[AN: Merry Christmas! Or other celebrated holiday! I hope you're all not running away from the story because it's so terrible how Kerri and Kurt can't be together...Or how in this chapter something happens... Anyway, here it is, please enjoy! Feel free to review, message, or just read! And flames are accepted and understood lol.]


All week Kerri felt her hurt and anger bubbling inside of her.

She tried to breathe and push it out of her mind. It was a tactic she'd been practicing for a while, using it as a way to help control her emotions so they didn't try to push out as physical manifestations with her powers.

On Friday, the drama class was in the library again, but Kerri almost couldn't stand to be there.

Every time Kurt looked like he was getting close to the desk, Kerri found something else to do; going to the bathroom, putting books on the shelves, ducking down and pretending to have something on the shelves under the desk to do, she almost ran out as the bell rang.

She couldn't help but feel conflicted; she still felt a deep emotional attachment to Kurt, she felt angry, she felt betrayed, and she felt like she should hate him, but she couldn't, not with her heart still loving him.

She went to her room, throwing her books onto her desk and laying on her bed. After a while she took out the shoe box and looked at the pictures again.

She felt tears trying to roll down her cheeks, but she wiped them away.

She looked at the pictures for a while, but became disgusted with herself for not being able to tell which things were a lie and which weren't.

She threw the pictures back into the box and kicked the box under the bed.

She knew it didn't help that she wouldn't listen to Kurt, but she was afraid; what if what he was saying was the lie?

Kurt hung upside down from the bars above his bed.

Between his large fingers was a photo, he knew Kerri had the same photos from the formal dance last year, but he wondered if she ever looked at them.

His finger ran down her pictured cheek, wishing he could do the same to the real Kerri.

Kurt stayed in bed again on Saturday, huddled under the blankets, and didn't leave until Professor Xavier called him to his office.

"Kurt, please have a seat. I understand that you have been in your room for weekends and you haven't been eating." Kurt was silent, after all, what could he say to refute the truth? "Your friends are worried about you." Charles paused to let this sink in before continuing, "Ororo also said that you think you can't talk about it."

"I can't," he said simply.

Charles sighed internally, thinking of a way to word the next part so that he wasn't specifically telling Kurt to break the rules. "How are you doing with the drama classes?" Kurt looked up at him, confusion written on the image his inducer projected. He continued, "I know this is the first time you've taught a class, and I can understand how tough it can be, but you're only a student teacher, don't feel pressured to do every thing right all the time; you are still learning."

"Ok, Professor," he told him, but Charles wondered if he had understood.


Kerri was at the mall again, walking to the arcade, when she saw a familiar silver head down the hall a ways. "Quicksilver, that stupid..." she muttered, remembering when he and a few other of the brotherhood mutants had attacked the school at the end of last year.

She personally had fought him, they had bruised each other up quite a bit, and the blade like spine on her tail had cut his hand a little, but with neither of them having super strength in their list of abilities, bruising was about all they'd done.

Except that he'd hit on her like a jackass a couple of times as they fought.

Chance found her, beating the pulp out of the computer on her usual fighting game. "Whoa, kicking butt. You look like you feel better," he commented as she nodded to acknowledge his presence.

"Yeah, beating the crap out of pretend people always makes me feel better," she told him, thinking, 'danger room included.'

They wandered around, playing games, and after a while, Chance asked if she wanted to go get a drink in food court. They walked down there and he let Kerri go first. She got a water, he a Mountain Dew, and they sat at a table.

"You really like water, huh?" He teased her, but not in an unfriendly way.

"Mostly just chewing the straw," she told him, showing him the beginnings of a mangled straw.

He laughed and took a drink. "You're funny, Kerri. It's fun to hang out with you." Kerri took a sip from her water to hide the small smile on her lips, thinking it was strange to find someone who thought she was funny. "Do you go grocery shopping every week?" He asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Why? Does your family get paid every week or something?"

"No, I live at a sort of boarding school. Everyone helps out, and if you do extra jobs, you can earn a little pocket money. So I do the grocery shopping to get money to come to the arcade and buy books and stuff."

"Wow, that's kinda cool. How many people are there?" He asked, seeming to really be interested.

"Well, there are about a hundred and seventy five people altogether, but some of them live at home, and that includes all of the staff," she told him.

"That's a lot of shopping, no wonder you go every week."

"Mm-hm." She took a drink and chewed on the straw.

"And you come here before you shop, right?" He continued his line of questioning.

She nodded. "Don't want the frozen stuff to melt."

"Makes sense, I guess." He swirled his drink. "Darn."

"Why?" She asked, still chewing the straw.

"Well, I was going to ask if I could give you a ride next week, but if you have to go shopping..." He trailed off.

