Chapter 1
Jade sat in her seat, eating breakfast around her friends. Each one was trapped in their own conversation except for her. She sat by her lonesome, looking like she was deep in thought about her next school project or the training session that night. What everyone didn’t know was that she was reading thoughts. That was another one of her special powers that was also enhanced by the lab. She was able to read thoughts. With the lab’s convoluted help, she could sneak into someone’s thoughts without them noticing. As long as she didn’t say anything or look at them in a weird way. So every now and again, she stared off into the distance to make it look like she was lost in her own world when in reality she was listening to other people. Of course, this was probably very rude, but she didn’t do it often. What was the harm in that?
She could hear everyone at once. It was a weird symphony of whispers where only a few specific words stuck out. If she wanted to hear only one person’s thoughts, she had to really hone in on that person. Usually whoever was the loudest got her attention. “Okay, tonight is the night,” Kurt thought. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see as he played around with his food as his hands shook and he breathed a loud sigh. “You’re going to ask her out and it’s gonna be alright and….ohhhh, I can’t do this! What if she’s not ready?” he continued.
Jade’s ears perked up at the sound and a tint of blush spread across her cheeks. For a while now, Jade had been falling for Kurt. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but hearing these thoughts dampened her spirits. The girl he was thinking about was probably ten times prettier than her and had less emotional baggage. Despite her flowering jealousy, she continued to listen in all while playing with her own breakfast.
“Jade is a smart girl, she’ll know how to handle it,” he thought. “If what Scott said was true, then she’s totally into you as well, right? But if it’s not true, then you’ll look like a mess….she looks so cute when she’s blushing and has a little smile on her face. I wonder what’s making her so happy.”
Jade concealed the smile she was wearing with her napkin as she shook her head to free herself from Kurt’s thoughts. The only bad thing about all of this mind reading was that she couldn’t control what her face did. If something made her mad or sad or happy, she couldn’t control the expression that crossed her face. The only way she could conceal what she was actually doing was staring down at whatever she was doing or having her back turned to a person. It was a habit she knew she had to break if she were to ever use her powers in a real fight. She couldn’t let the enemy know she was frightened or angered by what they did to her. For a blissful moment she truly zoned out. Her head was empty and nothing bounced inside it except for the normal tired feeling she always felt in the mornings. Everything was calm and peaceful.
That is until she heard a certain voice in her head.
“How do we even tell Jade what we’ve found out?” Professor Xavier said.
He was sitting at the end of the table, but Jade could tell he was looking at her amongst the other students as he ate his breakfast. Jade continued to look down at her plate, her napkin paused on her mouth and her eyebrows fully furrowed to the top of her head. What did he mean by that? What was he talking about? She had to know more.
“I don’t want it to be so,” Xavier continued. “But all of the DNA we’ve gathered from Wanda, Pietro, and Magneto himself lined up. It’s just breaking the news to her is the problem. How do you even tell someone that? Kurt found out in a way we couldn’t prevent. We can’t let that happen again. We need to tell Jade properly that Magneto is her father.”
Jade dropped her napkin on her plate, but quickly picked it up before anyone would notice her shocked face. What did he just say?