September 1st, 7:27 a.m, 1963

It was early morning, and I didn't expect anybody to be awake. That is..until Charmy and Raven started arguing again. They've been at it since the two were created, always bickering with each other. We came down the hallway into the foyer.

"What do you mean I'm cynical? I'm not the one who was an emo suicidal bitch!" Charmy yelled. Raven glared at him.

"If you hadn't been in my way, we wouldn't have to BE here with all these..these...children." She snarled.

I rolled my eyes, approaching the foyer and looking inside, remembering when I had been the new kid in here just a few days ago.

"Hey, look, it's Echo, Charmy, and Raven!" Kate said, waving in our direction.

I smiled. "Hi Kate!" The two even stopped arguing a moment to look.

"Hmph." Raven said. Charmy nodded in her dirrection. We walked into the room, but something seemed wrong...it seemed like the atmosphere was..tense...so I decided to mention it.

"What's going on?"

At first I didn't notice, but then I looked again and there was a new girl sitting next to Kate. She had long brunette wavy hair in a pony tail with a kind of bright washed-out green eyes. Her skin was a tint of tan, and she was about five foot and a half. She wore a thin black sweatshirt with a green tee. Her dark shorts were frayed and she wore green converse. She also had fingerless gloves on, which were green.

"Hi!" I said to her, reminding myself of Sami the first time I came here. "I'm Echo, it's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

The girl stared at me, and I realized that I might have scared her a bit by my up front approach. "Uh, hi?" I could tell she was tense. "I'm Lindsay."

"Yeah what's going on though..? A fucking orgy?"

"Charmy!" I snapped.

"Sorry! I had to ask." I shook her head.

"Anyway. This is Charmy and Raven."

"It's not nice to meet you. Another fucking person in this already God forsaken place." Raven cursed, turning away to look back towards the doorway. "Let's go."

"Nice seeing you, too, Raven," Kate replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Raven turned to Kate and smirked darkly.

Lindsay narrowed her eyes and stared at Raven. "Well, I'm sorry that you judge people so soon. But don't we all? And why do you go to all the places where there's bound to be people, when you don't like people at all- well new people anyway."

I felt nervous. Raven answered her question cooly. "Because she goes there." she nodded her head towards me.

"Then at least try to enjoy it. It might make you happier," Kate said.

Raven didn't answer. Then at least try to enjoy it. Where has she heard that before...

"You know, you should just be glad to be alive, so enjoy it when you can!" she remembered Charmy's voice. The other two looked at her, expecting some kind of snappish remark, but none came.

"Yeah, like she could enjoy anything..." Charmy remarked snarkily.

"I notice you're not denying anything." Lindsay's fists were starting clench tightly. I moved slightly on my feet, getting into a position of where I could intervene if need be.

"I'm sorry about that," Kate said to Raven in a kind voice. "We've had a long day and i just snapped. So again, sorry."

"What all happened?" I asked, concern in her voice. Raven decided to stay silent and not answer anymore unless she was adressed or something came up.

"Ummm..." Lindsay looked to Kate for help.

"Had a game of truth or dare, kind of went sour…" Kate replied.

"How?" Now Charmy answered, curious as to what kind of thing could have happened during a game of truth or dare, then he thought about it and grinned impishly. "Did one of you guys fuck?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "No."

"Um, well, I slapped Dylan, Kaja slapped the new guy, Nicolas, and then he choked her for a bit," Kate replied, her voice getting smaller with each word.

"And he's right over there." Lindsay pointed to Nicolas, who was sitting; he was pretty tall, probably older than the rest of us. He had a broad build but a narrow waistline and long legs. He had a scar running from his chin to underneath his left eye. His auburn hair had whisps of light brown and dark chestnut in it, and was messy that hung a little over his forhead. Beneath his hair were his eyes, a soft baby blue, that made his face seem lighter. However I could tell this man was dark, and I knew I should be afraid of him, but instead I was intrigued.

