Chapter 1: Secrets

"Will the blue and orange junior teams please report to the War Room," Forge ordered over the school intercom.

I looked up at the intercom, expecting the ever joking Native American to say "got ya!" but he didn't. Next I looked towards Laurie, not remembering whose turn it was to ask to leave history class.

Your turn, she mouthed to me.

I groaned inaudibly. Raising my hand, I prepared myself for an annoyed Ororo. When my waving hand didn't catch her attention, I took it up a notch.

"Ms. Munroe," I said from my seat.

She sighed before turning around to the class. "Yes Ashida?" she answered tiredly.

"Can Laurie, Noriko, Sooraya, Josh, and Ah be 'scused?"

Ororo nodded her head as we all threw our books and pencils into our bags. "Yes, but if you are not assigned on the mission, come back to class immediately."

"Yes Ms. Munroe," we all said as we rushed from the class room.

"Forge couldn't have better timing," Nori stated once we had reached the elevator and found Kevin, Julian, Calvin, and Cessily.

"You got that right," replied Julian as the elevator reached us. We all shuffled in as Laura and Sofia finally got there.

"Move over Scion," Laura snapped at Julian when he tried to make a large bubble around himself with his telekinesis.

"Alright, Talons," he retorted as he pushed himself closer to Sofia. "So how you been my beautiful Wind Dancer?"

"Shut up Julian," she replied to his flirting.

The elevator door finally opened and we all tumbled out and headed towards the two locker rooms.

"If Ah catch any of ya boys tryin' ta see in here taday, ya'll regret it immensely," I warned the boys as they went into their locker room and we entered ours. "Ah mean it!"

We all quickly changed into our suits and ran to the War Room trying to beat the boys. When we reached the inside, almost all the boys were in there except one.

"Hah! We beat ya 'gain," I exclaimed as us girls took our positions with our teams.

Julian smirked at me. "Yeah but Shifter's on your team," he pointed out. "You know what that means."

"I am going to kill Sam," Sofia said from beside me. "This is the third time this month."

Laura and I both nodded in confirmation with Sofia's idea of killing Sam. He was always running behind us to get to the War Room or the Danger Room and it was starting to get on everyone's nerves.

""I say we just transfer him to David's team," Nori spoke up from behind us all.

"Maybe we should," Sofia agreed as Forge came into the room with Scott and Logan behind him.

"Good, most of you are here," Scott greeted us.

At that exact moment, Sam decided to run into the room still trying to pull on his boots. Then he crashed into Laurie and knocked her to the ground.

"Sam!" she yelped as he rolled off of her and stood up.

He reached out his hand to help her up as he apologized, "Sorry Wallflower."

Once we were all back with our teams, Scott finally began the debriefing.

"Now that we're all here," he gave Sam a pointed look, "Some young teens have exhibited mutant powers in New York and as a team, we decided this would be a good opportunity for you all to show us how well you can do in the field," he finished. He handed one assignment sheet to Julian and two to Sofia. "These are the last known coordinates for them from Cerebro. Only three team members to a teen."

We all nodded as we headed out of the room and towards the garage.

"Okay," Sofia started. "Cyclops gave us two kids, so we'll have to split up. Shifter, Hydra, and Talons, you guys get the younger one. Dust, Surge, and I will pick up the older one." We all nodded in response.

"Hey; look who Scion's sending back to class," Sam commented to us while pointing to Calvin, Cessily, and Kevin, the latter two holding hands. "They don't seem too happy about it."

"Well, would ya? They're in gym with Logan," I defended them.

Sam was taken aback by my defence. "Sorry, I forgot one of them is your boyfriend," he teased me.

"Oh, now ya're gonna get it boy," I said as I tackled him to the ground. "Ya weren't 'spose ta say anythin'," I hissed in his ear once I had him properly pinned. Suddenly I was pulled off of him as Laura grabbed my arms and held on tightly so I couldn't attack him again.

"Shifter, what do you mean boyfriend?" Sofia, still in mission mode, inquired while I tried to kick Sam.

He looked anywhere but at me as he answered, "Ashida's been going out with Cal for over a month."

Laura released me as if I was a poisonous snake.

"You've been going out with my brother and didn't tell me?" she accused me. She backed away from me and moved towards Sofia. "Will you change our assignments for today?"

Sofia nodded. "Definitely," she said, trying to think of how to rearrange the team. "Okay," she went on saying, "Talons, Shifter, you guys are with me. Surge, you're in charge of Hydra and Dust. You guys get the younger one and we'll get the older one." With that, Sofia walked off dragging Sam and trying to catch up to a near running Laura.

"You guys heard her," Nori said, heading in the direction of the X-Van. "We should get moving."