"Callie, right?" A girl asked, walking in to the kitchen where Callie was leaning on the counter with an apple. The girl had black hair with a blonde streak through it and an almost gothic look about her.

"Depends on who wants to know," She replied, taking a bite out of the apple and smiling.

"The name Rogue, well Marie but I tend to only get called Rogue," The girl replied, offering a gloved hand to shake.

"Mimic," Callie replied, shaking Rogue's hand, "and yeah, I am Callie," she added just as a small brown haired rocket ran in to the kitchen, almost barrelling Callie over.

"Jean says I'm a mutant, she got the result from the blood test!" Jessie shouted, her arms around her sister's waist.

"That's great Jess! Not long and you'll be as freaky as the rest of us," Callie replied, ruffling Jessie's hair and genuinely grinning for the first time in a while.

"You want to be a mutant?" Rogue asked, looking at Jessie as if she were mad.

"I want to be like my sister," Jess replied, smiling at Rogue.

"But what if you couldn't touch anyone?" She replied, curiosity etched on her face.

"Then that's how it is," Jess said simply.

"Hey Jess, why don't you go and watch some TV, I'll be in in a little while," Callie said, hugging her sister before sending her out the room.

"I wish I could be like her, so carefree," Rogue said, watching Callie's little sister skip out of the room.

"I was never like that. I was around for her all the time so if she changed I'd be there. I never had that," Callie said giving Rogue a slight smile.

"What do you mean?" She asked, as Callie bit in to her apple again.

"I refused a place here because I wanted to be there for her. I went through hell fitting in and I've got a lesser mutation. I didn't want her to have that problem," Callie explained before biting in to her apple again.

"So she really looks up to you. It's nice for her to have someone. She's lucky," Rogue said simply, grabbing an apple as well.

"No one's lucky. It all depends on how you view your situation," Callie replied, smiling at Rogue before heading out after Jessie.

Callie lay in the middle of the grass later that day, staring at the sky having left Jessie with Storm. The two had seemed to become very friendly. It was either that or that Storm had taken pity on Callie always having her younger sibling around.

"No change in your attitude I see," A familiar voice said from nearby making Callie sit up and smile.

"No change in your butting in to my thinking time I see," She replied, turning to see Chris walking up to her.

"You think?" He asked, mocking shock as he hugged her.

"No I don't. I know," she replied, poking him before hugging him back.

"Hey kid! Who's the muggle?" Logan shouted, heading out of the mansion and over to the two of them.

"Oh Logan, this is Chris," Callie said, "Chris, this is Logan, don't aggravate him, he's a little touchy."

"I'm not touchy?" Logan replied.

"No, just bad tempered, short fused and annoying," She said, smiling as she looked back at him.

"Does he know?" Logan asked, nodding towards Chris who was watching the proceedings with an eyebrow raised.

"He knows more than most," Callie replied, letting out a snort of laughter at Chris's expression, "How did you even know I was here?"

"Your mum told me. Thought you might need a friend," He said, glad to no longer be involved in conversation with the Logan guy.

"Thought you'd come and try and protect me more like," She said, shoving Chris slightly before heading up to the mansion, a small smile on her face.

"You fight her?" Logan asked as he glanced from Callie to Chris.

"On occasion," He replied, nodding as he headed after Callie.

"And she won?" Logan asked, sort of surprised. Chris was, after all, about head and shoulders taller than the young girl.

"Most of the time," Chris said, nodding as he looked back at Logan.

The next day the students began to arrive. Callie, not being one for crowds, had found a shady spot away from the busy main entrance under one of the trees, a spot in which she was soon joined by Chris.

"I get what Jessie means about being the only human in a bunch of mutants. It's kind of strange," He said as he sat next to her on the grass.

"I know. It's how I felt being around normal humans. Everything's different here," she said, watching a little kid as they ran up to a friend and hugged them.

"So why didn't you go somewhere like this before?" He asked, leaning against the tree trunk.

"I could have, I turned them down for Jess," Callie replied, leaning on Chris as they watched the kids.