Chapter 5

Pietro was sitting on the edge of his seat as he kept his eyes on Ellie. She looked at him from the corner of her eye for a few seconds, but he did not hold her attention. Pietro grinned to himself, happy that he was the one to find her instead of the other boys in the Brotherhood. He jumped when Ellie snapped her head toward him.

"Something caught your eye, kid?" she spit. Pietro cleared his throat.

"I could ask you the same question," he replied coolly.

"What?"

"Well you had to have been looking at me, looking at you, so did something catch your eye?" Ellie was grinding her molars together.

"Had you not been staring me down I would not have addressed the situation at all!"

"Miss Dingo!" Mrs. Graines angrily said. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Nothing," Ellie replied, her eyes narrowed at a now smiling Pietro.

"Well it certainly did not sound like nothing. Maybe you will tell me in detention tomorrow after school." The class started "oohing" in unison.

"Maybe I can correct your grammar while I'm at it." Ellie was referring to the sentence that Mrs. Graines had just written on the chalkboard. Pietro's mouth fell open.

"I beg your pardon?" Mrs. Graines asked loudly. Ellie smirked at her.

"You used the wrong form of the word "there". Your sentence should be "The two took t-h-e-i-r dog to the park, not "The two took t-h-e-r-e dog to the park"," Ellie corrected. Mrs. Graines was fuming.

"Honestly, what kind of Advanced English teacher are you?" Ellie continued with a scoff. Pietro looked between the two women quickly.

This girl definitely had spunk. This could mean one of two things for Pietro. One, she would jump at the chance to join a group of fellow delinquent's, or two, she was going to fight his attempt. Two seemed more likely.

Before Mrs. Graines had a chance to reply the bell rang. Ellie was the only one to stand up in the room. Everyone sat wide eyed as they watched her approach the chalkboard. Ellie licked her thumb and rubbed out the improper "there" before writing in the correct form with chalk. She slammed the chalk onto Mrs. Graines wooden desk before leaving the room. Everyone had now started to whisper while they gathered their things. Pietro hurried out of the room only to be caught in a swarm of students. He scowled as he realized he had lost her.

Ellie stood in the cafeteria that was bustling with students as she looked for Eli. She was growing a bit anxious seeing as how he did not make it a point to meet with her before class this morning. Ellie was nudged in the shoulder and her eyes instantly narrowed.

"Oh sorry, I didn't see- hey wait a minute, you're the newbie from this morning!" Duncan Matthews said as he pointed at her. Ellie scowled at him, her forearms and hands growing hot.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" she spit at him. Duncan glared at her.

"You need to learn your place around here, kid!" Duncan grabbed onto Ellie's shoulders roughly.

"You need to take your hands off my sister!" Eli angrily said as he approached the two. He quickly shoved Duncan backward with as much force as he could.

"Well it's about time," Ellie laughed as she held her fists up, readying herself for a fight. She furrowed her brow when Eli grabbed onto her shoulder, shaking his head from side to side.

"Are you serious?" Ellie asked him in disbelief. "You mean we aren't going to clobber this creep right now?"

"No Ellie. I mean c'mon he's like half my size," Eli laughed. Duncan scowled at the two before turning away from them.

"You're both a couple of freaks," he told them before walking away. Ellie could feel her hands burning as she watched him walk away.

"Ellie, you need to calm down now," Eli told her. "I know he made you mad, but it's fine. You don't want to blow your cover." Ellie sighed before looking up at him.

"Why didn't you find me this morning?"

"I was going to contact you with the communicator but I had an impromptu Danger Room session this morning. I'm sorry El." Ellie crossed her arms over her chest.

She was more upset with Eli than she was angry, but she was unhappy that he seemed to be so caught up in his new life that he was forgetting about her. Had he been with her this morning Duncan probably would have just left her alone, she wouldn't have been late for class and then she would have had a good first class. Ellie scolded herself for these thoughts. All she ever wanted was for Eli to be happy and that's what he was.

"Do you want to eat lunch with me?" Eli asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. Ellie nodded in response.

She followed behind Eli as he approached a long table in the center of the cafeteria. Kitty recognized Ellie instantly and waved to her. Ellie gave her a small smile in return before sitting next to Eli. She scanned the table, examining everyone there. A tall boy with glasses sat next to an attractive girl with red hair, and she was sitting next to Kitty. Beside her was a boy with a goofy smile and deep blue hair which finished off that side of the table. On the other side of Eli there was a girl with white and brown hair that was talking to Bobby Drake next to her. A dark skinned boy with blonde hair was sleeping at the end of the table.

"Ellie, these are my new friends from the Xavier Institute," Eli began. "This is Kurt, you already know Kitty, Jean, Scott, Evan, Bobby, and Rogue." He pointed to everyone as he introduced them.

"Guys, this is my sister Ellie," he told them. Everyone greeted her, minus Evan who was still asleep.

"Yeah, hi," she replied, uncomfortable.

