The girl wouldn't stop talking. Words tumbled out of her mouth almost as fast as Pietro could run. She didn't even seem to be breathing. She made so many gestures with her hands and the smile she'd given her was still there, even as she spoke. The high pitched tone made Gabrielle want to stab her eardrums and render herself deaf for life. She didn't want to be rude and tell her to shut up. She had to be polite and bear with this audial torture. What had she done to deserve this?

The girl who spoke at a rate of a hundred words per minute was Katherine Pryde. Gabrielle wouldn't have believed that this valley girl was a member of the X-Men if she hadn't seen it for herself. The girl had stated she preferred to be called Kitty but Gabrielle could think of several other things to call her, none of which were pleasant. The sound of the bell was a blessing and Gabrielle quickly excused herself. She gathered her things and practically ran to the door, walking out of the classroom and into the rush of students seeking to maneuver through a crowd and towards their destinations.

"Oh, won't this be fun?" Gabrielle grumbled under her breath and rolled her eyes.

She struggled to push through the crowd to reach her locker, quickly swapping her textbooks and closing it. She then pushed through the crowd again but ended up being swept away. She struggled and muttered curses but her efforts were in vain. She ended up bumping into a student and books showered them. They hit the floor and were attacked by falling books for a few seconds. Gabrielle hesitantly lowered her arms from her head and glanced at the redhead who was rubbing her head.

"Je suis désolé!" She quickly apologized and tilted her head to the side a bit. "You're not hurt, right?"

"No, no. I'm okay. One of the books just sort of hit me a bit too hard." The redhead replied before she tilted her head up.

Gabrielle immediately recognized who the redhead was and it was all thanks to Miss Chatterbox. This redhead was Jean Grey, the telepath of the X-Men. She had green eyes as well but lacked the vibrancy of Gabrielle's emerald eyes. It seemed that today she was meeting every X-Men and she couldn't complain. She was learning so much about them all especially when formalities made it that much easier. Never would have Gabrielle imagined that etiquette was this glorious. A telepath would pose a threat to her if she wasn't several steps ahead of her. There wouldn't be a way to read her mind, no matter how much she tried.

A fake smile spread across Gabrielle's lips as she extended her hand. "I'm sincerely sorry. My name is Gabrielle Beauchene and it's my first day here. The nerves must be making me into a major clutz."

"You're new?" The redhead repeated before she took Gabrielle's hand and shaking it. "I'm Jean Grey. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." She replied and her fake smile only seemed more cheerful. "Here, let me help you with that." She began to pick up some of the books and formed a little stack before handing it to redhead.

Gabrielle stood up and held her arms out, offering to hold them so Jean could stand up. The redhead smiled and handed the younger girl her books. She fixed her backpack on her shoulders before she slowly stood up. She smiled as she took her books back, struggling to hold them all but refusing any more help. The first warning bell rang and Gabrielle merely glanced up at the ceiling before looking at the redhead again. Jean struggled to keep her books balanced but that fake smile wasn't fooling anyone. She was in desperate need of assistance and had too much pride to accept. She was already as annoying as Miss Chatterbox.

"Well, thank you, Gabrielle. See ya around!" She wobbled with the weights of her books as she maneuvered into the dwindling crowd.

"Well don't you make friends fast." He whispered into her ear, sending a chill down Gabrielle's spine.

Gabrielle spun around quickly but he was gone. She stood there, hands balled into fists and ears straining to hear him. The air began to settle before her as time caught up with his movements. There was a light squeak of sneakers coming to a stop and a breeze caressing her back. She exhaled a soft sigh and slowly turned around, casually leaning against the locker and training her emerald eyes on the sapphire ones that were sizing her up. She rolled her eyes to show her distaste for his actions but it only seemed to encourage him further.

"Don't you look striking today, Gabs~" Pietro cooed and sped away just in time to dodge Gabrielle's punch.

"Don't call me that." She stated flatly and crossed her arms over her chest again as she relaxed against the locker.

"Okay, fine, Gabrielle." He replied and then propped his hand on the locker beside her, leaning in close to twirl one of her strands of hair around his finger. "So tell me, whatcha doing buddying up to X-Geeks?"

She moved his hand away from her and closed her eyes, knowing that he wouldn't cease his annoying antics. "I'm gathering information. They don't know I'm a mutant or that I'm with you guys. I'd like to keep it that way until I figure out everything I need to know."

"Oh?" He asked as she piqued his interest. He was curious how she planned to do that so he reached out to toy with her strand of hair again. "And how do you plan to do that? Blast them with pretty lights?" He asked mockingly and his grin only infuriated her.

"Don't be stupid." She slapped his hand away and opened her eyes, emerald boring into sapphire with an intensity that caused Pietro to take a precautionary step back. "I plan to do this with etiquette. Now you and the boys better steer clear of my path or I'll have to make you."

Her words didn't allow Pietro to put in his input. She walked right past him, shoving him aside with her shoulder. He was too stunned by the look in her eyes that he'd seen that he was unable to snap a comeback. The second bell rang before she could make it to her class but she felt at ease. The day was going great and it wasn't even lunchtime yet. At this rate, she'd have everything by the end of the school day and could drop her act around the X-Men.

For her third class of the day, she had a class with one of the X-Men, the one known amongst his team as Spyke. Evan Daniels was the typical underachiever. She observed him throughout the class as she took notes on the lecture. He was slumped over his desk, playing with an eraser that he'd turned into a mini skateboard. He pretended his fingers were a skateboarder and took pride in his little tricks. The sight was quite pathetic. She didn't want to glimpse into his mind out of fear she might find something in common with the human porcupine. She pushed the thought aside as the teacher instructed the students to take a few minutes to get to know their classmates before the class was over.

