Hello all! This is my first X-Men fanfic. It's supposed to take place directly after the first movie and then move into the second. I have centered this story on an original character, but we end up meeting the X- Men and whatnot, so be patient with it. Please review when yer done!

much luv

deke

Rob Vincennes walked through the front door, a sense of victory swelled inside of him. His parents and his younger brother were still out by the car, and for a moment, Rob was alone as he peeled mud-caked spikes from his feet. He had a reason for feeling so happy and victorious, a point his father brought up as the rest of the family came through the doorway.

" You made it to the State Finals!," Rob's dad said, smiling beyond the boundaries of his face.

All the way home, his dad had repeated the same statement over and over again as if engraining the sound of it into his brain.

Rob laughed, and in a fake sarcastic voice, replied, " I know, Dad."

Rob's younger brother, Todd, stood a distance away, beaming with pride, while his mother reminded him to be mindful of making a mess.

" Come on Keri, it's not everyday that Rob makes it to the State Finals," Rob's dad replied.

Rob was cold, caked in mud, but he had never been happier in all his life. His football team had just played an amazing game - putting them in the State Finals. It was a dream come true, a wish almost too fragile to realize.

" Rob, please, don't get mud all over the house," his mother said as he started to make his way upstairs to his bedroom.

" I can't help it!," Rob called back, with a smile.

He closed his bedroom door, and slowly shed layers of muddy clothes. He threw the soaking uniform into his hamper without even thinking, Rob's mind was far too overwhelmed with dreams. He had made it into the finals! Even the inevitable overload of practices to come could not damper the excitement of it. He had worked so hard through out the year to be his best, and now that work was going to pay off. He beamed with pride.

Rob made his way to the bathroom for a shower. He stood under the hot water for quite a while, thinking of the game, the adrenaline of such a time slowly fading the harder he tried to remember it.

Rob closed the plug, and the bathtub slowly filled with water. Rob couldn't even remember the last time he had taken a bath - but now was a perfect time. His body ached from a night's worth of getting pummeled.

The tub was soon filled, and Rob sat in the steaming water. He was so tired, after a day of school, hours of anxious anticipation, a brutally competitive game - how late was it now? Rob was slowly lost as weariness overcame him. He leaned back in the water, resting his head on the rim of the tub. He didn't even realize he was fading to sleep.
There was a hard knock on the bathroom door, and Rob jumped. The noise shook him from whatever rest he had found. His mother's voice came through the door, " Rob? Are you okay?"

" Yeah," Rob replied, water dripping from his black hair.

" You've been in there for nearly an hour... Monica is here to see you," Rob's mother answered.

" Okay," Rob replied, and shivered, for it just occurred to him that the water was cold.

He pulled the plug from the tub, and dried himself as quickly as possible. An hour? Rob thought it through - it made sense, but the time had gone by in a moment. He must have fallen asleep, but - and an odd shiver shook his whole body - wouldn't he have drowned? After all, when his mom knocked on the door, he remembered his face and hair were dripping with water. Unless he was imagining things, he should have been dead, unless he was a -

Rob pushed it from his mind - Monica, his girlfriend, was here, and he had to get dressed as quickly as possible. He was glad to hear that she was here to visit, but a little worried at the same time. Her brother could be extremely protective of her, and he never approved of her staying out late.

Rob opened the door to the bath room, wearing an old T-shirt and plaid flannel pajama pants, and walked into his room.

Before he could even turn on the lights, someone was hugging him.

" You won!," that was Monica's excited voice. She giggled a victorious laugh.

The light flickered on, and Rob smiled as his girlfriend's face came into view. She had wavy hair that was a dark brown, with brilliant green eyes. He always loved looking into those eyes.

" What you doing in here?," he asked with an obvious 'hi-I'm-your- boyfriend' voice.

" Waiting for you," Monica said, detecting the boyfriend voice and answering in her 'duh-that's-obvious' voice.

" I was going to get dressed," Rob said apologetically - he didn't want her to see him wearing his pajamas.

" I don't mind," Monica said, giggling again.

" Does your brother know that you're over here?," Rob asked, his voice doubtful.

