Cheyy: No, no, no...if you're dead you can't read and review! Please let this chappie serve as resuscitation!

FYI:
I do not own the X-Men. But, on occasion, I'll pick up one of their comics to read. Scratch that. My fiance buys the comics. I then steal his.

Chapter 12: Starting School

Allison hugged Mark tightly, smiling as his strong arms wrapped around her waist to easily lift her up into his bear hug. "Give 'em hell for me," she said as he set her back down. "I'd hate to find out that I left and our football team fell apart."

"Don't worry. We'll make you proud," he said grinning down at her as he placed a hand on her cheek and gently tilted her face up so he could gaze down into her pale green eyes. "He seems like a nice guy," Mark added without any kind of transition whatsoever.

"Hmm?" Allison said feeling a little bit confused by his change in topic.

"That Sam guy. He seems really nice."

"Oh." Her smile fell slightly as her cheeks tinged pink.

"Look, I get it. I've been turned down enough times before," Mark joked giving her cheek a playful tap. "And at worse times too."

"I didn't want you to find out that way...I...I don't know what I'm doing to be honest," she sighed as she rubbed her hand across her forehead. "Things just happened really fast and I swear I can't get a moment's peace or privacy at this place to save my life."

She looked back up at him to see that he was smiling kindly. "Hey it's cool. Just don't think you're getting off the hook with writing, hero," he said with a wink at the last word.

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and she stepped back and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "What are you talking about?"

Mark indicated to the group of people who had gathered at the mansion's front door in their not to subtle spying. "They told me about your heroics-how you saved Sam and Bobby."

"I'm no hero, far from it," she argued glancing over her shoulder and shooting a glare at the other students who seemed hardly phased by the look.

"Sure thing, Al," Mark said condescendingly and it ate at Allison even more as she whipped around to glare at him.

"Look, get outta here before I have to beat it into your skull," she threatened and he only threw his hands up in defeat before turning and climbing into his truck. Allison allowed herself to relax a little and smiled. "Drive safe, okay?"

"Always," he replied leaning through the open window slightly. "You do me a favor though a live safe. You're not invulnerable, ya know?"

Allison just shrugged in response as she smirked. "Maybe, maybe not." He put the truck into gear and it jerked before moving down the drive as she waved goodbye to him via the side mirror. Finally she sighed as she wrapped her arms around her chest and hugged herself. A part of her felt bad for turning Mark down but she was glad that he handled it well. Now all she needed to do was figure out how to work out these new developments between her and Sam.

She turned to look back up at the front door and there was a flurry of motion as everyone scattered trying to not be the last person standing there when she came back inside. Allison just sighed when she saw that Jamie had tripped and fallen causing himself to replicate all over the foyer.

The last few days had passed quickly and the first day of school was upon them before they knew it. Allison had barely dragged herself through training that morning and she was really struggling now as she tried to get ready for school. She was already developing a strong preference for Logan's trainings as opposed to Scott and Jean's. There was a distinct difference: one involved blowing stuff up; the other involved getting blown up. She swore that the prior students were determined to see herself and her classmates suffer bodily injury as their trainings had grown more and more intense.

She ran water into the sink and watched as the sink slowly filled as she tipped a soap dispenser over it and watched as the water formed a heavy foam across the surface along with a dense steam. She plunged her hands in, letting the warmth tingle at her extremities before splashing it across her face. She reached over and grabbed a clean washcloth and dunked it beneath the water's surface allowing it to soak before scrubbing her face carefully. The mirror was beginning to steam over slightly and Allison sighed as she leaned forward and wiped it clear so that she could see her face again. For a moment, there was a flicker of blue in her eyes and she stepped back startled before looking closer again to see that her eyes were their now usual shade of steel green. She just frowned at herself in the mirror before letting the water out of the sink and quickly rinsed the washcloth out and rinsed her face with cool water. She shook her hands over the sink before patting them dry on a nearby towel and quickly left the bathroom to get dressed and ready for the rest of her day.

