Disclaimer!!! X-Men Evolution belongs to Marvel Comics and the Kids WB. I do not own it in any way shape or form, nor do I intend to make any money off of this thing. It's for everyone's enjoyment (at least I hope ;) and that's all. The characters belong to their respective creators, and are used with permission. Yay! Fun! Enjoy! Okay, let's see... if you are in the fic, please tell me if I'm portraying your character correctly, if there's any plot suggestions (can't guarantee I'll use them, but I'll consider everything), or any complaints or suggestions at all. Okay, that's all, I'm done, have fun. :) Also... if you're in this fic and you're reading, -please review-. I cannot stress this enough. There should be at least fifteen reviews so far, up to chapter two. I need your opinions and thoughts if you want me to continue this! n_n Thank you, Ring Wraith -- I was afraid people might not realize there was a new story. ^_^
However, I'm giving everyone a warning: if you haven't reviewed at all, the possibility that your character will die shoots up dramatically. ^_~ I'm not promising anything, but I'm just saying that if you haven't given me -any- feedback at all... be worried. -.-
"Do we have to?" Rafe wanted to know.
"Yes," said Lee, "It's part of the curriculum."
"But I don't like it."
"Rafe, the little kid act is -not- appealing."
He wrinkled his nose at her, and finally sighed deeply. "I hate fighting."
"I know you do, Rafe, but you need to learn."
"Why?"
"Those of us with more non-combatative powers have to learn how to defend ourselves. Or would you rather let mutant haters tear you apart? I'm going to attack you. I want you to defend yourself."
Rafe examined her seriously for a moment. Both of them were dressed in loose fitting sweats, and Lee had taken off her glasses and put in contacts. Her face looked quite different. She stared back at him for a long second and then kicked him in the stomach, knocking him over onto the ground despite his superior height. He sat there bemusedly, rubbing his stomach as he did so. "But... I don't want to fight you."
"Why me?"
"Well... I don't like to hit girls," he said. Lee sighed. Coming from any other person, that would sound incredibly sexist and just -wrong-. Rafe, however, was actually sincere, as odd as that sounded. She extended a hand to help him up, which he accepted, hopping to his feet and rubbing his stomach reflexively.
"A warning, Rafe: you might not want to hit girls, but girls will have no qualms about hitting you." Lee took the opportunity to pull her hair back with a rubber band, ignoring the fact that it'd be very tangled within a short period of time.
"It just seems wrong," he attempted to explain something which was nearly impossible to put into words. "My parents told me to treat women properly, and I do."
"Rafe, Froissart died five hundred years ago. Chivalry is clearly dead. Now try to hit me, or I'll kick you in the face."
"But you'd break my glasses!"
"That's the -point-, Rafe, you -want- to break the other person's glasses. You fight because you want to hurt someone, or someone's trying to hurt you."
"I don't like this..."
"That's not the point. If you don't fucking try to hit me, I'll kick you in the face," she repeated.
Sighing deeply, he wrapped his fingers into a ball and punched her in the stomach. Lee had been taking karate, since she was old enough for her parents to sign her up for a peewee sport, and it was long, long years of training that enabled her to keep a wince from her face. "Good," she squeaked, breath coming a bit short, "That's very good. Okay, let's spar."
Across the room, Rán was having better luck with her trainees. Ali proved almost too eager, and the short blonde woman found herself holding the winged teen back more than once. "This is just practice," she said sternly, as a pair of golden eyes stared up at her unrepentantly, "Not a street brawl."
"But that's how I know how to fight," Ali said innocently. "I can also use a gun, if you've got them."
"I heard that," Mark's voice came from the hallway, "-No guns-."
"What if I'm attacked by mutant haters?"
"Then you get away however you can," Rán said. "Don't argue with me, girl!"
"Don't call me girl!" Ali snapped, and tried to punch her in the chest. Rán's arm shot out faster than Ali could react, grabbing the girl by the arm. She gripped hard, fingers crunching down on the tendons of Ali's wrist. The girl's fist was forced open as she attempted to writhe away.
