A Lovers Feud

A Lovers Feud

By: Alex Destine

Chapter 4

Pietro was tired. He had been angry before, but now he was just tired. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he hadn't slept at all yet.

After his fight with Lance he needed to go somewhere where he could calm down and think for a while. Of course, this was his excuse AFTER he had calmed down, but he didn't know why he ran for it after Lance had hit him.

That punch though… it had made him so angry. He could've easily blocked it, he was fast enough, but he didn't and he didn't know why. He also could've hit him back, although Lance was bigger and stronger Pietro was faster and he could've hit him over 50 times in the blink of an eye, but he didn't do that. He had just run and now he didn't know how to go back. How could he face Lance? And did the others know what happened? He didn't think Lance would've told them, but they had been screaming at each other at one o'clock in the morning, that was hard to miss.

Now he was walking aimlessly around school, not a good place by the way. He had completely forgotten about the basketball game that was scheduled for this weekend and he was bumping into everyone inside the huge mass of people. After a while though he realized it was better this way, if he were alone with his thoughts he'd probably turn suicidal.

He didn't want to look too much into the game, every time he turned he saw Evan making a basket, watching that was not helping. He was thankful when half time came and the players took their break. Watching the cheerleaders was bound to be the high light of Pietro's day… and apparently he was not alone…

"Cheerleaders Heaven!" he heard from the bleachers.

~~ Hey, that sounded like Blue boy. ~~ Sure enough, the X-men were watching the game, cheering for their precious Evan. Pietro thought he'd throw up. Kitty was there too, looking completely mortified over Kurt's outburst. Pietro had to smile a bit over that… how could girls take such a thing so seriously?

Soon though, he lost interest in the X-geeks as the cheerleaders started their routine. Those girls sure had some elaborated moves, not better then what he was used to in his old school back in New York, but they were good nonetheless. The crowd was wild and he soon found himself screaming at the top of his lungs just like everyone else. He realized he needed this. He needed to forget about his problems back home and for just a minute focus on something trivial.

He would've gladly kept this up for a while longer but he saw someone that brought him back to reality. Todd. What was he doing here? Jock activities were usually the last place his teammate would've been caught in. Unless the Brotherhood was out looking for him. If that was true then Lance couldn't be too far off.

Todd looked jumpy, he couldn't blame him, this place was full of all his favorite bullies. Pietro looked behind the young mutant and saw Fred was with him.

~~ Why would Todd feel nervous if he's got Fred with him? ~~

Pietro walked over to the two mutants who looked like they were expecting something horrible to happen to them soon. He really shouldn't tease them… but this was just something Pietro couldn't resist.

"BOO!"

"AAAAHHH!!!!" Todd made a giant leap and landed on top of Fred's head making the big mutant loose his balance and fall.

"HAHAHA! Man! You guys sure are great for a laugh."

"Why did you do that?!?!… Pietro? Oh my God, you're alright yo!" Todd bounced off Fred and right into Pietro.

"Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?"

"You weren't at home this morning and you missed breakfast!" For Fred missing breakfast meant a huge problem apparently.

"Yeah well… I had some stuff to do. So anyway, where's Lance?" he looked around hoping not to bump into the older boy.

"He's back home Pietro… he's… he's probably waiting for you." Todd just wanted those two to make up already so things were back to normal.

"Well I'm not going back just yet… What are you guys doing here anyway? Don't tell me you're secret fans of the Bayville Basketball Team!" he said with a sly smile.

"I got dragged here. Ask him." Fred pointed at Todd as the young mutant frowned at his larger companion.

"I… We had something to take care of."

"Such as?" Pietro was as curious as he was impatient… it was a bad combination his friends had learned to live with.

Todd's answer though was not to be heard as a loud shriek filled the entire gym. Pietro turned around and saw as Mallory fell from the top of the cheerleader pyramid and landed right on the hard floor. The young girl was crying in agony as she held on to her leg, which seemed to have taken some damage. Pietro was about to run to her when he felt a strong hand grasp him by the shoulders.

"Hey!" Pietro turned to see Fred holding him back.

"Yo Man, let's just go, alright? She has the entire football team helping her."

