1. Rochelle

**ROCHELLE**

"Get Out!" roared Ian Thomas "Get Out!"

A scared figure lay on the floor, clutching a baby girl, barely a week old. "I love you Ian! Why should this change anything?"

"You're a freak! I never want to see you again!" He gestured to the infant, who was now crying, "And I'll take her."

The woman walked out the door, paused- and faded into nothing. As Ian watched the footsteps of the invisible woman that he once loved, he said to his daughter "Let us forget this, and hope this is gone for good"

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14 years later...

Rochelle Thomas bolted from the councilor's office in her school. Stupid people, she thought. They think they can help you, but too bad! They can't! And why... why did they have to ask what she was good at.

The truth was that Rochelle didn't know what she was good at. She was failing all her subjects at school, regardless of all the tutoring, extra help, and study time she had. Music: she had been failing grade one piano for the last five years. Sports: anything and everything she tried she was utterly hopeless at. As far as Rochelle was concerned, she was a complete failure. She didn't even have looks. She was average height and average weight with dirty blonde hair. The only thing that was the least bit special about her appearance was her pale, pale brown eyes. They were so pale that they were almost beige; unfortunately, they were almost always bloodshot from the late nights of fruitless studying.

She stopped and collapsed against the door to the roof of her school. Sobbing. What's the point of all this? Nothing was ever going to come out of her hard work. She looked up at the sign on the door above her and saw her answer.

She took off. Running faster and faster up the stairs, across the roof, and off the edge. "OH SHIT!" screamed Rochelle, "What am I doing?" She let her tears flow freely. What did it matter? She knew that she was going to die. Rochelle shut her eyes and braced herself for the impact, and death.

She waited. Was she already dead? Had she missed the 'splat' completely? She knew she was standing on solid ground, though. This wasn't at all what she expected death to be like. Confused, Rochelle opened her eyes and found herself standing outside the school.

She could hear the announcements starting inside, but she did not move. Rochelle was in shock. She had not been hurt at all, whatsoever! "It must have been an angel", she said aloud. And then... Rochelle smiled. Rochelle couldn't remember the last time she had smiled, at this very moment, she was happier than she had been in her entire life. If an angel had saved her, then she was meant to do something.

Rochelle decided not tell anyone about what had happened. Who would believe her anyways? She knew that classes would be let out soon so she ran inside to find her bags. As she was skipping down the hallway (yes, Rochelle Thomas was skipping), the principal was talking about the basketball tryouts after school over the PA system. This stopped her right in her tracks. "Basketball! Yeah! I haven't tried basketball yet." she said to herself.

Just then the bell rang. People came pouring out of classrooms all around her. She scooped up her bag and left. Unfortunately, basketball would have to wait for another day. Either her Dad or her step mom would be there to pick her up in 10 minutes or so.

Rochelle was sitting on her normal bench in front of the school. Since she had no friends, Rochelle was always deep in thought. "I wonder what my mom was like" she thought "Dad said she died while I was being born. Man, I really did screw things up" She quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. "I wonder why Dad wouldn't say anything about her. I know it must be a painful subject, but I deserve to know".

Just then, her cell phone rang.

"Hello"

"Hi Rocky, I'm afraid that your step-mom and I took your brothers to Whistler for the day, so we won't be able to pick you up for a while."

"WHAT?! and you didn't bring me! I love skiing!"

"Sorry Rocky, I would have invited you, but I forgot"

"Ouch", thought Rochelle, but she said "Okay, that's fine. What time will you be here, then?"

"Probably around six. I know that's 3 hours from now... but my girl can tough it out!"

"That works!" said Rochelle excitedly, thinking about the basketball tryouts that she would now be able to attend, "Bye Dad!"

"Bye Rocky"

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Rochelle was a little late getting to the tryout, but her tardiness was soon forgiven. She was a natural! After the tryout was over, the coach approached Rochelle.

"Hey Rochelle!" the coach shouted.

Rochelle stopped and looked back at a stunned Mrs. Tye.

"Oh, um... hi!" said Rochelle awkwardly.

