Chapter 116: First Day of School

24th February 2006, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda Maximoff was going to school. Holy shit, she was actually going to school. She never imagined the day where she would actually get to live like a normal teenager, like those TV shows she liked to watch. It was inconceivable, overwhelming; she didn’t know what to do. How is she going to blend in? How does one make friends? She never had to make friends before. Oh god, why hadn’t she thought about it yesterday when her guardian told her about it? She’d been so exhausted both physically and emotionally. One does not simply fight the Juggernaut without getting some muscles aches the next day.

But now, as she got dressed to go to school, Wanda realized how unprepared she was. She was always imprisoned somewhere, be it in the Vault, at her father’s house, or even at Sayre Manor. Although that last one was big enough for her to forget that she was confined inside. She never thought in a million years that she would be able to move around freely. Even if she trusted Jasmine with her life – she had saved her after all – a small part of her never believed her when she said that she’ll be free to do whatever she wants when she has a good enough control over her powers. People always wanted to either use her or get rid of her. This was a first and it was very disturbing for the teenager.

What the hell is she supposed to wear? She never had to dress up for anything really. She never cared about her appearance; you lose all sense of modesty when the guards at the Vault watched her when she was showering, something that she still finds creepy. Although they looked uncomfortable with watching a naked underaged girl shower, even if they were ordered to. So, at least they weren’t some perverted weirdos with weird fetishes. They were still racist though; they still mistreated her because she was a mutant – no, she was a mage now – so she doesn’t really think any better of them.

Wanda settles on wearing a red shirt and black pants; she was always partial to those colors. She wore Jasmine’s weird Egyptian symbol thingy – her guardian called it an Ankh, whatever that was. She still had no idea what the thing actually does, other that she liked holding it; it always gave her a comfortable warmth in her hand. She added the symbol to a necklace and put it around her neck. It felt as though her mother figure was giving her a hug.

She came down to watch Jasmine sitting down at the dining room; breakfast was made. “Good morning, Wanda. Are you excited for your first day of school?”

The teenager nodded meekly and Jasmine’s usual grin turned into a kind smile, “hey, what’s wrong, kiddo?”

Wanda shrugged, not trusting herself to answer.

Jasmine continued, “Are you nervous?”

The teenager marveled at the fact that her guardian could read her this easily. She nodded at her.

“What are you nervous about, dear? I know this is the first time in a very long time that you can get out on your own, but you’ll need to do it eventually. I know teenagers can be idiots, can say very hurtful things. But what is high school compared to fighting the Juggernaut? And if there’s anything wrong, I will be in the same building, so I’ll be there is less than a minute?”

Wanda looked up at her mother figure, “What if I’m not ready for this? What if I screw everything up?”

“Wanda, it’s not about being ready. No one is ever ready. It’s just a leap of faith, that’s all there is to it. Trust yourself, kiddo, and you’ll be fine. And what’s the worst that could happen? If things get really bad, I’ll just transfer you to another school. I don’t think any school in New York would refuse if I applied.”

Wanda was stupefied by the answer, “You’d leave your job? Just for me?”

“Yes, I would. You’re my ward, Wanda, which means that it’s my responsibility to take care of you. Plus, you can see that I’m pretty well off.” The older woman gestured to the manor around her.

The teenager couldn’t help but giggle at this, “You’re not well off, Jasmine. You have so much money that I don’t think you actually know how much you have.”

Jasmine grinned back at her, “That’s actually true. Plus, there are the old artifacts and art pieces that I have that I frankly have no idea how much they’re worth.”

“Wait art pieces? You mean those paintings in the wall?”

“Well, yeah! Most of them were drawn during the last five centuries or so. The really old stuff, I have preserved in a private collection in London. Very fragile stuff.”

Wanda couldn’t believe herself, “What the hell, Jasmine! This house is basically an art exhibit. Holy shit, I touched those paintings. Oh god, I touched a painting that is worth millions. Why did you never say anything?”

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The teenager never realized just how absurdly casual Jasmine is with her money. She never wore extensive jewelry, something that Wanda always found cringeworthy as rich people like to wear ugly expensive things, just to show that they could afford it. Jasmine acted like all the money, all the riches she had were nothing. She bought expensive stuff, but doesn’t showcase them. She had a giant mansion, but she never invited anyone over. It was so very confusing.

After they ate breakfast, Jasmine took her down to the garage and they got inside the frankly badass car. It was a black 1987 chevy impala, which Jasmine had enchanted. She still had no idea what enchantments she added but assumed they would be as awesome as the car.

They sat down and Jasmine opened the door to the garage and slowly drove to the end of the grounds. When they reached the end, Jasmine pressed on a button and a portal materialized in front of them. Suddenly, they were in another garage in the middle of New York City.

