FicWad

Kitty stared in fascinated disbelief at the story in front of her. In a break from her homework (coughprocrastinationcough), she had logged onto Fictionpress.com. However... she scrolled down the page telling of a Professor Charles Xavier rescuing Jean Gray from a two-year coma. She clicked to the next page, reading of the addition of Scott Summers, the seeming lone survivor of a plane crash that had killed his parents and left his brother missing.
"This is, like, too weird," she muttered herself, beginning to get seriously creeped out as she read the last chapter, detailing Kurt Wagner's arrival at the institute, and the testing of Todd Tolensky. Not to mention the fact that she really didn't think Jean and Scott would have approved of her reading what looked like a blow-by-blow account of their personal history, no more than she would have wanted anyone to read hers. Everybody had secrets.
"Jean?" Kitty asked, calling to the tall redhead who was making lunch at the other end of the kitchen. "Can you come look at this?"
Halfway through slicing a bagel, Jean turned, setting down the knife. "Sure. What's up?"
"I think someone's been spying on us. On all of us," Kitty turned the laptop so that Jean could read it, watching as the color drained from Jean's face.
"May I borrow this?" Jean gestured toward the laptop.
"Sure," Kitty nodded. "Do you know what's going on?"
"No. But I'm going to ask the Professor." Jean looked at Kitty's worried face and smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing more than a ... really creepy coincidence."

Jean held up a hand to knock on the thick oak door of Professor Xavier's study. "Come in," he called from within a second before her knuckles rapped the wood.
"Professor, Kitty found this story on her laptop downstairs," Jean started, pushing open the door. "It tells about our pasts, leading up to the time Todd came to the Institute."
"Where did she find this?" the Professor asked, wheeling forward in his wheelchair.
"On Fictionpress.com. It's a web site where kids can post their stories for free and get feedback on them," Jean informed him. "How could this be? Could somebody be spying on us, Professor? The person who wrote this knows a lot of information that shouldn't most of the people living here don't! Professor, they know about... about Annie," for a moment, she dropped her Perfect Jean Gray mask. The look in her eyes was that of a frightened child.
The Professor patted her hand reassuringly. "I'm sure it's nothing so drastic as that. For weeks I have been picking up the mental signature of a mutant around Bayville. It's very faint, and extremely hard to trace, but from what I can gather it is the mental signature of a precognitive."
"You mean -"
"Yes, Jean. There is a girl out there who has been having visions, or dreams, of our past and present. Perhaps she has even seen our future," he wheeled his chair around. "I shall be in Cerebro should you need me. You may return Kitty her laptop. Tell her to watch for any updates."

Professor Xavier scanned Bayville for the signature he'd felt in the past few months. The signature was gone, but after a while he found psychic residue coming from a suburb ten minutes away. Narrowing his search, he concluded that the person he was looking for lived in house number 24 on Atwood Road - the Wright Residence. He called up the FBI files of the people in the house, immediately discarding those of the two parents.
Alice Wright, their only daughter at 16 years, stared up at him from the photo.

Ororo and Professor Xavier gazed in horror at the smoldering ruins that was all that remained of 24 Atwood Drive. Smoke rose from the remains left from the fire. A woman from the house next door peered out the window before coming outside to stand next to them.
"Did you know the Wrights?" she asked bluntly. Professor Xavier shook his head sadly.
"No, we did not. What do you know of Alice Wright? Did she make it out of the house in time?" Ororo asked.
"No. The poor girl sleeps in the attic. The stairs were one of the first things to go, trapping her and her parents upstairs. The firemen couldn't get there in time," the woman's eyes were tearing up. She turned away, taking a tissue from her pocket. "She...used to play with her friend McKenzie on my lawn. I used to make lemonade and cookies for them."
"McKenzie?"
"McKenzie Krishna."
"Do you know how I could get in touch with McKenzie?" Ororo asked. As the woman looked up suspiciously, Ororo continued quickly before the lady could flatly refuse. "We're investigating the cause of the fire. Do you know if the Wrights had any enemies? People who might want to see them hurt?"
"N-no," the woman shook her head vehemently. "They were as nice a couple as you'd ever see. McKenzie lives in the blue house with the lavender shutters, ten houses down on the left," she closed her eyes for a moment. "Please excuse me, sir, miss," she inclined her head toward the Professor before walking quickly away.
"It may be best," Professor Xavier said as they headed up the street, "if we took different names for speaking with McKenzie. After all, she has likely come into contact with Alice's...'stories'."

McKenzie answered the door when the bell rang. "Hello," she said cautiously, seeing the two people on her front step.
"Hello, McKenzie," the woman said kindly. "I'm Ami Mariot, and this is Professor Raizen. We've come to ask you a few questions about Alice. May we come in?"
"Oh. Of course," McKenzie held open the door, retreating inside with a sniffle. Her eyes were red and swollen with crying. "What do you want to know?" she asked as she led them into the living room.
"How long have you known Alice for?" the Professor asked.
"All my life." McKenzie leaned against the back of her chair, closing her eyes to fight back tears. "We... we went to Kindergarten together."
"Have you seen any of the stories she has been writing lately?"
"Yeah. She's always shared her stories with me."
The Professor and Ororo exchanged glances. "Before she died - did she give you any notes that she might have taken? About what she was going to write next?"
"Oh. Uh... no. All her notes were burned in the fire. But she told me what she was writing about next."
"What?" Ororo asked, keeping her voice level. "What was she planning next?"
"Why do you even want to know?" McKenzie asked, opening her eyes. "What does it matter to you?"
"Please, McKenzie. It matters greatly. Please tell us what she was planning," the Professor asked.
McKenzie sighed, and nodded. Thirty minutes later, the Professor and Ororo bid her goodbye. In the car on the way back to the Institute, the Professor mulled over the information. "It would probably be best," he said slowly, "If we do not reveal our knowledge to any of the students. Alice Wright died in a fire two days before we managed to get to her house. We did not meet with McKenzie."
"Yes, Professor," Ororo nodded.