FicWad

Crystal Drops and Hawks
Chapter Four

Alyda stood next to Professor Xavier, trying not to glower as she so longed to do. "Everybody, I'd like you to meet a new student," he announced to the suddenly quiet room, which was packed with people. Jean gave one boy a stern look as he made a dancer of ice that floated around in his palm. "This is Alyda Joasha."

Grrr... Alyda gave the Professor a thinly veiled look that was almost a glare. If I hadn't run into your wall, I'd be long gone by now, she thought at him. Darn wall.

The Professor glanced at her and his lips twitched as he held back a smile. "Tara, would you like to give Alyda a tour of the mansion?"

"Sure," Tara was grinning openly, her spirits higher than they'd been in a long time. "I'd be glad to." Alyda met her eyes and for a moment an answering smile spread across the tiny girl's face. "It's a good thing I'm staying," Alyda, said quietly, "I've got to keep you out of trouble."

"Trouble? Me? I don't even know the meaning of the word. Now, you on the other hand, you I'll have to look out for."

Alyda bit back a chuckle before wiping the smile from her face and staring around at the other people in the room
impassively. Logan and Ororo exchanged glances at the change in Tara's attitude. They'd never seen her smile so freely before.

"Come on, slowpoke," Tara stepped forward, grabbing Alyda's hand and tugging her to the back of the room. "I'll introduce you." Professor Xavier watched them go with a smile. Ororo came over to stand by his chair.

"Alyda should be good for Tara," she said quietly, watching the duo. It was an odd pair, to say the least. Tara towered over Alyda's four feet and 10 inches from her own six feet. Whereas Tara's skin was pale, and her hair a mop of wiry dark tresses, Alyda was tiny, and dainty, with skin tanned by the hot summer sun and wavy auburn hair that was cut off at her shoulders. While Tara had attempted to salvage it after Alyda's hack-job, it still hung slightly uneven in places.

"I'm thinking that Tara will be good for Alyda," the Professor replied smoothly, steepling his fingers and resting his chin on them as he watched Tara introducing Alyda to Kitty and Rogue. "Although the opposite will doubtless be true."

"I've never seen Tara be so open with anyone," Ororo smiled softly. "Although Alyda seems to have something against you already."

"She's annoyed that I'm making her attend High School," the Professor commented. "I made a deal with her - I'd help her control her gift if she would attend school. She was just about ready to strangle me."

Logan chuckled quietly. "Hard to imagine that one strangling anything larger than a shrew," he commented.

"Oh, you'd be surprised. She can be quite fierce."

The girl in question turned, looking straight at the Professor and scowled blackly. Tara tugged on her sleeve, and she turned back, eyes lightening. "Oh, yes, I'd certainly say you've piqued the kid," Logan chuckled.

"Alyda, what did you mean about the Professor clipping your wings?" Tara asked as they slipped out of the room, unnoticed by any but the Professor, five minutes later.

Ah, finally out in the air! How can those two-leggers stand to be so packed together? "I can't change into any real animals without transforming into 'psycho, must fly south,' hawk. And, well, running into that wall just once was enough for me," her voice was wry. "It was almost as bad as when I first did gryphon, only at least when I was a gryphon, I wasn't trying to run into things."

"You can change into a gryphon?" Tara asked eagerly. "I can do stuff with water," she held out a hand and frowned in concentration, and a small puddle of water gathered in her palm. "See?"

"That's neat! I bet you'll never get thirsty," Alyda grinned.

"Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink," Tara quoted. "I don't remember where I heard it, but it's from when these people were in the Ocean. They'd run out of water, but they couldn't drink the seawater because it would make them even more thirsty."

"Seawater doesn't taste good anyway," Alyda commented absently. "Trust me, there's nothing that tastes as bad as seawater," she sighed. "The Professor is making me go to Bayville High School."

"That's great! I go there, too! Maybe we'll have the same classes."

"Tara, I haven't been in school for an entire year. Besides, back home - I was home schooled. I don't remember any of my lessons."

"Don't worry," Tara assured her friend. "I'll help you catch up. Here, I'll quickly give you the tour, and then we can go back up to my room and I'll catch you up on everything that we've learned so far."

"Okay," Alyda sighed, Tara's enthusiasm just making her feel worse. I have a very bad feeling about this.


