Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to anything X-Men, Marvel, machbox 20 or even anything related to any of these things. I hope you enjoy the story, Wolverine told me that he likes it and that ya'll better...okay, so you don'thave to, but if you don't, tell me why so that I might be able to fix it. :Pouty Lips: Anyway, on with the show!

Sidenote: Happy Third Anniversary to my momma and pop, who-who!

"You shouldn't get up, there's no point in it; no one wants to see you, no one cares about you. You're stupid, incompetent and no one would care if they never saw you again. So why don't you just do them all a favor and no make them have to look at your ugly face and listen to your mindless dribble by just turning over and smothering yourself in your pillow?" the new voice in my head said to me as I was waking. He was far more pro-suicide than the other one had been. The first one just told me that I was stupid and useless; the new one seemed to want to offer a solution to it by suggesting that I kill myself.

"Just shut up," I muttered in aggravation.

"Me?" I heard a puzzled voice ask above me.

I opened my sleep-laden eyes to see Logan looking down at me. "No, I was talking in my sleep, sorry," I lied apologetically, and then smiled up at him. "Hey, no bad dreams,"

He gave me a small smile and kissed me on my forehead. "You wanna' just skip work today?" he asked jokingly, but I knew that if I were to take him up on it, he would have gone right along with me.

"I can't; Jean gave me half the day off yesterday so I've got to make up for it," I said and he growled, which only made me smile wider. "Let's just take a rain-check on it, alright?"

He growled again. "Yeah, alright," he said, but he didn't move to get up, instead he laid back down, facing me.

I smiled at him. "I'm going to get in trouble,"

"By who?"

"Jean; I'm working under her as a favor to me, you know that,"

"Well we won't tell her,"

I let out a laugh. "Because she wouldn't know if we didn't tell her, would she?"

He quirked an eyebrow at me and then let out a sigh. "Fine,"

"You know, the weekend's coming up, we can do something then?" I suggested and he got that look on his face. The one where the lines on his forehead would scrunch up, his expression would turn serious and you could tell he was concentrating on something. "What?"

"Someone's lookin' for you," he said, sitting up in bed.

"Me, who would be looking for me?" I asked standing and walking to the door. I pressed my ear up against it, straining to listen for whoever was looking for me. I heard a female voice that I recognized as Rogue's, there was a small pause, Rogue said something else, her voice getting louder as she got closer to the door and then someone else spoke. "Oh crap, hide me!" I squeaked quietly to a confused Logan just as the door opened and knocked me in the head, causing me to fall back on the floor.

"I'm so sorry Layla; I didn't know you were standing there!" Rogue apologized.

"No, it's fine, it's not your fault," I told her as Logan jumped from the bed and knelt down beside me.

"Are you alright?" he asked, tilting my head back and checking my nose for bleeding.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said and he helped me up from the floor.

"Did you stay the night in here?" Bobby asked, stopping in the hallway, just behind Rogue, my sister and one of her friends, where they were standing in the doorway.

"Yes I did, do you have a problem with that Bobby, because I'm sure that you could take it up with Logan and he would be more than happy to discus it with you," I said to him.

He looked at Logan and laughed nervously. "No, I don't have a problem, I was just…curious, is all," he said then turned and walked briskly down the hall.

"I'm sorry about him guys," Rogue apologized again.

"Don't worry about it, I know he's just joking around," I said. "What are you two doing here?" I asked my sister.

"We came to visit you and to see if you were okay," she answered.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Well, I haven't really seen you since Ben died and mom and dad said that you didn't want to come down for Thanksgiving,"

"No, I'm not, I'm staying here and I was at home for five months before I moved here, so if you didn't see me than it's not exactly my fault really,"

"Mom said that you were feeling depressed,"

I threw my hands up in the air. "Why in the world would she say that? No, I'm not doing fantastic or anything, but I'm not depressed," I said. "I've got to go to work, why don't I…call you or something when I get done?"

"Uh, Jean said to tell you that you could have the day off," Rogue said sheepishly.

"That would have been nice to know five minutes ago," Logan muttered.

I smiled and shook my head. "Logan, this is my sister Natalie and her friend Heather. Guys, this is my…Logan,"

"Your Logan?" he asked, looking at me with a sideways stare.

"Oh shut up, I introduced you to someone as my boyfriend once and you gave me the exact same look, so unless you feel like being helpful with a name, leave me alone," I retorted.

"Well, get out of my room, 'cause even if you've got the day off, I still gotta' work and I've gotta' get ready," he smirked.

"Don't tell me to leave, if I don't want to then I don't have to,"

"Excuse me?"

