BACK TO SCHOOL

CHAPTER 5: MAKE UP AND FINAL PREPERATIONS

-Garage-

Logan was in one of the new expanded garages at the moment working on one of the new vehicles. With so many students they had needed to get two knew ones since Scott and Jean would be using his car for their collage that was nearby. He was glad they would be going somewhere close, with all the enemies they had out there now it just wasn't safe to be too far away from everyone if they were attacked.

With Magneto, The Hellions, Azazel and then there were the FOH and other like minded people it was just asking for trouble in his opinion. The world had become a dangerous place for mutants since they were exposed last year. He had seen reports on mutants and humans who had been though had been mutants had things happen to them. Some were beaten wither in their homes or right on the street, usually through gangs and allegedly FOH supporters.

There were stories of some people who had been suspected of being mutants just disappeared. Others had been murdered even. A few weeks ago a gang of drunks beat to death this poor teen to death who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then last week there had been that poor girl from a university in Florida who when her mutation kicked in got light blue skin, the story was how someone had raped her and she had dropped out of school.

Logan growled as he remembered some of the stories like persecution to mutants and their families from certain groups. It just really pissed him off to no end. At the moment he was working under one of the new vehicles they had gotten last month and had spent that time modifying them.

"Something wrong?" He looked to the side and saw his new daughter Sarah Logan also known as X23 working with him. It seemed they shared an interest in working with engines and vehicles and it found it oddly nice how they bonded over them like they had.

"Just thinkin' kid nothing important," He grinned when he heard the small grunt. He knew that she hated being called 'kid' but he still did. They also got the new vehicles to help the all the students go to school and also because they would need the new hardware for all the trouble they could get into.

The first new vehicle they got was a metallic painted H2 SUT Hummer. This was going to be a bit more modified, with all the new dangers and with who knows what type of dangers they got this to modify into an assault vehicle that could also go over rough terrain. It could seat seven and had an open truck like a truck at the back. There was a wrap brush guard in the front that was reinforced as well as new plating. There were many other modifications like lights on the top and of course the kind of modifications that you can't get legally.

Like the X-Van the Hummer or as the kids like to call it the HX, had more horse power, a new engine system by Forge that was actually a hybrid system he was working on to cut the gas the thing needed to use. And of course a few weapon systems and newer ones that couldn't be placed in the X-Van.

The next one was a green Ford SUV. This one while still could handle rugged terrain it was smaller and more manoeuvrable then the Hummer. This would be nice for when they This too can hold seven people but also have an interior trunk space for any equipment they might need. The SUV was also being modified to match the X-Van in a way, with all the 'special' modifications they were making.

They had been spending the last few hours just checking them over and making last minute adjustments. Both in coveralls and by now had grease and grim smeared over then as they worked. For Sarah this was actually relaxing to her. She loved learning about vehicles and then taking them apart, cleaning and repairing the parts. It was all in a very complex but stable order. It was kind took her mind of things as well, something that she could focus on other then the usual things the plagued her mind.

Either it was nightmares of her time in Hydra, trying to understand what it was to be free, human, friends and family. There was so much she didn't understand about life but she was learning. So far the studying and teaching sessions that she had with Wanda were nice, the two of them seemed to get along okay and they helped each other given that they both missed out on a lot of schooling so they had to catch up. But then again neither one of them really wanted to go to Bayville High, and Hank was a good teacher too.

Then there was the whole thing of learning that Dr. Deborah Risman, the woman in charge of the X23 Project in Hydra had been her mother, that she had used herself as an incubator. For the past couple of months she had been wrestling with that. One the one hand she had been Hydra, part of the group that had made her life al literal living hell for her entire life. But on the other she remembered little bits and pieces about her, how she had always been the more affectionate around her. Although it wasn't much, she guessed from what she remembered Deborah had to be careful.

Sarah still hadn't contacted her or even tried to but lately she had questions. Why did she do the things she had done? Why did she allow all those horrible things? There was so much she needed to know and over time they just grew and grew. There was one way; she didn't want to go through Logan since he knew Fury.

