The room where they decided to settle me wasn't exactly luxurious, and its size wasn't particularly impressive either. But, then again, it wasn't surprising. The school clearly needed more space, and it wasn't designed to accommodate so many people—or mutants, depending on how you look at it.
After showing me the room and briefly explaining how things worked, Jean excused himself. He had to prepare for his own class. The kids, gathered into large groups, could easily ruin anyone's mood, so the teacher had to mentally prepare himself in advance.
After inspecting my quarters, I threw my backpack with my belongings into the closet. I wasn't sure how long I'd be staying, so there was no need to unpack. Sitting in the small room with nothing to do but watch TV didn't seem appealing. Fortunately, anticipating such a scenario, I had asked Jean about the entertainment options here. Surprisingly, there were enough to keep one occupied.
There was an outdoor sports field and an indoor game room where you could play video games or even checkers. To succeed in school, it's important to rest well and regularly, especially for children.
But I didn't want to visit such places. We, the newcomers, are intelligent people and thus have an irresistible attraction to libraries, heh! But seriously, if I had this opportunity, I should really focus on self-education. I figured the library here must be filled with books on medicine and genetics—just what the doctor ordered, as they say.
After wandering the hallways, which were lined with wooden paneling, I finally found the door with the right sign. The library greeted me with the familiar silence and calm. The room seemed quite large, but it was hard to tell its actual size because the shelves, which were packed tightly with books, occupied most of the space. They formed a real labyrinth where one could easily get lost.
Taking a deep breath of the familiar scent of books, I walked in and slowly made my way between the rows of shelves. What confused me was that I couldn't figure out the system by which the books were organized—it seemed like there was no system at all!
At some point, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of something strange. At first, I thought it was Mystique somehow managing to sneak into the school and searching for secrets. I probably noticed the blue color of the figure, but what was up with this strange fashion trend among the mutants here?
Upon closer inspection, I realized I was mistaken, and the person in front of me was definitely not Mystique. The key difference was the soft fur covering the mutant's body. The girl… well, she was hanging upside down, gripping metal handrails attached to the ceiling with her bare feet.
She wore a white medical coat that hung down, short dark shorts with thin white stripes, and a kind of jacket in the same style. The most striking part was that underneath the jacket, she wore nothing, and if she wasn't hanging upside down, I'm pretty sure her large breasts would have popped out at any moment!
Despite her short fur covering all visible parts of her body, her thick, blue hair falling down, and her clearly non-human feet, the girl seemed incredibly sexy and quite attractive. If a furry enthusiast had been in my place, they would have passed out from happiness, only to wake up and rush to buy a ring to propose to the beauty.
The mutant was deeply engrossed in a book and barely reacted to the world around her.
"Ahem," I politely cleared my throat.
"Yes?" she said, not wanting to tear herself away from her book.
If I weren't so insanely curious to meet her, I might have gotten the hint and disappeared into the fog. But this was interesting! I had a rough idea of whom I was meeting, but it didn't make it any easier.
"Hi, sorry to interrupt your reading, but..."
Finally, the girl gave up and closed her book. Her yellow eyes scanned my figure, and her cat-like vertical pupils widened when she realized she was seeing a stranger. After a moment, she relaxed a little, adjusted her thin-framed glasses, and jumped to the floor. Standing like a normal person, she was a head taller than me, so my gaze, involuntarily, landed on a very interesting place.
"Hi," she purred with a velvety, deep voice. "Gretta McCoy, and you're probably Marius Carlisle?"
Her voice was hypnotic, not metaphorically, but literally. It was as though she was mesmerizing me, and so skillfully that her magic even drowned out the inner voice of Masquerade, which had tried to make itself known again. I realized something was happening, but resisting it was incredibly difficult.
"Y-yes," I stupidly mumbled, grinning.
"Oh, sorry!" Gretta suddenly said and stepped back.
The effect started to wear off, and I could breathe much easier right away.
"What… what was that?" I asked.
"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head and shuffling her feet. "My body produces a special type of pheromone, and I still have trouble controlling it."
Wow! I didn't even know Beast could do something like that!
Yes, there was no doubt about it—I was face to face with a female version of the remarkable mutant known as Beast. The surname seemed to match, though the first name, obviously, was different. I remember this character had a pretty frightening appearance but a brilliant mind.
A sort of reworked concept of the Beast, only without the Beauty. In the fairy tale, the monster had a scary appearance but a kind heart, but comic creators evidently thought that a good heart wasn't enough, so they gave Beast genius-level intelligence. Based on my meeting with Gretta in the library, it looked like things were similar here, except for the gender, of course.
"That was quite… an interesting experience," I said with a smile. "So, Gretta, huh? Do you work here?"
Noticing that I wasn't angry or panicking, the furry girl noticeably cheered up.
"How did you guess?" she shot me a look with her yellow eyes and fixed her bangs.
"You know my name, but I doubt I'm important enough for the entire school to know about my arrival. However, the staff, the headmaster could have informed them."
"Ha-ha, that's logical," the blue-haired girl laughed. "You're right, I work here. I teach English and some natural sciences. And I also serve as a doctor if needed."
"So, you have the day off today?" I made another assumption, since this morning's check-up on Jubilee was handled by Scotty Summers.
"Wow," she said, genuinely surprised. "I don't want to repeat myself, but how did you guess that?!"
After explaining the simple chain of reasoning to her, I smoothly transitioned to the main reason I started this conversation, aside from my curiosity, of course. If they bothered to install special handrails on the ceiling for Gretta's convenience, it meant she spent quite a lot of time here. So, she must be familiar with this labyrinth.
"What I wanted to ask was, can you point me to some books?"
"What exactly are you looking for?" she asked, adding a professional tone to her voice.
Together, we quickly found the textbooks and books I needed. Beast resumed her vertical position near the desk where I was sitting and continued her reading. I decided to finish the book by Charlene Xavier. Fully immersing myself in self-education, I read the next section and realized I had some questions. Although the bald telepath was very clear, you can't explain everything at once.
"Gretta, sorry to interrupt, but can I ask a few questions? You've read this book, right?"
"Not clear?" she immediately responded, jumping over to me.
Her eyes were full of enthusiasm, and I realized that I could stick around at this school if I managed to build a bridge with her and convince her to become my personal tutor!