AN: Alas, alas summer is almost over. The fall is around the preverbal corner and with it comes everything else. For me, that means school, dance classes, and Girl Scouts. Of course, school also means more of an opportunity to write because I have a really bad tendency to work on stories before classes. Well, not really bad I guess since it gives me something to do that isn't reading science fiction before classes start. I don't know! Anywho, I promise to keep updating on a regular basis since I have days of and stuff in my schedule this semester. I thank all of you reviewers for putting up with my slow updates and, of course, your reviews! All of you rock like boxes of socks!

My PenName is . . .: Thanks very much! Here's my update! Hope it's soon enough for you!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except a handful or two of made up characters. All of this wonderful stuff belongs to the geniuses at Marvel Comics. I'm just playing in their world. I'm broke and in graduate's school. All I own are my Pointe shoes.

Days turned to week….weeks turned to months…..months turned to years. Time passed as it always did in the world and humans and mutants, alike, were affected by its ravages.

Before anyone knew anything Hope had reached her second birthday.

To anyone on the outside looking in on the young child's life, she was a frail looking child with a very short stature. Some might call her sickly and others might wonder just what her parents were- or were not- doing to her.

Those in the know, though, knew it was all indicative of her genetic disorder. She, like the few other children who had William's Syndrome, had suffered from something called "failure to thrive." That had caused the height issues as well as the fact she was rather frail looking.

Calling Hope sickly wasn't exactly accurate but it wasn't really false either. She had a strange propensity for chest infections but no one was sure why. It was speculated that it had to do with a glitch in her immune system, unrelated to the William's Syndrome, or, if it really had to do with her genetic disorder, it was a switch from the kidney and cardiac problems children like her were supposed to have.

Still, most of Hope was indicative of her status as a William's baby. Her hearing was rather sensitive to the point where loud music made her very upset and her personality was friendly to the point of being dangerous. She had to be kept under close watch in crowds because she had no qualms talking to strangers no matter how many times she was told not to.

Her facial features, too, marked her as different. The starburst patterns on her dark hazel eyes were still very apparent and her ears were still slightly elven-looking. The ears weren't really noticeable because of her mousy brown hair that hung to just the top of her neck. Her nose was still upturned; lips were still full and upper lip still long.

All things considered, though, looks didn't matter. Hope was at home among mutants and her differences didn't matter. She was just another kid among them.

Just a little smaller than the rest…

At the moment, though, Hope's unusual dark hazel eyes were scanning one of Dr. Hank McCoy's Organic Chemistry classes. The blue furred mutant- wearing a dress shirt, patterned tie, and dress pants underneath is lab coat- was prowling through the lab benches helping his students where need be.

Hope hand wandered into the class at the very beginning of the lesson- a small shadow in pink coveralls and a powder blue t-shirt that were still a bit large on her even though they were meant for a child younger than her two years- and Hank had allowed her to stay. Well, stay so long as she didn't get into any trouble. The little girl was content to pay a visit and be allowed to sit with the "big kids."

Hoping off the top of the desk where she had been seated, Hope wandered over to a lab bench and scrambled up onto the nearest stool. No one questioned what she was doing since it was par for the course. Hope's personality quirks made her just a little friendlier than normal. Plus, no one wanted to fault the little girl for being curious and wanting to see what was going on in the busy lab.

"What's going on, Hope?" the student to her right- a Hispanic female named Eve- asked the little girl.

Eve was a newer student, unfamiliar with Hope. All she knew was the little girl's name from Dr. McCoy introducing her to the class when she wandered in. Then again, many things were unfamiliar to the girl since she was so new to life as a mutant. That included her own ability to fly and breathe fire, hence her nickname of "Dragon."

Shuddering a little as she tried not to cough on the experiment in the works, Hope answered, "You're doing it wrong. You can't put the glass thing on the hot thing. Closed up like that, it'll 'splode and you'll get hurt."

She sat back on the stool, making sure not to touch anything the girl had done. She remembered that she was allowed to talk to the students and see what they were doing in the labs but she couldn't touch what they were working on. Those were the rules, she knew, so she didn't get hurt.

"How do you know?" Eve questioned, "You're just a little kid."

As the girl continued with her faulty set up, Hope gave a small shrug that was hidden in her clothing. She wasn't quite sure how she knew. She just knew.

At the ripe old age of two- and going against the William's Syndrome that afforded Hope her strange looks- Hope had started to display signs of strangely advanced intelligence. Where those with her genetic disorder were supposed to be delayed in many ways, Hope had started to read and write just after her first birthday.

Science was her favorite subject, which was the reason the little girl could be found haunting the labs the school housed. There were several books in her room about the subject. Aside from that, she had shown proficiency in nearly every subject area. On Matthew's insistence, she had started studying Italian- on the grounds that it was her native language and she had every right to learn it.

The only thing that fit with the pattern of her genetic disorder was the fact she had taken to music in a big way. She had started studying the piano- since it was the only instrument she was big enough to play- and had displayed one of the signature trademarks of a William's baby. That being, perfect pitch when she sang.

It was assumed that Hope's advanced intelligence was another facet of her mutant powers. A play- per see- on her mother's powers in the natural sciences and math. Still, it was hard to figure out just why her intelligence was the way it was. It went against her overruling diagnosis of William's Syndrome.

Since there was no way to, actually, tell, the best Hank and Charles could guess was that Angelina's mutated intelligence genes had, somehow, filled in the gaps Hope's genes had. Her mother's own DNA had aided in augmenting her daughter's intelligence.

That was all conjecture, though, but it was the best answer anyone had.

With another shrug, Hope jumped off the stool she had been sitting on and sped over to her blue furred Godfather. He was several benches back, correcting another student's distilling apparatus. The boy hadn't tightened one of the tubes enough and, if he had turned the water on, the pressure would have caused the entire structure to collapse into a glassy heap.

Not an uncommon accident in the lab, actually.

Hope tugged at one of Beast's pocket's trying to get his attention. She knew she wasn't supposed to be bothering him unless it was an emergency. The little mutant, in her little kid wisdom, decided that Eve's impending accident was emergency enough.

Excusing himself, Beast angrily turned around. The students in the class were supposed to wait until he was done before interrupting him with their own problems. He wasn't supposed to be bothered while working with the other students in the class. It was the only way, he figured, for each of them to get the individual attention they needed in the class.

The expression softened when he say who had been doing the tugging. Hope, certainly, wasn't a member of his class. Not yet anyway,

"What's wrong, Hope?" he asked.

Before she could answer, there was a loud pop and several screams. Eve's round bottomed flask had exploded, showering those around her with glass and whatever reaction mixture she was boiling off.

"I tried to tell her but she wasn't listening to me. I said she was doing things wrongs but she said I was a kid and I didn't know," Hope babbled, as she ran after an angry Beast.

"I'm sure you did, Hope. Can you do me a big, big favor?" he asked, pausing and allowing the short legged child to catch up to him.

Hope nodded and started to cough as a rancid smell filled the room.

"Go get Jean for me, please. I think we're going to need some medical help here," Beast requested of the little girl.

The little girl nodded again and, before she left, commented, "It smells bad in here. I think everyone should go away."

With that, the little girl darted out of the room to go get the medic. Behind her, Beast started to send the class out of the room, taking the little mutant's advice.