11 10: Kelsie

"I swear college is going to kill me one of these days," Kelsie grumbles. She rolls out of bed and stumbles over to the mini kitchen she has in her room and grabs a K-Cup.

Popping it into her Keurig, Kelsie pulls a mug out from one of the cabinets, places it in the machine, and lets it start brewing.

Marin rolls over in their bed and looks at her. "Why do you say that?"

"I have a paper due tonight that I need to finish since its my final for this class. If i don't get it done, I fail and that's a crap ton of money down the drain!"

"What's the paper even about?" He asks.

"Just the physics of particles and how different metas use them. And not only do we have to write the paper, we have to have a video example that is going to be shown in class today!"

"That sounds like a little too much work."

"Yeah it does. But, that's college for ya."

Pulling himself out of bed, Marin walks over to Kelsie and wraps his arms around her. "You'll do great babe. Just use yourself as an example."

She looks up at him and raises one eyebrow. "If I do that the professor will figure out who I am." Kelsie pauses for a second. "Well, not EXACTLY who I am, but that I could be the meta wanted all over the world. I wear wigs on missions for a reason."

"I know. Then who would you use?"

"What about that girl Becca? The one with the same powers as Father? She'd be easy enough to use since she's so young."

"That's actually a great idea! Thank you so much!" Kelsie stands on her toes and plants a kiss on Marin's cheek.

The Keurig beeps, letting them know the coffee is ready.

"You only made one cup?"

"I've only been up a couple minutes! Besides, you don't even like coffee." Reaching over, Kelsie grabs the freshly brewed coffee and downs half of it. At that same time Marin walks into the closet to start getting dressed.

"You do know that stuff's going to kill you one day don't you?" He calls from the closet.

"Nah. I won't let it."

Marin sighs where she can hear him. "There's a lethal dose of coffee and you're going to find it if you keep drinking that stuff like you do!"

"You say lethal while I say lifetime supply!" She argues back. "If you drank more coffee you would be able to use your powers a little better. Caffeine and metas mix VERY well."

"It sure doesn't mix well with this meta."

Kelsie walks into the closet holding the almost empty mug in her hand. "I'm gonna get you to drink coffee one of these days. Here, try this brew I made today." She shoves the mug into his hands.

Marin slowly raises it to his lips and takes a sip. After pondering it for a second he drinks a little more. "That's actually not bad. I've reached my coffee limit for the week but it's still pretty good."

"See? Now, can I have my coffee back?" Kelsie holds out her hands and waits for the mug to be passed back to her.

Marin thinks about it for a second. "Nope." He places the mug on the highest shelf in the closet. The shelf that just happened to be nearly a foot taller than Kelsie.

"That's not very nice!"

"You should've asked me for it nicely then."

Kelsie shoots a fake pout his way. "But, my coffee!"

"Get dressed and I'll get you your coffee back down."

She sticks her tongue out at him in response. "Fine."

Hurrying to get dressed, Kelsie grabs a pair of black leather pants with multiple sheaths for weapons in it, a bright shirt, and her favorite jacket. Along with a pair of stilettos that makes her normally 5'5" frame about four inches taller.

Marin looks at her outfit but pauses at the stilettos. "Heels? On campus? When it just rained?"

"What? I can use some light to dry where I step. I do it all the time! Besides, there's a rather handy blade in each of the heels that pop out with enough force."

Swinging her leg in a roundhouse kick, Kelsie drives the heel into the wall and pulls it out to show off a few inch long blade. Carefully, she pulls the heel off and presses it against a metal bar to get the blade back where it belongs. All while standing on one foot.

"Okay then. Just don't do anything to me with that."

"Can't make any promises!" She taunts.

Once the shoe is back on her foot, Kelsie walks into the bathroom to fix her hair. Out of everything else, her hair has to be perfect. For her, that means zero hairs out of place. Once Kelsie finishes her hair, she puts on some light foundation with mascara, a little blush, and clear lip gloss.

Walking back into the closet, Kelsie locates the shelf her precious coffee was placed on. Standing on a low shelf, she grabs the mug and sticks her tongue out at Marin in victory. She chugs the rest of her coffee on the way back to the mini kitchen and places the mug off the sink.