Now that school had returned, those that had already graduated high school had a later training in the morning. The wonder of college and being able to start your day at noon if you so chose. Allison just sighed as she listened to her roommate snore as she ran a brush through her wet hair and reminded herself that she only had one more year of high school herself. And then it would be time to finally decide what the hell to do with the rest of her life. With a grim smile she looked into the mirror at her reflection and promised herself that she'd make the most of her remaining high school career and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

She was about to throw a hoodie on over her babydoll tee and jeans and paused reminding herself that Kitty had sworn she wouldn't be allowed to leave the institute wearing a hoodie today. In fact, Kitty had promised to bury her truck up to its axles if she came out wearing a hoodie. With a sigh, she tossed the sweatshirt over her vanity chair and looked nervously into the mirror again. her hair hung in damp curls from her ponytail and she was wearing a pair of dark stained jeans and pale green t-shirt. Once again, her tall frame and curves made it nearly impossible for the shirt to reach the top of her pants. She grabbed her backpack and tugged at her shirt as she left the room wondering if she could stretch it out by the time she got to school.

Walking into the kitchen, she waved a hand around her head and he hair dried almost immediately as she made another flick of her wrist to send the retrieved water droplets into the sink. She stood by the counter watching the chaos that unfolded before her and it made every other morning she'd spent at the institute look tame by comparison. It was as if everyone had forgotten how to get ready for school. Some of the girls were still trying to do their hair or make up at the table while the boys were just now realizing that they were several vehicles short this year when it came to getting a ride to school. Apparently, everyone who'd driven to school last year had graduated.

She decided to put together a breakfast for on the run and she began looking for toast and realized that Ray was walking around the kitchen carrying the toaster as he provided a current to continuously provide toasted bread and bagels for every outstretched hand, including all ten of Jamie's. She watched as Kitty walked straight down the middle of the table through plates of food in her search for the cinnamon sugar blend and Kurt was hanging upside down from a chandelier in order to steal the sausage links. Apparently Kurt must have enjoyed the chaos if he was choosing to eat with the rest of them when he didn't even have to be out of bed yet.

Allison was surprised to find herself being spun around and a breakfast sandwich that had already been wrapped in a paper towel was being pressed into her hands. "Le's get outta here," Sam said nodding to the door. "Ah'm fairly certain ya don' wanna be here when they realize they're late an' stampede." He already had his bag slung over his shoulder and a sandwich in his own hand.

Allison hitched her bag higher up onto her shoulder and grinned as she followed him out to the garage. She was a little surprised to see that Kitty had beaten them down there and was already waiting as she sat on the front hood of Allison's truck. She grinned as she straightened and slid down so that her feet found the ground again. The brunette continued to grin broadly as she held her hand up and let a set of keys dangle down catching the morning light. "You totally forgot these."

"You got those off my dresser?" Allison asked as she began frantically checking her pockets and realized that she must have forgotten her keys in her rush to get dressed.

Kitty just shrugged and playfully jangled the keys again. "So, can I drive?"

"No," Sam and Allison said in chorus causing Kitty to pout as she climbed into the middle of the bench seat as Sam took shotgun. Allison held out her hand expectantly as she climbed in behind the wheel and Kitty reluctantly turned over the keys.

They were just pulling out of the garage when a deluge of students started to pour out of the front door. Ray, Roberto, and Bobby lost no time whatsoever chasing after the still slow moving truck and hoping into the bed as Amara and Jubilee burst out through the front door next. Allison sighed as she put the truck into park and the girls began to grin broadly and stick their tongues out at the boys as they climbed in as well. Allison just leaned out of her driver's side window and watched and waited as the other students all came out the front door in a dead sprint afraid of getting left behind. Soon, Danielle, Rahne, Jamie, and Sarah had all climbed into the back as well and Allison shifted the truck back into the drive and pulled away as quickly as she dared before any of the adults could admonish the form of transportation to school.

"This is so much cooler than Scott's car," Ray declared as he leaned back and spread his arms out across Amara and Rhane's shoulders.

"Definitely," Jamie chimed in as they passed through the institute's gates. "We all get to ride now." Allison dared a quick glance through the back window and grinned to see that all of her classmates were lined up along the bed and seated either cross-legged or with their knees drawn up to their chins with a huge stack of book bags in the center.

"You think they realize that they need another way home?" Sam asked as he leaned slightly onto his elbow. "We do have football practice."

"What?" Kitty whined her head whipping around to look at Allison who only shrugged as she did her best not to start laughing at her friend's reaction to what should have been obvious before.

Once at the high school, all of the students scattered in different directions and Allison sighed as she waved goodbye to them as she headed in the entirely opposite direction to the front office. For the first day of school, the office was strangely empty but the counter was covered from one end to the other in papers and Allison curiously looked down to see that they were homeroom and locker assignments for new students. She quickly walked the length of the counter and found her name at the end and left before she had to come face to face with Principal Kelly again. She still had occasional shudders that shot down her spine whenever she remembered her first and only experience with the man.

