Learning to Breathe
Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men and Ms March belongs to Red Witch. Andi is mine, tho.
Chapter Thirty-eight: Hallway Hijynx
Andi groaned as she stepped off of Dad's Harley the next morning. She hated school with a passion, and the fact that her father—who equally disliked classrooms—made her come today bit like a rabid animal. On top of it all, Mom was still so badly injured that she could not go to work. Mr. Kelly, the vice-principal, wasn't nearly as nice.
"Do I have to?" She whined.
"Yes." Dad replied, walking towards the front doors of the school. "Now stop stalling. We have to get you signed in before Xavier's kiddies show up."
"Fine." She grumbled.
At the boarding house, the boys were in a mild state of shock. For once, Mystique would not be breathing down their necks at school. No afterschool meetings, no extra detentions... they were quite happy until they realized two things. Magneto assaulted her for information and wasn't satisfied, and vice-principal Kelly would be in charge.
"What do you think he's searching for?" Pietro asked Lance as the older boy drove the four healthy housemates to school.
"I don't know." The brown-eyed boy sighed. "As long as he doesn't come after us next, I'll be happy."
"Hey, don't that bike look familiar?" Fred said, pointing to a red motorcycle in the parking lot.
"Yeah, it does." Pietro said. "Where have I seen that before?"
"Yo, I think that's Sabes' ride." Todd piped up.
"What would he be doing here?" Pietro said.
"Maybe he's telling the secretary that Mystique won't be in today." Todd said.
"No, Boss lady called in sick last night." Lance said. "Something fishy's going on here, I can feel it."
Kitty obediently followed Ella, the school peer counselor, to the principal's office. All the brunette girl knew was that a new student had a day pass, and Ella didn't seem willing to dish details.
"Where is Principal Darkholme?" Kitty asked.
"She called in sick this morning." Ella replied. Kitty blinked. Principal Darkholme only missed coming to work once before, and that had been due to a flu bug. To Kitty Pryde's knowledge, no viruses were going around the school to date.
"Did she say why?" She prodded. The older girl shook her head.
"All I know is that Mr. Kelly couldn't get the loudspeaker to work." Kitty giggled as the two rounded the corner and walked into the office. The principal's door was open, and Kelly already made himself at home, to the annoyance of the young woman in his presence.
"Ah, Miss Pryde." Kelly smiled. "I would like you to meet Mercy Lowe. She's staying with a relative for a week and will be auditing our classes."
"Like, nice to meet you!" Kitty beamed at the blond girl. Mercy stared back.
"Whatever."
"Since you two are both freshmen, I though you could show Miss Lowe around today." Kelly said.
"No problem." Kitty said, grabbing the girl by the arm. "Follow me."
"Like I have a choice." Mercy said as she was dragged out of the office.
Andi grumbled a few choice obscenities under her breath. The hardest part about character acting was remembering to stay in character at all times. This meant answering to her new name: Mercy Lowe. It also meant not being disruptive in class. She was to blend in. To go without being noticed. She sensed great failure ahead for her new double- identity.
It was only first period, but since first period consisted of physics, she brooded. She hated physical science almost as much as algebra. Why couldn't she just skip a grade in science and take biology?
A friend of Kitty's (Evan something or other) sat a few rows ahead of her today. She wished the boy would pull up his baggy skater shorts because she found exposed underwear a major turn-off. Although, at least this Evan wore a belt. Kurt didn't even do that and man did his clothes clash. Not that Kurt paid attention to wardrobe anyway. Still, she wondered how people could do anything while wearing such baggy clothing, especially an athlete.
She'd completely tuned out her teacher at this point. At least lessons with the Dreadnoks were interesting. Mr. Finkle read straight from the book with no experiments or demonstrations. With nothing to do, she propped herself against the back of her desk, stared at the board to feign attention, and began to contemplate ideas for the rest of the week she had to kill in Bayville.
Next period, she walked into her history classroom with great apprehension. However, she was joined by a friend this time. Even with the holowatch on, he was easy to spot. One point awarded to the neon green boxer-shorts.
"Mind if I sit here?" She asked, leaning against the desk next to him. Kurt looked up from his homework.
"Do I know you?"
"If you've forgotten already, Mom will probably accuse your professor of brainwashing his students." She replied matter-of-factly. Recognition dawned on him.
"Andi." He whispered, pulling her into the desk. "What are you doing here?"
"Magneto beat the stuffing out of Mom yesterday." Andi started. "And since my dad can't look after me today, I'm stuck here."
"You shouldn't be in school now." He hissed. "What if the Brotherhood sees you?"
"They won't know who I am." She whispered. "And as of now, you don't either. I am an exchange student name Mercy Lowe who is auditing class for today. That is my cover, stick with it."
Kurt nodded, rapidly changing the subject. "So, what brings you to Bayville?"
Andi then noticed Toad walking in behind her. "Oh, I'm staying with some relatives. My family's house burned down, and we needed a place to stay while we rebuild."
"I'm so sorry to hear that." Kurt said as Toad weaseled his way over to the pair.
"Hear what?" The amphibious mutant asked.
"My house caught fire." Mercy smiled. "Don't worry, everyone's fine, we're just living with my aunt here until we can rebuild and move somewhere else."
"Where you from?" Todd asked. "That don' sound like any accent I heard b'fore."
She didn't even realize she had any accent. All that time spent with the others was catching up to her. "Florida." She replied. "You know, hurricane central?"
Todd and Kurt both tried not to crack up, and failed.
"That's coo', Yo." Todd said. "I'm Todd."
