By the request of Professor Xavier, Katie left the room and went to teach her class. According to him, Logan didn't remember her at all, along with over half of his past. He wouldn't tell her why, but, then again, Charles Xavier left a lot of questions unanswered.
Katie's hour long class ticked by twice as slower than usual. At the moment, she was teaching the subject on rationals, which she barely knew herself, and the students noticed her spacing out. "Miss Cami?" A student named Bobby asked. She was known as Miss Cami to her students because she refused to be called Professor. 'Cami' dubbed from Chameleon, which a student came up with, and the name stuck. She taught Algebra in the mornings and changed to helping students control their mutations in her afternoon classes. "You seem distant."
"Thank you, Bobby, for pointing that out to the entire class." She chuckled with a kind smile. He was right, though. She was thinking about Logan. How did he end up where she was, of all places? "We'll continue this lesson tomorrow. Class dismissed."
"But there's, like, twenty minutes of class left." A girl named Kitty, who could walk through walls, pointed out.
"I won't tell if you won't."
"You don't hear me complaining." John, a boy who could manipulate fire, laughed. "See you, Teach."
Katie chuckled as the students filed out of her room. Then, she went back into her thoughts. Her muscles were tense and a headache was starting to form. So she got up, deciding that she would start her workout early, and went to her room to get changed into a tank top and running shorts and she pulled her blonde hair back into a ponytail.
Her usual routine consisted of running five laps around the mansion grounds with Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops, as a running partner, then twenty minutes of weight training and finished off with floor exercises, such as crunches, push-ups and curls. Since she had twenty minutes to kill, she decided to do ten laps of running and then joined Scott after her fifth.
Katie loved to run, though Storm called her crazy because of it. She just couldn't find joy in anything else. It made her feel free. Free of humans that hated mutants, free of laws, free of anything negative and free of her past. When she took a long run, sometimes she cried and the sweat hid the tears. She cried for her mother and her father. She cried for her grandparents. Today, she cried for Logan. She never let anyone see her cry, and that was why it was best for her to do it while she ran by herself, or was in the shower, because no one was around. Scott, however, always kept her laughing during their runs, and he had become her best friend over the years.
She spotted him as he waited for her by the entryway that they met every day for their runs. He wore his usual sunglasses that were tinted red to keep his laser vision under control, a tee shirt and shorts. He was quite handsome, with rugged, yet soft, features. She could easily see why Jean Grey, another professor gifted with telepathic and telekinetic capability, was in a relationship with him. "You see the new guy?" He asked her as they started their jog.
"Logan? Yeah." She nodded and tried to keep up her pace. "I saw him. You?"
"Unfortunately."
Katie chuckled. "You don't seem too happy about it."
"Neither do you."
"Any reason?"
"He's getting too close to Jean." His pace faltered, but he shook it off and regained quickly. "What's your excuse?"
"I, uh..." She didn't know if Professor Xavier had filled him in on the whole memory deal. "I know him from somewhere. From when I was a little girl." She paused. "My excuse is better."
Scott chuckled. "You two would be perfect for each other."
"What makes you say that?"
"You both are dicks." He laughed.
She playfully smacked his shoulder. "You're the dick, Cy-cocks."
"I'll race you the last two laps." Scott challenged.
"You're on." Then, she took off as fast as she could, leaving him behind. She felt so free when she ran, and completed the last two laps without a problem…
Until she smacked into Logan.
She fell backwards onto her behind and quickly apologized. "Oh my God, I'm so sor…" Her voice trailed off when she realized who she was talking to.
He had a cigar in his mouth and he looked exactly the same as he did when she first saw him, except that he was clothed this time around in a tank top, jeans… and her father's jacket. "Maybe you should watch where you're goin' next time."
"Maybe you should stop being an ass and help a girl up." She stood and glared at him. "But since you're not going to do it, I'll just help myself."
"Damn, Kate." Scott huffed as he finally caught up with her. "I'll never understand how you run so damned fast."
"I'll never understand how you can call yourself a man with how slow you run, but I manage." She joked, receiving a playful shove from Scott. She cracked the joke to avoid the tears that hid behind her eyes, but it wasn't working. She needed to get out of there. Fast. "I'm going to do weights. See you, Scott." She waved, acting like she didn't acknowledge Logan. That action alone cut off her tough girl exterior. The tears started to flow as soon as she turned around and she ran to Professor Xavier's office. When she burst into the door, it was surprisingly empty of students.
"I sensed you coming, so I cleared the room. What happened?"
"He's wearing it, Charles." She whispered through tears.
"What?"
"The jacket." She answered. "I gave him that jacket. Fifteen years ago, I gave it to him. It was my father's, and he said that he'd keep it so he wouldn't forget about me." Katie took a deep breath and dropped to her knees, her tears falling to the floor. "He fucking lied to me. He forgot; he lied," she repeated. "He lied."
