecture multiple times, so I cut her off, "it's like I told Bonpa… Something bad is coming."

A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth, but mom says, "okay, bad how?"

Exasperated, I pull my hands from hers and stand up, "I don't know. Never mind." I shake my head, frustrated that I can't get my point across. "I should get to started on homework," I say, turning and heading for the door.

Mom jumps up as well, and follows me, "Ray, hey!"

The door shuts in front of me, causing me to stop. I'm expecting to be lectured on walking away mid conversation, as mom walks up to me, but she surprises me by saying, "Tomorrow morning, training room, 6am."

I'm try to process what she just said, as the door tentatively opens and Dad and Kirk appear. Taking in mom and me, Kirk says hello and continues in, heading straight to his knitting chair. However, Dad pauses next to mom; and smiles at us, as he puts an arm around her shoulder. He leans to give mom a kiss on the lips, but mom is still looking at me, and eyebrow raised waiting for an answer. "What's up?" He asks, looking from me to mom. Were both holding eye contact, having a stare down. "Uh, is everything okay?" He asks, tentatively.

Mom doesn't respond to him, her arms are crossed and she repeats, "6am, training room." I'm still trying to think of a retort, but mom has decided the conversation is done, because she now turns to dad with a smile and kisses him more fully, and says "hi". I roll my eyes, and start to walk away, but I feel a pull on my arm. I groan as mom pulls me against her and dad, and kisses my forehead. "Moooom, ugh." I say, sounding like an annoyed eight year old, but I'm smiling as she releases me.

"So, you're joining our training session tomorrow?" Dad asks, still confused as to what is happening.

I shrug again, "I apparently don't have a choice," I say, with a pointed look at mom.

Mom's eyes narrow slightly, but they still hold a gleam of amusement, "Our daughter is feeling a little out of control, so I figured we could help with that."

I feel my chest cave slightly, embarrassed that she told dad. Which is dumb, since I knew she'd tell him regardless; however, dad suddenly looks excited and says, "Sweet! That means blowing things up!"

They both laugh at my surprised look and dad continues, "the best way to gain control is let go completely, which means things tend to get broken. Might as well make it fun."

Coming into the rec room, I see my friends sitting around and throw myself on the couch next to Lillie, my hair still wet from my recent shower.

"How was training?" Annie asks from her spot next to Ryan. They're sitting on the floor, homework spread out in front of them on the coffee table.

"Brutal." I say, wincing as I sit up. "Remind me to never turn to the dark side and go up against any of them." I say, referring to the adults.

"What'd you do today?" Ryan asks, not looking up from his biology textbook.

"My mom made me shield against Storm, as she threw lighting at me. At one point, I couldn't see because it was also windier than hell, and so I lost sight of her. Let's just say there's a nice 'Rachel' shaped dent in the training room wall from where I was thrown."

"Fuck, dude. I still can't believe you get to train with the X-men." Comes Frazier's voice from the pool table.

"I'm not training with them, just getting the crap beat out of me." I say, standing from the couch and grabbing a cue from the wall. "Rack them up, I'll play." I say to Frazier.

"Yeah, I'll admit, I was a little angry that you were getting special training lessons until I saw that bruise on your butt. Your parents sure have a weird way of 'helping you with your powers,'" Annie comments, a mocking smile on her face.

The bruise she's referring too is basically the size of a cantaloupe and it came about because I failed to stop a clay pigeon that mom threw at me. Annie laughed and told me my butt looked like a bowling ball when I was changing into my pajamas the other night. "Ha ha ha," I retort drily, "I'll have you know, I plan it use a lot of what I'm learning in our own team training, so you better watch it."

Annie simply snorts and turns to point out something in the magazine she's holding, to Lillie.

"Hey, speaking of training, can I run with you guys tomorrow?" Frazier asks, as I take my shot on billiards. I sink the 10 stripped into the corner and I'm lining up to hit the 15, as Annie responds, "sure, I have no problem with that."

I miss my shot, and turn to the conversation. Ryan is murmming biology terminology to himself, but Annie and Lillie are still reading magazines.

"Umm, I can only go if we do an afternoon run."

Frazier is lining up his shot now, and Annie looks up at me. "You're training with your mom, again?"

I shrug, "I think I get both my parents tomorrow, and as much as part of me hates it, it's been helping. I haven't had a headache for a few weeks now."

My mom's training session are brutal, but kind of fun; especially when others join. I knew that being part of the X-Men was intense, but damn, they're insane.

"Well, an afternoon run is fine with me," Frazier cuts in. I turn and see that he's cleared the table and all that remains are two of my balls and the 8 ball. "Side pocket, right," He says as he sinks the eight ball, ending the game.

I purse my lips, I now remember why none of us play him. "Another round?" Frazier inquires, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Pass." I say, returning to the couch and dropping back down. I instantly regret it as pain shoots through every muscle in my body.

"Y'all mind if I join?"

Everyone goes silent, as Lane enters the rec room. There's some tension in the group over Lane. Our danger room training sessions have been a disaster with him, and the team wants me to talk to Storm about getting him switched to a different team.

His fighting skills are useless, and unless there's water around, Lane is more of a hindrance than a help.

I, too, am baffled as to why he's on our team.

Frazier quickly makes an excuse about needing to shower before we leave, and Lillie excuses herself shortly after him. Ryan asks Annie if she wants to go make out and she eagerly leaves with him, not giving Lane a second glance.

"Guess I know how to clear out a room." Lane half jokes, as we both watch everyone walkaway.

"Don't take it personally."

He lets out a humorless laugh at this, "don't take it personally that people don't like me?"

I grimace at my poor choice of words. "It's not that they don't like you, they just don't know you." I say with a shrug. I, too, don't really know Lane, but I decide to omit that thought.

"It's okay, I get it, I'm the weird new guy."

"I don't think weird is part of it. You're in a house full of mutants."

Lane shakes his head, "Should I ask for a different training team?"

I look at him surprised and he continues, "I'm not stupid. I know I suck and that I'm holding you all back. I've only ever used my powers to cheat in swim completions, not battles, and I'm kinda useless when there's no water around."

It's what everyone on my team, myself included, has thought, but him saying out loud sounds harsh. I sigh, unsure what to say. Eventually, I go with the truth, "You're right, you're not very good but to be fair none of us have actually been in battle. Only the some of the 18 year olds, and well, 'adults'." Lane deflates even more at my words, "but Professor X assigned you to our team for a reason." 'A reason, none of us know and are starting to question,' but I don't say that part.

"Look, it's the weekend, let's not worry about this right now. We're planning to go to the arcade, what to come?" I ask, wanting to change the topic.

"I don't think your friends would like that."

"Well, I'm driving so my friends can suck it."

This finally earns me a smile, and I can't help but hear his thoughts. He's excited and so badly wants to be included in something.

Part of me feels guilty for not making his transition easier. It had to have been hard joining the school this late in the semester and when he only has a couple years here.

"We're grabbing Pizza after," I can tell he's still trying to think of a reason why he shouldn't go. "And I'll cream you at air hockey."

"Oh, I'm quaking in my boots." He says, and I can tell that got him to accept the invitation.

I laugh, and send a mental message to all my friends that Lane is coming and they need to suck it up.

Y'all! I got into Graduate School! Hells to the yes! Also, I hope all you lovely people are well. -Shan