A/N: Sorry this took so long to work on. It took me forever to get my drive to work on Marvel-related stuff back again. But when it finally came back, I couldn't just let this sit forever alone. So I got back to work on it, and just this morning, the muse for it hit me like a battering ram. So here, have chapter two!

Chapter 2: Anxiety Builds

Hannah darted upstairs to her room the second she got home, the events of the day still racing around in her head. First there was Ryan Nepal, acting incredibly weird and creepy, then the incident with that senior, Jean Grey. What was going on? She felt like the world around her was starting to go topsy-turvy, and it frightened her. Was it because of how her…quirks were starting to get out of control lately?

"Don't be stupid," she muttered to herself, "Ryan being weird and that senior wigging out doesn't have anything to do with that."

But even as she showered and switched into pajamas early, the thought wouldn't go away. In fact, the more she considered it, the more it seemed like a real possibility. What if Ryan was acting weird because he had noticed what she could do and was planning on blackmailing her with it? What if that senior was the same way? Suppose she had also seen what Hannah could do and had approached her because she was also…also…

"Mutants." Hannah whispered under her breath, squeezing her fists against her chest, unable to stare her reflection in the mirror in its hazel-green eyes. "There. I said it."

Shivering and shaking, she forced herself to look up, to stare at the image of a trembling, honey-blonde sophomore in lavender flannel pajamas. It was her deepest, darkest secret, and she was ashamed with herself for being unable to admit it. True, anti-mutant campaigning was running rampant everywhere lately, and she was afraid of what would happen if anyone found out. But she hadn't even told her family; not her brother, who was stationed overseas in the Middle East, and not her parents, who had cared for and loved her all her life. What kind of daughter was she?

"I'm nervous," she whispered to her reflection, "What if they don't accept me any more when they find out? Then what's going to happen? What if they disown me and kick me out?"

She let out a tiny moan and sat down, burying her face in her hands. Being a teenage girl in tenth grade was confusing enough. Being a mutant in hiding, even from her own family, it was complete bedlam for her. She had no idea where to go or who to turn to. It wasn't like there was some elective course called "Welcome to Mutant Life 101." There was always the option of other mutants attending the school. She could try to seek them out, ask for advice, but she'd heard both good and bad things, and not nearly enough to work out the details about which of her peers were safe and which weren't. Once again, her mind went to Jean Grey.

Was Jean a mutant? It was an intimidating possibility, yet there was something about her that struck Hannah as trustworthy. Perhaps she could tell Jean. But then, what if she wasn't a mutant, and exposed Hannah if she said anything? There were simply too many possibilities to consider at this point.

"Hannah, sweetie?" Her mother called, knocking on the bedroom door. "Are you alright?"

She wanted more than anything to tell her mom the truth. She wanted to say she wasn't alright, that she wasn't even human, and she didn't know what to do or who to turn to. But the words wouldn't come, and instead, she fell back on the only response she could think of.

"I'm fine," she lied, the dishonesty twisting her stomach into a guilty knot, "Just a little tired."

"Alright, sweetie. We're having supper in half an hour. Are you lying down?"

"I was planning on it."

"Well, if you sleep through supper, you're free to make yourself a small meal whenever you wake up, okay? I love you."

"I love you too, Mom." She called back, trying to blink away tears. Those words were going to rip her heart to pieces one day. If she told her parents she was a mutant, would she ever hear them say that to her again? Would she ever hear anybody say that to her again?

"So wait, wait," Rogue said as she slammed her locker door shut, "Explain this to me again?"

"Yeah, Jean," Kitty added in a kinder tone, "Just like, a refresher? You were kind of babbling earlier."

"No surprise," Rogue whispered, "Scott was in the car."

Jean tensed slightly at the underhand remark, but bit her tongue before she retorted without thinking. Right now, her focus had to be on getting all the girls to cooperate with her, to better find a way to approach Hannah Black. She drew in a deep breath and relaxed, turning to address Kitty.

"Sorry about that," she sighed, "I ran into somebody yesterday, and I'm definitely sure she's a mutant."

She said this last word softly, so as to avoid any scrutiny from the other students passing by. A sharp breeze blew through the hall, kicking up her long red hair before dying back down.

