A/N : For you, MargotTenser!

1

Most parents who came to enrol their offspring at the Xavier Academy stayed for the tour, a long chat with the Professor, usually a little conference with the teachers he thought were best placed to help their child with their own unique gifts. Expecting that, Charles had been surprised and saddened when he had seen a car screech into the driveway, come to rest in front of the Academy, and a little blonde girl be unceremoniously ejected from the front seat. A large rucksack followed her, landing in the dust, and the girl raised her hand to wave. Before she had managed to get out a goodbye, however, the car had taken off again in a plume of dust and a squeal of tyres, fishtailed out of the driveway and disappeared from view.

The girl stood for a moment. Then sat down on her backpack and buried her head in her hands. By the time Charles had got down to her, she had cried herself into hiccups and was almost dry-eyed again. Up close, he realised how young she was – perhaps nine or ten, no more – small and delicately built, with hair that looked like it had been cut at home with the aid of a pudding-basin and a pair of kitchen scissors. Face blotchy from crying, dressed in jeans and an overlarge khaki shirt that could only be hand-me-downs from older siblings, worn-out shoes on her feet, pulling at the sleeves of her shirt. It seemed that was a habit, judging by the holes and ragged cuffs. Charles took pity on her instantly, wheeling over to lay a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Are you Felicity Noonan?" he asked, kept his voice low. The girl hiccupped hard, nodded, went right back to a fresh spasm of noisy tears. He extracted a handkerchief and offered it to her, "I'm Professor Charles Xavier, welcome to my Academy. Would you like to come inside?"

Felicity said nothing for a moment. Raised her head a little to stare at the ground at her feet. Nodded again miserably. Clambered to her feet and bent to pick up the backpack that had been thrown out after her. It was almost as tall as she was, but she lifted it effortlessly and shrugged into the straps, looked up at Xavier at last and offered him back his sodden handkerchief. The poor child looked distraught.

"Keep it," he said, "Do you speak, Felicity?"

She glanced away again, took a breath, seemed to hesitate before finally –

"YesIdobutMommatellsmenottobecausenobodycanunderstandmebecauseItalktoofastsoshejustsayskeepquietFlicknobodywantstohearyournoise"

She said. Xavier blinked. Took a moment to process the sentence, mentally inserted some punctuation.

"And that Momma that… dropped you off here?"

"NothatwasmyoldestbrotherI'vegoteightandallofthemarenormalandMommasayswhydidshegetcursedwithakidlikemewhenallherothersarefineandthat'swhyI'mherepleasedtomeetyou" she swallowed hard, screwed up her hands into fists, and closed her eyes, before repeating "Pleeeeeeeaaaaaa-SED. Toooooooooo. MeeeeeeeeeT. YOU!"

She gasped for air. Xavier wanted to scoop her up in a hug on the spot, it had been such an effort for her to speak slowly that she looked a little sick, obviously finding that exhausting. Instead, he reached out and patted her kindly on the shoulder again

"Come inside, Felicity. We'll have a little talk in my study and get you properly enrolled" he said sympathetically, "and don't worry for now about speaking slowly for me – I'll fetch somebody who you can talk to, er, normally"

He almost laughed as she had nodded and started to walk beside his chair. The girl took one step forward, then very carefully counted aloud one, two, three, four, five… whilst pacing backward, then one more darting step forward. He assumed that was the only way she could keep pace with him. Poor girl, if he'd only known the situation, he would have made sure to be down in the driveway and dragged whoever had dumped the child here in by their mind to sit and tell him more. As it was, it seemed that he would have no other recourse but to make the girl at home, and fetch possibly the only one of his teaching pool who would not be given a headache by trying to communicate with her. Touching her mind was out of the question – with speech and gait like that, she simply had to be a speedster, and as such Xavier steered well clear of her mental processes, remembering the nosebleeds and migraines he'd had before. Sent out a quick message as they had made their way to the study for Raven to meet him there, pleased to see that she had clearly been close and was arranged gracefully in a chair when they arrived.

Felicity had zipped behind his chair the moment the door had opened. He could feel her shaking, puzzled for a moment before he had realised the problem. He was so used to Raven's natural form that he barely noticed the blue skin and scales, but to the unprepared, it was no doubt surprising.

"Isitamonster?" Felicity babbled, "Isitashemonster?"

"No, dear child – this is Raven Darkholme, one of our teachers. I was going to assign you to her as a Mentor, but I've changed my mind. Come out now, you're perfectly safe"

Reluctantly Felicity peeped out from behind the chair. Raven smiled as kindly as she could – which admittedly, still looked like a snake about to bite – and raised one hand in a wave.

"Hi Felicity" she tried, peeped around to catch a glimpse. The girl ducked behind the chair again, "It's okay, I'm not a monster. Just a Mutant like you"

Screwing up her courage, Felicity emerged. Looked as if she was struggling to balance on a tightrope as she approached a little closer, such was the agonising effort of walking at a normal pace. Xavier felt another pang of sorrow for her. She stood and regarded Raven.

"Whyaren'tyouwearinganyclothesIcanseeyourboobs"

The girl babbled. Raven frowned.

"Sorry, dear, I didn't catch a word of –"

"Raven, so sorry to trouble you" Charles cut in, before she could process the sentence, "But would you go and find Peter for me? I'd call myself, but…"

"Yeah you don't want your mind blown" she grinned, rose elegantly, "I'll go fetch him"

She left them in peace. Felicity sat and tapped her foot, almost wearing a hole in the carpet.