"Did you see that?! How did that happen?" Pietro couldn't believe he had seen her fall and didn't do anything. So much for his great speed, he could do anything useful.

He hadn't expected her to fall, so he was shocked when she did. The same way he wasn't expecting Lance to hit him.

"These things happen Man, let's just go now."

"Did you plan this? … Todd! Did you know this was going to happen?" If he hadn't been grabbed by Fred before he probably would've been holding Todd by his neck now demanding answers.

"I don't know what you're talking about! All I know is we have to go!" and with that he leapt out of the gym and headed toward the street.

Pietro pushed Fred away so the larger mutant would let go of his arm and looked back to where Mallory was being carried away in a stretcher.

~~ What did Todd do? And why? I know he hates jocks but to take down a cheerleader… that just doesn't sound like him. ~~

"Fred, what were you guys doing?" he knew he'd get his answers from Fat boy; he was too annoying to be ignored for long.

Fred looked at Pietro for a while. Should he admit they had something to do with the mysterious 'accident' or should he play along?

"I don't know."

"WRONG! Try again Fat boy!"

"Alright, alright… Todd wanted to get back at the jocks so he made sure Mallory's shoes would be slippery before the show."

Pietro just took a deep breath. The girl was sometimes annoying but that didn't mean he wanted her to get hurt.

"You're not going to rat on us… are ya?" Fred was worried for his younger friend.

"OF COURSE NOT FRED! What kind of person do you think I am?!"

"Sorry, sorry…" he held his arms up in defense.

"Let's just go now. They took her away so let's just hope it's nothing serious."

**************************************************************

Scott Summers, Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde were waiting in the Hospital to see if they could visit Mallory. She had been there since Saturday afternoon and it was now Sunday. She couldn't believe she had missed the entire basketball game, what was worse was that without their Captain the cheerleaders had to improvise the ending of their routine for the rest of their shows. She was sorry she couldn't be there.

Mallory's room almost looked like a flower shop, so many people had send their condolences that it was almost impossible to breath. Mallory was only thankful she wasn't allergic.

"Hey Mallory." Said Scott as they entered the room.

"Oh Mallory, how are you feeling?" Of course Jean knew how she was feeling, but maybe if she said it out loud she'd feel better then that.

"Oh, I'm just fine." How many times had she had to answer this same question? "Just hoping I can get out of here soon." She forced a smile to Jean, what she really wanted to do was scream as to why she wasn't home yet.

"Like, too bad about your leg. What are you going to do about cheerleading now?"

~~ Gee, I don't know Freshman… maybe I'd still be able to run around with this huge CAST on my leg! What do you think I'm going to have to do?! ~~

"Well… guess I'm going to have to cool it with the jumping for a while huh."

Jean heard her thoughts toward Kitty and she didn't like them at all, but she figured the girl must be really upset, after all everything she did revolved around the fact that she was in great physical shape. To have her leg in a cast was going to leave her out of everything she was doing for a while.

"We just thought we'd come by and see how you were doing."

"Thanks Scott, I appreciate it. I just can't believe this happened! I've done this routine like a million times! How could I just fall like that?!"

"Well like, don't worry. You can still help on some of the activities the cheerleaders had planned for the semester. And it's not like your leg will be like that forever you know."

Kitty wanted to cheer her up, but it didn't seem to be working.

"But I guess this all works out well for you, right Kitty?"

"Huh? Like, what are you talking about?"

"My cast wont be off for a while and the play will be on before then. Guess you'll get your chance in the spot light Freshman."

Kitty had completely forgotten about that. With that cast on Mallory wouldn't be able to do the play. So she really was the FEMALE LEAD! The small smile that came to Kitty's face wasn't cheering up Mallory either.

"Like, I had completely forgotten about that!"

"I'm sure you did Freshman." Mallory was getting annoyed with this visit so Jean decided to cut it short right here.

"Ok well, we're glad you're feeling alright. We hope to see you back in school on Monday." Jean smiled sweetly at the now scolding Mallory and dragged the surprised Scott and the really happy Kitty out by their arms.

As they were being dragged by Jean out of the hospital Scott decided to ask the reason for their sudden departure.

"What was that all about?" he asked Jean once they reached the car.

