A/N: Heys! I'm back again and this chapter is going to be super wicked. I hope you've liked the story so far and you will continue reviewing! If you haven't reviewed me yet click that little button. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed me so far and an especially big thank you to my ever so dedicated reviewer "leaslie" and my beta reader Satori B.

Sorry for the delay in getting chapters out… heh heh. I've had cadet stuff and exams and stuff that had to come first! Cowers I'm sorry! I'm hoping to get chapter six up and good to go before I leave for summer camps. So come September I'll hopefully be a little more regular with the updating!

Chapter Five
Black Bird

It's official. I am now the world's biggest loser.

I feel so stupid – even worse than stupid – I am the thickest, densest, most brainless moron to ever walk this earth.

All this time…

I've always known I was different. That was why I never quite fit in with anyone. Sure, I had friends, but we weren't exceptionally close. We'd hang out at school, but we didn't really do anything together. I'd never be one to go out to the mall and just hang with friends. I wish I could have, but I'd never felt a real connection to the people at school.

Now I finally know why.

How could I have not noticed that the weather fluctuated when I was sad or angry? I mean, it's not as if it's that hard to see.

Oh look, I'm sad and it's raining, isn't it funny how that ALWAYS happens? Or, oh look, I'm really, really pissed off. How ironic is it that there's a big ass thunderstorm going on?

How could I have not seen that?

I am so blind!

For saying that I am so observant, and think outside the box, I sure don't notice a whole lot. Maybe its just selected sight, like Gram has selective hearing.

All my life I've simply accepted things as they were and never really given much thought to what else might be going on. Delving beneath the surface has never really interested me – I was happy with what I had, what if I found out something I didn't want to know?

Why bother, right?

Well, I guess that was a stupid way to look at it.

That's it. No more obliviousness. No more ignoring things staring me straight in the face…

I am Marlee Hyson also known as the world's biggest idiot and I have just come to accept I am a mutant.

Though 'accept' probably isn't the word that I want to use. More like 'I have just come to grips that I am a mutant.' I don't have to like it, but I'm through being stupid.

Now, how does one stop being a mutant?…

I need a psychiatrist. Can you say therapy group? "Hi, my name is Marlee and I have a problem."

Anyway, moving off the self-pity track…

Here I am in the back of a taxicab being taken back to my 'holding cell' consisting of the swanky hotel room I left Roberta to mind a few hours ago. I have just committed the most awesome "break out" ever, and I am so getting in major trouble for all the confusion I've caused. After we get back to the hotel to gather up our stuff, I'm being shipped off to this school for mutants like me, where I expect to be the talk of the school after my adventure today.

You know how they say - you can only make one first impression?

Well, I had definitely made mine. Now we can only hope for two things. That the rest of the year is an interesting as these last few hours, and that if is just as exciting – that I manage to live through the chaos.

Scott paid the talkative driver, who took off as soon as we had all cleared the curb he took off like a bat out of hell. Obviously, our silence to his chattering had seriously unnerved him. Soon enough Scott met us in the lobby where all our bags were waiting.

Hmm… Maybe if someone else packed it, I wouldn't forget anything.

No one said a word to me, or to each other really, it was an awkward, scary silence caused, I knew, by my little excursion. Did I feel bad? Nah, I was more embarrassed that they had managed to catch me so easily, really.

The valet pulled up with Scott's sleek black car and loaded our numerous bags into the tiny trunk. I sighed a heavy, drawn out sigh and got in the back. Miss Munroe sat in the middle. Bobby was still angry with me and refused to even look at me unless he had to. So there was little surprise in the fact that he made Miss Munroe take the middle. He squished in beside Miss Munroe. Mrs. Summers shared an exasperated look with Miss Munroe I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to see, and slid into the front passenger side. Scott got in the driver's seat and off we went on adventures untold…

Sorry, but I had to add some excitement. I like to think that something fun and interesting is going to happen on these insanely long car rides. With this grim carload, one can only hope.

I think all this awkward silence is supposed to make me feel guilty for making them worry. Or at least apologize for running away and getting Bobby in trouble. I suppose I could apologize… but only after they tell me how they knew I was a mutant.

That seems like a fair exchange. Did I mention that I don't do guilt trips very well?

For lack of anything better to do, I looked out the window and tried to soak up some of the ever so interesting scenery. It was better than seeing everyone's angry faces in the corner of my eye.

