Morty
By Maikafuiniel

Authors Notes: Today is TheDreamerLady's birthday, and so comes another chapter! I want to apologise- it's really not my best work, but I wanted to give her a birthday present. :) Enjoy.

Chapter 12
Kurt sat back in his chair, sighing deeply into his notebook as he listened to his teacher drone on about the second world war. It truth he didn't mind learning about history, but since he had come to America, whenever somebody mentioned WWII around him they always looked nervous. Like he was going to start spouting off about how Hitler was in the right or some crap like that. The teacher didn't help, staring at Kurt with a small frown whenever he took a pause from his reading.

"Ven vill zis class end?" he muttered up to the heavens with a small plea, "I zink zee friggen clock is going backvards by now!"

The class continued onwards though, and as it turned out he wasn't the only one who was board stiff as a rock. Lance Alvers sat at the back of the room, in the left corner, slowly drawing pictures of avalanches crushing different members of the X-Men as he pretended to listen to the lecture. On one level he didn't even know why he was here- he could have just as easily stayed home, and have done something constructive. Like yell at Pietro and Blob for being idiots.

That was always fun.

But for some reason the urge to come to school today at been almost overpowering. He hadn't even bothered to try and get the others to come with him; they would only go when they felt like it, or when they had something in particular planned for the X-Geeks.

Duncan and his gang sat in the other corner of the room, completely oblivious to the fact that there was a class going on at all. They were chatting quietly, and of course the teacher was showing blatant favourtism towards them by not doing anything. Jean, who sat just ahead of the group, was listening with half a ear.

"Where do you guys wanna' go for lunch break today?"

"Don't got any money," one of the jocks said, "Stuck here I guess, 'less somebody else is buying."

"You wish," another jock laughed, "We can just get some money off one of the juniors anyway. Anybody got an idea."

"I miss Wart-Breath," Duncan laughed, "He may have been a wuss, stinky, stupid, and just out right begging to be a punching bag, but you gotta' admit he was good at stealing. My main source of income, he was."

Jean shook her head sadly, and tried to ignore her boyfriend. It was hard, but she knew that when he really wanted to, when he really tried, he could be the perfect gentlemen. When he really wanted to, he could be the man she loved. It was just the time in between that he pissed her off.

And so the class droned onwards, thirty students bored to tears except for one Scott Summers. He was, of course, taking exact notes and graphs of everything that had been said and even hinted at. Never one to be called anything but meticulous, Scott felt he had an image to uphold being the leader of the X-Men. That and Jean might want to study-buddy him later.

He could always hope. At any rate, Kurt would likely try to pawn off his notes at the nearest opportunity, then Xerox them so that future generations could be as lazy as possible.

He shuddered. The humanity!

And suddenly, there was something different. For a perfectly average town in a perfectly average world (bar the mutant uprisings of course), something happened. There was a knock on the door.

The teacher stopped, and with the eyes of every student on him went to the door and opened it. The secretary was standing there, with a few forms and a pencil for the teacher to sign. When he finished, the secretary stepped aside and behind her was a boy. The students knew him from around town… Mitch, Michael, Morris… something like that.

Every X-Men in the class watched his every movement as he was led to the front of the room by the teacher, and even Lance took a long glare before going back to his drawings. "This," he said in a loud voice, "Is our most recent new student. Mortimer Toynbee. I hope you'll be nice enough to this one not to make him go running."

The sad thing was, he probably did hope that. The last new student had run off, his hair on fire, and his shoes trailing green slime- a present from the Brotherhood Boys.

The boy looked nervous up there, shooting glances at everyone Scott knew to be a mutant, and for a moment he wondered if this kid didn't have telepathic powers after all- "Don't worry," Scott said aloud, "I'll show him around during lunch."

"Thank you Scott," he replied, "Now, Mortimer, the only seat left is over there by Mister Alvers- hopefully you won't be contaminated."

For a moment everybody waited to see what Morty's reaction would be to this comment. Would he be shocked that a teacher spoke like that about a student? Angry? Think it was funny? Odd? But Mortimer just shrugged as if he were expecting it, still as nervous as ever, and took a seat.

