"Why would I want to kill Kitty?" I demanded, wiping at my eyes with my good hand.
Kurt continued to bandage my wounded one. Bobby had numbed it somewhat with his ice, but it still hurt like hell. My eyes were filled with unshed tears, distorting the world around me.
I gave Logan a very watery glare.
"I'm not saying you did, squirt," he retorted, "but we need to find out who it was."
"Well, I didn't do it and I didn't see who did," I said, sniffing, "All I saw was the knife falling at her chest. It would have killed her if I hadn't done something."
"Kitty said the knife was floating…" added Kurt helpfully, pulling the bandage tight. I choked on a protest, instead making an odd, high-pitched noise in my throat.
"Then that would mean it was done by a telekinetic or someone who could use magnetism or…" Logan said, trailing off.
"Or someone who could become invisible," I added for him.
"Then we have four suspects," he continued, "Magneto—"
Kurt snorted. "Why would he try to kill Kitty? She poses no obvious threat to him."
Logan glared at him. "No comments from the peanut gallery, elf."
Kurt grinned widely and busied himself with the bandage again.
"Shauna is another suspect, and possibly Jean (though I don't see why she'd want to kill Kitty; haven't they been friends for quite some time?)," I piped up, "But I don't know who the fourth one is."
"You," Logan growled softly.
My heart jumped into my throat. "Me?" I cried, wrenching my hand away from Kurt's. He pulled it back and finished it.
Kurt and I just looked at each other. This was all I needed.
"Melody," called Jean, running into the room, "Did you see anyone when you caught that knife?"
Now this was going to become bothersome.
"Again, no," I repeated.
"Red, can you go into anyone's mind to find out who did this?" rumbled Logan.
Jean's face went as red as her hair. "No."
"And why not?"
"Because… the last time I tried, I mentally damaged the person," she blurted.
"NO WAY ARE YOU GOING IN MY MIND!" I exploded. I paused, then added, "But you can go into Shauna's. She's messed up enough as it is."
"You have it in for the pixie, don't you?" Logan asked.
I stared. "The pixie?"
"Shauna," he corrected.
"Do you know when Ororo is getting home?" Jean asked suddenly.
"She's due back from Africa in a few days," grunted Logan, "Why?"
She shrugged. "I'm just wondering."
"Ororo?" I asked.
"Another teacher," Kurt explained, "She can control the weather, and she's Evan's aunt. We call her Storm."
I yawned.
Logan saw this. "Alright, everyone!
Bed! Now! You have school in the
morning!"
And then I was left alone in
the infirmary. "This is going to be fun…" I muttered as the lights
dimmed. I pulled the blankets up about my shoulders and drifted off to sleep
before I could think another thought.
~*~
"What happened to your hand?" asked Ashleigh.
I was at school and extremely crotchety. My hand stung and I hadn't the power to heal it… yet. I scowled at her. "For the fifth time, I dropped a knife and caught it by the blade before I could think twice."
"Whatever you say," she replied lightly.
I busied myself with my locker combination. This was awkward: usually, I did this with my left hand. I had grabbed the blade with my left hand. I wrote with my left hand.
This posed a lot of problems.
That morning, I had wakened to find the bandage completely soaked through. I was losing a lot of blood. Fortunately, it had stopped bleeding for the moment.
"How'd that happen?" asked a new, snickering voice. "Did you mishandle your toothbrush this morning?"
My head snapped back. Shauna stood above me, leering. Anger boiled up inside me.
"Actually, it was the knife you dropped at Kitty," I said heatedly.
Her eyebrows shot up. "The knife I dropped?"
"You know you did it," I growled. "Admit it."
"Even if I did do it, I wouldn't tell you."
I slowly got to my feet. My hands balled into fists. "You wanna start something? Here? Now? 'Cause I'll be happy to oblige."
Without bothering to reply, she leapt at me.
I hit the floor and slid along the tiled corridor. People nearby stopped to watch. She drew back her fist and swung a nice punch to my jaw.
There was no was I was going to stand for this!
With a grunt, I rolled so that I was on top of her. My fist connected solidly to her face. She shrieked and clutched her now-bleeding nose.
I snorted in disgust. So she couldn't even take a punch!
