Disclaimer: No one was harmed during the production of this chapter. One actor was fined after attempting to slip an unknown substance into a pill that was used during a scene. The pill itself suffered no harmful affects.

Chapter 9 – Lack of Innocence

Chelsea awoke to the shower being turned on in the bathroom. She glanced over at Mystique's empty bed.

Perfect, she thought, I can finish my plans and begin right away!! She sat up in bed and opened the drawer in her bedside table. It was completely empty, save a hairbrush. Looking up at the door to the bathroom, she confirmed that yes Mystique was still in the shower, and yes there was no one to see her. She quickly lifted the bottom of the drawer up to reveal a false bottom, with a gap of about two or three centimeters deep. From this she retrieved her pen and small notebook. She flipped past all the notes she had taken when Magneto was explaining to her how to fool everyone into thinking she was Marie. When she got to a blank sheet she immediately began to scribble down her plans. She always worked better, and thought more clearly when she wrote things down. It was obvious from her notes that she had thought a lot about this.

After a short while she stopped to read what she had written, to see if she left anything out.

Magneto and his group have had run-ins w/peeps this school. See if they come up in convos. Then ask questions! Especially about Misty. DO NOT START THESE CONVOS!! Someone might suspect something if you do

Also

Act really nice to Misty in the room. Ask questions & play naive. Let her think you are a sheltered twit!

When she finished reading she realized that she didn't have in there anything about how Rogue would be. What if Rogue knows about Magneto and stuff? How would I explain asking questions about stuff I should know about already? While thinking about this she doodled on her paper until she heard the water in the shower stop. Quickly she put the notebook and pen back into the drawer, replaced the fake bottom and locked the drawer to ensure no one could read her thoughts. I'll figure out what to do about Rogue later... For right now, begin step one.

"Good morning" Chelsea said to Mystique as she came out of the bathroom.

"Hi" Mystique replied.

From her tone Chelsea could tell Mystique was annoyed, she had noticed it last night too, but didn't think much of it then.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Mystique was short and seemingly more annoyed.

"Why do some mutants have more than one name? Like Marie is also Rogue and Sarah is also Shape, why?"

"It's a code name."

"Oh..." Chelsea said trying to sound confused, though she had already known about code names.
"It's basically a nickname. Marie's code name is Rogue; Sarah's code name is Shape"

"Oh I see... And your code name is Mystique?"

Mystique turned from her bureau to face Chelsea and while she did that she morphed into the 17 year-old girl Chelsea had seen her as last night. "No, my code name is Shape." She said matter-of-factly.

"Right" Chelsea smiled, winked, and did a gun-finger-point toward her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For almost a half an hour they both got ready for the day quietly. Shape, once ready, sat on her bed and read a book, waiting rather impatiently for Chelsea to finish. When she walked out from the bathroom, Chelsea went over to her book bag and headed for the door. "Hold on" Mystique said as she grabbed her by the shoulder. "Here" Mystique shoved something into her hand and walked over to the dresser. Looking down at her hand, Chelsea saw one of the pills Magneto gave her. She held the pill up to her mouth and swallowed it. She watched Mystique, or Sara rather, do the same with her medicine. Before she could say anything, Mystique grabbed her bare arm and held on tightly. After a few moments she let go.

"Are you okay?" Chelsea said when she saw Sarah reach for her temple. She really didn't care if Mystique was okay or not, but thought she should play nice and ask.

"Yeah, just a small pain, but it's gone now. The drug works pretty well in blocking a lot of the pain."

"I guess so, the last person that touched me for that long wasn't standing on their feet after..."She paused, not really knowing what else to say. "Well I guess I'll see you later."

"One more thing..." Sarah walked over to grab a pair of long black gloves from the dresser. "Put these on."

"What, why?"

"Rogue always wears gloves, she only takes them off to eat, and she is very careful when she does that."