Morty shrugged his backpack off, and left it beside his chair, facing his way. He trusted Lance like a brother, but he had only seen him during small whifs during the last month- and he knew him. Lance was a great guy, but if things were getting rough for him he wouldn't hesitate to steal anything he could get from his bag.

Not a few weeks ago he would have already been bored stiff with the class, commenting on how pointless it was- but having had tutors who actually taught him how to enjoy learning, and knowing he was going to have to keep his grades up to stay in school, he pulled out a notebook and began to take notes from where the teacher started once he was comfortable.

About twenty minutes into the class, the teacher stopped talking and mentioned that he had to go and get another text from the library. He gave the class a long look as though daring them to talk while he was gone, as if he would even know, and left. The moment he did everybody surronding him 'jumped' him.

"My name is Scott," the X-Men leader managed to get out first, "When the class is over, I'll show you to the lunch-room. You can sit with me and mine, then I'll give you a tour. You'll enjoy it- Bayville is an okay school."

A jock that was near him frowned and said, "Don't bother with Summers, kid. He's not exactly A-material. If you wanna' hang with us, that'd be cool. …You ever thought about taking a position on the football team?"

Morty just sat there as a number of kids stood around him, asking him questions before he had even answered the last one, and he was just stunned. He had seen them do this to other new kids of course, wanting to find out just how 'cool' a person was. Wanting to know about the new person in the midst- not quite out of paranoia from their confusing lives, but curiosity.

Knowing Magneto was going to hang his head if he didn't get a move on in getting into the X-Mansion however, he just nodded thanks to the jock. "I think I'll stay with Scott actually," he said apologetically, "He and I have already met;" he continued, and looking at Scott he said, "The mall- remember?"

Scott turned red at the mention of the incident, but at that moment the class lookout called a warning. The teacher was coming back.

Morty got comfortable again, but he could still feel someone staring at him. Lance. "Hey," he said quietly, "Um… Morty."

"Lance," was the stotic reply, "Seen you around town."

"Well yeah, I get out a bit."

"Not enough obviously," he returned, looking at the pale skin, "So. You're gonna' hang with Summers and his robin-hood group?"

"What do you mean?" Morty questioned, trying to play up his confusion.

"They're mutants you know," Lance replied, testing him and his response to the news, "Every single one of them. They live up in a mansion where they all learn to control their powers. Playing a backwards Robin-Hood. Taking from the people who stole it because they can't live without it, and giving it to people who wouldn't have even noticed it was gone."

Morty shrugged. "You got something against that?" he asked, testing Lance in the same way.

"They're mutants!" Lance returned vehemently, "Doesn't that bother you?"

"Not really," Morty said, "Not unless they prove their idiots too. They probably think they're doing the good thing," he continued, trying to sound as if he didn't have a side, "Maybe they don't realize what they're doing. Though that Wagner kid up there seems like an ass."

Lance nodded, not asking how he knew who Kurt was, or how he knew he was one of the X-Men. "I don't mind mutants," Lance continued, "Like 'em really. You'll probably find out why eventually. But those guys bring a whole new meaning to the term freaks of nature."

Morty nodded, but then went back to his work. Lance took the hint and went back to his drawings. And the rest of the class continued in just that way.

Meanwhile, in the Science levels of Magneto's Base
Shadow took a long look at the boy- Forge. He had fallen asleep on his work table again, working until all hours of the night. Carefully he took the few papers that lay strew around him, before the boy managed to drool all over his work. Taking a long look at them, he sighed.

Close- but not close enough. The new programming aside, they were going to have to alter the sentinels in so many dramatic ways that the task almost seemed impossible at times.

He stared at the boy again, feeling discontented. It had been a full week since he had to be taught a 'lesson' in doing what he was told- and Shadow wasn't seeing any signs that his confediance would come back this time.

He almost felt guilty.

Putting the papers in a neat pile, he turned and left, his feet dragging behind him. He would let the boy sleep this one time, while he worked.

Everybody needed a break eventually.

TBC