AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey, I made some minor detail changes that needed fixed up: lyrics, minor stuff.

FYI:

~Personal Thoughts~

~"Inner Voices"~

ESP

%The Written Word%

[Flashback]

"Normal Conversation (Duh)"

* Com Link or Telephone *

*Sound Effects (usually just Kurt's bamfing)

{Background noise--music, crowds, etc.}

SPANKY

Half an hour ago I'd said goodbye to my mother and waved goodbye as Ororo Munroe drove her to the airport where she'd fly back into our hick town's itty-bitty airport with it's teeny tiny 15 passenger planes. I smiled remembering how much my mom liked excitement and the time that we'd flown to Disney World the summer after second grade. We'd stood in line for hours on end to go down this one slide at Blizzard Beach that took a grand total of two seconds to go down.

I shook my head clearing my thoughts as I put clothes away into a closet. Two blue eyed girls watched me with curiosity. There were two startling differences between them. One had purple hair and a British accent, the other was a brunette and talked like a sweet valley girl. I turned to glance at them before I pulled more clothes outta my trunk. "Let me get this straight now. You're Betsy, my room mate." I pointed at the girl with the purple hair who nodded. "And you're Kitty, the girl who opened the gate for me." The brunette nodded this time. ~Great, I'm horrible with names. By dinner tonight, I'll have 'em all forgotten.~

Don't worry about that. You'll get a hang of them eventually. My eyes went wide as I heard a voice inside my head.

I'm too young to die, God.

That's a first. I'm a telepath, luv. I looked across the room at Betsy who was smiling broadly. I shook my head again and scolded myself to think less--at least around other people in this place.

"Okay, so she's a telepath, what are you?"

"I can like phase through anything. And if I phase through electronics, they short circuit."

"That sounds cool."

"Well, like usually it's pretty awesome, but I've like gone through three alarm clocks in the past year." I laughed as I drug out the prom dress from the bottom of the trunk causing both girls' mouths to form li'l 'o's. "That's like so pretty."

"Yeah, my mom got it for me. I wasn't even going to go, but my best friend had an extra ticket when his girlfriend dumped him." The two of 'em exchanged looks that prolly would have looked like my mother and Kelly if they'd had this conversation.

"So what's this 'friend's' name, luv."

"Mark, we've been best friends since I started at Central in seventh grade. We even did this project together in eighth grade where we had to be married. It was the most ridiculous concept, but we didn't know who else to work with."

"Right…" I shot the brunette a glare as I moved the photo album and other miscellaneous items to a dresser top. I unfolded the guitar stand and stuck it in the space between the dresser and the closet and placed my baby blue fender lovingly in it. I stuffed the case into the back of the closet where I could find it if I needed it later on.

"Hey, Kitty, Kurt's looking for you." I looked at the doorway and took in the Indian girl's appearance. Long black hair pulled back into a single braid and natural brown clothing.

That's Daniel Moonstone, or Dani. She's a psychic as well. I nodded as Kitty and Dani left the room.

This place have enough psychics?

No such thing, luv.

I sat down on the bed that had been given to me and sprawled out on the comforter I'd brought with me. Mets of course--the contrasting royal blue and orange were bright and cheerful and the fact that they're symbol was of the city was perfect. Deep down, I just wanted to be city slicker, and I'd finally been able to ditch the country bumpkin town.

"Who's the third bed belong to?" I gazed at the third bed in the room that had an emerald green comforter on it. That portion of the room was strangely barren minus very few personal items.

"Rogue." I sat up and looked at Betsy. She looked suddenly saddened.

"I thought she was in New Orleans."

"Yeah, she went to see her boyfriend. Everyone keeps hoping she'll talk him into coming back soon." I nodded realizing that the two must be close and that it was a painful topic.

"Hey, you guys going to eat or just lie around here?" A vibrant blonde appeared in the doorway. She was dressed wildly and seemed to have a wild persona as well.

"We're coming, Tabby."

"Just hurry up, or I can't promise you that Kurt will leave anything."

I stood up and followed her from the room. That's Tabitha, she's a bit on the wild side. Watch out or you'll be at the exploding end of her practical jokes. I looked at Betsy confused but didn't ask anything else.

