Chapter 10

Bayville High (After final period)

Ellie's backpack rested over her shoulders as she walked through the halls of Bayville High. The heels of her sneakers scrapped the ground as she unhappily headed for her first period class for detention. As she started down the stairs she tied her hair into a ponytail, a few stray pieces framing her face as she did so.

"Ellie wait up!" Evan yelled as he ran down the stairs to catch up to her. Ellie stood at the bottom of the stairs with an eyebrow raised at him.

"Yes?" she asked him once he was by her.

"I wanted to see if you want to ride home with me and some of the guys." Ellie looked Evan over for a moment.

He was a little taller than she was but not by much. Evan had not made much of an attempt to get to know her yet which made her like him. Unlike her brother who was eager to befriend anyone who spoke to him, Ellie tried to stay clear of anyone who asked too many questions. When you are keeping a big secret the way that she was it was how you had to act.

"No thanks," Ellie told him. "I have detention." Evan raised his eyebrows at her.

"Really?" he asked.

"Really. I didn't really get off on the right foot with Mrs. Graines and I'm paying for it now."

"Well okay, but the Professor is gonna be so mad at you." Ellie shrugged.

"Yeah I know. I have to get going now though so maybe I'll catch a ride next time." Evan nodded before running down the hallway to catch his ride.

Ellie watched as Evan disappeared through the doors with a small smile on her face. After leaving HYDRA she had figured that she was never going to have an opportunity to make any friends other than her brother. Her smile faded as she thought of HYDRA once again. Although she had not been physically harmed by any of the scientists she was left with many emotional wounds.

It made sense to her that scientists would be intrigued by mutants but she did not understand how anyone could experiment on a child. Although the situation was unfortunate, she was glad that Eli was the first to be modified. His additional power had been accepted into his body without any complications meaning that the experiment was a success and Eli was no longer needed as a test subject.

Ellie pulled herself out of the thoughts from her past and made her way to homeroom. She sighed a sigh of relief when she noticed that Pietro had not arrived yet. Ellie took her seat in the back of the classroom and put her backpack on her desk. She rubbed her temples with her fingertips as if she was going to massage her memories from her mind.

A familiar tingling sensation tickled her arms as she continued to rub her head. Unlike Eli, Ellie's modification did not get completed. She was poked and prodded for days as the scientists, two of which were her parents, tried to fuse the power of fire to her already existing X-gene. The experiment had been interrupted when another mutant escaped from the facility.

Ellie was only allowed to be around Eli in the facility so she was unaware of who the other mutants in captivity were. When the alarms had gone off in the laboratory during one of her treatments she overheard her mother say that X-23 had escaped. Frightened by this news, the scientists dispersed in search of their test subject, leaving Ellie behind. Ellie could feel her skin burning as she continued to remember the events.

Seeing her chance to escape, Ellie had pulled the needles from her skin and ran to her holding room. The door had been locked from the outside and Ellie had no idea where a key would be. It crossed her mind to run but she knew that she could not leave her brother behind. Realizing what she had to do, Ellie focused all of her energy into her arms. Her skin started to itch from her elbows down, and it started to tingle shortly after.

Before she knew it, her arms were covered in fire and she could feel the heat under her now flame covered skin. She grabbed onto the lock of the door and watched as it turned red and start to melt. Once the lock was gone, Ellie pulled her brother from the room and started to run. Ellie jumped in her seat as Pietro touched her shoulder.

"Whoa, what's your problem?" he asked as Ellie looked around frantically, her chest heaving up and down. He watched her quietly as she pulled an inhaler from her backpack and took a hit of air from it.

"Don't you ever do that again," she told him as she focused on her breathing. Pietro raised an eyebrow before sitting next to her.

"You have got to be kidding me. Don't you control wind or something? Why do you have asthma?"

"I control air and asthma is actually really common." Ellie unhappily looked to the front of the room to try and ignore him.

"Well at least I know your weakness now." Ellie looked to him obviously annoyed.

"Do you ever stop talking? Honestly, don't you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?" Pietro smirked at her as Mrs. Graines walked into the room.

"Ah yes," she said as she noticed the two. "My two little troublemakers. You will both be here for half an hour and before you leave you will receive letters to your parents that describe what you have done. I expect them to sign it and you return it tomorrow."

"A letter to our parents? I thought this was high school not elementary school," Ellie thought to herself.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Graines but I do not live with my parents," Ellie explained.

"That's unfortunate for you." Ellie took a deep breath to maintain her composure.

"I am living at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters at the moment. Would it be alright if my Professor signs it?"

"I suppose that will have to do. Now, both of you be quiet." Pietro leaned back in his chair as he pulled a notebook and pen from his backpack. He scribbled something down and threw the notebook onto Ellie's desk.

Ellie tried to ignore what Pietro had just done but curiosity got the best of her. She glanced down at the notebook and examined his writing.

"So, you wanna tell me why you pretended to be normal?" she read to herself. She hesitated before writing on the page herself and giving him the notebook, a process that became routine quickly.

"Not really." Pietro read to himself before writing back.

"Stop making this so hard. I bandaged you up, kid. Now just answer my questions."

"Whatever. I need to keep a low profile. That means no powers."

"Why do you need to keep a low profile?"

"That's really not your business. All I'm going to say is that I need to watch my back."

"Is your brother in the same situation?"

"Unfortunately yes. Eli is my number one priority and I'm doing everything that I can to keep him safe from anyone who wants to harm him. That includes you."

"Ouch. You're even snarky on paper. If I wanted to harm your brother I would have done it by now. I'm more interested in you at the moment."

"Which is exactly why I don't like you. You are too nosey."

"So call it my only flaw. I could point out all of yours if you'd like."

"Get to the point Pietro."

"I want you to join the Brotherhood. The X-Men do not need anymore members and seeing as how you are staying with them now, I bet you're thinking about joining their team. You could really shine on my team."

"You are really bad at this persuasion thing, you know that? I have agreed to join the X-Men's new recruit team anyway. Charles Xavier has extended his hand to me and I trust him. Unlike you." Pietro scowled after reading this.

"Stop passing that notebook to each other!" Mrs. Graines scolded. "This is detention, not time to pass notes to each other." Pietro slid the notebook back into his backpack before pouting in his seat.

Ellie sat with her chin resting on her hand as Pietro starred her down. He was not going to take no as an answer from her. Knowing that she was going to put up a fight to join the Brotherhood, he made sure to keep some leverage. His eyes darted to his unzipped backpack and landed on a small black book within it. After discovering this book in Ellie's backpack the previous night he discovered that it was full of valuable information. He made sure to slip it into his own bag this morning before giving Ellie's to Fred to return.

Since she turned him down today, he was going to spend his night digging through that book for anything that could convince her to join the Brotherhood. Pietro zipped his backpack shut and grinned to himself.