At her questioning look, Jasmine chuckled, “I own a lot of car parks all over the world. I connect any car I own to the network so that I could travel around with whatever car I want. The mansion is too far away for me to drive properly and if someone follows me for some reason, they would never be able to find it. Not that they could see it if they were even a few feet away with the wards I have set up. But it helps avoid uncomfortable questions. And also, this way no one can see me teleport around. Plus, I kinda like driving.”

As they got out of the garage, Wanda found that they were in a very crowded road. Is this the morning rush she heard about on TV?

Anyway, fifteen minutes later, they were in front of the school. Right before she got out, Jasmine stopped her, “One last thing, I have to cancel out training session tonight. I have a charity event I’ll have to attend. If you need anything just channel your magic through your security portkey. I’ll be able to find you. If you can’t find me, get the principal Raven Darkholme. She’s Mystique if you didn’t notice. And finally, if you’re ever in danger, use the passcode to portkey back to the mansion. Good luck kiddo.”

Wanda nodded and got out of the car. Class was in ten minutes, so she had ten minutes of waiting until she could get inside. The teenaged witch looked around and found the normal stereotypes of highschoolers. There were the jocks who were sitting with the cheerleaders, talking, probably bragging about something. Wanda could feel that not a single word spoken was actually genuine. Looking around, there were the typical nerds, who were wearing some superhero T-Shirt. It was funny; it was of DC characters. Jasmine had told her of her identity as Morgan Evanshade who had written most of that stuff. Although, she had underlings continuing her stories as comic books, which somehow made them even more popular for the typical nerds to see. What would they say, if they knew that they were being taught history by the Morgan Evanshade? They’d probably pass out.

Of course, there were also the goths, the hipsters, and the usual cliques. What interested her were the two groups composed of mutants. The X-men and the Brotherhood of mutants. Both were very stupid names, but they seemed to enjoy it, for some reason.

Wanda watched as the X-men arrived in what she assumed is Scott Summer’s car, considering that he’s the one driving. The teenaged witch admits to herself that she actually likes the car, not as much as Jasmine’s of course, but it was a nice ride. The driver, on the other hand, was a dickhead. That’s what she’ll call him until he proves her wrong. He was very stupid and confrontational with Jasmine when she saved them from the Juggernaut.

Wanda’s blood boiled at the memory of the bald bastard wanting to get her back to her prison. Thankfully, Jasmine was one step ahead and stopped any kind of possible actions he could take. Imprisoning her now, would be committing a crime. You can’t just put people in jail because you don’t like them.

When they each got out of the car, they walked towards the entrance to find Wanda, standing next to it. Wanda stifled the burst of laughter at their wide eyes and gaping faces. She had to admit that they looked ridiculous. Scott Summers almost removed his glasses to blast her but was stopped by a harsh glare from Jean Grey who was still gaping at her.

The one that she assumes is supposed to be the teleporting blue devil boy’s reaction was the funniest. The guy jumped back in fear and fell over. At the impact, Wanda felt the illusion he had on distort itself for a fraction of a second.

Anyway, Summers stomped down towards her, in the same entitled manner he had the previous day. Yeah, she definitely isn’t going to be a fan of the red glasses wearing boy anytime soon. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

The teenaged witch chuckled at him, “What are talking about? I’m here for the same reason you are, to attend high school.”

“You don’t come to school here!”

“This is my first day here. It’s a shame how you’re conducting yourself in front of a new student. Makes one wonder if you have some unresolved issues. Perhaps, I should speak with the principal; such aggressive behavior is very worrying.”

The boy looked shocked at the fact that she pretty much threatened him. She learnt that one from Jasmine. It was awesome how she handled Xavier without even raising her voice.

The boy stammered, trying to answer, before the brunette, Kitty Pryde, hits him in the shoulder, “Don’t make an ass out of yourself, Scott.” She then turned to Wanda, “We didn’t have time to introduce ourselves yesterday. I’m Kitty Pryde, this is Jean Grey,” the redhead smiled at me but she had a complicated look on her face, “this idiot is Scott Summers,” the boy glared at me, “this is Rogue,” she gestured towards the goth girl who ignored me, “the hyperactive idiot that fell over is Kurt,” the guy waved at me, grinning like a madman, “and finally this is Evan.” The final X-man had a skateboard on his hand and just said ‘yo!’ before skating away.

Before she could respond, the bell rang and the entire student body walked towards their classrooms. Wanda had already her schedule, courtesy of Jasmine, and walked towards her respective classroom. She got inside and the entire classroom was staring at her, confused.

“Ah, Ms. Maximoff, I was afraid you’d gotten lost.”

Here in front of her was her guardian, Jasmine Sayre. Wanda knew that expression on her face, this was her teaching face. She’s very strict when she’s teaching, especially when it comes to magic.

Wanda just nodded, used to her strict tone. She looked around and found that her class was the same as the X-men and the brotherhood. Pietro was absolutely gaping at her, his eyes as wide as saucers.

“Alright class, this is your new transfer student, Wanda Maximoff. I hope you’ll get along well.”