This is my first Xmen fic and I know, I hate mary sue's but this story was born from a day dream that I've been having and I needed to write down. Yea Pyro is my favorite character, which you will tell after you read this. Please be gentle on reviews lol.

Nikki sat on the starting block with her legs draped over the side above the water of the Olympic size pool, listening to System of a Down on her iRiver MP3 and breathing in the thick chlorinated air. She was and average teenage girl. She had shoulder length hair that was reddish brown and greenish/grayish eyes that were sometimes mixed in with blue. She was short, only 5'3'' and average weight. She was wearing a thick black and red hoody with jeans and her trademark vans sneakers. She stared deeply into the water remembering why she hated this place so much.

Flashback

She used to be on the swim team with her friends. Nikki wasn't horrible at swimming and she wasn't the best either but she just enjoyed the time with her friends. She was so close to making varsity too, that is until they found out. Rhode Island's mutant population was close to none. The mutants who did reside here had concealed their identities so well that normal people had nearly forgotten about the existence of mutants. However, after the attack on the President, everyone was against the freaks. That horrible day, when not only did her peers discover she was one of them but she did too.

She and her rebellious friend, Helen, were on the verge of a fight. The air between them had become tense and she feared Helen would shout at her or throw a punch. She couldn't remember why they had even had the fight anyway, probably because she refused to skip with her again. Helen was odd like that, and insulted her whenever she refused. Helen couldn't take it anymore and threw a fist aimed at her head. Nikki ducked just in time and the fist slammed into the locker. Helen's punches continued to miss, probably because she was high and couldn't see straight.

But when Helen's eyes caught the sight of one of Nikki's younger sisters, a vicious smirk planted itself on her face. As she slammed the poor girl into the brick wall, Nikki's heart pounded with rage. She couldn't punch Helen in fear that she would hit her sister instead. She unscrewed the cap of her water bottle and jolted it in Helen's direction. The water splashed against her head and Nikki almost saw it in slow motion and the water looked like a wave hitting a thick mass of black hair. Helen turned and that gave Nikki's sister time to run around the corner and get one of the teacher's to help. Helen threw fists and Nikki blocked all but one devastating blow to the side of her head and was on the ground with a fierce looking Helen towering over her. Nikki felt cornered and for some reason she looked at the puddle of water. Instinctively she held her hand out towards it and made a motion in Helen's direction. The water had formed into a whip and whipped Helen's back. The girl fell to her knees and Nikki stared in shock. The water dropped and splashed back to the ground. The group of students and teachers who were watching stood with the jaws dropped.

"She's a mutant freak, one of them!" Helen shouted.

Tears began to form around her eyes as they all glared at her. She picked up her bag and ran out the door to the parking lot. She found her car and drove away from the horrid place only to return the next day and pray to God that it was a nightmare.

After that she was kicked off the swim team, accused of cheating the whole time with her powers. She was watched like a prisoner who escaped jail by everyone. It seemed that everyone knew. No one sat with her in the cafeteria or teamed up with her in gym. No one wanted to have anything to do with her. And neither did her family. She had to pack up and live out of her car. She managed to keep her job because somehow her boss didn't know. She spent some of her time at the public pool to think and practice her new found ability. But the fear of dealing with her peers at high school for another of year brought tears to her eyes.

End Flashback

She wiped her eyes and concentrated on the water. The water formed into the shaped of a beautiful ice skater and skated around the surface of the pool. The scene seemed to calm her nerves until she heard footsteps. The Ice Skater fell and disappeared into the pool. Nikki's head whipped over her shoulder to see the intruder.

"Time to go, I'm locking up." Said the owner of the pool, He didn't mind having her just sit there. Hell, he was making money off it.

Nikki nodded, stepping off the starting block. She picked up her bag and walked out the doors into the chilling winter breeze. She drove behind the building in her hiding spot where she slept after pool days. She curled in the back seat with her body pillow and thick blankets. She never left the heat on so the battery wouldn't die.

It was around 2:30 in the morning when she woke to someone tapping her window. Annoyance filled her when she struggled to ignore it, but the person refused to stop. She thought it was a police officer that spotted her and was going to tell her to return home. But when she looked up she saw a gruff looking man with his arms crossed in annoyance. He had dark brown hair shaped in a hair style that reminded her of a gruffer Ace Ventura. He had side burns the led stopped around his chin and followed with 5 o'clock shadow. He was attractive in a rough "pin your arms down and do you" kind of way. She opened the window a just enough she talk through but also so he wouldn't be able to get in.