Alyda looked over her schedule in a corner by the girl's bathroom, trying to avoid being trampled by what seemed half the population of Idaho who were trying to get to their classes. She looked up as Tara hurried over. "Alyda, I found your locker. Come on," Alyda hesitated for a moment before diving into the mob after Tara. Oh, dragon's dung! Why did I ever agree to this?

"Come on, hurry up or you'll be late."

Oh, how encouraging. Great, now I just have to become used to this absolutely horrifyingly large two-legger school, keep from being trampled, and find my way to my classes on time, all at once! I'm not a miracle worker, people! The Professor had somehow managed to convince the Principal, a man called Kelley, to arrange her schedule so that she had all her classes with Tara. The hair on the back of her neck rose as she noticed how Principal Kelley's eyes followed them down the hall.

"Don't mind him," Tara told her reassuringly. "He's just not very fond of our kind - you know, mutants."

(He's watching us,) she half-whispered into Tara's mind. (Like a cougar, watching his prey as they live their happy little lives, just waiting for the right time to pounce!)

"Alyda, he wouldn't do that. I'm not saying he wouldn't want to, but he couldn't. He'd get put in jail, and he'd rather eat pond scum that be put in jail because of us." Her voice was bitter. Yeah, instead he'd probably hire somebody else to do the dirty work for him.

Alyda glanced at the Principal from the corner of her eye and shivered. As far as she was concerned, he still reminded her of a predator. I better keep my eye on him, she decided. I don't want to end up as somebody's lunch. A memory rose unbidden, from one of her first nights in California.

Darkness, all around, so completely dark it pressed upon the eyeballs. If she'd waved a hand in front of her face she wouldn't be able to tell until she bonked herself on the nose. The scream echoed through the distant trees, like that of a woman's terrorized cry. Alyda shivered, pressing back against the smooth rock of the cave in which she was hid. And as she sat there, shivering with a mixture of cold and fright, she realized that she was so alone that should the cougar find her, nobody would even hear her scream...

"Alyda!" Tara tugged on her friends arm to get her moving again. "Come on!" Alyda started and blinked, the memory fading. It was so real.


Alyda looked around the packed cafeteria. In a corner, Kurt was sitting down at a table with another girl whom Tara had informed her - blush, giggle, and all - was Amanda, Kurt's girlfriend. The hair rose along the back of her neck, and goose bumps spread along her arms. There's too many of them, she thought, stomach beginning to prickle with the beginning of fear. For a moment she wished she had some dark, quiet place where she could just go and hide.

Several people brushed by her, knocking her into Tara. She bristled, shooting black looks at their retreating backs. No manners, she thought savagely as Tara tugged her toward Kurt's table. Darn these two-leggers! I don't see how I let the Professor talk me into this. This is madness! Alyda caught her breath as she found herself wedged between two people and froze. She felt a slight tickle along her arms and looking down, saw to her horror that feathers were beginning to sprout underneath her shirt. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.

Come on; control yourself. You can do it. Deep breath. She bit her lip as the feathers continued to spread. Now they were beginning to stick out her sleeves, and she could feel them spreading along her back and stomach. (Tara, get me out of here!) She yelped silently. Tara turned, startled, to look at her friend.

"We're almost there."

"There's - there's too many of them!" Alyda was ashamed of the fear that was creeping into her speech. "Help me, please!"

Tara caught her friend's anxiety and gripped her arm tightly, pulling her through the crowd. A couple people called after them, irritated, as they shoved through, and one boy gave them the finger behind their backs. You too, Tara thought, grimacing. After what seemed like ages to Alyda, they were out in the open air of the parking lot. She slumped against a wall, shaking, as the feathers retracted.

"Tara, I-I'm not hungry," she couldn't keep her voice from shaking. "You go on and eat. I'll just sit here," she plopped down on the ground and tilted her head back with a sigh, letting her eyes close for a moment with a feeling of déjà vu.

"No, you've got to eat," Tara looked back at the cafeteria. "I'll bring you something back. Trust me; you'll be just about dead by last period of you don't."

"Fine," Alyda muttered, realizing that this was just about what she'd told Tara just yesterday. Why do all my arguments have to come back to haunt me?

