I don't own anything, except Ivy.

Mutant Imagination

Gym

There were so many people in Gym class, just after lunch, that Ivy almost wondered if something was wrong. They were going to swim that day, so their teacher was the beautiful Miriam Paul. All the guys were drooling as she entered the room in her bathing suit. Several girls glared at their boyfriends, while others compared themselves to her. Ivy was just looking around the room, counting how many people she knew were there.

"Edith (my new roommate), Neona, Jayde (my team leader {yikes}), Kitty, Carley, Charlie, Wyatt, Jamie, Evan, Lance, Todd, Pietro, Fred, Lucas…" Ivy was still standing there and trying to figure it out when the teacher's whistle startled her out of her thoughts.

"In the pool, Miss Green!"

"Yes Ma'am!" Ivy jumped into the pool, forgetting that she couldn't swim. She panicked until she realized that she was in the shallow end. She stood up and laughed nervously as she noticed everyone was watching.

"Today we're going to do a tug of war in the other end of the pool." Ms. Paul said, ignoring Ivy once she found out that she was okay.

"You're going down, Maximoff!"

"You just try, Daniels!"

Ivy found herself stuck between Pietro and Evan on the rope. They were on the same team, but it seemed as if they were going to spend this class trying to drown one another and Ivy in the process. Pietro kept pulling foreword, much to his team's displeasure, while Evan pulled back as hard as he could. Ivy was only worried when they started actually fighting. It was okay when the rope was just getting pulled around and she could hang on for dear life.

"You three, out of the pool." Ms. Paul commanded after their fights got Ivy knocked to the bottom of the pool and she started shrieking for help. "The rest of you can just swim around until I come back. Behave responsibility."

Ivy followed her teacher, wondering why she was in trouble too. After all, her mutant powers hadn't shown or anything! Although with her tan reappearing, she was going to need to speak to Professor Xavier about getting an image inducer of her own soon.

"This is all your fault."

"Is not."
"Stop arguing." Ms. Paul said as they stopped in front of a locker. She opened it and pulled out a large orange lifejacket. She handed it to Ivy, who was looking at her with confusion. "Put this on and get back to class. But be careful anyway, okay?"

"Okay…" Ivy said, taking the lifejacket, "Umm…how do you put it on?"

"Here." Ms. Paul said, trying to be kind, though she was obviously was dealing with someone who had never swum before.

"She looks like a giant carrot…" Evan whispered to Pietro, who snickered, as Ms. Paul helped Ivy get the lifejacket tied on. Ivy heard and glared at the floor, since she wasn't facing them and she didn't want to move, just in case it might make it fall off.

"Now go back to class. I will be back soon."

"Yes, Ma'am." Ivy walked back to the swimming pool that had erupted into a huge water fight. Ivy considered leaving, but Wyatt ran by her and knocked her into the pool. Not on purpose, but she was annoyed anyway. She floated there for several minutes, being knocked back and forth before she noticed that they were making fun of her as well.

"I bet you can't get her to fall out of the lifejacket."

"I bet you can't do it without touching her."

"I bet you can't make her touch the bottom."

"Dunk her!"

And suddenly Ivy found herself covered in water completely. She couldn't tell up from down as she twirled under the heavy spray of water. She tried to call for help, but there was only water to breathe and she ended up choking in panic as she thought that she was going to drown. She felt herself grow weaker quickly as she lacked oxygen. Her sight was growing more confused and dim as the chlorine got in her eyes and caused chemical reactions.

She suddenly let go and screeched. Suddenly the water stopped and it was the rest of the class drowning rather than her, since she had popped back up with her lifejacket still on. When she had finally calmed down enough to realize that she was no longer drowning, she stopped screaming and struggled to et over to the edge of the pool. She looked at the rest of her class, who were experimentally coming to the surface to see if the noise had stopped. Ivy ran from the pool to the locker room before anyone could catch sight of her again. She quickly changed and ran out before the bell sounded again.

She paused to catch her breath in front of some very thick bushes and found herself still shaking. It really wasn't her fault, she told herself. She didn't mean to lose her powers like that and hurt all those people. Even if they deserved it, she was sure that Xavier was going to kick her out again. It meant that she was going out on the streets.

