@N: So I warn you in advance. I've been reading T S Eliot of late. This story's in a quasi- stream of consciousness form (unform?), I didn't mean it. It just kind of came out that way. Anyways, please review, I don't care what you put. *I'm begging here* I'm not going to continue this if no one's reading it. This is fanfiction there's really no point – it's for the fans from the fans. I end my rant here, please enjoy (and review!)

History Lesson

Chapter One: Run Down

"Tick, tick, tick," Pietro muttered as he sneered at the contemptuous device, counting the seconds down one at a time. Absent-mindedly, he picked up a pencil and began tapping it impatiently. The click, click, click of the pencil against the laminate desk quickly replaced the clock's march. The school had long vacated but still, there he sat a prisoner.

"Hey, freak! Cut it out!"

Pietro raised an eyebrow in Jason's direction, who had turned in his seat, and was pointing at the hand holding the pencil. If there were a contest for school bigot, he would have won hands down. He had come out of nowhere to triumph as the student body's champion against the mutant menace. Pietro merely looked at him through half-closed lids, tapped the pencil faster, faster than humanly possible. Jason stood but Pietro remained seated, appearing only slightly interested in the goings-on.

Mr. Stevens, the supervisor, returned from his bathroom break with a fresh cup of coffee in his hands. "Mr. Ferguson, students are to remain seated during detention, or have you forgotten?"

"No, I haven't forgotten," Jason replied as he sat back down.

"I leave the room for one minute, and everyone seems to throw out the rules," the teacher went on as he walked around the room. "Then again, I suppose that isn't surprising considering that you are all here because you decided to forgo the rules in the first place." He put his hand over Pietro's and pried the pencil for him. "You especially ought to mind yourself," he said pointedly to the teen.

Pietro rolled his eyes, resting his head in his other hand. He was tired of hearing it, tired of detention, tired of it all.

Mr. Stevens looked at his watch. "Alright, you're free to go. I expect you here promptly tomorrow."

'And the next day, and the next day,' Pietro added in his head. The four boys rose in unison and filed out of the room. Pietro was in lead, mildly aware of the taunts Jason and his lackeys were issuing for his benefit. He stuck his hands in his pockets and trudged on. The jabs stopped short once he shouldered through the front doors, and looking up he realized why.

Sabretooth and Gambit stood outside to meet him. Curious, he looked behind him, finding some enjoyment in the way Jason and his crew shut up and made themselves scarce. Gambit winked at them, showing off a charged card.

"What are you here for?" Pietro asked, though the answer seemed rather obvious.

"Just came by as a little heads-up, is all," Gambit replied. He gestured to Sabretooth with a sideways glance as he put away the now-harmless card. "He's just here . . . ah, for other business. Acolyte stuff, you know."

Pietro gave a look that indicated he could care less.

"So, Magneto wants your boys – well, the Brotherhood, ready soon, eh? He's coming by to check up on progress." Gambit put his hands up to show he didn't mean anything by it. "Just thought you might wanna know."

Pietro regarded either Acolyte for a second, then walked off. 'Not my problem,' he thought.

"Hey, you want I should fire up those punks' pants or something? You know, spread the word about messing with mutants?" Gambit called after him.

~

He stood at the walkway leading to the Brotherhood house. It had been newly renovated, to what end Pietro couldn't figure. Why it suddenly mattered to Magnus that they were living in such a sty, was a questionable topic. There was probably a simple answer but that simple answer would be found within a number of other more complex answers. He pushed the subject to the back of his mind. Whatever the reason, he would find out eventually he knew. That was always the case.

Pietro checked his watch. Detention had already cost him one date; the second was looming closer and closer. Was it Mary or Shelly?

Girls were a funny thing, he conceded. Some of them had screamed bloody murder when they found out he was a mutant while others had found him all the more desirable. It wasn't as one-sided as Magnus had predicted but it was close enough. They either feared him because he was different or they coveted him for it; there was no equal ground.

He realized he really didn't want to go on a date, but at the same time, home – or whatever you called it – wasn't all that appealing either. He headed off in a random direction, a small piece of freedom tailing him as he sped away. Lance and the others could veg on their own and Mary or Shelly or whoever she was could catch a flick by herself. He was tired of it all.

~

"Where've you bin?" Toad inquired, bounding into his room. "Missed three training sessions, oh . . . Mystique is not happy with you."

Pietro ignored the boy, grabbed a sweater from his closet and threw it on. He left the room without saying a word.

"Hey, hey, wait! Pietro! Where are you going?"

~

Jason and company cast their usual glances his way as they passed him. It was the same for all the others who feared his kind. Pietro yawned in reply, taking a rare moment to enjoy the warmth of the sun as he rested atop one of the quad's picnic tables. There was a hushed silence around him these days, save for the predictable name-calling and threats.

Magnus had instructed him to keep a low profile when he had returned to school. He had never realized what a hypocrite his father could be until that day. Pietro hadn't been identified during the sentinel attack – a stroke of luck, he concluded, that could only be due to the large number of telepaths on his father's payroll – and so, no one save the obvious knew what he was when he came back. He had changed that quickly enough though, much to Magnus' dismay.

Magneto had wanted the Brotherhood to train in secret and carry on as 'normal' teenagers. Again, to what end Pietro couldn't figure, not that it mattered, since he knew it was impossible. He wasn't going to hide behind his 'normal' looks just to skate by. It was bad enough he couldn't use his powers in school.

~

"I don't get you. What about the others?"

"Their delinquency has got them expelled. I can't do anything more for them in that respect," Magneto answered.

"So, where does that leave me? I'm not going back there."

"You are, and if you, too, decide to get yourself expelled you can consider yourself alone in this world, Pietro. I won't have you as my son."

~

There were many mutants at Bayville High these days. Maybe their parents thought it would be better for them at a school with a real mutant policy. Most schools just pretended they didn't exist. Maybe it was their own choice and they had hoped a school where mutants weren't afraid to be themselves couldn't be all that bad. Did it matter? Droves came in and droves left just the same. The world was changing, evolving – even the social makeup of the highschool arena. The nerds had nothing to worry about anymore, the target group had shifted, geeks to freaks. It was different but it was still all the same.

And maybe that's why he had decided to tell Principal Kelly.

~

"I'm a mutant. So is my father and my sister. I go by Quicksilver."


"Excuse me?"

Pietro shrugged. "I'm a mutant."

~

He was just so tired of it all.