The beta for this chapter is, in turn, Winterwarrior. Thanks!

Dinah Smith knew many weird people in her life. Not that there was always something strikingly weird about them from the first glance, but some of the situations in which Dinah saw them exposed their true nature, leaving no doubt for her as for what creeps they were. Like Dana Fielding, this guy she knew in high school. Actually, she never paid attention to him; she even didn't know who he was until her parents started to push on her that she should befriend him, just because they were friends with his parents. Dinah was a pretty shy and introverted girl, so her parents thought finding friends for her would be a good idea.

In their opinion, it would be cute if their and the Fielding's kids were friends, just as they were. They had so much in common with each other – they had to have. First of all, by some creepy coincidence, they were born almost on the same day, with her being older than him by just a day. Anyway, Dana and Dinah – didn't it sound cute? Even their names were similar, not only their birthdates. They would make great pals, that's for sure. They had so much in common, they had to be. That was at least what the Smiths thought.

Dinah's opinion on this was the exact opposite of her parents however. Maybe there was this similarity concerning the dates of their birth and their names, but that was all. She couldn't have anything to do with that creep. In fact, she was completely indifferent to the Fielding's' boy, thinking he was just a normal, average guy from the same school and her parents were friends with the parents of whom she thought was beneath her notice. Until that one day when she saw him staring at her in the school corridor.

It was after classes; he must have been waiting for someone, just as she was waiting for her classmate who had gone to bathroom, because what otherwise would this creep be doing in there? Yes, a creep, no other word would describe more accurately a boy who stares at a girl, breathing in long gulps of air, with a funny look on his frozen face and clutching his head. She was scared for the first moment that he could have some attack but before she had time to ask if he needed any help, the boy pointed his finger at her and howled. He opened his mouth one more time; as if he was going to say something more, but whatever it could be he wasn't given any occasion to do it, because any words that could come out of his mouth were cut by her own. "You are one creepy freak" the teen said, before she left. Her friend already had come out of the bathroom and joined her, so she didn't have any reason for staying with this freak any longer. She left the school and that was how the potential friendship between the – 'ah, that's so cute -Dinah and Dana' – ended before it ever started.

Miss Smith went home, informing her parents that she wasn't a child for heaven's sake to have friends chosen by them. She promised herself that she wasn't going to get to know this nutso closer, regardless of what her parents thought about it. She wasn't going to befriend weird people and it was what kind of person this Fielding boy was. A weirdo. That was what she knew for sure.

The next weirdo in Dinah's life happened upon her three years later. She was in college then. Mary, her best friend back at the time, was organizing a party. All the friends from their band were invited – Lance, Mike, Gina, Sally, Mark, Cathy – and Emily. Yes, Mary had another friend, the girl from her town, who was now in the city, and who was to be introduced to Dinah at the party. Dinah was jealous. She felt Mary shouldn't have any other friend besides her. But she managed to hide the pangs of jealousy, pretending she felt delighted with the perspective of getting to know Mary's friend from childhood. 'Maybe,' she thought, 'this Emily is a great person and I shouldn't behave like a jealous little kid. Maybe I will like her.' Mary, after all, was a very nice person; she wouldn't be friends with someone unlike her –Dinah reflected. 'Maybe I will befriend her too. Maybe…' But any hopes for befriending Emily Rossi got dispersed at the party, with Miss Rossi's first reaction at seeing her was an attack of loud, hysterical screams, followed by her head curling up in her hands with which Emily was clutching it, stopping only for a moment to point her free hand at Dinah.

The aforementioned felt suddenly guilty. She remembered Dana from high school – this memory came out from the darkest nook of her mind suddenly. However, that couldn't have anything in common with Emily's weird behavior, although she couldn't shake the feeling of guilt off herself. Mary tried later to apologize for Emily to Dinah, giving some explanations which were so artificial and just flat out stupid that Dinah decided not to have anything to do with Emily, regardless of how nice a person she could be. Even if she was like that, she was also probably mentally ill or a junkie. She must be something more than just a regular, run of the mill weirdo. If Mary chose Emily for her friend, she was probably a cool girl, but Dinah wasn't going to befriend something with mental problems. Politically incorrect but sincere. Dinah Smith and Emily Rossi were as different from each other as chalk from cheese. That was what Dinah knew. She knew it for sure.

The end of college. The first job. The room rented in the apartment close to the small house which belonged to this Palfrey family with their numerous children. The next weirdo- one of the members of that family. It was one of their oldest kids, one of the girls to be precise. Chantal, that was what her name was. A pretty name, but the girl's behavior wasn't that pretty. She was thirteen and already demoralized. All the Palfrey kids were. The previous week one of Chantal's younger brothers stole another neighbor's purse. The previous month Chantal and her older sister beat up another girl from the neighborhood, just for her looking at them in a way they didn't like. That was what they claimed. Now Chantal was looking at Dinah in a way Dinah didn't like at all. Her pale face expressed concentration. The girl was staring at Dinah with an unmoving gaze… until she gave out a strange sound and fell down to her knees, covering her ears, as if defending herself from some loud, unpleasant sound only she was capable of hearing, and started to rock rhythmically, making those weird sounds expressing the highest suffering. It at least looked like this. Dinah came to the conclusion this teen was really creepy. She was in a hurry to not be late for work so she didn't pay too much attention to the Palfrey girl, who was now sitting on the ground, salivating. A great way to be paid attention to – thought Dinah. But that's probably the best way a girl like her could make up to get others to start being interested with her. Dinah didn't honor the mumbling teen with one glance and went to work as always. She wasn't going to pay attention to creepy teens from pathological families; she had better things to think about. She made her way towards her workplace, not devoting a single thought to Chantal, but for one – 'what a weirdo'. This was the thing she knew about the young neighbor and definitely wasn't going to come to know her closer. She was a weirdo and nothing more. That's all she knew and it was enough.

Dinah Smith knew the people she met were a bunch of creeps. Their behavior showed it to her clearly enough. But still there remained four things about them – and about herself - she never came to know. She had no idea first of all, that Dana Fielding was a mutant having the ability of clairvoyance. At the moment when she saw him then, making faces and howling like a wounded animal, he was trying to focus his power to see their future. Their future together. The Fieldings' also kept telling their son that Dinah was such a nice and reasonable girl; they wouldn't mind if he asked her out from time to time. Dinah didn't know either, that Emily was a mutant as well – the one having the ability to read minds. Emily Rossi, having heard a lot about Mary's new friend from college, tried to discretely probe her mind to check what kind of person she was dealing with. That the Palfrey teen could move objects with her mind. She had developed this ability recently and was trying to make Dinah slip – just for fun, it would be great to see her neighbor falling; she wouldn't ever suspect that it was Chantal who caused it; just one small telekinetic push.

The last thing Dinah never had a chance to discover was that she herself was a mutant as well. She was completely immune to any form of mental influence. What was more, any form of it being performed on her resulted in the person doing it experiencing a horrible pain and a feeling of disorientation.