I know, I know. I'm a horrible, terrible, unkind person. Please don't hate me? *sad face* But really, I am sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I haven't even been on Fanfiction recently to be honest, not that that helps, I'm sure. I just… I don't know… But look! Here I am. And with a brand new chapter, yay! …Yeah, I can feel the glares from here, no worries.

This chapter is kinda angst-y and you'll have to bare with me for the next chapter too, 'cause I'm pretty sure that next chapter is where I finally reveal what happened with her mother. And, unfortunately, that requires angst, but Mouse should be back to her normal self soon, don't worry. *smiles*

Um, thanks to all the favorited/alerted (of which there were a surprisingly large amount). To the reviews: Guest, Jupplyr, HopelesslyInLove13, MusicAnimal, RiverOfTheWolf, ValkyrieNyght, We Will Be Victorious, .1656 (2 reviews! Woohoo!), Sam0728, LA Gypsy, AuroraBlix (Hah! I am finishing it! …It's just… you know… taking a while.), and Regin. Thank you all for your support, I'm glad you seem to like it. Again, I'm so sorry that it's taken so long to update, but update I have. And here it is: Chapter 6 of Fireproof.

Enjoy. And review, yeah? *grins sheepishly*

Fireproof

Chapter 6: Mouse Gets A Partner.

It was to be expected really.

Taking into account how just about every day since she had started attending Sky High had gone, she really should have seen it coming. All the signs pointed to it. In fact, now that she was thinking on it, Mouse wouldn't be surprised if she was paired with him for the whole year, even though they were supposed to rotate.

The hothead.

Warren Peace.

Will's unofficial archenemy.

Now her official partner.

The Hero to her Hero-support.

She was feeling destructive, her fingers twitching instinctively towards her bag of marbles. Catastrophe was calling her name. Maybe she'd make the teacher's desk collapse. Or set off the fire alarm, soak the classroom. The water wouldn't bother her but it'd probably upset everyone else in the class, especially the teacher and her new, fiery partner.

Mouse glanced speculatively around the room but froze when her eyes landed on Warren. He was giving her a glare that spoke volumes, it was saying 'Do anything stupid and you will die a slow, violent death.', at least, that's what she imagined the glare was saying. She huffed irritably, but pulled her hands away from her ammunition bag all the same. How he knew what it was… she couldn't begin to guess.

Maybe he was just able to read the intent in her expression.

Instead she turned her gaze to the window, pretending that he wasn't there. It's what Mouse had been doing ever since 'The Incident', not that he'd made any particular effort to interact with her. "Now that everyone's received their partners, I'm going to talk about what you'll be working on for the next two weeks-" Not that she wanted him to make any particular effort, as their interactions had a tendency to end with one or both of them –Usually both.- in an unpleasant mood. "Peace and Kelly, you'll be doing your report on Shade and Mimic." Her head whipped around so fast she actually became slightly dizzy.

"What?" The question ripped out of her mouth with such ferocity that it had every student in the room staring at her. Normally she would care, this was not a normal moment. Noticing the teacher's annoyed expression she tried again, this time toning down her obvious displeasure, though she could do nothing to bring back the color that had fled her face at the announcement. "I'm not entirely comfortable with that. –Sir!" The last bit tacked hastily to her statement at the teacher's rather unimpressed expression, not that it changed anything.

"And why is that?"

She thought quickly, not really wanting to share even the tiniest bit of her life with such a large group of people, but realizing with a grimace that there was nothing for it. "Mimic is my mother. Considering the way that particular partnership ended, I don't feel comfortable having to do a report on it."

"You don't feel… comfortable with it." He said it with such distaste that she probably could have puked on his shoes and gotten the same reaction. "…See me after class."

Mouse wanted to protest, to object quite loudly, but movement caught her attention and she realized with a start that everyone was rather blatantly staring at her. She clenched her teeth and gave a curt nod. A furious glare had everyone pretending to be utterly engrossed in the instructor's words, all but one. She could feel his scorching gaze digging into the side of her head, but she studiously ignored him, pretending not to notice. She nervously fluttered a marble between her fingers.

A cracked, red and black marble.

Normally Mouse tended to just sort of slip into the house; she opened the doors quietly and went directly to her room, she kept her presence as minimal as possible. Today though, she couldn't seem to bring herself to care. The day had been all kinds of abnormal and unpleasant, why should she try to change it now?

The front door slammed behind her.

She didn't care.