But there was Vincent, or even Wanda. Both knew members of SHIELD's new unit X-Force. And since Risman was now attached to them she could get a message to her to meet her somewhere neutral for a talk. But Sarah wasn't sure she wanted to. She kept on pushing it back, saying she could do it later that there was time. Sarah knew that sooner or later she would need to talk to her alone but she wasn't ready, not yet anyway.

"Well I think that's got it," Logan stated and pulled himself out from under the vehicle, she followed along with him. When they were out they heard a small laugh and saw Ororo there with two drinks most like for them. With all the motor oil and other garage smells it was hard to pick up her scent from in there.

Ororo put down the drinks feeling that she might drop them at the sight of the two of them. They were so alike that at times it was either scary or funny. And seeing them there wearing matching coveralls and matching stains it was a comical site for her.

"What's so funny?" Logan asked her wiping his hands from a dirty towel that he had in his hands.

It took her a moment to compose herself, "I am sorry Logan it's just that seeing you two like this. It's just so…Adorable," Both of them gave her matching glares and small growls telling her they were not amused. But it was the same exact look and sound and it only made her laugh even more at the sight of them.

She did stop laughing, mainly when a dirty rag hit her in the face and she gasped from the shock of it seeing that it left a mess on her shirt too. She glared daggers at Logan who was grinning at her, "Don't worry darlin' it will wash out."

"Logan," She threatened her eyes turning white as a small static electricity could be felt in the air. Sarah tried not to laugh and decided to go and clean up. Besides metal bones were a great conductor of electricity and even though unlike Logan she may only had metal claws in her, he was practically a giant walking lightning rod.

"Hey you asked for it Ro," Logan stated standing up not showing that he was afraid walking up to her.

She seemed to calm down, "Very well Logan perhaps I did, so what were you two doing?"

"Just a little tune up," He turned around to look at the Hummer, "we were tryin' to get this thing to be a bit smother wh-" He was cut off as he felt a cold liquid being poured on his head. His head whipped around and saw her giving him an impish grin with a now empty plastic cup over his head after just pouring in on him.

"You do realize…This means war," He said and went to grab the other cup.

"Logan," Ororo warned backing away with a slight smile on her face, "Don't you dare think of doing what I think you're doing."

He only smiled at her as he picked it up and made for her, she only backed away quickly and soon Logan was chasing her. She was shouting out warnings but also laughing a bit as well, even Logan had on a small smile on his face as he chased the woman.

X23 watched them as she was cleaning herself up with a liquid used to get rid of stain on the skin and shook her head. Sometimes she just didn't understand people and wondered if she ever would.

-Vincent's Room-

Vincent had spent the day pretty much brooding in his room. He tried meditation, drawing, reading nothing worked. He kept on thinking about that stupid argument and just how stupid he had been to bring up that Gambit thing. But damn it that really hurt when thinking back to that, she had been torn between him and another man and for someone like him that had been one of the worst moments of his life.

And given his life that was saying something, he kept on having these doubts like she was only with him because he had been the first to really try and get to know her and look past her powers. Was she staying with him because of some sense of loyalty? He knew he shouldn't be thinking this but she was a hard person to get to know. She knew how he felt because she had his memories at one point and knew him better then anyone. Yet he was still trying to know her.

He knew her personality, her quirks, and her likes and dislikes. But barely anything about her past before the X-Men, she only rarely talked about her old life and when she did it was only Irene she talked about and even that was vague. It was kind of frustrating at times.

Gale Hunter also known as Nightingale was walking the halls when she accidentally picked up on the emotions by accident. She had stronger mental shielding now so that she wasn't bombarded with them but she did pick them up now and then. She looked inside the room to see her fellow Canadian there and from what she guessed he wasn't in a good mood.

It was strange at times, how one moment he had this aura of calmness and good but then it could just switch at any moment. She guessed that was the price of living with his past. "Hey, you okay?"