"Did you see the look on Mallory's face? If she didn't have that cast on she would've jumped on Kitty!"

"Guess she was very upset about loosing her spot on the play." Scott looked over to Kitty who still didn't believe she had been granted such a blessing.

"Hey Kitty… snap out of it." Scott had to laugh at his younger teammate. She had really been oblivious to Mallory's death glares. Although he wasn't glad to what happened to Mallory, he had to admit he was happy Kitty got the part. She deserved it a lot more.

******************************************************

Once again the birds were singing their early morning tune as the sun rose behind the mountains. The young speed demon slowly opened his eyes to adjust to the light and greeted the morning in his usual way.

"Oh crap… another Monday." And with that he pulled his pillow over his head and fell back to sleep. A weird sense of déjà vu crossed over him, but he quickly dismissed it.

This last weekend had been weird. After talking to Todd he realized the young mutant blamed the 'sometimes annoying' cheerleader for the fight he had eaves dropped between Lance and Pietro. He made Todd promise never to pull a stunt like that again, or to at least consult him before doing it. Although he wished there was something he could do to fix this problem the damage had been done. He had heard that Mallory's leg was in a cast and couldn't participate on the routines anymore… he hoped though the cast would be off before their play was on.

As he made his way downstairs he remembered another little problem. Lance. When Pietro had returned home on Saturday Lance seemed relieved to see him, but he didn't say anything. In fact, the two had avoided each other for the last 48 hours.

Now though Lance was the only one in the kitchen so there was no way to avoid him.

"Morning." Pietro said as he came down the stairs. He tried not to look at him because he knew Lance was starring hoping that they would 'talk', about what Pietro had no idea.

"Morning…" Lance wanted to say something more, anything, but he just didn't know what.

The silence was getting to their nerves. Finally Pietro decided they had better put what happened last Friday behind them and simply start talking as they did before.

"So where are Fred and Todd?"

"Umm… they're still sleeping." Lance was a bit surprised that Pietro had talked to him. He had expected to be avoided for at least a week.

"Sleeping?"

"Yeah, you woke up rather early today." Lance said as he drank his coffee.

"No way…" he looked at the clock. They still had half an hour before school started. "Guess I couldn't stay in bed anymore."

"Pietro look… I'm sorry about Friday."

"Whatever Lance, I don't want to talk about it."

"But we HAVE to talk about it. You're aware that they know about it, right? Todd has been acting weird ever since then. And simply tries not to be around anymore."

"And whose fault is that?!"

Lance took a deep breath. He wasn't going to argue again, especially when he was trying to apologize for their first fight.

"Look Pietro, … It was all my fault, alright? I lost my temper and I hurt you, I'm sorry… All I want is for you to forgive me so we can go back to the way things were before."

Pietro was a bit taken by Lance's apology. Why did it matter so much to Lance what he did, where he went or what time he got home? They were just living together until Magneto and Mystique decided they weren't worth the effort any more. Sure, he could understand everyone looking out for Todd; he was the youngest and the most vulnerable to bullies and such. But he didn't need to be fussed over like that.

"Fine, fine… I forgive you Lance." Pietro tried to sound serious as he said it but a smile was breaking as he accepted his apology. "Now are you happy?"

"I feel better at least."

"Glad to hear it." Finally, now things could go back to normal. "So, you doing anything after school? We could hang out or something…"

"I have my job, but I could skip it today."

"No, no way!… we'll hang out on Friday since that's your day off. Besides, I forgot I have to practice for that play."

"Oh yeah, the No-name play… how is that going by the way?"

"IT HAS A NAME!!… I just have to figure out one. And it's going fine, thanks to me of course. I'll practice my lines with Mallory and by the time the play is on she'll have her cast off. So everything is fine." Pietro poured himself some cereal as he kept talking to Lance.

"Umh, Pietro… the play will probably be on by the end of the month. That's when the competition against the other schools is, right. Do you think Mallory's cast will be off by then?"

"Sure! It has to be!" Pietro finished his breakfast in three seconds and was now eating an apple.

"Well… at least you guys have understudies for these occasions."

Pietro's eyes suddenly grew wide and he started to choke on his apple.

