Marie wondered if leaving this way was cowardly. In her heart, she knew that it probably was, but recently she’d stopped caring. Her packed bags at her feet, she looked around at the empty mansion. It was a Saturday afternoon in early September, and hardly any of the students or faculty at Xavier’s School for the Gifted wanted to stay inside while the sun still shone warmly down on a world already preparing for winter. They would all be cooped up soon enough as it was.
Footsteps echoed on the marble floor of the entryway. Marie turned to look at the only member of the staff who had remained at the mansion that day. Serious dark eyes regarded her khaki Capri pants and green short-sleeved top. Marie felt the critical gaze stop at the bare skin of her arms and neck, and she raised her chin proudly.
“I’m going now,” Marie stated calmly, staring into Ororo’s eyes.
The older woman nodded gravely. “As I told you yesterday, Professor Xavier’s fund for orphaned and abandoned mutants will provide you with a thousand dollars a month until your nineteenth birthday, even though you no longer have your mutation. That should help you get settled wherever you’re going. He would have wanted it that way,” Ororo said stiffly.
Marie grinned wryly. “Go on, Rogue, and get your newly-human butt out of here, huh, Ms. Munroe?” she asked sarcastically. She held up a hand when Ororo opened her mouth. “Don’t worry about it, okay? I know you think that I made a big mistake, and that you don’t want me here anymore. Well, it was my mistake to make, but I don’t want to be here anymore, either, so at least we can agree on something.”
Ororo closed her mouth. Her eyes narrowed, but before she could think of a reply, the sound of a honking horn echoed through the open front door. Rogue picked up her backpack in one hand and her suitcase in the other. She was nearly out the door when she heard Ororo’s voice.
“Good luck, Rogue.”
“Thanks, but my name is Marie.” She didn’t turn back to see Ororo’s reaction to finally learning her given name; she doubted the other woman cared.
Marie practically ran to the bright yellow sedan waiting for her in the cobblestone driveway. She opened the backdoor with her free hand, slung first her backpack and then her suitcase inside, and then slid in herself. Smiling at the gray-haired man behind the wheel, she said, “The Greyhound station, please.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I wanted to give this story closure before I went into the next story of the series. I actually did finish this a while ago, but for some reason I never posted it.