As Mallory reached the classroom door, she breathed a sigh of relief as she noticed that she was first in. She took a chair at the back and took out her laptop, making sure her eyes remained on the black screen as she opened it up whilst the sound of footsteps began to echo throughout the room. As the laptop screen turned on, she felt someone brush against her as they sat as in the chair next to her.

"…Hi again-"
Mallory's eyes flicked up to notice the familiar purple haired girl from a few weeks ago, smiling expectantly at her as she waited for a response.
"…You barged into me in the Library remember? Anyway, I'm Blink"
"Blink…" Mallory repeated, raising her eyebrows as she attempted to hide her amusement. A facial expression that Blink recognised instantly from Logan.
'How interesting' Blink thought, before placing her bag down beside her. "What brings you to Physics?"

Initially, Mallory shrugged in response, as she felt that her honest answer of being desperate to learn was damaging to her purposeful reputation. "Xavier's placed me in a few…thought it would be of some help"
"Awesome, well Physics is his usual class…although he has pulled out of this one" Blink replied, as Storm breezed in with a warming smile. "Listen, I'm sorry about being so blunt the other day about you being new, word travels fast around the classrooms here…especially with the younger ones."
As Blink subtly nodded towards someone, Mallory followed the line of sight and noticed a group of males and a girl with slicked back black hair and a black mark across one eye, all turning round to look at Mallory and glaring at her.
"Afternoon class, welcome back and I hope you had a good break…I know it's going to be difficult to get back into the run of things but I've been told by the Professor that you're all his top students-" Storm began, stopping her sentence as a pair of boys cheered on her compliment.

Eventually they were set to work and Mallory completed it in silence, enjoying having the opportunity to occupy her mind with something entirely new. She could hear Storm and some students in the class talking, but she tuned it out as she continued, until she felt Blink nudge her in her side. Mallory spun her head angrily towards her when she noticed that the class was staring at her.

"See Miss, told you she'd have no idea" laughed the girl in the group she was aware of beforehand.
"Callisto, stop." Storm snapped, before looking to Mallory and smiling reassuringly. "Mallory, what are Quantum Dots?"
Mallory began to frown as she knew she had no idea what the answer was, she looked down at all the notes she had written in the hope of something jumping out, but nothing. "Come on, didn't you learn anything in the crazy asylum?" laughed the male sat next to Callisto, as the group sniggered once again.
Mallory gritted her teeth and clenched her fists against the table in anger.
"Don't listen to them, they're complete assholes" mumbled Blink, seeing how Mallory was reacting.
"John!" shouted Storm.

In the corner of her eye, Mallory noticed a small box pop up on her laptop screen that read: "Quantum Dots: Artificial systems where all the electrons are confined into three special directions."
Before she was able to begin questioning the source of the help, she repeated it out loud the class, before glaring at Callisto, her chest burning with hatred. Mallory knew that if she were anywhere else, she would be able to destroy her in an instant, but the unfamiliar confinements she was suddenly within, caused Mallory to feel helpless. "Correct, well done Mallory…perfect answer" grinned Storm, relieved that Mallory had gotten it right, although by the sly grin on Peter's face who was sitting in the other corner of the room – she realised that she had gotten some help.
"Alright Miss calm down" sneered John.
"Yeah no need to tiptoe around the psycho…" laughed another male.
That one comment caused something to snap inside Mallory's mind as she grabbed the table she was sitting at and pushed it sideways across the room and attempted to go for them, but she felt a sudden blast of wind rush past her and instantly Peter had placed an arm across her, holding her back. Along with Blink who had placed a hand on her shoulder, she could feel how strong they were and felt shocked that people had actually come to her aid.
"What the fuck is your problem?!" snarled Mallory.
"We're all over the news right now because you're here, we're not safe anymore because of your little killing episode" growled Callisto.
"I didn't ask to come here, I don't have to deal with your shit!" Mallory snapped back.
"We were safe before you…and now the school's little team are protecting you because your daddy helps run the place!" shouted John.

Suddenly, Mallory felt the anger dissipate into confusion, halting the struggle against Peter and Blink.
"My what?" Mallory asked, her voice quietening.
"Uh oh, spoiler alert!" another student called out in the silence.

A rush of emotions began to run through her mind, everything about her past that she was so able to force back into her subconscious was slowly bleeding their way back in. She felt her mouth go dry and her stomach tense up in pain from the knotted feeling she had, as she looked at the two people who stood beside as they looked to each other in shock. Mallory then looked up to Storm in a last ditched hope that she could at least say something, but Storm closed her eyes and exhaled guiltily.

"He's here?" Mallory croaked, still watching Storm as she could feel herself mentally pleading for her to say that it was a joke, but instead Storm looked up at her with her mouth open, struggling in her own mind of whether to admit it or not.
"Mallory-" Storm began, but Mallory had seen enough. She snatched her bag off the floor and ran as fast as she could to Charles' office. Her heart hammering against her aching chest and her stomach twisted up in knots as her mind was echoing with all the emotions she had hidden for so long. She was furious that she had been so close to him for all this time, and that he possibly knew that she was also there, but she was also terrified of who he now was, and his reaction to her.

Before she realised it, she was outside Charles' office, and as she reached towards the handle – the door flew open.

He stared back at her in shock.

He looked the same as the day he left.

"You..."

In this chapter, I wanted to address how Mallory would face against other mutants of her age and how different she was compared to them because of her upbringing. Mallory has shown a secret desire to better herself, but clearly she has other smaller issues on her hands when she realises that most of the students disagree with her right to be a part of the school.
Through that, she discovers that Logan is within the confines of the School, and the man she only remembers in her dreams has finally become her reality.

Please rate and review my work, it all helps me!

MH x