Chey: Pepper Potts is Tony Stark's (aka Iron Man's) executive assistant. At one point, she was an on again, off again possible love interest. But Tony's identity has typically been "revealed" and thus, she has been dragged into some hair raising adventures due to that. Even when she isn't a love interest, she worries about him constantly.

Josephine: They're coming! I promise! In just a few more chappies too. I wanna say three? Rogue, Allison, and Bets will all be roomies after that. But in my next two stories having to do with Allison, they play much larger roles, since they're, uh, there from the beginning and not halfway through. Sam and Remy are also going to have some good ol' bonding time over having girlfriends with "issues". And if you're jonesing some ROMYness, check out "New Beginnings" and "School Daze". There's going to be a third and fourth story in that series that will lead into their entrance in this story and explain how they ended up in New Orleans.

Author's Note: I can't believe that in this story alone there's approximately 70,000 more words that I've already written. Those are just random scenes that haven't yet been stitched together properly. Add to that another 40,000 words that have already been written for the sequel. Yes, the magic word: sequel. I'm letting that cat out of the bag now so that I don't end up with a bunch of people who hate me for all that I put Allison through. But don't worry, this is a fun chappie, not a death and destruction kind of chappie. Although, I've got some of those in the works coming up very soon and they're pretty much going to run back to back (to back?).

FYI:
I do not own the X-Men. I do however own Allison. Which, in my mind, kinda makes up for some things.

Chapter 14: Friday Night Lights

Allison returned to her room after the danger room training and pulled out her home game jersey for the first time and held it up studying the maroon jersey and after moment's hesitation slipped it on over her head and tucked it loosely into her jeans. It felt strange to be wearing another team's jersey and looking in the mirror she didn't recognize herself right away. The color played off her hair differently than the scarlet of her old school.

Still lying across the back of her desk chair was her white away jersey and she rolled it up and shoved it into her backpack before slinging the bag over her shoulder. She made her way down to the kitchen to find that it was in its usual state of pre-school chaos as all of the students scrambled to get something to eat without being late. She grinned as a plate was slid her way with toast and bacon already on it and she gave Sam a grateful smile in return.

"So, Al," Bobby said as he sat down next to Sam and began to munch on his toast. "Who's going to wear your jersey?"

She raised an eyebrow at him and picked up her bacon. "I don't know." This had always been a conundrum at her old school too. Being the only female football player there had always been speculation as to what she would do with the Friday football tradition. After a few weeks of avoiding the situation by not giving it to anyone, she'd finally settled on giving it to her best friend Kelly. Of course, giving it to another girl, even one who was dating the captain of the volleyball team, had created its own stir.

"Well, you should give it to a guy. You know, go with your rebelling against the gender expectations even more," Bobby suggested.

Allison chuckled and shook her head as she glanced down the table to locate the jam. "And I suppose you think that I should give it to you?" She reached out and nabbed the jam jar just before Kurt could and began to spread it over her toast. "I don't think so."

"Why not? We're friends, right?" Bobby gave her his best pair of puppy dog eyes and Allison rolled her own in return.

"We are," she said calmly as she held out the jam jar in an open palm as Kurt teleported to hang from the chandelier above her and grabbed it before Tabitha could. "But it sends the wrong message. Besides, I don't think Jubilee would like it much."

"Jubilee already got Sam's," Bobby sighed and looked up as his girlfriend walked into the kitchen sporting Sam's white jersey and the number '21'.

Allison turned her surprised gaze to Sam who could only shrug feebly. "She saw it last night an' took it without askin'."

Allison just burst into laughter and covered her mouth with her hands trying to stifle the noise before she drew too much attention to herself. "You're jealous," she accused of Bobby who turned bright red. "Look, I'd give it to you, but it'd be kinda small on you." She glanced around the kitchen and brightened when she saw Jamie. "Hey, Jamie, kiddo," she called waving him over and his head bobbed up from the task of smearing cream cheese over a bagel. As he walked around the table munching his breakfast, she dug into her back pack and pulled out her jersey and tossed it to him. "You want to wear this?"

