Scott summers: Certified loser

by Nina-D-lux

Say your girlfriend is crushing on the guy you hate more than anyone, would that somehow justify making out with the hot blonde transfer student? Yeah, didn't think so. Just checking. My name is Scott Summers, a certified loser, and this is the story about how I sabotaged my own, already pathetic, life. Highschool AU. Scott/Emma

1. Mac and cheese

It was at exactly 7:45 am on a Monday morning when a Mac & cheese box hit me in the face that I realised I was a loser.

Well I guess i've always had an inkling, or at least half known. The fact hasn't completely taken me by 's more like the evidence has just been mounting up since adolescence and i've finally come to the natural realisation. I'm an 18 year old senior at Xaviers S.H.S, white, lanky,with a $5 haircut, i've never cut a class in my life, I don't have a car, I have to wear these lame special dark lensed glasses constantly because I have a thing called photophobia, which doesn't mean I have an irrational fear of photos, but it does mean my eyes are super sensitive to all types of light so I basically have to wear them everywhere, my Mom still buys the majority of my clothes for me and I stock shelves at the local Safeway for $8 an hour.

Hi, I'm Scott Summers: certified loser.

The pivotal moment that made the fact of my loser-ism apparent was- wait, loser-ism? That can't be a real word. No way does that exist in a dictionary. Loser-ness? That still sounds wrong but whatever, you get what I mean.

So the moment when my loser-ness dawned on me was just yesterday when I started my Sunday evening shift. I walked into the giant supermarket just before it was closing to customers and immediately saw the light of my life, Jean, right there at the first check out counter . She was the one thing I seemed to have gotten right in my life.

Cute, popular, nice and a cheerleader with her bright red wavy hair and beautiful green eyes. She always scoffed when I told her her eyes were beautiful, saying I was so lame and cheesy but she would smile like she liked it, so I decided I would keep saying it. She was so modest for a girl that could easily act like she was better than everyone else.

Anyway, by some twisted miracle or incredible stroke of luck, she is my girlfriend and has been for the past 3 years now. If I rewind to what seems like ages ago we were in the same year at school. I noticed her first, a lot of people did, but I could never work up the nerve to talk to her and she un-surprisingly never noticed me.

Only a few months after I applied for this same job I have now, fate was kind and she started working as a check out chick. I would punch in at 7:30 three nights a week for the night fill and she would punch out at 8. this only gave me a half an hour window of opportunity to talk to her but I guess I used it well. I can't even remember what I would try and talk to her about. I do remember saying I liked her butterfly hair clip she had in one day and she said she could get me one of my own if i'd like. I paused and felt really awkward until she laughed and told me she was joking. I've never been good with jokes. Then next shift I saw her she actually did bring an extra butterfly clip and clipped it right onto the back of my head. I walked around the entire rest of my shift when it was in and whenever we locked eyes we would laugh. Later on she was the one who asked me out. Not to brag or anything but just last year we were named cutest couple in the school yearbook.

Anyway, she waved at me from her spot on the register as she scanned through the items from one of the last straggling customers and I waved back. I didn't stop to go over and chat since I saw our manager giving me the stink eye. I just headed straight over to my isle to get to work.

Stacking shelves isn't exactly the hardest job in the world, especially on the brain, but it's not as easy as everyone thinks either. You've got to grab the stepladder and climb up and pull down as much left over stock as you can and re-fill empty spots on the shelves, then you move your ladder over to the next section and do it again.

Ok so maybe it is kind of easy.

But you have to do it fast, plus make it all look neat...and sometimes you run out of things...or you get too much stock so you have to try and organise it neatly on the top or you can't even find some items at all. Also your manager might happen to be a dick who gets mad if you happen to put the black current juice boxes where the orange juice boxes should go. Plus they play the same awful CD's over the intercom all night. I know all the lyrics to Kasey Chambers 'Am I not pretty enough' and I really wish I didn't.

So my jobs not rocket science and it's cool either, but I have to admit it has it's perks. To me anyway. I don't have to deal with any customers, the hours are always the same so no surprise shifts or your manager calling up with an hours notice demanding you show up on saturday morning. Plus now I've been doing it for so long it's so routine. I know exactly what to do and how to do it well. I like that.

Plus if theres crates of coke in the stock room that are just out of date I can totally just take it for free. Also I get a heads up on all the super savings deals before anyone else. Did you know you can get 3 tubes of Colgate whitening toothpaste for only $4.99? I bet you didn't.

It only took me ten minutes to re-stock all the energy drinks and ice teas, which trust me is an impressive time, and as I opened the next box to start filling the fruit juices I stopped. This wasn't Juice. This was a box full of Tampons. Brightly packaged pink Tampons. Boxes always get mixed up by the guys out back so it's not that surprising but come on, how can you get tampons and juice mixed up? I pick up the box and head past the frozen food isle to find my manager.

"Rajdeep, someones been messing up the stock again and putting Tampons up in my isle, if Tandy has any juice in the health and beauty isle i'll-"

I freeze mid-way through calling out blindly as I reach the front of the store. Rajdeep is there turned towards me as he re-stocks all the candy bars on the displays next to the registers, more specifically, Jeans register. But it's not just Jean that's there. A boy Is across from her paying for his groceries. I recgonise him and that's why I freeze up.

Warren Worthington the third.

And yes, that's what people actually call him. He always acts like he's embarrassed to have a 'title' as he calls it, but I can tell he totally gets off on it. He's rich, handsome (If you listen to half the girls at Xaviers anyway. Apparently being tall, muscular and blonde with blue eyes just immediately gets you deemed a god. Whatever. I don't see it. I'm taller than him anyway) and he is fawned over by students, teachers and probably small woodland creatures too. Did I mention he was rich? But not just rich as in he can afford cable in two rooms of the house, I mean rich as in he got a bentley for his 16th birthday party, he has five of his own Rolex's (five that i've noticed anyway) and there's pictures in his house of his Dad shaking Donald Trumps hand. He's also sickeningly charming and genuinely nice which really puts a dent in my effort to hate him.