"Ow! -You're hurting me!-"
"Never," said Rán, with deceptively silky tones, all oil and venom, "Never ever hit me unless I want you to." She let go of Ali's wrist, face completely calm and placid.
Rubbing her wrist sullenly, Ali nodded compliance.
"Now," Rán said, more cheerfully (although for her, "cheerful" sounded like she was happily preparing for her enemy's funeral), "Why don't you find someone to spar with?"
"Darien!" Ali said, as though seeing him for the first time. She snatched him by the arm before he could get away, dragging him over to a more secluded portion of the room, the better to practice. "Let's see what you've got."
"...well... I've got a pair of sweats that are too large," the boy said after a moment's pause. Ali thought that perhaps she was imagining it, but there might have been the tiny ghost of a smile on Wraith's face. Whatever it had been was gone in a second.
"No, no, I meant how you can fight."
Darien gave her what the other students had already termed "the look" - it seemed as though he was staring right through her. "I just ghost away."
"Haven't you heard that whole argument with Rafe and Lee? C'mon! Put 'em up!" she said playfully, bouncing up and down and waving her fists in front of him. It looked extremely silly. Unfortunately, Darien was rarely in the mood for "silly." He sighed, and tried to escape, but he was herded back into position by a passing Jenna.
"If we have to fight, you do too," she said, and was promptly snatched away by Rán, under protest.
Across the room, Lee was finding that her charge remained recalcitrant. "Rafe, I don't want to have to argue with you!"
"But I don't want to!"
"We know! You told me! Numerous times! Now," Lee said, reforming his fingers, "You want to keep your thumb on the -outside- of the first. If you've got it on the inside, you can break it..."
"So that's why punches always hurt..."
"Yeah," Lee said, "It tends to be kind of uncomfortable. Okay. Now that you've got your thumbs in place, punch straight - no, no, don't jerk your arm like that, you want a smooth motion. Smooth!"
Rafe looked at her mournfully, letting the arm she wasn't holding onto flop limp at his sides. "This is revenge for kitchen cleaning, isn't it?"
"Maybe," Lee said with a feral grin.
"You don't like me. Nobody likes me."
Lee was about to scream with frustration. She dropped his hand, despairing of getting the teen to punch correctly, and said, "I love you, Rafe, marry me?"
"What?!"
"You see? We like you. We really do. That was a joke, by the way."
"...Phew. Good. I'm too young to marry."
"Now PUNCH." His punch, when he attempted it again, was still a little too jerky for Lee's taste. She had him correct it and try again, and wasn't satisfied with that, either. Although she was a perfectionist in almost nothing, fighting was one thing Lee Nelson did well and watched for in the other students - she was Rán's assistant teacher, something that the blonde woman found infinitely amusing, since otherwise, Lee was the despair of teachers both in the Institute and at Casimir Pulaski High School.
"I'll never get it right..."
"You won't if you don't try!"
"What's Mark's power, anyway?" Joey Jacobson asked Cam, as the two boys stood side by side, punching carefully at the skulls of human-sized dummies.
"Uh, he stretches," said Cam, wringing his fist after it connected painfully with the support bar.
"He what?"
"He's, you know, flexible."
"Cooool. The human rubber band man."
"Like that one shot of Keanu Reeves in the Matrix - when he leans backwards and they're shooting? Mark can do tha-- Oh, shit!" Cam's dummy abruptly was missing a head. "Rán?"
"What is it, Cameron?" The woman sounded tired, as though the effort of getting all those nasty little children doing the right thing at the right time was too much for her - and she made it sound like Cam was the worst offender of the group.
"My dummy broke," he said sheepishly.
"-Again-? What are you -doing- to those things?"
"Nothing! It's my mutation, I swear!"
She looked at him suspiciously, but went to the intercom and asked Mark to bring in another one from the storage room. "Fine. Fine, I'll replace it. But this is your -last one-," she said.
"Okay, okay, I know."