*****************************************************

Pietro's last class before lunch was starting to become his worst nightmare.

~~ How could that teacher keep talking about all that nonsense? ~~

He would have gladly dozed off but he had made a promise to himself not to do so. He wasn't even sure what Mr. Smith was talking about now, he only hoped he didn't ask any questions.

Suddenly Pietro was very aware of one fact. He Was Hungry! He knew he should've eaten more then that bowl of cereal, he would've finished his apple if he hadn't chocked on it. Why had he chocked on it anyway?… oh yeah, stupid play. It was just one big headache after another with that thing. He simply wanted the school day to be over so he could confirm that Mallory was going to make it for the play. He needed Mallory to be in it! The thought of doing all those love scenes with that… that… X-men! Was just too much for him.

"Mr. Maximoff! … welcome back to our class. Would you like to answer the question?"

~~ Have I mentioned that I hate you? ~~

"Umm, no."

~~ OK, that was just a little too honest. ~~

Pietro looked up to the teacher, he was not amused. The rest of the class was though. Kurt had to smile a bit, the blue X-men didn't wish any harm to Pietro, but he found it so comical the way the white-haired boy always got into trouble in this class.

Rogue was looking at him. The moment he looked at her though she looked away, but he could see her smile.

~~ If even Rogue is laughing, I'm dead. ~~

"Perhaps you Mr. Maximoff would like a little extra homework, you know to keep you awake in my class."

~~ Umh, if I answer 'no' again will he only give me more homework? ~~

"Yes sir."

~~ I definitely hate you sir! ~~

As the bell rang all the students left in a hurry for lunch. Pietro didn't know why they bothered… it wasn't like the food was going to get any better. He looked as more of his classmates left to eat the mystery that was the meatloaf in this cafeteria, some of them were talking about the game, most of them though were talking about the embarrassing fall Mallory suffered.

Some jocks were talking about how it had been set up since they found Mallory's shoes covered in some slippery goo. But that idea was forgotten soon and they kept talking simply about how embarrassing it was for the poor girl.

Suddenly he found a smaller figure beside him, his dusty blonde hair unmistakable.

"Hey Todd."

"Hey man… are you ok?"

"Yeah, just slept through last class, teacher caught me again."

"Good, now Lance can't bug me about it if you do it too." Lance was always hard on Todd and his studying, he knew the young boy could do so much more if he tried.

"Yeah, difference is though I still get A's because the class is so easy while you usually flunk." Pietro crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the lockers as they waited for the rest of the Brotherhood.

"Yeah I know… I still have to study a lot so I don't get summer school. Good thing I have Lance helping me once in a while."

"Yeah, good thing…. Think he'll help me with my extra homework?" he asked with a sly smile.

~~ Any homework you can walk away from… ~~

"Maybe… but he'll probably ask you to take over kitchen duties for a while."

"Nah, after my last burned dinner… he'll think twice before putting me near the stove again."

"Right,… say Pietro. Did you two patch things up?… I mean, you guys were all happy and talking during breakfast, but I just want to be sure." Todd had that little boy face he made when he was worried.

"Yeah, yeah… we patched things up. Rather weird actually… bunch of touchy feeling kind of stuff. Don't know why he cares so much."

"We were all worried about you on Friday you know. Lance just told us to go to sleep and that he'd wait for you."

"Well, you didn't have to be. I can take care of myself."

"Right… ok."

They suddenly felt the ground beneath them tremble, Todd and Pietro looked at each other and immediately knew what that was.

"Freddy…" said both boys at the same time.

"What are you guys doing here? We're late for lunch! We can't be late for lunch!" and with that Fred took off again.

Pietro and Todd looked at each other as they saw their friend run toward their mysterious lunch. Lance was slowly making his way toward them.

"Well,… what are you doing here? We're late for lunch. We can't be late for lunch." and with that he continued to walk ever so slowly following Fred's trail.

"I tell ya Todd, one of these days… I'm going to kill Freddy."

**********************************************************

School was finally over and Pietro was going to practice for the play now. He suddenly wished he wasn't.

~~ Why am I here again? Why did I agree to do this? Oh yeah, I was bored… great, now I'm annoyed. Big difference there. ~~

As Pietro entered the cold air-conditioned classroom he noticed one thing right away. No Mallory.

