Attention: I'm revoking the poll. I already decided on a franchise to gueststar in a future story. It's not on the poll. It's not even close to anything on the poll. I dare you guys to guess.

It'll be great, I promise you.

And thank you for continuing to read. To think this all started from how my mind works when I'm afraid of the dark, and a few non-connected daydreams. (Yeah, I get my best ideas at night. I get some of my strangest ideas then, too. But the majority of those are good.)

Chapter 7 ~*KURT*~

...I wish Sara was here now. I wish she had left later. I wish she took me with her. I wish she even left a note! But, it's not like she hasn't done this before. She's known for going off by herself and not telling me. She's pretty independent. I just wish, one of these days, she'd leave a note saying, Sorry, I got up early to go to so-and-so, I'll be back at this-time, and I'll have something for you.

But I, without the note, am worrying. I get a sip of soda, check the kitchen window, check either door, check an upper window, try to find something else to take my mind off of it. Rinse and repeat. I now know what Sara felt like before she found out her dad died, and was at the window, worried. And I've now learned one thing: I gave her the wrong advise. If you're worried enough about someone, there's nothing that can take your mind off of them until you can see them again.

And then you feel like pummeling them. That's how I feel when I suddenly see Sara coming up the driveway.

I'm about to go out and tell her that she can't just do that, especially when there are other people in our house, but I see she's arm-in-arm with some other girl. About when they get to the back door, the other finally starts to leave. Sara turns around and waves until the other girl is out of sight. Then Sara comes in the house.

"Oh, that girl..." she mutters as she gets a snack from the cupboard.

"Where were you?" I ask. I don't mean for it to come out of my mouth, but it was all I'm thinking about. So I decide to go with it. "You wake up super-early, get out of the house before anyone's up, and return at..." I check the stove clock. "11:36, gosh!"

"Relax, Jax," she replies. "I was leaving for a job audition at the Hot Pink Tiger, met a fan of mine, nailed the audition, and the fan and I went to lunch to celebrate!"

"Wait," I say. "You nailed an audition? Does that mean you got it? At the Hot Pink Tiger?"

She nods happily, grinning. "They said I'll be their regular act!"

We hug each other. This is the best news she could get. The Hot Pink Tiger was one of the most popular clubs in New York, and she was always wanting to do that club. It had always been slightly out of her reach, someone always got there first and took it away from her. Now, she got finally got the chance to audition, and they loved her, of course. All my angry feelings of her leaving without telling me washed away.

Rogue slowly walks into the room. "What's going on?" she asks.

"Sara got a gig!" I exclaim. I sound stupid, but I'm too happy to care."A very good gig! The best gig she ever had-"

"No, I mean the chick who was with her," Rogue says, interrupting me. "Who was she? I haven't seen her around before,"

Sara shrugs. "She's a fan. She came to the audition with me. I think she even helped me get the job, cos I introduced her to them as my assistant,"

"You don't need an assistant!" I exclaim. I have told this to her before, but her, being humble, doesn't believe it. "You got the job because of your pure, raw talent and incredible song-writing skills. Not by impressing them and acting like you've seen it before!" In the corner of my eye I see Rogue leave the room, so I say, "Back in a moment,"

I run after Rogue, who is going into her- I mean, our, room. "What's the matter?" I finally catch up to her when she's in the doorway.

She turns to me. Her eyes are filled with tears. "You don't know what happened," she whispers. "You don't know how bad I got hurt,"

"By Mystique, yeah," I reply. "She hurt you a whole bunch of times. But she also hurt me. Don't forget that." Sometimes she thinks it's all about her. Just because of all the hardships she's faced, she sometimes can't see that others have gone through hardships, even worse than hers.

"...No, you don't," she drags me into the room and closes the door. "There was this girl, at school, this new girl who I became friends with. After you left, I still went to school. A few weeks after I found out the truth about you, I accidentally found out that Mystique..." she looks away from me, and I just know what she's going to say next.

I say it for her. "...was the new girl," my words are slow at first, but slowly build up speed. "And you think Sara's new friend is Mystique."

Rogue gasps, but I don't give her a chance to interrupt me and make me feel bad for telling the truth, something I haven't done... in a long time.

"You think that Mystique would pull that again? Talk about trust issues! Or wait... is it that you think the only friends Sara could have are me and someone just using her? Oh, to get to you? Really rude, Rogue, really rude," I leave her in the room, her mouth gaping. I'm now pretty pissed, so I have to leave the room before I smack her.

As I'm leaving, I see Logan at the end of the hall, smoking. He speaks before I can tell him that Sara doesn't like people smoking near or on her bed. "You know, elf," he mutters. "Rogue has a point. I've lived here a long time. I've been traveling around the US longer. All I can say is, when someone is a fan of someone who hasn't been around much, and all they want to do is help their idol get to the top, there's usually something else going on."

I scoff. "Why do everyone think Sara is a ditz? She's smart. She's a pretty good judge of character," Which is why she doesn't like most of 'em, I add in my mind. "She can watch over herself. So she'd know if there's something shifty going on with her new friend. But she trusts her new friend, which means you can trust her (her friend) six ways to Sunday." I turn away from him. "But you don't know about that cos you don't trust anyone." I know I sound petty, but I can't stand people underestimating Sara and treating her like a child.

I hear him growl, and slowly go down the stairs. Halfway down, he says, "Watch it, chick. Your friend's in a mood,"

I raise my head to see Sara standing there. "What's wrong?" she asks, her brow wrinkling.

"Nothing, nothing..." I consider lying to her, but she's a liar herself. So she's good at spotting lies. So I decide to tell her the truth. "Except for I had to defend you and your decisions against two different people in the last half-hour. Are you sure about Penny?"

She nods. "Positive. She's just a nice girl. Nothing more. Nothing less."