His eyes went big as saucers as he caught the jersey. "Are you kidding?" he asked letting the number '11' unfurl. "I'll be the only sophomore who gets to wear one. Thanks!"

Allison turned to smile back at Bobby who groaned as he slid down in his seat. "Thanks for rubbing it in," he muttered as Sam patted him on the shoulder.

"Maybeh next time," Sam offered his condolences before looking up at Allison and smiled.

"And it wouldn't have been too small for me," Bobby muttered crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, I was trying to imply that you were the bigger man," Allison said with a wink. "My mistake." She calmly finished eating her breakfast while Bobby glowered and pushed the food on his plate around listlessly. His mood was not at all improved by Jubilee's chatter about looking forward to the football game and how she was going to be there to cheer for Sam and Allison.

Sam sighed as he stood up and dumped his math book into his backpack with a groan. He was berating himself for not realizing that there would be a quiz. How in the world he thought that he'd get through a full week of school without a single math quiz was beyond him. He was one of the last students to leave the classroom, his feet dragging with pent up frustration from not even making it halfway through the quiz. "Mister Guthrie, I'd like you to stay for a moment."

He sunk down into one of the front row desks and let out another low groan as he watched the last of his classmates slip out the door. He had been looking forward to getting back to homeroom for the study break so that he could firstly put math class behind him and secondly see if there was any way of improving Bobby's mood after this morning. He actually was starting to feel bad for letting Jubilee make off with his jersey. Especially since it was starting to create more than a little confusion about whom he actually was dating. He wasn't worried about Allison, just Bobby.

Mr. Boltson walked out around his desk and leaned back against it casually as he looked down at Sam and sighed. "I know that math isn't your strongest subject."

"That's puttin' it lightly," Sam said lifting his gaze to look up at his teacher. "Ah promise, Ah'll try harder."

"That's why I asked one of my senior students if she would be willing to tutor you. She seems pretty gifted with math and I think with a little extra effort on your part, you'll be able to keep up." Sam's jaw clenched at the thought of being forced to essentially double his math period. It was especially not helpful to have it rubbed in that someone else was gifted while he was obviously challenged. Mr. Boltson glanced down at his watch and frowned before glancing at the still open door. "She should be here soon. So, just be patient and maybe try some of the homework while you wait."

When Mr. Boltson left to go take his turn at lunch duty Sam contemplated making a run for it before whatever brown-noser Boltson had dug up could get there. Instead, he reached down into his backpack and pulled out his math book and a notebook as he made a bare attempt at his homework. The bell came and went and the din of noise in the hallway fell silent as everyone was either in their homerooms or in the cafeteria. He was still staring at the words that made up his first homework problem when he became aware of the sound of pounding feet and looked up to see Allison leaning against the door frame. Her brows shot up in surprise as she held a hand over her heart and breathed in deeply. "Sam?"

"What are ya doin' here?" he asked sitting up straight and hurriedly trying to cover up his lack of progress on the blank sheet of notebook paper. It was bad enough that there were some days were he couldn't help but trip over his own feet in front of her, but this was beyond embarrassing even for him.

"Mr. Boltson asked me to tutor someone during study period," she replied walking into the room and shut the door behind her. "I didn't think it was you or I would have been helping you out before now. Damn. Sorry."

Sam just sighed as he slouched into the chair even further than he'd managed before. He looked at her sideways between his fingers as he rested a hand over his face and she pulled a desk around so that she was sitting beside him. She reached over and gently turned his text book around so that she could read it right side up and flipped the cover closed before quickly reopening it to the page he'd been on. "FST. Not one of my faves either," she commented before looking up to see that his expression hadn't changed much. Finally she smiled and then did close his text book and took it away from him completely, turning to set it aside on a desk on the other side of her. "There. Much better."

Sam finally lowered his hand and just stared at her. "Ah'm not sure how that's gonna help meh in the long run."

"It doesn't," she replied with a shrug. "I bet it really helps right now though, right?"

"Ya don' need ta help meh," Sam said still flustered about Boltson's choice of a tutor for him.