All in all he is the last person I would want to run into wearing my tattered work clothes and waving a box full of Tampons around, but here we are. I seemed to have walked in on him and Jean chatting and laughing over some shared joke but now they had stopped to turn and look at me. Jean doesn't say anything and Warren is the first to nod his head in hello at me.

"Ah, hey Scott, how are you?"

"...er, good...thanks"

He nods again "Good"

Then Rajdeep steps in and barks at me "Take the Tampons to the Health and Beauty isle and leave it to Tandy, i'll talk to the guys out back about the mix ups, and don't take too long. I want that isle capped before the new stock arrives so hurry hurry"

I nod wordlessly, giving a stiff smile and wave to Jean and Warren before turning on the spot. I didn't muster any words. It only took about five seconds and ten paces before I heard them laughing. At the time I guess I assumed they just went back to laughing at the same joke I had interrupted but now as I went over the scene in my head, pondering over my breakfast waffles, I realised they were probably laughing at me.

Sad old loser Scott and his tampons.

Cut back to right this second as the box of Mac and Cheese ricocheted off of my face and dropped down into my half eaten waffles.

"Ow! What the fuck Alex?"

"I said can. You. Make. This? Were you really that spaced out you didn't hear me? God"

I readjusted my glasses and glared at my younger brother, wishing, as usual, that we weren't related.

They say brothers who were only two years apart were supposed to be close. Hearing people say that made me laugh. Me and Alex hadn't got along since he came out of the womb.

"Why the hell would you want Mac and Cheese for breakfast? And more importantly why do I have to make it for you?"

"Because I don't know how too and Mom's already gone to work and Dad can't even make cornflakes right" Alex snapped like I was an idiot for even asking.

"How do you not know how to make Mac and Cheese? You put the Macaroni in the water, you put the cheese flavouring in the Macaroni, it's not that hard" I said as I scraped my plate into the bin and chucked the plate it in the dishwasher.

"So you're not going to make it?"

He could tell I was giving him a warning look through my glasses.

Alex just rolled his eyes "Fine, whatever. I'll just starve. It's not fair that you get Mom's waffles and I have to go hungry 'till lunchtime"

"maybe if you actually woke up earlier you would actually get some of Mom's waffles"

Our Mom was a nurse so she always ended up working weird hours. Most mornings she leaves around 6am. I happen to wake up around 5:30 am most days. People say i'm crazy but i'm just a natural early riser. Sometimes I go for a run, I walk the dog, I catch up on homework that's not actually due for a month. Alex is the opposite. He will only ever get up ten minutes before he ever has to go anywhere. Don't even try and get him up before midday on weekends. He bit me once. I actually have the tiniest of scars on my forearm.

"You're an ass" the biter says, ending the conversation. He grabs his schoolbag off the hall floor as he heads to the door. "Tell dad i'll be out late, I'm meeting Lorna at the mall after school. I'm getting dinner at the food court too since I obviously don't get fed around here" I heard him call about before the front door slammed.

I don't head to school yet because I usually walk with my two friends, Hank and Bobby. They are literally my only close friends. We've been a little trio since grade school since they just live down the road, and for years Hank has walked to Bobby's house, and then they both walk to my house and then we all rock up to school together. For a brief few months last year after I got my licence I drove us all to school and anywhere else we needed to go. I really liked that and i'm big on cars. It was an old second hand Ford Falcon XT i'd bought from an add in the paper but i'd saved up for all $6, 500 of it myself and she was my pride and joy. Then Alex thought it would be a great idea if he took itt for a joyride with Lorna at two in the morning to do god knows what. None of us have been able to get a straight story out of him. It was either some old lady driver came out of nowhere and he swerved off into the tree, totally not his fault, or a racoon darted out across the road and he swerved off into the tree to avoid it, or a semi-truck was barreling down the road in the wrong lane right at him and he had to save them both by, you guessed it, swerving off into a tree.

Either way my car was totalled and going past that destroyed tree down the road was painful every time. Rest in peace old girl. I've been saving for a year and a half now to buy another old bomb and so far have around $1500. Still, a new car was awhile off.

I already had my bag packed for school the night before so I head up to my room to kill time. As I bound up the stairs two at a time I manage to step right onto my dogs outstretched tail at the top of the landing. He lets out a little yelp of annoyance.

"Sorry Cable" I wince, giving the white husky a pat behind the ear as an apology and he seems to accept it. Good thing I was wearing socks. Plus i'm his favourite. He was rescued from an animal shelter with the idea of him being a family pet, but he's basically mine. I'm the one who takes him for his walks and feeds him every morning, plus I let him sleep at the end of my bed. He actually used to be a fighting dog, his right front leg is pretty mangled looking and he walks with a limp, and he's blind in one eye. He's the most badass looking dog you will probably ever see. I secretly love taking him down the park and seeing all the other little dogs practically run away in fear. He even has that effect on some people.

I step over Cable, as he likes to lay across on his stomach so he takes up the entirety of the hallway, and walk past my older brothers room. I know he's up since I can hear the faint sound effects of an intense Starcraft game. That's all Gabriel really does to be honest. He's a twenty three year old, greasy haired, just out of college graduate on a 'gap year' as he calls it. I call it sitting around his room playing computer games non stop with the occasional venture out for food. Forget conversation, he just kind of grunts. I've figured out the translation too, a low grunt for yes and a high grunt for no. An old nike shoe being thrown at your head means he wants you to fuck off and stop asking if you can borrow his phone charger. I have cracked the code. We generally like to pretend were not related to each other as well, but I like him more than Alex since Gabriel is very easy to ignore.

