12528/Is this a Promotion or a Problem

Is this a Promotion or a Problem
Date of Scene:	06 December 2020
Location:	Xavier's Office / Classroom
Synopsis:	Scott welcomes Xiomara officially to The New Mutants
Cast of Characters:	Cyclops, Aegis

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Cyclops has posed:
It's Sunday morning and even though it's a weekend and there are no classes, a certain latina troublemaker got a message from 'the' Scott Summers to meet him at his office. The field leader for the X-Men is currently wearing a sweater and a pair of khakis along with his red shades. He has a folder in front of him, a bit thicker than most other students that he is quietly pouring through.

Next to him is a steaming cup of coffee, as well as one of hot cocoa with marshmallows in it. They even have signature red x's on them! When promoting a school, branding is everything, right?

Aegis has posed:
She had thought Jeremy was kidding about Scott Summers wanting to see her. Thus, Xio hadn't gone to ask about it. Which is why she suddenly found herself getting a message on the weekend.

It wasn't like she had any other plans. She wasn't going home for a visit and she was stuck here at the school for the time being. Of course, that didn't make it any less daunting.

As she trudged toward the door, feet barely lifting as she took the most time she could toward that door which seemed like a giant barricade right now. She stood staring at the wood surface as she ran through everything she'd done recently she might get in trouble for. The most she came out with was dropping the F-Bomb in chemistry class. So what the heck was she here for?

Taking a breath she knocked on the door then opened it, peeking her head in. Her curly hair was down around her shoulders, loose. She word a red tank top with a plaid shirt tied around her waist and a pair of jeans. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Summers?"

Cyclops has posed:
Glancing upwards from the paperwork, Scott Summers gives a clear of his throat, then motions to the chair in front of him. "Good morning Miss Batista. Thank you for meeting with me. Take a seat. I took the liberty of making you a cup of hot cocoa. I assumed you were a marshmallow person."

""I would like to talk about you for a moment. How do you feel things are going here with you at Xavier's? I've spent some time speaking with your teachers. You excel at PE. You're borderline passing math. We probably shouldn't have allowed you to enroll in Spanish seeing how you can speak it fluently. That's a tricky way to boost your GPA while doing the bare minimum. You don't strike me as a bare minimum type of person though. You're aggressively outgoing and social. You have authority issues, yet you're clearly protective of those you've brought into your inner circle."

"We do monitor every phone call and text message on your Xavier issued phones by the way. We know about the call that you made to Luis Espinoza and what happend with those boys at Liberty High." There's a thin pressing of his lips as he leans forward a bit, shuffling some paperwork in his hands. "Very interesting." He taps the paperwork in front of him a bit.

"Miss Batista, where do you see yourself in the next five years, pending that you graduate?"

Aegis has posed:
Madre de Dios, she was about to get kicked out. There was no way 'interesting' was all she was going to get for what was done to those who had abused Jeremy back when he was in juvie. She had made sure they felt just what they had done to him. Got the same treatment, the same abuse. Perhaps even a bit more and they also had the fear of the Los Muertos added on top of that if they ever tried to get back at Jeremy in some weird way.

If that was what she'd be getting sent back to juvie for, it was worth it.

But wait, he said on their Xavier issued phones. She'd not used theirs! But if she said that, she was admitting guilt. Besides, they had people who could read minds around here. It wasn't that hard for them to have just gotten it out of her brain. Or Jeremy's. The fact they knew the name? Had to be her brain.

"I figure dead in the gutter somewhere if I'm not in jail. Or prison," Xio admits with a shrug, grasping that bravado that she used to get through the world.

"When it comes to school, I'm a bare minimum type person. It said pick an elective and Spanish was one. There was nothing written that said I couldn't take it just cause I already knew the language."

"If I'm getting booted, can I at least go see my folks once more before I get thrown back in to the pool down at juvie?"

Cyclops has posed:
"Why would you be getting booted for? Math is boring and you are still maintaining a C average. With a curve. Not everyone is a Douglas Ramsey or a Hank McCoy when it comes to math. Or even a Paige Guthrie. No one saw that one coming. We don't boot kids out the door for being average in math, or even in life."

Scott slides the folder over towards her, tapping the top of it. "Do you know what this is? This is your criminal history on record. It's pretty interesting and colorful. I assume most kids your age that live the gang life have similiar folders, right? Friends. Family. It's an endless circle of struggle and violence created by a system designed to oppress those who were not born lucky enough to have the right skin color, or a silver spoon in their hand."

Tilting his chin upwards, he continues to stare at her. "What do you /want/ to do in the next five years, provided that you graduate?" A different question. Wants. What does she want?

Aegis has posed:
Xio opened her mouth to reply. Then stopped. Her mouth clicked back shut. If he wasn't bringing up the justice doled out by her gang, she wasn't going to again. The fact he mentioned it was maybe just letting her know that she wasn't as smart as she thought. What did she expect? School of mutants run by two of the scariest telepaths out there apparently. Or so the rumors said.