"CHEATER!" Marin calls from the closet.

"Am not!" Kelsie says while grabbing her phone, laptop and shoulder bag off her desk

"You are!" Marin runs after her and they fall into step walking down the hallway.

"Please, tell me exactly how cheated then."

"You have heels on!! You can never reach that shelf!" Marin insists.

Kelsie just laughs at him. "I don't know why you're so offended. I personally like heels because I can reach stuff with them."

"Whatever. So where are we headed again?"

"To see the kids! Your idea about Becca really got me thinking. We can use some footage of her and see if we can figure out how the different particles are affected by her teleporting," She explains. "Japanese culture sees metas as a good thing. Almost a blessing to the world. If I ever get the chance I would love to visit. Maybe I could find the family I was taken from. Father said we could try but it would be really hard since there was no way to track where my sister and I came from since we were so little." Tears well in her eyes.

"Hey, look at me." Marin turns her towards him. "Don't get upset about what happened when you were little okay? We can go sometime and I'll help you find your family. If we don't find them then just know you have your family right here. You got it?"

"I got it." Kelsie weakly smiles. "Hey, speaking about family I don't think you ever told me exactly what happened to yours. I know my father killed them because they knew too much but there has to be a reason you came to us. No one comes to their family's murderer and asks to help them." She turns and starts walking down the hall again.

"It wasn't what I wanted to do but what I needed to do. When I found my parents bodies in the kitchen and my little brother's in his room, I ran to protect myself. Then I came here, to Atlanta, for college and figured out you had connections to him. I didn't realize that he was your father or the head of the Underground."

"I'm so sorry you had to see that. Even after all these years seeing someone after I've taken care of them still haunts me a little. I know the name and face of everyone I have ever killed and how old I was."

"I wish you could've had a different childhood. You shouldn't have been brought into this life until you were older."

Kelsie just shrugs her shoulders in response. "This is what's always been expected of me. One day I'll take my father's place and lead the entire system."

"And I'll fully support you when you-"

"Look guys! It's Miss Kelsie and Mr. Marin!" A voice interrupts.

"Hi Sammy!" Kelsie says. He runs over and crashes into her with a hug. Hazel eyes with a red ring around them look up at her. "Hi everybody!"

"Hi Miss Kelsie!!"

"You haven't been down here in awhile. What are you doing?" He asks.

"I actually came to see Becca," Kelsie tells him. She reaches down and ruffles his dark blond curls before walking over to where she was sitting reading a book.

"Hey Becca, do you think you could do something for me?" She kneels down and asks.

Becca looks up from her book and beams at Kelsie. "Suwe! What do you need me to do fow you?"

"If you don't mind, can I have you teleport from here to there." Kelsie points to the bed sitting a few feet away from where they were.

"No pwoblem!" With that, Becca popped away and reappeared sitting on the bed, book in hand.

"Way to go sweetie! Now, can you do that again in a minute. I need to record it for a school project!"

"Okay!"

"Marin, can you be the cameraman for this? I need to put in my contacts," Kelsie calls over to where Marin's playing with some of the kids. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

"Okay! Just let me know when you're ready to start."

Kelsie heads out of the kids area and jobs down the hall towards her bedroom. Once she gets there, she makes a beeline towards the bathroom and grabs her brown contacts from the counter. Popping them in, she double checks her hair and makeup to make sure she looks good for the video.

'No meta in this room. No one that is seen as a danger to society.'

Satisfied with how she looks, Kelsie runs back to the where the kids are.

"Alrighty guys. Let's make this video!"

The kids all scramble to a place where they have the best view of the shot. For a few, that means floating themselves up to the ceiling.

"Marin, when I give the signal, I want you to start recording. Okay?"

He shoots her a thumbs up from where he was standing trying to silence the kids and line up the shot.

Once everyone has quieted down, Kelsie nods at Marin and he starts recording.

"Good morning y'all! I'd like you to meet my friend Becca. It's been hard trying to find a meta that is willing to help me but she was MORE than willing to help."

