FYI:
I do not own the X-Men. I do own Allison. Wee!

Chapter 8: I Just Want You to Know Who I Am

Allison stood on the sidelines of the football field and scowled as she watched approximately fifty guys run plays and essentially try to kick each others asses in order to prove their worth to the coach. However, the coach did not seem anywhere near anxious to see if a girl stood a chance against any of his guys. Allison watched as the returning lettermen were set up to beat on the juniors like Sam who were trying out for the team in order to make the jump to varsity.

Sam was surprisingly fast on his feet, dodging just about every attempt by anyone to tackle him. She smirked realizing that the coach would need an extraordinarily good reason to keep Sam off the team at this rate.

"You girl, what were you trying out for again?" Allison pretended not to hear the coach until he changed his tone. There was one thing she'd learned thus far about football, and that was not to let the coach think he could walk all over you. "I'm talking to you, Williams."

"Oh, li'l ol' me?" she asked sweetly applying a pasty smile onto her face. He frowned at her attitude but Allison was already bored out of her skull after an hour and a half of doing nothing. She walked over to him and said as gruffly as she could manage, "Kicker, sir."

"Have you ever played football before?" he asked looking her from top to bottom and then back up to top again. He was weighing out her odds of surviving a tackle.

Allison refrained herself from rolling her eyes as part of her response. "Yes, sir. I played for the Central High team in the Pennsylvania state playoffs."

"So you're that Williams," he said glancing down at his clipboard so that she couldn't see that he was actually interested. "Well, let's see if you're half as good as the media has touted you are." He turned away from her to and addressed the other players on the field. "Get ready for a field goal on the forty yard line." Allison just gulped as he turned to look back at her. "Something wrong, Williams?"

"No, sir," she answered pulling her helmet on before jogging out onto the field and prepared for the play. She took a few practice kicks to stretch out her legs, grabbing her calf as she held her foot by her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out the coach advising the defensive line.

The defensive line then filed back out on the field and the play began as the ball was flicked back and set up for her by the quarter back. She charged forward and sent the ball flying more than the necessary sixty yards to clear the field goal post. But before she could celebrate that the ball had not hooked on her, she was face down in the dirt.

She groaned as the weight of a two hundred and fifty pound line backer lifted off of her and she could hear snickering from the older players. There were a few hushed voices expressing some concerns, but not many as she pushed herself back up. She grimaced slightly at the pain in her back but focused instead on removing the clods of dirt from her helmet as she pulled it free. She looked up to see that the football was now sticking out of the scoreboard and a few of the guys were pointing in astonishment.

She kept slapping the side of the helmet and more dirt kept falling out as Sam jogged over to her. "That was amazing, Al," he said with his brows lifted.

"I got lucky," she admitted. "It should have hooked." She looked back up at him to see that he was still grinning and shaking his head in disbelief at her humility.

"Whatever, the coach'll be nuts if he doesn' have ya startin'."

Allison's attention waned as she noticed that the linebacker who'd tackled her was now getting ribbed by several of the other players for his failure to decommission a girl. Some of them were watching her with a kind of awe that was typically reserved for freak shows. She missed home. At least there the guys respected her instead of gawked at her. "You've been doing pretty hot…I mean good, too." He shrugged noncommittally, somehow missing her Freudian slip.

The coach waved them all in towards the sidelines and instinctively, they all took a knee. "I'll have the spots posted Wednesday next to the gym. The first practice will be Thursday at one o'clock. Jersey's go in the laundry cart. Empty cups in the trash. Now get outta here."

Allison and Sam walked to the laundry cart and shed the jerseys they'd been lent to wear for the tryouts and as they walked back to the parking lot, she shook her hair free of the scrunchi it'd been held up in. "Well, that could have been worse," she said pausing near the bleachers in order to remove the cumbersome protective gear. She unlaced her shoulder pads and worked it loose to reveal that she was wearing a wife beater underneath. A couple of the guys stopped to watch and she shot them a glare. She threw the rest of her gear into a bag and pulled the straps up through the center of the shoulder pads to carry. She waited for Sam to finish with his gear and jingled her truck keys in her hand.

Sam shifted the gear up over his shoulder and followed Allison's gaze to the other guys. "Ignore 'em," he said. "Trust meh, if they are starin' at you, 's 'cause of meh."

Allison just blinked at him and they walked back to the parking lot. "What do you mean?"

"They all know Ah'm a mutant. They're probably tryin' ta figure out why you don'," he said shrugging as he lifted his gear bag up into the bed of the truck.

"Ah," she said simply as she dropped the tailgate of the truck and hopped up to sit. Sam leaned back against the tailgate before pushing himself up to sit next to her. "Well, I think we stand a pretty good shot of making the team. Mutants or not," she said with a wink.

"You definitely do," Sam agreed untying his cleats before tossing them into his bag.

"Yeah, well, you should have seen yourself out there running plays. You made the senior linebackers look stupid for diving at air," she chuckled. She hesitated for a moment and glanced at him. "And you did that because you're awesome at this game. Not because you're a mutant. Don't let those guys convince you otherwise."