" Actually...," Monica trailed off, exaggerating the moment, " He does."

" He isn't mad?," Rob asked, once again doubtful. Usually, Monica's brother tried his damnedest to scare people away from dating his sister, and running into an angry 22 year old was the last thing Rob wanted to do tonight.

" No, he thought you played a great game," she replied, obviously relieved that her brother was acting cool for once.

" He saw the game?"

" We both did."

" You liked it?"

" What do you think?!," Monica exclaimed, because she knew he didn't have to ask a question like that, " You were great. You know, I can't stay long, I just wanted to come over to congratulate you."

" How are you going to do that?," Rob asked, smiling a shy smile.

" Like this," she said, and very slowly, she pulled his face close to hers. Their lips touched, the warmth of their touch spread through out their bodies. They embraced for minutes.

Just as slowly as it had begun, Monica pulled herself away.

" I have to go, I'll be late," she said softly, leaving Rob alone in his room in a romantic glaze.

" Bye," he said moments after she was gone. He exhaled loudly. There was not another girl in the whole world like Monica. He marveled at his incredible fortune. His mother was soon standing at the threshold of his door.

" Did Monica leave?," she asked.

" Yup," Rob said, still mesmerized.

" You didn't walk her to the door?," his mom asked.

" No, I guess I forgot."

" I like her, she's such a nice girl."

" Yeah...," Rob closed his eyes, trying to catch up to the memory that was fading.

" You better get to sleep, you have to get up for school tomorrow."

" Yeah, I hate Thursday games," Rob replied.

" Rob, I'm really proud of you."

" Thanks," it sounded lame, but what else could he say to his mom?

His mom left, and once again he was alone. He turned off the lights, and crawled into bed. He suddenly remembered how tired he was. He drifted to sleep easily, laying content in his bed, thinking of all the incredible things that he embraced - he was a football hero, his girlfriend was better than the best, and he never felt so happy in all his life. He slept easily.
Rob woke up the next morning - and the weather seemed to agree to his attitude. He could not have asked for a better day. A wonderful fluke of the weather made that November morning nearly 70, and he rummaged through his closet to resurrect a pair of green cargo shorts he thought he wouldn't see again until April. He was about to walk to school in just a T-shirt, but his mom made a big deal out of it (being a mom) and he was forced into wearing a gray zip-up hoodie. But even a hoodie could not destroy the mood, and Rob walked to school, soaking up the good weather.

" Hey, you're not going to wait?," a voice called from behind. Rob turned around, his younger brother Todd was hurrying after him. Even if Todd was only a sophomore and Rob was a senior, they still walked to school together every morning.

" Sorry. Weather," Rob said, waiting for Todd.

" Yeah, whatever," Todd mumbled, " Looking forward to school, huh?"

Rob had to agree.

" I'm not," Todd continued, " Fucking swimming starts today. I hate swimming."

Rob was confused, " Swimming?"

" You should know, you have gym, too. What do you have to worry about?"

Rob was thinking of the night before, but what did he have to worry about? His mind had to have been playing tricks on him. He shook the memory from his mind.

Rob returned to the present, Todd was listing complaints about why he was loathing that 55 minutes where he would have to be in swimming class - most of the complaints revolving around the ugly uniform Speedo that the guys were forced into wearing.

" You worry too much," Rob said, laughing.

" I don't care, I'm playing hooky in gym," Todd said, taking full responsibility of abusing the no-dress rule for feeling sick in gym and not dressing in the uniform.

Rob was lost in thoughts for a moment. He couldn't even remember the last time he had been swimming. He didn't live close to the ocean and his parents never bought a pool. He could feel anticipation growing inside of him, just like before a game. This would be fun.

They continued to school, which was only eight blocks from their house, so they reached the high school in a matter of minutes. Once at school, Rob and Todd went their separate ways, hanging out with their own friends. Rob meet up with his friends, all of them not considering anyone around them as they celebrated the team's win as loudly as they dared. Even the teachers appeared to be in support of the team, for they had long ago abandoned the task of casting looks of disapproval in the teens' direction.