We were still travelling through fairly inhabited areas. The houses were quaint, they reminded me of a touristy place, where people who have nothing better to do knock on people's doors asking them questions about their old houses. I wouldn't mind living in a place like this actually. It wasn't too crowded, and the houses were spaced out enough that I wouldn't feel like my neighbours were trying to look in my windows. As we passed by another old-fashioned place, I saw an old man sitting in a rocking chair on his porch; he looked up at me and smiled slowly before going back to his newspaper.

Before I could get a better look at him, we had passed him by.

'Strange old man…' I thought, though I allowed myself a tiny grin. 'It's nice to know that there are still people out there who don't hate strangers on sight.' I glanced back to the interior of the car… still as silent as the grave.

At least there's no classical music this time…

It was very unsettling. It's hard to believe I had caused all of this in a day… just imagine what I could do in a week…

Okay let's not think about that after all…

I sighed for what must have been the fiftieth time in half an hour, not one person had said a word and I was bored out of my skull.

I tried to sing all the Disney songs I knew (in my head that is…), but the atmosphere was just wrong for that. Then I tried to sing all the sad songs, then angry then I tried the Disney ones again. No matter what it was that I was trying to listen to in my head, I was too distracted by the complete silence in the car.

'Well this bites…' I thought to myself.

'And whose fault is that?' a voice in my head chided me.

'Get out of my head!' I yelled back involuntarily. There was no answer, so I guessed she did what I told her to. Mrs. Summers glanced back at me in the rear view mirror, an innocent smirk on her face. I pouted. Damn telepaths…

A few minutes passed by with me staring out the window aimlessly – again. Because of my utter focus I immediately noticed when Scott turned us left instead of right. We were supposed to go right… The right way was the right way to go... Forgive me if I seem a bit panicked, but you must understand that at this moment, no one in the car was very happy with me. What if they were taking me somewhere to…

Shit.

I had read the road signs, seeing as how I had nothing better to do… - we were supposed to turn the other way! Instead, we pulled off onto an old, beat up, dirt road that looked like it hadn't been used in decades, let alone would Scott's fancy car be able to get through it. Somehow it managed.

I was so bloody confused. After a few minutes of bumpy roads and expecting a large animal to come out of the surrounding woods and dash in front of us, we came to a stop in the middle of a huge empty field. And when I say huge, I mean, really, really huge. Like wondering who would put a huge field here and not do anything with it huge. Then my eyes landed on the big, black, shiny jet at the end of the field.

"No… friggen… way…!" I yelled as the massive beast started making funny noises. "I am NOT getting in that… that… THING!" Heights and I have an unspoken agreement. We don't bother interacting anymore… not since that incident on the Ferris wheel…

I think that it was safe to say that the silence had been broken.

"Marlee, don't be difficult, just get into the plane."

If Scott thought he could talk me into this, he was insane.

"Come on kid, don't you think that you've caused enough trouble today?" Bobby said darkly, folding his arms across his chest. I looked closely at him.

"Hey Roberta, you got some lipstick on your teeth."

That was enough to make him shut up. He turned red and started rubbing madly at his mouth. There's one person down.

He did have a point, after all the trouble I've caused them, I should have just relented, bit the bullet and got onto the flying death trap, but I was in no way going to be that nice.

"Come on Marlee, it's only a forty-five minute flight," Mrs. Summers was using her 'nice' voice again. You know the one where you're being asked nicely to do something but there's an underlying hint of a threat? That was the voice.

"Pffft! No way. Why can't we just drive?"

"Marlee child," It was Miss Munroe's turn I guess. "Please co-operate with us, soon you will be with people your own age." Gotta love Miss Munroe for trying.

"There's nothing you can say that will get me on that thing…"

Ten minutes later…

Scowling and glaring at anything that dared address me I slumped back into my leather seat in the back of the 'Black Bird'.

I was forced onto the jet against my will. Well, more like they said that once they dragged me onto the thing they would take away any phone, tv and computer privileges I had, as well as ground me from leaving the premises for a month, and (the killer I assure you) I would be given kitchen duty.

It was then that I reluctantly consented. Then Bobby tackled me and literally carried me kicking and screaming into my seat and strapped me in with what they like to call the 'Child Safety Lock'.

Curse you whom ever invented that.

"Every one buckle in," Scott called from the cockpit. Yeah, yeah, very funny. Done that…

"Take off commencing," Scott continued. With each passing moment I felt my knuckles grip the armrests harder and harder. He sent the Black Bird hurtling down the impromptu runway. When I thought we were surely going to run into the line of trees at the end of the field, he pulled the nose back and we smoothly lifted into the sky. I was flying.

