AUTHOR: Black Iris DISCLAIMER: We don't own 'em, save Aria and Kat. You know the deal. NOTE: We're gonna try to keep this thing going quickly, so hopefully the next chapter will have a lot more happening. This was basically a get-to- know-you chapter. Hope you like - R and R! RESPONSES: Thanks so much for all the reviews! We forget who said it, but yes, Magneto will be in this! Hopefully within the next two chapters. Or so.

"To take or not to take?" she muttered to herself, gazing about her spacious bedroom. Too spacious, really. The king-sized bed covered in expensive silk sheets failed to make a dent in the vast chasm that was Aria's room. The hand-carved bureau, a beautiful dark oak, rested against the right wall, odds and ends scattered about the surface. A hand mirror, her great-grandmother's, leaned upright by itself. She smiled slightly to herself and tip-toed her way over to the relic. Picked it up lovingly in her hand and traced the outline gently with her thankfully solid finger. "Hi," she whispered to her reflection. "You've really done it this time, huh?" A forlorn sigh. "Oh, well. You'll get through this, old girl." A pause. "I didn't mean that you really are an old girl, it's just an expression. Nineteen isn't old." Another pause. "Why am I having this conversation with you?" She chuckled to herself and put the mirror in her duffel. It was the only thing in there. One hour and countless sighs later (she seemed to be doing that an awful lot lately) found Aria with only one duffel bag full. Deciding what to bring wasn't her problem; she just didn't want to bring anything. She wanted to go away and never come back. To block these last nineteen years from her mind. To forget. But she knew it could never happen, so the ideal was pushed to the side. For the moment, anyway. All that sat in her suitcase at present were four skirts (identical to the one she was currently wearing but different colors), six shirts (also identical but with various patterns and such), underwear, and the mirror. Shoes and socks were conspicuously absent. The second duffel, considerably smaller, lay empty beside first in the middle of the bed. Aria stood over it, glaring. "And what exactly am I supposed to do with you?" she asked it, not caring that most of her conversations today tended to happen between herself and inanimate objects. With an angry exhale, she kicked the side of her bed and whirled around to face the wall, her arms crossed over her chest. Great: now she was trying to show hostility to a duffel bag. She'd been standing at the edge for years, but now she'd finally jumped. Huzzah. Because her parents were too wealthy for their own good and, simply, bad parents, they had tried to bribe Aria into being a good child with presents and gifts since her birth. Fortunately, she hadn't bought it. Strong-willed from day one, Aria had never really wanted anything her parents had given her. (Besides her black Jeep Wrangler, of course.) Over the years, her parents had stopped the what had been steady flow of gifts, and they had gradually grown to ignore her completely. Her father would still insist that they all have dinner together every night at precisely seven thirty, but it wasn't as if they ever talked. If Aria was the only one to show for dinner, she knew that her parents were, once again, off another vacation. Her father was very business, and her mother very social, so their vacations had become longer and closer together, their time at home or with Aria shorter and fewer between. Not that she cared.

* * *

Kathrynne wandered around her small bedroom in a daze, halfheartedly picking things up, gazing at them blankly, and putting them down again. An empty duffel bag sat on her bed, it's open flap gaping at her like the mouth of a certain young woman who had just discovered she was a mutant. A brick red plastic suitcase was already full to bursting of clothing, and she was trying to decide which items she wanted to bring with her as she left her old life. Her hand swept over the white wooden shelves and caught on the little pewter statue of a fairy with beautiful multicolored butterfly wings. Her aunt had given it to her for her first Holy Communion in second grade. She took it off the shelf and held the tiny figurine in the palm of her hand, examining the features carved into the diminutive face. She rotated it to the side, so that the wings caught the light, shining in countless different hues. She reached up to put it back on the shelf, but then remembered how her face had shown with childish delight when she had first beheld it, and carefully placed it into one of the side pockets of the bag. A strand of wavy blonde hair worked its way out of her ponytail and lay across her face. She tucked it behind her ear-a gesture that had become automatic for her-and surveyed her shelves. At this rate, she would far exceed the two suitcase quota; she couldn't take everything. She would have to make some sacrifices. Only take gifts that meant a lot to her. She looked around again and sighed. This was going to take a long, long time. She put the packing issues aside for now; she had bigger problems. Such as, what to tell her parents. As of yet, her parents cared about her, so she was luckier than Aria in that respect, but she might be in Aria's situation if her parents found out. She had always spent a lot of time with her parents-baking with her mom, going into New York City with her dad. She even had a good relationship with her brother, three years her junior, even though they were as different as night and day. But now that everything had changed, now that her world had been shattered, her family would never accept her. She was in the middle of trying to decide what to do when she absentmindedly checked her watch. Eleven fifty-five. She made one last sweep of the bedroom, grabbing a six favorite books, a scruffy orange and white stuffed cat that she had been given when she was born, and her portable CD player. She was almost to the door when, on impulse, she dumped the contents of her jewelry box into the other side pocket of her duffel. She tiptoed past her parents room, and scribbled on a sheet of paper "I have to leave. I love you" and taped it to the coffee maker, where she knew someone would find it. She heard Aria's jeep pull up, and shut the front door behind her. She only realized she was crying as she stepped onto her front porch.
* * *