"I said that you can't tell me what to do," I said, matching my smirk with his.

"Fine, stay in here, I gotta' change though,"

"Okay, I'm leaving,"

"I don't have anywhere I have to be, I'll stay," Rogue joked.

"You are a married pregnant woman, I'm not leaving you in here with my boyfriend, you are going to go down to breakfast with us so we can eat with you dim-witted husband," I said just as Logan pulled off his shirt and walked to his wardrobe behind me. "All right, fine, you can stay,"

She gave me a small laugh. "If you get down to breakfast before me, will you tell Bobby that I'll be down in a minute, I do actually have to talk to Logan for a little bit?"

"Yeah, I'll see ya'll down there," I said, walking from the room, Natalie and Heather right behind me. "I've got to go to my room and change before we go down and eat, okay?" I asked them, just as we got to my room door and I opened it.

"That's it, we haven't seen each other in seven months and I don't even get a 'hi, how are you'?" my sister asked.

"Hi, how are you?" I asked sarcastically, entering my room and going to my wardrobe. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a black T-shirt and my green sweater, and then threw them onto my unmade bed.

"You know, this is how you treated me when you used to go to school here, why are you acting like this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about; I'm acting the same as I always have," I said and there was a knock on the door. "Come in,"

The door opened and Scott stood in the doorway. "Just a question; sorry, I didn't know you had visitors,"

"That's your question?"

"Oh, no, sorry, I was wondering if the students are supposed to know that you stayed the night with Logan in his room?"

"No, nothing happened and even if it did, it's none of their business, so give them all a whack on the head for me and I'll let Logan deal with them during classes,"

"Whack them in the head with what?"

"Your hand, I don't care,"

"Like how Bobby does you?" he joked with a smile.

"Yes, exactly, but put a little more force behind it,"

"I have a feel that I now understand why the Professor didn't ask you to be a teacher,"

"Funny," I said dryly.

"Oh, and just one more question,"

"Should I know that you spend the night with Logan?"

"Must I say again that nothing happened?"

"You spent a whole night in a room with Logan and nothing happened?"

"Did I stutter because I thought that's what I said?" I asked sarcastically.

"Good for you, you can still be a nun, then," he joked. Scott had been dead set on my becoming a nun ever since I was a teenager. I'm not sure why he picked me to decide it for, but it had followed me since I was fourteen.

"I'm not becoming a nun Summers, get over it,"

He laughed. "I'm back to being 'Summers' again, huh?"

"As long as I'm being called a nun, you'll be called Summers," I said. "Oh and by the way, I wouldn't mention any of this to Logan if I were you. You know him; he'll probably only get mad at you for bringing it up,"

"He'll get mad because he didn't want anyone to know that the two of you are dating and now everyone knows that you stayed the night with him. Don't you think it's obvious that he doesn't care about you? Otherwise, why would he care for everyone to know that you're dating? He's only using you," one of the voices told me.

"Good point. Are you coming to breakfast or are you going somewhere before then?" Scott asked.

"I'm coming down for it,"

"Okay, I'll see you then," he said, moving to close my door.

"Wait," I said and he popped his head back in. "How do the kids know whether or not I was in my own room last night?"

"There are more than two psychics in the school, you know?"

I shook my head. "Okay," I said and then he closed the door.

"What is going on here?" Natalie asked me.

"That guy, Logan, he and I are…dating, I guess," I said, not knowing quite how to put it. We had yet to go on an actual date, but we were together, only I didn't know how to word it just right. "Anyway, everyone sort of found out yesterday. Then last night I had a bad dream, went to talk to him and ended up staying in there,"

"Did you sleep with him?" Heath asked bluntly. I had never really cared all too much for her, she was slightly nosy and more than a smidge irritating.

"Technically? Yes. In the way that you mean it? No,"

"Why?"

"Why is that anyone's business but my own?"

"This is what I'm talking about; why are you being so rude? It's an innocent question," my sister said.

"If you thought that was an innocent question, than that makes me wonder if perhaps you're on drugs," I spat sarcastically before there was another knock on my door. "Yeah, come in," No one came in. I walked to the door and opened it; there was no one there. I moved to shut it when I noticed something hanging around the doorknob. I picked it up lightly and saw that it was a black ribbon necklace with a black beaded cross hanging on it. I smiled and tied it around my neck, not minding to take the one that I already had on, odd. I thought they looked fine layers and felt that on that day I was going to need them both.