That wasn't really an argument, part of her replied. More like a suggestion. Alyda snorted and closed her eyes again. If she tried, she could imagine that she was curled up someplace cool and safe, in some dark corner. She nearly groaned as she heard footsteps. She knew instinctively that it wasn't Tara coming back with lunch.

"Hey, don't-you-know-you're-not-supposed-to-take-naps-here? Somebody-may-trip-over-you! Not-that-there's-much-to-trip-over."

Alyda opened her eyes and glared at the boy in front of her. He was tall, with silver hair that he'd slicked back with massive amounts of hair gel. He reminded her of a snake, and she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise with her temper as his words sank in.

"Yeah, -I-mean, you'd-have-to-be-really-aiming-to-trip-over-you, you're-so-short. Gosh, do-you-have-to-wear-stilts-to-be-seen-over-a-counter? Or-do-you-just-shout-really-loud? What, cat-got-your-tongue?"

Snake! Alyda pictured herself squashing a creature that looked remarkably like this boy, as she began to hiss under her breath. Idiot boy! I wonder if I should trample him. You don't wait for snakes to bite you; you crush them before they can get you.

"I-bet-there's-not-much-to-get, anyway."

Alyda let out a growl of fury as she leapt to her feet, practically spitting with rage as she began to transform into a gryphon: a very large, very angry gryphon. The boy grew very pale, or paler than he was before. "Sorry, boss-lady. I-didn't- know-it-was- you!" he burst out; looking scared.

"I don't know what it is you're talking about," Alyda gritted out, transforming back just enough to allow herself the ability to speak, "but I'm not too sure all those massive amounts of hair gel didn't permanently injure your brain. Did it soak into your skull, or are you normally this thick? Did you have to rehearse those insults beforehand? Well, I'll tell you one thing, snake-"

"Alyda, no!" Tara came running out of the cafeteria as Alyda changed back into a full gryphon. Alyda was so angry; she looked as if she were about to rip the boy limb from limb. "Alyda, change back, NOW!" She grabbed Alyda's head, yanking it down to stare into the deep dark eyes. "Hurry!"

Alyda's only response was a hiss directed at the boy, who was now looking gleeful. "So-you-aren't-the-boss-lady? Ha!"

"Come on, Alyda, you'll get expelled, and you'll get me expelled too. And then the Professor will send me back, and I don't want to go back to the orphanage. It'd be nice to see Kari again, but I like it here!" For once, she thought, making Alyda look into her eyes. "Please, Alyda?"

Alyda gave an immense sigh and began to morph back into her human form. "Um, sorry about that," Tara told the boy, looking nervous. "Um, I guess we all got off on the wrong foot. I'm Tara, and this is Alyda. Alyda this is, um," she hesitated, looking up at the boy expectantly. He's kinda cute, she thought absently.

"Pietro. You're-with-the-X-geeks?"

Alyda gave a ferocious snarl and leapt at Pietro, transforming totally into gryphon. Her feathers seemed to melt away and were replaced by light blue scales that glittered in the noonday sun. Alyda was so filled with wrath, she didn't notice. Tara gaped, horrorstruck, as Pietro seemed to vanish right from under her outstretched talons. Alyda was so angry, she was just about ready to rend him limb from limb, tear his head from his body, and scratch out his eyeballs. (Tara, run! That way you won't get into trouble.)

"He's gone now. Can't you just drop it?" Oh, please, Alyda! He's only a boy, for Pete's sake! Maybe an incredibly, annoying, cute one, but he isn't worth the bother.

(Fine.) Alyda changed back and swayed slightly, leaning against the wall. It was as if something had sucked away her energy, leaving her bone weary. Tara sighed, looking down at the two lunch trays she'd left on the ground.

"Well, might as well eat up. We've got gym next," she grimaced. "Oh well," she pushed Alyda's tray toward her and sat down with her back to wall. "I hope nobody saw that."

"Famous last words," Alyda muttered as Jean whipped around the corner.

"Alyda! Didn't the Professor tell you not to use your powers in school..."

"Oh, we are in such trouble," Tara moaned. "We're going to be grounded for life."

"That's rather drastic, don't you think?" Alyda asked back, making Tara crack a small smile. "Well, it is. You figure, we're not going to be here for our entire life, so there's no way he can ground us for life."

"Unless he has clones! And-"

"Alyda, are you listening to me?"