The bell rang, shocking me out of my thoughts. Of course, as much as I didn't want them to, they had settled on Lance. Lance, that was his name. He was tall, dark, and handsome, though not in the traditional sense of the cliché. I shook the image of him from my head, his dark hair falling over his deep eyes, and raced towards the gym. Stopping only briefly in the locker room to change into gym clothes, I made it out to the field only a few minutes late. Coach grumbled at me, but quickly gave me a break as she saw the apologetic look on my face and heard the snickers of the other girls. Everybody, even the teachers, knew I was terrible at sports, so the teasing grew louder as I lined up in front of the sand pit. I started to make a run for it, getting ready to practice the long jump, but stumbled over my own two feet and fell face first in the sand. The grainy, salty texture coated me and filled my mouth as the laughter, led by Riley and Amy, roared. I pulled myself up and spat out sand, while Coach pulled me aside and told me I'd get it next time.
"Let me show you how it's done, freak," Riley stepped up to the line and crouched, ready to sprint. Despite the anger bubbling up inside of me, I watched as Riley sprang forwards, racing like a gazelle and then leaping towards the sand pit with perfect form. I was just about to turn away, to groan at how unfair it was that she was so dang athletic, when the ground came up to meet her. My eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped as I watched the sand pit rise to knock her down on her back. Riley screamed, and I noticed that Amy was going back and forth from staring in horror at her friend and glaring at me. I looked around, knowing it was Lance. There was no one else that could command the ground, and no other reason for something to happen. On the roof of the school, I spied three boys, one waving at me with a smug grin I could spot even this far away. I turned to run, heading for the roof, ready to tear into him and give him a piece of my mind, ignoring the flattery I felt that he had stalked me and used his powers to give that show-off Riley a taste of her own medicine. No, I didn't need his help and I wouldn't let that cute smirk stop me from chewing him out.
"Hi," I was stopped on my war path by a tall bombshell with long cherry locks. Her smile was friendly enough, but she looked so preppy and the confidence she moved and spoke with set off alarms in my head. Popular.
"I didn't have anything to do with Riley," I argued, stepping around her and into the nearest room, the auditorium. She followed me, despite the efforts I made to evade her.
"I never said you did. Are you okay?" she asked, her long strides easily catching her up to me.
"Yeah, I'm just great," I rolled my eyes, stopping to turn and look at her. What could she possibly want from me?
"That wasn't very convincing," she offered kindly. "I'm Jean. I'd love to talk to you about… well… what's been happening with you recently."
"What do you mean?" I looked at her skeptically. Did she know about me falling through walls recently? How could she? I doubted that if she did, she would be speaking so calmly with me.
"You've recently discovered that you have a new… talent, right? You don't really understand it, you can't control it, and it's really scary," as Jean went on I started to feel like she was pulling the thoughts right out of my brain.
"How do you know this stuff?" I looked at her amazed. How on earth could someone like her get someone like me?
"Well, because I'm using my power. I'm a telepath, which means…" she started to explain.
"You're in my head?! Get out! Just… leave me alone!" I ran from her, tears starting to stream down my face. I had made my way out of the auditorium and down the hall towards my locker, until I ran into something solid.
"I told you I'd be helping you out again," I looked up to see Lance's smile deflate. "Kitty? What's wrong?"
"I… then Riley… and then you… and now she's… I want her out of my head!" I managed to get out between sobs. His arms, which had caught me when I bumped into him, keeping me from falling, were now around me protectively, holding me to his chest. Without thinking, I balled my hands into his shirt, clinging to him, letting the cotton mop up my tears.
"What do you mean she's in your head?" he cooed, though I felt him become tense.
"That girl, Jean, she's a telepath," I looked up into his frown. "She knows… she knows what I can do and she knows what I'm thinking and…"
"Who's Jean?" he smoothed my hair back, his brow furrowing with confusion and concern.
"She followed me in. I was coming to yell at…" I stopped, realizing that I was letting the same guy I had been ready to tell off hold me so tenderly.
"Kitty?" Lance's eyes searched mine.
"You!" I pushed back, shoving my hands against him to push myself out of his embrace. "I was coming to yell at you! To tell you to leave me alone!"
"Whoa, calm down. I'm trying to help you, remember?" he stepped towards me, his arms reaching, but I pushed them away.
"You're not helping! Riley thinks I did that! She accused me of starting the quakes last night, too!" I jabbed my finger at him. "If anything, you made it worse!"
"Wait, Riley thinks you did that? Why?" his hands dropped to his sides and he ignored the finger I pushed into his ribs.
"Because that's what Ross told her," I snapped.
"I'm going to kill that bastard," he shook his head angrily.
"No, you won't. I'll just get blamed for that, too," I sighed. "Plus, how many times do I have to tell you that I don't need a bodyguard?"
"Hm," he studied me for a moment. "How about when you can take care of yourself, Kitten?"
"Kitty!" I dug my finger deeper into him. "Why can't you get it right?"
"Because you're so cute when you're angry," he grabbed my wrist and bent down in one swift movement, his lips brushing against mine. Sure, I was shocked and even a little bit outraged, but for whatever reason my body immediately reacted. My hands grabbed at his face, my body pressed into his, and I kissed back. I thought… well, ok, I wasn't really thinking at all, but I was surprised when he jerked back.
"Lance?" I looked up at him, feeling the hold he had tightening on my wrist, trying to figure out what had happened. I followed his gaze behind me, turning to see Jean standing there.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Jean blushed, "but I need to talk to you Katherine."
"How do you know my name? Get out of my head!" I could feel the tears start to build again.
"I'm not reading your mind. Look, I just want to talk," she spoke calmly and softly, despite the fact that I was yelling and crying.