"Look, soccer!" Nikki giggled, as she kicked the dummy's head across the room. Unfortunately for her, it hit Rán in the back of the head while the woman was turned around and watching Rafe's progress. She turned around, rubbing what would soon be a large bump, and glared at the girl, who smiled cheerfully at her and yelled, "Goal!"
"Stop that!!" Rán growled, "All of you! Stop playing around!"
"I tried to tell 'em, Rán, but they just aren't as responsible as I am," Lee told the woman seriously.
They all watched as Rán's face turned red. It purpled in swirls of color, little rosettes of anger that dotted her beautiful features. Her lips pressed together as though determined not to say a word. The blood directly around them drained away and she looked as though she were going to scream. They all stood in silence until the petite instructor stormed out of the room. The kids raised their eyebrows curiously at each other.
Cam started to open his mouth, but Ali held up a hand, indicating silence. She pointed to the door; voices could be heard. It was Rán and Mark.
"I -quit-!"
"You can't quit, Rán, we're in this too deep. You can't pull out now."
"Not out of it altogether! Just out of this stinking school! They must have fucking something useful for me to do!"
"...Shh. They'll hear."
"I don't care if the little brats hear!"
"Be logical, please!"
Their voices faded away, and the students looked at each other, perplexed.
"I wonder what all that was about?" Joey asked.
X
Nighttime. The crickets outside kept Nikki awake, normally, her fairly acute hearing picking up the noises - of course, Ali's radio turned up loudly wasn't helping, either. "It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back!" it screamed in angst-ridden tones, "It's like a whirlwind inside of my head! It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within! It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin!"
Nikki pulled her pillow over her head. "Ali?"
"What?" Ali snapped, golden eyes and tiny fangs both looking quite sharp, in their different ways.
"...D' you have to put the radio on so loud?"
"I -like- Linkin Park."
"They're almost pop stars!"
"Oh, like -Creed- is any better," Ali sneered. "Scott Stapp has a Jesus complex."
"Look, can you just turn it down so I can go to sleep?"
"No."
"TURN IT DOWN!" someone else yelled, from another room, and Ali sighed, turning the music down to a reasonable level.
"Sheesh," she muttered, "It's not like it's that bad..."
Nikki sighed - she missed her Grandfather, and the peaceful existence of their cabin. There was so much to get used to, here, and it was taking so long to do it. Small snores from across the room told her that Ali had already fallen asleep. Closing her eyes tightly, Nikki attempted to do the same... It was hard, and she was still sore from practicing. After a ten-minute break, in which they all assumed she was counting to a hundred, Rán had come back into the room, and worked them all until they were sore and wincing. The only one who'd seemed remotely cheerful after the punishing workout was Lee Nelson, who irritated everyone by bouncing around and asking when they could do it again.
She had wanted to go to sleep a half an hour ago, but Ali's music had made it impossible to do so. A thought popped into Nikki's head, and she smiled wickedly: she had a nice plan for revenge, ready to carry out in the morning. Leaning over, she set her alarm clock's volume very low, and for 4:00. Tomorrow was a school day, so everyone would be waking up earlier.
She smiled to herself as she drifted off to sleep. Ali wouldn't know what hit her.
X
"...beep beep... beep beep..." the alarm pinged quietly near Nikki's head, waking her, but not her roommate. The girl squirmed out from underneath the covers, plugging in her own CD player and putting a CD into it. She turned the volume knob up as far as it would go, fast-forwarded to a good part of the first song, and dragged the machine within arm's reach of Ali's bed. Catching her breath, Nikki counted to ten.
At ten, she ripped off Ali's covers and hit 'play.' "BRUTA, CIEGA, SORDOMUDA," the CD boomed, "TORPE, TRASTE, TESTARUDA!! ES TODO LO QUE SIDO! POR TI ME HE CONVERTIDO!"
"Wha?" Ali said, rolling out of bed, "Fire!"
Doors slammed all over the Institute, and people yelled things like, "What's going on?" "What's that noise?" "It's coming from Ali and Nikki's room!"
"NIKKI!!" Ali shrieked, "TURN THAT OFF!"
Nikki obliged, grinning widely at her irate fellow student. "You don't like Shakira?" she asked, "But it's -good- music..."
