author's notes: sorry for the long wait. i've no excuses. you're right. i should be maimed, tortured and killed. -- sorry.

6/13

After a few minutes of staring at the two young teachers outside, the bell finally rang and Scott was forced to pry his eyes away from the scene. The Physics teacher, Mr. Bennett, decided to make an early entrance and Scott would have paid anything to capture the look on the teacher's face on film when he saw that a student was actually early to school.

The entrance of the rest of the students saved the two of them from engaging in painful small talk.

Jean sat with Duncan of course, and Scott was left alone for the rest of the period to doodle on his notebook. After a hectic morning like that, Scott figured that he owed it to himself to relax a bit and just copy Jean's notes later on.

The bell rang and ended their Physics period and started the Economics one. The woman-teacher started the class by saying that every politician is evil incarnate, and therefore should never be trusted. Needless to say, Scott quickly tuned her out.

Before he even knew it, his feet were leading him to the Drama classroom. He only noticed that little fact when Rogue fell into step with him, wearing a huge smile.

"Hey," he greeted, completely forgetting his bad mood. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," she replied, her eyes still glazed over. "You know that Warren's a wonderful driver? And a swimmer, and a cook? I never would have guessed, you know, because he seems too classy to actually know anything. But he does, and he proved me wrong,"

Scott's smile quickly turned to a grimace. He should have known that she would only be talking about Warren. "Mystique wants me to deliver a message for you," he said bluntly. Rogue's mood was quickly dampened at the mention of Mystique's name. Scott hated to admit it, but he did have the guilty pleasure of enjoying the fact that Rogue wasn't ranting about Warren anymore.

"What was it?" she asked as they entered the classroom. Scott wasn't that surprised to find that he actually missed the twang in her voice. "What does she want this time?"

Scott took the liberty of staying quiet until they found their seats. She sat besides him, her eyes prodding him to go on. Scott liked the attention she was giving him, and he was going to milk it as much as he can. It reminded him of the time before the whole experiment thing --and before Warren-- had taken place.

Scott opened his mouth to reply, slowly, of course but the Drama teacher had entered the room, commanding the students to be quiet. He started the class, and Scott was somewhat thankful that he had an excuse to hold Rogue's attention longer.

Throughout the period, as the teacher droned on about Shakespeare, Rogue kept pelting Scott with notes that contained questions about the message, but Scott didn't reply. He was actually astounded at the self-control that Rogue showed by not bombarding him with questions inside his mind.

Soon enough, the lunch bell rang and Scott was forced to talk.

"Well," he started. "Mystique said that you should stop with the experiment," Scott went on, when he saw that look of surprise on her face. "I don't know how they found out either, but they do,"

After a few seconds, Rogue finally replied. "Why does she think that she owns me?" The bitterness in her voice wasn't drowned out by the noise of the hungry students on their way to the cafeteria. But her scowl didn't last long. Her face broke into one of those huge smiles that she seemed to be always carrying these days as she spotted something at one of the tables. Scott followed her gaze and saw Warren reading the newspaper. Rogue's feet seemed to be moving out of her own accord, but of course, Scott saw that Rogue was far from complaining.

Pretty soon, Scott was in the lunch line all alone and frustrated. Didn't the school have some kind of policy against strangers entering the premises? Of course, he wouldn't put it past the principal to be blinded by cash; everybody these days seemed to be in desperate want of it.

So Scott Summers, holding his lunch tray, stood at the end of the line, looking for a table to sit on. He immediately saw Jean's red hair, but her table was out of the question; she was with the popular kids. He then looked for Evan and the others, but after a few moments of the futile search, he came to the conclusion that they must have eaten outside.

His line of gaze then fell onto Rogue and Warren's table, where they seemed to be chatting. Again. Really, all they ever seemed to do these days was talk, talk, talk and talk.

With a grunt, Scott started to head outside. He didn't think he could down anything with them in the same room.

He hadn't taken three steps before Pietro was on his side for the nth time for the day.

"Got a table, chap?" he asked. It was of no surprise that he didn't get a response. Scott just continued on walking towards the benches outside. "Oh, okay, we'll do this outside then,"

As they reached the picnic tables, and as Scott was about to head for a vacant one, Pietro blurred by him and took his lunch tray. The next place Scott saw him was in the nearest picnic table, which was occupied by the Brotherhood.

With a groan, Scott walked over to retrieve his lunch.

"Glad you could join us, Summers," Lance greeted, a somewhat malicious smile played on his lips.

"What do you guys want?" Scott asked, irritated.

"Just for you to take a seat," Pietro replied breezily as he sat.

"And some of your lunch," Toad added, slightly ruining the seriousness of the conversation. Without Scott's permission, Toad's abnormally long and slimy tongue shot out and grabbed an apple from the tray.

"Fine," Scott said with a grimace as he sat down. He didn't think he wanted his lunch anymore.

"So Summers," Lance started. "Who's the dude hanging out with Rogue?"

Scott didn't respond; he had a nasty feeling that they already knew about Warren. After all, they already knew about Rogue's experiment, didn't they? He grabbed a handful of french-fries and shoved them to his mouth savagely, therefore missing the smug smirks that were exchanged in the Brotherhood members.

"Ooh, this is interesting," Pietro said as he rubbed his hands together.

Scott shot him a glare.

"To be frank with you Summers," Lance said, before Scott could open his mouth to talk. "It looks a hell like you're jealous of that Blondie over there,"

"No I'm not," Scott said quickly. That was such a stupid thing that he wasn't the tiniest bit surprised that it actually came from Lance Alvers.

"Right," Toad said, gulping the contents of Scott's milk carton in one gulp, without permission, of course.

Scott jumped when Lance actually draped an arm around his shoulder. Pietro steadied his head in such an angle that Rogue and Warren's chatting figures were directly in his line of sight.

"And that," Lance said, pointing at the figures, his breath tickling Scott's ear. Rogue laughed at something that Warren said. "That doesn't bother you at all?"

Scott didn't know if he was irritated at the arrogant tone of Lance's voice or if he was irritated with what he just saw. He tried to move away from the two holding him captive, tried to shake his head at the very least, but they had a firmer grip than he anticipated. With a frustrated sigh, he sagged and looked up again at the couple.

He didn't know how long he was staring at the figures through the glass windows, but he was snapped back to reality by Lance and Pietro's guffaws. Toad, he noticed, was too busy finishing his sandwich.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" Pietro all but shouted, letting o of Scott's head in accordance to Lance's movements. Pietro then doubled over in laughter.

"Yeah," Lance said quite evilly, a smirk forming in his features. "This is interesting,"

Scott's right hand reached for his shades, an action of pure irritation and anger, forgetting that he wasn't wearing his visor. He stood up violently and slammed his hands on the plastic table, frustrated that he couldn't even use his powers to eradicate these insects. "Just what the hell are you talking about? I'm not jealous, JEALOUS, of all things, of Rogue and Warren over there, okay? You don't know a thing about what you're talking about so just shut up! And stop spying on the Institute!"

He didn't quite notice the stares that he had attracted with his little outburst. They, the Brotherhood, just laughed contentedly and with a frustrated sigh, Scott turned his back to them and walked inside the gates of the school.

"What happened to the cool and calm Summers that we all had grown to love?" Toad asked his retreating back, his voice all the more mocking because of the tone of laughter.

"That anal Summers is out, Toad," Lance shouted. Scott knew that people were already listening to their every word. "This new Summers is in love!"

The three burst out on another round of laughter, the sound coinciding with the furious whispers that exploded around the area.

Someday, Scott thought angrily as he pushed open the gates, someday, he will kill those three.

tbc