"Listen Rochelle" said Mrs. Tye "I have never seen so much talent in a girl before. You must have been playing for years."

"Well, actually... no, not exactly" replied Rochelle.

"Anyways" said Mrs. Tye excitedly, "Would you by any chance be interested in playing on the senior team?"

"YES!" yelled Rochelle, almost crying, "YES! YES! YES!"

"Alright then, we have a deal. Practices are Mondays and Thursdays, games are on Wednesdays." and with that, Mrs. Tye left the gym.

Back in the change room, Rochelle was approached by a girl from her gym class, Chloe.

"What?" said Rochelle who was filled with confidence from her new found basketball skills.

Chloe just exploded "If you think for one minute that you are going outshine me at this, then you've got another thing coming!"

Rochelle just looked a Chloe with her stone face on, like she always did when people were mean to her and forced herself to say, "What's the other thing coming?"

Chloe glared at her and said in a whisper "Do you remember my brother? My football captain older brother? Well, we happen to be quite close." She stormed off, leaving Rochelle alone.

Chloe's brother- Rochelle shuddered at the thought. He could snap her arms like twigs. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But as she walked towards the parking lot, she passed the place where the angel had placed her safely on the ground after her attempted suicide earlier that day. "No" she said, "I'm going to keep going and no mean girls or football players are going to stop me. This is my life, my calling."

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The next few weeks went by in a blur for Rochelle. Everything was turning around. Of course people still teased her, but she would never let them know that it bothered her. She had always had this talent, this special ability to not let her emotions show. It was her stone face, her cold, emotionless face. It was a little creepy, but never the less it worked.

One Monday evening, close to the end of basketball practice, things started to go wrong. Every time Rochelle tried to dribble, the ball would go down and then stay there. Nobody could figure out why. The ball worked fine for all the other players. They tried multiple new balls, but nothing worked. Practice ended and everyone shrugged it off, assuming that this was just some strange one time thing.

As soon as Rochelle left the gym, she wanted to burst in to tears, but she kept her stone face on. It just wasn't fair! Why was this happening? Was the angel telling her this wasn't what she was supposed to do? But she loved basketball! She was nothing without it. Maybe it'll pass, she thought. She went home and that was the end of all things wierd... Until the big game on Wednesday.


	2. Manifestation

**MANIFESTATION**

Rochelle was pacing back and forth in front of the players bench. The game was starting in 10 minutes. What if the strange with the ball happened again? What if Chloe was watching the game? Rochelle couldn't think of anything good about this situation. Nothing at all.

"Oooh... you stupid girl"

Rochelle looked around. Chloe was standing right behind her with a cold smile that sent shivers down Rochelle's spine.

"You made a mistake!" hissed Chloe her voice shaking with rage, "A big mistake! and let me tell you: you will not be leaving this building tonight! You got that?"

Chloe's stormed out of the gym, leaving poor Rochelle shocked. Just then, the buzzer sounded.

"Thomas! What are you doing? Get out there! Now!" yelled Mrs. Tye.

The jump ball was won by her team and the ball went straight to Rochelle. Oh god! Please let this work! The ball was in her hands and she took off. She could dribble again! Yes! Perhaps things weren't going to be so bad after all.

About half way through the first half of the game, Rochelle couldn't dribble any more. Determined not to show Chloe that she would give up easily, she didn't say anything. Her team lost the ball but one of the guards picked up before the other team could score. She figured out a way of catching and passing the ball so that nothing went wrong, but didn't dribble at all. With 11 seconds left in the period, Rochelle found herself a few feet away from being within shooting distance, but there was no one to pass to. 10...9...8...7

"Thomas! Dribble, for god's sake. Dribble!" yelled her coach.

Rochelle held her breath and moved forwards. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. The ball was moving towards the floor.

6...5...4

It hit the floor and bounced! Rochelle bolted to the net and finished the period with a beautiful lay up, scoring just as the clock hit zero. The score was tied at 48 and the team left the gym for a pep talk.

"Oh fuck" said Rochelle under her breath, "This is NOT good." There were two football players stationed at every door. She stuck close to the coach; that would hopefully discourage them.

