A/N: Long time, no update. I've been very busy with other projects – some of which I'm thinking about scrapping. I hope that your year has started off wonderfully and now I present to you an update for this story. Enjoy!
OOOOOOOOO
Scarlet yawned in the back of the classroom, barely listening to what was being said by Scott as he taught science to the class. She hadn't been sleeping well and she'd been told by her roommates that she had been talking in her sleep. More like muttering, but Scarlet was glad that she wasn't screaming like she had when she'd been on the run from everyone who had ever known her.
Her eyes drifted up to the clock above Scott's head and saw that there were still ten minutes left for him to torture her fellow students. The temptation to make the clock speed up or to just speed up time in general floated in the back of her mind. She knew that she could do either easily if she wanted to put the energy into it and Scott wouldn't be able to do anything about it. She might even make some people happy to get out of class "early", saving everyone from the monotonous shit that came out of Scott's lips.
I can't do it for any of us though, Scarlet thought, lowering her gaze once more to the notebook in front of her. Chuck will know about it and he will make me cover for that time somehow. And that would be a pain in the ass.
She heard a small sound of fire crackling beside her and saw that Pyro was playing with his fire powers behind his back. According to her roommates, he did this quite often because no one could tell he was doing it unless they sat nearby. There was no smoke because he technically wasn't burning anything, but she could feel the heat radiating from the small flame.
Bobby caught her eye as she let her eyes roam the room. He was too far to stop the flame in Pyro's hand with his ice power – another thing that she learned was common in the class. Bobby lifted an eyebrow at her and then looked at the front of the classroom again.
It's my turn then, Scarlet thought, twisting her hand on her desk.
The flame in Pyro's hand grew and rose into the air. He jerked back in his seat and looked down in awe at the large ball of flame. His hand trembled as he tried to force the flame down, but it wasn't in his control anymore. Not completely.
And to somewhere safe you go, Scarlet thought, twitching her finger in the direction of the nearest lab workstation.
With a swirl, the flame in Pyro's hand streaked across the room to the lab workstation and lit up one of the Bunsen burners with a high flame. Scarlet smirked and glanced in the direction of the fire as her fellow classmates did. Scott dropped his whiteboard marker and crossed his arms as he looked at the class, specifically Pyro.
"John," he growled. "You know you're not supposed to use your powers in class. You've been warned countless times. What if someone was in the way? What if someone got hurt because of your carelessness?"
Pyro's face darkened with a deep red color. "I didn't do that," he muttered, jerking his hand in the direction of the flame as it continued to burn on the Bunsen burner.
Timing the action almost perfectly, Scarlet made the flame on the burner dissipate with the movement of Pyro's hand. His eyes widened in alarm and he dropped his hands onto his desk quickly.
"Sure you didn't," Scott said, still sounding annoyed. "John, see me after class. I need to have a word with you."
Scarlet smiled to herself as Pyro sank down in his chair, muttering something unintelligible under his breath. She glanced down at her notes and saw that the corner of her notebook was smoking lightly. Pointing her finger at the smoke, she called back what little fire that was there and felt her body shudder as her body temperature rose slightly.
No one saw that, Scarlet told herself mentally, brushing her hand across her forehead on the pretext of pushing her hair back out of her face. No one saw the paper smoldering. No one saw me get bothered by the heat…no one ever can be allowed to see my weakness.
The mutant teenager tapped her finger on the edge of the blackened corner. With a small poke, the paper returned to its pristine condition. Satisfied, Scarlet looked back at the front of the classroom but remained half-distracted by the idea that someone could have seen her shudder at the small heat that had come with absorbing fire.
I need to know who Aqua told about me, Scarlet thought, closing her notebook. And she better hope that she didn't tell any of the people my age or younger. The less people that know, the happier the world will be.
A collective sigh of relief passed over the class when the dismissal bell rang. Scarlet gathered her bag and books and headed for the front of the classroom. On the way past Pyro, she winked and showed him a small flame on her finger behind her back. The other mutant's eyes narrowed and he started to rise from his seat.
"John!" Scott called from the front of the classroom. "Don't even think about trying to sneak out of here. We need to have a talk about your actions." His shielded red gaze turned onto Scarlet. "Ms. Wayne, shouldn't you be heading somewhere?"
Scarlet nodded. "I'm sure I can find something more entertaining to do instead of watching you and him have a chat." She headed towards the door. "Smell you later, Scooter."
Once he called out to her that that had not been his name, Scarlet smirked and increased her speed. The smirk slipped off her face as desperation kicked in. Her eyes searched the busy halls and she reached her senses out, trying to locate her sister. There was a problem and for once she was going to entrust her sister to help her solve it, instead of ignoring it like her sister had done for years.
"Jube!" she said, touching her friend on the shoulder. "Have you seen Aqua?"
The girl in a yellow jacket nodded and pointed towards the outside world. "She's out there on chaperone duty. Why? Did she steal something from you or get you a pile of extra homework?"
"No. Don't worry about it." Scarlet let her smirk flicker back on her face. "I'll see you guys later for pizza, okay?"
"Sure. Be careful out there, Scar."
Scarlet nodded and clapped a hand on her friend's shoulder before moving away. She headed down the main hall and out into the sunlight. A shudder passed over her body as the heat of the day came upon her. For a mid-Spring day, she knew that it was too warm. The thought of heading back inside to the nicer temperature passed through her mind, but she knew that she had to learn to deal with the heat. It was an unavoidable part of life and avoiding the heat would make her hidden secret come to the light.
