Authors Note: I'm back! Miss me? Yeah, I know, Todd said you did. Of course I talk to Todd! How dare you question that? Humph. Well, anyway, I haven't had any updates lately cause I was on vacation. I mean, even a Muffin_elf's gotta rest sometime. Ya know what I mean? Thought so. I was a little stuck on what to do with this story. Usually when I write a story, I have no idea about the plot or what's gonna happen. I just write the first chapter, post it, and act like I have no further obligations. Sometimes the story turns out okay, other times…well you know. This story would be an example of such. whether it turns out okay or not, only time will tell. Maybe some review/suggestions would help, eh? *wink, wink, nudge, nudge.* Oh, and Shadowcat is one word, right??????

SCIENCE SUCKS
By Muffin_elf

It's funny how teachers seem to posses the ability to put you with the one person you don't want to be paired with. This was the opinion that was shared by both Kitty and Todd.

The two unfortunates were seated as far apart as the tables length would allow them. Kitty leaned on her elbow, facing the teacher. Trying with all her might not to look at the slouching boy beside her. Todd too was avoiding the feared gaze of the "Shadowcat"
.
Todd chooses to rest his eyes on the gleam reflecting off his desk. As opposed to the teacher of course. The young boy's attention was now entirely centered around the flickering patch of light before him. The reflection, cast by the ceiling lights, glinted up at him from the desk's glossy surface. Twinkling incessantly like the fireflies that roam the warm summer nights. The small boy relaxed his tense face into a half smile. The gleam did look like a firefly.

Mmm… Firefly. Never tried that on before.

One long, inquiring finger poked out from its home on Todd's knees to prod the light filled area. But, of course, the pale appendage met only the hard flatness of the science desk. Most certainly not a firefly.

Abruptly, as quickly as it had appeared, the bug-like glare disappeared from Todd's desk. Dissipating into nothingness as the lights were turned off, cloaking the room in darkness. And bringing Todd back to the world of the living.

The young mutant's finger drew back, aware of what he most look like to any onlookers. Not that he usually cared what others thought of him. He found his notion to be correct. His gaze lifted from the desk to find his partner staring at him. One auburn eyebrow lifted in amusement. She gave the abashed Todd the look one gives to a small child caught practicing some bad habit or another.

"Uh," Todd mumbled incoherently, his hands fumbling in his lap. He stopped. What do I care about what some nosey X-Geek thinks about me anyway? Todd thought.

Kitty slowly rolled her eyes and turned her head around. Focusing her gaze on Ms. Davenport. Todd followed her example without hesitation.

"Now I'm sure that all of you are wondering what the special lab I have prepared for you today consists of." The lanky teacher began from her place at the front desk. "I can tell you've been waiting anxiously,"

"Yeah right!" came a sarcastic, anonymous remark from the back of the room. Mild laughter sounded from all corners of the dark classroom.

The Biology teacher ignored the snide remark as she continued her lecturing. "Today students, we will be… dissecting frogs!" She abruptly finished. A chorus of yuck, and nasty! followed the statement.

Todd's already-delicate-enough stomach did a 360. Todd hoped against hope that he could manage to keep his breakfast down. At least until they actually began the dissection! But why should it bother him anyway? I am the Toad after all. I'm vulgar, rude, I do nasty stuff! Why should frog dissection gross me out? He thought. Maybe it was his sympathetic feelings for the poor frogs that had to die in order for some stupid lab to take place. Poor frogs. I mean, its not like you even ever use that skill after high school. Well, I won't anyway, seeing as Mystique will probably have us robbing banks for a living. Todd amused himself at that interesting thought.

Ha, Toady's got a soft spot for animals! Wouldn't Duncan love to tease me bout that. In fact, Todd was a very empathetic and sensitive teenager. Only those closest to him knew that fact though. Those few being the other members of his brotherhood family.

"Like, do I like, have too?" came a shrill remark from beside Todd. The whining plea causing him to jump a little out of his plastic seat.

The teacher ignored her comment. As she did for most student comments. Her answer was directed to the whole class, not even bothering to look at the valley girl beside him. "We will ALL be dissecting!" The forever irate Ms. Davenport dictated. She turned her gaze to the student seated closest to her own teacher's desk. Kirsten. "Kirsten will help me unload the frogs and equipment." The teacher quickly said, pointing a long, sharp-tipped nail at the cowering girl before her.

The curly headed girl's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. The surprise at her involuntary volunteering preventing any form of protest But like any obedient, wise, and life-valuing student, she robotically stood up and walked to the storage closet. After a second, Davenport followed her. Opening the door and helping her to pull out a large container. The container looked like a giant piece of Tupperware to Todd. large, translucent, plastic, and with a snap-on lid.

