6

First Day Of School

Ororo had enlisted him in the local high school, Bayville High, and today was his first day. All of the other teens went there, and it sounded nice.

Mark was sat in his room, thinking about going downstairs, and then off to school. The lessons he was taking were Sociology, Ancient History, Philosophy and English. They were as close to the subjects he was doing at college before he left his home.

Finally with a last surge of will, Mark grabbed his new bag and hung it on his shoulders and left the room. He walked down the completely empty halls.

Surprisingly, the halls were deserted; there was no-one in the corridors, no-one in the downstairs rooms, no-one outside when Mark looked out of the windows. The entire Mansion was empty, was this usual?

Mark got to the top of the stairs and stopped. He looked down the halls on either side of him, and then he looked down to the main hall below him. Everything was eerily quiet, too quiet.

In the distance Mark began to hear a faint hissing sound, it was getting closer, and closer. The teen span on the spot just in time to see a stranger in a yellow one-piece with a tank on his back smile at him, before launching a gargantuan fireball at him.

Mark lifted the water out of the vases on either side of him and tried to spread it and make an ice shield, but it was to thin, and melted immediately. The blast knocked mark backwards and over the edge of the stairs. In quick response, Mark used the water to spin himself round in mid-flight, and then used it to slide down the stairs.

Once he was at the bottom of the stairs he ran, as fast as he could towards the door. There was an almighty crash at the door was ripped of its hinges by a morbidly obese man with an evil look in his eye's.

"I AM THE BLLLOOOOOOBBBBBBB!" he yelled.

Mark turned and ran towards the lift that would take him to the sub-basement. Waiting for him when he got there was Kitty. The frightened teen ran to her and then began to drag her towards the lift.

"Come on, we have to hide" he shouted.

Once they were in the lift, Mark heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Kitty. However, when he looked at there, it was not the girl he thought it was. Instead there was a blue woman. She hit him squarely in the chest, causing him to fall backwards and slide down to the floor. She pulled out a gun and pointed it at his head, she smiled, and then pulled the trigger.

Everything flashed with a blue light, and then there was nothing. Mark was sat on the floor in the middle of a big empty room. A voice rung out on the speakers overhead.

"Well done Mark, you got further this time, its time for school though, off you go." Said the voice of Storm.

Mark did as he was told. He left the danger room and headed for the showers. Soon after he was on his way to school, bag in hand. The route was fairly simple, and Mark had been told how to get there plenty of times over the past few days.

Halfway along the journey, Mark ran into Kurt and some other teens that Mark didn't recognise.

"Mark, I'm glad you're here, I thought I ought to wait for you." And he said goodbye to the teens he was with and then walked Mark to Bayville High.

The campus was much nicer than the college he went to in England. Not only that, but it was just what Mark had been expecting, it was so American. There were lockers that filled the hallways and classrooms that had single place desks.

The first class of the day was Ancient History, so Kurt dropped him off at the classroom it was in and then headed off for his own lesson.

Mark was already doing Classical Civilisation in England and because the American version was slightly different, he had to join a first year class. All of the stuff being covered was so easy compared to what Mark new, so the lesson was more of a revision session than anything else.

He already knew about Metopes and Stylobates, he knew about the Panethenaic festival and Solon's Laws. He stunned the teacher with his knowledge and the class just looked at him with as much loathing as Mark had for the syllabus.

Luckily Mark had not taken sociology, philosophy and English at AS level and he knew just as much as the others in his class.

"Remember class, the tickets for the Halloween Dance are still on sale so get them while you can." Said the teacher as the lesson drew to an end. Mark paid little attention and packed away his books and notes that he had taken.

Kurt was already outside waiting for Mark as he left the room. They both headed back to the Mansion together, talking of their days. About half way home, Kurt asked Mark a question.

"So then, are you going to the Halloween Dance?" he asked. Mark simply looked at him and laughed. "What? What's so funny."

"I'm sorry, I don't dance"

"Neither do I, but I was thinking that maybe we can not dance together."

Mark thought about it long and hard, and then he thought about going to the Dance with Kurt, finally he decided he would go, on the slight off chance that it might be fun.