Ange went to the kitchen and fixed herself some left over pancakes. Iceman, Rogue, and Colossus were eating some ice cream and laughing at some of Colossus' doodlings. Ange wandered over to their table, beaming.

"So, what kind of scary movie do you guys wanna watch?"

"What do you mean?" She peeked their interest and they looked up from their bowls of ice cream.

"I mean that tomorrow the X-team is taking off, leaving me in charge. AND, after I finish telling the younger kids some ghost stories, we're gonna watch a scary movie. Soooo, what movie do you wanna see?" She grinned brightly and awaited answers.

"Gothika?"

"No. I saw that when I was home for Thanksgiving. It's not that great."

"The Ring? I haven't seen that yet and the Ring 2 is coming out soon."

"Ya, it's all right."

"So you guys ok with the Ring then?"

"Sure, why not."

"Hey, have you guys seen the Shining?"

"No. Heard about it though."

"That's a good scary movie."

"Ok. None of us have seen it- makes it that more suspenseful."

"Great! Soooo, how much pop corn do we have?"

"Ummmm ..." Rogue sifted through a few cabinets looking for microwaveable pop corn- she found one package; it was light. "Doesn't look like we have a lot."

"Ok, so I'll pick up some pop corn at the Block Buster. How about some candy- or should we go with some ..." she laughed, "ice cream!"

"How about one of those cookie pie things ... I have a coupon."

"Where would I go to get that? For that matter, where's a Block Buster?"

"I can go with you into town and show you were it all is."

"Ok. I'll be heading out tomorrow around noon to get it all. The X-team won't be leaving until after dinner."

Conversation halted for a moment as Ange munched away on her pancakes. Iceman glanced up at her, and back to his bowl, something on his mind.

"So, I've been curious- how old are you? You're definitely not as old as some of the other x-men."

"I'm 23."

"Ya, you're as old as my older brother." Ange nodded.

"So why'd you come here? How'd you become a teacher so young?"

"Actually, I used to work at an after school day care. I went out to Washington, D.C. for college and got a job at the day care. I just wasn't doing as well as I hoped I would studying language. And about that time, I started to seriously consider WHAT I wanted to do. I have always loved children, and I've kept art as my hobby for several years. I took several art classes in both college and high school. So, when the Professor needed a baby sitter, and he knew about my passion for art, he asked me to come on as an art teacher and a baby sitter."

"How'd you meet the Professor?" They were all now sitting around, carefully listening. Rogue asked this last question, but it was Iceman who braved asking Ange her age.

"I had heard about the Professor's 'school for the gifted' a few years back- previous to my job at the day care. When I got the job, I noticed a few children- a few mutants. They tried to bottle up their powers, but sometimes it would just slip. These kids were always complaining to us that they were made fun of at school- some were even made fun at the day care. I contacted the Professor- not yet realizing that his school was specifically for mutants. I just figured they would fit in better at a place for children with special, extraordinary abilities. When I contacted him, he told all about his school. I then suggested his school to the children's parents. A few accepted my suggestion generously and moved their kids here- others refused to acknowledge that their kids were having a hard time in school or that they needed to go to a special school. Some parents thought that I was referring them to a "special" school, as in a place for retards or slow kids. One of the kids that did come here was Kitty.

"So you knew Shadowcat?"

"Yep. I first noticed she had powers when a bully had been picking on her and pushed her; she fell through the wall. No one else noticed, but the bully stayed away from her after that, though he continued to threaten and make fun of her from afar. Her parents were very grateful to have a place where she could excel. They almost gave me the impression that they already knew WHAT her "special" ability was. I never found that out for sure."

After talking a little bit longer, Ange went into the library to help Lizie on some of her math. Lizie needed help with quadratic equations. After the bit of math tutoring was over, Lizie wanted help on her still life.

"I can't figure out what is wrong."

"Hmmm. Here." Ange pulled out a scrap sheet of paper. "First, describe for me the vines."

"Ahhhh, they hang out of the pot and crawl across the table!"

"How do they hang? Straight down, or with a slight curve?"

"Oh, ok. But then look at the pot-"

"You have the pot curved at the top to show that it's round- so you need to curve the bottom of the pot too. Also look at proportions. The pot is almost as big as the table in your picture- but it is really much smaller. Something that might help is to draw your horizon line first."

Tommy rushed in at that moment to grab his sketch book. "Is it graded?"

"Yep, here ya go." While Lizie was working on her still life, Ange finished up on grading the rest of the sketch books.

….