I closed the door and turned back to them, taking a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm coming off as ruder than usually but I've just not been feeling too good lately, so you'll have to forgive me for being moody,"

"Well, that's why we're here; because mom said that you weren't feeling good," Natalie said. "Why don't you come down for Thanksgiving, everyone wants to see you,"

"Why, so ya'll can make fun of me? Thanks but I think I'd rather pass on that one,"

"No one makes fun of you,"

"Everyone makes fun of me; it's just that you're so used to it by now that you don't even notice it anymore,"

"Okay, fine, I'll talk to everyone and make sure that they leave you alone, alright?"

"Why do you care about me going home or staying here?"

"Because you should be spending the holidays with your family,"

"I am,"

"So you are coming home?"

"No, I'm staying here,"

"I thought you said that you were spending it with your family?"

"Everyone here is my family and hardly any of them make fun of me. With the exception of Bobby and Scott, but they don't say anything they know will offend me,"

"These people here are freaks," Heather said.

"Yeah, why are you here again, because calling my friends and me 'freaks' isn't exactly the best way to convince me of going anywhere really. And by the way; I would be careful with what you choose to call us; we're homo-sapient-superior, do you know what that means? We're advanced, different but definitely not freaks, and I would appreciate it if you would refrain from referring to us as such in front of me,"

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Look, I've got to get dressed, so excuse me for a minute," I said, grabbing my clothes and going into my bathroom.

I didn't want them there. I had never gotten along brilliantly with my sister. She, like my parents, found it embarrassing and inconvenient for me to be a mutant. My brother Ben had been the only one who really supported me with it. When I first discovered that I could move and bend objects with my mind, he had been the first person that I told, because I knew that he wouldn't be scared or disappointed in me.

As for Heather, she was just an irritating and ignorant person with no personality of her own who never considered thinking things through before saying them.

I was convinced that neither one of them had come to talk me into going home. I assumed they had wanted to do some shopping for the holidays or themselves in New York City and had swung by for the day just to make it seem as though they cared. That and with visiting me as a cover story, Natalie could get our parents to pay for her plane ticket.

My day just wasn't going so great and it wasn't even eight o'clock yet. Everyone thought that something had gone on between Logan and me the night before when nothing could have been further from the truth. My sister and her completely incompetent friend showed up unannounced and then I had been hit in the head and knocked down. Which reminded me to check out myself.

I dropped my handful of clothes onto the lid of my dirty clothes hamper and then examined my face in the mirror. I had a bit of redness and bruising on the bridge of my nose.

"Brilliant," I muttered to myself sarcastically.

I pulled out my makeup bag and dug around until I found some mint green and light pink eye shadows. I dusted some of the green down my nose, hoping it could tone down the red and then brushed the light pink over it, knowing that the pink should cancel out the blue of the bruising. I turned from side to side to make sure that it was all covered.

As much as I wanted to just stay in my bathroom and avoid my sister, I knew that Jean had given me the day off so that I could spend it with her. Wasn't she supposed to be able to read minds; why would she put me through such torture? However badly I wanted to stay put, I got dressed and rejoined Natalie and Heather back in my bedroom.

"Are ya'll hungry?" I asked, pulling on a pair of my sneakers.

"Yeah," Natalie answered.

"Good, let's go eat then,"

I led the way downstairs and into the dining hall, where everyone was already eating. As we walked to the staff table, I noticed the two extra chairs set out for them beside mine, which was beside Logan's.

"Guys, if ya'll haven't met them yet, this is my sister Natalie and her friend Heather," I announced once we had sat down.

"I never would have guessed she was your sister considering you look just alike," Bobby said sarcastically.

Though I had heard it for most of my life, I had never actually thought we looked all that much like each other. I had long, dark brown curly hair, brown eyes and tan skin. Although she looked similar, we were two completely different people and I think that came out in our looks. I was also quite a bit taller than her, my five-foot-ten to her five-foot-seven. I was considering pointing this out to Bobby when Rogue smacked him on the back of the head with her hand.

"Ouch, what was that for?" he asked.

"Stop bein' mean to her," she said.

"Why am I not allowed to hit her but you can hit me? I thought we agreed that we were going to stop doing that because it was bad behavior to teach the baby?"

"You can't hit her because I said so and I can hit you because the baby's not born yet,"

"What if everyone just keeps their hands to themselves and no one hits anyone else?" the Professor said, sounding as though he were trying to referee a fight between children.

"You hear that Logan, keep your hands to yourself," Scott teased.

"What about my claws, where can I put them?" he retorted, popping out his middle claw, flipping Scott off and causing both Natalie and Heather to gasp in shock.

"Logan, why don't you put that up before you hurt someone with it?" Storm asked.