Todd's already wide eyes, widened even further at the sight of the containers contents. Inside of the large container were…frogs! But not just any dissection frogs. They were still alive! Alive and well in fact, by the looks of it. Kirsten, Kitty, and the rest of the astonished class mirrored Todd's horror stricken features flawlessly.

Davenport gave one of her trademark satanic smirks as she took the container from Kirsten, placing it on the nearest table. The table that faced the scratched up window at the front of the classroom. The only window in the whole godforsaken place. The frog's " enclosure " was filled about one quarter-way full with murky creek water. Inside its confines, nearly 11 large, green frogs swam frantically, trying in vain to escape the cage that held them. Climbing each others slimy back in their clumsy manner, then slipping right back off. Pushing and hitting the plastic barrier preventing them from freedom. A wave of pity immediately flooded the small boy's heart at the sight of the helpless creatures.

The rest of the class thought the same thing, but Todd was the first to voice the fact. He couldn't help himself. He had to say it. "Hey, those frogs are still alive, yo!"

"Yes," The evil one (as Todd often privately called his biology teacher ), hissed. " Todd-a, ever the observant one." She sardonically said. "As Todd-a has so brilliantly brought to our attention, the frogs ARE alive. For a purpose I may add."

I don't see the purpose in dissecting some live frog… Todd thought to himself.

The teacher's voice became louder still as she continued. Walking back in forth as she did so. "Before we begin the dissecting part of the lab, we are going to first test the effects of different pesticides on the frog. We will see the rate at which each sample kills, the way it kills, and when we dissect, we will see the effects on the organs."

Poisons? Death? Experimentation? That didn't sound too good to Todd. In fact, it reminded him a little too much of those mutant experimentation facilities he kept hearing rumors about. The thought sent shivers up and down his flexible spine. For Todd, it was one thing if the frog was already dead. That he could possibly force himself to deal with. But to have to kill the frogs himself, see the different kind of tortures induced by poisonous pesticides. No that was most unquestionably a whole different thing. It was just cruel. Cruel and disgusting.

The small mutant continued staring at the doomed amphibians. So intent he was, that he didn't even notice when the excited teacher called all the students to come follow her to the opposite side of the room. Were she would show them all how to use the poisons and how to inject them into the squirmy frogs. She seemed thoroughly excited by the prospect of poisoning innocent creatures.

Todd continued gazing at the animals before him. Their skin was wet and smooth looking. Their color a forest green. And they made little croaking and hiccupping noises, never staying quiet or still for even a moment. The pity grasped at Todd's heart once again, and he began grabbing the studded cuffs on his wrists again in a tick-ish manner.

Just then, Todd felt the faint rush of wind as a girls hand whooshed in front of his face, moving up and down, breaking his concentration. The boy was, needless to say, a little startled. He turned around to face his partner, Kitty. The female mutant placed the hand back on her denim clad hip and stared at him. "Are you going to, like, stand their all day? Or are you gonna, like, come join the rest of the class?" the brown haired valley girl questioned Todd in an exasperated tone, pointing her thumb over her shoulder.

The adolescent turned his head back to its former position, the frog container. Ignoring the girls behind him. Kitty followed her enemies gaze to the container.

"Like, what's wrong? Plotting out how to like, rescue one of your cousins?" Kitty meekly teased. She knew how he, well how everyone felt about the frogs. "Ya, ya know, I kind of like, feel sorry for the little things, you know?"

Todd nodded slightly at her sympathetic comment. Who knows, maybe even those X-Losers care about something other then themselves. But her considerate rambling had given him an idea. A crazy one, but one none the less. So he didn't need her over her with him any longer.

Kitty rolled her eyes again. And as if reading her partners mind she said: "Like, whatever Toa-Todd. At least one of us needs to know how to 'inject poisons'." With a last eye roll the ditzy girl ran over to the ring of freshmen around the table Ms. Davenport was teaching at. In fact, the teacher was so intent on her lecturing, she didn't seem to notice that her little Todd-a was now standing directly in front of the frog container. A devious look emerging on his pale face. But now, the teen's gaze was focused beyond the frog's prison. Past it, through the window by which it was placed.

He surveyed the familiar landscape that made up the very back of Bayville High. Once outside the window, it was only a yard or two of long un-mowed grass before you reached the beginnings of the woods. The dense uninhabited forest made up a sort of back wall to the school, disconnecting it from the busy streets and highways on the other side. It was a little getaway from the harsh realities of the world as well. No signs of civilization existed there, it was dark and forlorn looking on the outside. But once the forbidding wall of trees that masked it's true nature had been surpassed, it was a place of beauty. One of the last wild places in Bayville. Well except for the brotherhood's house on Saturday nights that is… but Todd had found refuge in its canopy many a time, and he knew that a few feet into the forest ran a good sized stream, lined with ferns and moss. It wasn't far back at all. Close in fact. Close enough for a few frogs to make it to in limited time…

Davenport's voice still yelled on about proper insertion technique and syringe disposal. Good, still busy. Todd thought. His long fingers crept slowly over the surface of the table, edging toward the frog container. His fingertips made contact and he gently pried the plastic lid off. Once off the mutant grabbed hold of the large box and began lowering it out the window.

