Unlikely

Chapter Sixteen: Wind Rushes By

On Wednesday, Mia was having a bad day. It wouldn't have been so bad, if she didn't feel so completely worn-out. Fortunately, the professor had sensed her mental fatigue, or more like read her mind, and said there was no training for her today.

Unfortunately, her visions didn't have ears to listen to this good news, and as Mia was too tired to put up a mind barrier, as the professor had recently taught her to do and been working with her to perfect, she wasn't able to block the visions as they flooded her weary mind.

Today she wore the pleated black skirt Kitty had insisted on buying last Sunday at the mall, and then her usual black boots that reached her mid-calves. To finish the look she wore a tight-fitting black shirt beneath a long-sleeve electric-blue fishnet shirt and long black dress gloves – which she had borrowed from Rogue. Her silver hair, which Kitty had insisted on doing, was done into French-braided pigtails that reached just past her shoulders. Since she had turned into a recent project since the little girls' bonding that last Sunday night, Rogue had done her make-up, thickly outlining her eyes in black, then with light blue eye shadow, and maroon tinted-lipstick to her usually pale pink lips. The look was partially gothic, partially punk, and attracted the extreme-sports guys like bees to honey.

But it also attracted Pietro.

Strangely enough, Mia was pleased mostly by the speed demon's attention. Ever since the movies, she had developed a small crush on him, though she would never admit such a thing to anyone. After seeing so many of his fantasies, she couldn't help it. Her outlook on the matter was, he obviously had a crush on her, so why not be fickle just this once? It wasn't like she expected him to ask her out. From observing his attitude she doubted he ever would. But it was still fun to flirt, even if it was unintentional-indirect flirting.

Still, her heart beat faster every time they passed each other in the halls. He didn't often come to class, not the ones he was in with her anyway. A part of her sort of missed him whenever he pulled one of his usual disappearing acts.

At the moment, however, Mia wasn't thinking about Pietro at all.

Instead, she was fast asleep in her sixth hour Physics class – her arms folded beneath her head on her desk, her eyes closed and her expression peaceful as she breathed evenly.

That was how Pietro found her, as he was escorted into class by the principal.

"Mr. Maximoff," Mrs. Physicsteacher greeted him as he was shoved unceremoniously through the door of the classroom. "Glad to see you could join us." She announced over snickers from around the room as he made a sneering expression at her before he sat down in the only seat open at the front of the room in the far left corner. When the class had settled down, she continued with the lesson as though nothing had happened.

Class had been going for ten minutes, when a shout startled everyone.

Even Pietro turned in his seat to see Mia standing at the back of the room, her chair tipped over behind her, her expression one of startled worry as she looked around the room, breathing harshly. Then, without a word, she shoved her books from her desk into her bag, picked up her dark blue backpack, and headed to the front of the room, and walked right out the door, passing Pietro without even a glance at him.

"Ms. McKellen!" Mrs. Physicsteacher called after her, walking swiftly to the door. "Where do you think you're going? There's still thirty minutes of class left!"

"I need to get to Maggie," Mia's call came back.

Recognizing the name of her younger sister, Pietro was up and out of the room before the door had fully shut behind the teacher as she walked out after the fleeing Mia. In a blink he was in front of Mia, who didn't even seem to notice him as she sidestepped the obstacle and continued her half-jog towards the side-exit of the school.

Without an explanation, Pietro grabbed her hand before she could fully pass, and then took off out the door with his blinding speed, leaving behind a startled Mrs. Physicsteacher and Mia's dark blue backpack that had fallen off her shoulder at the unexpected jolt.

Author's note: Here we go now!

Preview of Chapter Seventeen: Defining Reality

Realizing her meaning, Pietro quickly released her, and at the unexpected freedom, she fell. She hadn't been standing in a very sturdy pose, so he had been the only thing really holding her up. And then her legs felt like gelatin, which wasn't helping matters much. Nonetheless, Mia suddenly remembered why she had just sped out of school in the first place, and scrambled to her feet before Pietro could comprehend what was happening. She stumbled as her panicked thoughts and gelatin-like legs mixed.

Disclaimer: I don't own any copyrights to X-Men: Evolution. I only own this plot and my original characters.