"Mercy." She replied as the teacher walked in.
"Okay, class, settle down." The woman said.
"Aww man!" Kurt groaned. Andi puzzled.
"What's up?" She whispered.
"Ms. March is back." He gulped. The rest of the class shared his look of disappointment.
Out of instinct, she gave the woman a once over—just to see if she would make a potential rival. Late thirties, permanent scowl, thin but not athletic—definitely an easy mark. Andi bet the woman was a worse hand-to-hand fighter than Regan.
"I feel the same way, now quiet down!" Ms March boomed.
Andi grinned. This would be fun.
"Now, class, if you would all turn to page 64..."
Plans filled the young blonde's mind, but most of them were too complex to use at the moment. If she'd known beforehand that a sub was teaching, she'd have rigged the chair. Now, though, she needed to focus on simple annoyance. Such as...
"I've already studied this page." She raised a hand. Ms March glared.
"Then you shall re-study it." The woman growled. "I am not willing to cater the class to every student."
"How does your husband stand you?" Mercy asked.
"I'm unmarried, thank you." March harrumphed.
"That makes so much more sense." Mercy exclaimed. Laughter followed as Ms March turned violet.
"Didn't your mother teach you that children should be seen and not heard?"
"What my mother doesn't know won't give her a heart attack. Besides, how does someone as hypertensive as yourself get a job teaching kids?" the blond countered, her now green eyes sparkling. Ms March was about to go on a rant when Kelly saved the day.
"Is there any problems in here, Miss March?"
"No, no sir!" Miss March shook her head. "Everything's fine. Nothing to worry about."
"Good." Kelly said. "Now students, I expect you to be on your best behavior for Miss March while Miss Simmons is away."
"Yes Mr. Kelly." The class muttered, with the exception of Mercy. There would be no further interruptions in history.
Mom planned ahead. Kurt and Andi shared three class periods; study hall wasn't one of them. Instead, Andi found herself drawing in the back of her notebook during fifth. This teacher rocked. Mr. Harris was just the sort of man who made learning about sentence structure fun.
Still, her mind wandered back to the dress code (or lack thereof) at the campus. The only code seeped to be "please do" without any regard to modesty or decency. Mom wouldn't even let her out of the house in her Tweety shirt because it was too snug, while cheerleaders paraded around in miniskirts and halter-tops. Even the boys held no vision of discretion. Rips in pant knees didn't bother her so much as the baggy shorts and jeans that barley clung to their wearer's hips. Belts seemed to be more for style than function.
A recalled remark of her mother's from two nights ago stuck out.
"Kurt, you should consider wearing a belt. With all the acrobatics you pull at the school, those pants are liable to fall down."
Maybe she needed to draw attention to the dress-code problems? And since Mom wasn't around to stop her, the plan would go off without a hitch.
Kurt never suspected that someone would sneak up behind him and attack him in the halls after sixth period. However, he also didn't realize just how brazen his younger half-sibling could be. There he stood, just talking to someone from his shop class, when he felt a sudden draft of cool air whoosh past his legs. Everyone was staring at him and laughing. He looked down to see his drawers pooled around his ankles. Blushing like mad, he pulled up his drawers and hid in the bathroom for a while.
When he walked out, Mercy was waiting.
"Mom told you to pull up your pants." She teased. He turned beet red.
"Where were you?" He asked.
"Behind you." She grinned. He gasped.
"You pantsed me!" He exclaimed, glaring at her.
"You earned it. I don't think that's the first time Mom's told you to wear a belt and even if it were, you and your little X-friends are supposed to be the model mutants." She pointed out. "And I have to say, it's about a fifty-fifty split. I mean, yeah, Red's a prep. I get that. But you and that Evan kid are being outdone by the brotherhood. Yeah, they may be mean and smell bad, but they at least have some sense of decency!"
"What do you mean, you get why Jean does it?"
"She's a class-A prep." She elaborated as the two walked out to the parking lot. "Think about it. She's the star of the soccer team, runs the yearbook committee, and gets all A's. Plus, she's dating the football captain, which adds to the pressure to look 'sexy'. I can't stand people like her."
Kurt's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why?"
"Because the bitch thinks that everyone loves her when the truth of the matter is that they're just waiting to watch her fall from favor. Matthews has at least one girl lined up in case she backs out on him, and her other equally talented teammates will all be buying for the chance to show her up." She said bitterly. "I can't believe that a telepath doesn't realize that all her so-called friends are really just associates with hidden agendas."
Kurt couldn't believe how observant his sister was. "I know what you're saying, but it's not right to hate her."
"I don't hate her, I just can't stand her." Andi said.
A stray though ran across Kurt's mind. "Who's taking you home?"
"My dad's meeting me after school." Andi said as she stepped onto the grass. A motor revved in the distance. "In fact, that's him coming now."
Kurt smiled.
Honk.
Scott chose that moment to lean on the horn. The blue elf sighed. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"You too." She smiled as he ran to Scott's convertible. Shades, she noticed, began interrogating Kurt once the younger boy drew within earshot. Good. She thought. Now I can depart unnoticed. Her father pulled into the crosswalk. He'd barely stopped the bike when she jumped on.
"Long day?" He asked.
"Just tiring." She said. "How's Mom doing?"
"She's gettin' around now." He said. "Bound and determined to come back to her job tomorrow."
"That's nice." She said, strapping on her helmet. "I just want her to be okay."
"I know, Stormy." He said as she grabbed hold of his shoulders. They were off in moments.
Neither knew they had been seen by an outsider.