"No, I don't. But I want to. But not right now. We have all weekend," she said with a wave of her hand. "For the good of the team, I'm not going to let frustration eat away at our star running back."

"Jus' fo' the good of the team, huh?" he asked raising an eyebrow and she laughed.

She leaned her head into her hand and smirked at him "Fine, I'm not just doing it for the sake of a football game," she replied. "I'm doing it because I can personally think of a t least a hundred things I'd rather be doing with you than talk about math. Granted, I enjoy pretty much everything I do with you, so math isn't terribly far off that list."

Sam's eyes widened for a moment before he laughed and shook his head. "A hundred things, huh? Ah think Ah'd like ta hear that list."

"I bet you would," she said in return. "But I can almost guarantee at least a quarter of that list would result in flooding conditions. Actually just talking about them would probably do that. So, I'm going to have to settle for something a little less exciting in the meantime."

"Like?"

"Sneaking onto the roof of the school?"

Sam stood up and picked his backpack up off the floor and Allison did the same. She turned, retrieving his textbook from where she'd discarded it theatrically and returned it to him so he could put it away as he crossed the room to the windows. He opened one, pushing up the screen and leaned out looking to see if there were any students eating lunch outside near the stadium and track. "Looks clear ta meh," he said waving for her to come over.

Allison leaned out the window beside him and sucked in her breath a little as she saw how high they were and how much further up the roof was. Sam wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and she squeaked in surprise at his sudden grasp and before she could react further, he'd shot them both out through the window. He turned sharply before they got too far out from the building and landed them easily on the roof, Allison's mouth still slack and her breathing coming hard and fast. "Maybe next time you should warn me," she said after a few moments as he laughed at her.

He tossed his bookbag aside, it skidding across the loose stones and sand that covered the roof. "If Ah'd done that, ya'd fight meh. Ah didn' wanna take any chances that ya'd chicken out." He turned to look back at her still grinning broadly and only slightly sobered when he saw that she was looking a little more than hurt.

"I am not a chicken," she said coming out of her state of shock as she crossed her arms over her chest. "How could you accuse me of that?"

He waved his hands defensively in front of him before settling down to sit on the roof, his legs spread wide as he leaned back on his hands and basked in the late summer sun. She hesitated before letting her backpack drop causing some of the gravel to skitter before she slowly lowered herself to sit next to him. "Ah don' think yo' a coward," he clarified. "Ah jus' think flyin' scares the livin' daylights outta ya." He turned to look at her and smiled easily as she found herself having a difficult time being mad at him.

She just gave him an amusingly disgruntled look before sighing and scooting over so that they were hip to hip as she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "You ever miss home?" she asked after a while of tracing her fingers through the sandy surface.

"Every now an' then," he admitted. "Ah grew up with nine brothers an' sisters so livin' at the institute feels a lot like home most days. Ah mostly miss the routine of livin' on a farm though. Instead of gettin' up ta milk cows or feet the pigs, Ah'm gettin' up ta run 'round the Danger Room," he said laughing.

"I'm still trying to get used those really early mornings," Allison sighed. "I bet as soon as I do leave, I'll never, ever get up that early again. Nothing could possess me to choose to be up at five am."

Sam laughed at her obstinate attitude. "Ah swear yo'll get used ta it. An' then yo'll have trouble sleepin' in on the weekends.

"Oh, no, I won't," she replied shaking her head. "I love sleep. Sleeping is probably my favorite thing right after playing sports. For instance, I could sleep right now," she joked as she leaned her head down onto his shoulder before playfully kneading it with her hands. "Even on a pillow as lumpy as this one."

He played along, batting her hands aside and she glanced up at him through her eyelashes to see that he was smiling down at her. "Ah ain't lumpy," he said and she smiled broadly.

"Well, you're certainly not fluffy," she corrected as she hugged him loosely around the waist.

"Ah didn' realize that was yo' preference. Ah suppose given enough time Ah could fix that."

"Oh no," she murmured shaking her head slightly. "I wouldn't change a thing about you. I was joking. And I really don't have a preference one way or another. But in the long run, healthy is probably better."