We passed the next room to have a tall red head join us. We were both about the same height but she was skinny and cheerleader like. I almost gagged on instinct at her appearance. "Hi, I'm Jean. You must be Allison."

"Uh huh. I prefer Spanky though." She raised an eyebrow, which was pretty common as people first heard my nickname. "You know from the li'l Rascals?" Get your minds outta the gutters people."

"That's a lot better than most names you get around a place like this. I lucked out and got a cool one like Boom Boom."

"I like that." I smiled at Tabitha seeing she may be wild, but she'd be the one to push the rules with me.

We eventually made it to the dining room where I took in all of the students at once in the same room. The blond boy was sitting at the end next to the brown haired guy he'd been wrestling. Jean walked over to a counter and planted a kiss on the cheek of a tall guy in shades. That's Scott, the leader. His name's Cyclops and he shoots energy beams from his eyes. Jean's a telepath as well. At the end of the table, that's Sam also called Cannonball, he can fly at super speeds and must have some invulnerability. Next to him is Bobby or Iceman. He can create ice from water particles in the air. The little guy next to him is Jamie, or Multiple. The name kinda gives away the fact that he makes copies of himself. The girl next to him is Sarah, she's Marrow. You can see what her mutation is. Next up is Roberto, or Sunspot. He uses the sun's energy for super strength. Then there's Jubilee who can make fireworks. Amara, or Magma, is a real princess, no kidding there. Ray, or Beserker, is a bit crazy and can shoot bolts of electricity. Rahne, or Wolfsbane, can turn into a real live wolf. Kinda like a werewolf if you will. Kurt's the blue guy, he can teleport through another dimension. The guy next to Kitty is Piotr, or Colossus. He can cover himself with armor if need be. Um…am I missing anyone?

What about the adults?

Right, Logan as you know has claws, scary as hell sometimes. He also has super healing. Miss Frost, can take on this whole diamond appearance thing and is also kind of a telepath. There's Ororo, who's a weather witch. Mister McCoy or Beast looks like a beast but he's super nice. Quotes Shakespeare all the time and everything. Then there's the professor. I shot Betsy an appreciative smile then a thought occurred to me.

What about the two students in New Orleans. What are their powers?

Rogue can't touch. If she does, she absorbs your powers, your memories, basically absorbs everything that makes you, you. Remy is our local clown and con man. He has the ability to charge things up and cause them to explode.

Sounds cool. I sat down and enjoyed my first meal with the X-Men. Of course I got quizzed a lot about myself.

"What'd you do for fun?" Betsy switched to verbal on me as we joined the others.

"Play ball mostly. Any kind of ball I could get my hands on—football, basketball, softball. Did other stuff, bowling, horseback riding, snow mobiling, four wheeling, dirt biking, paint ball. We made our own fun most of the time."

"So like what are your powers?" I watched as Ororo shot Kitty a warning glance but she ignored it.

"I don't really understand 'em yet, but I can melt into a liquid or turn into a vapor. The professor told me I can manipulate water as well, but I can't remember doing that."

"What about your folks? They understand the whole mutant thing?" I glanced down the table at Sam who seemed to watch me with curiosity.

"My mom was cool about it. Haven't told my dad though. Didn't see a reason too since he hasn't bothered talking to me in over four years." I was holding my glass of water and nearly dropped it when the water began to swirl around inside. I quickly set it back down watching the miniature whirlpool.

Try and relax, Allison. I believe that at least for now your powers are emotionally connected. I continued to stare at the water beginning to find it calming to watch the swirling waters and forgot my anger at my father. As I did so the water stopped and came to a still. There was a brief round of applause from the guys at the end except for Sam who was still watching but now with worried curiosity.

"I've gotta go." I stood up and left my plate of food untouched as I exited the dining room.

CANNONBALL

"What was that all about?" Roberto seemed confused by the new girl's actions as we all watched her hasty exit.

"Girls, who'll ever figure them out?" Jubilee delivered a sharp kick to Bobby from under the table causing him to wince. "What?"

"You know what, Icepick."

