Sanctum 2.5

Bayville was the greatest study of paradoxes Anna had ever experienced. Sat in the passenger seat of the supped-up jeep, she looked out the rolled-down window as large swathes of rolling green hills and colossal squares of yellow farmland whizzed by. Spotting all the silos and mud-caked tractors made her wonder more than once if she actually did end up leaving home. Then they reached the town limit and the dented old trucks and trailers gave way to zippy-looking motorcycles and luxurious sports cars with brands she's never even heard of. The farms were replaced with cleverly named fro-yo joints and yoga studios. She spotted a group of teens sitting in wicker patio furniture just outside some sort of fancy coffee shop with a bright neon sign screaming something about a 'nitro cold brew' special. As they entered a roundabout, in its center she saw a tall red-brick clock tower reading the time on its sun-bleached face. Sat atop the clock's head were long black shingles that looked as if someone gave the tower a bad hair part at the center of its head, and around its neck was a great big yellow bell that reminded her of a bolo-tie a kid wore at school once.

"Enjoying the sights?" Anna looked over at Ororo who sat in the driver's seat. The thick black headband she wore did little to keep her savage mane of white hair from whipping every which way in the breeze. Her heavily tinted aviator sunglasses reflected the sun and she had one hand on the steering wheel while the other was hanging out the open window without a care in the world.

"It's like this place can't make up its mind," Anna shouted over the wind, brushing her hair out of her face. She watched as a heavy-set man in a bright pink shirt and trucker cap carried a tiny dog in his arm down the sidewalk. "It's like, weirdly booshie yet, it's still in the middle of nowhere."

"Bayville is funny like that," Ororo said as they passed a stout government-looking building on their left. It looked like a transplant from Anna's hometown, all brick with tall windows lined with peeling white paint. "This place was just a sleepy little town till about ten years ago. Then some land developers got interested in it and it turned into the bustling little suburb you see now."

They pulled into the parking lot of the biggest mall Anna had seen to date. Looking near two football fields in length, the great peach monstrosity sat approximately four stories high and had a massively tall window at its front. Long banners along its broadside screamed with new store openings and upcoming attractions. By the time they found a spot in the packed parking lot, Anna's head was already spinning.

"You ok?" Anna found Ororo was already at her flank when she stood out of the Jeep. The other woman wore a huge white purse slung over her shoulder and a cockeyed smile on her face.

"I mean, yeah. It's just, hell you could probably fit five of my hometown's strip malls into that thing."

"Just wait till you see inside." Ororo took Anna by the crook of her arm and lead her across the parking lot and into the mouth of the beast. Through heavy glass doors, a welcome wall of air-conditioning cooled Anna's forehead, and the sunlight from the colossal window warmed her back. Before her, the world seemed to open up into a wonderland of Capitalism. Stores with blinking signs glistened above the many roving heads of shoppers, and above them, Anna could see the three additional floors of the mall like the rings of a tree. The sound of people talking and shouting was all around them, along with the chime of games being played and the savory smell of food being made somewhere close nearby. Ororo had to tug on Anna's arm to get her to move again. "It's quite a lot, isn't it?"

"To say the least." Anna stared wide-eyed at passing blinking displays. "How does anyone find anything in this freaking maze?"

"The directory usually helps." Ororo patted her arm. "Don't worry, dear. You're here with a seasoned veteran."

With Ororo at the lead, the pair cut through swaths of meandering people like a hot knife till they were finally inside the bowels of a far quieter, far more secluded department store. Ororo unlinked their arms and held out her arms to either side in a sweeping gesture. "Take your pick! The store is your oyster. And if this store doesn't have what you want, we will go to one that does."

"You serious?"

"So serious. This is on the school's account and you don't need to worry about running up the tab on that."

Anna nodded and glanced around in the flower-pattern-riddled women's section they found themselves in. "Okay… um-" She wandered over to a random rack and plucked at the hem of a peasant blouse that looked like it was recently uncovered from a '70s time capsule. "This is, uh… something." At the corner of her eye, she saw Ororo's eyes and mouth curl into a conspiratorial grin.

She sauntered over and rested an arm on the top of the metal rack. "This-" Ororo tugged at the neckline of the blouse. "Isn't your thing, is it?"

"I mean - I can make it work."