"Scott? Was that Alex leaving? I though I heard him yell something about me"

That's Dad, his bedroom doors cracked open and he's calling out. I pushed open the door to his room and leant in the doorframe "Nah, he just said he's going to be meeting Lorna after school today. Gonna be late home"

Dad was sitting upright in his and Mom's double bed, pillows propped behind him and his laptop opened up on his lap. A whole bunch of papers were scattered around him. He used to work as an airforce pilot in Alaska before we moved, but now he paid the bills by writing pulp fiction space pirate novels.

And no i'm not kidding.

They barely sell anymore and i've never met anyone who's actually heard of his work, but it's his passion and it pays enough to get by.

"Ah, I thought he and Lorna broke up a few weeks ago?"

"They're back together again. Turns out the text messages were from another girl named Max and she wasn't cheating on him at all"

Dad frowned "Wait, I thought they split because of that whole thing at McDonalds..?"

"No, that was the break up before the latest break up. She apologised for throwing her thick shake on him when she caught him checking out Kitty Pryde"

"God, I can't even keep up with that relationship" He chuckled.

"I'm kind of embarrassed that I can"

Just then I hear the doorbell ring.

"That's Hank and Bobby" I say and Dad waves me off.

"Have fun learning!" he calls out jokingly as I bound down the stairs.

"Have fun writing the next adventures of Captain Corsair and the Space Jammers!" I call back.

And again to clarify, not kidding about the space pirate pulp novels.

I grab my bag and pull open the front door to find Hank and his brown leather satchel in one hand (he refuses to have a backpack as he thinks the satchel is much more 'aesthetically pleasing' as he says) and Bobby stuffing his face with a muesli bar.

"Hey" I say as I slip on the worn out navy blue sneakers I keep by the porch. They were $15 from k-mart so i'm not that concerned if they get stolen.

"Good morning Scott, good weekend?" Hank asked in his usual Monday good mood. He's the type that actually enjoys school and the whole learning thing. I know. I don't really get it either.

"Can't complain" I shrug as we set off walking down the footpath.

"Good good, I for one had a marvellous weekend. I finished reading the last few chapters of Dickens original Oliver Twist, which I have to admit i'd avoided since being forced to sit through the movie adaption one too many times by my mother, It put me off entirely, but now I can say with complete honesty that I have read every single one of Dickens works" he finished off proudly.

I give a nod "cool" I don't really know what else to say.

In case you were wondering, he always talks like that. Sometimes I think he was born in the wrong era. Having him as a best friend is like being in the presence of a 1920's upperclass gentlemen from Harvard twenty four and the fact that he's also built like a line backer so even if people aren't intimidated by every 100% he gets on a test and big words he strings together in everyday conversation, his pure size is enough to do the job anyway. If I hadn't known him since we were ten and seen him get a pencil stuck up his nose I would probably be intimidated by him myself.

Bobby finally finished cramming the muesli bar in his mouth so he could speak. "Dude-" he started, the word he starts most of his sentences with "-you would not believe what I saw on saturday when I went and got subway!"

If I had to sum up Bobby quickly in one word, I would just say 'immature'. Really immature. If he wasn't talking about girls or video games or some gross youtube video, he probably wasn't talking. To sum it up even further he is the type who thinks 'Ice Ice baby' is the best song created this century and that Dane Cook is actually funny. Still, he's a good guy and strangely endearing...

"Just as I was ordering my meatball sub, Tabitha Smith walks by the window and I look out just as the wind blows her skirt right up and . I. See. Everything!"

...most of the time.

Me and Hank get to listen in silence as Bobby goes into vivid detail of Tabitha's apparently very small red lace thong all the way to the school. I try to tune it out.

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I think whoever decided that having a math class first period on a monday morning must be a sadist. A cruel teenager hating sadist.

It's not even that I find the work hard. Maths is actually one of my better subjects since its just formulas you have to memorise over and over. It has rules and structure. Unlike English which i'm terrible at. I think I once got a 27% on a creative writing assignment. Dad was practically ashamed. So much for following in his proud career footsteps.

But still, even if the work wasn't hard, that didn't mean it wasn't boring.

It was halfway through the class and everyone was restless and already skipping past questions on their worksheets to lean back in their chairs and talk to their friends. I would have too, if Henry or Bobby were in this class. Henry was naturally in the top Maths class for advanced students and Bobby was in the remedial class, which left me stuck in the middle with the generic level stuff.

On the plus side Jean was in my class.

On the down side, so were all her little gaggle of girlfriends.

I sat opposite her in my desk but other than that she was surrounded. Betsy sat in front of her and was turned around leaning on her desk. She was the head of the cheerleading team that Jean was on, and she was treated as such. A lot of guys treated her as some kind of pinnacle of perfection. Personally I didn't really see it, not that I couldn't tell she wasn't pretty, but I guess just not my type. Regardless of what I think, Bobby would probably cut off his right arm just to see her skirt blow up in the wind. Besides her was Rogue, a southern girl who in all honesty scared me a little. She was small but she was a scrapper. I have actually witnessed with my own eyes, along with half the school, as she had a full on punches-thrown fight with her boyfriend in the school parking lot. Jean has tried to assure me she has a heart of gold under her temper but all my mind flashes back too is her screaming 'You dirty fucking cheating cajun bastard!' over and over again that day as she rained down her fists of fury. I heard they were back together again. God help him. I'm glad my relationship isn't that dramatic. Then theres Ororo, probably the one of Jeans friends I get along with the most. She's quiet but not in a shy way, more because she just speaks when she needs too if that makes sense. She's classy really and I have a certain respect for that. I also heard through Jean that she was the one who pushed her to ask me out, so that's probably a pretty big factor as to why I like her. Lastly there's Kitty. Kitty isn't a bad person...but she is a loud one. I guess being opinionated and outspoken can be considered a good trait. Kitty has a lot of that trait. I also have a feeling that she really doesn't like me.

