WHO: Lorna Dane NPCs: Professor Xavier, Storm, Jeremy and Abigail Dane When: February 2003 Where: Rio Vista, California What: There's a special school in Westchester...
It had been just any other day. She’d gone to school, done her school work, and was now coming home on the bus. On the outside it was business as usual. Neither she nor her parents ever talked about the constant hair dying. They didn’t talk about the powers she’d started exhibiting. They didn’t talk about her having quit her extracurriculars. At this point Lorna just wanted to limit her contact with people. Someone would find out. And it wasn’t just that she’d heard how much everyone seemed to dislike mutants, but they were the same powers of him. It made everything ten times worse.
This particular day she’d come home and there was a strange car in the driveway. She entered the door and no one seemed to notice the noise of the door until she entered the living room. Then the conversation that was going on stopped dead. There was a man in a wheelchair, who gave her a kind smile. He was there with a lady with dark skin and white hair. Her parents seemed a tad bit put out though.
“What’s going on?” Lorna asked adjusting the bag on her shoulder. She sounded a bit unsteady.
“Lorna, hon. Go start your homework in your room.” Her mom replied. Lorna instantly knew this was about her. She never had to do homework the minute she was home from school.
“I don’t have any. I finished Great Expectations last night.”
“Then go watch some TV or something.” She replied, motioning upstairs with her head.
Lorna looked at everyone in the room before turning the corner and going up the stairs. She dropped her book bag on her bed before returning to the landing. She went down a few stairs making sure to avoid the one that squeaked and sat with her knees up to her chest. They were going to have a conversation about her. She wanted to know what it was about.
She sat there for some time, listening closely. Her parents hadn’t thrown them out of the house yet, but they didn’t seem to buy what he was selling about his special Hogwarts for the countries most hated children.
They seemed to realize they were striking out. “Mr., Mrs. Dane just please think it over. I’ve dedicated my life to helping and training children in your daughter’s position.”
Lorna suddenly bound down the stairs catching the pair before they could leave the living room. “Hi, I’m Lorna.” She introduced.
The pair glanced at each other. “I’m Professor Xavier, and this is my colleague Ororo Monroe.” He replied shaking Lorna’s hand and gesturing to the woman beside him.
With that quick pleasantry out of the way Lorna plowed forward. “You can fix me?” She asked impatiently. She was determined she needed an answer for that. She never understood why people disliked all mutants. She’d always thought it would awesome to have a superpower. That was until it had happened to her and she ended up sharing a powerset with a man she’d grown up hearing about on the news.
He looked at her sadly for a moment. “That’s not how it works, Miss Dane.”
“Oh,” It was all she said, bitterly disappointed by that answer. She looked at her own two hands for a reason, before a small container on the desk in the corner started to rattle.
“Lorna.” She mother said softly, but the warning didn’t manner as soon the paperclips were floating in the perfect circle in front of her.
“It’s not that I mind being a mutant, but… these powers can be scary.”
It was time for the woman to speak. Her voice was nice and comforting though slightly accented in a way Lorna couldn’t identify. “At our school we teach you how to control this and grow with it.”
Lorna looked at the both of them, and then her parents before holding out her hand and letting the paperclips land there in a perfect little pile. “I want to go.” She announced. It was probably a bit impulsive she didn’t know anything about these people. She’s only just even learned their names.
She stepped past the two and further into the room. “I’ve been ignoring it, and it’s not going away or getting better. So maybe we should try it their way.”
They looked at each other. “We’ll talk about it.” Lorna figured that was the best she’d get out of them.