"Yeah, the gang becomes like your family, not just friends. There are other groups that you might not know or be close with but they are like the cousins you don't know yet but still family. It's a way to feel like belonging to something more." She shrugs. Not that it's true at all but it's the belief a lot of them have. Especially those who didn't have families of their own.

"I...never thought about what I wanted to be. I have no idea. I figured I'd just be doing what I do now. Have some job, make a little bit of money to keep alive."

Cyclops has posed:
"Or maybe you could be making a difference in your old community with some support of your new community. Your 'family' is stuck in this endless loop of criminal behavior because they feel like they have no other choice. Do you know what the graduation rate for your high school is? It's not very high, Miss Batista. Sixty percent. The percentage of those that attend higher education is twelve percent. Twelve." Scott says the number with a frown upon his face. "It's an embarrassingly low number. How would you like to fix that?"

He taps the top of her folder again, then uses his hand to slide it off the side of the table and into the trash. Thunk. "You have some loyal friends here that consider you family, Miss Batista. Your criminal history has been removed from the system. It's like you never stole those cars, or broke into those stores, or shanked that girl that gave you lip in middle school. All gone. When we take a student in, we expet them to graduate from Xavier's a model person. One that can be a thriving member of society. You are a smart girl. You have talents that most kids don't have because you were forced to learn them quickly in order to survive, and that was before you became a mutant. I'd like to see you apply them in different areas of study."

Leaning forward, he picks up his coffee again and raises it up for a sip. "Miss Grey and I would like to offer you membership into the New Mutants program. We want you to work with the team. Your Danger Room scores are top notch. You are learning your powers quickly. You get along with the others and to be frank, I thought you were already inducted into the team but I suppose that's what I get for assuming. You hang out with them enough and your synergy with the team is pretty obvious."

Licking his lips, he gives his coffee mug a bit of a swirl. "Upon successful completion of the New Mutants program and if you can graduate with at least a two point five GPA, on behalf of Xavier's, we will give you a hundred thousand dollars to invest in your old community in the form of education and community leadership. Is this something you would be interested in?"

Aegis has posed:
Her eyes go wide. Very wide. Like able to see white all around the dark brown iris wide. "For my neighborhood?" That could do so much good. Help a lot of kids. Help a lot of businesses even in the area. Give perhaps a community center even that might allow for kids to do things other than run the streets.

After all, she loved her gang but she also knew it was a rough life. It was one where people died young and there wasn't really a future in it. But she was just her. A nobody troublemaker. It wasn't like she would be able to do that but she could put that money in the hands of others who /could/ do right by her community.

She blinks and looks down at her hands, worrying the inside of her cheek with her teeth as she pondered. "Everybody thinks I'm in the New Mutants already. I just hang out with Indi and Jeremy and some of the others so lots of people assumed I was part of them. Never really figured on being a superhero or the like. I'm not built for that. Up here." She taps the side of her head lightly. Is she?

She picks up the cup of hot cocoa, taking a cautious sip. More because her mind was spinning. Could she, a nobody, do that much to help her neighborhood? It wasn't a lot they were asking. Go to class, try to get good grades. And by doing just that, she could gain so much.

"What exactly does successful completion of the New Mutants program mean? I mean do I have to go out and wear spandex? I mean, I'd look hot and all but I've never seen myself as someone to go out saving people."

Cyclops has posed:
"The New Mutants are not superheroes on paper, but they are heroes to the school. They are the group that other students look up to. Kind of like .. a student council. They work with the X-Men on various projects that are 'not' going out and getting beat up by bad guys. That's our job. This is more about working together to identify needs in the mutant community and utilizing Xavier's resources to help them out. Work with students that may come from similiar walks of life, or need support. But, yes, there is a part of it that means working together in the Danger Room and using your powers in tandem."

"One day there may not be an X-Men team. There is always a bigger bad guy out there, and if we were to fall, we'd want our student body to be able to protect themselves and each other and carry on Xavier's dream of mutant and human relations. We don't want anyone to become soldiers, but we do understand that there are some students that want a higher calling, to protect the world and use their gifts for those purposes. Though rare, we will take on a graduate or two based upon skill-set, maturity, and how well they performed in the New Mutants programs. We offered a place on the team to four graduates. Just four, out of dozens. Only two accepted and only one remains. Josh Foley decided to go back to college after a stint with the X-Men and Megan Gwynn has become a great member of the X-Men. The other two? They sought out a different type of spotlight and now they're doing great things in the community."

"So, don't think of this as a superhero recruiting tool. See it as a path of development. You will get extra classes based upon leadership being led by me. You will be pushed harder physically in the Danger Room. You'll have to play nice once in awhile." He says with an amused tone in his voice. "Maybe assign you to Logan. You two are both rough edges."

Aegis has posed:
"Logan? The grumpy furry guy?" Xio sums it up pretty much with that. She hasn't met him. But she's certainly heard about him from her fellow students. That's one thing that they are good at--gossip.

So she'd be a New Mutant officially. Not a big deal really. She'd have to be a good example. That might be a stretch. She had been trying to be good, for the most part. If one ignored the whole trying to find the alcohol stash and having people beat up for being assholes.

Extra classes with both Mr. Summers and Logan. That was going to be different.