Chapter 6

Angelina took her basketball bag and left the room. All of the mutants looked at one another while Marie was touching photos on the desk of her and her mom, and others with her friends.

"I won't go back." She whispered. "I can't."

"Ro-Marie you can take Angelina with you." Jean said.

"And what? Leave our home and our friends. Angelina grew up here, she is the hero in this town and…." Marie wondered off. "You drove for a long time, stay for lunch."

"Where is the park?" asked Logan.

"Logan, no! I would not have her fat-I will not have you go over there and chase those boys away from her." Marie said looking at him.

"What makes you think I will do that?" asked Logan

"Because that's what my dad did." Marie said.

Logan looked at Marie quickly and blushed. Marie sighed and said that she would drive them there. Logan was walking fast but felt a hand touched his arm to slow him down. It was Marie's. Logan blushed as he looked away from her face.

"Angelina, you can do this! Come on!" yelled a male voice.

They all looked and found Angelina trying to block some basketballs with her hands. She was running right to left; while balls were being thrown at her. Until Angelina tripped as she landed onto her back. A boy about to be 18 years old pulled her back up. Then Logan fisted was tightening when she was surrounding by a couple of boys. But the odd thing, to Logan was that she was shaking their hands and messing their hair up.

"She has been friends with them since she was 8 years old." Marie whispered in his ear.

Then a couple of girls came and one girl said, "Come on, Angelina enough of that. Let's dance girl."

They were in a dance order; girls and boys one by one and Angelina in the front. Then the music was playing really loud, by Nas called, "Everybody wants to rule the world" (from "honey" the movie) and doing their moves also. Marie was surprised as the rest of the X-men of how they were dancing. Plus, she never knew that Angelina could dance like that. Since her daughter hasn't joined any dance classes or has she? Marie looked at Logan and noticed also that he was surprised but mad at the same time. "Dads." Marie scoffed. All of a sudden, a girl tripped and everyone was laughing at her except Angelina.

"That's not funny, you guys." Angelina said as she lifted her back up. "Just keep counting the steps and it doesn't matter if you mess up."

"Alright! Stop horsing around and let's dance kiddos." Angelina yelled.

While dancing, Angelina felt dizzy all of a sudden. She then felt her hands touched the cold ground.

"Angel, are you okay?" asked a friend.

"Yeah, just a little dizzy. You guys keep going while I get a drink." She answered.

As the music kept going, Angelina went to the drinking fountain. Angelina was drinking her cold water and noticed her parents watching her. She was about to leave until she spotted some people she recognized. "Oh no." she thought. A boy was wearing sagging pants, a jersey, and a hat and the other 2 behind were also boys but wearing hoods over their heads.

"I think I'm seeing an Angel." Said one of them.

"Come on, Darren stop your "flirting" and tell me why you're here?" Angelina asked.

"You owe me so money, girl." Darren answered almost yelling.

Angelina pulled his arm and his body away into a place more quieter, "I told you I'll give it to you tomorrow, not today. You promise me tomorrow."

"Oh yeah but why not today? And oh yeah, I got you a present for your b-day." He said as he pulled a gun out of his pocket at her head. "You got 4 hours."

He pushed her towards a tree as they walked away. Logan wanted to kill those punk people but Marie held on to him. Meanwhile, Angelina fell down to the ground, pouring tears out of her eyes. Then, some boys from her dance group came up to here asking her what's wrong. She told them that Darren threaten her by using a gun and after that, all of the guys from her group approach Darren and one of them punch him in the face.

"Angelina what's going on?" asked one of her friends.

"What is Derek doing?" yelled Angelina as she was running over there. "Stop it, Drew stop him!" Drew pulled Derek off of Darren before he could punch Darren in the face. As he got him off, Darren pulled his gun out and a gunshot was heard. Angelina saw the bullet in slow motion and ran over to the block the bullet. As she did, the bullet bounced off of her body. Everyone saw this and looked shocked at her. Angelina looked embarrassed at this.

"You're one of those…" Darren stammered.

"Mutants?" finished one of his gang members.

"FREAKS!" Darren yelled.

Angelina looked down at the ground ashamed and started crying, covering her face.

"That's it. I'm going to hit that boy, wishing that he was never born." Marie said walking to him.

"Marie, no!" Logan yelled as he lifted Marie back "Let her do this."

"Hey don't you ever call her that!" yelled a voice that distracted Marie and Logan.

It was Derek; he went over to her and put the crying Angel in his arms. He hushed her softly and gave the bad gang an anger look.

"Don't you ever call her that?" Derek yelled. "You little son-"

"Derek! Come on, man leave them. They can't fight us; you and the rest of us know this." Drew said pulling his arm away.

"You're right." Derek said. But before he turned around, he punched Darren in the face, "Don't you ever threaten my friends, and have it buddy?"

All of them walked away towards the basketball court, Angelina stopped crying and told Derek that they need to talk. So they both walked a little closer to where the X-men are but Derek doesn't know that.

Angelina pushed Derek backwards, "What the hell where you thinking?" she yelled.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Stop it with those puppy eyes, Derek. I'm not one of your girlfriends."

"But you were."

"Stay on topic!" she yelled, "I can do my own fights."

"Yeah that proves what happened back there. You were fighting by crying." Derek said.

"What a bunch of bull! Even when we were a couple, you were so overprotective of me." Angelina said not looking at them. The X-men could see her face being all mad.

"Angelina, I we have been friends since we were babies and remember when we were little? I would always protect you from bullies, even grown men, but you always looked up to me as a hero. And ever since that incident that happened to us, you have been a complete different person." Derek said.

Logan noticed that his daughter's expression was changing from her face; she was turning to mad to pity. And what incident was he talking about?

"Derek, you would always be my hero but I need to fight my own battles because what if I did need your help and you never came." Angelina said.

Derek sighed as he scratched the back of his head, "Angelina, whenever you need me, just whistle. I will come and protect you from anything."

"You promise?" Angelina asked looking down at the ground.

"I promise." Derek said in front her.

Angelina smiled and they hugged. Logan saw this and smiled because they reminded him of him and 17 year old Marie on the train when Logan made his promise to Marie. Logan looked down at Marie and she looked back up at Logan and smiled.