Chapter Sixteen

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12:54, June 29, 1983

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12:54, June 29, 1983.

The sixteen-year-old held the metal broom stick tightly with both hands, grumbling at the ground. Who ever came up with the decision of giving her the job to sweep had to be either drunk or incredibly forgetful.

Ah, yes, sign the nearly blind girl with fractured bones to do the sweeping, She thought. She won't ever miss a spot!

It was the third week since the group of thirteen mutants had destroyed the mall. Probation hadn't been a cake walk.

Each day the few students were given a different chore, some days they were pared with the others and some days Vale worked alone. While the rest of the students were out in the city enjoying the summer, Vale and the others had stayed on the Institute grounds.

At least the summer wasn't all that terrible. Gran and Paps had written to her (She had to ask Jubilee to read it for her.) and called every once and while. Gran had said they might come and visit after their trip to Canada. As much as Vale missed her grandparents, she really hoped they wouldn't come for the sake of not being humiliated.

To Vale's surprise, she actually befriended a couple of the students on probation with her. She had bonded with the boy called Forge over scrubbing the kitchen, learning that they shared a Cherokee background. Even more astonishing, her and Ororo had gotten a long quite well while dusting the library. Jubilee and Vale had became better friends after a pluming incident. She grew quite fond of the German teleporter over washing the dishes.

"Vale," Said a voice from behind her.

Sam. She groaned. Over the three weeks, Vale hadn't grown to like Sam.

"I'm guessing you're done eating Alison's face?" Vale turned to his sliver energy. Her grip tightening on her broom.

Ever since Jean had admitted their feeling for each other Alison and Sam had started dating. Or to reword it, made out the majority of the time.

Sam gave her a sigh.

"I just needed some idea's for Alison's gift." He said. "I thought since you two are close that you could help."

Most girls would have first thought of his gesture for Alison to be heart warming or cute. Vale's thoughts still remained on ways to get rid of him.

"I don't know. She likes music, get her some Janet Jackson or Journey stuff." Vale grumbled, moving her broom side to side.

"Thanks." He sounded rather happy about it. "Oh, Mr.McCoy said that he wanted to speak with you downstairs."

Vale let her brain search for the mutant teacher in the lower levels of the school. However, Hank was in a vast underground hall. Professor Xavier following behind with the heroine, Raven.

"Here take this." She said while shoving to the broom onto Sam. Vale darted down to the hidden elevator before Sam could say another word.

Bing!

Vale scurried out of the metal box as fast as she could. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. Her mind raced with reasons they were going to expel her.

"You said you wanted to speak with me?" Her voice bounced off the metal walls from her hiding spot behind a corner.

"Ah, yes, Vale," The Professor said. "Come with us and everything will be explained."

Hesitantly following the three adults, Vale's attention darted all over the underground level. The teen stuffed her shaking hands in her overall pockets.

They lead her to one of the larger rooms in the lowest level. The metal walled room was buzzing with strange machinery and was littered with an assortment of tools. It smelled of bleach and unusual gasses. It reminded her of her grandfather's auto repair shop. Though the shop was much smaller and didn't have a retractable roof.

Although what she assumed were a sewing machine and stacks of cloth seemed out of place.

"If I did something wrong--" Vale stammered.

"No, no, no," Professor Xavier assured her. Vale withdrew the uneven breath she was holding.

"This is about when we found you." Hank said, she picked out anxiousness in his tone.

Vale's shoulders slumped.

"What-what do you mean?" Her eyebrows knit together.

"Days before Hank came to your house there were reports of strange crimes." The Professor explained. "Stolen goods, floating cars, police men falling from the sky. Mainly in Baltimore. Hank suggested looking into it. And so we did, however you were the only mutant in the state."

"And, clearly, that you're mutation doesn't involve dropping people out of the sky, you hadn't committed those crimes." Hank continued.

Her mind flashed to the day at the diner and the bright mutant energy. She never wondered why they were running so fast. Now she knew.

"What they're saying is that they weren't looking for you." The heroine's voice was flat.

From the deadly atmosphere that spiked off the Professor and Hank, Vale pictured an intense glare battle going on between the trio.

Doubt and Vale had been close before, but now it was breathing down her neck. It flooded in, washing away everything in it's path. The teen shrunk against the wall, slowly building a dam in her brain.

Useless. It taunted.

Vale shook her head and swallowed.

"They were running south," Vale announced. "Before I didn't know they were like us. I remember their auric pattern, I could help." Eagerness hid her previous thoughts.

Vale held back her impulse to retaliate Hank's excuses for her to heal, but the long pause in the room warned her not too.

The days in the X Mansion only got more queer than usual for the sixteen-year-old mutant.

PS.

THIS IS LATE AND BORING I'M SORRY

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