"Brrr!" One of the newer recruits with them, Katy, said. "Feels like somebody left a window open!"

"Y-you said it!" Kitty agreed with a shiver. "S-sorry, Jean. You said you think she's…one of us?"

"Not yet, she's not one of us." Chase, one of the other mutant girls to have joined the Institute a while back, threw in.

"But she is a mutant," Jean whispered, "I'm sure of that. I get the feeling she already has decent control over her powers, but she's very scared. I don't think she's told anyone about this. She's very nervous around boys, which is why Professor Xavier wants us to be the ones to approach her."

"We should probably get the rest of the girls involved then, too." Chase remarked. "Jubilee, Tiras, Amara, Tabby…"

"We will," Jean reassured her, "I'm telling you so you can all pass it on to them during class. This girl's name is Hannah Black. She's a sophomore on the school dance team, with really long honey-blonde hair."

"Dance team?" Katy echoed, and Jean somehow just knew her goat tail was twitching with excitement. "Long honey-blonde hair? I think I've seen her before."

"Great!" Jean said, smiling with relief. "All the better for us, then! So you all know what to do?"

"Yeah," Chase said with a wry snicker as another sharp breeze blasted through the hall, "We make sure Rogue doesn't scare her off."

"Oh, ha-ha," Rogue snapped, breaking away from them to head to class, "Very funny."

Hannah thanked her lucky stars she hadn't been late for school that morning, worried that she had overslept. Still, as her classes continued to progress, she kept cutting it close, just barely arriving a minute or so before each bell. The anxiety just kept building inside her, and she determined that yesterday had really thrown her off-kilter. What was worse, she kept spotting Jean Grey in the halls. At first it just seemed like a freaky coincidence, but by lunchtime, she was beginning to feel like the senior was actually following her around.

This is definitely getting a little freaky, she thought, moving through the lunch line and hoping that Jean didn't magically pop up next to her and ask where she was sitting. If that happened, Hannah would probably have to bolt for the doors.

She managed to make it through the lunch line and find an empty table in a far corner of the cafeteria without incident. As she settled into her seat, a glance around the cafeteria showed no signs of Ryan or even Duncan around. She let out a small, ragged sigh of relief. Perhaps she could finally get through a lunch break without feeling like she needed to go hide in the janitor's closet or girls' restroom. But no sooner had the thought passed though her mind than she spotted something else that immediately set her nerves on edge.

Jean Grey was sitting three tables away and caught her eye, offering a beaming smile. Several other girls were sitting with her, girls Hannah could have sworn she saw in class or in the halls. Jean looked away from her and began talking to the girls. A few of them glanced up from their table and peered around at her, like they were trying to get a look at an animal in a cage. They looked away after a moment or so, but that was when things started to get really freaky.

[We know what you are, Hannah.] A voice went through her thoughts that wasn't her own. It sounded older, commanding and accusing…and it sounded like Jean. She looked up, startled, but the senior girl wasn't anywhere near her. She was still sitting at the table with the other girls, and she wasn't even looking in the right direction. But the voice spoke to her again.

[You're one of us,] the voice said, its tone becoming gentler, [we want to help you.]

Hannah shook her head, trying to dislodge the alien thoughts, rubbing one of her temples and looking at the table full of girls again. None of them looked back at her, but they had all gone rather quiet, like they were waiting for something to happen. Jean glanced up again, catching Hannah's eye and giving her a gentle, pitying look.

[We want to be your friends.]

The hair on the back of her neck began to rise. What was happening—if it was happening and she wasn't just imagining it all—was impossible! There was no way it could actually happen! Unless… She opened her mouth, though she wasn't sure what to say. What could she say, without looking like a total idiot in front of the whole cafeteria?

"Hey, Black!"

She tensed, and all thoughts of anything super-human or mutant or extraordinary fled her mind.

"Hello, Ryan." She answered in the deadest voice she could manage.

"Saw you over here making faces," he sniggered, "Your brain hurt or something?"

"You could say that." She mumbled, avoiding looking over at the table of girls.

"Where'd you go after dance practice yesterday, Black?"

She couldn't help but remember the look he had given her from outside the practice room. Instinct told her to bolt, but she bit down on it and forced herself to remain calm as she tried to think of a response. She didn't want to know what he would do if she tried to run away.

