𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

A New Path

Jennifer had spent the summer holidays after returning home from Scotland debating what to do with her life. It wasn't an easy decision by any means and every so often she found herself thinking that staying planted on the sofa forever wasn't the worst idea, but after just two weeks she was sick of daytime television and Cheetos. 

It was a Tuesday in mid-July that Jennifer decided to take some action on her job search, and after a long bus ride followed by a taxi she found herself standing in front of the main doors to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She had already knocked three times, her hand still hovering at the door as she stood sheltered by the porch from the heavy rain forming puddles on the gravel path.

Every five or ten seconds she wondered if she had made the right choice doing this, coming here. She was overqualified, and yet she had absolutely no experience, which just felt wrong, like barking up the wrong tree. Jennifer had been offered plenty of placements and she knew that her degree would get her a high paying research job, but she still wanted to check this out. 

Finally, the door opened from inside. Charles sat in his wheelchair, holding the door open.  "Ah Jennifer, it's so good to see you. Come on in."

She took a step inside, already feeling warmer as the door shut behind her. "It's good to see you too. It's been a while."

The building seemed in pristine condition despite its age, the wooden panels that covered the walls and the floor were gleaming under the florescent lights that hung from the ceiling. The only difference she could notice between now and the sixties was the décor. The fancy painted family portraits that once hung on the walls were gone, replaced with large framed photographs of what she could only assume were students, sometimes in groups and other times next to Charles, certificate in hand. Jennifer vaguely remembered that when she had been here before there had been tables in the middle of the wide halls, antiques stacked on top. Most of them had been cleared away, and the ones that remained only held a pot of flowers and leaflets that were somewhat neatly piled. 

Then, there was one final difference - Charles Xavier. He was confined once again to his chair, but he didn't seem nearly as bothered by it, in fact, he seemed to be embracing it. He looked happy, far more put together than in the earlier part of the decade, making him a lot more familiar to the Charles she met in the sixties. His hair wasn't much shorter than it had been five years ago, but it was far from the strangely mess it had been, far more appropriate for a professor. 

"Let's start the tour," Charles stated before moving off, clearly not interested in wasting time chit-chatting. Jennifer quickly followed. They went around the building starting on the first floor, poking their heads into different rooms while Charles explained how the school functioned. 

"We have around a hundred and fifty students at the moment. The number increases more every year, and with peoples fear and violence against mutants the school is needed more and more. We're currently doing renovations to increase our capacity, making more dorms upstairs. Most of the students are fourteen or fifteen since that's the age their mutations usually occur, however many students choose to stay until the end of their high school education, and there are younger students as well. I believe our youngest is seven. 

"Due to numbers we've decided to split the school into four age groups for studies.  Group one is for students ten and younger. It's our smallest group so we only have two teachers for them currently."

They stopped outside a doorway that lead into a small room holding no more than fifteen desks, and only ten were occupied, the young students focused on their work as a woman in her late twenties walked around the class, peering over her students work and helping them out.