"Where's Mallory?"

Claudia turned around to look at her male lead.

"Finally you grace us with your presence Maximoff. We're running late. Tell me you've practiced your lines?"

"Claudia, I practically WROTE the play for crying out loud!"

"And what a good job you did of it too. However, the question was, did you practice your lines?"

"Yeah, I did. But what about Mallory? She still has to practice a lot."

"Didn't you hear Pietro? Mallory broke her leg at the basketball game, she can't be in the play."

~~ Oh my God! Oh no… this can't be happening… ~~

"Good thing we had an understudy… never really thought we'd need her though." Said Claudia as she looked at the script.

~~ Not her, don't let it be her! ~~ Pietro was getting nervous.

"Now if only she'd get here already so we could start practicing…. How about you practice your lines with me Maximoff, while she gets here?"

~~ Why must it be her?!… of all the lousy girls in this whole school! ~~ Pietro wanted to scream.

"Pietro?…. Hello, Maximoff?…. Great, now I'm being ignored."

~~ Why? Why?… WHY?!?!!? ~~

"And then Mallory and Pietro had SEX and soon afterwards a baby."

~~ Why? Why? Why …… what did she say? ~~

"….. Huh?" Pietro looked shocked for a while. ~~ Did I hear her right? ~~

"Got your attention now?" Claudia was smiling mischievously.

"That's not funny…"

*******************************************************

"I'm the new female lead! I'm the new female lead!" Kitty Pryde was happy and for anyone who wasn't aware of that fact or the reason behind it, she was more then happy to sing about it on her way toward practice.

Hard to imagine that one week ago she wasn't even going to be cast. Now she only thought of what it would feel like to be acting in front of an audience.

~~ Like, this is so totally cool. Everyone at the mansion has got to come to the play. They'll be so happy for me. I have to ask Jean to take pictures so I can send them to my parents! They'll be so proud to see me on stage. ~~

She opened her script once more and looked over her lines for one of the scenes.

~~ Ok, so like… I'm at this park on a bright sunny day and I'm sitting down on a bench looking over wherever, when suddenly the love of my life sits down besides me and asks for my name… and the love of my life is… Pietro Maximoff?… oh my GOD! ~~

Kitty's eyes suddenly grew wide as she understood for the first time why things on this Earth were never perfect. She had to do a love scene with a member of the Brotherhood. The one with the loud mouth who always thought he was better then everyone. She had to pretend to love HIM?!

~~ Like, no way! ~~

*********************************************************

"Ok Pietro, you're all set! You really know all your lines, that's great." Claudia was very happy with her male lead.

"Told you I knew them." He was beginning to get anxious, all he wanted was to go home now and think of anyway to heal Mallory's leg sooner.

Suddenly the room filled with light as the doors were opened to reveal one Kitty Pryde. Pietro sighed in annoyance.

"So anyway Claudia, since I know my lines and all guess I'll be going now."

"Hold it right there Maximoff, you know you have to practice them with Pryde."

"But I really want to go home!" she couldn't believe this. Pietro Maximoff was practically whining.

"Oh grow up Pietro! … PRYDE! Get over here."

Kitty took slow awkward steps toward the stage, almost as if she'd suddenly forgotten how important this whole play had been to her no less then a week ago.

"Something wrong Pryde?"

"I'm not feeling too good. Maybe we could like practice tomorrow."

"Humor me Pryde. Just a couple of lines." ~~ What is wrong with these two? ~~

"You know, you shouldn't force the kid Claudia. She's just not ready. Give her a couple of days, I'm sure she'll do better then." Pietro wanted to run, never in his life had he wanted to run so bad… except for Mr. Smith's class.

"OK, the two of you have to practice these lines, now! And no one is leaving until I'm satisfied that you two can at least do a half then decent job!"

"Fine, like no need to kill us over this…" said Kitty a little annoyed.

"Ok… let's start where your characters meet for the first time on page three."

"Didn't we do this one last time?" asked Kitty.

"Yes Kitty, now we're doing it again, problem?" Claudia was getting annoyed.