"Home." She finally muttered.

"Whatcha so scared of, blondie?" He asked, sneering. She raised her eyes in shock to look at him, and her shock only increased. She hadn't noticed it before, but Ryan was starting to look furry. At the start of the school year, she doubted his arms were that hairy, or that he had sideburns to begin with. And his brunette hair was getting longer and shaggier, with flecks of white and grey showing up starkly against his natural dark coloring. But worse still, his smile frightened her the most. His teeth were too even and white, and his canines looked too long and prominent.

"Nothing." She whispered, quickly looking away.

"Liar." Ryan hissed in her ear. She said nothing; her heart was pounding so loudly in fear, she could barely hear her own thoughts. He let out a mocking chuckle and stalked off, probably to find Duncan. Hannah didn't care. Her appetite was gone and she couldn't handle another second of this.

Scrambling out of the chair, she snatched her book bag and ran from the cafeteria, fighting back the urge to cry in her fear.

Pietro Maximoff was intrigued.

You couldn't normally say that about him, as he grew bored of things quickly, but he had overheard—and rather on purpose, though he would never admit to that—some of the geek squad girls from the we're-a-bunch-of-hippie-mutants institute babbling that morning. They were talking about some other girl, someone they thought was a new mutant, and how to approach her.

Pietro took away two things from his eavesdropping.

First, this girl wasn't already part of their fancy little goody-goody geek brigade, which meant she was up for recruiting grabs if the Brotherhood got to her first.

Second, the facts: Hannah Black; sophomore; honey-blonde; member of the dance team.

And with that, he'd sped off, his mind racing to come up with a plan of attack. Those girls were going to try their welcoming little stupid approach of oh-we're-all-so-sweet-and-we-wanna-be-friends. Dumb, dumb, dumb, and dumb. If he knew anything, that little tactic meant they were going to take their dear, sweet time of things. And that meant he had to just beat them to this girl. All he had to do was find her, and he could do that by keeping an eye on any of those idiots, to see who they had their eyes on.

The Brotherhood needed a new recruit. For starters, it would help them get back into Magneto's good graces, and after their hydrokinetic, Arial, had defected back to the X-Men, Magneto's good graces was something Pietro needed. Furthermore, the boarding house could use another girl around. Wanda was a walking time-bomb on a good day, and maybe having another girl around for her to be all B-F-F-y with meant she wouldn't be so inclined to rage at the rest of them.

It wasn't until lunch that he got his first glimpse of the girl.

He was sitting down with the rest of his housemates—he hated to think of them like that, but what could you do?—when he noticed the group of institute geek girls were all seated at a table together. Trust girls to travel in packs. He saw no new faces among them, but then the redhead super-nerd-model-student started looking toward a table in the back corner of the cafeteria. Pietro followed her gaze and bingo! A scared-looking blonde girl was sitting back that way, looking like she wanted to turn invisible.

"Hey! Yo, man!" Todd snapped, trying to get his attention. "What you lookin' at?"

"None of your business, wart-face." He answered in a bored tone, shoving Todd in the face to push him away, pretending to take an interest in his lunch. But he kept his eye on the girls all the same when the others weren't looking.

Hannah kept glancing over at the table of girls, and at one point, she shook her head. Pietro scowled. Trust that Jean girl to cheat and use telepathy. He hoped that Hannah wasn't about to get up and go talk to them, when some jock guy in need of a haircut like crazy came over to Hannah's table and started talking to her. The conversation didn't last long, but whatever he said must have scared the crap out of her, because the second he walked away, she bolted from the cafeteria.

"Guys, hold my stuff a second, I've gotta do something!" He said, so quickly he as sure none of them understood a word of it, and he ran from the table before they had time to finish registering that he had spoken. He moved just fast enough he couldn't really be seen, but avoided going at top speed. Much as he would have loved to tear the place up and trash it to kingdom come, Magneto would doubtless lecture him for it.

Hannah ran through the halls to the girls' restroom, and that was where he skidded to a halt. Pietro had little regard for rules, but there were a few places he refused to venture into for the sake of his own health. He knew better; Wanda had seen to that. Still, he lingered outside for a few minutes, trying to listen. Yeah, he was definitely sure she was crying in there, and he didn't have the slightest clue how he was going to try talking to some scared, weepy girl.