"When the Professor and the others get here we are going to have a serious talk about ground rules." Professor Hack said firmly. I jumped at the sound of her voice, not aware that she was there.

"When ARE they going to get here?" Lindsay said frustrated. "We've been waiting here forever."

"Well good, Dylan deserves a sharp slap across the face. Good for you Kate!" Charmy laughed.

I decided to keep my voice down, so Nicolas wouldn't hear me. "Your joking..he choked Kaja..?" Charmy stared at the new guy then started walking towards him.

"Hey! You! Think its cool to pick on girls?"

"Charmy no!" I hissed, pulling his arm back.

If he's going to beat him up, I'll gladly help him." Lindsay growled behind us.

Nicolas looked up from his seated position to the male his lips twisting into a sinister smirk both his hands still wriggling slowly as the coins glided over the back of his hands with ease "Don't lay your hands on someone and expect the person to simply not react" he turned to look at me "I advice you tell your little friend here to politely piss off." Nicolas spat out harshly.

"Guys, back off," Kate said, helping me keep Charmy back. "If he doesn't want to socialize, we can't make him"

"Kate's right. Let's just leave him alone." Echo said to Charmy, but Charmy continued to glare at Nicolas.

"I'd watch it if I were you." He threatened.

"For as nonsocial as he is, he sure has a big mouth." Lindsay stated, walking back over by everyone else. "You're right: you're not worth anyone's time. What was that you said? 'Don't lay your hands on someone and expect the person to not react'. Well Kaja has alot of friends and they defend each other. So if you want to have any of your own, or not be bothered, I suggest you think about who you mess with!"

"Listen here you bastard-"

"Charmy that's enough!" I pushed him behind me, so he was glowering at Nicolas over my shoulder. Then I glared at him. "Look, we don't want any trouble. We just don't think its a very nice thing to do when you choke somebody, especially one of our friends, like Lindsay said." Raven stepped forward, her seemingly uninterested eyes looking the man over.

"You're the guy they've been talking about? How disappointing. You don't look all that dangerous."

"It's the mouth that creates all the problems." Lindsay said, disgust and annoyance showing in her eyes.

"So you forget that she slapped me for no reason that she also apologised for doing so" Nicolas jumped up to his feet gracefully clenching the coins between his fingers glaring down at them all. His eyes sweeping over each one and smirking at Charmy and winking "you've got an awfully big mouth now you've got your little trio here with you, not very impressive though" Nicolas shrugged and sighed "Why don't you just all leave honestly your whole 'we're friends we protect our own' crap is useless here. I have no doubt your all really just looking after number one just like me" Nicloas smiled at me "So why don't you listen" he said slowly enunciating each word "I don't care what you think, I don't care your opinion. I keep to myself and you keep your little teen angst to yourself and we'll be perfectly fine here"

I narrowed her eyes. "Fine. If that's the way you want to keep it, that's the way it's going to stay. But it gets awfully lonely by yourself."

Charmy grimaced. "Number one huh? Number one between us three? Is Echo. So I don't want to hear your 'everyone's selfish' bullcrap."

Lindsay's eyes blazed, and her pupils slowly started to form into slits. Red faced, she snarled, "If you don't care what we think, why do you even defend yourself? And if you keep to yourself, why did you even come here? You know, you lash out at everyone! I've only known you for about an hour and you alrready got a bad rep. You may not care what we THINK, but you're going to care what happens when everyone learns what happened in this room!"

"Come on, Charmy," Kate said, pulling him away from Nicolas.

Lindsay stood, stiffly, chin held high and her arms crossed, staring Nicolas down. Her pupils were almost completely into slits, making me wonder what was happening. I looked to her, wondering if I should ask her if she was alright.

