Biosphere.

Thomas wandered through the forest, holding his ears with his hands.

"Oh, where is every one? Guys? Guys!" Thomas ran through the woods yelling until he stumbled over the roots of a tree.

"Ooff!" He began brushing the dirt of his spandex when he looked up, his eyes meeting two sparkling blue ones.

"I...I don't believe we have met," Thomas sputtered to Penance, who sat and stared at him. "I'm Thomas Borman, you are...?" he offered his hand to the girl.

"Thomas! Taaaa-maaaaaasssss! Where are you lil' buddy??" Gen X was running through the forest looking for their newest member.

"EEEEEE-OOOWWCHH!!!" the scream came from ahead of them.

When they arrived, they found Thomas sitting on the ground clutching his hands, rocking back and forth. His hair was ruffled, his nose was bleeding, dirt was smudged on his shirt and pants and face and his palms had been slashed open.

"Woah. What happened to you dude?" Jubilee asked.

"Well...I tripped over this root and hit my nose and a most peculiar red girl slashed my palms open and I think I sprained my ankle."

"I can't believe this," someone whispered.

"Jonothan," said Everett, "Tell Cassidy and Frost that we'll need to cut the session a little short."

Jonothan walked off the way they came and Summer hesitantly walked toward Thomas.

"Here," she said, "Let me get some ice on that." In her ice form she packed ice around his ankel and handed him some for his nose.

Angelo and Everett helped Thomas up and they led him out of the woods. Emma stood in the clearing, hands on hips, ready to explode.

"Just what happened here!" she screamed. "The session hadn't even been started for three minutes before you all manage to injure Thomas! Someone explain this...NOW!"

The entire group broke into conversation, each one screaming louder than the other trying to be heard.

("ONE AT A TIME!") she screamed telepathically.

Everyone grew quite.

Then M spoke up, "Ms. Frost the entire situation was an accident. When Mr Cassidy began flying towards us Jonothan told us to run. Apparently Thomas could not understand him because of Jono's accent. Angelo, Paige, and Jubilee, each in turn tried to tell Thomas what to do, but he could not understand any of them.

"By the time we reached the forest we realized that he was not with us. Apparently Thomas had run into the woods, tripped over a root, broke his ankel, and then attempted to shake hands with Penance."

"D'OH!" Sean mumbled slapping his hand on his forehead.

"I find it hard to believe," Emma began, "that Thomas could not understand any of you. Could it be possible that you all did not make a supreme effort to communicate your plans to him?"

They all shook their heads, no. Then M again spoke, "Thomas' powers involve the ability to realign that which is off balance. But perhaps this ability does not extend to the vocal area of perception. This would explain his inability to understand the members of the team whose racial and geographic background alter the standard English of which Thomas is used to hearing."

"That's just what I was going to say," muttered Jubilee.

"I concur," stated Emma before adding, "perhaps Thomas does not need physical training the way most of you do, but instead he could learn to understand individuals with accents."

"Alright then," Banshee broke in, "tomorrow ye'll have yuir classes and when 'tis time for training, Thomas can come with me to the computer labs where he can study a variety of languages and accent types."

Then Emma said, "Good. As much as it pains me, I shall let you students have the rest of the day off in light of the rough start we began on."

When Emma had turned her back Summer sent to Jonothan and Mondo, ("I don't remember the three of us getting the day off when we came. We had the roughest start of anybody!")

The two other boys nodded in silent agreement.

Later that week, almost evening; the Administrative Building.

Sean sat behind his desk conferring with Emma. They were both waiting for Thomas to come because he had asked to talk with the two of them in private. Sean was leaning into his plush chair cradling a mug of hot Earl-Gray; or as Thomas might put it "Tea: Earl-Gray. Hot," he was the picture of relaxation. Emma on the other hand sat poised on the edge of his desk in her usual white leather bust and second skin pants; her beverage of choice was a small glass of sherry.

In a moment they heard footfalls in the corridor followed by three sharp raps on the door.

"Tis open," said Sean.

The door opened slowly and Thomas walked in, he nodded his head at the two teachers.

"Make yourself comfortable," Emma said. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Thomas sat rigidly on an equally rigid high backed leather chair.

"I want to talk about the other students. I--I don't think they like me much."

Sean glanced at Emma before speaking, "Now don't ye go sayin' that lad. They're a close knit group. It might take them a while ta warm up to ye. Why as a matter of fact, I don't think they've never warmed up ta young Summer." Sean chuckled at his own joke, Emma glared at him.

"What...what I mean, lad, is ye don't know that they don't like ye."

"I think I do Sir, either that or this place is haunted."

"Haunted? Perhaps you could explain," Emma said.

Thomas went on, "Well there have been some very strange occurrences that I cannot explain without involving many of my classmates. I have found that all of my "Star Trek" tapes have been destroyed. Upon further examination it is apparent that some sort of psychic force literally burned all of the images from the film. I believe perhaps Jonothan is behind this.

"No matter how many times I microwave something, whether it be tea or a frozen meal, I find that it comes out colder than when it started. Why, just today when I microwaved my hot dog, it came out frozen. But, this strange "malfunction" only seems to occur when Summer is in the kitchen.

