Author's Note: Here's a bonus chappy just 'cause I want to get the Kietro in there. Just to clear things up, I have Pietro in the same English class as freshman even though he's a sophomore. For the sake of the story, let's just say that English at Bayville High School is the same as at my high school, where the freshman and sophomores are combined. It makes my life much easier and the story makes sense that way. After this is a Romy and another Kietro before the final chappy which is all about Chris. Then there's the sequel, which includes TONS of Romy and Kietro – along with some fun fighting. Hehe.

Making a Connection

by, Caliente

Chapter 12 – The Kat vs. the Speed Demon

Kitty's POV – Before her first class

Kitty suppressed a giggle. She watched Pietro break up with blonde bimbo #1 for the week. 'Another one bites the dust,' she thought gleefully. She hated Pietro but she hated the garbage he dated more.

As she moved closer to her locker, unfortunately only one locker away from Pietro's, she heard the dumb blonde whine, "But Pietro, I thought we had something special."

Kitty snickered slightly. 'Ha, like Pietro ever had a meaningful relationship.'

"Sorry babe," the speed demon ran a hand through his silver hair. "It's just not gonna work out."

Kitty smothered another giggle as she walked away. When she reached her first class, Computer Sciences, she realized she left her notebook in her locker. Silently cursing her rotten luck, she made her way back to the emptying halls. She saw Pietro with another bimbo, this time a brunette, making out against the lockers. Kitty smirked, 'That was fast, guess they don't call him Quicksilver for nothing.' Suddenly her amusement turned to anger when she realized the couple was leaning on her locker. 'Ugh. I do not want to break them up but I need that notebook.' Silently she walked over and tapped Pietro on the shoulder.

He jumped a foot in the air before turning to glare at her. "What's your problem Pryde? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Yeah," his bimbo agreed. "What do you want?" They sneered at her.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm, like, totally late for my class and you're leaning on my locker." She blushed slightly, more out of anger than embarrassment.

Chris walked by after meeting Principle Kelly and getting her schedule. She noticed the couple talking with Kitty. Well, more like arguing. The boy was handsome with a lean but muscular physique. He was pale with piercing eyes and odd but attractive silver hair. She could tell by his body language that he was incredibly proud and arrogant. The girl was some cheerleader with a forgettable face and not too much else going on. She could practically feel the hostility from the couple towards Kitty but there was something in the way that Pietro tormented Kitty. Something that reminded her of schoolyard boys teasing the girls they like. 'This ought to be interesting,' Chris thought.

Pietro smirked. 'Time to mess with the pretty kitty,' he thought cruelly. 'She is so easy to rile up.' "Look Pryde, why don't you, like, go cough up a fur ball and, totally, leave us alone." Pietro mimicked her Valley girl accent.

Kitty's face became red with anger as she yelled, "Well Pietro, why don't you, like, take bimbo of the moment and go shove your tongue down her throat somewhere other than on my locker." She had enough of his crap. 'The nerve of that asshole!' she thought angrily. 'First, I save his life and all he says is "Thanks. But you just about miffed that, slowpoke." And now he's blaming me for needing to use MY locker. Argh! I hate him.'

"Whatever," Pietro shot back. "Come on Michelle, let's go. I think loser is contagious."

The brunette spoke up with a giggle, "My name's Sheri, not Michelle." She laughed.

Kitty snickered at this development and Pietro shot her a Death Glare to rival Rogues. "This is not over Kitty-cat," Pietro sneered as he walked off with Sheri.

Kitty sighed and got her notebook out of her locker. 'Great,' she thought sadly. 'Now my life is even more messed up. Just great.'

Chris watched silently as Kitty trudged back off to her class. 'That girl's got more guts than I thought,' Chris sighed inwardly. 'I wish I could help…' An idea sparked itself in her head. 'Maybe I can…' Chris walked off in the same direction as Pietro.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chris's POV – Entering her first class, European History

"Class," spoke up Ms. Mitchell, "we have a new student." The entire class suddenly shut up and listened attentively. "Chris Cruz from Boston, Massachusetts has moved to Bayville." All the girls sat up eagerly expecting a new boy instead an attractive girl entered the room. She was average height and clearly very fit with nice curves. Her outfit consisted of a pale grey baby tee that showed some midriff and a belly button ring and hugged her curves and baggy navy drawstring cargo pants with Pumas that had a light grey stripe that matched her shirt and she wore her regular jewelry. She had gorgeous curly brown hair and striking pale grey eyes. Her skin was light tan and she almost seemed to glow where the sunlight hit her skin.

"Hi, I'm Christina Cruz," Chris was slightly taken aback by their surprise. "But my nickname is Chris." The girls seemed disappointed but the boys seemed more interested now. Chris approached the teacher and said quietly, "I know I'm only a freshman, but at my old school I was taking European History not Government."

The teacher nodded and pointed to a seat next to the boy that she had seen arguing with Kitty only minutes earlier. "You can sit there Miss Cruz. The boy on the left is Pietro Maximoff, it appears that your next class, Honors English, is with him as well so I'm sure he'd be happy to show you to it." Pietro quickly nodded in agreement. "The girl on the right is Deborah Chang and the boy in front is Mike Gleeson. Would you like to tell us anything about yourself before we begin?"