"So ya don' care that Ah'm not as ripped as..."

"Piotr?" she finished. "Absolutely not. I actually think I'm intimidated by that. I'm surprised Kitty's not, but I guess that's a case of opposites attract." She sat up a little straighter and turned so that she was facing him as she gently pushed him down to lie on his back as she pressed her hand on the center of his chest. He complied curious as to where she was going with this as she leaned down and placed a brief kiss on his lips. The kiss had been just enough distraction for him to not realize right away that she was gently tracing the outlines of his muscles. "Besides, you're ripped," she teased as her fingers ran over his abs. "Don't think I haven't noticed all those afternoons by the pool."

"An' yo' beautiful," he said in return causing her to blush intensely as she drew back from him even more. He quickly pushed himself back up to sit so that he could maintain their close eye contact as he brushed his hands off on his jeans, dusting away the gravel before reaching up to hold the back of her neck in his hand.

She just lowered her gaze instead as her cheeks continued to darken. "Don't," she murmured.

"Why not?" he asked causing her gaze to flicker up to meet his. "Ah meant it. Why shouldn' Ah say it?"

"'Cause I'm not all cutesy or a girly-girl," she said with a weak shrug of her shoulders.

"Ah didn' say ya were. Ah said ya were beautiful. An' believe meh, there's a difference," he replied remembering how shortly after she'd arrived at the institute, Ray had made a similar, yet cruder, declaration. At the time, he'd been too embarrassed to admit it himself but he'd noticed it too. It was probably a good part of the reason why he found her so attractive. She was different from the other girls. And it wasn't just the physical attributes that Ray had hit upon. For a girl who'd grown up in the middle of nowhere as she called it, she had a worldliness, a strength, a confidence about her that could put even Miss Frost to shame. Things didn't phase her the same way as they did the others and she'd demonstrated that on more than one occasion whether it was taking on the whole cafeteria or standing up for herself on the football field because it's what she loved to do and she wouldn't let anyone tell her no.

Her eyes were widening as she gazed at him and finally she forced herself to turn away from his hold and gently shook her head. "Sorry, I just need a moment."

Sam didn't give it to her as he took her head in both of his hands and brusquely kissed her. She immediately gave in and it wasn't until the first drops started to fall that she started to fight him, pushing against his chest until she had managed to break the kiss and it wasn't until she'd fallen backwards, her head connecting with the gravel as she grunted, that the rain stopped. She winced, more so from the annoyance of all the small pinpricks that were staggered across the back of her skull than from the force. She reached to the back of her head, slowly running her fingers through her hair and brushing out the gravel as she rolled onto her side before sitting up. She closed her eyes as she tried to fight off the dizziness that threatened for a moment and could feel his arms around her shoulders as he held her upright. She sharply inhaled before slowly letting the breath back out as she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said shaking her head slowly. "that was one of those things on my list I was hoping to put off until later."

He nodded in understanding even as he frowned slightly. "Ah'm the one who should be sorry," he said brushing his hand down over her back to remove more of the gravel and sand that didn't want to let go. "Ah guess Ah have a hard time not seizing on those moments, huh?"

"That you do," she sighed as she gave him a warm smile that told him she wasn't upset not by a long shot. "And the problem is, I want you to, perhaps a little too much."

"Ah think that might be one'a the best compliments Ah've gotten in a while," he said grinning broadly as he hugged her tightly around her shoulders for a brief moment.

"Wait, getting compared to Iron Man in front of the whole school wasn't a compliment?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Eh..." he said with a one-shouldered shrug, "Closer ta embarrassing." She spun around quickly and punched him in the shoulder before he could react causing him to fall onto his back as she tackled him and he laughed before rolling over on top of her. "Say, 'Uncle'."

"No," she answered shaking her head as she joined in his laughter.

"Say 'Uncle' or Ah'll kiss ya 'gain."

"Not much of a threat," she retorted looking up at him and feeling a flutter in her stomach as she watched him lean down to close the gap between them. She closed her eyes just before his lips touched hers and was a brief, chaste kiss.