Before long, the morning bell rang and Rob had to go to his first class - English, the terror of the whole school, since they were reading 'Tess of the D'ubervilles' and no one liked it, not even the teachers themselves.

Yet, all of Rob's classes went by quickly - and the beginning of each class started with the teacher reminding the students of the football team's success.

Hours rolled by much without excitement. Lunch came soon enough, and Rob sat by his friends in the cafeteria. Monica walked by casually, saying a casual, " Hi, Rob," in the most obvious 'I'm-his-girlfriend' voice anyone could muster.

" Hey," Rob called back dreamily, but by then Monica was already gone - she always ate lunch with her own friends.

All the guys at Rob's table began to laugh at Rob. It was all in good fun.

" OOOOoooooooooooooooohhhhhh," Rob's best friend Jim replied, and then laughed, " Look, he's turning red."

All the guys began to laugh again, Rob suddenly turned shy, and hid his face under the table. The guys laughed even more, and Rob laughed along with them, until he looked down at his hands. They were bright red. He jumped in surprise, hitting his head on the top of the table at the same time. He shook his head, shaking out the hurt, and looked at his hands again. They were normal.

Nothing else exciting happened through out the rest of school day, until gym finally rolled around, which was the last class of the day. Obviously a lot of students had felt the same fear that Todd had, for there were about ten kids sitting next to the pool, wearing their normal school clothes, sitting huddled together and working on the gym-sick worksheets.

Rob, however, got dressed for gym - he couldn't explain why, but ever since Todd reminded him of the swim class, he had been anticipating it all day. When was the last time he had been swimming? Could he swim?

There were only twenty students who actually dressed for gym that day, much to the disapproval of their gym teacher, Mr. Finch.

" If you didn't want to dress for swimming, why did you pick this class?," he barked at the students, but none of them could give him a straight answer. None of them wanted to state the obvious - the swimsuits were simply too ugly.

Mr. Finch was the only teacher during the whole day that did not appear to be thrilled about the football team's success. He was the coach of the tennis team, and since it was overshadowed by everything including the chess club, he took the football win as yet another blow to his team.

" Don't gloat, remember, this is swimming, not football," Mr. Finch said to the class, though mostly towards Rob and Jim. Rob rolled his eyes, he could have predicted such sentiments ages ago. The class was split up between boys and girls.

" We're going to start off with one lap of freestyle swimming, which we're going to time so at the end of the semester we can see how much you've improved."

The guys were going to do their lap first, and the girls were on the other side of the Olympic sized pool timing them.

Rob sized up the pool. It would take him forever to get to the other side.

" This is going to suck," Jim said to Rob.

" Yeah, I'll probably get a cramp and drown," a nearby kid replied.

Rob laughed at the remark, and replied, " Thanks, now I can't use that excuse."

Mr. Finch blew the whistle, and all the guys jumped into the pool with feigned grace. Rob hit the water and immediately he felt something swell inside - a joy he didn't know he could feel. He felt a blanket of contentment wrap over him as he swam below the surface of the water - he didn't even feel such things when he was playing football. He swam even faster as his happiness grew.

Rob was dully aware that Mr. Finch was blowing his whistle again - why?

Rob reached the other side of the pool, where the water was only three feet deep, and stood up. Mr. Finch was standing directly in front of him, up on the side of the pool, looming over him.

" What the hell was that?," the teacher barked at Rob.

" What?," Rob asked, for he was terribly confused on why he was getting yelled at. Did he kick someone or something? Suddenly, he realized the quiet that had taken the pool room. Not a single person was talking. All the girls were standing still with what appeared to be fright, all their eyes were fixed upon him. Rob looked at the girls, and realized that he was alone. Twisting around sharply, he noticed the rest of the guys were still on the other side of the pool - god, had he swam that whole lap before he was supposed to? - they had hardly put a dent in the lap at all. They had all heard Mr. Finch's whistle - some were treading water, most were hanging on the ledge of the pool.

Rob turned back around, confusion and fear almost knocking him over. Mr. Finch began shouting once again.