She moved out onto the lawn, looking around for her sister. The older girl's white-blonde hair shimmered in the sun as if it were made of water. Scarlet adjusted the grip she had on her bag and headed towards her older sister.
"Aqua," she said, poking the girl in the side. "We need to talk."
The water manipulator turned to look at her, wearily. "Maria, I already told you that there isn't a new private room open yet. One will probably open up in the next few weeks, but you can't rush it. You don't have priority at the moment and that's not my fault." She scratched her neck. "Can't you just let yourself make more friends instead of hiding away from everyone?"
"This isn't about room arrangements, Aqua," Scarlet said, grabbing her sister by the elbow and drawing her away from a group of students. "I need to know if you told anyone about my…weakness."
Addison's eyes widened for a moment. "Your weakness? Why would I tell anyone about your weakness around heat?" she asked. "Yes, I told the professor and the rest of the adults, but that's because they needed to know. I wouldn't – how could you think that I would tell anyone about your weakness? I'm not that loose of lips, Maria. I'm your sister and I only want what's best for you."
"Uh-huh." Scarlet hardened her gaze. "You better keep your mouth shut about me, okay? I don't need people getting into my private life and I don't need to have someone find out that there's a very easy way to shut me down. If someone does, you're going to be the first person that I'll look for to put in the hospital wing."
"You shouldn't be threatening people, Maria. The professor doesn't like threats."
"Who's threatening people? I'm promising you that I will beat the shit out of you if someone finds out and attempts to use it against me." Her body shuddered again when a group of kids ran past her. "Great…more new people…"
Scarlet closed her eyes and breathed in slowly, trying to rein in what powers that were trying to make an appearance. She felt the breeze pick up and stir the tendrils of her hair. Addison placed a hand on her arm, grounding her.
"Maria, you need to fight your powers," Addison said softly. "You have control over them."
"No," Scarlet muttered, opening her eyes. "I don't have control over them. If I did, there would be fewer accidents."
"But nothing has happened this –" Addison began.
The rack of basketballs at the side of the nearby basketball court shuddered and fell as the basketballs flew out of position. The orange balls bounced hard against the ground and some exploded while others imploded upon themselves. Students stared in horror, mouths gaping as the remaining balls settled down in the carnage.
"You were saying," Scarlet said, folding her arms over her chest as she shrugged her sister's hand off.
"That was done on purpose," Addison decided, shaking her head. "You made that happen because you want to prove the lie that you can't control your powers as well as you think I know you can."
"Aqua, why the hell would I pretend that I can't control my powers?" Scarlet demanded, her temper flaring near dangerous levels. "Why would I want to endanger the lives of people because of a moment of attention? I'm not you. I don't need constant attention. I need help with my powers and you think that I'm faking that? Have you even considered that I have moved around so much because I couldn't control them? Or are you so blinded by the perfect life that you have now that you can't see the pain that others are in unless you can play the hero?"
Addison lifted her hand and made to strike Scarlet, but her hand stopped in mid-swing. Scarlet's eyes burned a deep crimson as she held her sister in her power.
"You can't talk to me like that!" Addison spat. "I have tried to help you. I have tried to get you to make friends and to settle in. I have tried to get you the education you need, but you aren't working hard enough. You're hiding behind the powers that you accumulate and won't let anyone help you, Maria. You can control your powers; you just don't want to try."
Scarlet glared at her sister and pushed her back with her powers, so that Addison landed on the grass on her backside. She closed her hand into a fist and took a slow breath. Her eyes lost their burning red color, but remained cold as she looked down at Addison.
"You don't know anything about me," Scarlet snapped. "And you never wanted to help me. But that's not my problem anymore. I don't need your help and I don't need your pity. I can do this without you, like I've done for the past ten years. So do me a first and final favor: stay out of my way and don't try to worm back into my life. You are nothing to me. Do you understand? Nothing."
With that, Scarlet turned and headed back towards the mansion. She reached out with her powers and restored what she could of the basketballs so that the kids could play again. Her eyes narrowed as she saw John approaching her with an evil look in his eyes.
"You are so going to pay for the detentions that you got me," he growled at her, blocking her path into the mansion. "All seven of them with interest."
"Bring it on, Wimp." Scarlet growled right back, sticking her chin out in defiance. "I'll take you on anytime in the Danger Room, but don't come crying to me when your ass is wiped all over the floor. Because I'm gonna destroy you."
"Why wait until then?" John demanded, moving closer to her. "Why don't we have a one-on-one behind the mansion tonight? Just me and you and no one else."
"Sorry, I can't make it tonight. Or any night. Not without a proper audience." Scarlet smirked at him. "Besides, Scooter has you in detention at night and you wouldn't want him to double the detentions that he assigned you, now would you? I hear he gets really annoying when he doesn't get his orders followed through."
John sneered at her. "Are you a chicken, Wayne?"
"Ha! I've seen things that would make your stomach turn into so many painful knots…but you'll get your fight. In the Danger Room where things can get interesting really fast." Scarlet brushed past him. "Trust me. You're going to need the help of the Danger Room to beat me down to your level, John. And I'll still kick your ass."
"We'll see," John called after her.
"Yes, we will." And we'll see how fast it takes to get him out before he can raise the heat too much for my liking, Scarlet thought, heading up the stairs once she was in the cool interior of the mansion. I'm not going down with him knowing what my weakness is. And I'm not going to have any more accidents. Not today, anyway.
OOOOOOOOO
A/N: Not much happened here, but there were some things. I think this story will be shorter than I originally planned, simply because I can't focus on all of the plots for all of my stories. Thank you for understanding and please leave a little review in my review box if you would be so kind. Thanks! -Scarlet