She found her locker with some ease thanks to knowing the corridors after coming to the high school for several weeks for football practices. She teased the lock open and let it hang as she opened the locker and dumped her empty book bag inside. She sniffed experimentally and sighed in relief that it didn't smell of old gym clothes and socks. She did make a face as she picked up a dead fly by the wing and flicked it away down the hall before stabbing a pencil through her ponytail and closed her locker back up.

Glancing around to see if she recognized anyone else on her 'block', she was disappointed to find that none of the other students from the institute seemed to have their locker anywhere nearby. She shrugged to herself as she looked back down at the sheet of paper in her hand for her homeroom classroom and took off down the hall at a quick pace, ducking and dodging between other students who all seemed to have a better sense of where they were going.

Her homeroom was only about a hundred feet from her locker and she ducked inside the door and out of the crushing mob that filled the halls. She found that nearly every desk had already been claimed and she settled into one that was along the far wall near a window and leaned back with her eyes closed as she waited for either the bell to ring or for her homeroom teacher to appear. Finally, curiosity got the best of her and she peeked an eye open to watch as her classmates moved about the room in a flurry of excitement as they greeted and teased one another. She felt even more alone as she wondered whether or not her friends had homeroom or classes together.

The bell rang and her homeroom teacher finally arrived nigh simultaneously, his arms nearly spilling a pile of papers that were their schedules for the year. Somehow, he managed to get his briefcase to land on the desk, and the papers generally followed, but a few managed to catch a draft and scooted across the floor before the petite blonde girl seated in front of Allison leaned over and picked them up. She tapped them so that their edges were aligned before holding them out with a kind smile for the teacher to take back. He smiled gratefully as he took them and straightened them out with the others. "Thank you, Kaitlyn," he murmured as he flipped through them and glanced around the room quickly assessing if he could remember everyone's name.

There was a buzz of static as the loudspeaker came to life and Principal Kelly's voice crackled throughout the school. Allison's entire homeroom paid no attention to his speech about starting the school year off on the right foot and with the right attitude and hopes that there would be no incidents this time. They were all too busy listening for their names and shooting their hands into the air so that they could get their schedules before quickly starting to compare them with the girls and boys seated around them. Allison received hers last and frowned down at the course load that she'd be taking. The words ambitious and challenging came to mind.

Kaitlyn turned, tucking strands of blonde hair back behind her ear and smiled at Allison. "You're new, right?"

"How'd you guess?" Allison sighed forcing a smile as she propped her head up on her hand.

"I looked like you about two years ago," she said holding her hand out. "I'm Kaitlyn."

"Allison," she replied taking the girl's hand and giving it a light shake.

Kaitlyn snuck a quick glance down at Allison's schedule and smiled again warmly. "We have first period together. Don't worry, it might be AP English but Ms. Abrahms is super cool. And it's double luck to have her first period. She very rarely ever makes it to school on time so she'll probably be giving someone in our class her spare key so that we can let ourselves in and make ourselves look busy in her absence."

"That actually works?" Allison asked raising an eyebrow and Kaitlyn grinned and nodded.

"She has her room set up backwards. So even if Principal Kelly walks by, he'd have to actually come inside before he noticed she was missing. And normally, if he's in the hall, he's too preoccupied to be checking up on the teachers."

Allison was feeling pretty good about Bayville High by the time lunch rolled around. She found herself in the company of Rose McGowan who was leading the way to the cafeteria. The girl was slim and tall, much like how Allison would picture a fairy or elf to look in real life. Her dark hair was cropped short, spiking out about her ears. "It kinda sucks that your mom made you switch just for your senior year. I think I'd die if I had to do that."

Allison just shrugged in nonchalance. She'd been using a lie about the fact that her mother's work required her to be out of town for most of the year. It's not like anyone in this school was going to find out that her mother actually owned her own business and very, very rarely ever traveled. "I don't really mind. My old school was out in the middle of nowhere. So it's kind of nice to come someplace with a population greater than five hundred," she laughed. "Now I won't be so shell-shocked when I got college."

"Still, you must miss your friends, right?"

"Definitely," Allison said nodding as she thought about Kelly and even Mark despite the awkwardness that had ensued the week before. "But I've made a lot of new ones here too," she said. "For instance, not every guy on the football team is an idiot." She laughed as she glanced sideways to see that three of her teammates were leaning against the wall attempting to woo some of the cheerleaders.