She slowly rose from her chair and walked a few paces towards the dark skinned boy, standing by his desk. He didn't notice her so she had to clear her throat to catch his attention. He glanced up at her while his fingers toyed with the makeshift mini skateboard. She extended her hand to him but he didn't take it. He made no attempt to speak to her or move. Gabrielle wanted to punch the living day lights out of this kid but exercised self restraint. She smiled as she kept her hand extended to him.

"Hello, I'm Gabrielle Beauchene, the new student here." She stated and waited to see if he'd take her hand.

"Uh... Cool." He hesitantly took her hand, his warm fingers sending a shiver down her spine. "Name's Evan Daniels."

"Evan, huh? Well it's nice to meet you." She replied before they both retracted their hands from the handshake. It had been a very light touch since he was wearing fingerless gloves but she still managed to take in information.

Her brows furrowed as her mind processed the images and voices. She'd learned nothing useful. His mind was cluttered with skateboarding and it was all she received. She didn't learn anything about his role as an X-Men. If she wanted to know more about him, she'd have to touch him and focus on scanning for what she wanted to know. This one was going to require effort on her behalf. The teacher called everyone back to their seats so Gabrielle simply waved at Even over her shoulder. She sauntered over to her desk and sat there for role call. As soon as the last name was called, the bell rang to signal the end of class. She stretched her arms above her head and made her way to the gym as fast as she could. Her next class was mixed martial arts and she couldn't wait for this class. Finally something that wasn't boring or useless!

Ten minutes later, Gabrielle was standing in a line with other students, facing their instructor. This was her fourth class of the day and the last one before lunch. She was feeling really pumped up that she couldn't stop rocking back and forth on her heels. The black sweat pants and gray t-shirt with white sneakers really made her feel light. The uniform was lighter than she had thought when she unfolded it. She snuck glances at the students but paid them no mind as she knew that none of them were a mutant. She felt that her luck had run out and that this was going to be a class with no mutants until she saw them.

Kurt was wearing a white t-shirt and black sweatpants with gray sneakers. He seemed very uneasy and very close to his mutant friend. He hadn't seen Gabrielle but that was probably because he was furiously whispering to the mutant girl at his side. The girl at his side sporting the black sweatpants and halter top with gloves was Rogue, the mutant that Kitty feared. She didn't know anything else about the girl because it was something Kitty tried to push to the back of her mind and pretend it wasn't part of her life. This class would give her the best chance of extracting information from them both.

"Alright! We're going to have exhibition matches to see how much you all know about fighting. The match will be over when the opponent is on the floor. I will intervene if I think you're going too far, understood?" The instructor called out in a booming voice.

"Yes, sir!" They all replies in unison and went to sit on the bleachers as he called out names.

The first five matches were rather boring to watch. One had been more of slapping contest between two girls than a fight. A boy beat his opponent by simply shoving the charging boy to the floor. Another fight had been like a really bad game of patty-cake. Gabrielle sat with her head resting on her palms as she wondered if anyone in this class knew what they were doing. She sat up when her name was called and grinned as she heard her opponent would be Rogue. She stood up and jumped from bench to bench until she'd made it to the bottom. She took the center of the mat and propped her hands on her hips while Rogue seemed extremely hesitant to come down. It took her about thrice as long as Gabrielle to descend and when she took the floor, she was hugging her shoulders to herself.

"Aren't you going to assume a stance? Maybe at least try a defensive one?" Gabrielle asked, feeling insulted that this girl would consider her too weak to even make a move.

"Don't you worry 'bout mah stance." Rogue practically spat at her.

"Fine but don't cry when I beat you." She snapped back and smirked as she readied her fists at her sides, ready to take the offensive at the sound of the whistle.

The sound of the whistle was all Gabrielle needed to hear to lunge forward. She quickly closed their distance and swung two punches at Rogue, having alternated between her fists. Rogue simply dodged but made no attempt to put her arms up to defend herself. She waited a split second for a counterattack but none came. Gabrielle narrowed her eyes and lifted her right leg up, aiming a kick to Rogue's open abdomen. Rogue managed to catch her foot but that didn't stop her from skidding back a few feet. Rogue blinked in surprise and nervously glanced around, seeing that they were about five feet apart now. She eyed Gabrielle, wondering how this girl had such strength.

Gabrielle smiled at the confused girl and shrugged her shoulders. She then rushed forward again it this time Rogue charged in as well. They met halfway through and began throwing punches. They were toe to toe with their moves. When one punched, the other blocked. They leaned back to avoid multiple hits and stepped around the other's foot. They were incredibly close to each other, almost mirroring the other's move but even so, there had been no skin to skin contact. That is until Gabrielle tricked Rogue into thinking she was going to punch her and instead delivered a knee kick to her abdomen.

Rogue let out a choked gasp as the wind was knocked out of her and reached out for Gabrielle's face. Her pale fingers touched her cheek and Gabrielle's eyes widened as she felt a shock. She immediately jumped back, letting Rogue double over on to floor. Gabrielle inhaled sharp breaths of air and her knees trembled. Kurt rushed to Rogue to help her sit up and the instructor ordered him to take her to the nurse's office. Gabrielle couldn't process anything. Her mind was a blank. She felt weak and scared. She couldn't breathe so she reached up to clutch her neck, wanting to scream but the world was changing. She could no longer see anything. She was slipping into a terrifying world and there was no one there to save her. She collapsed on to the floor and somewhere in Russia, Klara was weeping for Svetlana.

To Be Continued

Author's Note

And with that note, Gabrielle has met every X-Men that is currently attending right now. Since this takes place right after Survival of the Fittest and before Shadowed Past, the only X-Men attending right now are Scott, Jean, Kitty, Evan, Kurt and Rogue. What do you guys think of this little fiasco? Let me know in the reviews! ^_^