"I didn't ask if you could 'make it work,' dear." She angled her head in such a way it exposed her long neck. "As I said, this store and mall are your oyster. What do you want to wear?"

Anna scratched her chin. "Maybe… something a little darker?"

Ororo's smile broadened. "I think I know just the place." She took Anna by the hand and in a flash, they were in a whole new store. Here the lights were lower, there was the soft thump of grunge music, the walls were graffitied with the faces of musicians, and on the racks and racks of clothes, not one frill or sun-flower print was to be found.

"Oh my god." Anna ran over to pair of black overalls with tiny white skulls for buttons. "This is amazing!"

"Yeah," Ororo wandered by to a table holding folded graphic v-neck shirts and picked one up. "I thought this might be more your speed." She turned the shirt around, then looked back at the front. "Look around as much as you want, just let me know when-" When she turned back around she saw Anna had disappeared along with the overalls, the coat hanger they sat upon still swinging from their load's recent departure.

***

"I like it," Ororo said from the other side of the largest chai latte that Starbucks made.

"Really?" Anna smiled and ran her hand down the sleeve of her black and white striped long-sleeved v-neck. "I kinda got made fun of back home for the way I dressed. Was told more than once by kids and teachers that I should dress more 'feminine.'"

"That's ridiculous. Clothes are clothes. You wear what makes you happy."

"Thanks for not being all judgy about it. Even my Moms would give me flack for my 'goth cheque' as my Mom called it." Anna sipped her own mocha latte quietly then nodded. "I like yours too."

"Thank you." Ororo held out the hem of her shirt revealing the graphic tee of Bart Simpson more clearly. "I'm not wholly sure who the yellow boy is, but I like his attitude."

Anna laughed in the hollow of her throat. "I think he's the embodiment of a certain mood - for sure." She looked out into the gently flowing stream of people beyond the glass of the cafe. She watched their many smiling faces, the fathers with daughters, the mothers with sons, the teen boys with their friends watching something together over a phone at a table. She felt her brow crease and her body grow heavy.

"Something on your mind?"

Anna didn't answer immediately. She ran the pad of her thumb along the lid's pointed paper edge on her mocha latte and let the bustle and scream of coffee-making instruments play over her from beyond the cafe's counter. "Eh, no. Its nothing. Not really." She said eventfully then felt Ororo's foot bump her leg under their shared table.

"You don't have to tell me." Ororo held out her shirt again. "Tell the skateboard riding boy."

Anna felt a grin crack the ridged marble of her fact then leaned her head forward. "Back at home, I wasn't exactly popular, but I had a friend. We've been friends since we were - like - 6th grade or something. We've been through everything together. Now I-" She lifted her hand from her latte and looked at her palm. "Well, now I'm going through the craziest thing in my life and she's suddenly not here, you know? I didn't have a lot back home, but at least I had her and my Moms… but now I don't even have either."

"I know at least a little about how you feel." Anna looked up and saw Ororo circling the top of her coffee with her finger. The steam leaving the top swirled and turned into a softly spinning tornado. "As you can probably tell, I wasn't born here, in America."

"I picked up on the accent, but it's unlike anything I've ever heard."

"I spent a great deal of time in Tanzania. It's a country in East Africa. It's also the place where I discovered my own abilities."

"Wow! What was it like down there?"

"Beautiful. Unlike anything, you'd ever find here in America. I was orphaned at an early age, my parents were killed in an earthquake in Cairo. I made my living as a thief for a while, I traveled though out, what you would call the Middle East and Africa. I eventually joined up with a tribe down in Tanzania where I discovered my abilities. To make a very long story short, I attended University down there and was able to save enough money to attend graduate school over at NYU where I eventually met Charles."

"Holy hell, that's crazy! Were you guys in the same class or something?"

Ororo waved her hand in front of her face. "I hope you don't think I'm that old, dear. No, he witnessed me using my abilities to save a man from a burning wreck. When he came up to me, I thought he was going to report me or something, but that's when he revealed he was a mutant as well. Then, after a few meetings over coffee, he was helping me with my immigration papers."

"That's… really cool of him."

"He can be a really cool guy."

Anna rubbed the back of her hand under the table. "So, the Professor has had this whole thing going on for a couple of years right? This sounds like this was before that."

"You're right, it was."

