Madelyn sat in silence, brooding, she couldn’t tell if Rogue knew about her dream, or if somebody else had caused it, but every time she caught Rogue’s eye the Southerner wrinkled her nose at her and then turned away. Something wasn’t right.
“Why are you fidgeting like that sugar? Do you need somebody to help you eat your breakfast?” Rogue teased snapping Madelyn’s attention around to her. Looking at Rogue’s self-satisfied smile Madelyn knew that Rogue knew.
“No Rogue unlike you I can feed myself.” Madelyn snapped back.
“Easy sugar, no need to throw a tantrum.” Rogue was teasing Madelyn openly. The rest of the table stared opened mouthed at the two girls who were clearly arguing about more than breakfast.
“Calm down ladies.” Scott said trying to put enough authority into his voice to bring the girls back down to earth.
“Back off.” Both girls turned and hissed at him.
“I was going to call myself that.” Gabriel said quietly. He became the centre of attention again.
“Why?” Jean asked softly.
“It was the first words I spoke when I discovered my powers.” Gabriel said he was still a little bit uncomfortable talking about the subject so he stopped there. And dropped his head.
“What happened?” The whole table seemed to say with nobody saying at all.
“I was being bullied by these boys at my school. They called me names because of my teeth. Stupid names, names that weren’t even insulting but after a while I couldn’t stand them. They called me Colgate, and then when my mum bought that kind of toothpaste I contemplated suicide. That’s when my father came in. I owe him my life, but not because he conceived me but because he believed in me and didn’t tell my mother. He protected me; he did everything he could to help. Then one day I decided to fight back. The bullies were supposed to stop when I did that. Instead they picked on my friends who found they stopped when they stopped being my friends. They made me alone. Even if I fought back it was always me against all of them.” Gabriel stopped, raised his head and found his knew housemates staring back at him with empathy, even lo…no they didn’t know him that well.

Madelyn stood up and moved to Gabriel she took his hand in hers and held it up. “Please Gabriel go on.” She breathed.
“Then at the beginning of the week every time I got angry with the bullies I got stronger. Not a lot at first but enough to make me feel a little less of a victim. Then on Thursday they tried to stuff me into a locker. I fought back. They tried harder. I fought back with every fibre of my being. Then at that point when I had used up all my power, when I had nothing else but my emotions and blood to give I found a new power source. When they dragged me in I gave everything to this new power I fed it every drop of my mind, body and soul. The last thing I remember about feeling wholly human at that last point was shouting back off. From then on I have been feeling every since I got here.”
“And that is?” Scott asked.
“I don’t know who I am anymore. That’s why I need to find a new name that I deserve. Not what I want.”
“Its simple Gabriel, you are now one of the X-Mice and for just now that’s all the name you need.” Jean said. She filled her mind with warmth and confidence and allowed it to radiate to Gabriel. But she saw it wasn’t needed. He was taking all of his comfort from the physical contact with Madelyn.
“Now if you will excuse me.” Gabriel said untangling his hand and moving away to the toilets tears filling his eyes.
The rest of the X-Mice returned to their eating their own thoughts suddenly overtaken them.