"So like how are you liking Bayville High?" Kitty asked. Ellie shrugged.

"It's school," she replied plainly.

"It's so weird that you two are twins yet you don't have powers," Rogue said as she leaned forward so she could see Ellie. She didn't respond.

"Was it hard for you growing up with a brother who was special?" Jean asked. Ellie remained quiet.

"Ellie's a bit shy," Eli laughed trying to break the awkward tension. Ellie rested her head in her hands as everyone continued talking to each other.

Across the cafeteria…

In the corner of the cafeteria Fred Dukes sat with his housemate Todd. The boys were waiting for Lance and Pietro to arrive to see if either one of them had found the new mutant yet. Fred ate a large sub-sandwich while Todd twisted his pinky finger into his ear. After a few minutes, both Lance and Pietro joined them.

"Where have you guys been?" Todd asked.

"We were looking for the new mutant, Toad," Lance started. "Something that the two of you should be doing."

"Hey, we've been lookin'," Fred said. Pietro scoffed.

"Yeah, well I have actually found her," he told them. Toad raised his eyebrows at the news.

"Her?" he asked. Pietro nodded.

"Yeah. She's small but she has a really big attitude. Her hair is blonde, her eyes are blue and she has like ten piercings in her ears," Pietro told the boys. Toad grinned.

"Sounds like my kinda chick," he told them as he waggled his eyebrows.

"I met a girl this morning," Fred said. Everyone ignored him.

"Her name is Ellie and she is wearing a red t-shirt, ripped jeans, sneakers and an X-Men communicator on her wrist," Pietro explained. Fred thought to himself for a minute.

"I met her this morning," Fred inserted. Now everyone paid attention to him.

"You what!" Pietro yelled. "You met her and didn't tell any of us?" Fred shrugged.

"Well I didn't know we were lookin' for a girl," Fred said defending himself. Pietro slapped his forehead.

"Aw Blob, you're useless," he told him. He looked at the table where the X-Men usually sat and sure enough she was sitting there.

Pietro rubbed his pointed chin as he looked around at the group. Everyone was chatting as usual, but there was a huge blond boy sitting with them today. Pietro sneered as he realized he must have been Ellie's boyfriend or something. He looked back to Blob with a grin.

"Say Blob, why don't you see if little Miss Ellie wants to join us for lunch," Pietro told him.

"Yeah, do that!" Toad happily agreed. Fred rubbed his Mohawk.

"I dunno, what if she says no?"

"Say no to a handsome guy like you? Never. Now get to it," Pietro ordered.

Still unsure of the plan, Fred waved to Ellie across the cafeteria. Pietro watched from his chair as she lifted her head from her hands and smiled at Blob. She looked to the boy that she had been sitting next to, said something to him, and started to approach their table. Pietro grinned to himself when Ellie stood next to Blob.

"Hi Fred," she said with a smile.

"Hey. Do you wanna eat with us?" Fred asked, motioning to the boys. Ellie looked around at them all, her eyes narrowing as they landed on Pietro.

"You again?" she asked as she put her hands on her hips. The other three boys looked to Pietro.

"You following me now?" he replied with a smirk. Ellie rolled her eyes.

"I would eat with you Fred but my brother already asked me to eat with him," Ellie told her large friend as she pointed her thumb back at the other table.

"Brother?" Toad asked as he craned his neck to see.

"Yeah, Eli. He's my twin," Ellie added. The four boys exchanged confused glances.

"Wait, so the X-Men have two new recruits? We're toast!" Toad screamed as he grabbed his head.

"Way to go Lance! You told us there was only one!" Pietro yelled. Lance narrowed his eyes at Pietro.

"Kitty only told me it was one!" Lance yelled back. Ellie stood idly by with her eyebrow raised at the arguing boys.

"I'm not an X-Man," she told them. The boys instantly quieted down.

"You're not?" Blob asked her. Ellie shook her head.

"You guys obviously know about the X-Men so I suppose it's safe to say that I'm not with them. I'm not a mutant," she lied expertly. Pietro furrowed his brow at her.

"But you have that communicator," Lance pointed out. Ellie examined her wrist accessory.

"I have it to keep in contact with my brother. He's the new X-Men member," she explained. The boys starred at Eli from across the room.

"Well then we don't need you. You can go now," Pietro told her as he waved her away with his hand. Ellie wrinkled her nose at him.

"Fine, I didn't want to sit with you anyway. See you around Fred," Ellie angrily shot back before walking back to the other table.

"You didn't have to be so mean to her," Fred told Pietro, a bit sad that his new friend wasn't going to be joining him.

"Yeah man, way to blow a good opportunity," Lance pointed out. "You really expect Eli to join the Brotherhood after being a complete prick to his sister?"

"Oh he'll join," Pietro assured them. "I'll make sure of it."

A/N: Thank you to those of you that are reviewing this! It means a lot. Also, sorry for the delay on this, it's been a busy week.