Something hard and solid hit my gut. I grunted and rolled off her to see what had happened. She had snagged a book from the floor beside me and jammed it into my stomach.
"Girl fight!"
I ignored the shout. All concentration was focused on Shauna.
Another punch landed against my cheekbone. I lashed out with my foot and caught the side of her head. She yelped as her whole body was jerked backward.
I lunged at her. We were suddenly rolling again. My back slammed against a row of lockers, knocking the air from my lungs. I lay winded for a moment, fighting to breath.
My nose seared with pain and I heard an audible crack! I howled, knowing immediately that it had broken.
She was standing now. I swung my legs so that she fell to the ground with a yelp. I sat on top of her and pinned her arms to the ground with my knees, throwing sturdy punches to her face.
"Melody!"
"Miss Becker!"
"Shauna!"
Someone was suddenly pulling me away. I almost couldn't see who it was for the pain. My whole head throbbed. I tried to jerk away from the person who held me back.
"Miss Becker," said a voice in my ear.
My insides froze. Slowly, I turned my head to find myself face-to-face with Principal Kelly.
"You and you," he said to Shauna and me, "to my office. Now."
I wrenched my arm from his grip and stalked angrily to his office. Behind me, I heard Shauna whimpering. I glanced over my shoulder. Her eyes were watering. Blood oozed out of her nose. Two bruises were rising nicely about her eyes.
When I got to his office, I threw myself indolently into a chair. Shauna, sniffling, took another.
"What did you two think you were doing?" demanded Principal Kelly.
"She started it!" both Shauna and I yelled at the same time, pointing accusingly at each other.
"Melody, you first."
"She started it," I said. "We got into a… er… heated conversation, and she threw herself at me!"
"You provoked me! You asked me if I wanted to fight!" shrieked Shauna.
"That doesn't mean you should!" I yelled back.
"Be quiet!" thundered Principal Kelly. "Detention! Both of you! For two months! And I don't want to hear it, Miss Becker! Miss Timere!"
Scowling, we both fell silent.
"Miss Becker, I suggest you go get your nose looked at. It looks broken."
"It's fine," I muttered. I would heal it later… and with Shauna's energy, if it went the way I planned.
I stomped off to lunch. Ashleigh had a table and was reserving a seat for me. Kurt was there, too. He paced in front of it, hands behind his back. His head snapped up when I stormed over to them.
He grabbed me by the shoulders, three-fingered hands digging into my arms. I squirmed. "What did you think you were doing?" he demanded.
"Doing what I wanted to do since two weeks ago," I said, shrugging him off and taking my seat.
"Didn't know you could fight like that," Ashleigh said through her sandwich.
I cracked my knuckles. "You've seen nothing yet."
She leaned forward. "I'd like to see."
I rolled my eyes. "Not after that."
"Not ever," interjected Kurt, scowling.
When he turned around, I stuck my tongue out at him.
Ashleigh giggled.
Kurt, who hadn't noticed, ran a hand through his hair. "Let's just hope it doesn't come back to bite you."
I crossed my fingers and held them up to show him. "Here's to hoping."
"It's going to come back to bite you," he said with conviction.
~*~
Crrrk. Crrrk.
My eyes snapped open. The sound of creaking floorboards filled my ears. I was suddenly very aware that someone was in the room. It echoed off the walls. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but I knew that it was steadily coming closer…
My heart began to pound in my ears. It could be the murderer, a.k.a. Shauna. But if I moved too suddenly, she might realize I was awake and get away before I could see her…
The sound stopped. I gripped the blankets tightly in my fists (both, since I had thankfully been able to heal both hand and broken nose, though the gash had left a wide scar). Sweat stood out on my forehead. Had she seen me?
That was when I heard something whistling through the air.
I shrieked and rolled off the bed. I hit the floor with an audible thump and looked with horror at the bed. A knife lay embedded in my mattress. My voice rose high and shrill in the night air.
"Melody, stop your shrieking and go back to sleep," yelled Shauna, who was standing across the room beside her own bed. Her face was twisted with anger.
BAMF!
"Melody! Melody! What's wrong!" demanded Kurt, looking about him. He balked when he saw the knife in the bed.