Vince was a bit startled to see her there and just nodded, "Yeah I'm fine, don't worry about it."

He put on a smile and a very practiced face on, he had used this many times just so that others wouldn't worry about him but Gale saw through it in a second, "You can't lie to an empath so don't bother trying," She said sternly her blue eyes looking sternly at him.

Vince sighed and rubbed his eyes. He knew that she was right but he wasn't sure if he should tell her, but then again what was there to lose? "Well you might want to take a seat this is a bit of a long story."

She gave a small smile and sat down, "I'm all ears."

She listened in as he filled her in on the story, "So the honeymoon period is over huh?"

"What?"

"You know when you first get together you're all into each other and just perfect," Gale started to explain to him, "Then after that period that's the make or break part of it. It's when you two have to really work at your relationship how. Personally I think you two can do it but now it's time for you both to start to open up to each other and trust each other."

Vincent just blinked a few times, "Uh…Okay don't take this the wrong way but wasn't your relationship with Amy…"

She sighed, Amy was still kind of a sore spot for her. Sure she could stand to be in the same room as her now but still it kind of hurt. But she wasn't going to hide from the world who she was, she was gay and proud of it. So if Amy wasn't comfortable with that part of her she couldn't blame her for that. "I had a relationship before her, my first one really. She was a girl in my school, kind of the bad girl really."

'That might explain why I was attracted to Jillian, she kind of reminded me of her.' Gale thought back to the blue winged woman who betrayed them all. "Anyway long story short she approached me, flirted very openly. I flirted back, we started to date and things got hot. Well…She wanted to take things a bit too far then me. We started to argue, and well…"

"Sorry to hear that," He said honestly she just shrugged.

"It's okay it wasn't all bad. But the point is now you can either just choose to walk away or suck it up and go for it."

Vince gave a small chuckle at how she put it. "I don't think I can walk away from this. I mean…I love her, I know I do."

She leaned forward and placed a hand on his, "Then fight for her, go to her and just…try."

Vince nodded he had to at least they, they had both been through too much together to just give up or let it start to fall apart, "Thanks Gale, for everything." She smiled at him and nodded her head watching him go off. She wished him luck.

-Rogue's Room-

Rogue just got back from a slight workout in the Danger Room, she was still sweating a bit and still slightly angry. 'Damn him. Why did he have to go and bring THAT up?' She thought to herself flopping down on her room. She knew that he also had made a few points about her opening up but it just wasn't easy for someone like her. She had been like this as long as she could remember and it was hard to change, sure she was more open now then she used to be but she never talked about her past.

'Damn thang is he would actually sympathise with some of it but ah don't want his sympathy,' She thought looking at the ceiling. It just wasn't fair sometimes. First she had that crush on Scott but she had no chance with him, then that thing with Gambit, so when she finally meets a boy that not only returned her feelings, wasn't and enemy and cared about her stuff like this happens.

She remembered back when Kurt had been taken and how she had been then. He had tried to sooth her and she had snapped at him. That had been all her fault but this time it wasn't, at least not all of it.

Kitty had been looking for Lockheed for over an hour, she wanted to see what he was up to but couldn't find him. So she started checking rooms, she phased into Rogue's room hoping he might be with her or one of the other girl's rooms. "Hey Rogue have you seen…What wrong?"

She saw how Rogue looked, normally when she was a bit pissed it was a bit known but she had looked like she just got out of a Danger Room session but they didn't have one today. She also looked a bit more darker then usual.

"It's nothin' Kitty," Rogue said to her not really in the mood to talk, "What do ya want?"

"I was just looking for Lockheed."

"Haven't seen him, sorry."

Kitty was about to leave when she thought better of it, "Rogue are you sure? I mean you look like something is really bothering you."

Rogue knew Kitty was just being a good friend but she honestly wasn't sure she should tell her. Then she just thought back to that argument about her not opening up and once again she felt the sting on his point with that. She knew what it was like to be lonely and alone in the world but maybe she should at least open up to Kitty.

