DupliKate
Disclaimer: I do not own X-men
Chapter 1: The Situation
It was the end of spring semester. The flies buzzed overhead as the teacher slowly walked up and down the aisles, silently returning last week's test. It was the last class of the day. The clock ticked loudly, slowly approaching 3:25. In the second to last row, third seat from the window, a dark haired girl gazed out the window, bored, her pacific-blue eyes followed a fluttering monarch butterfly outside.
The instructor silently placed the test faced down on the dark haired girl's desk. Flipping it around and gazing at the red mark on the top, blood drained from her face, her eyes widened in surprise. "NO!" she whispered.
The bell rang.
The class practically flew out, chattering excitedly about summer plans. A strawberry blonde girl waved the dark haired girl over. But she motioned for her to wait outside. Arching her eyebrow, the blonde silently waited at the doorway.
Slowly the dark haired girl approached the front of the bare classroom. All the decorations, student projects and signs had been packed away for the summer. Arriving at the instructor's desk, the girl tentatively asked, "Ms. Gatsby?"
"Hmm?" she replied nonchalantly.
It was in such a grossly calm tone that the girl burst out with a cry, "Why! Why did give me Only a 96?"
"It's nothing to get worked up over Catrina. It's just a test, don't worry, your average is still 100."
"But why is this answer wrong?"
"There's nothing really wrong, just well…it's too broad. But like I said, don't worry."
Yea…nothing to worry about except…
"What's the matter Cat?" the blonde asked at the doorway.
"Nothing big Trish," her voice dripping with sarcasm, "nothing to worry about, just this." waving the test paper in front of the blonde's face.
The happiness of summer vacation disappeared, grimacing, Trish hugged Catrina.
Trish was Catrina's best friend. They've known each other since preschool. Although Catrina was fairly popular at school, only Trish knew Catrina's dark secret. Eyes filled with remorse, regret, and rage, Trish asked,
"Do you want to stay at my house tonight?"
Relief flooded Catrina's face, "Ooh! Thanks Trish, let's go."
"No problem. But you can't hide this forever."
"I…I know……but he's my father…"
The girls walked down the empty hallway to their lockers. Gathering their books and papers, they made their way out of the school, towards Trish's house.
"But you know Trish, I have to go back eventually…And then he'll be even more suspicious and I'll have to explain why I didn't come directly home."
"Hmm…" furrowing her brow, "That is a problem. Why don't you just say she never gave back the tests?"
"He'll call up Ms. Gatsby, I tried that in 9th grade, he called up my teachers every day."
"Gosh...that's horrid! I don't know what you can do. But you'll be 18 this year, and adult, then you can move out permanently right?"
"4 months is a long time to wait………Hey, what's that?" pointing to a pile of photos attached to a newspaper clipping.
"Oh, nothing!" Trish shuffled the papers to hide it.
"C'mon! Let me see!"
Reluctantly, Trish pulled the page out and handed it over. It was an article about mutants in Bayville. The photos where blown up copies of the picture accompanying the article. The last one was a close up of a red head with flaming torches on both arms, next to a smirking silver haired boy.
Recognizing the boys from television, she asked, "A Picture of Pyro and Pietro? Why?"
"Because…don't they look sooo hot? I wish I could date them." Trish had a notorious dating record. She had dated practically every guy at school at least once. She played them until she had them wrapped around her little finger. She had every one of them but they never had her. All they ever wanted was to get in her pants but Trish never let them.
"Trish are you serious? They are mutants!"
"So? That makes them exciting and dangerous, plus they are so dreamy." Trish's gazed loss focus as she entered her fantasy world.
Shaking her head, Catrina studied the picture again. Trish is right, they are kind of cute, but I would not date a guy on looks alone. Suddenly, Catrina doubled over. She had a huge migraine, gritting her teeth, miraculously it passed after a few seconds. Thinking nothing of it, she caught up with Trish who had never left her dream land.
At Trish's house, the girls watched movies, ate popcorn marshmallows, made prank calls and napped. Time flew by and it was 1 o'clock am. Catrina woke up, walking the 2 miles to her house, it took her a good hour and half to get there. She climbed up the maple tree at the side of the house up to her room. Dropping onto her bed, she fell into a deep sleep.
Birds chirping, a ray of sun striking her face, Catrina reluctantly found herself drifting back into consciousness. Catrina groggily got out of bed.
"CATRINA LAWKEYINN!" The bedroom door slammed open. A dirty, haggard man stepped into the room. His messy brown hair perfectly matched the stained wife beater he wore. Eyes bulging and red, they gazed around before focusing on Catrina.
Strutting towards her, forcing her to back against the wall, he leered at her.
"Where the fuck have you been girl?"
Wincing at the distinct alcoholic odor, Catrina tried to maintain a placid demeanor.
"I was at Trish's house. School's out so we rented a couple of movies. I fell asleep there and just woke up." She prayed that in his drunken stupor he would consider that suffice.
WHAM! Her body hit the wall and fell limp on the floor. Apparently not. She remained there, motionless. Catrina had learned early on that this was the quickest way for the punishment to end. He roughly pulled her off the floor and flung her onto the bed.
RAGE built inside of her.
WHY did she make that tiny error on the test!
WHY was Ms. Gatsby be So inconsiderate!
WHY did her mother betray her!
WHY was her life so Miserable and others–like Trish–so enjoyable!
WHY!
Angrily, Catrina opened her eyes in defiance. The man she once knew as father approached the bed. On all fours, he crawled on top of her and pinned her arms and legs down.
Looking straight into his eyes, Catrina narrowed her eyebrows, concentrated and shot all the pain, misery, fear and Anger at the man. Wishing desperately that He would be tormented by those evil emotions instead of her.
Springing back, he released all contact with her body. Shrieking with horror he grabbed the nearest object (a trophy for "The Academic Scholar of The Year") and waved it frantically, trembling.
Sitting up confused, Catrina looked at her flesh. They were covered with fire!
Jumping up in panic, she suddenly realized that it was not burning her. Nor the bed she was on. Nor the floor she was standing on.
The drunkard's palms and legs were black, burned crisp. Quickly deducing what had happened and what was going on, Catrina smiled for the first time in years. Pointing her right index finger at him, she concentrated on her emotions and sent them mentally to him.
Energy poured down her arm and the flames gathered at her finger tip momentarily before flying towards the drunk.
Screaming with fright as he snailed away just in time. Calling her a witch, bastard, freak, he launched himself at her.
Frightened, Catrina lost all concentration and hence control. Flames extended radially away from her and caught fire. The man froze, bewildered. Catrina took this chance to run. Ducking under his arm, she ran down the stairs, spreading the flames all over the house as he attempted to follow her.
She ran into the woods behind her house. Hair flying, eyes wild, breath ragged, clothes loose and crumpled from her father's attempt, she was quite a sight to behold. Catrina was deep within the forest when she finally felt safe and stopped to rest. Catching her breath, she felt exhausted and wasted from the experience. As the torrent of emotions faded, so did the flames until they vanished.
Although she was now calm, she had nowhere to go. The police will definitely be asking questions if she returned….
Trish and her family despised mutants. Trish's only interest was to milk all guys for everything they had: money, school social ranking and sex. This was the only reason she had the photos of the mutant boys.
Stumbling under a weeping willow, Catrina laid down exhausted, glad that she was rid of another terrible experience with the drunkard but also miserable that she was now more alone than ever. Not a single person to talk to or seek help from. No one.
Chapter 2: The Search