Entering the house which they recently had moved into, Mrs Flurtle sighed. Her husband had all but thrown her out of their flat when he had discovered Tim's powers. She herself had always knewn, since the day her son and everything else became so... strange. But well- wait and hope. Bayville was infamous for the sheer number of mutants inhabitating the city. So why shouldn't Tim have a chance?

That's it. No chance I'm ever going to get this right, thought Tim. He desperately tried to decipher the strange runes. No such luck. All the other students where either in their afternoon courses or already at home. Which was exactly where he would go if he didn't find out within the next five minutes how to work this damn schedule!

Someone laughed behind hin. Surprised, he turned around and found himself face to face with a blond, tall guy, strongly built, about 18 years old.

"New here?"

The way he said it made Tim realize that this guy could only be an idiot.

The guy stood in between two other guys built in a similar way. Football players, definitely. Well, he could at least try to play nice.

"Yeah, I just arrived here this morning. Could you maybe help me with this?"

The leader took the schedule out of his hand. "Ha! Easy!", he laughed. "At least for me!" He leaned in a bit closer. "What's in for me?"

"Excuse me?" Tim nearly didn't believe his ears. "You want me to pay you just for telling me where I have to go?!"

The other laughed. "Coming in late on your first day would leave quite an unpleasant image, if you understand what I mean..."

"You would have to know, Duncan."

They all turned to the owner of the new voice. Tim looked a bit closer. He was about as tall as the other guys, maybe even a bit taller, but slim. He had short, brown hair and much too strict clothes. The guy held some books in his arms and had his bag lazily over his shoulder. The only thingthat destroyed the image of Mr Perfect were the red sunglasses. And maybe the look of pure disdain on his face.

"Why does it bother you, Summers? Is this guy one of your ugly mutant friends? Gene trash?"

The other raised his eyebrows. "Do you even know how to spell that?"

He was met with silence.

More Silence

It took quite a time for Duncan to start moving again. "Mind your own business!", he hissed. Not even a second later he had Tim pressed against a locker. His two friends cautiously approached the newcomer. Tim felt himself slightly shivering. Really? He was really getting in a fistfight on his first day?

"Attention, please", came a voice from the speakers. All of them turned their heads to the source of the interuption. "The members of the football team are asked to come to the gym as soon as possible for an urgent meeting. Repeating, all members of the football team..."

Duncan growled and added more force t his grip. "Don't even think for a second that I'm in any way through with you..." The hissed threat sent shivers down his spine.

His shivering increased and he lost focus. The only thing he saw was the fist coming in straight for his nose, but he didn't even feel it. His vision went blank. No, not now! He was having a full panic attack in public! Why now?

A hand gripped his shoulder, firm, but not painful. He found himself returning to his senses and looked up into a red surface.

"Hey, you okay? Hey, Tim... please be so kind as to not faint on me right now."

Tim growned and stood back up. When did he fell? He couldn't remember. Warm blood run down his face. "Why would you care?", ha asked in a low voice. The other brushed a few strands of his hair to the side. "Kelly hates us", he stated matter-of-factly. "He thinks of us mutants as the source of all evil and therefor blames us for everything, no matter what. And I was involved in enough fights this year that it won't really make a difference. But I do care."

"You don't look like someone who would pick a fight... and why do you even know my name?"

"You met Kurt and Tabby, as well as Kitty. They mentioned you. You know, it's kinda strange to have someone here that doesn't think of us as monsters from the beginning on."

"Maybe I'll do once I know more about you."

"I wouldn't be surprised."

Tim watched silently as the older boy picked up his schedule and handed it to him.

"Uhm." He stared at his shoes. "Can YOU maybe tell me where I have to go now? And who are you? Who were those guys? And is there even one person in this damned school that isn't supposed to be at a mental hospital?"

The first reaction was again a raised eyebrow. "To the first question, you have to go to the right wing, I can show you. Your teacher asked me to look for you, since he figured you would most likely have some problems. Secondly, I'm Scott Summers. Third, those guys were Duncan Matthews and his goons, who you really don't want to know. And last but not least, I've been wondering about that myself."

