Chapter 84: Fated Meetings

1st September 2005, Bayville

(Jean Grey POV)

Jean Grey wasn’t feeling good getting into her last year in High School. There was something wrong with her but she had no idea why. She did actions that made no sense to her, she changed her mind randomly all the time. It was like that thing at the mall the other day; she tried an outfit and loved it at the mall, so logically she loved it. Two days later, when she tried it on, she was disgusted at it.

Even her relationship with Duncan was the same. It didn’t make any sense to her why she even was dating the guy. She was never attracted to jocks and didn’t even care about football. She even joined the cheerleading squad, but that was mostly to figure out what was the hype about it. For some reason, the other girls in school made a big deal about joining the team. She didn’t get it, but it did help her with her flexibility. Even Logan was impressed there. Oh, right, back to Duncan, he really acted like an asshole sometimes, especially with Scott.

She was very random with her relationship with Duncan. Sometimes, she would feel like a lovesick puppy, but other times, she would just feel disgusted with her choice of boyfriend. She tried to tell Professor Xavier about it but he chalked it up to teenage hormones.

Now that would be enough drama for any teenage girl, but Jean grey was no ordinary girl. She was a mutant that could read minds and move objects with her mind. She lived in a school, created by Professor Charles Xavier, for other gifted students, learning to control their powers and maybe even use them for good as X-men.

Speaking of Professor Xavier, she was starting to have more trouble controlling her powers. Her telepathy is starting to get out of hand. Especially when she started to get assaulted randomly with the thoughts of everyone around her. This was getting very tedious. Even her telekinetic powers were acting weird, getting stronger and weaker randomly. She was almost hurt during one of her training sessions when a telekinetic shield just randomly stopped working for some reason and Logan almost stabbed her with his adamantium claws.

She had a lot in her mind on her ride to school. She was going in Scott’s car, a red convertible with two white rally stripes. It was such a boy car, that Scott treated like it was his own child. She even caught him once trying to name it. She had read his mind, although unwillingly, and found out that he was calling it Jeanette after her, it was honestly disturbing. Scott Summers could be dependable as a team leader but not when it concerns her. He tended to either act like a creep, watching her every move, or just tried to pamper her.

Jean tried to stop thinking about unpleasant things but she soon found out that they were almost at their high school, Bayville High. Most of the kids were actually looking forwards to school. Jean, however, was not. Going back to school meant going to a place with a lot of people and more importantly a lot of thoughts broadcasted at her at the same time. It’s a wonder she hasn’t gone insane.

Scott parked the car, and they then walked towards the entrance of the school. Jean steeled herself; it was time to face the music. The moment they got close; Jean was assaulted by the thoughts of hundreds of hormonal teenagers. She put up her telepathic shields like professor Xavier taught her. Meager as they may be, they were still enough to help with the issue. Jean was then able to walk without wincing, even if she was still able to pick up the occasional errand thought.

She branched out from the other students from the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, to get to her boyfriend Duncan who was talking to her friend Taryn, who was one of the most boy-crazy girls she knew despite having a good head on her shoulders.

Jean didn’t even pay attention about what they were talking about, preferring to reinforce her mental shields. For some reason, her shields were very brittle and were overwhelmed easily. According to the Professor, it’s supposed to be somewhat instinctive. She didn’t understand why it was so hard for her to do so. She had to consciously keep her shields up all the time and she could barely focus on anything else.

After a while, Jean entered the school administration to receive her schedule. Great, she had Ms. Sayre as a first class. Jasmine Sayre has been her English and History teacher for the past two years. Jean could never get a read on her, not that she could get a read on anyone these days, her control was destroyed to bits and it was very hard to read a single mind in particular.

Ms. Sayre was by far Jean’s most favorite teacher, and pretty much everyone in her school shared her opinion. She was generally very friendly and warm hearted. She was very patient, even with the more troublesome students. She was even able to teach Fred, also known as Blob, and got him to pass her course.

The woman was truly brilliant and knew her subject inside out. Jean always thought that she had to have a degree in history or literature but Ms. Sayre refused to answer when someone asked her that.

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But what truly set her apart from other teachers was how she makes her subjects interesting by comparing it to today’s events. She even got anyone invested by organizing a class trip if everyone in her class passes her class. Last year, she even took Jean’s class for a week trip in Rome and while Ms. Sayre took them to see a few monuments and museums, she also got them for a day at the beach and one evening at an amusement park. To this day, Jean had no idea how the school paid for Ms. Sayre’s trips. She had postulated that Ms. Sayre could have paid for everything herself. She wasn’t hurting for cash, that’s for sure; Scott noticed that her car was very heavily customized with some weird engine he had never heard of before, and Scott knew his engines.