"What?" she said a little harsher then she wanted. He smirked and stepped out of the way. A man in a wheelchair came into view. He was completely bald and held almost a fatherly aura around him. She couldn't help but open the door and step out of her dodge viper. Her jaw dropped when she saw a sleek black jet beyond them. She also saw some face peering out of the window that looked around her age.

"I'm Professor Xavier," He said smiling, "This is Logan," he motioned to the gruff man who woke her up, "And…are you Nicole?" She nodded. She wasn't sure of why they woke her up in the middle of the fu….. night… just to introduce themselves. "Well, we introduced ourselves to go over a proposition." She stared blankly at him, she was shocked and almost thought that she had thought out loud. "No you didn't think out loud, your not the only one who is unique." The Professor said, only his mouth didn't move.

"What exactly is your proposition?"

"I own a school in New York for The Gifted Youth, such as yourself. I wanted to know if you would care to join us. You won't be expected to make your decision right now, but we would appreciate it if you considered coming with us just to observe and help you reach a decision." Nikki paused to think about her choices. Even if her friends didn't exactly talk to her, there still were some that accepted her.

"C'mon, what do you got to lose" said Logan, motion to her makeshift home.

"I'll go, but what about my car?" She wasn't going to leave her pride and joy here in this unforgiving place all alone.

"Logan can drive it up to the school." Oh yea, she could picture it. Her car more air time then a BMX bike.

"No thanks, I would rather drive it up there" She said, placing a hand protectively on the car. "Do you have a map or something so I can get there?"

Suddenly, the ramp of the jet lowered and a blond haired boy about her age nearly jumped off before the ramp was a foot from the ground. He had a charming smile and ice blue eyes that probably made every girl swoon. A girl with brown hair and two streaks of white hair that framed her face followed him and looped her arm around his. A second boy came off the ramp after her. He had dark brown hair that was slicked back, save a few strands. He had dark, brooding, eyes that captured hers and held them. She almost lost herself the dark pools until the girl spoke up.

"We can take her!" she said excitedly. By the look on Logan's face, it appeared the three were stow-aways. The professor looked over to Nikki.

"It's your choice." She looked back at the dark eyed boy again for a second and looked back at the professor.

"Sure, I don't mind."

"Excellent, we will see you kids back at the mansion then." He turned and left into the jet, followed by Logan.

"Mansion?" Nikki asked the trio.

"Yep," said the blond, "Oh… I'm Bobby Drake" He held his hand out and Nikki took it in a handshake.

"What are your powers?" She asked. He took his hand away to reveal a ball of ice. The girl turned to her.

"My name's Rogue, and if I touch you…well its bad." Nikki was confused trying to think of how touching could be harmful. After a moment she dismissed the thought and turned to the last of the three. He looked up at her continuing to play with the lighter.

"My name is John." He held his palm out and the flame from the lighter flew into his hand. Nikki stared into the flame and couldn't help but show off her power too. The puddle beneath her formed a bubble around the flame and extinguished it. Rogue laughed and Bobby smiled.

"My name is..."

"We know your name" Rogue interrupted.

"Yea thanks to her. We heard about a new student and she couldn't help but go snooping through the professor's files" John said abruptly. "Anyway I'm driving."

"No you're not." Nikki said, placing a hand on the driver's door protectively.

"Yes I am, you don't have a clue where the school is and I do, so suck it up and give me the keys." She scowled and reached into the car in defeat. Before giving him the keys, she cleared the back seat and put everything in the trunk.

"Fine but I call shot gun."

Rogue and Bobby smirked. They almost knew that these two would be very competitive with each other for a long time.

4 Hours later

Rogue groaned as she watched the 500th Massachusetts license plate drive by. "I think we're lost…" She said, giving the back of John's seat a good kick.

"We are not lost" he snapped back. He looked in the rear view mirror and caught the Bobby's gaze. The ice blue eyes motioned over to the newest companion. Nikki was curled up in the seat, leaning against the door with an arm propped against the window and being used as a make-shift pillow. John smiled and wished he could be so relaxed. Truth was he had no clue where he was, besides the fact he knew they were in Massachusetts.

"John! Eyes on the road!" Rogue screamed. He turned back and swerved right, out of the way of the oncoming truck. Nikki's curled form slid and fell into John. The sight was very risky and a few drivers glanced over and smirked or scowled. Rogue and Bobby just sat in the back seat laughing there heads off. Nikki's head had landed right on John's groin, earning a moan of pain from John. She woke up instantly and jumped up, blushing ten shades of red.