"No, no problem." So this was her fate. A love scene with Quicksilver. ~~ Oh well… it could be worse, it could be Todd. Ew! ~~

Pietro couldn't believe he had to do this with this X-geek in front of an audience. What would Mystique say about that? What about Lance and the others? What were the X-men going to do? Not that he cared about those losers, but he knew they weren't going to be very happy either. Still, he had to do this, at least to keep Claudia happy for today and later he could find a way to fix this problem.

"Ok, fine. Let's begin."

Pietro took a step closer to Kitty, but he didn't hold her hands like last time. He opened his mouth to say his lines, but nothing came out. He tried again and nothing.

"Need to read the script Maximoff?"

"NO! I'm FINE! I can do this myself."

He tried again, but all that came out were incoherent monosyllables.

"Umh,… I…. That is… charming and pretty…. And .. and I wanted to know your name!"

Kitty blinked a few times.

"Like, you didn't change the script again, did you?"

"NO! I'm just working on my lines! That's all!"

"You're not working real hard, are you?"

"Oh what do you know Kitten?"

"It's Kitty! And apparently I know more then you."

"Ooh, sounds like a challenge!"

Claudia started to rub her, by now, very aching head as she listed to her two most important actors fighting like children. Didn't Pietro know his lines by now? And why on Earth couldn't these two be in one room at the same time without insults being thrown at each other? This play had to be perfect by the end of the month or else the Cheerleader Club wouldn't have enough money for their activities and they wouldn't be able to compete against the other schools.

"You're so, like stupid!" Kitty was upset.

"And you're so like, a total ditz, you know." Pietro said mocking her. Now Kitty was angry.

"Would the two of you SHUT UP!" Claudia though was even angrier. "OK! Practice is over for today, but the two of you better learn how to act together or I'm going to have to replace someone!"

"Like No Way! I can totally do this job!" It was pure luck that Kitty had this role now, she wasn't going to give it up over a fight with Pietro.

"Claudia, I WROTE the damn thing!" Pietro wasn't going to be replaced, not without a fight.

"Then I suggest you work on it…" and with that Claudia left the two bickering children.

Pietro and Kitty stayed in that room for a while looking at each other. They weren't moving or saying anything, just starring. Neither of them wanted to leave the play, as annoying a thing as it was, so they had to act together. Unfortunately.

"So like, guess we're going to have to get along for a while."

"I guess…" Pietro's voice was oozing with venom as he said this. This Valley girl was ruining everything! … But he could handle it, he could. He just thought of this as another challenge. Another one he had to live with thanks to this girl.

They both headed home after that, neither of them talking much, just thinking of ways they could kill the other and make it look like an accident…

***********************************************************

Whenever you needed a quiet meal and a nice spot for some peace and relaxation, be assured… the Brotherhood kitchen was not it.

The television was loudly making its presence known to the whole neighborhood while Fred was making himself an extra large sandwich. They would've turned it off but Freddy kept insisting he was 'watching that channel'.

Todd was sitting on the dinner table with another school book at hand, he wasn't really reading it just looking at the pictures and hoping he'd get an A on the next test anyway. Lance had just arrived from his work and went upstairs to take a shower, which left Pietro in charge of kitchen duties for dinner.

"Ok, we could have chicken or lasagna. What do you want?" Pietro looked over their two choices as he took them out of the freezer.

"Don't we have anything that doesn't resemble an air plane meal?" asked Todd as he took a break from 'reading' his textbook.

"Hey! You're lucky we have a choice! Fred would've eaten them if they hadn't been hiding in the back of the fridge. Now tell me, chicken or lasagna?"

"I don't know… I can't think with all that noise!… FREDDY! Shut that thing off!"

"NO! I'm watching this…" Fred had settled himself on the couch and was ready for a few hours of 'couch potato-ing' with his favorite meals.

"Then what are they showing, huh?!" Todd got up to see what was on the TV at that moment.

"Umh, I'm not sure… I'm going to START watching it now." Fred was not giving in.

"Oh my God! It's THE WEATHER CHANNEL!… Freddy! Why are we watching The Weather Channel?!" Todd ran over to Pietro who was simply leaning against the table and mumbling something to himself.