"That was the whole idea, 'Ro," he said, the claw skillfully sliding back into his hand, his wound stitching itself back together before he lowered to back down.

"Here's an idea; how about everyone keep every part of their anatomy to themselves until we get done eating?" Jean suggested.

We all silently agreed.

"Do you always fight like this?" Heather asked, still looking taken aback by Logan's claw.

"We're not fighting," I said. "This is just how we get along with each other,"

"So this is how you and Logan got along last night?" Bobby joked and Rogue smacked him again. "Ow, that really hurts!"

Logan stood from the table. "That's it, come on Drake; we're gonna' take this outside,"

"Logan, sit down," Professor Xavier said.

"I was only joking," Bobby defended.

"You know not to joke around with Logan," Rogue said to him.

"Obviously he doesn't," Scott laughed.

"Logan, sit down, I want to finish eating and I'm sure that everyone else does as well," I said, looking up to him.

"Finish eatin', you don't need to come with us," he said, still standing.

"Marie is pregnant, the last thing she needs is for you to beat her husband. He was joking around, he didn't mean it rudely and you know that had it been someone else besides us, you would be making jokes about it too. So please, just sit down and finish eating, because if you don't then I'm going to give it to Scott while you're gone,"

He looked down at me, then back to Bobby and gave him a low growl before sitting back down.

"Will you consider not killing me when Layla's gone if I apologize?" Bobby asked sheepishly.

"He's not going to kill you," I told him.

"Well, I'm sorry, I was just joking and I didn't mean to piss you off," he said.

"Thank you and it's alright; Logan's going to have worse to deal with during his classes today and he's not allowed to kill the students,"

"I'm not allowed to kill 'em but they can do a couple of laps around the house," Logan said.

"May I remind you that almost all of the students are scared of Logan? I don't think they're stupid enough to actually tease him about it," Rogue said.

"We can hope," said Jean. "For their own good,"

However, that had yet to be shown to us. After breakfast, Logan went to go to classes and I followed him with Natalie and Heather right behind me.

"Thank you for the necklace, it's beautiful," I said to him as we stood in the entryway.

"I don't know what you're talkin' about darlin'," he smirked, tugging on a strand of my hair. "Where are you goin' today?"

"I don't know, really, we're just going to go out and see if we can get into a bit of trouble I suppose," I joked as a gaggle of girls walked through the hall where we were standing.

"Logan and Layla sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes marriage,"

"Then comes detention all weekend long!" I said, finishing off their chant. Their jaws dropped.

"Can you do that; you're not a teacher?" one of the girls asked.

"No, but I am and all of you will have separate detention starting on Friday," Logan said. "Now get to class,"

They all scurried off, not wanting to get into any more trouble.

"Thank you," I smiled.

"Don't worry about it, go and have fun, I'll see you tonight," he said, pulling me to him and giving me a kiss.

"I'm sorry the kids are teasing you," I said, giving him a small hug.

"I don't care about it but I know it bothers you," he said, pushing the hair from my face. "Why do you have green powder on your nose?"

I laughed. "Green is supposed to cover up red and my nose was red from where I got hit with your door earlier,"

"I forgot about that, does it feel alright?"

"It's a little sore but I think I'll live," He nodded his head. "You're going to be late for classes,"

He scratched the back of his head, looked at the three of us and his thinking lines reappeared on his forehead. I could tell that he was debating between going to classes and asking Xavier for the day off. He could tell I didn't get along with my sister or even like Heather in the least bit and he would have tagged along with us girls just so he could make sure that I was okay.

"He doesn't want to go anywhere with you, he's thinking about how annoying it is that you tell him what to do all of the time. If he wants to be late for class, he's a grown man and he can make that decision on his own. Stop telling him what to do; it's getting old," a voice said to me and I wondered if maybe he was right? I did tell him when to go to classes quite often and I worried that perhaps he was getting irritated with me over it.

"You know, Chuck would understand if I needed the day off. After all, I've got a temper; who knows what I might do to the kids if they piss me off?" he said, causing me to laugh.

"You have a temper, I never would have guessed!" I said in mock shock, then laughed. "I don't think that's a valid enough point for the Professor to let you play hooky for the day, but thank you, it was a nice thought,"

He let out a sigh. "Okay, will you be home for dinner?"

"I don't know, if not, I'll see you when I get home tonight," I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye,"

"Bye darlin',"

"How did you get such a hot boyfriend?" Heather asked me as we walked around to the garage.