"Someone has also altered the mechanics of my "Star Trek" music machine. It has six buttons that are supposed to play sounds like photon torpedoes, phasers and samples of crew members saying various phrases. Now all I can hear is Captain Picard saying "Make it so" followed by the sound of a toilet flushing. The only student on campus who possesses the technological know- how to alter my machine in that manner would be Monet."

Sean nodded his head and took a deep breath, "Well, it seems ta me that yuir classmates are just playin' with ye. They're good children, I've seen them stick together an' tough as nails in the most extreme of situations. It may take them a while ta get used to a new student. Don't you think Emma?"

Emma set her sherry down, crossed her legs and cleared her throat, "Well, it seems to me they just don't like you Thomas."

Sean spun around to face Emma, ("I dinna believe ye just said that!")

Emma looked horrified, "That was outloud!?" she squeaked.

Silence.

("Thomas you never heard what I just said.") Emma sent a powerful telepathic suggestion to Thomas who blinked a few times before shaking his head.

"Did you just say something Ms. Frost?"

"Nothing at all."

"Oh."

"Well, Thomas, if thats all..."

"Yes that is all. Thank you for your time Mr Cassidy, Ms Frost. I hope you're right about this."

Thursday:

Paige, Jubilee and Summer sat on the front steps of the Science Building.

"Here come Ev and Skin," Paige said sleepily.

The two boys walked up and stood in front of the girls, "Wha 'sup?" asked Everett.

"Nothin'," Summer said.

"Is Thomas here yet," Angelo asked.

"No," the three girls said in unison.

Jubilee eyed the two boys. Everett wore a pair of tan cords. He had his pants cow-legged and Nike socks pulled to his knees. She grins.

"I have an idea," Jubilee said.

Angelo said, "Hmm?"

"Well, ya know how whenever something is off balance Thomas wiggs out?"

"Si, but so what?"

"Ev is already cowleggin' that would irritate Thomas all by itself, but what if we all cow-leg?"

"Chica, you're brilliant!"

"Well, duh."

And with that everyone began rolling up their right pant leg.

"Ya'll are retarded," Paige snorted before she stood up and walked to class.

When Jonothan came to class he eyed the group suspiciously before consenting to roll his pant leg up...his left one just to be different. Even Mondo and Monet joined in when they arrived. When they saw Thomas approaching they all stood to say hello which immediately put Thomas on guard.

"Hello," he said slowly. He starred at their uneven pant legs. His hand quivered for a moment before he closed his eyes and walked past them towards classes.

During the movie on the French Revolution Thomas constantly fidgeted. His mutant power had activated and the overwhelming sense of off-balance caused him to tremble. And just when he thought he couldn't stand it anymore there was a huge explosion of telekinesis....from him.

" WHAT T'WAS THAT?" Cassidy yelled jumping from his seat not certain how the students would react.

But he needn't worry, their reactions were the same. The students gaped (well, not Jono) at the intense pink light that yanked their pant legs back into evenness and stared stupidly (except for Monet, who just stared blankly) not knowing what to say (except Jubilee, but what she wanted to say wasn't appropriate) and sat pale faced (Well Mondo, Angelo, Monet, and Everett weren't exactly pale). Ok...so their reactions weren't the same, but you get the point.

Thomas lay on the tiled floor his knees in contact with the ground and his head bowed to the floor. His hands were clutching his head and his breathing seemed unsteady.

"Lad?" Sean walked to the boy and crouched down to help him up. "Are ye alright?"

Thomas looked up his eyes glowed faintly.

He drew a ragged breath, "N-nooo, back away!"

Sean looked up not certain what to do then Thomas spoke again, "Get away Mister Cassidy, I cannot control myself...my p-powers have manifested themselves in a new way..."

Sean leaned back a bit. "Lad whatever it is, let me help you."

With wide eyes Thomas looked at Sean, "You--you're sideburns....they--they're uneven!"

Thomas scrambled backwards hastily but it was to late, his uncontrollable telekinesis ripped the offending hairs straight from Seans face.

"Eeeee-arghh!!!" The man tried desperately to keep his scream to a dull roar, but as it was the windows shattered.

Just at that moment Emma burst into the room in her full White Queen getup, ("What in Xaviers name is going on here!")

"Frosty!" yelled Jubilee, "Thomas 'as gone nutzoid! I wouldn't get to close, he just ripped Cassidys side burns out."

Emma halted in mind stride and turned towards the boy in an unnatural position that was, unfortunately, normal for her: legs apart, torso bent forward, and arms bent back at an odd angle. Thomas looked up and began shaking his head.

"No---No..you're, you're...their LOPSIDED!!"

The pink telekenetic burst flared.

Note 1: Yeah, I know Summer came way after Jono and Mondo, but this is my story, to heck with continuity. Speaking of continuity, this story does not fit into any continuity whatsoever, It even exists in its own universe. This is just a story I want to write, it doesn't fit in with anything else I've ever written
Note 2: Cowleggin, for those of you who don't know what it is, it's when ya pull one pant leg up (usually the right) to the knee and then pull your sock up way high. Its stylish. All the cool people do this. Do it right now, it'll make you one hundred percent more awesome. I'm serious.
Note 3: Yes I do cow leg on occasions.
Note 4: When Paige says "Ya'll" the word is being used in its plural form. (If you don't get it don't stress; inside joke.)
Note 5: "What was lopsided?" you ask. I'm too much of a lady to tell you, but we're talking about the White Queen...