Rafe and Cam appeared in the doorway, both in boxers, and both looking rather dazed and confused. In fact, Rafe looked like he was still half asleep. "Là où est le feu?" he asked, and then blinked abruptly. "Êtes vous blesses?"
"-I'm- fine," Nikki said cheerfully, "It's a beautiful morning!"
"My fucking ears are bleeding!" Ali complained, rubbing the injured appendages.
"Uh, if no one needs me, I'm going to try and go back to sleep," Cam said, yawning.
"Je trop."
"Well," Nikki said to Ali, "Don't you think that it's a beautiful morning?"
"Fuck it," Ali grumbled, "I'm going back to bed."
Nikki grinned again, quite pleased with the way her prank had worked - quite pleased indeed.
X
Darien was a little worried. In the city, you could lose yourself and no one would look for you. There were too many skinny fifteen year olds for a Good Samaritan to worry about; too many other lost causes for anyone to notice. Just shrink like a turtle inside your clothes, and they left you alone. At school it would be different. Teachers expected you to show up for class.
Kids would want to talk.
He didn't really have a choice. It was the Institute or foster homes. Or the streets, again. That's what he told himself, trying to convince himself to go.
"Come on, Darien," Ali said, poking her head into the room, "We're going to be late!" He noticed that she had green eyes today - must be colored contacts. He wondered idly why he didn't do the same thing... and then he realized there wasn't much of a point. He'd get picked on anyway, hair, height, and weight, he stuck out.
He also noticed that she was a lot friendlier to him than she was to the rest of the school. Odd. He really didn't think there was anything about his personality to merit that, but a friendly face... well... it was welcome sometimes? Painfully shy as he was, even Darien couldn't cut himself off from the human race completely. Instead, he nodded and let her lead him down to the front lobby, where the rest of the kids were waiting.
Mark moved between them like a broody mother hen, making sure they had their lunches, checking to see that their clothes were appropriate, wishing them good luck on the first day of the school year. Darien was somewhat amused by the man's attitude, he was infinitely more motherly than the pale-headed Rán, who stood off to the side with her arms folded over her chest, scowling.
"Mark, just let them go already," she ordered.
"I'm just trying to make sure everything's fine," he said, sounding hurt.
"They're not babies," she told him.
The kids left while they argued and headed down to the bus stop. "Phew!" Jenna said, "I feel sorry for him, having to be with -her- all day."
"Maybe she's nicer to him than she is to us," Nikki suggested.
"I don't think 'nice' is an option, with her," Lee said, shaking her head.
Darien didn't say anything, but he didn't have to fight to keep himself from disappearing, either...
X
They piled onto the bus, which was already quite crowded. Jenna Sintor searched frantically for a seat alone, but the brown bench-like contraptions, complete with sagging fake leather, were almost all filled. She dove for an empty space when she saw it, relieved - until Lee Nelson sat down next to her. "What are you doing?!" she hissed.
"Uh, I'm sitting down?" Lee guessed.
"Go find another seat!" Jenna snarled.
Lee blinked at her, and settled into the chair more comfortably. "But they're all taken!"
"Argh!"
Across the aisle, Rafe had managed to find a seat with a blonde girl wearing a Hello Kitty tee. She smiled at him. "Hi!" She looked perky. Her hair was perky. Her voice was perky. "I'm Melanie. Are you new here?"
"Oui," he told her, with a smile.
"Cute -and- French! I'm in love!"
"Oh, gross," Nikki snickered, from behind them, "Watch it, Lothario, I hear that drool doesn't come off of shoes."
"I'm not--" Melanie said.
"I'm terribly sorry," said Rafe. "I don't know her--"
"Yes you do," Nikki said perversely, with a charming smile on her face, "We live together. Remember?"
Although Joey found a seat next to a cute guy, the proximity of a nice smile and sharp cheekbones only reminded him of Dustin. He sighed, and turned his head away, staring out the window somewhat wistfully. Focus on the scenery, and you can forget... However, he was thwarted even in that attempt; the "scenery" consisted mostly of cityscape, now that they were out of the suburbs and heading towards their school.