Jean has a lot of other friends but this was her little crew. The ones I had to put up with the most.

Wow, that came out sounding ruder than I meant it too.

The one's I had to learn to like the most?

The ones I had to earn the approval of in order to date Jean?

The ones I always have to hang out with at at the mall on the weekend when Jean wants to go shopping?

I swear i'm not trying to make it sound like I hate them.

I think the main reason they make me uncomfortable to be around, and I hope other guys feel like this too, is that I know they talk about me. I'm not saying that to be vain. Its a fact that Jean has told me that they all gossip about their boyfriends to each other all the time, and that makes me included. I try to act casual about it and ask what exactly they discuss but she always giggles and says stuff like 'never mind' or 'its a secret' and 'forgot I even mentioned it'. But I can't forget. I don't know what they know about me but I know they know something. It sounds confusing but you get what I mean. It just puts me on edge.

I'm only half listening in to the conversation. Its kind of an un-written thing that I may join in and sit with them as the token boyfriend but generally I shouldn't try and join in the girl talk. That was fine by me. Girl talk was not my forte. Sometimes it was hard enough for me to de-code just exactly what they were saying in normal conversations.

Right now Kitty had her handbag slung up on Jeans desk and they were all admiring it.

"-and this is the fake louis Vuitton bag Piotr got me last week from when he went on his trip back to Russia to visit his family. Apparently his neighbours cousin in moscow sells a tonne of these out of the trunk of his car so he got a good deal. You can't even tell it's fake!"

"Aw, that's so sweet of him" Jean gushed while Betsy was busy tucking the bag under her own arm, testing it out.

"You should ask him if he can get more next time he goes so we can all have one" Betsy said and Jean looked like she liked that idea.

"Yeah totally! I would so love one. I mean a real one would be ideal but of course i'll take what I can get" she laughed and my ears perked up at that.

"You know if you really wanted one I could buy it for you" I offered casually and they all turned to me. Kitty let out a laugh.

"Do you have any idea what a real Louis Vuitton bag cost?"

I blanked "Well, no.."

"They are literally thousands each" Betsy pointed out and now Rogue laughed.

"Yeah, how many boxes would you have to stack to make that kind of money?"

I sit there and feel dumb. How was I supposed to know a bag would cost thousands? That actually sounded like a joke to me but obviously it was real by the way they were acting. How many back alley russian bags could you get for that kind of money when you compare it? And were does Rogue get off on making box stacking crack. She works at Dunkin Donuts.

Jean smiles at me and put a hand on my arm "I don't expect you to buy me a thousand dollar bag, but it was sweet of you to offer though" Even she's trying to hide a laugh.

I give a stiff smile back as they go back to talking about some drama on the cheerleading team. Apparently Alison Blaire had some idea that she could do a singing performance between cheer formations or something, I don't know, I tuned back out again.

Like I said, not good with the girl talk.

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it wasn't until class ended and everyone was filing out of the room that I managed to go after Jean and catch her alone.

"Hey" I say shortly, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. Nothing obscene, were in the middle of a hallway. "Walk you to your next class? Science right? My history room is just across from there"

She smiled apologetically as she holds my hands in her "Oh, i'm sorry.I Can't. I have some orientation thing to do for some new transfer student. She just moved her from Massachusetts academy and we have a tonne of classes together so i'm supposed to show her around and get her settled in or whatever"

"Massachusetts academy? Isn't that the fancy prep school up state?"

"Yeah I think so. Its super exclusive and stuff. Only kids from families with old money get in apparently. I read an article in star magazine ages ago about how Madonna wanted to send her kids there but they wouldn't let her since she was hollywood trash or something and they could actually ban her. And she's Madonna! Warren mentioned that his parents considered sending him there but it was a boarding school and in the end they didn't want to send him away"

"Yeah, good thing they didn't..." I said lowly but thankfully Jean didn't pick up on anything.

"Anyway, I have to go meet her outside the principals office now since she should have her student pass and time table all worked out by now. I'll see you at Lunch, kay?" she leant up for another quick kiss.

"Kay" I smiled as we pulled away and she moved down the hall between the throng of people, giving a small wave.

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I like History class. I dunno, something about hearing all the old stories and it just takes you back to a different time. Right now were studying the second world war, having already covered the first one. Maybe this is a real boy thing but learning about wars is just really interesting to me and I really enjoy it. I mean I wouldn't say that I 'enjoyed' the holocaust, but it's crazy to read about. To think that something like that even happened. I'd already read most of the textbook for this year word for word and I watched a lot of history channel documentaries with Dad anyway at home. Ive had at least two history teachers mention being impressed about how much I happened to know about war planes. Thanks Dad. And just aside from that its all guns and tanks and war heroes and battles.

War is tragic, but you're lying when you say it's not really cool to read about.

"I am soooooo bored. This is killing lunch?"

I don't even look up from working out an upcoming essay structure plan that we had to do on the Nazi's rise to power, but I could hear Bobby's head thunk against the desk.

"Careful now, don't damage to many more brain cells" Hank smirks, sitting on the other side of Bobby. We had our usual spot on one of the long benches at the back. The teacher was out of the room photocopying something, so people were taking the chance to whisper quietly among themselves.

"Still forty five minutes left and you haven't even ruled a margin on your page" Hank tutted. "I've already got twelve paragraphs planned out. Do you think I should do one on the depression and how it affected post war germany or two?" he directed the question to me.

"Twelve? Seriously. Maybe keep it at one then. You know you've been told to shorten your essays just for the teachers sake"

"True true, fair point" Hank nodded and scratched something out in biro.

"Oh god, you guys are boring. Im changing the topic-"

"Bobby I swear to god if you tell me one more detail about Tabitha's underwear I will throw you through this second storey window" henry muttered calmly as he scanned over his textbook. I nodded in support, letting him know that I would help.