Logan, Scott, and Kitty crowded at the doorway. Logan eventually burst through, for he popped his claws. He paused in the middle of the room, sniffing. Then he saw the knife in the bed and narrowed his eyes.
"Again?" he rumbled.
I nodded, white and shaking. It had been a near thing. A second later and I would have been dead.
Kurt helped me to my feet. I rubbed my arms and looked down at the bed.
Kitty stood frozen in the doorway, eyes as round as plates. "It happened again… it, like, happened again…"
"EVERYONE OUT!" Logan roared. Kurt instantly teleported, Scott hightailed it out of the room, and Kitty phased through the wall. I made for it, too, but he stopped me. "Not you, squirt. You're to go back to sleep."
"But what if—"
"It won't happen again, as I am going to be standing guard outside the door." He pulled the knife from the bed. "Be assured it won't."
I nodded and, shivering, got into bed. He stalked out the door and stood there, on guard.
I never did fall asleep again that night.
~*~
"You know, it could have been her. Faking it, I mean."
I froze on my way to the kitchen and pressed myself against the wall. Using X-ray vision (yeah, I know, sounds cheesy, right?), I glanced through the wall and saw four people standing near the kitchen door: Jean, Amara, Rouge, and Kitty. Jean had been the one who had first spoken.
"She wouldn't, like, do that!" said Kitty indignantly.
"She is new…" muttered Amara.
"And so were you," Kitty interjected. "It doesn't, like, mean she did it. You should have, like, seen the look on her face. She was, like, terrified."
Rouge scoffed. "CopyCat? Terrified. I doubt it."
"She was," Kitty said angrily.
I really liked her just then.
"It's a little suspicious. I mean, she was the first one there when you were almost murdered. She was there before you could see who had dropped it. And then she was able to roll off her bed before it hit her. She was faking it," Jean said, sounding very self-righteous.
My hands curled into fists. I suppressed my anger, which could wait… for now.
"No! She, like, wasn't!" Kitty, of course.
"It probably was. Shauna seems sweet to me. I saw the fight in the hall. Melody provoked her into fighting."
Okay. This was going far enough.
I stepped around the corner. My cheeks burned red. I was almost sick because of my fury. I was shaking with rage.
"Shauna is very sweet," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "People that try to kill you as are sweet as sugar."
Jean looked at me in shock and disbelief. "What? You saw her?"
"No. I mean the first time she did. When I burned her arms."
Jean rolled her eyes. "You probably provoked her then, too."
Okay, so I let my anger get the better of me. So sue me.
I lunged. Jean stood in utter incredulity. I hit her and we rolled back. I did the same thing to her as I had to Shauna: I sat on her and pinned her arms down with my knees. "Say that I'm the murderer again and I swear I'll knock you out," I growled.
Then, "WHOA!"
I flew back into the wall. Some invisible force pressed me against the wall with my windpipe. I gagged. I couldn't breathe!
"Jean, are you alright?" asked a voice from very near me.
Shauna popped into existence, her hand positioned strategically at my throat. The girl was a stick but she had one heck of a grip!
Jean sat up and rubbed her arms. "Yeah, yeah," she said breathlessly, glaring at me, "I'm fine. But no thanks to her."
A gray void obscured my sight. My ears roared, but I could hear a shrill keening noise escape my throat. I thrashed frantically.
The grip released. I slid down the wall to my knees, breathing raggedly. Massaging my throat, I glared at Shauna. The pompous little jerk…
But then I saw the masks of rage on Rouge, Jean, and Amara's faces. Kitty shot me a frantic look. Shauna looked very smug.
I groaned.
This was probably going to come back to bite me, too.
~*~
I thrashed wildly and yelped. My blankets tangled about me, but the shrill cry that had wakened me never wavered.
My super speed was up in a flash. I leapt up from my nest without bothering to look at Shauna's bed and ran. The sound was coming from Jean's room.
When I reached the room, I found the knife only centimeters above Jean's chest and lessening. I darted across the room and dove for the knife. My fingers enclosed around the handle and I did a somersault through the air (totally cool), rolling across the floor and hitting the wall with my back (not cool).
I shut my super speed off. Jean was still shrieking. Her frantic green eyes found me and she stopped abruptly. "You tried to kill me," she said in a hushed voice.