After all they were close lately, in fact while living together it was like having an annoying little sister and after the Risty thing she started to look for company in the team a bit more. Kitty of course was always one to try and make friends with her and was one of the people Rogue found herself comfortable around. So she told her the entire ugly story.

Kitty was surprised at this but only for a moment, after all with her on and off relationship with Lance and the arguments they had had she guessed it was only a matter of time. "Rogue I'll say this, you both screwed up in that moment."

"Ah know, but ah'm not used to this relationship thang. Ah mean did you know he dated three times before he got ta eh? This is mah first real relationship." She had gotten a few flashes at times of other people memories and back when she visited Toronto with him after April's death she had got a few. None of them she knew had gotten anywhere and she knew the felt stronger about her then anyone else he had dated. But it was still a bit disconcerting for her that he had actually some experience.

"You like shouldn't let that bother you, I mean looks at Scott and Jean? They dated before they dated each other and you've seen them. Hell look at me and Piotr, but you know what? I learned from my relationship with Lance, we both just messed up too many times and we never learned from it." Kitty still felt a bit bad on how her first relationship had gone so horribly wrong by the end. They both should have tried to but more effort into just talking with each other and listening not to mention learning from past arguments but they hadn't and it had killed their relationship.

"Rogue, don't make the same mistakes," Kitty said to her gently, "Just try to learn from your relationship." Rogue thought about what she had said and if anyone knew about how bad things could get she knew Kitty would.

There was a knock on her door and Vince looked in, "Uh…Hey, can I talk to you Rogue?" then looked at Kitty and she knew she should be going.

"Well I like got to fine Lockheed but Rogue…Just remember what we talked about okay?" She gave her friend a supportive look and nodded to Vince as she left the room as she closed the door behind her leaving the couple in the room alone.

Vincent sat on her bed with her both not really looking at each other, "I'm sorry," They both began after the silence and then they both looked at each other, "Okay you first," once again it happened and it broke the ice and the tension a bit as both smiled.

"Okay ladies first," Vince told her first.

Rogue nodded and pulled her knees to her chest, "First ya know how ah hate being lied to, used, and spied on right?"

He did know, after the whole Mystique thing that he heard about, "I am sorry for listening in on that, I didn't mean to I just over heard you and him talking and when you said…"

She looked down knowing that she had hurt him with what she had told Gambit that she wasn't sure what she felt. That she felt an attraction to both of them. "Okay Ah guess…Ah do trust that it was an accident. But why didn't ya talk ta eh about it?"

He just shrugged, "I guess I was scared. I knew you wouldn't have liked it with me listening in even my accident and truth was…I was afraid that you liked him more then me…"

She saw the pain in his expression and reached out to his hand, "What Gambit and Ah had was mainly flirting and…well…there might have been something some day but that's in tha past."

He nodded his head, it was still a painful memory and seeing all those other realities with her with him hadn't made that any easier to bare either. Then Rogue thought about the other part of their argument, "And ah know that ah don't talk about it but let meh promise you this…When ah can get it out ah will, it's just that ah want to forget."

"I can relate to that and I guess I had no right to push."

She hesitated, "Well…Maybe you did a little…

"I guess if we want this to work we'll just have to work on our communication and be a bit more honest with each other," Vince said thinking about all of this.

Rogue nodded her head, "Yeah ah suppose we do…Ah do want this ta work Vince, ah really do. But…Just beh a bit more patient with meh, please?"

He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her close, "I'll try, believe me I will try Marie," He whispered using her real name. She knew that he would only use that to her as his way to show her when he really meant something to her. She gave a small smile, since he and Kurt were the only ones that knew her real name other then Xavier. And she did trust him with her name, it took time for just that but she hoped that she could open up to him. But at the moment she just wanted to enjoy the quiet moment they had at this point.

-Next Week-

Over the next week everyone got ready for their first day back. Everyone was a bit on edge as well since this would be the moment of truth for them all. In Xavier's Office there was one last meeting for the adults there. Logan, Ororo, Hank and Xavier were there as they discussed a few things.