"Pietro, did you see what Fred has us watching?… Pietro?" Todd was starring at his white-haired friend as he kept mumbling.

"So like, whatever… you know… bla bla bla… tee-hee, I look cute in pink, you know, bla bla bla…" Pietro stopped when he realized he was being watched. "Did you say something Todd?"

"Umh, it's just that… Fred has us watching the Weather Channel…" Todd was scarred for his friends' sanity.

"Well GOOD! Maybe there's hurricane coming to Bayville and we don't even know it! Maybe it'll hit that mansion where those X-geeks live and it will send that annoying Kitty flying far, far away from here!!!"

Now Todd was scared for everyone's safety. "Right Pietro… right. Maybe you should sit down?"

"NO!… I'm fine. I'm making dinner." Pietro got up started opening the frozen chicken to stuff it into the microwave.

"Hey! I want some chicken!" Fred yelled from the living room.

"Didn't you make yourself a sandwich?" asked Pietro from the kitchen.

"That was my snack!"

Todd had to roll his eyes and beg for patience.

"Right!… Stupid question on my part Freddy, so sorry…" Pietro started to open the lasagna as well as he kept mumbling soft "like's" and "whatever's". Todd wondered if he should run.

Lance came down the stairs after a while and was greeted by the usual chaos that seemed to be a part of the Brotherhood's life style. He saw Todd screaming at Freddy and gesturing toward the TV. He assumed the young mutant was angry about how loud it was, he wasn't sure though he couldn't listen over the senseless noise coming from… The Weather Channel?

~~ Since when do we watch The Weather Channel? ~~

Lance looked over the kitchen where Pietro was destroying a helpless TV dinner box using a long pointed knife.

~~ Ok…. I'm scared. ~~

Lance walked over to the kitchen but he didn't want to get too close to the speed demon. Who knows if he'd attack him with that knife. He tried to yell out to Pietro but he couldn't even hear his own voice over the TV's and Todd's combined. So he decided to stop the madness for at least a little while. Lance took the remote from Fred and hit the 'mute' button.

Silence would've reigned in the Brotherhood's home for a little while if it wasn't for Pietro's voice taking over the kitchen.

"Like, whatever you know… bla, bla, … like totally cute, yeah… bla, bla, bla." Pietro suddenly felt the silence as he was now able to hear himself. He stopped babbling and turned around to look at the very worried faces of Lance, Todd and Fred.

"So… umh… dinner will be ready in five minutes!" Pietro, however, kept stabbing the poor box.

"Pietro?…" Lance tried to approach him.

"What?!" but the speed demon turned around rather too quickly holding the knife up and looking like a mass murderer.

"AH!… ok!..ok…. umh, give me the knife. The chicken is already dead Pietro. Otherwise it wouldn't be in the box." Lance carefully took the knife away from his demented friend and pushed it far away. "Did you drink caffeine again?"

"No, but maybe I should. What do you think?"

"NO!" answered both Fred and Todd. The last thing they needed was a hyperactive Pietro holding a knife.

"Pietro, what were you saying?" Fred was curious as to what on earth was going on inside his friend's head.

"Nothing… just babbling. Nothing important." Pietro took an apple as he waited for Lance to finish dinner. "I'm hungry, can you hurry up with that!"

"Pietro, you murdered the chicken!" said Lance as he looked over what was left for their dinner.

"Thought you said it was already dead." Pietro taunted, then he noticed the three angry glares he received. "Oh… sorry…"

"You do not play with food!" Fred was always so passionate when it came to that subject.

"Yo man! What got you so upset anyway?" Todd wanted to know the reason behind mumbling words like: "cute" and "pink". If he didn't know now he would never get a good night's sleep.

"Nothing… it's just this stupid girl…" Immediately he regretted having said that.

"Ooooh, a giiiiiirl!" Fred was now making stupid faces at Pietro.

~~ Yeah Fat boy, something you'll never see. ~~

"Yo! Who is she man!? We gotta know!" Todd got closer expecting to hear the great secret.

"Lance! Get them away!" As if he was going to tell them…

"Are you nuts? I want to know too!" Lance leaned in next to Todd.

"Oh come on! Guys! Dinner! We have to make dinner! Freddy, don't you want to eat now?"

