Chapter Three
1 New Talents, New Allies
* * *
The one good thing about the first day of school was that it was a Friday, and on Saturday, Amera sat in the foyer tuning her electric guitar. Aykra came down the main stairway. "So, you came down here to tune your guitar?" Amera nodded in response. "Me too."
Amera looked up at Aykra. "Yeah? You play?"
Aykra nodded and pointed to a guitar in the corner. It hovered over to her. "My father's guitar. He taught me everything."
Amera ignored her then and continued tuning her guitar. "I never knew my father… My mother won't even tell us…" Just then she heard a *bamf* behind her. She stood and headed into the kitchen angrily.
"Well, well, the elf is awake at 9:30 in the morning?" Aykra teased the blue boy.
"Ja, I have to vatch a program on TV at 9:30… Vill you excuse me?" He bamfed into the kitchen, where Amera was now playing "In the Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. She ignored Kurt's presence. "Guten Tag, Fraulein." He received no response. "Amera? Vhat is the matter?"
The telephone rang and Amera answered it, still not speaking to Kurt. "Hello? Hi Pietro! Riding again today? I don't know…" Kurt had almost no control over his actions. He bamfed to the wall and disconnected the call. "Kurt!" Amera slammed the phone down. "What are you doing?!"
"You vere out late vith Pietro last night. Vhat vere you doing?"
"It's none of your business, Kurt! My business is my business! Pietro is my friend!" Amera yelled then began to cry. "I was expecting Danel to do this, but not me…" Amera got up and began to leave.
"Amera, I vas just…"
"You won the bet, Kurt. Pietro didn't join the X-Men. I joined the Brotherhood."
Kurt stood frozen and watched Amera storm away. When the door to the kitchen closed, Kurt didn't know what to do. He didn't understand her outburst, and he had no idea where his had come from. He looked at the floor sadly. "If she leaves, it vill be all my fault…" Kurt left the kitchen to be met with a smiling, almost laughing Amera. "Vhat! I thought you vere angry vith me!"
Amera laughed. "You believed that act? I didn't know that theater came to me that easily!"
Kurt gawked at her. "But… bu-bu-but…."
"Silly, it was just a prank me and Pietro planned out last night… I'm sorry you took it so seriously, I didn't mean anything by it."
"Of course, you and Pietro." Kurt growled. "Vhy is it alvays you two!? You've only been here for two days, and already…"
"Why, Kurt? Are you jealous or something?" Kurt growled as she kissed his cheek. "You ought to know me by now, Kurt."
"I've only known you for two days, and…"
"My point exactly. I'm not that hard to figure out," Amera said with a laugh. "You should know that I will crash wherever I am if I am tired."
"And you vere…"
"I was on the couch in the Rec Room. I came home at 10:00, just half an hour before curfew. I just wasn't in my bed."
"So you and Pietro…"
"Are friends."
"Nothing more?" Amera shook her head. "Vell, that's good."
Amera blushed. "What?"
Kurt blushed now, not meaning to tell her anything. "Because… I don't vant recruits to be influenced by the Brotherhood."
Amera frowned. "Oh." She looked over at Aykra with her guitar. "Wanna listen?"
"I've heard her play…"
Amera laughed. "No, I'll get Danel and we'll all jam together." She turned to go up the main stairway, then turned back apologetically. "Kurt, It was a test."
"Test? Vhat…"
"To see if you cared about me. Pietro had nothing to do with it. You really seem to have a genuine friendship with me. You may have known me for only two days, but you're already the best friend I've ever had."
Kurt watched as Amera went up stairs then turned to see Aykra. She was smiling at him. "She wanted to see your reaction to test your friendship. You did every thing right, trying to protect her, following her… You are her best friend Kurt. She just wanted to see if you knew it too." She suddenly had an idea and laughed.
"Vhat?"
"Can you sing?"
Kurt was still trying to suppress his earlier feelings. "Uh, I don't know how vell, but I could try… Vhy?"
"Well, we need a lead singer if all of us jam together, so…"
"So vhat are you getting at?"
Aykra laughed. "Jam with us!"
* * *
The five boys in Khadrim's room had stayed up all night, competing against each other at every fighting game any of them owned. Roberto was playing against Bobby at Mortal Kombat as Khadrim and Sam watched. Khadrim was next to play winner, and he was smiling. They were half-asleep, but still fought it out. Ray came in with a stack of about five more games and set them on top of the TV. He then fixed some of his strands of orange hair that were falling in his face. "My *yawn* turn yet?"
"Argh!" Bobby yelled as his character was knocked out. "Yours, Khadrim."