After Bobby calmed down he reached over and turned the radio on to fill in the silent void. Nikki opened the window to try and compose herself. Rogue called the Professor and then sighed after hanging up the phone.

"The Professor says he tracked us and booked us 2 rooms in a local hotel. He also scanned a map to our rooms so we'll be able to continue in the morning."

"It is morning." Nikki said.

"Well I guess he meant tomorrow morning" She winked. The group smirked and John sped off.

"Slow down we don't want to get pulled over!" Rogue shouted. "Besides you don't know where it is. Pull over and let someone else drive."

"Fine, Nikki, would you like to drive." Nikki shook her head. She was way too tired for driving.

"We're in Mass right?" Bobby asked. John nodded. "Well, we should have cut through Connecticut. Where exactly in Massachusetts are we?" John shrugged. He peered out the window at a sign that read Lowell.

"Lowell!" She groaned, "Its going to take us hours to get to New York now... Hey there's the hotel." Rogue wanted to jump out of the car and run so she could get the feeling back in her body. She glanced at Bobby who looked as though he shared her thoughts. Nikki was dosing off again, but it was amusing watching her fight the war with her heavy eye lids. "Bobby you want to go check out the rooms with me?" He nodded before she could finish the sentence. "How bout you?" she turned to Nikki. She held in her giggle when she saw her new friends sleeping hugging the sweat shirt she took off a while ago. "I guess she's staying with you to park the car, John."

John rolled his eyes and Bobby and Rogue ran off into the hotel to check in. He scowled as he watched his best friends fingers wrap around Rogue's gloved ones. Bobby had been ditching him a lot for Rogue and it was pissing him off. Although he smiled at the thought that he had a new companion to hang around with whenever Bobby decided to run off and play footsies with his girlfriend.

He parked the car and glanced over at the sleeping girl. He thought about just leaving her there to sleep but turned that down. All he could picture was a sad girl waking up to no one there, feeling abandoned. However, he didn't want to wake her up because it looked like she was having a good dream, with that smile on her face. So, he picked her up bridal style and carried her into the hotel. Many of the female guests smiled and "awed" at them. Going up to the empty front desk, he looked around for a clerk. He contemplated on how he was going to ring the bell. He balanced Nikki's leg with his arm as he extended it to reach the bell, but before he reached it someone came out of the back room. He scowled but asked anyway where the room was.

"Room 821." Stated the female clerk in a matter-of-factly tone. She noticed the girl in his arms. "You two honeymooners? I can move you to the suit if you want." He was about to decline when he heard his name being shouted down the hall.

"John! Rogue and I are sharing a room. We'll meet you later" Bobby said as he was running by. He and Rogue were playing hallway tag and he was it. John smirked evilly and nodded to the clerk. She smiled and handed his the key-card thing. He grabbed it between his teeth and carried Nikki to the room. When he got into the room he smiled at all the candles he could play with. He put Nikki on the bed and sat down next to her to watch some T.V. About a half hour later she woke up.

Nikki clenched her eyes tightly to hold the little sleep there was left. The sounds around her began to focus. She yawned and stretched cat like then opened her eyes. She smiled at the sight of John sleeping. It appeared that he fell asleep watching infomercials. She turned off the T.V. and left him a note saying she was in the shower.

When she walked into the bathroom she nearly fainted. She saw a heart shaped hot tub/ bath tub.

"What kind of professor is that guy to give a co-ed group of teenagers a couple of suits?" she thought out loud. Turning on the water, she walked around the suit and looked around. There was a balcony with a cushioned red bench with pink threading. She rolled her eyes and went back to take her bath. She turned on the funnels and reveled in the comfort. Her back needed this after sleeping in her the back of her car for so long. She sighed and sunk her head under the surface. After washing her hair and soaping down her body she began to play with her powers. She made a dragon emerge from the water in a silent roar, flying around the room and spewing fake fire. She returned the dragon to the water and couldn't help but think of John. She admitted that she was beginning to get a little crush on him. 'More like infatuation…' She thought. She formed the water into his head. The water form of John stared at her with the same brooding appearance. She leaned forward, biting her lip. She was trying to discover if she could figure out what was wrong with him just by staring at the mimicking head. She squeaked when there was a sudden knock on the door. Shaking off the shock she emptied the tub and wrapped the towel around her. She opened the door to a wide eyed visitor.