Sam shook his head and laughed lightly. "Ah don' let 'em bother meh. Ah'm more worried 'bout you," he said gazing at her with a grim smile. "Don' tell 'em, 'less ya have ta. Some of 'em might figure it out on their own, but make 'em work it out fo' themselves."

Allison chewed on her lower lip as she lowered her gaze to focus on untying her cleat. "Thanks," she said. "But if they can't like me because I'm a mutant or because I'm friends with one, well, they're probably not worth it. None of them could possibly be as cool as you anyway."

They hopped back down after putting on sandals and Allison started up the truck engine. At first, static spat out angrily before she managed to set up the portable CD player again. "Still haven' fixed the radio yet?" he asked and she shook her head as she shifted the truck into drive and pulled away. "Ya could always get Logan ta do it, or even Scott," he suggested as Johnny Rzeznik began to croon Iris.

She furrowed her brows when she looked back up at him and gently tapped his head. "How hard did you get hit in there?"

"Not that hard. Why?" he asked and she smirked at his confusion.

"Well, for some reason you seem to think I'd ask someone for help on something I'm capable of doing myself."

"Stupid meh," Sam sighed as he leaned back in his seat and waited to get back to the institute.

Unsettled by his sudden dip into silence, Allison cast him a few sideways glances before asking, "Is that beach trip still happening this weekend? 'Cause I haven't heard anything."

"Sure, Ah guess so. Don' worry, nobody tells meh much either. Besides, at the institute, everythin' just kinda happens an' ya have ta jus' go with the flow."

"Sounds like my way of being," she replied grinning and Sam smiled in return. She winked at him before punching him in the arm. "Cheer up. You're about to be a letterman."

Allison sat on the banister watching as the rain came down. Football practice had been canceled for the day due to the rough weather and the coach's decision was reinforced as a streak of lightening zig zagged across the sky. They heavy drops plopped down on her head and soaked into her clothes until they clung to her body.

Both she and Sam had made the team and it had been entirely worth the trip on Wednesday just to watch the smile creep up and take over his face when he'd found his name on the list. Allison smiled at the memory now and closed her eyes as another streak of lightening tore the sky in half.

She was surprised when someone perched themselves on the railing beside her and she cast a sideways glance to see that it was Sam. "Ya must like the rain," he commented his gaze falling on the distant streaks of lightening. He then turned to look at her and smiled.

She watched as his denim jacket darkened in splotches and she reached over and snapped her fingers near his shoulder. He started for a moment before looking up to see that the rain was no longer falling on him but was rather bending away from him. "There's something calming about it," Allison said. "I can hear myself think out here," she said turning her face up towards the falling drops.

After a few moments, she blinked and turned to look back at him to see that he was reaching out trying to touch the drops of rain but Allison waved her hand and playfully bent the rain further away from him. He grinned at her game as he spoke. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"So what'd ya come out here ta think about?" he asked resting his hands on the railing as he gave up the game. Now that he was being kept dry, he looked a little more at peace.

"I was wondering if I had it in me to fight. I heard some of the others talking about Apocalypse and I remembered that from the news. I was scared to death and it was happening thousands of miles away." She looked up at him and he met her gaze evenly noting the steel green of her eyes. Her eyes always darkened a few shades when she was being serious. "At the time I didn't even know what it meant and now that I do, I think I'd be even less likely to find the courage to do something."

"That was probably the most scared Ah've ever been in mah life," Sam admitted looking down at his hand that was in between them. Hers was so close and he contemplated shifting so that his hand would be over hers. That was the right thing to do, right? To comfort her? Instead, he chewed his lower lip thoughtfully before continuing. "Not even when mah daddy had died was Ah that scared an' worried fo' mah family. Ah think it took bein' that scared though. Does that make sense?" He looked back up to her silvery green eyes and was surprised when she reached over and grabbed his hand. He squeezed it back but did not tear his gaze away from her face.

"So do you mind if I ask what your part was in all of that?" she asked. She brushed her slicked hair back from her face and their eye contact was broken as she looked down. She gently rotated his hand over and traced the lines on his palm and glanced up at him through her eyelashes when he didn't answer her right away.

He flushed realizing that he'd been staring but still couldn't bring himself to look away as he watched the beads of water form on her eyelashes and nose. He coughed clearing his throat. "It was almost entirely Rogue," he clarified, "but Ah was with S.H.I.E.L.D. for the direct attack on Apocalypse. Ah jus' carried her from the chopper to the pyramid. Ya see there's a mutant named Leech and he has the ability ta negate powers of all kinds. So Rogue borrowed his ability in order ta fight Apocalypse. Ah was jus' her ride."

Allison squeezed his hand before releasing it and smiled softly. "You're very brave, Sam. I just hope that I'm half as brave when fate decides that it's my turn."

"They're like totally cute together," Kitty commented to Betsy as she leaned on the kitchen counter watching Allison and Sam sitting at the far end of the dining room table. Their heads were bent over an sports magazine as they talked, occasionally laughing at some inside joke. "Don't you think?" Kitty asked looking back to the purple haired girl.