Khadrim smiled and took the controller with determination. They seemed like a group of close friends. Was he one of the guys?
* * *
"So what songs do you know?" Danel asked as she completed setting up her drum set in the Rec Room. "I have lyric sheets if you don't know many, and we can go online to get lyrics too, but this song choice is yours Kurt."
"Danel, chill. We have tons of music, alright?" Aykra was trying to get the young girl to calm herself.
Amera was daydreaming as she plugged in her guitar and she began playing the first song that popped into her head. Kurt turned around quickly. "I know that song!"
Amera snapped out of her daydream and stopped playing. "What?"
Kurt smiled. "It vas 'Truly Madly Deeply' by Savage Garden."
Amera blushed at the fact that she had been playing a love song. "Well, yeah, okay, um… Danel knows it too, but I don't know if Aykra…"
Aykra was sitting on the other side of Kurt. "I'm telepathic. I could get it from your head."
Amera kept blushing because inside her head was what she had been daydreaming about. (Naughty girl, huh?) "Er… I would prefer you using some sheet music…"
Aykra blushed too. She hadn't even thought of sheet music. "Okay…" She pulled her hair back in a ponytail as Amera pulled some sheet music from a huge gigantarous folder. (No, gigantarous is not a word. I made it up cuz it's cool.)
As they were about to start, Amera noticed Kurt seemed very nervous, although he didn't have to be. She laughed. "Kurt, its just a jam session. You don't have to sing. We just thought it would be fun."
"Ja, but I don't know about…" he trailed off as five very tired boys came in with every video game system imaginable. All of the musicians glanced at each other. The boys got through hooking up only two game systems before crashing right there. The awake people in the room burst out laughed. Kurt went over and ported each one to their respective rooms before bamfing back to the microphone. Just before starting, once again people came in. It was Jaime Matrix, a fourteen-year-old 8th grader with brown hair, brown eyes, and the ability to make replicas of himself. With him was a girl the same age, who had shoulder-length curly brown hair, blue eyes, and Kurt was very thankful that he had worn his image inducer that day.
"This is the Rec Room, where…" Jaime noticed the group had microphones and instruments. "You guys gonna be a band?
The group exchanged glances and all came up with the same answer. "No."
"Aww, that'd be sweet living with a local band…" They exchanged glances again, now starting to rethink their answer. "Any ways, this is my cousin Kylia Smith, and she talks to animals. She's gonna stay here with us." He pointed at each of the "band" as he introduced them to Kylia. "This is Kurt, Amera, Aykra, and Danel. They're new too, except Kurt."
Jaime looked back at the group. "Will you play for us?"
They finally started their song after Aykra switched her acoustic guitar for Danel's bass. Amera began with electric guitar, then the drums and bas joined in, and lastly Kurt. He was nervous again because instead of just the girls, he had an audience. "I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy, I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need…" By the end of the song, half of the students were in the Rec Room, and they were all speechless. Seconds later they began whooping and hollering. Evan ran around slapping fives with almost everyone in the room. Logan and Ororo Munroe, Evan's aunt and an instructor, came in with the portable phone near the end of the song, and who ever was on the phone got a show. "Amera, phone for ya."
She put down the guitar and grabbed the phone as she went into the hallway where it was much quieter. "Hello?"
Hey, It's Pietro… Was that you playing that?"
Amera blushed even though he couldn't see her. "Yeah, lead guitar…"
Pietro sounded nervous when he began talking again because he ran all of his words together. "Amera, I, uh, wanna ask you a question, since earlier Blue Boy unplugged the phone, I guess. Took this long for them to find out… Any way, um, I was wondering if…"
"If what, Pietro?"
"Well, I was wondering if maybe, since you came just a week before the, uh, Prom, that maybe you could maybe go with me?"
Amera wanted to laugh and faint at the same time, so she did neither. "To the… Prom? Me? Well, I, um… Yes?"
Pietro laughed. "Was that a question, or your answer?"
Amera fixed her voice to sound more mature and grown-up. "Yes, Pietro, I will go with you to the Prom."
"Woo-Hoo!" Pietro yelled, then he, obviously embarrassed, returned to the phone. "I guess I'll see you later then, right? You riding today? I'll meet you somewhere."
"Sure! Um, you wanna see a movie or something? Amera stood in the hall like an idiot and played with the hem on the bottom of her tank top.
"Alright. Hey, can you give the phone to Kitty? Lance wants to ask her to prom… OW!"
Amera laughed and at that exact moment, Kitty walked by. "Here. It's Lance."
