Skin Deep

Posted on Tue Aug 24th, 2021 @ 1:57pm by Margo Stone

2,219 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: X-Odus
Timeline: July 5, 1990

The evening of the fifth of July was drawing to a close and out of the windows in the kitchen, the sun was just kissing the horizon. Some students were milling about and chatting with each other or doing homework, but the room was hardly full of people. At the island in the middle of the room, a black woman who seemed to be in her sixties or early seventies placed chocolate chip cookie dough onto a baking sheet. She hummed a sweet tune as she worked and seemed to pay little attention to what was going on around her. Before her were several plates full of cookies which she had been guarding with a vigilant eye. The only time she spoke to anyone was when a kid came up to grab one. She waved her finger in the air and gave a pleasant smile.

The smell of cookies lured Katy into the kitchen and she was surprised to see a matronly older black woman dishing them out. She walked over and looked at her. "Hey, you giving these away?" she asked with a nod towards the cookie plates.

“Oh, I will be soon, don’t you worry.” The woman responded while moving another pan to the oven. “After this next batch they’ll all be ready; we can enjoy them all together.”

She closed the oven and turned toward the girl with a sweet smile, her curly dark brown hair bobbing as she moved. She regarded Katy with a look of interest which seemed completely innocent.

“Be patient, my dear. Some things are worth waiting for.”

"Patient?" the speedster asked. "It's cookies. I need to eat before I starve."

The woman’s smile deepened as she leaned forward on the table.

“Don’t they feed you enough around here? I hear it’s all you can eat.”

"I have a metabolism hotter than the sun," Katy stated and moved in a blur to put together a six meat and four cheese, lettuce, tomato and may sub sandwich.

“Fast girls especially must learn to wait.” The old woman said, raising her eyebrows. “I bet you can get away with a lot with powers like those? Too fast to see; too fast to catch.”

"It means I'm hungry all the time," the young woman said while making short order the sub. "Especially when I can't even get a simple cookie."

“Didn’t you ever have to wait for your mother’s cookies when you were growing up?” The woman asked, sweetly. “They taste better when you can eat them together.”

"I never knew her," Katy said flatly. "She died when I was little." Now she set the remaining bites of the sub down and turned away.

The old woman looked sad for several seconds before she spoke.

“Then I guess waiting can wait. She said, moving a plate over toward the girl and picking up a chocolate cookie of her own. As soon as she did so, a redhead boy with a wide set face and a chubby form walked toward her, a look of excitement on his face.

“Not you, Carrot Top.” She spoke sharply., then she fixed her tone. “My friend here has a special case.”

"Pass," the young woman said quietly. "I'm not hungry anymore. You can have mine, kid," she told the boy and started to walk away.

The old lady watched with some interest as the young girl began to leave. Her expression wasn’t one of sadness, but of curiosity. She watched as the young man went for the plate of cookies, knowing that she had somehow offended the girl.

“You are sensitive, aren’t you?” She asked in a calm tone. “No matter how fast you are, you can’t seem to outrun your problems. I have a similar issue.”

"Right, bye," Katy said and exited the kitchen, fighting back the urge to run at her top speed and not return to the mansion.

“Uhm…okay.” The old lady said, just as her cookie timer went off. She put on her oven mitt on and removed the last batch of cookies from the oven. Placing the tray down on the counter, she called out in a loud voice to the surrounding students.

“The wait is over, kids!” She announced, a bright grin crossing her face as they surged toward the counter.

"All I wanted was a freakin' cookie," Katy said as she flopped down on the couch in the living room. She didn't even know who the old bat was and had blurted out about her mother. The thing was, she didn't know if her 'father' had been lying when he said he should have killed her like her mutant mother. That implied that her mother had been a mutant, which is where she had gotten it from, but she had no way of finding out if her mother had died or was still alive somewhere.

A few moments later, the old woman emerged from the kitchen with a plate in her hand, humming the same song as before. Her eyes fell on the girl she had upset and she reacted, almost like she was surprised to see her there. She walked over to the couch and sat the warm plate of chocolate chip cookies on the coffee table. Then she lowered herself onto the couch opposite her.

“I didn’t know about your mother, and if I had, I wouldn’t have said what I did. Not only would it have been rude as shit, but it would have been out of character too. I’m sorry.”

"...out of character?" Katy asked before she snagged three cookies and ate them in a second. "Thanks. That was my stupid fault for blurting it out."

“I’m just glad I was convincing. I’m dipping my toes into different cultures and accents. Baking cookies is just part of the role.” The woman said and then, within several seconds, she began to morph. Her curly brown hair straightened into shoulder length blonde hair, her skin brightened and became more suple and young, and her body transformed from from a somewhat portly and sagging frame in an apron to a shapely tattooed body in a low cut red shirt and tight blue jeans. She offered a wink and then reached for a cookie herself. “Names Margo.”

"Woah," the young brunette said in amazement and leaned in to look at her red shirt, then reached out to feel it and see if it pulled away like a real shirt. "That...was cool!"