He parted, standing up before offering her a hand to help her back to her feet as well. "Come on, before yo' friends start ta wonder why ya ain't comin' ta lunch." She felt dizzy on her feet, her head couldn't stop spinning as she pressed a hand to her temple. Even such a small kiss had left her powers pushing against her for a chance to break free. Granted perhaps it wasn't so small with all the other things that had led up to it. After a moment, the feeling passed, although she half wished it hadn't because Sam had grabbed their bags and tossed her over his shoulder in a fireman carry to take her back down to the ground.

Due to her 'special' circumstances, Allison had to get to the game far earlier than any other player, cheerleader, or band member. If it wasn't for the fact that it was deemed inappropriate, she would have changed at home and put the pads on at the side of the field. Instead, she got to spend an extra half hour before the game wearing her full gear while she waited for the rest of her teammates to get dressed. What was normally the girls' locker room was being reserved for the opposing team.

It was an annoyance, but one she'd already had a year to get used to. She was well prepared for the fact that she would need a second combination lock and set of toiletries in order to stake out locker reality in the boys' locker room.

She sat on the bench and watched as the band was warming up behind the bleachers knowing that Sandra and Patricia were both back there with their trumpet and clarinet respectively. Rose and Kaitlyn had promised to be in attendance too and Rose had ecstatically told her that Jonathon had accepted her invitation to join them. Her teammates were now coming out of the locker room's back door in a steady stream as they jogged towards the field under the drill commander tone of the head coach.

She stood, holding her helmet against her hip as she watched them come onto the field and quickly jogged out to join them as they settled into a circle around the team captains for their stretches. She squeezed in next to Sam and shot him a wink as they set aside their helmets and sat down on the ground. "Who gave you a ride?" she hissed as they both mimicked the captains and reached forward between outstretched legs.

"Kitty," he replied with a small shudder. "Desperate times, desperate measures."

Allison snuck a glance back over her shoulder to see that Kitty, Piotr, Kurt, and his girlfriend, Amanda, were hanging out near the fence waiting to be allowed in to the stadium. She offered him an apologetic smile as they shifted now reaching for their right toes. "Sorry."

"Next time Ah'll jus' go with you an' wait it out. Safer that way," he said as they changed to reach for their left foot. She watched as he easily wrapped his hand around his cleat despite how long his legs were.

They fell into a silence through the rest of warm ups and were soon headed back to the locker room as the field was given over to the visiting team. There were a few disgruntled looks as she followed the boys into the locker room for the pregame peptalk and she couldn't tell if it was because they still hadn't come to terms with the fact that she was a starter or because they still viewed this as a female intrusion on a male holy ground. Either way, she didn't care.

She squatted down, her knee balancing on her helmet as they formed a multi-rowed semi-circle around the coaching staff. There was a lot of hooplah about defeating their long time rivals that neither Sam nor Allison could really get behind but they cheered all the same at all the right times in order to blend in, even as Sam would shoot her occasional eye roll causing her to smile in response. Apparently, Bayville and Richland had been rivals since before their coaches had even been born. Allison wondered if that meant they'd been rivals since before football too.

The starting lines were finally announced and Allison clapped Sam on the shoulder when his name was called amongst the offensive and some of the specialty teams. Allison was on mostly just specialty teams which ran the par for the course.

The speech was well timed though because by the time it broke up, she could hear the crowd outside roaring with the cheerleaders provocation. They exited the locker room in relatively orderly fashion before breaking into a run as they headed to the field, the captains leading the charge through a five by ten foot banner being held up by some of the cheerleading squad. Allison and Sam were nearly last onto the field and they glanced up to see that the other students from the institute were relatively clustered in the front corner of the bleachers with some of their instructors. The other corner held the marching band and Allison spotted her new friends in the back row as Rose, Kaitlyn and a boy Allison could only assume to be Jonathon were attempting to blend in by hiding behind some of the larger brass instruments. She waved to both groups as Sam found them a place on the bench while they waited for the captains to go out, shake hands, and flip the coin to determine who would get first possession.