" How the hell did you swim that lap so fast?," Mr. Finch boomed, " You never even came up for air once, explain that!"

" I...uh..," Rob stuttered, but he was just as confused and lost for an answer as the teacher. He looked back behind him once again, some guys were getting out of the pool and walking slowly towards him.

" Uh..," Rob stumbled again, taking up time while he ran through his mind. Did he really just swim a whole lap in the time it took for the rest of the guys to take a single stroke?

" Well, explain yourself!," Mr. Finch demanded.

" I guess I'm a good swimmer," Rob replied, lost for any other answer.

" There is no human that is that good of a swimmer!" The words stung. There was a resounding silence. Rob starred back at his teacher in utter confusion. Did Mr. Finch just say what he thought he had said? Was he saying that Rob was a - Rob couldn't even finish the thought.

" Did you hear me, Vincennes?," Mr. Finch shouted.

Rob stared at the man stupidly, all the while desperately wishing he'd shut up.

" Did you hear what I said?"

Shut up, Rob thought, just shut up.

" No human can swim a lap in that kind of time! How do you explain that?"

" I can't," Rob replied, still dreading what the teacher was concluding.

" You can't? Well, I have an answer for you," Mr. Finch shouted, Rob's stomach jumped at that promise.

" You're a mutant!" The effect of the sentence made a few of the girls scream out, but the words weren't spoken by the teacher. Rob turned around. Jim was pointing at him, a look of complete conviction on his face.

Rob opened his mouth as though he was going to object, but found that he couldn't. He stared back at his friend in complete fear. Is that what he was? Below the water, Rob tightened his hands into fists. He wished that everyone would just shut up and stop looking at him. He was desperately frightened of what everyone had concluded, and just wanted to be alone.

" You're a fucking mutant!," Jim shouted again.

Anger flashed through Rob as suddenly as a stroke of lightning. It happened so fast that Rob didn't even realize it. Jim had taken another step towards him, and then fell over, screaming that his leg was broken. Everyone else in the gym screamed out in terror, obviously they saw something that Rob could not see.

" You broke his leg!," Mr. Finch shouted, but just as suddenly, Jim was back on his feet. He was alright, it had all been an illusion.

" Oh, my god!," one of the girls shouted, " Look at him!"

Rob looked down at himself, and realized with complete terror that his skin had turned a brilliant bright red. There was no denying it now, Rob swallowed his fears as he told himself he was a mutant. The reality of that hit him sickly.

He had to get out of here. Rob had never felt so afraid in all his life. He turned from Jim and the rest of the class and dove under the water. He reached the other side of the pool in a matter of seconds. He jumped clear out of the water and hit the ground running. He ran for the locker room. He found his locker, flew through the combination on his lock, and threw on his cargo shorts, shoes, and hoodie. By that time, his skin was completely dry and now back to normal, though he couldn't explain why. He grabbed his back pack, and left.

He could hear the commotion in the pool room, but he didn't care. He had to get home as fast as possible.

Rob ran home, no one else on the street could possibly guess why. He was home in a matter of minutes, and he pulled the key from his pocket. The door opened before he had a chance to unlock it.

Rob jumped and looked up into the face of his brother.

" Todd, shit you scared me. What are you doing home?," Rob said, and tried to push his way past him.

" Skipped last half of school," Todd replied. Rob laughed meekly as he pushed his way past his brother and into the house.

" School just called," Todd said. Rob stood absolutely frozen.

" Not now, Todd, please," Rob pushed his way past Todd and started to run up the stairs. " They said you're a mutant," Todd said.

Rob stopped dead on the stairs, and stood still for a few moments.

" Todd, I..," Rob trailed off. What could he say? Nothing could have helped him at a moment like this.

" Is it true?," Todd asked, but there was something in his voice that lit a small flame of comfort in Rob. Todd wasn't at all scared or angry, but curious.

" I guess," Rob said, and walked back down the stairs as if in defeat.

" Look, Rob, I'm your brother. I'm just worried. I don't want you to run away."

" What am I going to do?," Rob asked, clearly sounding his fear, " I can't go back to school. I don't know, do they expel mutants?" Rob shivered, for he has said that word, relating to himself. It had an odd feeling to it. There was a moment of silence.