Cam ended up sitting next to a very large, scary looking gorilla in a camouflage shirt that said, "Now you can't see me." The other kid took up most of the seat, and he was squeezed against the wall of the bus as he attempted to gain some extra breathing space. Jesus! he thought, frustrated, watching Melanie trying to flirt and slightly envious of Rafe's situation.
Some people had all the luck.
However, I'm giving everyone a warning: if you haven't reviewed at all, the possibility that your character will die shoots up dramatically. ^_~ I'm not promising anything, but I'm just saying that if you haven't given me -any- feedback at all... be worried. -.-
"Do we have to?" Rafe wanted to know.
"Yes," said Lee, "It's part of the curriculum."
"But I don't like it."
"Rafe, the little kid act is -not- appealing."
He wrinkled his nose at her, and finally sighed deeply. "I hate fighting."
"I know you do, Rafe, but you need to learn."
"Why?"
"Those of us with more non-combatative powers have to learn how to defend ourselves. Or would you rather let mutant haters tear you apart? I'm going to attack you. I want you to defend yourself."
Rafe examined her seriously for a moment. Both of them were dressed in loose fitting sweats, and Lee had taken off her glasses and put in contacts. Her face looked quite different. She stared back at him for a long second and then kicked him in the stomach, knocking him over onto the ground despite his superior height. He sat there bemusedly, rubbing his stomach as he did so. "But... I don't want to fight you."
"Why me?"
"Well... I don't like to hit girls," he said. Lee sighed. Coming from any other person, that would sound incredibly sexist and just -wrong-. Rafe, however, was actually sincere, as odd as that sounded. She extended a hand to help him up, which he accepted, hopping to his feet and rubbing his stomach reflexively.
"A warning, Rafe: you might not want to hit girls, but girls will have no qualms about hitting you." Lee took the opportunity to pull her hair back with a rubber band, ignoring the fact that it'd be very tangled within a short period of time.
"It just seems wrong," he attempted to explain something which was nearly impossible to put into words. "My parents told me to treat women properly, and I do."
"Rafe, Froissart died five hundred years ago. Chivalry is clearly dead. Now try to hit me, or I'll kick you in the face."
"But you'd break my glasses!"
"That's the -point-, Rafe, you -want- to break the other person's glasses. You fight because you want to hurt someone, or someone's trying to hurt you."
"I don't like this..."
"That's not the point. If you don't fucking try to hit me, I'll kick you in the face," she repeated.
Sighing deeply, he wrapped his fingers into a ball and punched her in the stomach. Lee had been taking karate, since she was old enough for her parents to sign her up for a peewee sport, and it was long, long years of training that enabled her to keep a wince from her face. "Good," she squeaked, breath coming a bit short, "That's very good. Okay, let's spar."
Across the room, Rán was having better luck with her trainees. Ali proved almost too eager, and the short blonde woman found herself holding the winged teen back more than once. "This is just practice," she said sternly, as a pair of golden eyes stared up at her unrepentantly, "Not a street brawl."
"But that's how I know how to fight," Ali said innocently. "I can also use a gun, if you've got them."
"I heard that," Mark's voice came from the hallway, "-No guns-."
"What if I'm attacked by mutant haters?"
"Then you get away however you can," Rán said. "Don't argue with me, girl!"
"Don't call me girl!" Ali snapped, and tried to punch her in the chest. Rán's arm shot out faster than Ali could react, grabbing the girl by the arm. She gripped hard, fingers crunching down on the tendons of Ali's wrist. The girl's fist was forced open as she attempted to writhe away.
"Ow! -You're hurting me!-"
"Never," said Rán, with deceptively silky tones, all oil and venom, "Never ever hit me unless I want you to." She let go of Ali's wrist, face completely calm and placid.
Rubbing her wrist sullenly, Ali nodded compliance.
"Now," Rán said, more cheerfully (although for her, "cheerful" sounded like she was happily preparing for her enemy's funeral), "Why don't you find someone to spar with?"