Aria glanced around her room one last time. The second duffel was finally ready to go; she'd decided upon her ten favorite books (taking up most of the bag), a few CD's along with her walk-man, the eight journals that catalogued her life up to this point including the half-filled most recent one, her three fountain pens and their respective ink wells, and (she was almost ashamed of her sentimentality) her stuffed teddy bear. Nodding her head in a determined gesture, she threw one of the duffels over her shoulder using the longer strap, and picked the other one up in her hand. She turned off her lights and closed her door. Quietly descended the stairs. Picked up the car keys from beside the back door and slipped out. Cold grass on her bare feet as she hurried across the acres of back yard to where she'd hidden her Jeep in the woods. (She hadn't wanted to risk waking up her parents with the whirring engine.) Then suddenly, she wasn't running anymore. She was floating. She grinned as the wind carried her where she wanted to go. It was feeling of complete freedom, something she never wanted to stop. The voice in the back of her mind told her that she should stop this, literally pull herself together before she became too caught up in this feeling, but the rest of her body was in paradise. An obnoxious beeping noise caused her molecules to clump together and fall to the ground.
"Damned watch!" she said viciously, hitting the said object against the soft earth. "Fuck." She wearily hauled herself upright and walked the rest of the way to her car, marveling at the fact that her bags had dissipated along with the rest of her.
Once on the highway and a considerable distance from her dreaded house, she let out the breath she had subconsciously been holding in, and switched the radio on full blast. Her head nodded in time to the pulsing beat as she flew down the road, driving in the middle of the road twenty miles over the speed limit. She was at Kat's house at midnight precisely with no trouble.

* * *

Kat swung her duffel bags into the back seat of Aria's Jeep and climbed over the runner into the shotgun, wiping the last of the tears from her hazel eyes. Aria gave her a slightly sympathetic look that was, for the most part, condescending. Kat glared back. They held the position for a moment, then both smiled and leaned in for a quick reassuring hug.
"Let's get this show on the road," Aria whispered. Kat mutely nodded and didn't take her eyes off her house, her old life, until they turned the corner.
The night was young, and Aria wanted to party. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins; she was completely and totally in the "road trip" mood. An odd feeling for her, truthfully. Kat, however, just couldn't bring herself to be happy. The lump in her throat hadn't completely disappeared, and fond memories of her family kept racing through her head. Finally, Aria switched off the radio. It was two thirty in the morning.
"Look, Kat, I know you didn't want to go, but."
"I know," she interrupted. She was not in the mood for one of Aria's "I'm going to try to understand your point of view" talks.
"I."
"Just don't, okay? Just don't."
The rest of the trip concluded in silence.

* * *

The gates of Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters opened automatically, and the Jeep pulled into the circular driveway.
"Get your stuff. I'll park someplace and come back."
"Yeah," Kat said, kicking open her door and hopping out onto the pavement. She reached back in to grab her bags, and waited as Aria pulled away before walking up to the big front door. "Well," she thought, "this is going to be interesting." Aria joined her a few minutes later, carrying her own bags. A long pause followed.
"Do you think I should go in for a second and take a look around?" Aria asked, moving to set down her things.
"No!" Kat said quickly, dropping her own duffel and latching onto Aria's upper arm. A short pause. "I mean, um, isn't it kind of late? I don't want to inconvenience anyone." She trailed off as Aria looked at her.
"Well, fuck them!"
"Shhhhhhhhh!" Kat whispered furiously, pressing her finger to her lips. Aria chuckled and raised a skeptical eyebrow, but quieted her voice nonetheless.
"Fine. We go in together."
"Should we?"
"Yes. On the count of three."
"Aria."
"Three." And with that, Aria pushed open the double doors with her free hand. Her face fell slack for a moment. "Wow," she said with a smile, "that was pretty cool. It wasn't locked!"
"I can't believe we're doing this."
"Oh, come on," Aria said, pulling her friend into the foyer. Kat's footsteps echoed on the marble floors.
"Why aren't you wearing shoes?"
"So you noticed."
"It would appear so."
"They don't disappear with the rest of me. But anything I'm touching other that that seems to. The duffels did, anyway."
"Cool," Kat said.
"Who are you?"
The girls whipped around at the intruding voice and breathed identical sighs of relief to find a young boy of about ten or eleven standing before them. "I asked you a question," he said in response to the girls' silence.
"We're.um.can we talk to the professor?"
"He's asleep," the boy said slowly, as if talking to the hard of hearing.
"I told you!" Kat hissed at Aria. Aria ignored her and turned toward the boy.
"No sh-no kidding," she said, catching herself and shooting a guilty look at Kat. "Can we stay for the night?" The boy gave them a quizzical look, but continued anyway.
"I guess so. Should I go get the professor anyway?"
"Oh, no, we don't want to disturb." began Kat, but she was interrupted by Aria.
"Yeah, sure, that'd be great."
The boy just stared at them. Then he spoke, "I'll be right back."
Aria grinned at a scowling Kat, and the two girls waited in the hallway of their new life.