Oh joy. My stomach cheered with me, though the feeling was definitely not a pleasant one. Not to mention the sensation of my ears popping as the pressure inside the cabin decreased.

I cringed as the plane bumped a little as it drew in its landing gear up inside and began to gain height.

Well… now that the hard part was over – so long as I don't look out the window… - I might as well make the best of this little adventure. Seeing as how no one was up to talking to me yet, I had to find another way to amuse myself before my curiosity drew my gaze to the window.

My mind began to linger back to the letter in the box my parents, most likely my dad, left for me. What could possibly be in it? Heh, with my luck it's just an envelope full of horrible crayon pictures I drew. I remembered I used to love to draw. Especially pictures of mommy coming back. Pictures of us being happy. Pictures of me and daddy and then some of just with a rainbow behind me.

I don't draw anymore. I take all of my frustration out through music now, even though I can't play very well I still like to take out my old guitar and play the hell out of it when I'm angry, or sad… or feeling any strong emotion really. I just took up the guitar this year a couple of months ago, owing to my not knowing much of what to do yet. One of my best friends encouraged me to start. Of course he can play like a rock star. He promised to teach me more about it so I could get better. Someday, he often joked, I might even be half as good as him. I'd love to be able to play well.

Seems like I won't get the chance to learn from him anymore, hey?

Damn mutant school.

This was going to be way harder than I thought. Wait… did I ever think that this was going to be easy? Bad Marlee, bad…

"Gram, Gram where are you? I'm home! I escaped! Did you miss me? Gram?"

I smiled proudly as I searched through my house for my grandmother. I looked in the kitchen, expecting her to be bustling about making a pot of tea, but there she wasn't there. Then I looked in the living room, maybe she would be watching her soap operas… No, she wasn't there either.

I grew worried, Gram almost never left home, liking the quiet solitude it offered.

Checking the rest of the house, she wasn't anywhere. There was no sign of her.

Locking the house up behind me, I walked down the road to Kristy's. Surely she'd be home and happy to see me. Kristy was almost as big as a homebody as Gram. I knocked on her door and there was no answer… weird.

I looked down the street; a sick feeling came to my stomach when I noticed why it was so quiet.

There were no cars, no people, and no sound of inhabitation. The buildings loomed empty. It was like a ghost town.

"Gram? Kristy? What's going on? Why am I all alone? Anyone? Where is everyone?" I yelled out, expecting some sort of answer.

There was none.

"Marlee wake up we're here," I shook out of my slumber to see Mrs. Summers leaning over me. I frowned and rubbed my eyes… At least I didn't scream in anyone's face this time. I think she was relieved.

I thought back to the dream I had been having but I couldn't remember anything other than a feeling of unease in my gut. Not exactly something one relishes waking up to.

Taking a look out the window I see what I guessed was the mansion. It was huge! And the most beautiful mansion you could imagine. I looked around, but I didn't see any sort of runway. Bracing myself for a field landing – there were enough of them around the mansion to support a fleet of Black Bird's – I was shocked when we banked around to start flying into a waterfall.

"Um…"

"It's alright, Marlee," Mrs. Summers reassured me as she made her way back to her seat in the front. Bobby, sitting across from me, snickered.

…

We were loosing altitude quickly, and I started fidgeting, the waterfall definitely didn't look like a suitable runway.

…

I was milliseconds away from fully freaking out when an underground tunnel opened up inside the waterfall, landing lights lit up on either side of a tarmac runway.

…

"Well you could have mentioned that before…" I grumbled.

Scott looked back at me and smirked before easing the jet into the fully lighted tunnel. It a little scary at first but I'd definitely rather be underground than 20,000 feet in the air.

The jet landed with a small bump and the massive door opened up. The "child lock" on my seat belt was released immediately and Scott and Bobby quickly escorted me down the exit ramp. I supposed they wanted to do it swiftly, so I wouldn't have any time to do anything stupid. At the bottom of the ramp I looked up from the completely fascinating ground to see and six grimacing faces, one being a little bald man in a surreal looking wheel chair.

"You've given us a fair bit of trouble these last few days, Marlee."

Feeling impudent I muttered, "Am I supposed to apologize?"

I cringed, hearing the words out loud made them sound a lot ruder. Shit. I could feel the lecture coming. Surprisingly the old guy didn't launch into a big old speech about insolence in young people. Instead he broke into a wide, kinda creepy, secretive smile.

"Welcome home."

End Chapter Five

Well, bit of a transition chapter, wot? Hope you enjoyed it despite that. Until next chapter! Nico-Ru and Satori B signing off!