"So you knew him when he was still a part of The Brotherhood."

"Yes, I did. In fact, I was also a part of The Brotherhood. I was the only other member that left when Charles defected."

"You were a part too? Wait -" Anna paused. "Where was Logan during all of this?"

Ororo shrugged. "Doing what he's more or less has always done. His own thing. He knew of The Brotherhood and knew I and Charles fairly well. The three of us were as close to friends as a person could get to Logan at the time. However, Logan has never been the type to get tied down to one spot."

"What about now?"

Ororo tapped her finger on the rip of her cup. "I don't know if he will ever settle exactly, but he seems more contented than he's ever been in the past. He's contented enough at least to be considered a mentor at the school."

Anna nodded then took another silent sip of her latte.

"I think you'll be faster to make friends here than you think."

Anna gave a single hallow-sounding chuckle. "Yeah? How do you figure?"

"Everyone here is very different, but we all come from similar backgrounds. Similar sorts of… senses of trauma."

"Trauma, huh? I doubt that's the case for Summer Boy. That fucker oozes privilege."

"Yes, well even 'Summer Boy'-" Ororo paused, looked through the window, and sat up straight in her chair as if peering over something. Before Anna had a chance to say anything, Ororo stood out of her chair and rushed out the door of the restaurant with a gust of wind at her back, displacing all the loose napkins on the nearby tables.

Anna stood and looked out the window where Ororo had vanished. A moment later she reappeared with two teen boys, who looked around Anna's age, with their ears in either of her hands. She practically threw them in front of her, planted her hands on her hips, and looked like she was laying into them from the way the pair seemed to shrink down to half their size. Anna stepped out of the shop and made to join Ororo's side.

"- do you even know what time it is? Honestly, what was your plan? Miss half your day and come home like nothing even happened?" Ororo shouted for all the world to hear.

"Auntie - look - no that's not -" Said one boy wearing a white tank top and tan cargo shorts. Under his arm, he carried a well-loved skateboard.

"Not what, Evan? Not a blatant disregard for your responsibilities?"

"S - See, Miss Ororo -" The other boy, this one with deep blue hair and rail thin, stuttered. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. T - The graphics card was never going to be this cheap again -"

"I don't care how cheap it was, Kurt! You both are trusted to attend the full day of school. Not a half day, not what you feel like, the whole day! Then you come home and run drills!" She covered her eyes with her hand and shook her face. "Honestly. You know, if you would have told me about this wonderful sale, I would have just picked it up for you while you were at school."

The boy with the skateboard blinked. "Really?"

"Yes, Evan! But you didn't even bother trying! Instead, you thought the best option was the dumbest!"

Evan pressed his lips together and raised his shoulders till they near covered his ears.

"Yes ma'am." Said the other boy. "We should have asked you first. Because we know what a kind-hearted and generous woman you are." As the blue-haired boy spoke more, a clear German accent bubbled to the surface.

"Don't give me that fluff, Kurt!" She snapped the plastic bag out of his hand and held it aloft.

"Oh! Auntie, please be careful with that!"

"I'll do as I please with it, Evan! You're lucky I don't snap the thing over my leg!" She lowered the bag to her side and sucked in a breath. "You'll ride home with me, and Logan and I will dream up a punishment fitting something this idiocy. Then I'll consider giving this back to you."

"Yes ma'am." Both said in unison.

It was the blue-haired one that first noticed Anna and slowly waved his hand at her. "Um, hello."

"Er - hey."

"Oh-" Evan blinked. "Right, new girl. I remember the Professor saying something about that."

"Yes, and you'll have time to meet her properly later tonight. For now-" She pointed towards to main entrance. "You will find the jeep and wait for us. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Both declared in unison a second time and as they left Kurt waved again at Anna. "Nice to meet you!"

Anna half halfheartedly waved as they disappeared out of sight. "Um, what was that about?"

"Don't mind them," Ororo said with crossed arms. "They are sweet boys, really. Just thick-headed, apparently."

"I didn't mean them." Anna looked up at her. "You said something about 'meeting her properly later tonight?'"

"Oh, well we have evening meals together. During that time, Xavier will introduce you properly to everyone."

Anna smiled through her teeth. "Oh right… that."

Ororo waved her hand and laughed. "Don't worry about it, dear. You'll be just fine."