We finished eating in silence and I stayed back to take my turn at doing dishes. When I finished I found Miss Frost and the professor still talking at the table. I tried to slip out unnoticed so they didn't think I was eavesdropping but it didn't work. "Sam, could you do a favor for me?"

"Sure thing, Proff." I turned around and went back to the table where the professor indicated to a package.

"Would you take that up to Allison for me? She's in the same room as Betsy." I nodded and groaned inwardly. I'd once had a crush on Bets but now she was dating Angel. ~Some guys have all the luck.~ Everyone knew which room was Betsy's. Hard not to after that bash we'd thrown for New Years when she'd been sharing it with Kitty and Rogue.

I took the package and headed up towards the girls' dorms. I glanced around to make sure no one saw me and quietly knocked on the door. I could hear a boom box blasting through the door so knocked a little louder to make sure I was heard.

{I guess it's no use , I'm screwing up ever little thing I ever try to do, I was born to lose, Yeah yeah yeah yeah}

~Simple Plan. Cool music.~ She opened the door and looked surprised to see me. "Hey Allison."

"Don't call me that. Only the professor does and my mother when she's mad. Call me Spanky, call me Al, call me anything but Allison. And if you're looking for Bets I think she's downstairs."

{God must hate me, He cursed me for eternity, God must hate me, Maybe you should pray for me}

"Nope, the proff sent me to give you this, Spanky." I held up the box and she opened the door to let me in. I glanced around quickly taking in how much different it was. Rogue's gothic stuff was gone and Kitty's pink stuff was gone leaving Bets' purple stuff and now a bunch of sporting stuff. She went back to her book shelf which she was filling to the max.

{I'm breaking down and you can't save me, I'm stuck in hell, And I wanna go home, And I wanna go home}

"I'll get to it. You can just leave it on the bed."

"I'm guessing it's the Mets one." She nodded. ~She and Rogue'll get along on the baseball team thing.~ "Um…I overheard you talking about football at dinner. You a cheerleader?"

She spun around on her heel and glared me down making me wish I could take back those words instantly. "I take that as an insult. Do I really look like some preppy li'l cheerleader?"

"No…"

"Good."

"But why were you talking about football?"

"Maybe because I played last year." My eyebrows shot up in surprise. ~She digs the game and plays?!?!~ "Went to states and everything."

"Cool. What position?"

"Kicker…and at the last part of playoffs, one of our running backs got hurt so I filled in." As she talked she unpacked a box of sporting stuff. A softball glove, batting gloves, a softball, catching equipment, a basketball, shoulder pads, and a football all got stuffed into the bottom of the closet.

"Maybe we could go to sign up at the same time." She turned to look at me from inside her closet.

"You play?"

"Sure, running back. Was only on JV last year, so I'm trying out for Varsity this year." She nodded as she stood up and brushed off her jeans.

"Sounds like a plan. The professor says I need to get enrolled first so if you don't mind hanging around the high school waiting on me."

"Naw…no problem." I scratched the back of my head and looked away for a moment. "Um…you mind driving? I only have a permit." She laughed and nodded her head.

"Yeah, sure thing. You mind ol' beat up Chevys?"

"Nope. Used to drive one back in Tennessee on the farm. Didn't need a license to do that."

"Yeah, well, I'm just grateful that I got my license before I left Pennsylvania. Takes too damn long up here."

"Well…see you in the Danger Room tomorrow morning…bright and early."

"Um…what do I wear to that?" I pointed to the box as an answer before I left.

HYDRA

I watched him leave thinking that he really was a clone of Mark. They both had the same self-doubt problem. ~He seems like a nice enough guy. Heck everyone here does.~ I turned to the box he'd dropped on my bed and quickly tore it open. I pulled out a spandex suit that reminded me of what the wrestlers wore back at Central. ~Heck, it's worse than that even.~

It was a black body suit that had electric blue contrasting against it. The blue went down the arms and legs in stripes that looked similar to the stitching on a baseball. Also, an electric blue collar stuck up looking slightly like a blouse. (A/N: think Kitty's uniform) There were 'X's on the shoulders and there was an 'X' on the light gray belt as well. I looked at the gray boots that had blue buckles to match the suit and were in the box as well. A pair of gray and blue gloves were in there as well and they looked surprisingly a lot like batting gloves.