"Miss Kelsie!" Becca tugs at her jacket. "Why couldn't you just use yourself for this project?" She looks up at Kelsie with big green eyes.

Kelsie looks over at Marin. "Stop the video really quick."

"Yeah. Why can't you make the video by yourself?"

Different variations of the question echo all over the room.

"Guys, if I use myself in the video I could get in really big trouble. I got in because I told them I wasn't a meta so if I change that on video I could get in really big trouble."

"Oh."

"Okay."

"I guess that makes sense."

Kelsie smiles at them. They may be young but they're definitely being raised better than she was. "Okay. One more time from the top!"

Everyone quickly gets to where they originally were and they restart the video.

"Good morning y'all!" Kelsie waves at the camera. "I'd like you to meet my friend Becca. Can you say hi to my class Becca?"

"Hi." She shyly waves at the camera.

"So Becca here is a very special type of meta. Can you show everyone what you can do?"

With that, Becca pops from Kelsie's left to right side in a split second.

"So Becca is a teleporting meta. While every type of meta is rare, she is among one of the rarest. Now I know some of you are probably doubting her talent but I'm going to prove to you that this is real. Becca, when I say 'go', I want you to teleport back to my left side, okay?"

"Okay Miss Kelsie!"

"So with a teleporter, their power allows them to go from one place to another in a very short amount of time. The farther away they are going, the longer it takes."

While Kelsie was speaking, Becca teleported herself back to where she started the video.

"Even though Becca is very young, she is starting to show great control over her powers. If the world was more accepting of metas, she could do great things in her life. She is able to take the particles that make up her body and move them through space in time so quickly that it only takes her a fraction of a second to move a few feet. I will explain more about the way metas like Becca use their powers to manipulate particles in my paper. Thank you so much for watching my video."

"Bye!" Becca waves at the camera right before Marin ends the video.

"You did great Becca!!" Marin runs over to her and spins her in the air.

"I hate to say this y'all but we have to get to class now," Kelsie says.

A chorus of disappointed sighs rose up all over the room

"But... I promise we'll come see you after school's done!"

Cheers came from all of them at that.

After giving hugs to all the kids in there, Kelsie and Marin grab their stuff and start head to where the Underground keeps cars. Finding their normal Tesla, they hop in and start driving to campus.

"I wish I could do more to help these kids live a normal life as a meta."

"Hey, don't worry about it. You can only do so much right now."

"I know! But that fact that there are kids out there that are threatened just for being a meta hurts me. Did you know that there was a little meta girl caught in a fire up north that almost didn't get saved?"

"No. I didn't."

"She nearly died because of something she can't help. The family was lucky there was another meta nearby that was willing to help her."

"So that's why you're so protective of these kids."

"Of course I am!" Kelsie's voice falls to a whisper. "I've seen first hand how much the world hates us. Hell, I'm wanted all over the world. Partially because of how many people I've killed but also because I'm a meta. If I could get people to feel what we feel I would do it in a heartbeat!"

"I know you would. Just, promise me you won't do anything rash today, okay?"

"I promise. Now, I've gotta get to class. See you after?"

"See you after."

They kiss and split off to go to their classes. Kelsie heads into her building, runs up the stairs, and walks into her classroom right on time.

"Cutting it a little close today, aren't we Kelsie?" Victoria asks. Victoria shares several classes with Kelsie and they've grown closer over their years at Georgia Tech.

"Yeah yeah. I had to finish my video this morning because it was the only time I could film," she answers. "The girl I filmed is so sweet and has a lot of potential. If the world changed she could do great things."

"Those nasty metas should never be allowed to live among us." A voice says from above them. "They're abominations and are unpredictable. It's only a matter of time before they kill us all."

"Y'know Brian, why don't you just shut up?" Victoria tells him.

"Whatever. You two are too blind to see the truth anyways."

"Good morning everyone! I'm glad to see we have everyone here today. Let's begin with everyone's videos!" Doctor Becker says. She's always in a cheery mood no matter what's going on.

Kelsie pulls out her iMac and gets comfortable in her seat. This was going to be a pretty long class.