Richland won the toss and chose to receive so Allison was on the field immediately. Sam was there too. They'd run the play a few times in practice and if the kick hung in the air long enough, Sam was fast enough to force a touchback.

Allison took a deep breath and shook her hands to try and release the jitters before taking a practice kick. She let her eyes run down the line of players and with one more deep breath that she held, she took the few running steps before sending the ball flying down to the other end of the field. It came down in their endzone into the waiting arms of their receiver who started to run before he realized that Bayville's defensive line was already bearing down on him.

Sam managed to side step an offensive line man and took a running jump at the receiver's legs and brought him down at the ten yard line and there was thunderous applause from the home team's bleachers. He quickly disentangled himself and turned to see that there was a slender hand being held out to help him back up to his feet. He took it and stood up to see Allison grinning at him through her helmet face guard and he could feel his own smile growing. "Nice goin'," she said clapping him across the shoulders before they both ran off the field waiting for their next plays.

"Sam? You still out here?" Allison came out of the locker room to find that most of the field had gone dark now that the fans had all gone home for the evening. She heaved her bag up onto her shoulder and hugged herself against what had turned out to be a cool evening. There didn't look to be a single soul around as she gave the area a glancing over. She contemplated going out by the field just to double check or just go straight to her truck. He could have easily gotten a ride home with just about any of their classmates.

In the distance, she could hear the car horns still blasting as the city was still celebrating its victory over Richland by an astounding score of 35 to 10. Sam had picked up two touchdowns and run for two hundred yards. There was no way that Sam would be benched in favor of a senior anytime soon. She herself had played decently, nothing extraordinary, unless you counted scaring the bejesus out of a few of her tacklers when they realized she was a girl.

She cut across the grass towards the field and paused when she saw a brief flare of light before it just as quickly died again. Then there was a second flash as she stood silently, waiting to see if it had been a figment of her imagination. She ducked under the end of the bleachers and bent her head low to avoid the cross beams as she headed towards the intermittent flares. "Well, if it isn't one of the X-Geeks," a grainy voice teased.

"And he's all alone, Mate." There was another flicker of light and Allison could just barely make out the three figures amongst the braces of the bleachers.

"Whattaya want?" the third person asked and Allison straightened in her surprise to recognize Sam's voice and she barely missed a cross beam.

"Just wanted to ask about good friend, Boom-Boom. The sheila hasn't been home in a while. We figured she'd decided to start shacking up with you all again."

"So what if she is?" Sam asked and one of the figures went to move and was roughly shoved back against the bracing causing the entire structure to tremble.

"You can quit the tough act. I'd suggest it for your health, Mate. You're not so invulnerable when you're not moving." There was another flicker and this time the light held, growing and illuminating the three figures to reveal Sam as he leaned back against the bracing where he'd been thrown while a gangly teen with a hunched back and a red headed boy stood over him.

Allison set her bag down quietly and melted herself down into a puddle moving along the ground until she was just in front of Sam. The three boys stared in wonder as the puddle at their feet swirled and then began to rise like a snake, winding about Sam's legs and the barely recognizable form of a girl became evident as Allison partially solidified herself forming a watery shield in front of Sam. The flames flickered and died against her and let out a burbling laugh.

"Ghost!" the one cried before dropping onto all fours and bound away as quickly as he could, up, over, and under the beams as he bolted.

The other one had a little more sense and wits about him and the fireball he'd created grew vastly in size and warped into the shape of a dragon. The flaming dragon blew more fire from it's mouth at Allison and Sam but it just sizzled against her and died. Allison stretched herself out and threw herself like a blanket over the dragon and in a great amount of sizzling noise and steam, the dragon disappeared as Allison nimbly landed on solid feet and stood up again. As she faced the red head, the steam in the air pulled itself towards her as she continued to become more and more solid. "And who might you be, Sheila?"