"Darien!" Ali said, as though seeing him for the first time. She snatched him by the arm before he could get away, dragging him over to a more secluded portion of the room, the better to practice. "Let's see what you've got."
"...well... I've got a pair of sweats that are too large," the boy said after a moment's pause. Ali thought that perhaps she was imagining it, but there might have been the tiny ghost of a smile on Wraith's face. Whatever it had been was gone in a second.
"No, no, I meant how you can fight."
Darien gave her what the other students had already termed "the look" - it seemed as though he was staring right through her. "I just ghost away."
"Haven't you heard that whole argument with Rafe and Lee? C'mon! Put 'em up!" she said playfully, bouncing up and down and waving her fists in front of him. It looked extremely silly. Unfortunately, Darien was rarely in the mood for "silly." He sighed, and tried to escape, but he was herded back into position by a passing Jenna.
"If we have to fight, you do too," she said, and was promptly snatched away by Rán, under protest.
Across the room, Lee was finding that her charge remained recalcitrant. "Rafe, I don't want to have to argue with you!"
"But I don't want to!"
"We know! You told me! Numerous times! Now," Lee said, reforming his fingers, "You want to keep your thumb on the -outside- of the first. If you've got it on the inside, you can break it..."
"So that's why punches always hurt..."
"Yeah," Lee said, "It tends to be kind of uncomfortable. Okay. Now that you've got your thumbs in place, punch straight - no, no, don't jerk your arm like that, you want a smooth motion. Smooth!"
Rafe looked at her mournfully, letting the arm she wasn't holding onto flop limp at his sides. "This is revenge for kitchen cleaning, isn't it?"
"Maybe," Lee said with a feral grin.
"You don't like me. Nobody likes me."
Lee was about to scream with frustration. She dropped his hand, despairing of getting the teen to punch correctly, and said, "I love you, Rafe, marry me?"
"What?!"
"You see? We like you. We really do. That was a joke, by the way."
"...Phew. Good. I'm too young to marry."
"Now PUNCH." His punch, when he attempted it again, was still a little too jerky for Lee's taste. She had him correct it and try again, and wasn't satisfied with that, either. Although she was a perfectionist in almost nothing, fighting was one thing Lee Nelson did well and watched for in the other students - she was Rán's assistant teacher, something that the blonde woman found infinitely amusing, since otherwise, Lee was the despair of teachers both in the Institute and at Casimir Pulaski High School.
"I'll never get it right..."
"You won't if you don't try!"
"What's Mark's power, anyway?" Joey Jacobson asked Cam, as the two boys stood side by side, punching carefully at the skulls of human-sized dummies.
"Uh, he stretches," said Cam, wringing his fist after it connected painfully with the support bar.
"He what?"
"He's, you know, flexible."
"Cooool. The human rubber band man."
"Like that one shot of Keanu Reeves in the Matrix - when he leans backwards and they're shooting? Mark can do tha-- Oh, shit!" Cam's dummy abruptly was missing a head. "Rán?"
"What is it, Cameron?" The woman sounded tired, as though the effort of getting all those nasty little children doing the right thing at the right time was too much for her - and she made it sound like Cam was the worst offender of the group.
"My dummy broke," he said sheepishly.
"-Again-? What are you -doing- to those things?"
"Nothing! It's my mutation, I swear!"
She looked at him suspiciously, but went to the intercom and asked Mark to bring in another one from the storage room. "Fine. Fine, I'll replace it. But this is your -last one-," she said.
"Okay, okay, I know."
"Look, soccer!" Nikki giggled, as she kicked the dummy's head across the room. Unfortunately for her, it hit Rán in the back of the head while the woman was turned around and watching Rafe's progress. She turned around, rubbing what would soon be a large bump, and glared at the girl, who smiled cheerfully at her and yelled, "Goal!"
"Stop that!!" Rán growled, "All of you! Stop playing around!"
"I tried to tell 'em, Rán, but they just aren't as responsible as I am," Lee told the woman seriously.
