(A/N: Hey, y'all! Okay, that was a bit southern. How 'bout, hey, guys! This is my first ever X-Men fic, and I'm pretty sure I spelled Storm's first name wrong… but oh well. This basically ignores the second and third film. In other words, it's if everything was normal, no one was dead, and the Friends of Humanity was a background menace at worst. Okay? Okay. So, don't flame me or anything if I mess stuff up, just give me a yell and I'll come a runnin'. I may periodically accidentally revert to the comics time-line on accident… whoops…anyway, have fun! Thankies! Reviews get a cyber cookie and first to review gets ice cream and special mention!)

(DISCLAIMER: Nope, don't own X-men, or any other major franchise. What a surprise. All I own is this computer, my ideas, my O.C.s, and these cookies and ice cream that I'm about to give away… /stares at cookie/ ...better hurry and review before I get hungry /stares at cookie some more/)

Brianna West dangled her feet from the low brick wall where she sat and watched the sun slowly set. A heavenly painter had dashed greens, blues, purples, and reds into the sky, and let them slowly melt into each other, giving the sky the appearance of a wonderfully colored palette.

The pretty seventeen-year-old sighed for the tenth time, letting her back slouch into an undignified position, as she thought about the past few days.

Chaos. Absolute chaos.

Brianna kicked the ground savagely, then lapsed back into a moody frown. She was not too happy, as any observer could immediately tell…

FLASHBACK

"Hey mom!" Brianna called, shooting her mother an odd glance. "Can you hear that?"

The attractive, middle-aged woman paused mid-slurp of her chicken soup. "Hear what? I hear the wind blowing, Bri, but that's it."

"Its kinda silly…but…that sound… it sounds like… like… I dunno, plants moving or something.

"Plants don't move."

"I said it was silly."

"Whatever. Don't you have homework?"

"Ugh, yeah," Bri grumbled as she swept her bright reddish gold hair into a make-shift pony-tail. "Stupid calculus teacher…She loves giving out tests. And extra 'busy work' homework. And other nasty stuff."

Her mom had, by now, continued eating the soup, so Bri ambled out of the room good-naturedly and headed for said despised math book, her green eyes sweeping across the room hurriedly. Then she paused. There it was again, that strange, insistent rustle, which sounded almost like a voice.

'I don't have time for this,' thought Bri, rather impatiently, and grabbed her tote bag.

'Listen to usss.'

The girl spun, quickly, like a frightened rabbit.

'Light, and air, water and earth. Eat. Grow. Sssurvive.'

"What the…?!" she shouted, ignorant of the voice's origin.

'You hear usss…you know usss. We are life.'

END FLASHBACK

Bri absentmindedly stood, strode off through town, determined to keep her promise to her mother. Bri was NEVER going back, ever. Her own mother had called her a freak, an accident of nature, a mutant.

She was seventeen. She'd start her own life, a new one, by herself…

A young girl, bored, tapped out a steady rhythm on her knee, while moving her shoulders to a sound only she could hear. She was humming an annoying tune over and over, hoping this would soon be over.

In the front of the room, a woman was wrapping up a speech: "…and with that summary of the basic system, rules, and goals of the school, I'd like to welcome you all to a new year here at the Xavier institute. We hope you will always remember to use your gifts for peace between mutants and humans."

The attractive African-American smiled. "I'd like to remind everyone that class starts in ten minutes."

With that, the crowded room began clearing out, leaving several of the teachers and staff behind.

"Thank God that's over," sighed Ororo Munroe, or Storm, as she was better known. She flipped her unusual pale blond hair over one shoulder and smiled at her companion, an older man in a wheelchair. "I'm not sure I'm up to this huge responsibility, Professor."

"Nonsense, Storm. You're an excellent administrator, and I can no longer head both the team and the school at once," Professor Charles Xavier remarked calmly. 'Besides,' he added privately in thought-speak, 'You're much better at running things than Logan would be.'

Storm laughed in her head, trying not to express a smile. Logan, code named Wolverine, would probably end his first day of running a kid's school by making all of the students run laps, wash every vehicle in the faculty, and train until nightfall in the Danger Room. And then he would probably yell at anyone who hadn't finished their homework during his 'after school activities'.

Ororo heard Professor Xavier chuckle, who obviously saw her mental picture of Logan running the school. She smiled as well.

Hank, a giant blue mutant who was known as Beast, stared oddly at her.

"Just thinking about something," Ororo explained rather pertly. She smiled again, and then headed off to her new job.

As soon as she set foot in her office, a young girl about twelve walked in. "Ms. Munroe," she said softly, "I have a problem."

"What is it, Patsy?" asked Storm of aforesaid girl.

"I don't know what to do about an art assignment, and I'm afraid Mr. Logan won't be too happy."

Mentally, Ororo was groaning. Logan wasn't exactly the best with art, but all of the other subjects had been taken when he had started teaching. "Tell me the problem."

Patsy flipped a yellow braid over one shoulder and self-consciously tugged her blue sweater down. "Um…well, the assignment was to draw a picture of a dream we've had before…and I don't dream, so I didn't do the assignment."

Belatedly, Ororo remembered that Patsy was a low-level telepath, who, when she was dreaming, accidentally got caught in others' heads. The professor had done something to stop her from dreaming, so people didn't freaked out about having a young girl all of the sudden visit them in their heads.

"Well…you could just explain to Mr. Logan that you don't dream, and ask him what to do about it."

"Um… I'm…" Patsy shot a look behind her. "A little nervous about that."

Storm smiled inwardly. "Then just make something up. I'm sure others have told you about their dreams… all you need to do is make up something weird, and I'm sure that will be okay."

"Thanks Ms. Munroe!" The girl hastily rushed out of the room as a bell began to ring.

Another day of mutant madness had just begun…

(TBC)

(A/N: So, what did you think? Did it suck? Did it rock? Did you even read it? Tell me! Press that little blue button! You know you want to… remember, the first to review gets a cyber ice cream and a special mention!)

-x- Caribbean Sundown -x-