Hope this chapter lives up to your expectations. Two chapters in one day! Not bad!

I don't own the X-Men, just Mattie

Makes Me Want To Scream

"Who the hell does she think she is!"

Bobby stood in the doorway. Mattie was pacing back and forth in her room like a caged tiger. Not a bad analogy considering. She was mad, anyone could see that.

"No really. I want to know. Where does she get off talking to me like that?"

"Mattie." Bobby took a step into the room. "I know you're angry."

"Trust me. Angry doesn't even begin to describe it!"

"And she had no right to talk to you like that."

Mattie stopped pacing long enough to give him a withering glare. "You think!"

Bobby watched as she started pacing again. He was exhausted. Stressing about what his mother might or might not be saying to Mattie. Finding out what his mother was saying. Having to try and stop her. Finding Mattie and his mother almost at each others throats. Fighting with his mom. Now he had to try and deal with Mattie. And she wasn't going to make it easy for him.

"Mattie."

She glared at him. "Yes?"

Struggling to control his own temper, Bobby tried to calm her down. "I can't take back what she said. But I can tell you that it came from her, not me."

Mattie ignored him. "Has she gone yet?"

Bobby took a deep breath. "No. She says it's too late. So she's going to stay here and go back tomorrow."

"What?" Mattie rounded on him. "She's still here?"

Bobby nodded. Personally he wanted his mother out the way as well. He cast his mind back to the flaming row that the two of them had had in the garden. He'd really let her have it. And it was water off a ducks back. She barely even listened. She was so wrapped up in her own little world, that she didn't notice his. Bobby shook his head. There was no way of dealing with his mom. You just had to ignore her. She drove him up the wall, and that was on a good day. Now she seemed on this crusade to split him and Mattie up. He could barely stand to be in the same room as her. Isabella. For Christ's sake! He'd never felt anything for Izzy. And he was almost certain that she'd never been interested in him. They'd known all about their parent's plans and hopes, but they'd both assumed that it would all blow over.

"Bobby I know she's you mom and I'm sorry. But…" Mattie couldn't complete her sentence. Instead she gave a muffled cry of fury and started pacing again.

"Who does she think she is!"

Bobby rolled his eyes. This was going to take a while.

"She thinks that the X-Men are some sort of 'club'. Did you know that?"

Bobby nodded. "I just let her think that. I've given up trying to explain. She never listens anyway."

"And you've got to give up being a mutant!" Mattie continued.

Bobby nodded again. He'd been thought all this with his mom before. This was all new for Mattie.

"And you've got to get a 'proper' job. Which your new wife will support you in!"

Bobby sat himself on Mattie's bed and watched her pace.

"And you'll be making lots of money. So your happiness is guaranteed. Because everybody knows that to be happy all you need is money!"

Bobby lay back on the bed. He didn't even need to be here.

"And you most certainly will not be going out with a mutant! Oh no. You'll be with a nice normal girl!"

Now we were getting to it.

"You'll be married to this Isabella." Mattie practically spat her name. "Who is perfect and wonderful! And whose daddy runs everything!"

This was it. This was the bit that had wound Mattie up so tight.

"And who the fuck is Isabella anyway?"

Bobby looked up at the angel of wrath that stood over him. Apparently she wanted an answer this time.

"She's an old childhood friend. We've know each other since we were kids."

Mattie stood with her hands on her hips. She raised an eyebrow. "And she's fucking amazing is she?"

Bobby shook his head. "No."

"And you and she are madly in love with each other are you?"

"No."

"And you've been in love with her since childhood have you?"

"No."

"And you are going to marry her are you?"

"No."

"And you are clearly just fucking about with me, until you go off to wedded bliss with the fucking wonderful Isabella!"

"No." Bobby stood up and took hold of Mattie's shoulders to give her a shake. "No."

She glared at him reproachfully, a petulant pout on her lips. Because she was upset or because he'd stopped her rant he couldn't tell.

"Mats. Izzy-"

"Izzy!" Her eyes lit up with fury at the pet name.

"Izzy and I are friends. I haven't seen her in years. She's living in France at the moment. Some sort of boarding school thing. I am not in love with her. I do not think she is amazing. And I am not going to marry her."

Mattie stood sulkily in his grip. "Really?"

"Really."

"And you're not just fucking about with me?"

"Mats." He said as reproachfully as he could.

She pouted again. Now she was sulking because he'd stopped her rant. He could tell by the way that her lips kept twitching, trying to become a smile. She was having to concentrate to keep the sulky expression on her face.

"She shouldn't have said those things to me."

He nodded. "True."

"And I'm not sorry for what I said. I don't care if she is your mom."

"I'm sure you were duly provoked."

"Damn right I was provoked!"

"Mats?"

Mattie met his eye, intrigued by his whining tone.

"Can we kiss and make up now?"

She couldn't stop the smile this time.

X

Mattie coped with the presence of Mrs Drake in the mansion, by not being in the same room with her. If Mrs Drake entered a room that Mattie was in, Mattie would dash out the room as super speed.

Ororo, who had taken on the task of entertaining Mrs Drake, smiled indulgently and murmured something about adolescent moods. Mrs Drake seemed more than happy to consider Mattie to be some juvenile delinquent who was obviously rude to her betters all the time.

She made the mistake of voicing this opinion at dinner. As it was a Friday night the students had created their own concoctions for supper. So it was only the Professor, Mr McCoy, Ororo, Logan and Mrs Drake who sat down to eat.

Her comments on Mattie caused Logan to growl and mutter something under his breath.

"What would make you make a statement like that, Mrs Drake?" Mr McCoy asked.

"She just seems a nasty piece of work to me." Mrs Drake said. "I wish that my Bobby hadn't gotten involved with her.