“That’s me you’re pulling, Speedster.” Margo said with a smile, her ref lips turning into a smile of mock-flirtation. “I’ll let you in on a little secret: you can’t transform into different clothes if you’re wearing clothes.”

She took a bite out of the the cookie and winced.

“Tastes like shit. I must have forgotten the sugar again.”

"How....do you forget...sugar...in cookies?" Katy asked.

“There’s a lot of details to keep track of when you become someone else.” Margo said, placing the remainder of the cookie back down on the plate. “Take you for example. I have to take in your entire appearance including your height and your voice. I have to study you posture, your attitude, your tone, and even the subtle look in your eye. A lot of times I have to guys; I have no idea what you look like naked, for example, so I have to make it up.”

Slowly, Margo’s form began to shift and mold into the presence of the girl opposite here down to her exact clothing. She shifted to sit as she was sitting and adopted the same expression.

“Forgetting to look up cookie recipes is an easy thing to do.”

"Well, that's not creepy at all," Katy said as she watched the change and raised an eyebrow. "Making things up can get you in trouble. There's also other things you don't know about me."

“Sure, but you seem like the kinda girl who likes to keep things quiet.” Margo said, still a clone of the girl opposite here. Several students looked on in amazed curiosity. “I don’t know your name, but I bet I already know more about you than most people here. The rest is being vague and acting like you would act. Also, as regards the creepiness, some people like this one in particular. You’d be surprised how many people fantasize about themselves.”

"I've heard people say go fuck yourself, but that's ridiculous," Katy said with a laugh and before a blink could pass, she was seated on the other side of the woman. Then she was in front of her. Then she was on the other side again.

Margo transitioned quickly as well, about a third as fast as Katy, which was still pretty impressive and not terribly easy to measure for most people.

“Now, if you can fly, I’m out of luck.” She said, smiling the girl’s smile. “You never told me your name.”

"Katy," the speedster said. "You look like mercury changing like that. It's cool. You here by invite or kidnapping?" '

Margo transformed back into her natural form once again and smiled at the compliment.

“Thanks.” She said, then she shrugged her shoulders. “My father is a…very important man. I used to be his perfectly little girl until I got my abilities. After that tattoos, a haircut, boys, girls, and crime. He though Professor Xavier could keep me away from the cameras.”

"Must be nice to get to chose to rebel or not," Katy said. "You could have done anything, been anyone. Will this?"

“It wasn’t like that.” Margo said, looking down with some sadness. “When I came out as a mutant it was, very public. Everyone knew. My parents couldn’t handle any embarrassment from me. Being myself wasn’t an option anymore, so I learned to be other people instead.”

"All I could do was run," Katy said quietly. "From the drunken abusive asshole of a sperm donor that said he should have killed me."

“Is he dead yet?” Margo asked, watching the girl across from her with quiet interest, her large hazel eyes reading her every move.

Katy shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. I have more than he could have dreamed of, not that he dreamed beyond his next bender."

“I bet you have.” Margo said with a smile. “So, what do you people do for fun around here? So far, the most fun I’ve had is pretending to be an old lady making cookies.”

"There's the recreation center," Katy said. "Mainly, it's talk to each other, or run around the place or get into things. I usually head into town to grab whatever and hang out."

“I’m more for the getting into things.” Margo responded with a grin that was less than innocent and yet still quite restrained. She loved to have fun and craved adventure. It was one of the reasons she found it impossible to hold her mutant gifts inside. In her view, this was how she was meant to shine and she didn’t want to miss the opportunity. “Honestly, I want to find a way to do the things I’m not allowed to do. Screw Daddy; if he’s going to put me away here, I at least don’t want to make it easy for him.”

"Pose as Professor X and tell Cyclops he's fired," Katy suggested. "He's an asshole, anyway."

A soft giggle escaped Margo’s lips as she thought about the idea. Rolling her eyes ever so slightly at how many times she’s pulled a prank like that, she looked back at the girl opposite.

“Games like that are more fun when we play them together, Katy.” She said, her distinct southern accent coming out in a soft voice. It was gentle and almost musical. “We’ll have to put your speed to good use too.”

"How so?" the other woman asked in her inner city New York accent. "I mean, I used to put it to use robbing armored cars."

“Amazing.” Margo responded, her mind working. “Well, if we’re going to do this we’ll need the Professor’s chair. You could snag it so fast no one would see.”

"I run fast, but I'm not super strong," Katy said. "People would notice me pushing a chair really fast if I run into something, and he's a telepath."

“Damn, that’s true.” Margo said, pursing her glittering lips into a slight pout. “Well, we’re going to need a late night planning session to iron out the details sometime. And we’ll have to go all the way, with ice cream and popcorn..” Margo mused, and then looked up at Katy with a silly expression.

"I can get us a Lombardo's pizza in twenty minutes," Katy offered. "Best pizza on the east and west coast, hands down."

“It’s a date.” Margo said, standing up, but this time as herself. She was shapely and strikingly noticeable in the room. She smiled generously. “It was nice to meet you, Katy.”

"See you then," Katy said with a wink, then in a blur, she was gone.

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