"I'll wait" Miracles do happen! Fred will wait for a meal!

"It's nothing….. guys!!!…. it's just this stupid girl that's driving me crazy! It's as if the sole purpose of her existence is to make my life difficult! I don't want to talk about. I just want to forget that she exists! She's always bouncing and giggling and acting like an idiot! I don't want to talk about her anymore. And I swear that if she blinks at me not understanding what I say one more time, I'm going to kill her! Now that's it! No more! Go away!"

"Yeah, I can see you don't want to talk about her…" Todd wanted to know her name though.

"Alright, alright… relax Pietro. How old is she anyway?" Lance continued to salvage the chicken.

"She's a freshman. Why?" Pietro didn't know if that was too much information for his friends.

"Well,… maybe she really DOES like you and she's annoying you to get your attention. You know how little kids like that are." Lance decided to open the lasagna and place it in the microwave.

"HEY! I'm a freshman and I am NOT a little kid!" Todd crossed his arms over his chest as he slumped on his chair.

"Of course you're not Toddy." Pietro patted him a few times on the head and gave him a smile. He decided he was safe from the questioning so he took another apple and headed toward Fred who was watching TV. As he sat down on the couch he noticed a most bizarre thing.

"Hey… since when do we watch The Weather Channel?"

*************************************************************

Tuesdays had to be the worst day of the week. Mondays were always bad, but you still remember what that peaceful Sunday was like. Wednesday was the middle of the week so the count down till weekend started, Thursdays you couldn't wait for Fridays and on Fridays you couldn't wait for school to be over. But Tuesdays… there was no hope for Tuesdays.

Kitty Pryde was busy doodling in her science notebook on her last class for the day as the teacher kept talking about 'who knows what'. Usually she would pay attention, but she really wanted to run like mad out of school today. She had decided to skip rehearsal today, she couldn't face Pietro again, he was too annoying. She figured she'd learn her lines on her own and when she had to act with Pietro she'd pretend it was someone else. That sounded easy. She could just see Claudia screaming at her tomorrow,… but she needed to skip today. It was life or death!

"Miss Pryde, are you alright?"

~~ Oh no! Teacher! ~~

"Umm, yes. I'm ok.

"Then perhaps answering my question would be a good idea."

~~ I... I… I really don't like you! ~~

"And like, what question was that Ma'am?" Kitty smiled sweetly at her teacher, she didn't normally get into trouble so maybe the teacher would be nice to her.

"Maybe if you'd stop drawing Ms. Pryde, you'd know. But study those doodles, they might come on the test."

Kitty could feel her face burn as she heard the class's laughter.

~~ Ok, now I really don't like you! ~~

Luckily for her the bell rang at that moment and she was finally free from evil science. All she wanted was to run for Scott's car as fast as she could. Once there she noticed the others were chatting and talking away, except for Rogue of course, so she decided to ask for some company.

"So like, who wants to go to the mall with me?" she asked as she flashed them a smile.

"Kitty, don't you have rehearsal now?" that was Jean.

"Yeah, but I like, need a break. It's just for today, don't worry about it."

"Well, I have a lot of homework today Kitty, maybe tomorrow?"

"Oh, it's alright Jean, don't worry. So, anybody else?"

They had something to do. It was either homework or practicing in the Danger Room. Scott said she should practice too, but she quickly took his mind off that idea.

"Like, I need a break Scott. A Break! Going into the Danger Room does NOT qualify as a break."

"Ok, ok." Said the reluctant leader of the X-men as they were heading toward the mall to drop Kitty off.

Once there Scott gave her the usual instruction: not to stay till too late and to call for Kurt to teleport back to the mansion. After that Kitty was free! Free to wonder inside every store. It was heaven! She realized she really needed to escape the routine of school and homework, and specially of seeing Pietro everyday.

Kitty saw a few stores but didn't buy anything. In truth she had very little money, she just wanted to walk around for a while. As she turned a corner though she realized relaxing in this place was also going to be hard.

She landed hard on the ground after having bumped into someone who was apparently late for something.

"Like, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" Kitty looked up to see the face of Pietro Maximoff.

End Chapter 4