It also helped that the woman was extremely attractive. Don’t get her wrong, Jean isn’t attracted to women in any way but she had to admit that her teacher was one of the most beautiful women she ever met.

Jean walked to her history classroom, a little excited with the prospect of another lesson with Ms. Sayre. She entered the classroom to find her teacher sitting at her desk, drinking her usual cup of coffee. Slowly but surely, the classroom started to fill up and everyone took a seat.

The bell rang and the chatter dissipated instantly. The teacher got up and introduced herself, “Hello, for those who don’t know me, my name is Jasmine Sayre, you may call me Ms. Sayre and I’ll be your history teacher this year.”

She continued, “This year’s curriculum will mostly center itself around the country of England.” Everyone groaned, “Settle down, it’s one of the most interesting fields of study. It was either that or the French one and trust me, French history is a lot more complicated than the English one. Now, as usual, if everyone in your class gets a passing grade, I will organize another trip, this time it will be in England, what do you think?”

Everyone was excited at the prospect of another trip and straightened up.

“Now, as usual, I’m not taking your attendance nor checking your homework. This is your senior year, you have to start behaving like adults, which means I will treat you as one. I don’t care if you don’t attend as long as the assignments, I give you are done and you pass your exams. As always, I will be available during school hours in case you have any sort of issue.

Anyway, let’s get started on our first lesson, the Arthurian myths. Now, I’m not talking about the stories themselves but their effect in British society. Now, to get things started, who can tell me what the Arthurian legends are, exactly?”

A few students raised their hands and the lesson continued. It was very interesting to Jean, how much made up stories from a long time ago could affect society today. Halfway through the lesson, for some reason, Jean found herself drifting off. She was very distracted and her control over her mental shields slipped. She was then assaulted by the thoughts of everyone around her but the most powerful thoughts were Taryn’s. She was right next to her so it was a lot louder and easier to understand. For some reason, Taryn was feeling guilty.

Curious, Jean decided to dig further to understand why her friend was feeling nervous, only to find herself looking at the image of Taryn and Duncan dancing at a club and then sleeping together. Barely containing her rage, Jean chose to focus next on Duncan, who was fantasizing about Ms. Sayre. She dug inside and saw that he truly didn’t care that he cheated on her and had told the entire football team some rumors about their sex life, not that she ever slept with the guy.

For the first time in a long while, Jean was angry. No, she was furious, and she rarely got this pissed off. She almost always got over it very quickly but this was different. This rage felt all consuming like fire. She knew that she should control herself but her powers that she already had pretty cool control over them, started to react to that anger. The voices were getting louder and louder, and she had no idea how to stop them.

SHE JUST WANTED THE VOICES TO STOP!!

She felt a surge in her powers and almost everyone in the classroom grabbed their heads simultaneously. Everyone but, Ms. Sayre. Slowly, her vision started to blur and the last thing she saw was Ms. Sayre’s emerald green eyes, before everything fell into darkness.

When she woke up, she had a headache that made her remember the hangover she had when she and Scott, had snuck so beer into the mansion and gotten very drunk. She sat up, with her head pounding wanting nothing more than to go back to the professor, he would know what to do.

Before she could excuse herself, her teacher spoke up, “Ah, Ms. Grey. It’s time you got up. Don’t worry about your next class, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Jean just nodded, which kinda made the headache even worse. She was nervous, she had lost control of her powers in the middle of a lesson.

Ms. Sayre continued, “It seems that you fell asleep during my lesson, Ms. Grey.”

“I’m sorry, Ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

Her teacher just chuckled, “It’s not that. Didn’t you listen at the beginning of the lesson? I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t perturb my lesson. I’m just worried about you.” Ms. Sayre just looked at her thoughtfully before continuing, "How much free time do you have on a day to day basis?"

Jean frowned at the odd question. "Not much really, I get home around 7; I'm part of the cheerleading squad and the soccer team right now. Then I'm part of the basketball team when in season, the floor hockey team when in season, and of course I've got homework for school and daily workouts with Logan, one of our teachers in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters."

The history teacher responded, “But it’s still the beginning of the school year, the try outs haven’t begun yet.”

“Yeah, but our coaches told me that they’re not planning on getting me off the team. Me and a few other girls practiced almost everyday during the summer.” It was a good idea to distract her from the issues with her powers.

“What about food. Do you eat well?”

Jean answered, “Yes, I do. We have our own chef in the mansion.”

“Have you been ill in the last few days?”

“No, Ms. Sayre.”

The history professor was frowning, “Alright, this getting nowhere. Alright, Ms. Grey, can you tell me why did you think it was a good idea to send in a telepathic blast in the middle of a classroom filled with students?”

To say that Jean was caught off guard would be an understatement.