Chapter 14
Scott stood at the entrance to the school; Jean, Kurt, Evan, and Kitty standing behind him, watching as Morty walked away- presumably to wherever his uncle lived. The wide smile that had been plastered on his face the entire time he had been talking to the new boy was brushed away like chalk on a green board. He turned to Jean, frowning. "I don't like him," he finally admitted. "He seems nice enough- but the entire time I felt like he was hiding something major."

"He probably was," Rogue stated slyly as she walked up to the group, he pack slung over her shoulder, "Heck, we are."

"Yeah- but I don't think he had the urge to punch me the entire time I was talking to him." Scott frowned deeply as he watched the still retreating back, far along the side walk. "You don't think he picked up on that, do you?"

"The way you were acting, he probably thought you were hot for him." Evans laughed jokingly, "Seriously- you were kissin' up like he was the guy who got to choose whether or not you passed the grade. He's probably just freaked out now!"

Scott shrugged, and began to walk as the others fell in behind him. "Well I like him," Kurt said, "He seemed nervous, but it vas his first day at a new school. He vould make a good X-Man I zink."

"Jean?" Scott asked, "What do you think?"

"He's nice," Jean replied casually, not looking Scott in the eye, "Really nice. He looks healthy, says nice things…"

"Jean."

"I'm serious! I've never had to just figure somebody out like this before!" Jean exploded, "How do you all deal with this? This… this…"

"Trusting people based on what they say and not the emotions they unconsciously put off?" Rogue finished.

"Exactly!" Was the shocked reply. "I never knew… I mean, I understand that regular people had to do this, but this total black out… I just never knew."

Kitty shrugged, a happy little grin plastered on her face in what looked like a totally permanent way. "Like, I don't know," she continued, "He seemed really nice to me. Smart, cute, and ambitious if he's just a regular guy already going for a helecopter liscence. I mean, he's like, what? Tenth grade? Eleventh?"

"Tenth," Rogue answered, before jokingly adding. "And I'm betting that the fact that he's a hot guy who loves shopping does nothing for you, right?"

Kitty just smiled, but what surprised Scott, Evan, and Kurt was the fact that Rogue smiled right back. "He was pretty hot," Kitty replied girlishly, "And polite too."

"That was just nerves," Jean replied, but she was smiling too. "But at least he's showing that he does have table manners. Unlike some people."

The three girls shot grins at Kurt, who shrank back in mock terror.

"At any rate, like," Kitty finished, "I like him."

"Me too," Jean answered, after a pause, "I haven't got a single reason to not trust him yet, which is pretty nice. I've never really dealt with that before."

"Me three," Rogue answered, surprising the group. When they turned off looks at her she simply smiled, and shrugged. "Hey- hot guy who loves shopping! What's not to want?"

The three men groaned.

Meanwhile
Mortimer walked down the street, his pack slung over one shoulder and a textbook under one arm. The fact that he was actually willing to bring homework back to his room to work on surprised him enough; the fact that he actually thought he could complete it and be successful was a happy change though.

And at any rate, if he had trouble he could just wander around until he ran into a tutor.

Smiling to himself, he thought about how the day had went. It had started off a little scary, what with the jocks and preps actually wanting to know a little about him and his past… then the whole Summers thing, but the food fight had worn away any real fear he had left.

This was a school full of kids. Not military units, not brotherhood type gangs, not even X-Men. This was a bunch of teenagers who thought the way teenagers did. Sure, they might have been trying to dig through his psyche a little, but if there was one thing he was truly good at, it was keeping his past to himself.

Just Summers, the stick up his butt a little too big for his own good, some jocks, and some otherwise hormonal teenage girls. 'Mind,' he decided, 'It was pretty cool to have chicks hitting on me.'

He had never actually had a girl hit on him before, and it became obvious pretty quickly that that was exactly what Katherine Pride had been doing. …And Rogue. And even Jean to an extent.

'Come to think of it,' he decided, 'Summers was being pretty nice himself.'