Noon came fast on Saturday. They woke up to pancakes and eggs, hash browns, cereal, some sausage links, and toast. Ange missed eating with everyone else however. She slept in real late this morning. She turned off her alarm completely, allowing her to sleep in until 10:30. She then sleepily pulled herself out of bed and hopped into the shower to get ready for the day. For breakfast, she reheated some hash browns and poured herself the last bowl of the Reese's Puffs. A lot of the kids were outside playing capture the flag with Wolverine- he was slowly adjusting better. Though he would probably never admit it, afraid of being seen to have a soft side: the kids really helped give him hope that he could move on. She watched him from the TV room sliding door/window, the Saturday paper in her lap. It was something else to see Wolverine laugh like he did that morning, as some of the younger kids 'attacked' him before he could capture their flag. They guided him to their prison, kids hanging all over him. She sighed and moved her gaze back to the newspaper. Everyone was so different; she wondered if she would ever feel that she really fit in.

The news paper was blasted with more tsunami news, local sports news, a small fire that happened in Pennsylvania that fire fighters were having trouble putting out, and captured missionaries over in the Middle East. What caught her eye was a whole section of art shows and contests in the Life section. She tore out all of the contact information and stuffed it into her sketchbook. It would be nice to enter a show again, and it would be a great experience for the children to have their art work put into a show too.

After she finished reading the paper, she told Rogue it was time to go. Rogue grabbed a long sleeve jacket, though it was a beautiful day, one that didn't warrant a jacket, but she wanted to wear one of her shorter pairs of gloves. Ange slipped on her flip flops and pulled out the keys to the Viper and winked at Rogue on their way to the garage. Cyclops spun around when he heard the car start up. He raced to the front yard, but was too late was greeted by Ange waving her hand out of the window and clouds of dust.

They ran to the Block Buster and bought 10 packs of microwaveable pop corn and the Shining. They had lots of fun simply browsing through the aisles, looking at the new releases and films they had wanted to see when they first came to the theatres, but for one reason or another, never got around to it. Then they ran over to the mall. Ange was ecstatic to know that a mall wasn't TOO far away from the house. It took a little while for them to prepare the two cookie pies- one for the younger kids and one for the older kids. Since it was going to take a little while for them to get them ready, Ange and Rogue decided to do a little shopping of their own. They mainly window shopped or browsed through, "ohhhhing" and "ahhhhing" over clothes, belts, gloves for Rogue, hats, sunglasses- Ange considered hers old and dorky- they weren't those "huge 80's dorky", but, she just didn't feel that they cut the mustard. Ange bought Rogue a pair of gloves that she really liked- they were maroon, silk, and had black beads and lace all the way up. She wasn't sure when she would have an opportunity to wear such fancy gloves, but Ange didn't mind getting them for her at all.

"Now we have an excuse to come back here some time and find you a dress to go with your gloves!" Ange teased as the clerk rang the gloves up.

"Oh, look at the time! It's just about time to pick up the cookies."

They then stopped at Pay Less- a "leaving the mall" sale. Ange got a pair of flip flops to replace her grungy, now grey-tan flip flops, and really nice pair of sandals. Not only did they take a while getting the cookie pies, but they got lost on their way out of the mall shopping center. They took a left at the first life and after they realized they went the wrong way, they decided they should have taken right- while the whole time they should have gone straight and at the next light taken a left. It took them a few trips around the block before they gave and went back to the mall parking lot. They pulled out the map, about the same time that Rogue found the directions that she had written down before they left; just in case she couldn't remember her way there or back.

They had left the house around 12:30 and returned by four. When they walked in the front the door, Iceman, Wolverine, and Cyclops were all waiting to give them a hard time.

"Have that much trouble finding a movie?" Iceman teased.

"Well it seems they had no trouble finding shoes and ... other things," Wolverine snapped. He didn't know what was in the other bag: Rogue's new gloves.

While Rogue pulled out her gloves to show Iceman and then Wolverine, Ange tried to explain that they had gotten lost, and that you simply couldn't step into a mall without shopping a little!

"Look what Miss Ange bought me!" Rogue pulled out the gloves.

"Oh wow. Those are beautiful Rogue." Iceman was sincerely impressed. Wolverine, non-directly felt smothered. The whole scary movie night and gloves- a part of him wanted to believe she was harmless- but the other part simply refused to let his guard down. He felt that she was trying to buy them over to her side. Maybe she was trying to soften them all up, so that when they had all finally let their guards down, she could pull out her malicious plan! Wolverine knew that he was letting his exaggeratory imagination get the best of him. But he was still wary; as he said before, it wasn't every day that they signed up to live with mutants. He glanced over at Rogue and her delight and the beautiful gloves, and some how that helped him to temporarily put aside his suspicions.