Chris shook her head and made her way silently across the room. 'What should I say? I'm a mutant, I have a dark past, I am bilingual. No, better to stick with D none of the above.' All eyes were on her. She smiled politely and sat down. Pietro looked at her with mild interest and muttered a "Hey" before turning back to the girl on his left, some red head who was giggling stupidly. Deborah was much friendlier. The Asian girl helped Chris see where they were in the book and what the lesson was on. Luckily for Chris they were in almost the exact spot she left off at with her old school. At the end of the period, Chris packed up her things and turned to see an expectant face.

"Ready-to-go-yet?" he asked hurriedly.

"Yeah," replied Chris. "Pietro, can I ask you something?"

"Well I think you just did," the boy retorted at normal speed. He seemed to have chilled a little.

"How long have you liked Kitty?" she inquired innocently.

Pietro nearly spat out of shock. "What-the-heck-are-you-talking-about?" His pace quickened once more. "Me-like-Pryde, that's-just-plain-laughable." He proceeded to laugh to prove his point. "Lance-is-the-only-hood-boy-that-can-tolerate-the-kitty-cat."

"Okay," responded Chris nonchalantly. "Whatever you say. It's just, you seem to enjoy teasing her, and it's so obvious you're attracted to her." She smirked at his reaction.

"Huh?" Pietro stopped cold and turned around to look at the new girl incredulously.

"I overheard your little confrontation with Kitty this morning. I know you were so totally turned on by the fact that Kitty won't put up with your bull shit. You must find it attractive that she fights back because you were so provoking her. I've watched enough people to know how to read them and you're so damn obvious. You're little "school boy who picks on the girl he likes" routine is so tired." Chris smiled at his shocked face.

"Wait," Pietro was suddenly struck with a thought, "If you could read my body language and tell how I was feeling, then you could also read Pryde's body language and tell what she was feeling. So, what was she feeling?" Pietro's mouth was in a smirk but his eyes betrayed him. He was dying to know.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Chris shot back. "I mean, she'll probably tell you without much of an argument. She seemed pretty pissed but I think there might have been something else there." The two teens reached their classroom and Chris winked at Pietro before going over to Kitty and Sam and sitting with them. The desks were broken up into groups of four desks in each group.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Pietro's POV – Honors English class

Pietro stood outside lost in thought for a moment. The bell woke him out of his daze and he darted inside. There was only one desk left open and it was at Kitty, Sam, and Chris's group. Pietro groaned inwardly before moving to sit with them. Kitty was lost in thought and Sam and Chris were stealing glances at each other. 'Great,' Pietro thought. 'Just my luck. I'm stuck with three X-Geeks, two of them are making goo goo eyes and the other one hates my guts. Well, better make the best of it and piss off Pryde as much as possible.'

"Hey Kitty-cat," a taunting voice pulled Kitty out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw Pietro. 'Why me?' she silently asked. 'Why does life choose to torment me.'

"What do you want Pietro?" her voice was cold as ice. She looked at him and sighed. This day just got even longer.

Before Pietro could respond with one of his many retorts, the teacher started class. "Now class, since we've been reading Romeo and Juliet, I've decided to give each of you a partner or group and a scene to act out. I will pair you off now." The teacher proceeded around the room picking the people for the different scenes. When she reached Pietro and Kitty's table, she did something quite unexpected, "Since your table is already in two couple's why don't I just leave you like this. Pietro and Kitty, you'll have the balcony scene. Sam and Christina, is it?" Chris nodded. "You two will have the scene after they spend their first night together." The four teens nodded, dumbfound by what had just happened. Sam and Chris both blushed slightly when she announced their partnership but when she announced the scene they would be performing, they were both scarlet. Pietro and Kitty on the other hand were both sulking because of their rotten luck.

'Why me?' Kitty thought again. 'What did I do to deserve this punishment?'

'Oh well,' Pietro shrugged. 'If I'm stuck with the kat, I might as well make it miserable for her. Chris might be right, I do get turned on when she's angry. And she does look hotter when she has a slight blush and a glare on her face. Woah Pietro, don't let that new X-Geek confuse you. You hate stupid Valley girls like Pryde. Yeah, that's the way to think.'

Kitty interrupted his thoughts. "Um, Pietro, like, when do you wanna practice?"

Pietro smirked as he turned to her. "Like, whenever you want. I'm, like, totally there," he mimicked her accent.

"Whatever," Kitty muttered. "How about after school in the park?"

"Sure Pryde. Hey you made it through a sentence without saying "like". You must be so proud," he commented sardonically. He smirked again as a small blush crept onto her cheeks. 'This'll be so much fun. She'll hate it.'

"Shut up Pietro!" Kitty had taken about enough. "Look just because I don't worship the ground you walk on, doesn't mean you have to, like, totally, treat me like crap. You're just some high school playboy who has a huge ego that needs deflating. And besides," she smirked slightly, "I can't believe that you made it through a conversation at a normal pace. Must be some sort of record for you."

Pietro glared at her for a moment before responding. "Whatever Pryde. Meet me by my car after school and I'll give you a ride to the park."

Pietro wasn't sure if heard correctly but it sounded like she muttered a quick "Thanks" under her breath before turning back to the lesson. 'Pryde and me, working together,' he thought about it for a moment. 'Wonder if we'll survive?' He sighed before turning his attention to the teacher as well.

Read. Review. Please. And just to clarify, the reason I made this a Kietro as well is b/c it always bugs me in the actual cartoon how Pietro seems to single out Kitty to tease, when Evan is his big "rival", ya know? In my opinion it is that school boy teases the girl he likes thing, so yeah. Don't hate me for it. I'm only human.