Kitty walked off talking in her annoying preppy talk. Amera stood still for a few moments then shouted "Woo-Hoo!" She did a little happy dance as she turned to go back to the Rec Room, then saw Kurt standing at the doorway with a sad puppy dog look on his face. He went back in the Rec Room to get another song, ignoring his jealousy as Amera came back and put her guitar over her shoulder.
* * *
Amera rode up to the Bayville 30 theaters and easily found Pietro's bike in the parking lot. She parked hers next to his, then went to look for Pietro at the front. Pietro found her first. "So what do you wanna see?" he asked her. She looked at all the movie posters as they went inside.
Pietro took her hand in his as they walked to the ticket counter. Amera saw it, blushed, then looked at Pietro's face. He blushed too, and they both smiled at each other. "Aww, how cute. Yo guys! Looky here! Quick's got a Little Girlfriend! Oooooooh." Todd Tolensky was a toady little freshman who smelled worse than a skunk that bathed in cow manure. He was a few feet behind them with a blonde girl who was rather rude and obnoxious, Tabitha Smith, and Freddy Dukes, a human demolition ball. Pietro hadn't noticed them when they had first walked in. Todd hopped up to them. "Yo, you're the new girl from my Geometry class. Yeah, you were hangin' with Blue Boy all hour."
Tabitha scoffed. "Oh please. You hang with those geeks?"
Pietro let go of Amera's hand and pulled the three Brotherhood members aside. "She's an Xavier recruit, okay? Back off!"
"Great. You're gonna be just like Lance and grow a soft spot… or… somethin'," Freddy said with all the brainpower he could muster.
Pietro confronted him. "Yeah, and what's wrong with tryin' somethin' different?"
"You become a big fat loser, Speedy." Tabitha received a punch in the jaw before Pietro went back to the side of Amera. "You'll pay for that!" She stormed outside the theater with Freddy behind her.
"Yo, stickin' up for some X-geek is not cool, yo." Todd yelled as he left the theater as well.
Pietro mumbled under his breath, "It's better than living with Wanda." He turned back to Amera. "Sorry about that, my friends are jerks."
Amera leaned forward and took Pietro's hand before kissing him gently on the lips. "It's okay."
Pietro felt right then that he would do anything for Amera. "Sometimes they're major creeps."
"Pietro, if they're creeps, why don't you come to the institute?"
1 New Talents, New Allies
* * *
The one good thing about the first day of school was that it was a Friday, and on Saturday, Amera sat in the foyer tuning her electric guitar. Aykra came down the main stairway. "So, you came down here to tune your guitar?" Amera nodded in response. "Me too."
Amera looked up at Aykra. "Yeah? You play?"
Aykra nodded and pointed to a guitar in the corner. It hovered over to her. "My father's guitar. He taught me everything."
Amera ignored her then and continued tuning her guitar. "I never knew my father… My mother won't even tell us…" Just then she heard a *bamf* behind her. She stood and headed into the kitchen angrily.
"Well, well, the elf is awake at 9:30 in the morning?" Aykra teased the blue boy.
"Ja, I have to vatch a program on TV at 9:30… Vill you excuse me?" He bamfed into the kitchen, where Amera was now playing "In the Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. She ignored Kurt's presence. "Guten Tag, Fraulein." He received no response. "Amera? Vhat is the matter?"
The telephone rang and Amera answered it, still not speaking to Kurt. "Hello? Hi Pietro! Riding again today? I don't know…" Kurt had almost no control over his actions. He bamfed to the wall and disconnected the call. "Kurt!" Amera slammed the phone down. "What are you doing?!"
"You vere out late vith Pietro last night. Vhat vere you doing?"
"It's none of your business, Kurt! My business is my business! Pietro is my friend!" Amera yelled then began to cry. "I was expecting Danel to do this, but not me…" Amera got up and began to leave.
"Amera, I vas just…"
"You won the bet, Kurt. Pietro didn't join the X-Men. I joined the Brotherhood."
Kurt stood frozen and watched Amera storm away. When the door to the kitchen closed, Kurt didn't know what to do. He didn't understand her outburst, and he had no idea where his had come from. He looked at the floor sadly. "If she leaves, it vill be all my fault…" Kurt left the kitchen to be met with a smiling, almost laughing Amera. "Vhat! I thought you vere angry vith me!"
Amera laughed. "You believed that act? I didn't know that theater came to me that easily!"
Kurt gawked at her. "But… bu-bu-but…."
"Silly, it was just a prank me and Pietro planned out last night… I'm sorry you took it so seriously, I didn't mean anything by it."