He wanted to give her a ride? Where did that make sense, except in, "You mean like a date?" He nodded, and her thoughts went back to Kurt.

Her immediate reaction was to tell him she had a boyfriend, but that wasn't true anymore. Then her thoughts went back to the library, and that junior who's name she hadn't bothered to learn. She kept finding them together, and there was definitely flirting going on.

She could feel her agitation rising again. She didn't want to care, caring meant that you hurt. She didn't want to hurt. She didn't want to care. The best way to do that was probably to get over it, to not care anymore.

It wasn't like she and Kurt were together, he had another girl, so he was probably over her...

Her eyes tried to tear up, but she refused to let them. She didn't want to be one of those girls who couldn't get over being dumped.

Maybe she should go out with Chance, to try to get over Kurt.

"Ok. I can do the shopping before, so don't worry about it."


Kurt was sitting at the desk in the drama room, grading papers, when Gambit came and sat next to him in a chair asking, "So tell me, mon ami, how's it goin' wit your fillie?"

Kurt looked up at him from the papers. "Vell, you know zhat students und teachers can't date..."

"Oui, but you a student teacher," Gambit told him.

"Still a teacher," he said, looking at the papers to hide his face.

"You shouldn't give up, how else you get de girl?" He asked, making Kurt look up at him.

"Vhat do you mean? I vould get fired, and she vould get expelled, zhat vouldn't help us..."

"Well, you know Gambit don't give up on Rouge, never, and one day, she say yes. That why Gambit leavin' after this year, he and Rouge leavin' to be together. You shouldn' give up neither. You give up she migh' just leave," he told his student.

"Ja, aber, zhere vould be too much trouble..." Kurt hung his head and looked at the papers. "I haven't even been able to talk to her, zhere has been no chance."

"Well, we fix dat," Gambit told him.


Kerri sat in the library, watching the drama class file in, again.

They'd been there for the last three days. She looked over at them and saw Kurt coming up to the desk. She looked around, but she could see nothing to pretend to do, and her expression turned sour as her body betrayed her, wanting to leap up and kiss him, hold him against her desperately, run her hands over his soft blue- No! She needed to stop thinking about that.

Kurt got to the desk and stopped in front of Kerri. She felt flustered as Dr. McCoy abandoned her, leaving her at the desk by herself with a smile and a chuckle.

Kurt took a breath, looking a little nervous. "Kerri... How are you today?"

"Fine," she answered, her heart aching as she tried to stay mad at him.

"Kerri, I vish I could tell you how I feel, aber, you know, zhe rules..." He trailed off.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Professor, of course, our relationship should be only that of a teacher and a student." She kept her voice as even as she could.

"Kerri, please don't be angry vizh me," he said, starting the conversation he'd had in his mind at least a thousand times, but he was interrupted by Capra coming up to him.

"Professor, can you please help me with the project?" She asked sweetly, fingering the tips of her hair.

Kerri's face turned even more sour at the girl's obvious flirting with him, right in front of her, seeming to her to show Kurt's words as a lie. "Why don't you go teach your student something, lehrer," she told him, a snide tone not quite hidden in her voice. {teacher}

Kurt looked at her for another moment before answering, "Alles fur dich, schatz." He turned and followed Capra to the table with her project on it, and Kerri's heart throbbed in pain. {anything for you, schatz takes explaining, you can look it up, or learn it with Kerri later}

'I don't care,' she tried to tell herself. 'I don't care, and I don't care that I don't know what he called me... Probably something rude anyway...'


Kerri got back from the store and went about putting the groceries away quickly so she would be finished before Chance arrived.

There was a commotion behind her as Logan stood abruptly and walked out of the kitchen, leaving his beer on the table.

She followed him, knowing his reaction to a threat.

Dr. McCoy stood next to the front doors and greeted them. "Hello, Logan, Kerri. Have you come to greet our visitor, too?"

"Visitor?" Kerri asked.

"Yes, I opened the gate for a boy named Chance, he said he had a date with one of our students, and I wanted to make sure he found the right student."

"You saying you think he's making it up?" Logan asked gruffly.

"He's my date," Kerri said before he could answer. They both looked at her, saying nothing. "What? I'm not the creature from the Black Lagoon, I can get a date... One of the saddest love stories ever, by the way," she added to Dr. McCoy as she walked out through the doors.

"Indeed," he answered as Logan suddenly looked up and behind him a ways.

"The Elf," he said.

"Yes, I thought... He certainly won't be happy about that..."

"I von't be happy about vhat?"

Dr. McCoy sighed and told Logan, "More prepositions would be helpful next time."

"Who is zhat?" Kurt asked as he looked out of the window next to the door.