They all watched as Rán's face turned red. It purpled in swirls of color, little rosettes of anger that dotted her beautiful features. Her lips pressed together as though determined not to say a word. The blood directly around them drained away and she looked as though she were going to scream. They all stood in silence until the petite instructor stormed out of the room. The kids raised their eyebrows curiously at each other.
Cam started to open his mouth, but Ali held up a hand, indicating silence. She pointed to the door; voices could be heard. It was Rán and Mark.
"I -quit-!"
"You can't quit, Rán, we're in this too deep. You can't pull out now."
"Not out of it altogether! Just out of this stinking school! They must have fucking something useful for me to do!"
"...Shh. They'll hear."
"I don't care if the little brats hear!"
"Be logical, please!"
Their voices faded away, and the students looked at each other, perplexed.
"I wonder what all that was about?" Joey asked.
X
Nighttime. The crickets outside kept Nikki awake, normally, her fairly acute hearing picking up the noises - of course, Ali's radio turned up loudly wasn't helping, either. "It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back!" it screamed in angst-ridden tones, "It's like a whirlwind inside of my head! It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within! It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin!"
Nikki pulled her pillow over her head. "Ali?"
"What?" Ali snapped, golden eyes and tiny fangs both looking quite sharp, in their different ways.
"...D' you have to put the radio on so loud?"
"I -like- Linkin Park."
"They're almost pop stars!"
"Oh, like -Creed- is any better," Ali sneered. "Scott Stapp has a Jesus complex."
"Look, can you just turn it down so I can go to sleep?"
"No."
"TURN IT DOWN!" someone else yelled, from another room, and Ali sighed, turning the music down to a reasonable level.
"Sheesh," she muttered, "It's not like it's that bad..."
Nikki sighed - she missed her Grandfather, and the peaceful existence of their cabin. There was so much to get used to, here, and it was taking so long to do it. Small snores from across the room told her that Ali had already fallen asleep. Closing her eyes tightly, Nikki attempted to do the same... It was hard, and she was still sore from practicing. After a ten-minute break, in which they all assumed she was counting to a hundred, Rán had come back into the room, and worked them all until they were sore and wincing. The only one who'd seemed remotely cheerful after the punishing workout was Lee Nelson, who irritated everyone by bouncing around and asking when they could do it again.
She had wanted to go to sleep a half an hour ago, but Ali's music had made it impossible to do so. A thought popped into Nikki's head, and she smiled wickedly: she had a nice plan for revenge, ready to carry out in the morning. Leaning over, she set her alarm clock's volume very low, and for 4:00. Tomorrow was a school day, so everyone would be waking up earlier.
She smiled to herself as she drifted off to sleep. Ali wouldn't know what hit her.
X
"...beep beep... beep beep..." the alarm pinged quietly near Nikki's head, waking her, but not her roommate. The girl squirmed out from underneath the covers, plugging in her own CD player and putting a CD into it. She turned the volume knob up as far as it would go, fast-forwarded to a good part of the first song, and dragged the machine within arm's reach of Ali's bed. Catching her breath, Nikki counted to ten.
At ten, she ripped off Ali's covers and hit 'play.' "BRUTA, CIEGA, SORDOMUDA," the CD boomed, "TORPE, TRASTE, TESTARUDA!! ES TODO LO QUE SIDO! POR TI ME HE CONVERTIDO!"
"Wha?" Ali said, rolling out of bed, "Fire!"
Doors slammed all over the Institute, and people yelled things like, "What's going on?" "What's that noise?" "It's coming from Ali and Nikki's room!"
"NIKKI!!" Ali shrieked, "TURN THAT OFF!"
Nikki obliged, grinning widely at her irate fellow student. "You don't like Shakira?" she asked, "But it's -good- music..."
Rafe and Cam appeared in the doorway, both in boxers, and both looking rather dazed and confused. In fact, Rafe looked like he was still half asleep. "Là où est le feu?" he asked, and then blinked abruptly. "Êtes vous blesses?"
"-I'm- fine," Nikki said cheerfully, "It's a beautiful morning!"
"My fucking ears are bleeding!" Ali complained, rubbing the injured appendages.
