"Phoebe! You are going to be late for school! Get down here, now!"
Phoebe simply groaned and rolled over, covering her head with her pillow, her messy blonde curls splaying all over her face.
"Now, Phoebe! Or I'll send your father up there!"
"Do. Your. Worst," Phoebe mumbled.
There was the sound of her door opened.
"Phoebe, get up!" her father sang.
"Go away, you crazy old kook," Phoebe muttered.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Her father took a running start and jumped on the bed. "What was that? My hearing is bad. What was that about old?"'
"Hey! You're squashing my pillow pet!"
"You're sixteen years old! Why do you need a pillow pet?" Her father hit her with it.
"Ouch!" Phoebe sat up and kicked her father.
"Hey!"
Phoebe jumped on top of him, beating her father with a pillow.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Lorna! Lorna, help!"
Phoebe's mother appeared in the door way. "Alex, get off of that bed. Phoebe, get dressed and get to school."
Alex poked his head up. "You're no fun, Lor." He jumped up, and Phoebe swung her feet over the bed.
"Let's go, children," Lorna grinned.
Phoebe shoved her father out of the way playfully before running to the bathroom and shutting the door before he could catch her.
She took her shower, blew out her hair, and did her makeup. She went to her room and put her pleated plaid skirt and buttoned up her white top.
"Dad?" She called. "Dad, where's my jacket?"
"I feed it to a goat!"
She rolled her eyes and slid down the stairs railing, grabbing her dark blue St. James jacket off the back of her chair. Her mother sat a plate of waffles on the table, and Phoebe smiled. "Thanks."
"Oh, Alex," Lorna said as she sat down. "Scott called yesterday."
Alex's fork stopped halfway to his mouth. "Huh?"
"Yesterday. You got home from work late, so I didn't get to tell you."
"Well." Alex stood. "Guess I should call him back. . ."
Phoebe looked at her watch. "Oh! I'm going to be late!" She kissed her parents before running out to catch the bus.
"Phoebe!" her best friend Alyson yelled at her. "Saved you a seat."
They sat down beside each other. "Guess who called last night," Phoebe said in a low whisper.
"Who?" Aly asked.
"Uncle Scott."
"No way."
"Way."
"I didn't think they talked anymore."
"They don't," Phoebe said. "And that's the weird thing." The two were silent on their way to school. Phoebe leaned her head against the window, wondering what could possibly be so urgent that Scott would call.
Third period came, and Phoebe felt as though she would fall asleep, daydreaming about a cute football player sitting three seats to her right.
". . . and thus causing President Magneto to go insane and destroy most of Manhattan."
Phoebe looked up sharply. "What did you say, Mister Burner?"
Mr. Burner, a skinny old English man with a long, pointed white beard, simply sneered. "We were talking about the destruction of Manhattan and Genosha, Miss Summer. Please pay attention."
"But, Magneto didn't go insane!" She blurted out, then blushed and sat back in her seat.
"I'm sorry?"
"It wasn't Magneto," muttered Phoebe.
"I'm sorry," Burner said. "But we are talking of the man who took over Mutant Town?"
"It was a mutant called Xorn!"
"Who allowed mutants and humans both to die?"
"All the work of an insane mutant called Xorn!"
"Who killed the X-Man Jean Grey?"
"Jean Grey is alive!"
There was a collective silence around the room.
Burner narrowed his eyes. "Since you seem so intent on disturbing my class period, please, do share. How is it you know Jean Grey is alive?"
"Because," Phoebe hesitated. "She's my aunt."
"Beg your pardon?"
Phoebe ground her teeth. "She is my aunt. She is married to my father's brother Scott."
"You lie," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I saw it happen myself, on the telly. Magneto attacked Jean Grey and killed her. Magneto was crazy and an idiot who deserved what he got."
"How dare you!" Phoebe said, standing and stomping her foot. "How dare you talk of things you don't understand!"
"And I suppose Magneto is your, what? Second cousin? Distant uncle? I guess that makes you another grotesque mutant."
Phoebe was quiet. She sat down in her chair. She put her head down. The room was quiet, but there was the discreet mumble of noise from Phoebe.
"What was that, Miss Summers?" Burner asked cockily.
"Nothing, sir."
The room was quiet and Burner smiled, satisfied.
Phoebe leaned her cheek against her hand gloomily. Suddenly feeling a shift in the magnetic energy in the air, she jumped up.
"Miss Summers, what are you –?"
A large crash cut through Burners sentence; the wall was ripped off, and the class screamed; a huge, metal robot stood above them.
The Sentinels! Phoebe had heard of them. As the robot lifted the rest of the wall off, debris fell – Phoebe lifted her hands, and a large, green tinted shield surrounded the class.
"Sentinels! But they were wiped out!" Burner yelled.
"Mutant 11567 identified – Phoebe Summers. Initiative – capture," said the robotic voice.
"Oh, yeah?" Phoebe yelled. "Come at me bro! You don't want to mess with me!" She let her shields down.
"What are you doing?" Burner yelled. "They'll kill us all!"
"Oh, no they won't, Mr. Burner," Phoebe said. "I know this because Magneto isn't a second cousin or distant uncle . . ." The head of Sentinel suddenly rolled off its head, and it hands fell off its body. Every screw came loose, and the Sentinel began to collapse.
"I know this because I am Magnetrix, granddaughter of the Master of Magnetism!"
The sentinel fell to the ground, and Phoebe released her powers, feeling blood drip down her nose.
She looked to the right just in time to see the Blackbird land before passing out.