FYI:

~Personal Thoughts~

ESP

%The Written Word%

[Flashback]

"Normal Conversation (Duh)"

* Com Link or Telephone *

*Sound Effects (usually just Kurt's bamfing)

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

HYDRA

The weekend had slowly passed after returning to the institute. My mom was calling nightly to make sure her baby girl was still okay. The first conversation I'd had with her she'd bawled for an hour straight before she began to even talk back to me. Of course it must have been hard for her to believe that her daughter who'd supposedly been dead for a month was on the other end of a phone line.

I'd also spent the weekend trying to relax before I had to make up a month's worth of schoolwork. The workload would be massive considering all the difficult classes I had.

I quickly adjusted to having a second room mate and she seemed cool for the most part. She was heavily into angst and hard rock but I could deal with it. She was interesting to say the least; definitely insecure about her powers.

[I stepped outta my room on my way down to breakfast and accidentally bumped into Rogue as she was going into our room. "Oops sorry."

I was halfway down the hall when her voice stopped me. "That's it?"

"I'm sorry I bumped into you?"

"No, Ah mean ya didn't freak out or anythin'."

"I bumped into you…in a place this crowded it's impossible not to do that sometimes. I gave up freaking out a long time ago."

"Ya not scared of mah powers though?"

"Um no. Should I be?" She stared at me with wide green eyes in amazement.

"Everyone's scared of meh. One li'l bump could cost ya ya life."

"That's a pretty rough policy. Think you should take it easy there." I smiled at her but she only frowned even more.

"It's not that Ah want ta, Ah can't control mah powers."

I stopped and considered that for a moment. ~I thought it was tough having my powers connected emotionally.~ "Oh…look I'm sorry. If you like I'll be more careful, okay?"

"It's not for mah sake, it's for yas."

I smiled back at her. "Yeah, well, I like living dangerously."]

I'd also spent most of my time avoiding Sam as much as possible. Of course completely avoiding him was outta the question since I had daily training sessions in the Danger Room, which made avoidance impossible because contact was mandatory. But other than that, I didn't speak a word to him. I cared about him a lot and it was scaring me to death. Hell, it had almost killed me twice now.

"Like I can't wait for the Sadie Hopkins Dance." I looked up as Kitty followed Betsy into our room and chose to ignore the conversation as I went back to my photo albums. Of course the whole school would be buzzing over the upcoming dance where the girls asked the guys out. I'd already decided not to go and spend the night catching up on the various lab reports that I most likely had stacking up. "Like who are you asking Al?"

I didn't even look up. "No one. I'm not going."

"You like have to go. It'll be like so much fun. Besides you can ask Sam." I groaned inwardly realizing that I'd been pretty transparent about liking Sam for the first day that I'd been back.

"I'm not going." Giggling, she bounced on my bed sending a stack of pictures flying up into the air.

"Like you have to go." I held an album up to my face and pretended to find it fascinating.

"I don't have to do anything but catch up in school." She pouted as she pulled the album away from my face. "Cut it out Kitty. Curiosity killed the cat you know."

"Well, like it's good thing I'm a kitty and not a cat. Like why have you been avoiding the poor guy?"

"Because I'm busy. Now if you don't mind…"

"Like, nope I don't mind in the slightest. So, what's the real reason?"

"You know luv, I could just take a little peek…"

"Do that and die." I glared from my purple haired roommate to the girl who roomed next door lethally. "I'm serious, I don't want to talk about it."

"Like why not? It's so obvious that you like him and he likes you so like why can't you just like get over your pride and like ask him out?"

"I can't even count the number of times you just said 'like'." She pouted as she crossed her arms over her chest and tried to look serious.

"Why don't you just ask him?"

"So the kitty-cat can go a sentence without saying 'like'."

"Stop trying to change the subject and like spill already."

"Whoops, there it went." I pulled up another album and tried again to ignore her. She was being pretty adamant though as she removed this album from my hands as well. "Look can't you take a hint already?"

"I thought we were friends?" She was getting all weepy looking as I glared at her.