They went through the building silently, until Tim remembered something. "So, 14 mutants at total in Bayville? That's a lot."

Scott appeared to be in deep thought when he answered. "More, actually. There was the Brotherhood of Bayville, our enemies. They went to this school, but were banished when they caused to much damage to the school. Compared to them, Matthews is almost harmless. Just annoying.

"...you can't stand him?" It wasn't really a question.

"He's the ex of my girlfriend. He's always complaining that I stole her from him. But Jean dumped him when he tried to use her powers for hmself.

Oh man.

That guy had been in a relationship with a mutant? Had he knewn it? What kind of powers, and what did he want her power for?

Scott's voice jolted him from his thoughts as he pointed to the door of the classroom. Tim hesitated.

"Really dumb question, but do you have a drivers license, don't you?"

"I also have a car. Why do you ask?"

"I had thought that I could maybe go to some nice place here to eat in the evening, but with those idiots aroung here I'd rather be one or two towns further away. Someone with a license would prove himsel useful! Also, I would love to know a bit more about you mutants. I mean, it's kinda cool and so on... man, I'm sorry I asked. I can't ask you to do this. I don't know what I was thinking."

Scott stared as if he had never senn a human being before.

For a moment, he seemed to be at a loss of words. Then he took a pencil and a sheet of paper out of his bag and wrote something down. He handed it to Tim. "I don't see a reason why it should be bad. Also... you kinda remind me of someone. I don't know who... doesn't matter. I fear I won't be able to do anything this evening. Just call me, and I can show you around a bit. There are a lot of places in and around Bayville which you should see at least once. How about tomorrow?"

Some time later, Tim found himself bored to death behind a desk. The teacher, some Mr Podetsky, wasn't fazed by Tim's late arrival. His teaching was also very good, but it was still classes. He found himmself thinking about the mutants a bit more. So many! He had met four so far, more or less. That girl, Jean, had also been mentioned by Tabitha. Of course only the name. The only one of whose powers he had even the slightest clue was Kurt. The redeeming gong, signaling the end of two whole hours of boredom. "...and don't forget that we ar going to write a test tomorrow!"

Shit.

"Mr Flurtle, you too will take the test. Geography isn't so hard."

'Shit' was a way too weak word.

"Hey, man, that's totally unfair!"

"How comes, Mr Danieals?"

Said students cheeks reddened a bit. He had dark skin, blond hair and typical streets clothes.

"How am I supposed to study with the training later?"

"Hmph. The little bit of training won't kill you." The comment came from a brown haired goth with white streaks in her hair.

"I fear that both of you will have to prepare yourselves. Ms Darkholme, I'm sure that you can get Mr Daniels to study a bit, regardless of your other activities."

The room was nearla empty when Tims ears caught something interesting: "...Professor doesn't know the meaning of the word 'mercy'!" and "Stop crying, Evan. You always try to hide from training, it won't work anymore!"

Tim watched them a few seconds. That would be mutants number five and six.

He picked up his stuff and left the room. Outside the school, he saw hem again, together with the girl from before, Kitty, and Scott.

The four of them stood next to a red little sportscar and seemed to be discussing something. Now he could be sure that those two also were mutants. Evan Daniels and I-dom't-know Darkholme. Wait a sec. He had heard somewhere that Kellys predecessor had that name. 'Ah, I'll think about that later.'

So, the last time I updated this was actually over a year ago. I'm sorry, life happened. I'm now in my second last year of school, which means that each and every grade I get from now on is counting into my final certificate. Don't want to screw up!

I had two reasons which brought me back to translating this, apart from me enjoying to write in english more than in german.

The first was a grade 14 in my english exam, the best grade in our whole year! It is like an average 1, A, whatever system you use, it is fabulous! So I thought "Amazing! Hey - why not continue writing a bit?"

The second reason was the review from az23bv. Thank you for kicking my lazy ass back up!

I'll be back soon with chapter three. The worst that could happen would be that I actually continued this here and later translate it back to german, cuz the german version is on hold since last spring. Doesn't matter, I will update!

PS: I really love reviews.