"You can call me Hydra," she replied crossing her arms over her chest. "And that was a nice pyrotechnic display there yourself. But you're going to have to do a hell of a lot more than that when you're facing me. So might I suggest that you save the bravado for another day? Scram," she ordered shooting her eyebrows up and he stepped backwards tripping over a low beam and fell onto his back. He scrambled up, shot her a backwards glance before disappearing into the dark. She turned back to look at Sam who was patting himself down quickly as if shocked to not be singed. "Are you okay?" she asked and he looked back up at her in surprise.

"Yeah. Thanks. How'd ya do that?"

Allison just shrugged as she leaned over and picked up his gear bag and handed it back to him. "I took a gamble that water couldn't burn...and that the fire wouldn't be able to just blast right through me either."

"Y-ya took a gamble?" In the darkness, Allison couldn't make out his exact reaction but she had a good feeling that he probably didn't look pleased.

"What? You think I was certain before I jumped in there? Hell no," she said ducking under a beam as they walked back to where she'd left her own bag behind. "I just wasn't gonna let you get bar-b-qued," she said with a shrug before slinging her own bag over her shoulder. "So why were they talking about Tabby anyway?"

"Tabby used ta be at the institute fo' a while an' then decided that she didn' like havin' ta live by the rules, so she moved in with the Brotherhood. Guess she finally decided we were the better choice in the long run."

"I don't think I blame her if those are the creeps she's been living with."

Sam shrugged. "Toad's pretty pathetic actually. Ah mean, ya saw fo' yo'self there. John's a bit crazy but seems ta meh he's scared of somethin'. He don' normally go pickin' a fight unless there's someone pushin' 'im inta the ring."

"So I wonder what the big push was?" Allison mused as they walked out to the mostly empty parking lot. There were still some kids hanging around by their cars, but they were few and far between. She caught Sam's gaze over the truck bed and held it for a few moments causing her to blush as she tossed her gear in. "You wanna go do something?" she asked. "We might still be able to catch a movie or maybe grab a bite somewhere."

"Sure," he said with a shrug as he climbed into the cab. Allison followed suit and started up the engine. "Ah know a pretty good diner not far from here," he suggested and Allison nodded as he started to give her the driving directions.

They pulled up outside of a 24/7 diner and Allison parked near the door so they had a relatively short walk into the nearly empty diner. They seated themselves at a booth across from one another and pulled the menus that were tucked behind the napkin dispenser. They ordered burgers, fries and cokes from a middle-aged waitress and Allison leaned back in her seat, playing with her straw wrapper. "Does this stuff happen often?" she asked breaking the silence.

"What stuff?" Sam asked raising his eyebrows.

"The confrontations. And if you're right about John being pushed, then there's something bigger to it than them being pissed on Tabby ducking out on her share of the rent." Her straw wrapper tore and she frowned before setting the pieces down and picking up her drink instead. "Maybe we should ask her why she left?"

Sam looked thoughtful for a moment, studying the fizzing bubbles of his drink as if divining a response from that. "We'll ask, okay? But there ain't no use in worryin' 'bout it now. Ah'm pretty sure John's not gonna mess with ya fo' a while now."

Allison gave him a weak smile in return and nodded. "Sorry, I'm just trying to get used to it all. I mean, I learned that I'm a mutant only a few weeks ago, and now I'm learning that it's going to put me into a lot of fights whether I go looking for them or not. There should be a scorecard to keep track of who's who."

"Ya don' have ta fight," Sam said leaning forward onto his crossed arms that were braced along the edge of the table. "Nobody wants ya ta feel that way. The whole point of trainin' is ta help ya control yo' powers as well as prepare ya fo' the absolute worst. Yo' new here anyway, so s'really unlikely that the professor would even ask ya if ya wanted ta fight. Ah rarely e'er get asked mahself. So don' worry, okay?" Allison nodded again and Sam let out a sigh before slowly standing up and switching sides of the booth so that they were sitting hip to hip as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Look, Ah'm sorry that ya even felt like ya needed ta step in tanight. Ah coulda handled those guys if it came down ta it."

"I'm not upset about tonight," Allison explained. "I'm worried about all the other times it could escalate into something worse."