"Laura, good passing; and Tina that was an amazing defense move out there" Mrs. Tye rambled on, "Rochelle that was an exceptional lay-up, the teams little rock sure knows how to play"

Rochelle smiled weakly, but her mind was still on the big boys smirking at her from the doors.

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The second period started. Rochelle was put on defense. "Oh great" she thought, "No getting around dribbling this time." Fortunately everything seemed to be going smoothly. There weren't any problems. "Okay, I can do this" thought Rochelle.

Everything came crashing down when she waved to her fellow defense player. She prepared to catch it in one hand and take off. When the team member passed the ball, instead of moving through the air, the ball was repelled backwards, like it hit a solid wall at full force. It didn't even go forwards. Just back, with amplified strength. The referee blew the whistle, the girls nose was bleeding.

Rochelle stared at her hands. It had to be! No! It couldn't be! Whatever was going on, she was a threat. Completely forgetting about the football players, she sprinted towards the nearest door.

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At the Xavier Institute:

"X-men, Rogue will have to wait until another night, I believe we have a situation" said Professor Xavier as he entered the conference room, "The mutant we have recently discovered has been using her powers extensively. We have to move quickly and find her before she gets home"

"But why?" asked Scott, "Wouldn't home be the safest place for her and the best place to approach her?"

"Not in this case, Scott." replied the professor, "You see, Ian Thomas is a fierce mutant hater. I fear that Rochelle may not be safe at home at all."

"Okay team! Let's go!" said Scott.

"Oh, and Scott"

"Yes professor?"

"Remember, this girl can be rather... destructive"

"I understand professor"

He ran out the door, followed by Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, and Kurt Wagner.

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"There she is!"

"Get her!"

"We can corner her down this way!"

Shouts echoed behind Rochelle as she ran. She didn't know where she was going or what she was doing. Nothing mattered. She just had to get away. What had happened back in the gym? What had she done? What was she?

In all her confusion, she ran straight into a brick wall. Rochelle turned around to see a stampede of football players. She backed into a corner and put her hands in front of her face. Just as a huge fist was about to make contact with Rochelle's forehead, she tensed her hands to keep them from shaking. She made them as tense as she could, and suddenly she felt a strange pressure on her palms.

Rochelle barely even noticed her attackers fly 20 feet backwards through the air. It was like someone was pressing on her hands, but... how? How was any of this possible?

The football players advanced on her again. She knew what she had to do. She tensed her hands and aimed her palms at the boys. Once again they were repelled backwards and Rochelle ran.

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She ran and ran. Not exactly sure where she was going, other than away. Anything or anyone that got in her way, she pushed out of the way using the invisible force from her hands. Out of nowhere, a girl appeared. She was wearing a strange costume. Surprised, Rochelle ran right into her. No, through her.

"Like whoa" said the girl, "You totally gotta chill Rocky."

Rocky? Only Rochelle's Dad called her that. How did this girl know her nickname? Wait a minute. How did she even know who she was?

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" said Rochelle in a panic.

"We're the X-men and we just to, like, want to help you. That's all." said the girl, "No need to have a total freak out."

"But...but..." Rochelle began.

-BAMF-

Rochelle turned around and stared into a set of blank golden eyes looking at her.

"Get away from me you freaks!" she said as she took off, once again.

Rochelle started to feel faint. She had to stop. She collapsed against a tree. She was in the demonstration forest about a 5 minute drive from the school. That meant she was also halfway from home. That's where she would go. That's where it would be safe. She would have to get there soon, but she couldn't bring herself to move yet.

When her breathing had almost returned to normal, she could see four figures coming towards her out of the dark. Rochelle held her breath, maybe they wouldn't see her. There were two shorter figures and two taller ones. As they drew closer, she could see them in detail. They were all wearing costumes like the girl she had seen earlier.

"Wait a minute!" thought Rochelle, "The girl! She's there and the creepy one with the blank eyes."

One of them spoke; it was a boy's voice, with a strong accent- German or something.

"Ve're here to help you, Rocky. Please don't be afraid."

