Truth? The post-revelation status was just the old one to the nth degree.

Rogue had always prided herself on being different, on not giving in to the brainless sheep mentality of pop culture. She'd never measured herself by the yardstick of popularity - just the opposite, actually - and making her classmates flinch away from her cultivated strangeness was something to celebrate.

So the stares and the comments as the X-Men walked into school just made her lift her chin higher. What did those idiots know anyway?

"-freaks need to go home," someone muttered as Rogue went down the lines of lockers.

Wannabe poser, she thought, dismissing him as easily as she had when people muttered about her just because she wore black clothes and Gothic makeup.

"I always knew she was too weird to be human," someone else "whispered" in the tone of voice used by malicious gossipers who wanted to be heard.

Rogue recognized the voice and whipped her head around to glare at the speaker. "And how would you know, Taryn?" she snapped. "With your eyes all over Scott - surprised you even ever saw me."

Taryn tossed her hair and moved off with her groupies following in a close, whispering bunch.

Rogue wished ill on the hypocrite and went on to her locker. She pulled out her books for her first two classes and slammed the door shut on a bunch of football players talking bad about mutants.

When they saw her, they elbowed each other and started to shamble over to her, forming a human wall around her.

"You mind?" she asked, pointedly refusing to be either cowed or impressed. "Some of us have to get to class."

They ignored her. "Hey, did you like the mural we painted for you freaks?" one of them said, leering.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" she asked, pressing one hand to her chest and even going so far as to bat her eyes innocently. "I have this inner-ear problem - I can't hear morons."

The speaker's face clouded over and he took a step toward her. "You better watch your mouth, mutie, or you'll be sorry."

She dropped the innocent act and gave them all a wide, not-nice grin. "How 'bout you losers step outside and I rearrange your faces?"

None of them seemed to know what to make of that. The speaker exchanged a thoroughly confused glance with his buddies, and one of them said, "Man, they did tear up the School Board building..."

The speaker shoved him. "Shut up! We're not afraid of them. We're not afraid of you," he informed Rogue.

She got right in his face and said, "Boo."

He stepped back quickly, alarmed, and she used the opportunity to slip out of their phalanx and into the crowd swelling the hallway.

Stupid football players - they could barely read the letters on their jackets, so she knew they'd never heard about Catcher In The Rye or Holden Caulfield. It was a shame, 'cause Holden's favorite slur - "phonies" - was perfect for most of the people in the school. Everyone was trying to be someone they weren't, except for the X-Men. And Risty.

Not for the first time, Rogue wondered where Risty had disappeared to.