Ivy shivered as she pictured herself wandering down the street in rags as a blizzard tossed snow at her face. Or she could return home, but that was a fate worse than death, she decided. If it came down to it all, the Brotherhood would accept her, after all, Magneto wasn't said to be picky.

"Ivy?" She heard the voice of Jean Grey coming. Ivy knew that Jean was one of Xavier's top minions. It was very likely that she was coming to tell Ivy to get lost. Oh well, she thought, there's no point in avoiding it. She turned to the voice as Jean came around the corner of the building. Jean looked right at her with a expression of worry, "Ivy?"

Ivy began to take a big breath in to explain, but Jean had moved on, still calling Ivy's name. After a confused moment as Jean faded from sight, Ivy saw Robert Billings as he come around the corner. He was following Jean, as far as Ivy could see. But if that was the case, then why was he coming over to her?

"My dear Ivy," He began softly, looking at her, "I heard that you caused a scene in Gym class."

"Really?" Ivy said sarcastically, but knew that if someone had told him, then the rest of the school knew for sure, "How did you manage to hear about that?"

He smiled and pointed to his ear, "I was in Geometry. Although I confess that I do not understand the teacher. She began laughing." He took Ivy's hand gently in his, "I knew that you would not be willing to come to English class and so came to convince you otherwise."

"Uh--um--I-I guess I'll go." She said, trying to pull her hand away from his strong grip, but was unable as he pulled her toward the building.

They entered the English room from a back door, so the class didn't notice that they had entered late. With all the noise the class was making, it was apparent that the teacher wasn't going to notice either.

"I say we do Romeo and Juliet!"

"Macbeth!"

"The Twelfth Night!"

"Charlotte's Web!"

Everyone turned to look at Starrie, who had suggested Charlotte's Web. The Xavier kids rolled their eyes at her, while various others ignored her suggestion, still others took it on themselves to explain.

"Starrie, we're talking about what Shakespeare play we want to study and perform at the end of the year. Charlotte's Web isn't Shakespeare."

"Oh." Said the shape-shifter, as though she hadn't noticed. Ivy took a quick glance around the room to see who else was in the class. It was a fairly small class, consisting strangely of only people that she knew. Starrie, Sabe, Neona, Alex (who Ivy knew to be Scott's little brother), Scott himself, Jean (who was talking worriedly to Scott, who pointed over to Ivy, causing Jean to look relieved), Pietro (whose hair was not looking nearly as messy as it did during Gym, slicked back), Todd, Tabitha, Terra, Jean-luc, Vixen, Taryn, John, Kurt, Charlie, Edith, Aislia (another newcomer to Xavier's), Rogue, Robert Billings and herself.

"A-hem!" The class fell silent as they heard the voice of the feared Latin teacher from the hallway. She was standing in the doorway, looking slightly miffed. She was feared as much, if not more, than the geometry teacher, however different she looked. She was rather tall for a woman, and had an aura of certain power about her. She had slightly above shoulder length curled raspberry colored hair that at moment was being held back by a gold-colored ribbon. Her eyes were crystal blue, making Ivy feel like she could see right through her. Of course, she did not dwell long on Ivy, but looked at Mr. Gill, the English teacher with distaste.

"I would suggest you keep your class in order. The clamor is disrupting the attention span of my students." She said with a deathly cool air in her voice. With that, she left.

The class took a few minutes to cower in fear and awe, then the English teacher again said took the class's attention.

"Ms. Lehnsherr is right, however, I still need everyone to give their votes for the plays. The most popular seem to be Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Othello." Mr. Gill said. "Macbeth and Hamlet have already been chosen by other classes, and Romeo and Juliet is going to be preformed by the drama club. That leaves us with Midsummer and Othello. Everyone write on a piece of paper what you want to do and leave it in my hat on the way out. Have a nice day!"

Ivy thought about it for a long time as she sat at her desk with a piece of paper in front of her. She really had never read A Midsummer Night's Dream or Othello, so she really didn't care what they did. Even if she had read some Shakespeare before, she just didn't know so she wrote Othello on her piece of paper and left the classroom.

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