AN: As promsied, a longer chapter- reveiw one, get one free, haha!

Disclaimer:

If I Marvel I owned

(I do not)

You would have known

(That would rock!)

Chapter 10

"'Bye, Marv, I'm headed for school! Oh, and I might not come home till really late today. I have a, um, experiment to do, and it might take all night."

Marv looked at her. "Uh-huh. Sure. So who's throwin' the party? I don't buy that 'experiment' stuff, ya know!"

"I'm serious, Marv! I'm studying a...uh...nocturnal animal, and I have to try to observe it in its habitat tonight."

Marv smiled and turned toward the back room. "Well, I'm not you're dad 'er nothin' so I won't pry. Just be careful! See 'ya later!"

Rose walked toward the school. "Here we go again.At least I didn't really lie to him. Not exactly. I mean, we aren't exactly human, are we." she thought, miserably.

"Hi, Rose!" Rose looked around her locker to face Kitty.

"Hey, Kitty!"

"Ready for homeroom?"

"Yeah, let's go." After math, Rose walked to English, glancing at Kurt, who turned around to face her.

"Hey, Rose!"

"Hi, Kurt." She took a seat as a man walked in.

"Hello, class, I'm Mr. Peterson. I'll be your substitute for the rest of the week. Your regular teacher has had a family emergency, and won't be here until next Monday." The kids in the class turned around to whisper to each other. "Don't worry, it's nothing serious, but this means that auditions for Romeo and Juliet will be moved to Monday after school. For now, let's do some reading. Take out your scripts, and let's begin."

"Hey, Rose! Over here!" Rose looked over to Kitty sitting in the cafeteria. Kurt, Rouge, and Evan were sitting with her.

"Coming!" Said Rose, as she shuffled through the crowd. She sat down.

"So, how was it?" Kitty asked. "Having a sub, I mean. Is he nice?"

Rose smiled. "Yeah. How was chem?"

"Okay. Same old science, I guess." They kept talking and eating, then Spike, Rouge, and Rose headed for History.

"See you guys later!" Rose yelled to Kurt and Kitty as they headed for their classes.

"Well, I'm glad this school day is over!" Said Kitty.

"Yeah." Rose agreed. "Mr. A was starting to really act funny."

Kurt smiled as he closed his locker. "He vas just impressed with your singing, Rose."

"Yeah! I still can't believe you broke that glass!"

"Thanks, I think." They started to walk toward the door.

"Hey, Rose, sorry about yesterday." Said Kitty.

"Yeah" Said Kurt.

"That's okay, guys, we can go some other time. I'd go today, but I've got, um, stuff...to do. Uh, see you guys later!" Rose walked down the sidewalk.

"Hmm. Kurt, did that seem strange to you?"

"A lettle. It vas like she didn't want us to ask vhat she was doing."

"Yeah. But maybe she has something personal to do."

"Ya." They walked down the sidewalk.

Rose stopped for a moment behind a tree. "That was a little close. Well, I do have something to do. I've got to trail Kitty." She looked out from behind the tree, and saw them walking away. "Here goes!" Rose followed them closely, occasionally coasting through a tree or wall to avoid detection. "Man! I could get used to this!" She thought, as she continued to shadow them.

After a while, they stopped at a gate. Rose watched carefully. Kitty turned to Kurt, who was looking around curiously.

"What? What's wrong, Kurt?"

"Notting. I just have the feeling that ve're being vatched."

"Whatever. Come, on the Prof. called another meeting, remember?"

"Yeah. It's probably notting. My feeling, I mean." Kurt opened the gate as Kitty just coasted through the wall, laughing. Rose watched them go in the building.

---"Is everyone here?" The man turned to face the professor.

"Yeah, doc." One of the teenagers walked over to the professor.

"Hey, Professor. What's the word?"

"The word, I'm afraid, is 'trail'. Kurt, Kitty, the new mutant we detected yesterday was following you today."

Kitty gasped. "Really? Too weird!"

"I knew that someting vas vatching us!" Kurt turned to Kitty. "I just knew it!" The professor looked up.

"It was using it's powers off-and-on in the same direction you were going, and stopped at the institute. Then it moved toward town and disappeared. That means that it probably is suspicious of one of you, and now it knows the location of the institute. This means we have to be on guard at all times. We don't know if this is good or bad. But until we know for sure who it is, all we can do is wait." He turned back to his computer. "Goodnight, everyone."---

Rose walked into the diner in deep thought.

"Hey, Rose!" Marv smiled and dished her up some soup. "What happened to the 'experiment'?"

Rose smiled back. "I got some info, I guess." As Marv turned around to face the simmering pot, Rose thought to herself. "Maybe I'll get more tomorrow."

That night, as she lay in bed thinking, she began to plan.

"Maybe Kurt and Kitty are related, like brother and sister or something. When she went through the wall, he didn't even flinch...like he's seen her do that before… man, they sure acted weird when she got that phone call. I'm not buying that 'professor' story, either. But, why would they hide being siblings? They don't have the same last name. And what was that comment Kitty made about Cerebro? They looked really worried… Hmmm. And what was the building, again? Institute for…gifted kids, or something…if they go there, why would they go to public school, too? It just doesn't make sense. Well, tomorrow I'll get some more answers." She rolled over, trying to get comfortable. "And I know exactly how."