As he tried to figure out how he was supposed to handle it, he heard mocking laughter drift out from the cafeteria doors. He bolted, zipping out of sight behind some lockers as the large, brunette linebacker came down the hall, laughing and talking with some of his idiot friends. They drew near the girls' restroom, and Pietro risked moving just a little closer to eavesdrop.

"Hey! You in there, Black?" The linebacker yelled.

Instantly, all fell silent. The crying stopped. A few of the other jock idiots laughed stupidly, and the brunette slammed a fist against the doorway of the restroom.

"Black! Hey, I'm talking to you, you little prude!" He almost bellowed. "Answer me!"

Silence.

The corner of Pietro's mouth turned down just a little. Something about all this was starting to bother him a bit. He mocked the X-girls quite a bit, but they were a group unit who just ignored most of what he said, and he reserved the worst of his bullying skills to use on other guys anyway. Guys could take it better on their own, most of the time. And he didn't hit girls unless they hit him first—a rule Wanda had enforced—and that in itself was rare. He expected the meatheads on the football team to be nasty, but this was something else. This guy just seemed aggressive for no reason, and the way he'd swung that fist was an indication he thought nothing of it. He could seriously hurt somebody like Hannah, and he probably wanted to, on top of it.

That was it!

Pietro nearly smacked himself in the forehead. That could be his way to talk to her, and that was how he could convince her to join. The Brotherhood would offer her protection from that idiot linebacker if she joined, which he doubted the X-geeks could promise, since goody-goody Jean was dating Duncan Matthew.

Finally, the guy gave an angry snort and stomped off, his troop of fellow meatheads close behind. Pietro raised an eyebrow, making a mental note to keep an eye out for that jock. He stayed behind a little while longer, but Hannah showed no sign of leaving the girls' bathroom, not that he was too surprised. Girls were clever that way. Instead, he ran back to the cafeteria to wolf down the rest of his lunch before the bell rang.

"Yo, man, where'd you go?" Todd asked the second he was back in his seat.

"Warn us before you do that, Maximoff!" Lance snapped as he crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair and brooding like he was some long-haired James Dean.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He waved it off, shoveling the rest of his food in his mouth. All he had to do now was find Hannah after school. Or sooner, if he could manage it.

As luck would have it, sooner was the answer.

He was heading out from lunch, considering skipping his next class for the heck of it, when he caught sight of Hannah slipping away from the girls' restroom, her backpack in tow. Without waiting to see what the other guys were doing, Pietro moved, following her. She snuck away to a different hall altogether that was empty, where she opened a locker and started to slip several books and other small things into her backpack.

"How hard could it be?" He muttered to himself. He slowed down, walking over to her, and spoke loudly to catch her attention.

"Hey, you!"

She spun about and froze, hand on her locker door, staring at him.

"Hannah Black, right?" he asked, pointing at her. Her hazel eyes went huge and she turned and ran, heading for the nearest exit.

"Oh, sweet! Looks like I'm skipping class after all!" he said with a grin, running after her. He loved it when people ran. They never knew what hit them afterward.

"Hey!" he called as he followed her outside, but to his shock, he couldn't see her anywhere. He paused, confused. No way could she have slipped him that fast. He walked down the steps, cupping a hand around his mouth and calling her name.

"Hannah! Yo, Hannah!"

The hedges to his right suddenly rustled, and he glanced at them, unsure. Then he began to laugh. Of course! Where else was she going to be able to hide in plain sight? He moved closer, trying to push some of the hedges apart.

"You picked one lame hiding spot, you know that?" He asked.

What happened next, Pietro wasn't entirely sure.

"WHOAAAAAUGH!"

The hedges sucked in his arms like quicksand, and he went tumbling head-over-heels into the shrubbery. He was flipped upside-down several times by the hedge, before he was suspended in the middle of the bush, which began to part and form a small clearing in its center, just big enough for one person.

Hannah Black stared at him suspiciously, a wild, terrified look in her eyes as she held her hands open, her fingertips stretching out to touch the bushes.

"What do you want with me?"