"Right..." Betsy said slowly and drawn out.

"Come on, you're her roommate. You can't tell me that she hasn't mentioned him or like something. Maybe a few private thoughts?" Kitty looked excited hoping to draw out some kind of juicy information from the psychic but Betsy stonewalled her.

"Other than saying she was giving him rides to and from practices, nope, nada, nothing." Betsy looked away from Kitty and back towards the couple reading their magazine. She sighed herself as it was difficult to not pick up on Sam's thoughts. He was constantly at war with himself and the longer it went on, the louder it got and the harder for her to ignore.

"Ugh," kitty groaned as she buried her head into her hands. "She's like the most confident girl I've ever met, and yet she has no clue when a guy is digging her. I don't even think she knows how to flirt. We're totally going to have to work on her."

"Can't you just let someone be?" Betsy asked raising an eyebrow as she turned away to look in the fridge for something to drink.

"Like no way. Hooking people up is way more fun than watching them avoid the topic," Kitty said draining her glass before walking over to the table and leaning over Allison's shoulder to peer at the magazine. "So what are you reading?"

"Sports Illustrated," the answered simultaneously causing Allison to laugh.

"Jinx," she said poking Sam in the shoulder still grinning broadly. Sam just grumbled something under his breath and flipped the page. "You owe me a soda."

"Right, fine, whatever," he replied hesitating before flipping the page again to skip a spread of ads.

"That is like really cute how you two answered at the same time," Kitty said dropping into a chair next to Allison and it caused both of the other teens to tear their attention away from the magazine to glare at her. "What, can I help it that you two make such a cute couple?"

Allison hastily stood up and moved to the counter for a glass of water. "Betsy, how much sugar has she had today?"

"Quite a bloody lot actually," Betsy said sipping her drink as she leaned back against the counter.

"That's like not true. I only had a glass of that tea in there," Kitty argued.

Sam and Allison exchanged looks before both of them started to laugh. "Kitty, that's sweet tea. Al's been keepin' a pitcher on hand all week," Sam explained patting the girl on the shoulder as he shook his head still laughing. "Yo' probably gonna crash in an hour if ya ain't used to it."

"Oh," she said a little surprised. "I thought it tasted a little funny."

"You just don't know what the good stuff is," Allison said sitting back down again at the table but this time she shifted her chair so that they were no longer sitting shoulder to shoulder. Kitty pouted a little seeing the backwards step that had been made after her attempts to do the opposite.

Bamf! The three of them waved their hands in front of their noses as Kurt appeared on top of the dining room table. "Are you guys going to the beach or what?" he asked. He was wearing a pair of board shorts and a collared shirt with a bucket cap and sunglasses as he tapped at his holographic watch. For a moment he looked normal before returning to his blue, fuzzy self. Giving up on the holograph he gave them all an expectant look.

Kitty stood up quickly and phased through the table and Kurt as she dashed out of the room. "I like totally forgot!" she wailed.

As Kurt teleported away again, Betsy finished her drink and set the glass into the sink. "Come on, Luv, we better get moving too. Their not the world's most patient group."

Allison pinched her nose from the sulfur fumes and nodded. "Gladly." They were halfway up the main staircase when she spoke again without sounding nasally. "Why is Kitty so insistent that there's something between Sam and I? I hardly know him."

"That's just Kitty," Betsy said with a shrug. "She like to play matchmaker so watch out." She pushed their bedroom door open and waved Allison in ahead of her.

"Thanks for the warning," Allison sighed as she began to dig through her dresser to find appropriate clothes. She grabbed her blue swimsuit and found a pair of denim shorts and baggy tee to wear for her cover up. Glancing over she saw that Betsy was putting on a revealing purple bikini and a belted tunic of gauzy, see through material.

She didn't give herself time to question her choice of apparel though as she grabbed her sunglasses and truck keys from the top of the dresser and they both jogged back down to the garage to meet the others.

Kurt had a boogie board in hand and was probably the most anxious looking to leave as he teleported himself into the backseat of Scott's convertible. However, Scott did not look anywhere near ready to start the engine yet as he surveyed the vehicles in the garage. He glanced back at the large group of seventeen and did the math once more. "There's only enough room in my car and the Hummer for ten."

"I could take my truck," Allison offered and instantly the entire group lit up with smiles except for Scott who still looked confused.

"But that only seats two more." That earned Scott at least a half dozen rolled eyes as people started to pile surf boards, umbrellas, and bodies into the bed of the truck.

Allison just shot him a grin as she climbed in behind the wheel and Kitty and Betsy squeezed onto the bench seat beside her. "See ya there!" she said waving as the truck pulled out with at least six people in the bed of the truck all seated with their knees tucked up to their chins as they clowned around.

Scott was about to protest and say something to Kurt when Kurt teleported himself and his boogie board into the bed of the truck as well. "But if something happens..." he started to say but nobody heard him as the remaining students grumbled about who would ride with Scott and who would ride with Jean in the Hummer. Jean just patted Scott on the shoulder and smiled.