"You have got to be kidding! God, she acts like a prisoner in her own body. This sucks." Chelsea took the gloves and put them on. She didn't like them last night when she had them, but figured it was just a one time thing. Its bad enough I have to wear these stupid Goth looking clothes, now I'm completely covered. This is messed up! "Thanks" Chelsea said to Mystique, obviously displeased at the gloves she now had on.

Shape began to head for the door, back pack on her shoulders.

"Goodbye" Chelsea called out.

"Dang I'm good." She said to herself once she was alone in the room. She had successfully started so much this morning with Mystique; she hoped the rest of the day was as successful.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

During one of her breaks between classes Chelsea was walking through the courtyard. She hadn't seen how beautiful it had all been last night when she arrived. She was so engulfed in looking at everything that she didn't hear the person calling her.

"Rogue..."

"Rogue..."

"ROGUE!" He called again and this time she heard, but it took John running to her side and grabbing her arm before she snapped out of her daze and realized he was calling to her. When he touched her arm she jumped. Not because of her skin, that was covered, but because he startled her. Though he did see her jump, she was glad he didn't notice her other hand make a fist ready to swing. She realized where she was, and more importantly who he was just before she moved her arm to deck him. Good thing too, normally one hit and she had 'em down for the count.

"Sorry, did I scare ya?" John smirked.

"Not really" She said trying to regain her composure. "Ah was just deep in thought. Didn't see yah, sugah." The southern accent Rogue was known for was easy for Chelsea to mimic. Though she never found it hard to fake any accent, and Deep South accents were the easiest to fake, she thought.

"Well I came ta ask ya if you would meet Bobby, Kitty and me in the commons room after your last class? We were all gonna play pool."

"Sure" She decided that was a great time to try and step into phase two, find out about Magneto and his lackeys.

"Um, Rogue..."

"Yeah" She turned to face John once more.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I dunno, you just seem different is all."

"Nope, ah'm good, same lil old me, sugah." She rubbed her hand up and down the back of her head and tried to cover her panic with a fake smile.

John saw this action and must have thought she was wincing in pain because he immediately replied, "Oh shit, are you okay? What happened to your head?"

"No I'm fine..." Rogue began, moving her hand down from her neck. She stopped when she realized what he was talking about. Instantly an idea formed in her mind. "Well there is something, but I'll tell you about it later okay? I have to go to class now, I'm late!" And without letting him reply she took off running toward her next class.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After class she ran all the way up to her room. She opened the door calmly however and smiled when she saw who she was looking for. "Hi Myst...Sarah." She said as she shut the door. Mystique gave her a stern look that said she didn't approve of her slip up with the name.

"I was wonderin' you can change your physical appearance with everything right? I mean like if you were to change into a 50 year old lady your heart would be a 50 year old lady heart right?"

"If I want it to" Mystique began, she was slightly annoyed with Chelsea, as always. But she was also wondering why she was bringing all this up. She turned from the mirror and fixing her long auburn ponytail to ask Chelsea why she wanted to know, but was cut off.

"And with this pill I am taking I am able to use your power, with the same effect?"

"Yes, why do you-"

"So, let me get this straight, if you changed into a, um..." she paused for a second trying to think of an example that would give her the answer she needed. "A dog your entire body, even your organs and everything would be like a dog?"

A look of exasperation came across Sara's face, but when she talked it was Mystique's voice. "Yes, now is that all it was you wanted to know about?!" She was more than slightly irritated by now. Why the hell did I have to suggest to Magneto we use this little twerp? She is such a buffoon. "Don't you have a class to get to?"

"Yeah."

"THEN GO!"

Rogue ran out of the room and closed the door, smiling all the way to her last class. I got the info I needed and annoyed Misty too. Life is good!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

a/n:

Sorry it took so very long during updates. I have been not wanting to write more because it doesn't seem like anyone is reading, cause there aren't many reviews. Then I figured oh well I'm having fun, so why not keep going. If ya like it or ya hate it please respond. It builds my writing confidence and I'll post quicker knowing you care!!