"God, would you cut out that puppy dog eye crap." If anything she got worse as her bottom lip trembled. "Of course we're friends."

"Then friends can tell each other everything."

"Not ev'rything. And this is falling into the not ev'rything catergory." She pouted some more as I fell back groaning. "I like him, okay. Are you happy?" (A/N: catergory isn't a spelling error. That's how hicks say it.)

"Now why don't you ask him to the dance?" I placed my hands over my eyes and contemplated it. ~Why can't I ask him? 'Cause I've never broken down before in front of anybody. Now I've done it in front of this guy and I can't stand to face him.~

"I just can't. I hurt him too bad."

"Is that like it?"

"Isn't that enough?" I sat back up facing the smaller girl. "I acted like a total idiot back there and now…I've screwed ev'rything up."

"Now who's using 'like'?" I glared at her and she went back on topic. "You…haven't screwed anything up. You just…need to talk to him and stop ignoring him. He totally digs you and…you just need to make his day and talk to him again." I could tell that ev'ry time she paused she was fighting the urge to say 'like' and I fought the impulse to laugh at her seriousness.

"I guess you're right."

"Like, of course I am. Now just get your butt moving and ask him already." She grinned as she pushed me off my bed and towards the door.

"Not now…"

"And like why not?"

"It's past curfew…" I was grasping at straws and was desperate for an excuse to put it off.

"Oh, like you're right. Gotta run." She did just that as she ran through the wall connecting our two rooms and I collapsed back down on my bed.

CANNONBALL

"Has Al asked you to the dance yet?" I looked over at Bobby who was smirking widely. Jubes had asked him the day before and he was constantly looking to rub it in on somebody.

"No." I looked down at my shoes wondering why. ~I don't get her. Hell, I don't get any girls.~

"Wonder what her deal is? She seemed real eager to see you."

"Yeah." I let my thoughts float back to the first night she'd been back. We'd probably sat there for an hour or more while she cried into my shoulder. ~Well, at least you're a good shoulder to cry on. That's about all the good you seem to be right now.~

"Earth to Sam." I looked up realizing I'd just missed a huge chunk of Bobby's talking. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry, what'd you say?"

"Man, I'm starting to worry about you. You're even more out of it now that she's back."

"I just don't understand girls, period."

"Nobody does. They're impossible." I ran a hand through my hair nervously as I followed him downstairs for breakfast. "It took me all summer to get Jubilee to give me a second glance."

I sighed in frustration. Jubilee and the other girls were mysteries as it was but Al seemed different. She was tough as nails, honest almost to a point of being blunt, and not about to let anyone stop her from doing what she wanted.

Al came around the corner and nearly smacked straight into the two of us. "I was just looking for you Sam, could I talk to you…" She eyed up Bobby quickly before looking back at me. "…alone?"

"Yeah, sure." She took my arm and led me back the way I'd just come. I glanced back at Bobby who was giving me thumbs up. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing…" She glanced down at her feet and shuffled them nervously. "You know that dance, Friday night?" I nodded slowly. "You wouldn't have a date, would you?" I shook my head slowly then feeling like my brain shoulda been rattling by this point. "You wouldn't want to go with me, would you?"

I could feel a smile beginning to tug up on my mouth as I finally spoke. "You bet." She looked up from her feet finally smiling faintly.

"Okay. Thanks, you're a hero, Sam. I was afraid Kitty might fix me up on a blind date."

"Oh." ~That's what this was about. She didn't want Kitty to play matchmaker.~ She turned and walked away as I sunk down along the wall feeling like the biggest loser the world had ever known.

HYDRA

I slowly woke up the next morning and at first I thought I was reading my alarm clock wrong. ~Oh my god it's already a quarter 'til eight!~ I literally jumped up and ran around the room like a chicken with it's head cut off as I looked for clothes to wear. I finally found my backpack tucked away underneath my bed as I glanced down at my watch. ~Five minutes til. Ev'ryone'll be gone by now.~ I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen in search of a bite of anything that could be classified as breakfast.