Laughing to himself, he walked through the doors of a rather desolate looking building. It had been a short enough walk to the industrial section of town, but the difference in the buildings and up-keep of the roads was obvious. The abandoned factory, with the door looking as though it was about to fall off, broken windows, and large fans that took up large sections of the walls looked as though they were all going to fall down on top of him at any moment.

Looking around carefully, he finally spotted a siloutte off to the side.

"'Bout time you got here, mate."

A tall, gangly looking red head walked out of the shadows, a lighter in one hand that was being opened and closed rythmicly, bright orange t-shirt, and a pair of faded blue jeans. "Hey John," Morty replied, trying to keep up the real names in case somebody was watching, "I thought Jesse was picking me up today."

Jesse was a random underling of Magneto- some little powers for making tiny hurricanes out of dust bunnies and what not, but nothing major. He had been chosen because he had never actually come up against the X-Men before, and therefore could not be recognized.

"The mechanics boy they kidnapped the same day they got hold of you" Pyro let loose a giggle, "He wasn't coping so well, and decided to make a bomb out of extra bit's and pieces. Everybody's alright, but there's some major clean up down there today. Not to mention that nobody wants to be there when the big guy decides to 'teach him a lesson', as he so calmly stated."

Mortimer shuddered at the thought- he knew Forge was having a rough time as it was, and Magneto pissed at him was not something he would want. Nearly whispering the words, "You think he'll live through the experience?" He turned back to the door to watch for anybody coming in.

"Sure, he'll live, mate," Pyro muttered, "But he'll sure as hell wish he wasn't. The way things are happening, he's either going to have to hurry up with his shtick, or kill himself. Magneto ain't gonna' wait much longer."

"He's hardly been waiting for a few weeks though," the other boy muttered, "Talk about no patience."

"Patience?" Pyro giggled again, "He's trying to talk over the world, Morty. He doesn't need patience- just a good lay."

Mort shrugged, and turned back to the door. "Well," he muttered, "I suppose we'll go to the mall or something for an hour, or else we'll just be stuck helping with the clean up. Maybe he'll just let me study or something…"

Pyro shrugged, still unknowing of his past life as Toad, and therefore not knowing of his ex-hate of school stuff. "Never knew one as smart as you," Pyro muttered as he took a smoke out of his pocket, "Gotta' wonder just why you do what you do."

"It's weird," he tried to explain, "But it's like bein' handed fools gold. Maybe it's not real, but it's a sight better then not having anything at all. I never really got the chance for a real education before; it's… interesting."

The fire bandit took a long drag of his smoke, and showed the other boy to his car. A bright, fire red convertible. Not that he would have laid a hand on anything else in a million years.

They drove off, wind rushing through their hair, for all the life of them feeling like regular teenage boys for the first time in their lives.

Meanwhile… Again
Mystique stood in front of the trio, each lined up in front of her like a military squadron, tapping her foot impatiently. "And just what do you think you were doing in there?"

She was in her Principal Darkholme guise at the moment- no less terrifying then her regular blue self. None of the boys shook or trembled, but that was alright. She knew their lives depended on her at the end of the day, and that was enough power for now.

"Food fight?" Freddy muttered as he looked at the clock.

She sighed deeply, muttering that they had three days worth of detention, and waved a hand to the door, inviting them to leave. When they did she fell into her seat unceremoniously, and looked out her window to the field where the football team was practicing.

That was the fifth time in the last two days she had gotten them into her office- it seemed without their own little brother around to torture, the three of them were going out of their way to find new and ridiculous ways to get themselves into trouble.

She hated them. Really, she did. But it didn't change the fact that she was responsible for the little idiots. If things kept on this way, it was going to be worse trouble then she could manage. Drugs were not a far cry away, she knew. It would be Alvers first, who would be able to get it. He would get Freddy addicted, and then Pietro would start on the emotional blackmailing and physical wailing about how he was being abandoned 'again'.

Robbing had always been Toad's thing, but it wasn't a far stretch to imagine the others had already started to compensate the loss of fresh income from the little one. Sighing once more, she did what she had been loathe to do since she had started running their little house hold.

She set them each up a appointment with the school psychiatrist.