Instead of going straight to her room she took a turn at the stairs and went to the kitchen. Nancie was there, of course, and immediately started asking concerned questions. Completely ignoring the woman, Mouse grabbed the first junk-food item she saw and took it with her to the backyard. When Nancie realized that she was being completely ignored she turned back to the food she was cooking, but not before Mouse saw the hurt look on her face.

She didn't care at all.

To be honest, she hadn't really heard a single word the woman had said, had barely even made out the tone of concern over the rushing sound in her ears. It was hard to think beyond the haze of fury filling up her head.

She would feel guilty later, but for now she just didn't care.

Her second day back at the school since recovering from being in the Detention Room, she should have known they would pull something like this, really she should have. That was her power, wasn't it? To see connections and make predictions and cause one thing by doing another. It was a logical course of action.

And yet when Powers called her into the office to tell her they were requiring her to see a counselor… she was completely blindsided.

Maybe if she hadn't been thinking about her mother…

Maybe if she hadn't just had Mr. Kustor inform her that if she ever voiced complaints about assignments again, especially during class, she was welcome to walk herself to the disciplinary office, and take the corresponding zero while she was at it…

Maybe if Warren hadn't been standing there the entire time, listening as she was chewed out…

Maybe if she hadn't realized with frustration that she was thinking of him as Warren and not Peace more and more often, ever since he'd been nice to her…

Maybe if she had gone into the office with a clear head she would have known what was coming. But the simple fact was that she didn't, so she was blindsided.

She'd seen shrinks before, of course she had, after the events nearly a year ago –Had it really been a year?-she had been sent to shrinks by the dozen. She'd even had Powered shrinks before –She had, understandably, reacted quite poorly to those.- but she had thought she was done with it. No more shrinks, no more people who said they understood, that what she was feeling was perfectly normal.

No more talking. She didn't want to talk about it.

She didn't even want to think about it.

If she didn't think about it, then maybe she could pretend that it hadn't happened. That she was just on an extended vacation, staying with her coward of a father. That she could pick up at any time she wanted and go back to her mother.

That nothing had changed.

Mouse finally came back inside after two hours, she apologized to Nancie and then she went to her room. She didn't come out.

Not even when Nancie told her that her father was working late again and that she should come down to eat. Not even when she heard Nancie set a tray of food outside of her door. Not even when, at 11:30, her father finally came home. Not even when her father walked right by her door without the slightest hesitation at the sight of untouched food sitting there, gone cold.

Not even when tears of frustration, and pain, and all those emotions she hated, clouded her vision and clogged her throat.

Mouse found Will's sudden popularity at the discovery of his power to be somewhat irritating… Okay… really irritating…

…Frankly, he was being an ass.

And one look at Layla's broken-hearted face had her wanting to shove something down the oh-so pretty Gwen Grayson's throat. It didn't take much to see that the devious she-witch was intentionally stealing Will's attention every time he tried to pay attention to his 'Sidekick' friends. She wasn't sure what made her angrier, that Gwen was doing it in the first place, or that Will was so completely oblivious. –Okay, that was a lie, Will couldn't really be blamed for being his usual self. He was just naturally oblivious.-

She wanted so badly to intervene, but Will and Layla had to handle this one on their own, or they'd never make any progress. She just hoped it happened before she died of old age.

She was currently in gym class, Boomer was the instructor and they were playing StC. Again. Lash and Speed were playing villains. Again. She wanted so badly for someone to set them on their ass, especially Lash.

But that last bit was kind of a daily thing.

And then something happened that made her grin maliciously, the unofficial archenemies were called up. Together.

It started poorly, she was even worried for a bit. –Will may have been an ass of late, but he was still her friend, and Warren was… Warren was her partner, like it or not.- They found their stride though, and soon it was Lash and Speed looking like incompetent idiots. There was a moment, just a second, when she caught a glimpse of what they could be if they were on the same side. She'd hate to be the one fighting them if that were the case, they'd make a truly formidable team.

She found herself letting out a cheer for both of them when they won, and even shot a wide grin at Warren when he chanced to look her way. –Making sure to hold his gaze so he knew the smile was for him.- She almost thought she saw his scowl falter, but then she dismissed it as her imagination and looked about for Will. The smile dropped from her face at the sight of Gwen and she turned to Layla, who looked much like she expected. Brokenhearted.

She clenched her teeth and shot a withering glare at the senior, and then a devious thought suddenly sprouted in her head.

Maybe she could arrange for Gwen and herself to have a go at Save the Citizen. On opposite teams, of course.