Who: Kitty, Logan and Padme What: Kitty introduces Padme to the Jean Grey Outreach Center When: Recent Where: out in the canyon who's name I never remember Status: Complete Rating: PG
Padmé glanced at her phone for the hundredth time. Kitty had agreed to meet her here at 1, and Padmé was feeling anxious. She’d arrived at 12:30, parked her car outside the building and sat in silence, wondering over and over again about what she was doing.
This wasn’t her. She usually reached out to well-established organizations, found a way to help out maybe once a year, and then moved on. Did enough to lessen her own white privilege and left it at that. And then the dreams came, and she realized no, she had to do something. With great power came the sense that she needed to give back, needed to be part of a community . Padmé had been an island for far too long, keeping people at arm’s length, and damnit, that was exhausting. Being social was easy for her, when that was all she knew, but at the end of the day, she had to live with herself, and that person, she knew now, had a lot of problems.
Nope. This was the right thing to do. And she felt good having come this far.
At exactly 1, she stepped out of her Prius, and looked around. She still didn’t see Kitty, but that was okay. She knew how to open doors, and so she walked into the Jean Grey Centre and looked around. She had no idea who ‘Logan’ was or what a ‘Logan’ would look like.
The center vaguely resembled a ranch house, with a number of larger facilities farther back as well as a large area for outdoor activities, a stables, and numerous animals. If one listened carefully, they might even hear a wolf howling in the distance.
A young woman with a multi-colored faux-hawk and a variety of facial piercings sat behind a desk. She leaned forward. “Hey, can I help ya?”
It was somewhat creepy to Kitty, that it was named after Jean. They’d never met her in this life, after all, and this place was named for a dead woman from another universe. But she couldn’t fault Logan for it and she was quite happy it was named after Jean and not Xavier.
She rolled up next to a Prius on a motorcycle that made almost no sound, and looked at it.
“Um, yes,” Padmé said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She’d always wished she could do something wild and crazy with her hair. Maybe that was why she was so particular about her accessories, her makeup, her clothing… the easiest way to express herself while still fitting into the confines her mother had instilled in her. Today, she had gold eyeliner and felt positively decadent.
“I’m looking for someone named Logan?”
The teenager obviously knew who she was waiting for. Padmé was encouraged to look around the waiting room while she waited which she did. There was a lot of activity, a bulletin board with events and flyers, so she occupied herself reading what was going on.
Kitty stepped inside, smiling at the teenager and then spying Padme in the waiting area. She walked over, hands in her pockets and flashed a grin. “Fancy meeting you here. Been here long?”
She didn’t think Logan would keep them waiting much longer, so she didn’t bother to sit just yet.
“Nope, just got here.” Padmé smiled at Kitty. “How’s you? Thanks for setting this up, by the way. It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
“I’m happy to help. And things are going pretty good, actually.” Before Kitty could go into detail, a short, rugged man in jeans and a button up blue shirt came down the stairs. Logan nodded at Kitty. “Hey, pumpkin’.”
Then he smiled at Padme. “Miss Amidala. I’m Logan Howlett. Kitty tells me you’re interested in volunteerin’?”
“Please,” Padmé said, sticking her hand out. “Call me Padmé. Amidala is far too formal for this, and yes, Kitty is right: I would like to volunteer.” She glanced around the busy centre. “I’ve never really done something like this before though, so I wanted to know a little bit more so that I can commit. What kind of programming do you do here?”
“That’s fine by me,” Logan said, shaking her hand firmly. He jerked his head to indicate they should follow him, and led the way towards the back door, through an informal living room like space where a couple of teens were playing Mario Kart.
Once outside, he pointed at a large building, that was almost round in shape. “There’s a lotta physical activities. We got an archery center, an onsite martial arts teacher, horse ridin’ and animal husbandry. Once a month there’s softball games. There’s also a classroom in that other building there.”
“There’s a lot of STEM based studying,” Kitty interjected. “I teach a computer course a couple of times a month. But there’s more than that, in a variety of study subjects.”
“I try to emphasize life skills an’ other skills to help ‘em out when they’re on their own,” Logan said.
Padmé followed Logan, her eyes wide open as she took in everything. What had seemed to be a potential resource centre, was actually more of an in-depth teen drop-in. It was amazing, and Padmé’s respect for the other woman went up even more. “This is wonderful.” This was something Padmé wished she could have had when she was growing up. Somewhere that she could be herself.
“I don’t know that I have any skills to teach though,” she confessed. “Unless anyone here wants to learn the art of etiquette or how to fold napkins.”
“Could maybe offer interview and etiquette lessons,” Kitty suggested, thinking of a class she’d had to take in high school once. It had only been for a semester and then rotated in for something else and had been mostly useless except the one time she’d needed to impress someone.
“Don’t have to teach anything,” Logan said, glancing at her with a considering look. “Could mentor a few kids, just in general. Life skills coaching, big sister type stuff.”
Interview lessons was something she could do. Padme perked up at that. “Yes, I’m excellent at that, and how to organize… all sorts of those administrative tasks. I can help you.” For the first time, she felt herself relax a bit. This wasn’t a bad idea after all. She could do this. She had to let her anxiety go.
“I mean, I’m no Marie Kondo, but I’m not a bad life coach. You’d be surprised how much wedding planning is almost like a counselling/therapy session for my brides. I learn so much … even listening is a skill that you need to learn.” She gave a determined nod. “Well. Sign me up. Let me know what you need from me, and I’ll do it. Thank you for this opportunity.”
“God knows I need organization,” Logan joked. But he really did rely pretty heavily on others for some of that. He was good at coming up with plans on the fly, but long term planning and organization had never really been his strong suit.
“Somehow I’m not actually surprised,” Kitty said. “I’ve watched Bridezilla.”
Ignoring that, Logan continued, “You’re welcome. I think we can come up with somethin’ like that you can do, an’ a good time of week to do it.””
“I’d like that.” Padme was beaming now, her mind racing with plans, ideas, thoughts that she could use. This would be a fun distraction from the busy impending wedding season coming up, and even though she didn’t have a lot of time, she could etch out an hour or two here or there.
She’d make it work.
“Maybe you could show me around the whole facility?”
“If you’ll follow me then?” Logan nodded with his head towards a back door and offered her his arm.