I glanced at the suit and couldn't imagine it actually fitting. ~I'm going to be too broad shouldered for this. It looks like it's made for an anorexic. Hell, it's just not going to fit.~

I glanced back into the box and saw a note. I picked it up and began reading.

%Dear Allison,

Welcome to the Xavier Institute. I hope that you find the uniform to your liking. Like the rest of the students, everyone has a code name that is used in training and combat. Unless, you object, yours will be Hydra. I think you will find it to be interesting.

Once again welcome,

Charles Xavier%

~Hydra, huh? That's that creature from mythology that when you cut off one head, it grew back two more. That and it sounds like hydro for water. Not bad. But what's this whole combat thing? Don't remember that in the introductory spiel.~

I folded the uniform up and put it into my dresser and turned to look at my stuff feeling slightly more at home. It had that sterile, just unpacked feeling. ~Give it a week, then it'll just be as messy as it used to be at home.~

"Hey there you are, luv. You gonna come down and join us?"

"I don't know, I think I might crash."

"No, you're going to be semi-normal and sociable." She yanked me outta the room by the arm and I finally got turned around and followed willingly. "Was that Sam I saw coming outta there?"

"Yeah. He was giving me my uniform. We also talked shop about football."

"He's really excited about trying out."

"I picked up on that."

"So you're really not completely clueless."

"Hey! I resent that." By the time we ended our squabble she'd brought me back to the living room where the guys were arguing over what ball game to watch or if they should watch the motocross race. I personally didn't care because by then the Mets vs. Yankees game was over having started at one.

"Let the newbie pick." Everyone liked Ray's suggestion and stared at me expectantly as I thought it over.

"Motocross?" Sam grabbed the remote and turned on ESPN2 with a shout of glee.

"How much did he pay you off for?" I backed away from Bobby and his accusatory glare.

"Hey, cool off man." Some of the other guys started laughing.

"Telling the Icepick to cool off. That's great!" Ray slapped Bobby across the back causing him to mutter darkly under his breath. I ignored him as I crouched down catcher style next to Jamie on the floor.

"What's up bud?"

"Hey." He went back to reading his book. I leaned forward to look at the cover and saw it was a cheat guide to Madden 2004.

"Interesting read?"

"Uh huh."

"You normally this quiet?"

"No."

"Just when you're reading." He looked up at me and smiled.

"I need to figure this game out so I can beat them." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the guys who were arguing over who had the best stunts.

"Sounds like a good goal there, hon."

"You sound like Rogue. She normally calls me sugar though. You've also kind of got her southern accent."

"Is that a good thing?"

"If you like people to fear you."

"I like respect and friends. How's that sound."

"Now you're losing the Roguish sound."

"Good, I'm my own person and I'd like to stay that way." He smiled at me before going back to his reading. I stood back up and looked for an empty seat on the couch. There wasn't one but I knew how to make one. I stood in front of the t.v. causing the guys to split as they tried to look around me. They made a spot in the middle and I took it. ~I think I can get used to this place.~ I propped my feet up on the coffee table in front of me and sank back into the cushions.

I could hear Kitty laughing behind me so I twisted around to look at her. "Never seen anyone get their attention in the middle of a sports thing."

"Gotta know what it takes to make 'em move. In this case, it's the same thing that would make me move." She smiled as she shook her head.

SHADOWCAT

"She like totally fits in with the guys, you know?"

"Uh huh."

"Hey don't sound so down, Jubes. It's not like Bobby's falling for her." Jubilee glared at Amara. "He really hates her guts. She's more of a guy than he is and it's messing with his head some."

Amara, Tabitha and I broke into giggles at the thought of Bobby wearing a skirt. Basically any guy compared to Allison looked slightly girly. She was into everything…if it ended in 'ball' she played it. If it had to do with engines, she could run it. If you needed a decent belch, we had no doubt she could pull it off.

"She seems really nice though." We all nodded in agreement with Bets. She was nice, almost too nice. Around here she'd eventually get run over if she didn't watch it.

"I don't think she'll last five minutes tomorrow morning though." Tabby's comment brought another round of nodding. Danger Room sessions were grueling for first timers.

"We'll like all have to wish her luck then."