"Nah, I'm done talking about that-"

Thank god.

"-this is way more exciting news" he puts his hands up as if to shush us and he pauses for dramatic effect "gentlemen...we have a hot new transfer student in our year"

Hank looks like he was still considering the window option and he seemed surprised when I actually engaged the conversation. Probably against my better judgement. I really shouldn't encourage him.

"Oh yeah, Jean mentioned something about a new girl starting today. The year coordinator put her on as her guide or something"

Bobby nodded excitedly "Yup, it's true, and I totally got a look at her just last period. Trust me. She's a total babe"

"How did you even know it was her?" Hank asked doubtfully.

"Because my first period maths class-"

"The sped ed class-

"-Haha funny, yes, the sped ed class that just so happens to be right across from the principals office . I saw the new girl sitting on that lumpy old sofa just outside Xaviers office with one of those new student info package . Blue eyed. Mini skirt. Legs that went for days. I swear to god, she was Victorias Secret level hot"

Me and Hank exchanged looks.

"Bobby, you call nearly every girl you encounter hot. You're so desperate for it I once heard you say one of the lunch ladies in the cafeteria looked hot today-"

Bobby cut Hank off sharpish "Hey! You misunderstood me! I said she looked 'hot' as in she was literally standing over the chip fryer with beads of sweat all over her face. I literally meant she looked over heated!"

"of course you did" I chime in with a smirk.

"But the point is you tend to throw the word hot around very flippantly. Its a new girl every week. That girl at the Starbucks with the lip ring is the most stunning girl on earth. That girl you made eye contact with on the train was a goddess. That statue of the topless women in that fountain has got it going on..etc, etc"

Bobby threw up his hands in submission "Whatever man, I love to love. Women of all different kinds are beautiful to me and I can't help it if you have such a shallow view of what is considered desirable in this society"

Hank looked pleasantly surprised and just a little impressed"Wow Bobby, that was quite an eloquent and decent thing to say"

"Thanks, I copied it from the view"

He laughed "You'd try any line to finally get laid wouldn't you?"

He was joking but Bobby got a little defensive, making sure to lower his tone "Hey, don't paint me off as desperate. You're a virgin too so don't go throwing glass stones at houses"

"It's throwing stones in glass houses" he corrected: he couldn't help himself "-and yes i'm aware of that fact. I just don't care about it as much as you do because it's not that big of a deal" he shrugged.

This was true. In all the years i'd known Hank he'd never had a girlfriend, or even wanted to ask a girl out. Jean once told me she thought he was gay, something I quickly laughed off in seconds. Hankwasn't really outspoken about girls as he was with most other topics, but he would talk to me about it. Girls think guys don't talk about all that lame crap when we sleepover at each others houses and decide to have a conversation at two in the morning but we do. That and our on-going debate over who's hotter, Scarlett Johansson or Kiera Knightly. It's an intense debate. He actually made a power point presentation about it complete with cue cards. (In case your wondering, I am team Johansson) So definitely not gay. Me and Bobby decided he doesn't talk about girls since they're probably the one thing he doesn't completely understand. You can't learn being good with girls out of a textbook. If you could I would be all over that, but no, they don't exist.

"Of course it's a big deal. Well not a big deal, I'm cool about it, but it's still a deal. Were seniors. This is getting sad. I thought I would have had around three girlfriends by now" Bobby said in all seriousness.

"At the same time?" Hank smirked.

"Did you know what I heard last week? Apparently Remy LeBuea had a threesome with some sorority girls at some party when they were all wasted and then he also hooked up with the former miss Alabama 3rd place runner up only a couple hours later!" he said it like it was impressive but I pulled a face. Remy was in the year above us and was the guy I told you Rogue beat you in the parking lot. Henry made a strange noise that was half a scoff and a laugh.

"Oh as if that's true!"

"No it's totally legit! There were photos up on facebook!"

"You don't have Remy LeBuea on Facebook"

"Yeah, but Jubilee does and she told me that Tabitha told her that Amara totally saw them. They got taken down real quick though because you could see one of the girls left ass cheek so facebook took it down, but yeah"

Well with proof like that...

Hank looks like he actually wants to give up right there.

"Bobby, seriously-" I step in "Don't listen to all that crap, if they're not making it up completely they're at least exaggerating"

Bobby shrugs "Ok, so say that one story isn't true, we can all bet on the 99.99% chance that Remy has at least done it once, like the majority of guys in our year. I don't wan't to graduate and be that guy who rocks up to college party and doesn't know what he's even doing. These are the practise years, there's so much more expectation out there in the real world! I am behind everyone else. I'm still on my sex training wheels while everyone else is riding around popping wheelies on their sex BMX's!"

I have to get the image of a couple doing it karma sutra style on an in-motion BMX bike on one of those crazy dirt roads out of my head. If they did a flip in mid-air would gravity and G-force do most of the work? Ok, no. i'm getting it out of my head.

"Just...don't make such a big deal about is all i'm saying. It's what Hank's saying. Making sure you have sex before high school ends isn't important, even if they did make all those American Pie movies about it, but they sucked anyway"

"Okay, first of all, you lost yours first out of all of us and have had a steady girlfriend for years. You don't get to act all high and mighty when you're getting some every week, and secondly, what do you even mean by American pie being a bad movie? Where do you even get off saying that?"

As Bobby launches into a full blown rant about the comedic genius that is a guy getting caught masturbating with a pie, I mull over the thought that Bobby actually thinks I do it every week.