"I assure you that Mattie is a perfectly respectable student." The Professor said.

Mrs Drake raised an eyebrow. "Well I found her to be rude to the extreme."

The Professor, while not knowing the full details, knew enough to know that both Mattie's and Bobby's tempers had be sufficiently tried. He also suspected that he would have no trouble getting Mattie to divulge what had angered her. He could feel her anger still simmering just below the surface.

"I for one will be very glad when Bobby looses interest in her and finds himself a nice normal girl." She glanced around and suddenly seemed to remember where she was. "No offence of course."

Logan rumbled something that sounded like bigot, and got up from the table. "Excuse me, Charles."

Mrs Drake watched him go and tutted. Feeling the emotions being given off by those remaining at the dinner table, Xavier felt that tomorrow couldn't come quickly enough.

X

Logan found Mattie hiding out in the kitchen.

"Training session?"

Mattie flashed him a grin and leapt off her seat. Logan watched her race upstairs to grab her uniform.

X

Mattie leapt over obstacles, slid under mechanical arms that grabbed for her, rounded corners, skidded to a halt and raced in the opposite direction as a laser gun lined her up in its sights.

She took her fury out on everything and anything that got in her way. This made the world a lot safer for Mrs Drake. Still inwardly seething at the woman, Mattie made use of the added edge that anger gave her.

Logan watched her, she was reckless. Totally focused on smashing things, if she was knock down she got up and took a swipe at whatever had done it. This session was a good thing. Whatever that woman had said to her it had wound her up good. It wasn't part of his tough and mean persona to give a damn about what the students got up to. But Logan had seen the way that Bobby and Mattie were around each other. They were good for each other. Besides. As a tutor, he could give a damn about his students. And if one of them got this mad, got this reckless, this eager to smash stuff. Then it needed dealing with. That woman needed to go. If he'd thought that he could spend more that two minuets with her without trying to throttle her, he'd have offered to drive her home himself. Right now.

The doors behind him opened and he could smell Bobby.

"What's up ice pick?"

"She okay?"

Logan shrugged. "She will be. How about you? Heard you got it in the ear as well."

It was Bobby's turn to shrug. "I'm used to her. I learnt to deal with it. Mattie was unprepared."

"So?" Logan couldn't resist. "What's it all about?"

Bobby gave him a confused look.

"What's got her so riled?"

"Extensively? Pretty much everything my mom said. Predominantly? The fact that my mom mentioned this girl from back home. My mom wants me to marry her. She threw that in Mattie's face."

Logan nodded. That made sense. Mattie felt threatened and not by Bobby, that she could deal with. She was being threatened by someone who had a lot of sway over the way that Bobby thought.

"What do you think of this girl?"

"Nothing. She was a childhood friend. That's it."

"You tell Mattie that?"

"Of course."

Logan nodded again. And much as she believed him and as much as she would claim that she didn't care. It hurt to have Bobby's mom tell her that she just wasn't good enough. Poor kid.

"She'll get over it." He grunted at last. "Don't worry."

Bobby grinned. "You know Mats. Too fast for her own good. She can't hold a grudge for more that five minuets."

X

An invisible weight seemed to lift off the Institute as Mrs Drake left the next day. Bobby gave her a perfunctory hug goodbye. "Give my love to Dad."

"Come home and see us over the summer." She told him.

Bobby nodded. "I'll do my best."

Scowling over his shoulder at Mattie, Mrs Drake smiled at him. "I'll say hello to Isabella for you."

Bobby forced a grin onto his face, and fought to keep it from turning into a grimace. His mom wasn't a bad person. She just wanted something really badly. And she thought that if she pushed hard enough it would happen. But it wouldn't. It could never happen. Bobby couldn't just turn his back on the X-Men. One day that would get though to her. Until then he just had to grin and bare it.

"Bye Mom."

He mounted the front steps to wave at her as she drove off. Then he headed inside to where Mattie and the others had been watching from. Grinning he swept Mattie off her feet and into his arms.

"Now. Where were we?"

Mattie giggled at him as his lips captured hers.

"Yuck! Like, get a room!" Tabitha yelled at them.

X

Monday morning was greeted with less of a bleak mood that usual. This was the last Monday of the term. It was the beginning of the end. Even the teachers seemed to feel the excitement. Lessons were much less of a struggle.

Pietro was waiting for her when Mattie came out of math.

"What's up?" She asked as he fell into step with her. "Want me to kick you butt again?"

Pietro just sneered at her.

"No witty comments? No statements about how marvelous you are? Pietro are you ill?"

"Ha Ha, Drew." Pietro scowled at her.

"Come on then, what is it. I haven't got all day."

Mattie had long given up trying to figure out why Pietro shadowed her. Sometimes she wouldn't see him for weeks, and then he reappear at her side again.

"You an only child, Drew?"

"Yes."

"How'd you know?"

Mattie frowned. "Because my mother didn't have any more children. That's how I know."

"Sure?" He pressed.

"Yes I'm sure. God, just go bother someone else will you."

He gave her a withering look, then disappeared into the crowd. Mattie shook her head. That boy was messed up.

X

The week inched along until finally it was Friday. End of school. The whole summer to do nothing in.

This time everybody joined Sam and Ray in a lap of the hallway.

"It's here! It's here!" Jamie called out, multiplying in excitement.

"Weeks and weeks of free time!" Ray sang out.

"This is not a drill people!" Jubilee shouted out as she raced by for another lap. "Repeat. This is not a drill!"

"Why don't they put that energy to good use?" Logan muttered to Ororo as they watched the students racing around below them.

"And who is to say that they are not." She asked him, unable to resist the temptation to tease him.

Logan gave her a surly look.