"About what? How I'm a freak?" I spat.
"You're not a freak. I'm here with the professor of a school that can help you with your gift. We talked with your parents and they seem to think it'd be a good idea for you to come with us and learn control over it," she explained.
"Go? To some mutant school?" Lance interjected. I had almost forgotten he was there, besides the grip he kept on my arm until he spoke up. "Ship her off like she has some kind of disease?"
"Why would I need to go with you to some special school?" I tried to ignore Lance's comment and focus on getting my answers.
"To learn everything there is to know about your ability. Why you have it, how to control it, when and where to use it…" she started to tick off the reasons on her fingers.
"I didn't need some fancy school to learn control," Lance huffed.
"Lance," I elbowed him, but he just rolled his eyes at me.
"Excuse me?" Jean looked from me to him.
"He um, has an… ability, too," I offered.
"Well, you would be welcome to come, too," Jean offered.
"Who said I wanted to go?" he snorted.
"Lance!" I elbowed him again.
"I've heard of these types of places, Kitty. Your parents send you away to try to fix you, not help you," he whispered, lowering his head to my ear. The way his hot breath tickled my skin reminded me of his lips on mine just minutes earlier, the taste of mint with a hint of tobacco still mingling in my mouth. I pushed myself to focus.
"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. I mean, aren't you scared of what you can do?" I admitted. He dropped my wrist like my skin was burning him and gaped at me, his eyes shone with hurt.
"We're not like that," Lance and I looked up as Jean folded her arms over her chest.
"Yeah, right," he scoffed.
"No, really…" she started to move towards us.
"I've heard enough. I'm out of here," Lance cut her off with a wave of his hand and turned to leave.
"Lance!" I yelled after him, but he didn't turn back.
"Just let him go. Our school isn't the right fit for everybody and we don't want to force anyone," Jean put her hand on my shoulder.
"I'm not so sure it's the right fit for me," I turned to face her.
"I understand. I was hesitant at first, too. But, now, I can't imagine my life any other way," Jean smiled, her eyes staring off into space like she was daydreaming.
"I just, this is too much," I turned and ran off in the direction Lance had gone. I oddly felt like I could trust him, and he was the only one who seemed to know what I was going through. I mean, Jean was nice and all, but she was obviously not an outcast or anything, so I just didn't feel like she got it. I saw him just as I turned a corner, he was going outside.
"Lance!" I called after him, he paused at the door. "Hey, can we talk about this?"
"Talk about what?" he shrugged and we fell into step together, walking around the school building.
"Well, for one, the mutant school thing. It really set you off, and I just, I don't know much about this stuff," I started to ramble.
"Kitty, I… I can't talk about this," he shook his head. "It brings up some other stuff that I don't want to talk about."
"Oh," I bit my lip wondering what must be upsetting him so much. "Well, then maybe we could talk about something else. Like… you kissing me?"
"Uh," Lance stopped, turning to lean against the school and look at me. "About that…"
"Yeah, it was um," I paused. "Well, you kind of caught me off guard."
"I, well, I…" he trailed off. "Did I hurt you?"
"What?" and then I followed his eyes down to my wrist. I was unconsciously rubbing the wrist he had grabbed with my other hand. "Oh, no. I'm fine, I just…"
"Sorry," he frowned. "Here, let me see."
"Lance?" I studied him while he gently turned my wrist, frowning at the red marks from his fingers.
"Hm?" he brought my wrist to his mouth, lightly kissing the tender skin.
"Um," I started to try to think of something intelligent to say, but then he pulled me to him and lowered his mouth to mine again. We kissed for quite a while, his arms coming around my waist and mine settling on his shoulders, pressing our bodies tightly together. His back was pressed against the wall, but then, we slipped through it. I fell on top of him, our heads cracking together as we hit the ground.
"Ow!" he groaned, mumbling a few choice words.
"Did we just…?" I looked around the room, there was a desk, a big swivel office chair and a large book case. I'd only been in this office once or twice, when being rewarded for some important school thing, and I recognized it immediately. We were in the principal's office.
"Fall through the wall?" he moaned. "Yes. And now I see why it freaks you out so much. It definitely feels weird. And you're crushing me again."
"Oh, sorry," I rolled off him and then picked myself up. He stood up, too and I watched as he looked around the room, figuring out where we were.
"Huh," he walked around, examining some little trinkets on the bookshelf. "I've never been in here without getting yelled at."
"You get in trouble a lot I take it," I watched him nervously as he picked up a book and then put it back. "Not surprised."
"Oh and let me guess, you've never been in here?" he rolled his eyes.
"Sure I have," I swatted him playfully and his eyes narrowed. "But not because I'm in trouble."
"Figures," he chuckled. "So, I guess nobody knows you're not exactly little miss perfect. Well, except for me."
"You don't know anything," I shook my head.
"Oh, I think I know quite a lot. You're not this little goody-goody you pretend to be all day. You prefer to let loose, but you're scared of how it feels or what people will think," he paused before turning and looking at me square in the eyes. "And you're freaked out by this ability you have because it means you're not perfect and you can't hide that fact anymore. Sound about right?"
"Oh yeah? And what about you?" I countered. "You're not such the tough guy you pretend to be all the time. You don't talk to anyone about anything, at least not anything important or real or tough. And you hate yourself for your ability, but you refuse to admit. So what do you think about that?"
"I think we can skip a lot of talking to get know each other and go back to making out," he smirked.
"I think you hide behind your little jokes," I crossed my arms.
"What makes you think I was joking?" he moved forward to tower over me. "Pretty Kitty."
"ARGH! I said…!" I started to protest but then he captured my mouth with his again and I forgot all about the nickname.