If I was being totally honest, me and Jean haven't done it in over two months. I haven't mentioned it to anyone because why would I? They'd assume there was some sort of problem. There really wasn't. Plus i'm not the most comfortable person when it comes to discussing the topic. I don't think I managed to utter a word in sex education class freshman year, and I couldn't look our elderly teacher in the eye for weeks after watching her demonstrate putting a condom on the banana. Don't get me wrong. I like thinking about sex. I like having sex. I just don't like talking about sex. But anyway, back to me and Jean. It was mostly just that we were both busy with school and work, plus she had cheer practise and it was mid-way through senior year so studying and homework got in the way a lot too. That and I always had at least one of my parents or brothers home and she hated doing anything knowing someone else was in a room next door. I used to go to her place all the time when I had my car and her parents were out, but she lives so far away and it takes ages if I bike or take the bus. She tells me she feels mean making me go through all the effort. I don't push it because I don't want to seem so pathetic as to trek an hour and a half on foot just to get it in. Even if I am totally prepared to do that if I have to.

I mean, would I like to do it more often? Well, yeah. Im a guy. I'm not a sex crazed manic who has it on the brain twenty four seven but i'm... normal. If that's the right way to say it.

I just figured we'd dropped into a bit of a dry spell. It happens. No big deal.

Of course if Bobby wanted to think I was one of the guys on a 'Sex BMX popping wheelies' all the time then all the more power to him.

Hank seems glad to be off the topic anyway and we end up talking about the American Pie movies for the rest of the lesson.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 o0o

The cafeteria was already busy by the time we got there. Not that it really mattered, all the different groups had their own tables they'd practically had reserved for years. As all three of us walked to our usual spot near the side of the room, I did a quick scan over to where I knew Jean sat with her crowd of girls. I saw Betsy, Kitty, Rogue and Ororo, as well as Alison and Tabitha and the rest of the cheerleading team that I didn't care enough about to list. The only boys there were Jean-paul and Warren. Jean-Paul was gay and the school track star, a bit of show off but other than that he was was popular, but I don't think he really fit in with the other jocks but all the girls loved him at least. That was probably the same reason Warren was there. Still, I couldn't see any bright red hair.

I grab out my lunchbox as we take our seats. Yeah, my Mom still makes us lunch boxes. Salami sandwiches, an apple, carrots and celery sticks, a jello cup and a juice box. She's a nurse, of course it was going to be healthy. I don't care if it's lame by anyones standards. I look at Bobby and his pack of Doritos, choc milk and a cold slice of leftover pizza from the Dominos I can guess he had last night and i'd rather have my lunchbox any day.

"What are these chips actually made of?" Bobby says out loud, staring intently at the Dorito he held up in his fingers.

I actually blank. "Potato's?" I guess.

"Nah, that's what you'd think, but I dunno. They're not the average chip" he frowned.

Hank looked up over the roll he had just bitten into at the both us. Obviously we are stupid and he knows the answer. "...they're called corn chips"

Me and Bobby both make the noise at the same time "Oooh"

I had honestly never made the connection before.

Half way through my celery I see Jean walk in the cafeteria doors with another girl walking by her side.

"That must be the new girl" Hank says, having spotted them both as well. Bobby practically gives himself whiplash he turned around so fast in his seat.

"Yes! It's her. This is the best day of my life. And now Jean and her are going to be besties and i'm going to use that opportunity to sweep in there and become her boyfriend. New girls are great since it's a fresh start, they don't know who you are. They don't know the full extent of stupid shit you've done throughout the years"

"Like that time you peed in the sink of the science labs because the teacher wouldn't let you go to the bathroom during class?" Hank smirked at the memory. That had been a memorable class.

"Exactly"

I wave when she looks my way and Jean stops as she's walking. I had expected her to walk straight over to her usual table but she looks at us and then back to her table, and then at us again. It's like she changed her mind mid-walk as she know struts straight over to us, the new girl following.

"Oh my god they're coming over" Bobby hisses to us under his breath "Just be cool" he says, not being very cool about it at all as he tries to flatten down his un-combed hair,

As they get closer I finally take in the girls appearance. I silently give props to Bobby. She was Victoria's secret hot.

She was a few inches taller than Jean but I noticed she had a pair of shoes with a small heel on them. They made a little click clacking sound as she strode across the hard floors and stopped at our table next to Jean. She had on a white singlet dress with some kind of see-through material blouse thing over the top. It was tied at her very thin waist under her quite huge...i'm going to say 'assests' so I don't sound like so much of a creep (I swear I didn't stare. At least not anywhere near as long as Bobby did. In fact I don't think he was looking anywhere else since she came in to view to be honest)That kind of material probably had a proper name but I didn't know what it was. Her hair was white blonde and hung down to her waist, dead straight and shiny enough to think it wasn't even real. I remembered what Jean had said about her being from a rich prep school and when you looked at her you could tell she had money. Her clothes were pristine and expensive looking, she walked with an easy confidence and I was willing to bet the diamond earrings she had on were real.

"Hey guys" Jean chirped, a big smile on her face as she waved a hand towards the girl, like a showgirl on the price is right displaying the latest dinette set that was up for grabs in the next round "this is Emma. Emma this is Scott, my boyfriend, and his friends Henry and Bobby"

"Hey" Bobby said with a nod of his head and as much charm as he could muster. Emma gave him a curt smile. I mutter a hello and Hank actually holds out his hand to shake.

"Welcome to the lunatic asylum" he jokes.

Emma keeps her hand to herself but I see the corner of her lip twitch upwards "You don't have to be crazy but it helps" she replies dryly. She has an accent, I pick up that much. British maybe?

Hank awkwardly draws his hand back but he seems to have liked that she at least joked back. It was a clever and quick reply. Something I imagined he appreciated.

I happen to catch glances with Jean and her eyes widen at me in a silent message and her smile looks very forced. I frown, a silent question. Something was wrong? In a flash it's gone though and she's back to smiling like she was a second ago.

"So anyway, Emma, you can just sit here with these guys while I just need to go ask my friend about a thing real quick, ok?" she asks but she doesn't wait for an answer as she quickly turns to me "I'll be back in a sec"

"Oh, er , ok" I say, taken by surprise as Emma silently slips into the seat next to Bobby across from me. Jean is already headed straight over to betsy and the other girls. Me and Hank exchange glances and he gives a slight shrug.