"Uh, if no one needs me, I'm going to try and go back to sleep," Cam said, yawning.
"Je trop."
"Well," Nikki said to Ali, "Don't you think that it's a beautiful morning?"
"Fuck it," Ali grumbled, "I'm going back to bed."
Nikki grinned again, quite pleased with the way her prank had worked - quite pleased indeed.
X
Darien was a little worried. In the city, you could lose yourself and no one would look for you. There were too many skinny fifteen year olds for a Good Samaritan to worry about; too many other lost causes for anyone to notice. Just shrink like a turtle inside your clothes, and they left you alone. At school it would be different. Teachers expected you to show up for class.
Kids would want to talk.
He didn't really have a choice. It was the Institute or foster homes. Or the streets, again. That's what he told himself, trying to convince himself to go.
"Come on, Darien," Ali said, poking her head into the room, "We're going to be late!" He noticed that she had green eyes today - must be colored contacts. He wondered idly why he didn't do the same thing... and then he realized there wasn't much of a point. He'd get picked on anyway, hair, height, and weight, he stuck out.
He also noticed that she was a lot friendlier to him than she was to the rest of the school. Odd. He really didn't think there was anything about his personality to merit that, but a friendly face... well... it was welcome sometimes? Painfully shy as he was, even Darien couldn't cut himself off from the human race completely. Instead, he nodded and let her lead him down to the front lobby, where the rest of the kids were waiting.
Mark moved between them like a broody mother hen, making sure they had their lunches, checking to see that their clothes were appropriate, wishing them good luck on the first day of the school year. Darien was somewhat amused by the man's attitude, he was infinitely more motherly than the pale-headed Rán, who stood off to the side with her arms folded over her chest, scowling.
"Mark, just let them go already," she ordered.
"I'm just trying to make sure everything's fine," he said, sounding hurt.
"They're not babies," she told him.
The kids left while they argued and headed down to the bus stop. "Phew!" Jenna said, "I feel sorry for him, having to be with -her- all day."
"Maybe she's nicer to him than she is to us," Nikki suggested.
"I don't think 'nice' is an option, with her," Lee said, shaking her head.
Darien didn't say anything, but he didn't have to fight to keep himself from disappearing, either...
X
They piled onto the bus, which was already quite crowded. Jenna Sintor searched frantically for a seat alone, but the brown bench-like contraptions, complete with sagging fake leather, were almost all filled. She dove for an empty space when she saw it, relieved - until Lee Nelson sat down next to her. "What are you doing?!" she hissed.
"Uh, I'm sitting down?" Lee guessed.
"Go find another seat!" Jenna snarled.
Lee blinked at her, and settled into the chair more comfortably. "But they're all taken!"
"Argh!"
Across the aisle, Rafe had managed to find a seat with a blonde girl wearing a Hello Kitty tee. She smiled at him. "Hi!" She looked perky. Her hair was perky. Her voice was perky. "I'm Melanie. Are you new here?"
"Oui," he told her, with a smile.
"Cute -and- French! I'm in love!"
"Oh, gross," Nikki snickered, from behind them, "Watch it, Lothario, I hear that drool doesn't come off of shoes."
"I'm not--" Melanie said.
"I'm terribly sorry," said Rafe. "I don't know her--"
"Yes you do," Nikki said perversely, with a charming smile on her face, "We live together. Remember?"
Although Joey found a seat next to a cute guy, the proximity of a nice smile and sharp cheekbones only reminded him of Dustin. He sighed, and turned his head away, staring out the window somewhat wistfully. Focus on the scenery, and you can forget... However, he was thwarted even in that attempt; the "scenery" consisted mostly of cityscape, now that they were out of the suburbs and heading towards their school.
Cam ended up sitting next to a very large, scary looking gorilla in a camouflage shirt that said, "Now you can't see me." The other kid took up most of the seat, and he was squeezed against the wall of the bus as he attempted to gain some extra breathing space. Jesus! he thought, frustrated, watching Melanie trying to flirt and slightly envious of Rafe's situation.
Some people had all the luck.