"A boy named Chance," Dr. McCoy said.

Kurt watched as Kerri walked toward the green and blue van with orange on the side. He had left his room, making sure he was seen to make a show for everyone that he was ok so they'd leave him alone, but instead he saw Kerri going somewhere with another man.

Jealousy grew in him, but he felt helpless to do anything about it.

He wanted to go out there and grab Kerri by the shoulders, kissing her until she forgot about this other boy, but he couldn't, he had to let her go with him. His hands were tied by the rules.

Logan put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Elf, how 'bout I teach you something that will actually be useful in the real world."

Kerri walked towards the van as Chance stepped out. "You drive the Mystery Machine?! That's so cool!" She told him.

"You think so? Most girls think it's not cool to drive a van," he said.

"Yeah, and most girls wanted to be Daphine," she said as she rolled her eyes.

They got into his van and drove off, heading to the mall.

They played video games for a couple of hours, then headed to the food court. Chance wouldn't let her pay for anything, saying that it was a date, and he'd asked, so he was paying.

On the way back to the school, Chance pulled into the parking lot of a small shop selling ice cream. He bought them each a cone, and they sat on a bench outside to eat them.

He was really a sweet guy, and they had a good time, playfully arguing different points about zombies and the ever present threat of a zombie apocalypse, what anime was best, best Godzilla fight...

Just being herself in general was a great feeling for Kerri. The only things she held back were that she was a mutant, and so were the other people at the school.

Kerri was wiping off her hands with a napkin when Chance asked, "Did you have fun today, Kerri?"

"Yes, it was fun to hang out with you," she answered, holding onto the edge of the bench and smiling humorously as she watched someone notice his van.

"Good, because I, um, wanted to be a little forward, but I wanted to make sure you were having a good time first," he told her.

Her brow knitted in confusion and she turned to look at him, about to ask what he meant, just in time for him to quickly peck her on the lips.

Surprise passed through her briefly, washed out by confusion.

She'd talked to people about kissing before, and it seemed that kissing was usually a nice feeling, unless you got someone who was bad at it, like the first boy who'd kissed her, then it was gross.

But she'd felt nothing just now...

She wondered for a second if they hadn't done it right, but she always felt something when Kurt kissed her, even when he just brushed his lips against hers...

She leaned forward to him, pressing her lips against his more firmly and held them there for a moment longer, just to make sure, but the confusion was written on her face when she pulled away.

"I see I'm not the only one being forward today," Chance said with a grin, but it fell when he saw her face. "Oh man, don't tell me you didn't feel anything?"

Kerri's eyes shifted away. "Sorry," she told him.

Chance put a hand on her jaw. "Wait, I wasn't really trying, I know I can do better than a sad little peck on the lips if you let me."

She thought for a moment. It wasn't like she was cheating on anyone, she was free agent, and it couldn't really hurt anything to kiss him, and maybe she'd find out if she could feel anything with anyone other than Kurt...

"O-ok..."

Chance put the knuckles of his other hand against his jaw and brushed them along her skin as his hand slid to cradle her head. He slowly leaned in, his lips pressing against hers softly at first, then he parted them to touch her tongue. He was slow, gentle, but also confident and firm, like he was tasting her whole mouth, making it a long, soft, romantic kiss. He pulled back slowly, continuing the kiss until they separated.

Their eyes opened and he smiled.

It wasn't a bad kiss; it wasn't gross and wet and he wasn't suffocating her with his tongue. He was slow and lavish, giving attention to every detail of her mouth, in a way that would only make sense if he was enjoying doing it.

He was a nice guy and a good kisser, which only made her feel worse that she still felt nothing.

Chance's smile fell when he saw the look on her face. "Still didn't feel anything?" He asked.

Kerri looked at the ground. "Sorry..."

"Wow, he really did a number on you, huh?"

"I guess so," she muttered.

They got back to the school and he pulled to a stop in the driveway.

"Listen, Kerri," he said as she went to get out. "It's ok, I understand that it takes a while to get over someone sometimes, but I still really like you, and I can wait a while to have you all to myself, I think."

Kerri smiled sadly, not wanting to crush his hopes, but the words he was saying rang a bell; Kurt saying that he'd wait as long as he needed to to kiss her.

Maybe she'd eventually get over him...

One day...

"See you next week?" She nodded to him and he asked, "Can I pick you up then, too?"

"Well, it was fun riding in the Mystery Machine... Maybe we could find a mystery to solve next time," she joked.

"Like, zoiks! I'll bring my dog," he joked back.

She waved as he pulled away and walked up the drive to the front door. She went up to her room and pulled out the shoe box from under her bed.

She flopped onto her bed and stared at the picture of her and Kurt.