A series by November

Chapter 85: Genetics and Geneticism

Rogue felt as if her body had been taken over by an alien.

She had tried all spring and fall to keep busy and not get her hopes up about the pregnancy, thinking on some barely conscious and unarticulated level that if she didn't think about it too much, she wouldn't lose the baby. She was unwilling to be devastated again.

So, life continued on and she minimized her tiredness, her bizarre cravings, refusing to accord them much attention. As fall came, however, her belly grew and she began to waddle and to fill a D cup. She felt kicking in her belly that sometimes woke her up, she at times felt exhausted and at others had energy surges resembling a cocaine high, and most of all it became difficult to navigate around the breasts and belly that had suddenly sprouted. Even her hair behaved erratically, growing an inch a month, the new growth coming out with curls.

Logan couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He loved to look at her when she was pregnant. It was a constant reminder that she would be having his child, that they would be creating something together.

In the first week of September she taught her first class, optimistic about doing so despite her impending maternity. There were eighteen students in their first, second, and third years at Xavier's, ranging from thirteen to eighteen years old. She fussed over her clothing, wanting to look professional, but not too teacherish. She was a few days shy of being seven months pregnant and nothing seemed right, so she got on the phone.

Jubilee came in and looked at the closet and tossed a long denim skirt and purple sweater onto the bed with brown boots and a funky necklace.

"Damn. How do you do that?"

"It's a gift."

Once dressed, Marie felt better. She went to the classroom where she was to be teaching and got ready. She set out a stack of photocopied syllabi, positioned the podium in front of the desk, on which she sat.

The first student in was someone she knew. Karen was sixteen and had watched Maggie once for her. "How was your winter break," Rogue asked, and handed her a syllabus.

"It was boring. I was at home with my baby brother."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Your belly's getting so big."

"I know. The baby will be here in two months. So why are you taking this class?"

"Because Mr. Summers pushed me to. Also because it sounds interesting. I'm not sure about all of this genetics, though."

"I'll let you in on a secret. Neither am I," Rogue smiled. "Seriously, genetics is extremely complicated and we are so not going to delve into that. What I do expect people to learn is some basic concepts. You'll do fine."

Several more students filed in. "Good morning," she said.

"Morning, Miss Rogue."

By ten all the students were there. "Okay. We're gonna get started. Welcome to Genetics and Geneticism. You can call me Mrs. Christensen or Ms Rogue, either is fine. Everyone take a copy of the syllabus and pass them around."

She stood swinging her feet back and forth as they passed the papers around, then when she had their full attention, spoke. She was relaxed and alert. "Okay, for the first class we are going to do a couple things before we really get going. The first one is to introduce ourselves. This is important because class discussion is an important part of this course. We are here to learn from each other, me included. This is the first time this class is being offered so your feedback is going to mean a lot in how it will be taught in semesters to come.

She took a sip from her bottle of water. "So I want everyone to introduce themselves. I want you to tell the class your name, where you're from, how you came to be here at Xavier's, and if you wish the info on your mutation. One thing I want to stress is that everything talked about in class is confidential, and I mean it. We are going to talk later in the class about our manifestation experiences and in order to do that we need to trust each other, ok? Got it?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay. I'll start. My name is Marie Christensen. I've been at Xavier's since 1998. I graduated from here in 2001, and graduated from Westchester College this past summer. I have an adopted daughter who all of you probably know as the cute little blue-haired holy terror, and I'm married to Mr. Christensen, or Mr. Logan as some of you know him. We're expecting a baby around Halloween.

"My mutation manifested when I was fifteen, and I didn't know what the hell was happening. It turned out that I could suck the life out of anyone by touching them. Don't worry, I can control it. It took me a few years but now it's turned off until I consciously decide to turn it on, which I don't.

"Anyway, you can imagine for obvious reasons why my main interest is what it's like to discover one is a mutant, and what can be done for kids who become aware of it to make their transition easier. This class is designed to hopefully help with that transition. I did my thesis in college on this topic and I plan to go on researching this. Okay. Any questions?"

"You didn't say where you're from," a boy named Jordan said.

"Oh, I didn't, did I? I was born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi. Any other questions?"

There were none. "Okay, so who's next? We got any volunteers?"

Marie picked up an attendance list. A shimmering psifire girl raised her hand. "Yes?"

"I'm Jessica. I'm from Eugene, Oregon." Her voice was audible in people's heads when she spoke, but not in the air. It was startling in that it felt like a tickling of the eardrum. It had a strange drone to it but it was not unpleasant.

"Hi, Jessica. You're new to the school, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well welcome. Go on."

"Umm, well, the summer I turned twelve all these things started happening to my skin. I got these holes in my body, and there was this fire coming through. I thought I was losing my mind. My mom and grandmom kept me shut up in the house and home-schooled me for about a year and everything was fine. Then, they heard about the school, and I came here in the fall."

"Thanks, Jessica. Who's next?"

"I'll go," Karen said.

"Okay."

"Okay, my name is Karen Chow and I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm sixteen and I've been here for two years. About two years ago I was in school, getting ready to give this big report, and I started hearing these voices. I didn't tell anyone for a while. I did research on-line, trying to figure out what was happening to me. I decided that I was paranoid schizophrenic. But then I realized that people's actions seemed to go with what the voices said. I tried to test it. I asked my sister to think of a number between one and ten, and I knew it. Then, between one and a hundred, and I knew that too. And between one and a million, and I knew that also."

"That's a clever way to test it."

"So I figured out I was a telepath. I did some research on it and wound up on the school website. My mom kicked me out but my dad sent me here."

"Good for you. You're pretty resourceful."

"Thanks."

"Who's next?" And so they went, until everyone knew everyone else. Then Marie ran down the rules of the class: talk in turn, respect others, learn to disagree respectfully. She lectured about basic genetics for the last twenty minutes and when class let out she answered some questions from kids, then practically floated home.

Logan was stretching in the living room, geting ready for his own class.

"How did it go?"

"Ohmigod, it was wonderful. I so love teaching. This is what I want to do. It was so cool!"

He smiled. "I'm glad you like teaching better than being a student."

"Understatement of the year."

He stood up and kissed her. "You look pretty today."

"Pretty bloated," she smiled. "I'm telling you, this isn't natural. My body is doing all these weird things. Something that big is not supposed to come out of something that small. It ain't right, I say."

He put his palm to her round belly. "She's getting big."

"I know. I can't wait. She was kicking me during class."

"Well, yeah, she wants to come out and kick some ass."

September, with Indian summer, waxed and waned into cool October, and her belly grew and they bought a crib and toys and tiny clothes. One day she found Logan snoring with an empty beer in his limp hand and a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting splayed on his chest. Rogue and Maggie pointed and giggled and Marie snapped a picture, promptly waking Logan, who chased her and Maggie around the apartment.

Halloween came, and still no baby girl. Marie was humming with hormonal energy as she cleaned and folded and straightened. She sewed Maggie a ballerina costume, and sewed herself a nun's habit and wimple. When they met the Pileggis in town for trick-or-treating, the sight of an extremely pregnant nun caused quite a stir.

Then it was November, and she was due any day.