"I'm not sure whether to be flattered that you think my boyfriend's hot or offended that you think I couldn't get someone like him?" I said, dodging two kids running past me and through the wall of the garage, no doubt late for mechanics class.

"So was this place like, a house someone turned into a school for freaks, uh…mutants, I mean?" Heather asked, obviously meaning to slip up her words.

"Yeah, something like that," I said dryly, opening the door to the garage and spotting Scott teaching a class as soon as I walked in. "Ya'll are taking my car apart, are you?" I joked.

"You're not funny, you're stupid and everyone thinks so," one of the voices told me.

"We only took a few parts out of it," Scott said, smiling at me.

I smiled back. "Just so long as I can still drive it, I'm okay with that," I said. "Didn't mean to disrupt the class, just getting my car,"

"If your breaks don't work, you'll know I wasn't joking about taking parts out of it,"

I laughed. "Alright, ya'll be good, listen up, stay clean and all that good stuff,"

"You guys be careful, okay?" Scott said, opening the garage door for us as Natalie and Heather climbed into my car.

"We will, bye guys!" I said, waving to the students as I got into the driver's seat. A few said bye and waved at us as we were driving away. "So where are we going?"

"Is there a decent mall around here?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah there's one we take the kids to about once a month that's only twenty minutes from here,"

There was a bit of silence as Natalie played around with my stereo, trying to find a good station, or at least good by her definition. "Do you not have your stations set?" she asked.

"Uh, no," I said, pulling from the long drive and out onto the road. "I usually ride with Logan when we go anywhere, so I have them all set in his car, even though he hates my taste in music,"

"How long have you been dating?"

"Well, I'm not actually sure,"

"How are you not sure, don't you keep up with stuff like that?"

"Yeah, but it really wasn't as easy as that. I didn't like him when we first met, I didn't like him when he first kissed me, then after that there was about a week where I tried to convince myself that he was a jerk and I still didn't like him, but I couldn't. Then we just kind of…were, really. Besides, neither one of us needs an anniversary to stick to; we both have a hard enough time trying to remember holidays, birthdays and other people's anniversaries as it is,"

"When's his birthday?"

"I don't know,"

"You don't know when your boyfriend's birthday is?" Heather chimed in from the back seat.

"No, neither does he,"

"He doesn't know when his birthday is?" Natalie asked skeptically.

"No, he got amnesia about twenty years ago and doesn't remember stuff like that. Rogue tried to make one up for him, but he wouldn't let her,"

"He could be an axe-murderer for all you know then," Natalie said and I laughed.

"Oh yeah, that's my little Wolvie; a vicious, killing, axe-murderer posing as a school teacher here in New York,"

"He could be, you saw that claw thing," she said. "And why did you call him Wolvie?"

"Because he used to be a cage fighter in Canada and his fighting name was Wolverine, so I shorten it and call him Wolvie," I explained, wanting to include the fact that he used to be a cage fighter, I thought they might find it a interesting.

"He hates it when you call him Wolvie; he thinks it's stupid. It's not some cute nickname you came up with, it demasculinizes him and he hates it," the newest voice said.

"Okay, first of all, you haven't even been around long enough to know if he hates it or not, and I have. I know that even though he pretends to not like it, he really doesn't mind, and second of all; I didn't make it up, Rogue has been calling him that long before I knew so. So get over it, shut up and leave me alone," I argued back.

I wondered if anyone could tell by looking at me that there constantly raged an argument inside of me, with voices putting me down and telling me what to do. I didn't know if everyone had to deal with the same thing, if it was one of those things that everyone went through but never talked about, but I did know that it was driving me crazy. I didn't know how to get past is and ignore it when they got that loud and I wasn't sure that I was supposed to. Perhaps they were inner voices telling me the truth, what if what they said all made sense? Maybe if I listened to them, they would all just go away.

"There's a light pole, run into it and I bet that no one will miss you. Just take your hand and pull the steering wheel towards the right, you'll hit it and be dead on impact, it's as easy as that," the same voice said.

I was staring at it and it was right, I could hit it and probably die on impact. Sudden thoughts of who would attend my funeral entered my mind. Would people cry, would they be sad, would they ever care that I was gone, or would they simply just carry on as if nothing happened?

"Layla, you're running off the road!" Natalie yelled. I jerked the steering wheel over to the left, straightening the car back out on the road, a little shaken. "You almost hit that light post!"

"Sorry, I got distracted," I lied.

"You can't get distracted while you're driving, you could have killed us!" she yelled.

"I know, I'm sorry," I apologized.

I knew then that what was going on wasn't normal and from then on, I wasn't going to be able to drive on my own again.