A.N. Ugh… I don't own anything…not the song, not the cartoon, not even the socks on my feet.

Chapter 1: "How Do I Start?"

Kitty cried, clutching her stinging face, as she stumbled down the sidewalk just outside of the Institute. She had just had her last confrontation with Scott, Jean, and the Professor. They had expressly forbidden her to visit Lance and the Brotherhood boys and threatened to send her back home if she didn't stop what they called her "acting out".

Since when does visiting good friends that saved my life count as acting out?

Sure, if she was honest with herself, she'd done a little more than visit them. She, by mistake, a couple of times, had ended up with them as they had stolen food and cash from petty convenience stores around the area, but she didn't like to condemn them. They barely had anything to eat except that which Lance and Pietro could scrounge up with the pithy amount of money that they received from their jobs, and that which Kitty brought them from the Institute.

She had made it a nightly habit to show up at the boarding house with Rogue, both of them carrying food for dinner. She and Rogue both had begun to stay over more and more frequently as they got closer to the guys.

And, okay, sure, Kitty had begun to get into the whole punk rock, dark clothes thing. So what? After what they'd been through in the last few months, didn't she at least deserve a chance to express in her own way what she was feeling about things?

Obviously the Head Haunchos at the Institute didn't think so. Logan and Ororo were the only two of the adults who hadn't commented on her actions other than the required, "I don't think that is the right thing to be doing right now" speech, but she didn't blame them for that. She knew that they were just doing their jobs. Jean, Scott, and the Prof were a different matter. They had begun actively to force her, Rogue, and the BH boys apart by going into people's heads and planting things that shouldn't be there. Lance and Rogue had nearly killed each other after Jean had made them both think that the other was an assassin trying to murder the other. Rogue had ended up pretty much unscathed, thanks to Logan's healing factor, but Lance had ended up in the Institute med lab for two months because of it, much to his dismay. But instead of pushing the little group apart, they only grew closer. Rogue had visited Lance every day to apologize about what she had done, and as a result, they had a lot of intense conversations. She now treated Lance as a type of big brother. Rogue had even let it slip as she and Kitty were talking one day, that she loved him like family.

Kitty reflected on her now void relationship with Jean and Scott. She still couldn't believe that the Prof. had let them get away with what they had. She could just see the bruise on her left cheek as a result of Jean's parting slap across the face. Scott and the Professor had just stood there and watched, a sneer planted firmly on the younger man's face, as Jean backhanded Kitty across the face. Kitty now hated with all her heart the young woman she had thought of as the perfect older sister. Now all she could see was what Jean's selfish desires had placed into her brain. And Scott, the cuddly older brother who would protect you from anything, nothing but an insecure idiot who wanted with all his power to impress the Professor and land the perfect girl (Jean, DUH), not caring whose feelings or friendships he crushed as he did so.

She wasn't even going to try to expound on the Professor's attitude. She didn't even know what his attitude was half the time. He just sat there on his high horse, looking down imperiously at everybody's thoughts and actions, not taking into consideration his own.

The small rolling suitcase she had hastily packed was now bogging down with the weight of the rain. She just knew that everything in it was soaking wet. She was getting tired, dragging the thing down the road into Bayville. It wasn't the greatest idea she'd ever had, walking to the Brotherhood house, but she'd needed to get away from the Institute as quickly as possible, and she hadn't trusted herself to drive in her current condition, and in the rain no less.

She didn't know if she'd be welcome there, they were still skittish around her and Rogue, but they needed the food, and they were slowly beginning to trust her. Her relationship with Lance was still on the rocks, but things were inching their way towards a 'more than just friends' relationship.

Kitty heard a car careening around the next curve, and quickly jumped into the woods. She was more than a little tired, and she didn't phase through. She hid behind a tree, waiting for the car to pass. She heard the tires squeal, a loud crash, and a searing pain in her head before she registered what happened to her.

Damnit. What else could go wrong today?

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