"I did not," I said, getting to my feet and dropping the knife as if it were diseased. "I just saved your life!"
"This looks very suspicious, Becker," said a new voice in the doorway, "Very suspicious.
The voice was unmistakable. Shauna stood in the doorway, a smirk on her smug little face. Right then, I wanted to punch it in, but I restrained myself.
"She's right, squirt," said Logan, who had reached the doorway. I flinched. "It looks very suspicious."
I was right…
It had come back to bite me.
~*~
The next night was as nerve-wracking as the last. Rogue was nearly murdered that night, but I had put on a spurt of super speed and saved her life.
Did I get gratitude? Groveling?
Nope.
I was accused of trying to kill her. Again. But no one had any proof that I had, so I was safe for the moment. The only people who believed me were Kurt and Kitty. Everyone else suddenly hated me.
Again I was being shunned.
I hate my life.
Thankfully, tonight was Friday. It was around eleven o'clock and I was on the phone with Ashleigh in my room. Shauna was gone. The last time I had seen her was in the kitchen. Hopefully, she would stay there.
It was a dark and stormy night… yeah, yeah, a little cliché. But it was. Rain lashed at the windows. Lighting flashed. Thunder boomed.
"Are you serious, Melody?" demanded Ashleigh. "There have been murder attempts?"
"No," I said, leaning back against the wall. "And everyone thinks it was me."
"No way. You would never do that. I mean, yeah, you have a temper, but…"
"Tell me about it."
"I am."
I laughed. Good old Ashleigh.
"Hey! I forgot to tell you! My parents are out for a week. You can crash at my place whenever you want."
"Cool!" I said. "Can't wait to—"
My heart nearly stopped when a scream split the air. Ashleigh gasped on the other line. "What's going on?"
But I wasn't there to hear it.
I was already at Hannah's room, which was next to mine. When I was there, I found a terrifying sight.
Shauna stood over Hannah. A knife was clutched in Shauna's trembling white hand. The knife was… was…
I turned on heel and became violently sick. Shauna disappeared. I felt her brush past me.
Clutching my stomach, I turned back to Hannah. Her eyes were wide and glassy. She wasn't breathing. And her heart wasn't beating.
How did I know this?
There was a knife through her chest.
I stumbled over to the corpse and looked down, unable to speak. Gulping, I wrapped my hand around the handle to pull it out again, as a sign of respect.
"OH MY GOD!"
Let us say one thing: my timing is horrible, horrible, horrible.
Jean stood in the doorway with her hands clapped over her mouth. I hastily removed my hand from the knife. "This isn't what it looks like," I croaked.
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! SHE KILLED HANNAH!"
I groaned.
Logan came running. When he saw me, the corpse, and the knife, he popped his claws. "Get out of her, murderer!" he growled, throwing himself at me.
I shrieked and phased through him. Thunder sounded. Instantly, I was through the wall.
Logan is named Wolverine for very good reason. He chased me down the corridors with a destructive rage. Tears streaked down my face in terror.
In what seemed like an eon, I had phased through the door, but I kept on running. Logan through the door open and yelled at my retreating back, "You'd better not come back, or I'll get you that time… you can't phase forever!"
And with that, he stormed back into the house.
I stopped just outside the gates. The rain had soaked me through within minutes. I gripped the wet bars in my hands and put my face against them. Tears mingled with the rain.
The Xavier Institute had been my first real home.
And I had been kicked out of there, too.
Turing, I ran down the dark, rainy road and into the shadows.
A/N: Yes! I finished! But… it's the nicest day of the year. It's eighty degrees out for cripe's sake. WHAT AM I DOING INSIDE? Oh. Yeah. I've been stuck in here all day… ::mumble mumble::
But anyway, hope you liked it. ::grins:: And everything falls into place. First, sorry this took so long. Second, I'm sorry the Jean-almost-getting-murdered part was wicked short. I had to explain everything else that happened before I got too tired.
Excuses: School. The research paper I had (which I aced, by the way). My homework. Literary Society (book club, for all those who can't tell). My original fiction (now 156 pages long. Whoot!). I'll try to get the next chapter up more quickly!!
And speaking of my next chapter… Stick around for, "Chapter Eight: The Bayville Sirens"!!