"It's hard to enter a mall without getting side tracked by beautiful clothes ya know!" Ange winked at Cyclops and headed into the kitchen. She put the cookie pies on top of the fridge for later, and the bag of microwaveable pop corn on top of the pies. She quickly ran up to her room to drop off her shoes and returned to the TV room. Storm was in the kitchen making some Spaghetti, and when Rogue and Ange had arrived. Storm had been giving a small lesson to the guys on how to make garlic bread when they returned. For some reason, Nightcrawler simply couldn't understand the process. And the lesson wasn't so much a "hey, want to learn how to make garlic bread" as it was "I can't do this by myself- you are GOING to help me make dinner! You don't know how to make garlic bread! Must I walk you through everything?"

Cyclops stopped in front of Ange as he returned to the kitchen to continue his cooking lesson. Ange didn't understand at first, as he stood before her mute, with a slight smirk on his face. She grinned and reluctantly pulled the keys to the Viper out of her purse and slapped them into his open hand. Cyclops returned to the kitchen.

Nightcrawler joined Ange in the TV room- they were watching some of the kids play Monopoly while other kids were "jamming" to some music.

"So, do you go to mass on Sundays?"

"No. I haven't been able to find a Catholic Church near by. And besides that, I don't have a license."

"So then you pray?"

"I typically meditate on Sunday mornings, read over the scripture readings for the day, and then I go to play with the kids."

Ange nodded as she scanned the room, peered out the sliding glass door to the basketball court, and then into the kitchen. She was soooooo happy to be here- to be with children, to have art all around, to be in a place where all of her childhood dreams of magic and fantasy were somewhat realized. She loved ghost stories and scary movies. She loved to feel like one of them- one of the children. But she was neither a teen nor a mutant. She rubbed her forehead and sighed loudly.

"I think I'm going to go take a quick nap. Wake me up for dinner."

"Are you feeling all right?" Nightcrawler asked, his eyes narrowed and concerned.

"Ya, just a slight headache."

……

Before she could take her nap, she felt compelled to pick up her diary, and scribble some more.

" ... Saturday

sigh I feel so confused! Never in my life before have I stumbled onto such a combination of my dreams and passions! I love children and art, and I've always fantasized about being in the immediate presence with mutants- more over being one(though that hasn't come true- and won't.) Somehow though, I don't feel complete. I know, I know ... I'm trying to a fill a void too big for material things to quench. But God, I already believe in you- I love you, I trust you, I follow you- and you've blessed me with so much, so why do I feel so alone? So disconnected? ... it's got to be that cycle of depression. Nothing else can explain it. Maybe it's time that I go get tested- see if I have clinical depression. Hahaha, bet they'd find out that I'm bipolar too. Ohhh, haha, and all of those years that treated Michael like he couldn't handle himself without medicine and here I've done it my whole life. I wouldn't be surprised if I am bipolar.

Onnnnn another note: Rogue and I went to the mall today. We really went just to get a scary movie for tonight (The Shining), some pop corn, and a couple cookie pies for the kids- but you know how it is when you enter a mall! Oh, I got a pair of flip flops for eight bucks, and a pair of sandals for 12. And I bought Rogue this absolutely gorgeous pair of gloves! They're maroon, silk, with black lace and beads all the way of the arm and a slight slit at the elbow. And then we got lost coming back. But we had a lot of fun. And now, now I have a headache- so I'm going to take a quick nap before dinner. Later Ange.

..."

knock knock "Mmmmmmmm … ?"

"Ange- dinner is ready."

"Already? Mmmm, ok. I'll be down in a minute." She didn't budge- not even her eyes. She groaned and thought to herself about how she really could sleep through dinner and get up just before the X-team left. 'No, I need to get up now.'

She got up and brushed her hair. She was surprised to see that it was already dark outside. She didn't realize that she slept for so long. Getting up again after it was dark threw her off; gave her a weird form of the heebie jeebies and made her oddly hyper. She dragged herself down stairs and grabbed a hot plate and reserved a seat on the couch in the TV room. She then went to the fridge for some children's Tylenol.

"Liquid Tylenol?" Cyclops raised his eyebrows.

"I can't swallow pills." She shrugged, grabbed a spoon and glass of water and took 3 tablespoons. "I have a slight headache."

It was 8 when the X-men took off. Ange was already eating her seconds of Spaghetti and downing a mountain dew. Now her headache was gone, but she was having problems waking up. And the soda finally kicked in about a half an hour later when she was grabbing a flashlight and preparing to tell the younger ones a few ghost stories- they were already huddled around the couch, lights off, whispering and giggling, waiting patiently.