Weird.

Emma doesn't seem phased though as she folds her arms over her chest in silence. If she's noticing that Bobby's looking very unsubtly down her top she doesn't say anything.

Theres an awkward 's eyes are flitting across us as if taking us all in. She has a very good poker face and I can't imaging what she's thinking, except she's not smiling and I see her brow twitch into the slightest of frowns as a couple of freshman race past the table being obnoxiously loud. I take a slow bite of my apple and the loud crunch makes everyone turn to me. I chew subconsciously. Emma is looking right at me. I notice that her eyes are a very clear light blue. I probably would have thought they were pretty if they weren't so off putting at the moment.

"Um, do you have any lunch?" I ask, not knowing what else to say but I notice she's not eating.

"I brought money for one of the school's lunches but after seeing whats on offer-" her eyes slide over to the nearby table where a sad band kid is eating what I think was meant to be a beef taco "-I changed my mind. Salmonella would put a bit of a damper on my first day"

I don't blame her. I look over just in time to see sad band kid sigh in despair as a lumpy bit of brown sauce splats down onto his too-tight Big bang theory t-shirt. I keep telling people, lunch boxes are the way to go.

But now I can definitely tell she has a British accent. A classy one as well.

"You can have some of my Doritos if you want?" Bobby offers with a smile, holding out the packet.

Emma held up a manicured hand between herself and the Dorito's"No. Thank you"

As Hank offers to take a look at her time-table and inform her which teachers are nice and lax with homework and which ones will crucify you for chewing gum in class, I take a look over to Jean. She's standing over in front of the table full of her girls, her back to me, but I can see their all listening intently. A few of them are staring this way, obviously trying to get a read on the new girl themselves. While Emma, Hank and Bobby are busy going over her classes Jean turns back this way. All the others turn to look too. They all have equally serious expressions. I give her a confused look and a shrug, wanting to know what the hell was going on with them but they all quickly turned back in a scary kind of unison as soon as they noticed me watching them.

High school.

"Oh, we have advanced maths together" Hank comments as he scans over the time table "And your in mine and Scott's physics class too"

I turn back around, trying my best to ignore the strangeness at the other table, and stare at the timetable my self.

I see that we also have chemistry and contemporary literature together "You're in three of my classes. We have free period together next as well"

"You have free periods right after lunch?" She asked.

"Just on a monday"

Bobby craned his neck over the table to look for himself "Do we have any classes together?" he asked, almost desperately.

"I don't know, do you have marine biology last period today?" Hank asks.

"Yes!" Bobby says triumphantly.

"Well Emma doesn't. Sorry" Hank smiled, obviously finding himself funny, as Bobby's face fell and he snatched the paper for himself.

"We have economics together" He says, obviously disappointed that's its only the one class "It's such a shitty class, we get homework basically every day"

"I like economics" Emma shrugs.

"Yeah, me too. It's just the teacher that makes it shitty, you know, because...I mean... he's obviously just not as passionate about it as I am. Its a shame really"

Good job Bobby, nailed it.

At the same time we all notice as Jean, flanked by Kitty, Alison and Warren, walked up to us from across the cafeteria.

"Heeey, sorry about that Emma, They were ok weren't they?" She laughed, pointing to us guys and giving me a playful nudge on the shoulder. "I know what they're like"

I didn't know what she meant by that.

"They were fine" Emma said, her blue eyes now looking at the three new faces. "did you sort out that 'thing'?"

"Ah, yeah. It's all good. It was just about some boring homework thing " Jean waved it off.

"Oh. What was it?"

Jean blinked, obviously not expecting a follow up question "Oh, ah, Just some research we needed to do"

"Hm. What for?"

Everyone went a little quiet. My eyes darted between the two girls. Thing suddenly felt a little tense. Emma was looking right in Jeans eyes and I could see her shift a little on the spot.

"Um, it's not exactly important" she laughed.

"Drama class" Kitty butted in.

"Yeah, drama. Researching roles" Jean nodded along.

Emma raised an eyebrow but she didn't ask any more questions.

"Anyway-" Jean continued on "-some of my friends wanted to meet you"

"Hey, i'm Alison! People call me Ali a lot of the time though. I don't know if I really like that but it's just one of those names that stuck since grade school and I guess I don't really mind it, you could say it's kind of grown on me over the years. Some of the teachers even call me Ali, so yeah, call me whichever. What did you say your name was again? I have like, already totally forgotten. Argh,i'm so scatterbrained, sorry!"

"..It's Emma" She actually looked slightly unnerved as Alison rambled on in her usual mile-a-minute way. I kind of got that way around Alison too. She was very...energetic. I can't think of a better word to sum her up. I had only ever been able to talk to her in small doses when I showed up to watch Jean's cheerleading practise.

"Cool, that's a pretty name" she complimented. Emma didn't reply, she just turned to Kitty.

"I'm Kitty" she said simply, with the smallest of smiles. When Emma still didn't reply, that smile was dropped.

"And according to Warren you two have already met, soooo, reunion time" Jean laughed.

Warren smiled "Hey Emma, nice to see you again. I didn't know you were coming here, you should have messaged me"

Emma frowned "I'm sorry, where do we know each other from?"

Warren let out a small laugh. Emma's expression didn't change. He stopped when she realised she wasn't kidding and she genuinely didn't seem to recognise him.

I'm not gonna lie. I may be forcing myself not to smile right now.

"Um, our families know each other. Our Dad's have worked together a little bit, we go to the same christmas parties, our Mothers are in the same book club or something.." he trails off into silence but it doesn't seem to ring any bells with Emma as she just shrugs.

"Sorry. Can't say I remember you" She shrugs, not sounding very sorry at all.

