Grey Beginnings: Part One

The shrill repeated beeping of the alarm clock broke through the haze in one Jean Grey, shattering her dreams into faint memories in the process. Opening her eyes, Jean was rewarded with a blinding flash of sunlight before she ducked back beneath the covers.

Rolling under the covers, Jean coiled herself inside the gentle warmth of the soft comforter and she bunched the thick material around her ears. Just one more minute of sleep, for Christ's sake, she pleaded to herself.

Now that's not very lady like, Miss Grey; taking the Lord's name in vain. Is it? Whispered a dark, gravelly voice in answer to her protests.

Jean swept the covers away in a single motion while her eyes scanned her bedroom. Closing her eyes she focused her mind on the room, scanning it for any uninvited guests.

Very impressive, Miss Grey, the husky voice coolly complimented her. Though I'm afraid I'm nowhere in your immediate vicinity to be found. At least not yet. The deep, dark laughter that echoed through Jean's mind sent chills up and down her spine.

Rising from her bed with a surprising measure of calm, Jean's body tensed with muscles hardened through years of gymnastics and cheerleading. She stepped lightly across the rug on the balls of her feet as she refocused her thoughts on her other 'special' talent. Using the smallest fraction of her mind's ability to move things, Jean slowly swung her bathroom door open.

Several seconds passed as the half-naked teenager stared into the dark depths before two pinpoints of red, like pinholes of blazing crimson sunlight, stared back at her from within. Without a moment's hesitation Jean lashed out with the strength of her mind and was instantly startled by the sound of shattering glass.

Flipping the light switch Jean immediately realized her mistake, recognizing the fading glimpse of red flame in her eyes as it vanished. The few remaining shards of her mirror clattered helplessly into the sink and onto her floor.

Very impressive, indeed. The cold, unflinching voice congratulated her just as several hurried footsteps raced down the hallway and burst into her door. Not for the first time, Jean’s older brothers stopped consciously when they saw her in nothing more than a T-shirt and panties, quickly looking anywhere but in her direction as the embarrassment set in.

The sound of their father broke the unwelcome silence as he too burst into the room. “What was that sound? It sounded like a window breaking? Was it another one of those idiot kids with the bricks?” Their father barked loudly.

“No.” Jean responded with a measure of calm that did not even begin to betray the rapid beating of her heart against her chest. She stepped into the bathroom and started picking pieces of the mirror off of the floor.

The silence that stretched on in the moments that followed was more painful than the hate-filled remarks they had once shouted. Back before they had learned the true strength of her powers. Now Jean was trapped in a prison of over-politeness and stepping on egg shells. She carefully scooped all the pieces up into the palm of her hand as everyone in her room stood silently vigil.

There was no need to speak of how easy it would be if she simply used her gift to clean up the mess. The very mention of such a solution was entirely off limits.

She sighed as she slid several large shards into the trash can. “I had a nightmare.” She lied. Silent nods filled the room and everyone slipped away without another word. She waited quietly and patiently for the final trace of their receding footsteps to vanish.

Lowering her hands, Jean closed her eyes and thought about the remainder of the broken mirror. Jean’s mind was odd, at times, the way that it worked. Sometimes when she wanted to know what a person was hearing, she could hear their thoughts as clear as if they were talking directly to her. Like the many times her brothers’ friends had ogled her as she leapt up the main staircase. She had taken a slight amount of satisfaction in knowing their private thoughts about her, though on more than one occasion she had felt her skin flush as if it were on fire.

Boys apparently had no qualms about undressing anyone with their eyes.

On other occasions, when she wanted people to do certain things, they did them. The greatest example had come on her prom night. Her mother had been almost militant about her curfew and what she expected of her only daughter. Jean had been heartbroken. Her boyfriend of three years had already rented the room and everything. It was their senior prom, for Christ’s sake!!

Jean had only wished, more than anything in the world, that her mother would change her mind. She had not expected her too, but a child’s mind will wish for unexpected things. Imagine her surprise when her mother had done an immediate 180 and told her to enjoy herself without a further word.

The night had turned out to be less than Jean had hoped, so she’d chalked it up to her mother’s intuition.

But most strange were those situations when inanimate objects did exactly what she told them to do, with staggering results. A year ago, when her powers had first begun to surface, Jean would have simply wished the many grains and shards of glass on the floor into the trashcan with the rest. But she had grown since then. Not only in the strength of her gift, but in her understanding of how to use it.

The faintest rustling of wind through her hair and the soft whisper of thousands of tiny particles of glass powder spinning through the air was the only telltale sign that Jean had done anything extraordinary. It seemed like the moment stretched on forever as Jean felt the air, electrified, moving around her, but in reality it took little more than a few seconds.

When Jean opened her eyes, the mirror was whole once again as if nothing concerning the morning’s events had affected it. Brushing a hand through her flame-red hair, Jean pushed off of her knees and crossed the room to her bed, tumbling onto her matress with a heavy sigh.

Just a few more months and she’d be finished with school and hopefully on her way to college. She’d be out of this hick town and on to something far more exciting and adventurous.

Just a few more months, that’s all she had to put up with.