They had been discussing a few things and they were now on the subject of the teams, "I think we may need to do what we talked about," Logan said leaning with his back to the wall his arms crossed over his chest. "There are too many New Mutants and all of them are at different skill levels in the Danger Room."

"Yes, training is beginning to be a bit harsh one some and easier for others," Xavier nodded. He already knew that some of the students felt they were being held back while others felt like they weren't good enough. They needed to find a way to balance them out.

"So we are going to split the New Mutants into two different teams then," Hank surmised what they were going to plan. "Will it be more experienced members on one team and then lesser and new students in the second grouping?"

"I don't think that would work," Ororo had been thinking about this for a bit now herself, "It would be too uneven, we need to split them off to balance them out on both teams."

"Exactly, we need to balance out the teams with skill level, power and experience," Xavier told them and then it was time to bring up the next point, "And also we need to choose a team leader for each one. I believe it would help them to work better if they had some type of structure like the X-Men."

The other adults saw the logic in that, the New Mutants had never had a leader in their group so they didn't work together as well or as fluid as the X-Men did. It may be time to get them to start working together on a new level. "I think I got a few ideas but first we'll split up the teams and see who is on whose team," Logan commented.

"Yes and I believe a few training sessions designed to test leadership skills could be useful. I can even use a standardized test to help with that," Hank had a few psychological tests that he could have them try out to help give them a better mental profile of the students. He had been working on a basic one for some time now. It wasn't like he had a life outside the mansion. He tried not to show it but he tended to bury himself in his work because he missed the life he used to lead.

At least he still was able to teach with Wanda and Sarah, it wasn't much but he was doing what he loved in some way.

"Now then on the subject of leadership," Xavier began and already the others knew what they were thinking off. "With Jean and Scott with college they may have less time for the team especially while the others are in school."

"Yeah stripes has already shown that she may have what it takes," Logan commented and pretty much everyone had agreed that Rogue being one of the oldest, and most experienced member of the team had the right qualifications. Since Warren was also taking a business course in college with Jean and Scott he was out of the running, plus he didn't have as much team experience as the rest of them. He had done well in the training but so far no leadership qualities were shown.

They had discussed maybe Kitty, she had grown up a lot since she first got here for a secondary position and was just as experienced as Rogue. Only that she hadn't shown much leadership at the moment. Kurt was another possibility and as such they would need to see how he would do in a command position. The others like Bobby was too knew to the team and the youngest. Piotr although the oldest so far had little team experience even with his time on the Acolytes, but he had never felt like he was really part of that team, plus he showed no desire to lead. Vincent had the age and shown potential but he seemed that he wasn't comfortable in a leadership role and he preferred to follow.

"Well I guess only time will tell just who can be the secondary leaders just in case they are needed," Xavier sighed knowing this couldn't be fixed in a few hours of talking. "Well then anything else?"

Just then the phone rang in his office, it was his private line and only a few people had that number. He looked curious at it and picked up the phone, "Hello Charles Xavier speaking?" The others watched as a smile came up on his face as he seemed to know who it was. "Ah James, how are you doing? That's nice to hear I take it your wife Elizabeth is doing well?"

The others wondered who this James was although it seemed that Xavier knew him very well by the tone in his voice, "And how are the children and the twins? Oh?" Xavier's face became a bit more serious, "So…Her powers are growing are they? She's having that much trouble? I'm sorry old friend but unfortunately I don't think that would work if I used my powers to help her gain control…she'll need to figure it out on her own or with help…Yes I know I could help her but I can't go and leave my students every now and then and she'll need more supervision."

By now the other adults were wondering where this was going it was obvious there was a mutant with powers that were causing them trouble at that moment Xavier looked up at them, "If you all will excuse me I think this may take awhile."

"Are we getting a new student Charles?" Ororo asked the question everyone was wondering as they got up to excuse themselves.

"I don't know…We'll have to see," He told them as he went back to the phone call.

UP NEXT CHAPTER 6: THE FIRST DAY