SCOTT SUMMERS

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that Alex had a little brother, let alone that he was a mutant like her. He arrives in the middle of the day, without warning, a white cloth wrapped around his head, shielding his eyes from the world. Brianna watches curiously from the shadows as Alex explains the situation to Hank, who nods and listens intently. Brianna manages to catch bits and pieces of the conversation.

"I'm Hank McCoy, one of the teachers here," Hank introduces himself, but the blindfolded teenager only hums in response. Hank furrows his eyebrows.

"Where's the professor?" Alex asks, not knowing where Charles is because of his short time away, to get his brother and talk to his parents.

Brianna follows them down the hall but doesn't go as far as they do, in fear of being seen by her father. He is teaching a class at the moment, one which she is actually supposed to be attending but chose not to. Surprise, surprise.

She hangs near the end of the hall and listens, the part of her mutation that magnifies her senses allowing her to hear explicitly, even with the distance between them.

"'To break forth bloodily then the past must be obliterated and a new start made. Let us now start fresh without remembrance, rather than live forward and backward at the same time'," the Professor spoke to the students surrounding him, Brianna hearing everything loud and clear. "Now, what on earth do we think the author meant when he wrote all that?"

He begins to speak again, but then changes his sentence as the Summers boys approach. "That's going to be your assignment for tomorrow. Top marks, everyone. Class dismissed." Brianna zones out the conversation for a while, becoming bored and wandering outdoors, where she sits below a tree in the shade to the left of the pond. Jean stood at one end of it, shooting arrows at a target at the other end of the water.

A while later, Charles, Hank, Alex, and Scott come outside, to get a little glimpse of what Scott's power is and what it can do. Of course, Charles throws in his usual helpful advice to comfort the most likely confused and scared teenager. Brianna sets her elbows on her knees and watches, interested.

"If you do decide to stay," the Professor begins, "I can promise you that by the time you're done here, you'll be able to go back into the world and play a stable and productive part in it." Brianna doesn't miss the odd quirk of Scott's mouth as he hears this. "Why don't you take your bandages off and we can have a look at what we're dealing with here?"

Brianna's heart speeds up and she smiles. "Alex, would you line him up?" Line him up? Brianna wonders, furrowing her eyebrows as Alex steps behind his little brother. "Face him in the right direction, as it were." Charles nods across the water. "There's a target just across the water. When you open your eyes, try and hit that."

When he removes the white cloth from his face, Brianna gets a better view of him, finding him oddly attractive. His brown hair curves across his forehead, his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes stay squeezed shut. She wonders what color they are.

Alex receives his sunglasses from inside his jacket and slides them onto his face, setting his hand on his brother's shoulder, aligning him in a way so he hits the target across the water.

"You can open your eyes, Scott," Charles encourages, looking up at the boy from his wheelchair. "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's quite—"

He's cut off as Scott suddenly opens his eyes, red beams of light shooting from each of them, hitting the pond's water. He moves his head, sending the beams further along up the pond, breaking the target, and going even further, splitting a large tree right through it's middle.

Mutant children rush away from the water in panic, but stop when Scott closes his eyes and they realize everything is fine. Brianna can't help but giggle, eyebrows raised as she watches the scene before her.

The tree now has a red streak through the middle, a path dug into the grass surrounding by loose pieces of scattered dirt. As Scott wraps the white cloth back around his eyes, Brianna can actually hear her father laughing, obviously impressed.

"My grandfather planted that tree when he was five years old," Charles says, "I used to swing from the branches of it, myself." Each half of the tree falls, producing a loud creaking noise. "I think that was probably my favorite tree."

Brianna laughs again, covering her mouth so as not to be heard by them.

"Does that mean I'm expelled?" Scott asks, sounding a little embarrassed. But Charles just remains impressed.

"Oh, on the contrary," he says, turning his eyes from the dead tree to Scott. "You're enrolled." Brianna found herself smiling at hearing this. Scott seems like someone she may easily befriend, if not easier than the others. After all, he is her best friend's little brother. They should be able to form a bond rather quickly, shouldn't they?

The wind rustles through the trees and through Brianna's hair, blowing it in different directions. She closes her eyes and breathes in the sweet scent of nature.

"Are you Brianna?" A small female voice asks, causing Brianna to lift her head to see a young mutant standing next to her, probably nine or ten years old. She has long, golden hair that cascades over her shoulders, reaching just a little further to her elbows.

"Yes," Brianna responds, only answering because this mutant is a child, not a teenager. She doesn't get along so well with kids her own age. "Who are you?" The girl sighs, planting herself in the empty patch of grass next to Brianna.

"I'm Amy Pine," the girl says, picking at the grass. She seems troubled, Brianna concludes, watching the small child's tense demeanor.

"Are you alright?" Brianna asks, half wondering why she is sitting with her instead of playing with her friends near the pond. Amy shakes her little head, eyes focused on the ground. "What's the matter?"

"They're picking on me," she murmurs, nodding her head at the group of boys off in the distance, some of whom keep looking the girls' way with odd smiles on their faces. Brianna furrows her eyebrows.

"Boys are like that," she answers, trying to comfort the girl but not completely knowing how. "Just ignore them."

Amy scoffs. "Hard to ignore it when they do it every second of the day." Brianna felt a pang of pity for the girl, but didn't say that. Children don't like to be pitied; Brianna knows this from experience. "What can you do?" Amy suddenly asks, changing the subject as she turns and looks at Brianna curiously.

"I heal people," she answers curtly, not sure how else to put it. Her powers are complicated and a little tricky for her to put into words. This is why only Alex knows about them.

"Like, if they get sick?" Amy wonders, tilting her head to the side. Brianna smiles at the sight, nodding.

"Like if they get sick," she repeats, pursing her lips together. There is much more to her ability than taking away a cough or cold, but she doesn't want to give Amy all the details now. After all, she just met her.

Her ability to trust others isn't that great.