"Would you like to know what I already know about you. That your pathetic, you've done nothing but complain about the woes of your life, honestly you can't deserve more then what's happened to you" Nicolas smirked at her running his tongue against his bottom lip "In actuality I've done nothing wrong I was somewhat polite when Kaja introduced herself I spoke to Dylan shortly. It was only after I said Jesus Christ that I was then threatened by the little freak and then made to look like some terrible person for not backing down to you all" Nicolas glared at her "I'm her because X wants me here thinks I'll be good for the school. I don't care if I stay or go but I won't be forced out by whiny little freaks like you"

"Alright, seriously you guys, break it up!" Natasha yelled stepping in between the group and the tall male. "Most of you here are here because you don't have anywhere else to go, in a world that, let's face it, doesn't look on people like us with a lot of love. Do you really think that fighting with each other is going to solve any of that? Take a breath and think about it."

Alek found himself nodding at what Natasha had said, having hung back the entire argument, and I just now noticed him.

"Eeeeasy Lindsay..." I told Lindsay, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. I didn't know what she could do, but I didn't want to see what would happen incase it was something bad enough to kill him. "Why don't we all just go."

"Hey kids!" Sean came in from the front doors, throwing them wide open. "Miss me?" he had been away, checking the grounds for Beast's new security set up, and he had dirt covering everywhere on him. He walked up to Natasha and muttered. "I heard a lot of yelling coming from inside, is anything wrong?"

"Most of the new kids are still under the impression that it's only them against the world, and everyone else is going against them. So tempers are pretty fragile." Natasha said softly. "we need to get the rest of the staff in here soon. They are not going to listen to me for that much longer."

Sean nodded. "I'll get the rest of 'em. Alex is probably somewhere blowing stuff up." Sean left.

I took a slow deep breath and stepped towards Nicolas, and Charmy moves out of Kate's grasp to grab my arm in warning. "Ok, why don't we start again before all the prejudging." she held out her hand. "Echo Luv." I smiled the best I could, even though there were shivers running down my back.

Nicolas flipped the coin out of his hand into his other palm with a twang as he took her hand firmly "Nicolas" he said in a flat even tone.

"And I'm Kate Argsen." Kate said, trying to be friendly.

"Your joking..." Charmy muttered, then louder he said. "You two are actually being FRIENDLY with this guy?"

"Better to be friendly and give it a chance than be hostile and lose a possible friend," Kate replied with a shrug

Nicolas smirked at Charmy as he released my hand, "Gonna throw your dolly out the pram sweetheart?" Nicolas said condescendingly.

Charmy was about to say something, but then, to all surpise, Raven walked up to Dylan. She didn't extend her hand, but she gave him a curt nod, saying her name shortly in introduction. Charmy's jaw dropped.

"Aleksandr Harkov. But everyone just calls me Alek," the Russian said with a half shrug.

"Wha-" Charmy was about to say but was interupted as the other teachers walked in.

"So, I heard all of you have been a little naughty?" Havok said, raising an eyebrow. Professor Xavier was the last to roll in, Beast, Havok and Banshee ahead of him.

"Are we all being good and making up now?" Professor X asked the room full of children.

Natasha let out a quiet sigh of relief when she saw the atmosphere relaxed and introductions began. She didn't know if she would have been able to handle a fight if it broke out, at least not before anyone got injured.

Nicolas nodded to us as we introduced ourselves to him and then watching as X wheeled in smirking to the older man "How's it going Hot wheels?" said with a grin.

Kaja walked in and up to the professor and started apologizing for almost anything that went wrong today.

Lindsay took a deep breath, but it failed to calm her nerves. "I'm Lindsay, but I assume you don't give a damn." she said, annoyed.

"Calm down, Lindsey," Kate said, putting her hand on the other girls shoulder.

I looked up at Professor Hack, and she gave Alex a look that said "Really?" before walking to stand next to Hank and Sean.

Then I looked down and noticed a little girl, about 9 or 8 sitting with her legs crossed, watching the entire thing unfold. She had light brown hair that hung just below her shoulders with curly tips and bright green eyes. Light freckles stretched across one end of her cheek to the other, crossing her nose. She was very petite and looked a little malnourished. She wore overall jean shorts with a purple undershirt and yellow converse, and a star necklace around her neck.