Todd was caught by surprise at the weight of the thing. It was hard to lower out the window without dropping the whole thing. and the jumping and kicking of the frogs didn't help much either as he gritted his teeth in attempt to not fall out of the window.

Damn frogs, I'm trying to freaking help you, so just hold still!

He leaned further out the window, frogs in hands, balancing by just his abdomen on the windowsill. Almost there! He thought, he was even further out the window then ever, the container near the ground. If the teacher just didn't look over here for a few more seconds, then he could drop the frogs, and join the circle. No one would even know it was him. He hoped anyway. His eyes tried to find the teacher and locate her. Please just keep busy, Ms. D. Just keep on doing what your doing. Todd desperately willed her with his mind as he lowered the container to the ground. Just a few more inches to go…

"Mr. Tolensky!!" A seriously pissed sounding call came from behind the startled mutant. Todd dropped the container in fear. It was only a few inches from the ground, so the frogs weren't hurt. But once that thing hit the ground, it fell over. Sloshing creek water was quickly absorbed into the soil and the frogs ran wildly in the direction of the forest. They were free from Davenport's grasp at last! But Todd wasn't so lucky…


So after all was said and done, the frogs were safe, the lab canceled, and Todd sent to the Principals office. In Davenport's exact words: "Tolanskey! The principals office! NOW! Oh yeah, and detention for the rest of the school year!"

Kitty stood outside the door across the hallway from the exit. She could hear the angry and disapproving shouts coming from the room. They stopped suddenly and she stepped aside as the door opened, a boy was pushed out, and the door slammed again.

"Man, it's not like I committed a felony or something, yo." The dirty blond haired boy mumbled. Gathering himself as he was thrust out the door, the door that slammed behind him. He looked up in surprise at the familiar girl that stood beside the door. The freshmen scowled, the brows drawn together in irritation "What do you want, yo?" the disgruntled looking boy questioned as he continued on his way to the exit. Todd walked past the girl, not even looking at her as he shuffled down the hall.

"Wait up Todd!" Kitty called, running up behind the aggravated boy. Todd didn't stop, but he did slow down a little bit. Kitty jogged up beside the pouty boy, and began walking beside him. Though it was obvious she didn't enjoy being close to Todd two times in one day.

Todd stopped with a sigh of defeat. He turned his eyes to the girl, pivoting around on his sneakers. His large tired eyes said it all. He really didn't care anymore. Hell, he just freed some freaking frogs already today. Why not listen to one more reprimand. From an X-Man even.

Kitty blushed a little in embarrassment. "Like, I just wanted to say, I mean, like…" she stuttered. Her arms fluttering about in a futile search for explanation. Todd stared at the gray tiled floor. Waiting for the little valley girl to hurry up and let him go. Was it those people's goal in life to make him totally miserable?

"Um. It's just that…like. I thought it was sweet what you did." There she said it. Kitty looked intently at the boys shocked face. The shock soon turned to indignation and he scowled even more. Yep. They definitely wanted to make him miserable.

Kitty held her breath, then released it as Todd's scowl lessened into a smirk.

"Yeah, well, only three more weeks of school anyway. 28 days of detention ain't to bad, yo." Todd joked. God, these people really don't have any lives! Todd growled to himself mentally, his smirk hiding his disgust at the ditzy girl.

Kitty smiled. "Well, like…see you tomorrow I guess!" Kitty squeaked as she ran ahead of the amphibious boy. Who stood behind her with mouth open in wonderment. At how people could be so, so…annoying. But still, for an X-Man to actually compliment one of their so called enemies, who knows. Maybe there was hope for them after all.

Nah.

A smile came over his pale face as he watched the retreating book bag-clad back of Kitty. He opened his mouth wide, took a breath and…


Kitty walked out the double doors at the back of Bayville High in a much better mood then she did walking in. Imagine, she thought, the little slime ball doing something for someone else. Even if they were frogs. And he was practically related to them. Perhaps there is hope for him after all.

Maybe.

And so Kitty walked on, heading in the direction of her little ring of friends. Feeling rather proud of herself. Oblivious to the sticky green mess on her book bag.


Final authors note: Hey! It's done! So, what do you think? I kind of went of a little, I intended this to be a much lighter hearted comedy fic. It didn't turn out that way I guess. And just for clarification, I in NO WAY, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES INTENDED THIS TO BE A KITTY/TODD PAIRING! Its not, in case you can't tell. I just don't want anyone to think I would ever consider pairing Todd with Kitty. I know It really had no point or direction, but maybe someone out there enjoyed it. Well, please review!