" What can you do?," Todd asked, and Rob gave a weak laugh because it was just like his brother to be amazed by something like this. But it put Rob at ease.

" I swam a whole lap in gym in like, a few seconds," Rob replied, and Todd commented on how cool that was. Rob continued on " But then everyone started to freak out - I mean, I swam it really fast - and I guess I lost my temper or something because I broke Jim's leg."

" What? How?"

" I didn't really do it, he just fell over and started to scream that I had broken it, but then a few seconds later, he was okay. I think I just made him think that his leg was broken, or something like that. But," Rob paused for a moment, he was still shaking, " when I did that, it turned my skin red. Like really red."

Rob shrugged.

Todd and Rob stood in silence for a few moments.

" What are you going to do?," Todd asked silently.

" I dunno. Run away, I guess," Rob said.

" Rob!"

" What? What else am I going to do?," Rob shouted at his brother. He didn't mean to get angry, but Todd was acting stupid. He couldn't stay here. His parents would be pissed when they came home, and he couldn't go back to school.

" Oh, shit," Rob cursed at himself.

" What?"

" Well, I guess that means the end of the state finals for me."

" Come on, Rob, don't - "

" What, do you think they'd let a mutant play on a football team? They'd think that I'd be cheating or something like that. Oh, shit! My life sucks..." Rob trailed off. His life was getting worse by the moment.

" You know, maybe Mom and Dad won't be mad."

" How do you know? Has anything like this ever happened to them?"

They were silent once more.

" Rob? Does this mean I'm a mutant too?"

" I dunno."

" I don't want you to run away, please."

" I don't want to, either, but there's nothing else I can do."

Rob slowly made his way back up the stairs to his bedroom. He had to gather what he could, though he was not prepared at all. What do you take with you when you run away? Todd followed him with apprehension, not knowing if Rob wanted him around.

" They just left a message on the machine," Todd said.

" Who?"

" School. I just deleted it, but they said they'd call back at four."

Rob looked at the clock, it was already quarter after three.

" When is Mom and Dad supposed to be home?"

" I don't know, four."

" Can you try to stop them from getting that call?"

" Sure."

" I have to leave before they get home."

Rob looked around his room, and began throwing all sorts of things he was sure he would need into his back pack. Then he took them out again. It was going to be winter soon. He had to think things out, but he couldn't think straight. Desperation struck him once again. What was he going to do about the cold?

" This is stupid!," Rob shouted, throwing his back pack against the wall, " What am I going to do? I can't just run away now, it's going to be fucking winter." Rob fell back on his bed in defeat, searching his mind for answers as quickly as he could, until he was sure he reached a solution. His house rested directly on the edge of a forest. When he and Todd were younger they used to go exploring and they found a huge rock quarry that had been abandoned and filled with water. It was the perfect hide out - completely secluded from everything.

" Todd, just wait, I got it," Rob exclaimed, " You remember the quarry?"

" Yeah, sure."

" I mean, I can just go down there tonight and hide out for a while. It will give me some time to think things through, and that way you can come and visit me."

" What about Mom and Dad?"

" I don't know, tell them I ran away."

" But Rob! They'd want to see you."

" I can't."

Rob hurried downstairs into the kitchen. He started to throw as much food as he dared into his back pack. He stuffed another hoodie into the bag in case it got colder, which it was sure to do.

" I've got to go," Rob said, noticing that the time was getting far too close to four. Todd didn't even object.

" Are you going to visit me tomorrow?," Rob asked.

" Yeah, if you want me to," Todd replied.

They stood in silence for a while. Rob looked at his brother for a moment, and then hugged him as hard as he could. It was all he could think of doing to comfort his brother.

" I'll miss you."

" It's not like I'll be that far away."

" I know."

Rob walked to the back door, and opened the sliding door. He smiled at his brother and said goodbye, and stepped out into the yard. He closed the door, and that was it. He was on his own. He didn't even look back as he made his way into the forest.
******* Well, that's the first chappie! Please review!