"Wait, wait, wait," Rose said stopping short as she spun on her heel to face Allison causing them to collide as Allison reached out to catch Rose's arm to keep her slender frame upright. "You're a cheerleader?" she asked looking Allison up and down as if this were some type of offense to humanity.

"No," Allison snorted shaking her head. "I'm on the football team. I'm the new starting kicker."

Rose's eyes went wide with surprise and then she grinned broadly. "Oh my God, you're that girl! I'd heard a few rumors circulating this morning but I didn't really believe them. I seriously thought our football team was going to be screwed this year. Ren is horrible. So thank goodness you showed up. You have to be at least ten times better than he is."

Allison just smirked in response and Rose grinned as they fell back into step towards the cafeteria. Allison followed her into line as they pulled trays and began to select something to eat. Allison grabbed a sandwich made from questionable meat content and dug through her pockets trying to find her money as Rose began to talk again. "I was seriously worried though that you were a cheerleader. Our school wrote the stereotype. Those girls make tryouts into something out of a horror film," she said rolling her eyes. "I actually felt bad for the girl who tried out last year. But I suppose, they got what they deserved when she blew up their pom poms."

"I personally have always found the liberal use of firecrackers to be an appropriate response to cheerleaders," Allison joked as they stepped out into the huge cafeteria and Rose wound her way around the many round tables.

"Oh, they weren't firecrackers," Rose warned. "The girl was a mutant. Bayville seems to have more than their fair share of those so you have to be careful."

"Oh," was all Allison could think to say in response as she hesitated for a moment before quickening her step to keep up with Rose.

Finally Rose, sat her lunch tray down at a table and smiled at a group of girls as Allison approached. "Everyone, this is Allison. Allison, everyone," Rose said with a flourish of her hands.

Allison waved awkwardly before setting her own tray down as she followed Rose's lead and sat down. "Hi." She smiled grateful to see that most of the girls she recognized at least from in passing in her morning classes and Kaitlyn was also there from her homeroom. The girls quickly introduced themselves better and Allison did her best to process their names and features so that she wouldn't embarrass herself later by forgetting. Patricia was a full figured red head and Sandra was of average build, excessively well endowed, and had dirty blonde hair that hung to her shoulders.

They had just finished introducing themselves and were laughing to hear that Allison was going to be the girl benching Ren at Friday night's game when a tall, skinny boy sat down at the last free chair at their table. He dumped a tall stack of textbooks into the center of the table and Allison raised an eyebrow as she peered around the stack at him. All of the girls looked less than pleased by his abrupt appearance as they all fell silent and seemed completely unwilling to bring him in on their merriment. "This is a total disaster," the boy moaned. "They're going to cut first period choir for lack of interest. I'm going to have to pick something else to take instead."

"That does sound like a disaster," Allison said as she used a single finger to tip the topmost book sliding down off the stack into the boy's lap. "But not nearly so terrible as not getting assigned a locker! How could they manage an oversight like that?" she asked tipping the next book down and the boy scrambled to catch it before it could hit the floor. "My name's Allison," she said as soon as she no longer had to strain to look over the stack to see him. The boy just glared at her from under his dark brown hair that hung messily and looked like it hadn't seen a professional barber since middle school. "This is the part where you tell me your name."

The girls were nearly in a riot of giggles as they all did their best to suppress their laughter as Allison tipped a third book down off the stack. "Justin," came the dour response. "And why are you shoving my books around?"

"Because with them in the way I can't see your, er, pretty face," she replied without breaking the smirk that had crossed her face from the very beginning of this conversation. He self-consciously reached up and covered his acne covered cheek with his hand. "But seriously, if you need help figuring out how to open your locker, I'm sure any one of these girls would be more than happy to help. Especially if it meant more room for their milk cartons."

"I do not need help," he all but seethed.

"So, what's the problem?" she asked resting her elbow on the table and propping her head up.

"I-I was in a hurry. I was trying to catch up to Sandra but she was moving too quickly."

"Perhaps Sandra didn't see you?" Allison suggested glancing at Sandra who laughed and shook her head.

"Not at all," Sandra said in a most insincere voice. "How could I miss you stalking me for the fourth year in a row?" The boy blanched and stood up retrieving his last book from the table. The girls all smiled and waved as he swallowed and disappeared. Sandra gave a sigh of relief before turning to Allison. "I cannot thank you enough. That guy has been a pain in my side since forever. I can't seem to shake him and you did it in a record of five minutes."

"I believe it was closer to three," Patricia joked and the girls broke out into a fresh chorus of laughter.