written in the stars

chapter one

UPDATE: 4/15/18

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Little did she know was that two years later, the men came for her.

It had been six years since Thomas Shepherd left the family. Since then, life had been both hectic and normal. Hectic as Maureen had her two special abilities (the freezing and making things explode) and she had recently gained a new one. Empathy. Normal was only having three people in the Shepherd family, going to school and working. Maureen got out school at 2:20 while her brother got out of his school at 3:15. Maureen would watch Tommy by herself until her mother came up between 8 to 9 o'clock in the evening. Today though, was Amelia's day off.

Maureen was busy helping her now eight year old brother Tommy with his homework. His dyslexia made it very hard for him to read sometimes and Maureen was the excellent reader in the family, so she was the one that usually did this with him. That could have been because their mother often had a double shift, but the Shepherd siblings didn't mind at all.

It was mid afternoon. The Shepherd kids had gotten out of school early, coming home at around three o'clock. It must have been an hour later when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Maureen's mother shouted. Today, she actually had the day off.

Maureen loved her mother, she really did. She looked up to her, seeing her as a strong, brave, and independent. 

Amelia Shepherd was the daughter of two immigrants and grew up being picked on for being Irish. Amelia had also married young, to a man (who was also Irish) who started out caring but became a monster when he had a bottle in hand. They had Maureen young, and Tommy a little later. When Maureen first found out her abilities her father was...well, Maureen never liked to think or talk about him. He was a monster, hurting both her and her mother, and basically called her nothing before walking out. Now, Amelia was working on the clock to pay bills (that Maureen often helped out with by babysitting), and having a freak like Maureen as a daughter. Maureen thought of her mother as a saint.

"Maureen! There's some men here to see you. Did you get in trouble again?"

Maureen froze. She knew this could be two possible things: that the men came for her (she got a lot more visions of them coming more recently) or the fact that she was in fact, in trouble again.

Maureen had what you may call a temper. Sure, she was a quiet and generally described as a nice and sweet girl, but sometimes when she got picked on too much, she could snap.

The most recent incident happened last week. Maureen remembered because it concerned about her family, about Tommy.

Maureen glanced at her brother, who was looking at her.

"I'll be right back," Maureen promised, ruffling his unruly hair before leaving him to go visit these two mysterious men.

Maureen walked into the room where her mother and two men were sitting. They seemed to be having a conversation. Maureen didn't know what the men looked like, because their backs were facing her.

"You called for me, mom?"

Maureen's mother looked up and the two men turned their heads to face her. One of them had bright blue eyes and dark hair that was longer than the other man's, who seemed to be taller. Both of them seemed attractive, but Maureen wasn't interested in any way at all. They were too old for her, for starters.

"Hello Maureen, I'm Charles Xavier and this is my partner, Erik," the man with the bright blue eyes greeted the fifteen year old. "We're here because we want to talk to you about your mutation."