"What are you doing up Kicks?" I barely glanced at Logan as I shoved a slice of bread into the toaster and tapped my fingers on the counter impatiently.

"It's called school. And…" I looked down at my watch and groaned as I forgot the toast. "I'm late!" I ran back out without breakfast and dashed into the garage for my truck. I broke several speeding laws on my way to school and barely made it inside as the first of the bells was going off for homeroom.

I crashed into a seat in first period slowly rubbing my temples. I'd struggled with my locker for the last ten minutes and if that was any sign of what was to come, I'd be cutting out by the end of third period. Kirsten silently sat down on the opposite side of the room causing me to wonder what was going on. ~You'd a thought she'd be happy to see me.~ I was about to move over when the bell rang and I was outta time.

I didn't see any of the other girls until lunch and when I sat down at the table they were all giving me the cold shoulder except Rose. Rose quickly dragged me outside for a girl talk. "Where have you been?!?! All your friends from the institute would tell me is that you weren't there anymore. And what'd you do with your hair? I love it!"

"I'm really sorry, it's kinda a long story."

"Well, then you better start talking."

"We were in this fight and long story short a dam was coming apart and I held back all the water so that ev'ryone else could escape and ended up lying on the bottom of a lake for a month." Her mouth moved silently up and down several times before anything came out.

"What exactly were your powers again?"

"I can manipulate water." I glanced around nervously as kids were watching us and snickering.

"Oh."

"Is there something that I should know? Like why the others are acting like an ice queens?"

"Well, when you disappeared, everyone started talking. You know at first everyone assumed they moved you because of your father, then someone found out you were a mutant and it all went down hill from there." I smacked my forehead as I sat down on the grass silently. "I'm sorry, I tried sticking up for you…but…"

"It's okay." I sighed as I looked back up at her. "I'm just glad we're still friends." She nodded silently as the bell rang.

"See you in last period. We've got lab today." She waved as she walked back inside the school and I sighed as I picked up my bags and headed back in as well.

"So are you going to that dance?"

"Yes."

"Taking Sam?"

"Yes."

"So why don't you sound excited?" I sighed as I glanced at Rose over my lab goggles. She giggled because of the stupid look I must have had but it couldn't be avoided when wearing safety gear.

"I'm putting myself on a guilt trip." I picked up the potassium with my gloved fingers and dropped it into the water causing it to fizz and burst into flames.

Rose took a stirring rod to the solution as she kept up the third degree. "Why in the world are you doing that?"

"I dunno. I just feel bad. I kinda lied to him."

"You either did or you didn't lie."

"I did lie to him. I made up some dumb story to cover the real reason I asked him to the dance. Now he prolly feels like I'm using him and basically that's what I lead him to believe. Why are we talking about me? What about you asking Pete?"

"I haven't gotten up the courage yet."

"Well, I'll ask him for you."

"No! I'll do it…just in my own time."

"You planning on still being here next year?"

"Shut up." I stuck out my tongue at her as we kept working on our lab. "I bet by now someone else has already asked him anyways."

"Doubt it. For being just a guy, ev'ryone gets pretty tongue tied around him."

"Everyone but you."

"But I've already got a date, so I'm no competition to you. Besides, I wouldn't be a very good friend if I went and asked the guy you liked knowing you liked him."

"Okay fair point there." I placed the beaker into the sink and began rinsing it out. I jerked back in surprise when it started sparking and remembered the potassium that we'd put into it. Rose snickered silently as she helped to start cleaning up too.

"Do you think you could help me with all these lab reports I have mounting up?"

"Yeah, sure. What kinda help?"

"Just some pointers or anything he might have told you guys in class that I missed out on."

"Sure thing…lets see. With the lab we did on electromagnetic spectrums…"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Qwerty: Awww….that was sooo very sweet! * Author graces Qwerty with her biggest and best smile as she bats her eyelashes.

Nie Starwhistler: Hmm…I'll see if I can add a lil something later on for you. No guarantees on the ROMY since this is turning out to be a SAL. Like I said, I'll see what I can do. I don't really like to force things into my story though. Hmm…so forgive me if it sounds a little forced.