Normal POV

Jamie gaped at Bobby and the others. "You cannot be serious," he said at last, his voice barely more than a whisper. "I can't ask her out!"

"Why not?" Roberto leaned back on his chair, balancing precariously on two legs. He smirked at Jamie. "Scared?"

"What do you think?" Jamie muttered, leaning his head on his arm. "I can barely talk to any of the girls in the mansion, let alone one that's smart, beautiful and…and…"

"Oh, so that's how Kitty managed to mistake your request for a ball as for one of her curry puffs," Ray observed. The others winced sympathetically at the mention of Kitty's disastrous attempts at cooking.

"Come on, Jamie," Bobby coaxed. "A dare's a dare."

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do to me if I don't?"

Bobby considered. "I don't know which is worse, Logan "suddenly" deciding to give us extra DR sessions, or Kitty using you for every cooking experiment she does."

A mock scream is heard, and Jamie is gone from his seat.

Bobby smirked and put his hands behind his head, preparing to enjoy the fun. "Works every time."

Meanwhile…

Anna flipped through the pages, ignoring the whispers and giggles around her. Her nose twitched as she absently took a bite of the apple in front of her. She sensed someone sitting down in front of her and she narrowed her eyes behind her open book.

If it's one of those perky cheerleaders here to offer counseling, I swear I will have to kill them.

She refrained from slamming down the book and shouting "WHAT?!" But surprise awaited her when she finally put down her book. Jamie something-what's-his-name sat on the other end, watching her.

"Hey," she said carefully. Still he made no move.

If he's here to offer counseling, I'll kill him, too.

That's too bad, because he's pretty cute.

Wait. WHAT?

Jamie's POV

OK. She's waiting for me to say something. But my mouth seems to have developed a major case of rigor mortis.

"Are you going to say something?" she asked warily, eyeing me like I've been stalking her.

"My mane is Maimie Jaddrox." I said quickly. That so didn't come out right.

"I mean my name is Jamie Maddrox," I said a little more carefully. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit nervous."

To my surprise, she laughed. "Why would you be nervous?" she asked laughingly. "I'm just a normal human being like you." Normal, yeah, right. And I'm just an average mutant who can create clones of himself.

"Well, yeah, but you're smart and all those stuff," I mumbled, looking at the table. This was so not going where I wanted to. If Bobby and Roberto were here, they would have whacked me on my head a long time ago.

"Wouldyouliketohangoutwithmeonsaturday?" I blurted suddenly. Anna looked at me like I was clinically insane, which I probably was. "I'm sorry?" she asked. I took a deep breath. "Would you like to hang out with me on Saturday?" I repeated clearly. I was acting like such a fool. "Maybe at the mall or something?"

She appeared to consider it for a few minutes. "Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to," I quickly added.

"Actually, Jamie…" she began.

Normal POV

"What is he doing?" Bobby demanded, trying to peer around the crowd of people blocking his way. Ray, who had a perfect view of the interaction between Jamie and Anna had his spoon in midair, unaware that soup was dripping off his spoon. "He looks as nervous as anything," he reported, shaking his head. "Ah, here he comes."

Jamie, looking dazed, sank down into his seat. "She said, she'll think about it," he mumbled, flushing a bright red. Roberto patted him on the back sympathetically on the back. "At least she's letting you down softly," he consoled Jamie. Jamie looked up at him. "She said she'll think about it, and she hasn't shot me down yet," he retorted.

"Listen Jamie, when chicks say they'll think about it, they usually mean no," Bobby said firmly, taking a bite out of his meatloaf. "OK, welcome to Girls 101."

Jamie put his head in his hands. I'm doomed.

Anna's POV

I watched Jamie as he sat down with his group of his friends. I squinted to make them out, but couldn't actually tell who they were from here. Tapping my chin, I gave his offer a serious thought. I hadn't been out with anyone to the mall before, having stayed home and studied like a good little girl.

And I hadn't made any new friends since my arrival here. Dad had made sure of that, but now that he was in jail…

I nodded, making my decision as the bell rang. Everyone grabbed their trays and headed for the doors, chattering non-stop about fashion, guys and girls. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kitty, Rogue and Jean head towards my direction. I dumped my tray and quickly slid out of sight. I didn't know why, but my instincts were telling me to stay far away from them. My head pounded a bit but disappeared as quickly as it came.

Darn, I lost sight of him, I thought, scanning the student body as they passed. I glanced at my schedule and sighed when I saw I had biology next. Suddenly, a thought struck me like lightning. Jamie took biology along with me!

Excellent.

Jamie's POV

I fought back a yawn as Professor Zachary droned on and on about atoms and molecules. This was almost as boring as Scott when he started talking about school. I almost preferred DR sessions to bio lessons, but it was only almost.

Suddenly, a note landed in my lap. I looked at it, surprised and looked at my right. Lana Delman pointed at the girl at the back, who in turned pointed at the girl next to her.

Anna? I didn't know she was in this class!

Hesitantly, I opened the note. In small, neat handwriting were the words Jamie, Saturday will be fine. 1.00 p.m. ok?

I grinned to myself. Bobby was so going to kill himself over this. I scrawled a quick OK, and handed the note back to the course where it came from.