"Of course, you and Pietro." Kurt growled. "Vhy is it alvays you two!? You've only been here for two days, and already…"
"Why, Kurt? Are you jealous or something?" Kurt growled as she kissed his cheek. "You ought to know me by now, Kurt."
"I've only known you for two days, and…"
"My point exactly. I'm not that hard to figure out," Amera said with a laugh. "You should know that I will crash wherever I am if I am tired."
"And you vere…"
"I was on the couch in the Rec Room. I came home at 10:00, just half an hour before curfew. I just wasn't in my bed."
"So you and Pietro…"
"Are friends."
"Nothing more?" Amera shook her head. "Vell, that's good."
Amera blushed. "What?"
Kurt blushed now, not meaning to tell her anything. "Because… I don't vant recruits to be influenced by the Brotherhood."
Amera frowned. "Oh." She looked over at Aykra with her guitar. "Wanna listen?"
"I've heard her play…"
Amera laughed. "No, I'll get Danel and we'll all jam together." She turned to go up the main stairway, then turned back apologetically. "Kurt, It was a test."
"Test? Vhat…"
"To see if you cared about me. Pietro had nothing to do with it. You really seem to have a genuine friendship with me. You may have known me for only two days, but you're already the best friend I've ever had."
Kurt watched as Amera went up stairs then turned to see Aykra. She was smiling at him. "She wanted to see your reaction to test your friendship. You did every thing right, trying to protect her, following her… You are her best friend Kurt. She just wanted to see if you knew it too." She suddenly had an idea and laughed.
"Vhat?"
"Can you sing?"
Kurt was still trying to suppress his earlier feelings. "Uh, I don't know how vell, but I could try… Vhy?"
"Well, we need a lead singer if all of us jam together, so…"
"So vhat are you getting at?"
Aykra laughed. "Jam with us!"
* * *
The five boys in Khadrim's room had stayed up all night, competing against each other at every fighting game any of them owned. Roberto was playing against Bobby at Mortal Kombat as Khadrim and Sam watched. Khadrim was next to play winner, and he was smiling. They were half-asleep, but still fought it out. Ray came in with a stack of about five more games and set them on top of the TV. He then fixed some of his strands of orange hair that were falling in his face. "My *yawn* turn yet?"
"Argh!" Bobby yelled as his character was knocked out. "Yours, Khadrim."
Khadrim smiled and took the controller with determination. They seemed like a group of close friends. Was he one of the guys?
* * *
"So what songs do you know?" Danel asked as she completed setting up her drum set in the Rec Room. "I have lyric sheets if you don't know many, and we can go online to get lyrics too, but this song choice is yours Kurt."
"Danel, chill. We have tons of music, alright?" Aykra was trying to get the young girl to calm herself.
Amera was daydreaming as she plugged in her guitar and she began playing the first song that popped into her head. Kurt turned around quickly. "I know that song!"
Amera snapped out of her daydream and stopped playing. "What?"
Kurt smiled. "It vas 'Truly Madly Deeply' by Savage Garden."
Amera blushed at the fact that she had been playing a love song. "Well, yeah, okay, um… Danel knows it too, but I don't know if Aykra…"
Aykra was sitting on the other side of Kurt. "I'm telepathic. I could get it from your head."
Amera kept blushing because inside her head was what she had been daydreaming about. (Naughty girl, huh?) "Er… I would prefer you using some sheet music…"
Aykra blushed too. She hadn't even thought of sheet music. "Okay…" She pulled her hair back in a ponytail as Amera pulled some sheet music from a huge gigantarous folder. (No, gigantarous is not a word. I made it up cuz it's cool.)
As they were about to start, Amera noticed Kurt seemed very nervous, although he didn't have to be. She laughed. "Kurt, its just a jam session. You don't have to sing. We just thought it would be fun."
"Ja, but I don't know about…" he trailed off as five very tired boys came in with every video game system imaginable. All of the musicians glanced at each other. The boys got through hooking up only two game systems before crashing right there. The awake people in the room burst out laughed. Kurt went over and ported each one to their respective rooms before bamfing back to the microphone. Just before starting, once again people came in. It was Jaime Matrix, a fourteen-year-old 8th grader with brown hair, brown eyes, and the ability to make replicas of himself. With him was a girl the same age, who had shoulder-length curly brown hair, blue eyes, and Kurt was very thankful that he had worn his image inducer that day.
"This is the Rec Room, where…" Jaime noticed the group had microphones and instruments. "You guys gonna be a band?
The group exchanged glances and all came up with the same answer. "No."