I am loving this.

"Ah, ok" Warren tries to laugh like it's nothing. I bet he's secretly dying on the inside.

Not that I would enjoy that.

There's another silence that stretched on too long. Naturally Alison felt compelled to break it.

"I really like your bag! Kitty just got a Louis Vuitton too, you're like matching, even if your's is the beige one" she smiled, pointing out Kitty's bag.

The corner of Emma's mouth twitched upwards for once, in what I guess you consider the closest thing to a smile as i'd seen her make "Thank you, but I wouldn't say we matched. Not much anyway, since mine is actually real"

Kitty raised an eyebrow while Jean and Alison exchanged glances.

"Well, I don't really care about that kind of thing. It look's just as good. Besides I think it's kind of unnecessary to bring a thousand dollar bag to school to carry your books around in" she shrugged.

Jean nodded "Yeah, you might wanna bring an older bag or something. You can get a backpack like mine for thirty bucks down at k-mart" She turned around to showcase her little green flower print bag.

"But this is one of my old bags. I got it for my 13th birthday so I don't really care if it get's ruined. It's not like I brought one of my Hermes" Emma replied casually, running a hand idly through her hair.

I didn't know what an 'hermes' was but I saw Alison's eyes widen

"You have a real Hermes bag?"

"I have three actually"

I'm not exaggerating when I say Alison's jaw dropped. She was actually gaping. She was an over the top kind of girl but still, these bags must be even more expensive than those Louis ones. Probably even like three thousand or something ridiculous.

"They cost like $30,000 each, and you have to go on waiting lists for years to get them!"

If I had been taking a drink I would have spat it out.

$30, 000 for a bag?

Emma actually laughed "Hm, they can cost that much but mine were only around $16, 000 and only one is just a bit more than that. Plus the whole waiting list thing can be avoided when you know the right people. My mother knew one of the design directors of the main branch in France"

She said all of this like it made it reasonable.

"That is crazy" Kitty said, saying what I felt, and sounding more disapproving than impressed but Alison wasn't done gushing.

"Oh my god, do you have a Chanel? A Prada? A Gucci?"

If I hadn't known they were taking about bags I would have been so lost by now. How many types of bags were there in the world and why did they need names?

"Six, two and no Gucci" she sneered at the last one but she seemed much more willing to talk to Alison about this than she had been to talk about anything else so far. Maybe this is a girl bonding thing. I wonder if Hank is studying this right now like its some kind of insight into different kinds of human female behaviour.

"Woow, I am so jealous right now! I would love to raid your wardrobe one day" Alison laughed.

"So anyway, lunch is nearly over" Kitty started, cutting Alison off before she could continue "we have drama next"

"What do you have Emma, i'll walk you to your class" Jean offered.

"Actually she has free period with me" I mention. People seem surprised I actually spoke. "She could walk with me if she wanted" I looked at her and she nodded like this was acceptable.

"That would be fine"

Jean clapped her hands together "Great. That works out good. What's your last class?"

"Chemistry" Emma said as Jean peered at her time-table to double check the room number.

"Ah, that's on the opposite side of the school, but I can still come and get you, no problem"

"Actually she's in my chemistry class too" I offer again.

"haha wow, how many classes do you guys even have together?"

"Four" Emma answers bluntly.

"Oh. Cool. You're set then"

She reaches over to kiss me on the cheek "Where gonna head off now before the bell rings so were not late, thanks for helping Emma for me! Meet me after school by my locker?"

"Sure" I smile as I wave her off. Kitty, Alison and Warren say their quick goodbyes and then they're all gone. They were right, lunch was almost over. I hadn't even eaten my sandwich yet.

"Wonder why the rest of them didn't come over?" Bobby wonders out loud. We all look over at the other table. They were already looking at us. Cue that creepy unison head turn again, trying to make it look like they weren't just staring..

"They're not subtle are they" Emma mutters.

"This entire school generally isn't" Hank mutters back.

A/N: I have a dirty love of high school AU fics and I can't hide it.

Plus, the whole Jean/Scott/Emma love triangle has always cried out to be written as a high school drama. Throw in Wolverine for good measure and it just writes itself.

This chapter is extra long as it's the first and I wanted to include the scene that introduced Emma.

Obviously Scott is a favourite character of mine and the story will be entirely his p.o.v.

I hope I do a good job translating the characters personalities, this is my first x-men fic after all. Uncharted waters.

This story is also going to be more realistic than other's i've done. Less 'wacky sitcom situations' and more 'realistically awkward and lame high school situations'. Plus it's also kind of fun because I feel less uptight about what I can include in it. I feel uncomfortable making characters swear in my disney stories because...well...it's disney. It's too sweet and innocent to bring up stuff like that! But X-men...ooooh boy the x-men. I feel no guilt about making these guys swear and cuss and drink and shag like sailors.

And on that note, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

Have a playlist of songs.

Loser like me- sixpence none the richer

(You know I need all the love you give a loser like me.I just don't know why you would give it for free when I don't deserve it. You know now I wonder why you wouldn't want to charge a higher price)

99 red Balloons-Goldfinger (you all know this one and the lyrics, but this is just an awesome grunge sounding version)

You think I don't care but I do- Jack McManus (That is what I do, putting on a front. You might like that but will you like me when I'm real? It seems like a long way, a long way to go from here)

smile like you mean it- the Killers (Save some face, you know you've only got one. Change your ways while you're young. Boy, one day you'll be a girl, he'll help you like you mean it)

Lady mamalade-All saints (another one you've probably all heard of, but a different version. It only has the familiar chorus of the old song with all new lyrics inbetween. A perfect song for Emma's introduction)

I generally make playlists for all my stories, just to listen to and get inspiration and what not. I just don't usually post them. Plus my stories tend to play out in my head like movies so why not create a soundtrack? Haha.

And sorry if you're appalled by my taste in music.