"Aww, that'd be sweet living with a local band…" They exchanged glances again, now starting to rethink their answer. "Any ways, this is my cousin Kylia Smith, and she talks to animals. She's gonna stay here with us." He pointed at each of the "band" as he introduced them to Kylia. "This is Kurt, Amera, Aykra, and Danel. They're new too, except Kurt."
Jaime looked back at the group. "Will you play for us?"
They finally started their song after Aykra switched her acoustic guitar for Danel's bass. Amera began with electric guitar, then the drums and bas joined in, and lastly Kurt. He was nervous again because instead of just the girls, he had an audience. "I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy, I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need…" By the end of the song, half of the students were in the Rec Room, and they were all speechless. Seconds later they began whooping and hollering. Evan ran around slapping fives with almost everyone in the room. Logan and Ororo Munroe, Evan's aunt and an instructor, came in with the portable phone near the end of the song, and who ever was on the phone got a show. "Amera, phone for ya."
She put down the guitar and grabbed the phone as she went into the hallway where it was much quieter. "Hello?"
Hey, It's Pietro… Was that you playing that?"
Amera blushed even though he couldn't see her. "Yeah, lead guitar…"
Pietro sounded nervous when he began talking again because he ran all of his words together. "Amera, I, uh, wanna ask you a question, since earlier Blue Boy unplugged the phone, I guess. Took this long for them to find out… Any way, um, I was wondering if…"
"If what, Pietro?"
"Well, I was wondering if maybe, since you came just a week before the, uh, Prom, that maybe you could maybe go with me?"
Amera wanted to laugh and faint at the same time, so she did neither. "To the… Prom? Me? Well, I, um… Yes?"
Pietro laughed. "Was that a question, or your answer?"
Amera fixed her voice to sound more mature and grown-up. "Yes, Pietro, I will go with you to the Prom."
"Woo-Hoo!" Pietro yelled, then he, obviously embarrassed, returned to the phone. "I guess I'll see you later then, right? You riding today? I'll meet you somewhere."
"Sure! Um, you wanna see a movie or something? Amera stood in the hall like an idiot and played with the hem on the bottom of her tank top.
"Alright. Hey, can you give the phone to Kitty? Lance wants to ask her to prom… OW!"
Amera laughed and at that exact moment, Kitty walked by. "Here. It's Lance."
Kitty walked off talking in her annoying preppy talk. Amera stood still for a few moments then shouted "Woo-Hoo!" She did a little happy dance as she turned to go back to the Rec Room, then saw Kurt standing at the doorway with a sad puppy dog look on his face. He went back in the Rec Room to get another song, ignoring his jealousy as Amera came back and put her guitar over her shoulder.
* * *
Amera rode up to the Bayville 30 theaters and easily found Pietro's bike in the parking lot. She parked hers next to his, then went to look for Pietro at the front. Pietro found her first. "So what do you wanna see?" he asked her. She looked at all the movie posters as they went inside.
Pietro took her hand in his as they walked to the ticket counter. Amera saw it, blushed, then looked at Pietro's face. He blushed too, and they both smiled at each other. "Aww, how cute. Yo guys! Looky here! Quick's got a Little Girlfriend! Oooooooh." Todd Tolensky was a toady little freshman who smelled worse than a skunk that bathed in cow manure. He was a few feet behind them with a blonde girl who was rather rude and obnoxious, Tabitha Smith, and Freddy Dukes, a human demolition ball. Pietro hadn't noticed them when they had first walked in. Todd hopped up to them. "Yo, you're the new girl from my Geometry class. Yeah, you were hangin' with Blue Boy all hour."
Tabitha scoffed. "Oh please. You hang with those geeks?"
Pietro let go of Amera's hand and pulled the three Brotherhood members aside. "She's an Xavier recruit, okay? Back off!"
"Great. You're gonna be just like Lance and grow a soft spot… or… somethin'," Freddy said with all the brainpower he could muster.
Pietro confronted him. "Yeah, and what's wrong with tryin' somethin' different?"
"You become a big fat loser, Speedy." Tabitha received a punch in the jaw before Pietro went back to the side of Amera. "You'll pay for that!" She stormed outside the theater with Freddy behind her.
"Yo, stickin' up for some X-geek is not cool, yo." Todd yelled as he left the theater as well.
Pietro mumbled under his breath, "It's better than living with Wanda." He turned back to Amera. "Sorry about that, my friends are jerks."
Amera leaned forward and took Pietro's hand before kissing him gently on the lips. "It's okay."
Pietro felt right then that he would do anything for Amera. "Sometimes they're major creeps."
"Pietro, if they're creeps, why don't you come to the institute?"