As the boy approached her, she could see that he was not human at all. He was the demon with blank eyes. She screamed and pushed the strangers away. She kept her hands up, ready, but not tensed. If they came back, she'd be ready. What were these "beings" trying to help her with? Could it be the strange power her hands possessed? No! They wouldn't know about it. But then again, how did they know her name?

Meanwhile, about 40 feet away, the X-men where all lying on the ground in pain.

"Like whoa!" said Kitty as she staggered to her feet, "What happened?"

"The professor was right" said Scott, "She is powerful, very powerful."

"Poor girl" said Jean, "All this power and all at once must be really scary."

"Well, we have go back and try again" said Scott.

"Vell then, after you" said Kurt, "Vhat are ve vaiting for?"

"I...I can't move forward" said a rather confused Scott.

"Neither can I" said Kitty, "This is totally weird."

"Kitty, vhy don't you try phasing forwards?" suggested Kurt.

"Okay, I'll like give it a try" said Kitty

Kitty advanced a few feet and stopped.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" yelled Kitty, "I am like totally not doing this. It hurts like crazy, like I'm splitting in two!"

"Don't worry, Kitty. You don't have to." said Jean, "There's obviously not going to be any getting close to this girl. I'll try contacting her telepathically."

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"Rocky, my name is Jean Grey. I know you must be..."

"WHERE ARE YOU?! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Rochelle tensed her hands and a wave of energy knocked the X-men backwards.

"I'm in your head; I'm not going to hurt you."

"NO! Get out! NO! NO!"

"Rocky, calm down. I'll answer all your questions. Just think what you want to know"

Why not? It would be more information to give police. She knew that her Dad would go to the police the minute he found out about this.

"Who are you and how do you know me?" thought Rochelle.

"We are the X-men." said Jean telepathically, "We're like you, different. With special abilities. We have a computer that picked up your mutant signature. It told us everything about you."

"Mutant? What's that? I'm not a mutant, am I? Isn't that a bad thing?"

"No, no!" thought Jean, sounding as comforting as she could with her telepathy, "Yes, you are a mutant. No, that's not a bad thing. It makes you special. It means you have special powers. It makes you what everyone else dreams of being. Do you trust me?"

Rochelle thought hard. She didn't want to believe it, but she did. She was scared and confused. She really wanted help, and nobody else was offering it. Yes, she trusted them.

"I trust you." thought Rochelle, as she put her hands down, "You can come."

"Okay, we'll be right there. Just stay where you are." thought Jean in reply.

"She's going to let us come." said Jean to the other X-men.

"Great! Lets go!" said Kurt, as he prepared to teleport the team to where Rochelle was waiting.

"Whoa, hold it right there, Kurt." said Scott, "I wouldn't go back there looking like that if I were you."

"Oh ja!" said Kurt with a laugh, "Zat could cause some problems."

Kurt activated his image inducer and the team disappeared in a cloud of sulpher smoke.

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-BAMF-

The X-men appeared in front of Rochelle. She shrieked, but stayed more or less calm. She had braced herself for anything. The blank-eyed demon was gone, and replaced with a black haired boy.

"Rocky!" said Jean, "Oh thank god you're still here!"

"Okay, just tell me everything." said Rocky.

"Yes, I will" began Jean, "This is Scott, Kitty, and Kurt. We are from the Xavier Institute. Now, the Xavier Institute is a place where we, mutants, can learn to control our powers."

"And... you want me to come with you there?" asked Rochelle.

"Yes," said Scott, "But first we need to talk to your parents."

"Okay, that's not a problem!" said Rochelle excitedly, "I'll take you there right now! It's not that far from here."

The X-men looked at her awkwardly. Rochelle stopped smiling, and resumed her stone face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Well, you see" said Jean, "It's not exactly the safe for you at home."

"Um... am I missing something?" said Rochelle, now rather frustrated with these people.

"Rocky, your Dad knows about mutants." said Scott, "In fact, he was a well known mutant hater. So, we don't know how he will react when he finds out about you. It could possibly put you in danger. That's why we have to wait for the professor."

"Ve know vhere you live. " said Kurt, "I'll port us there..."

Rochelle gasped. "You! You're... you're the demon! I'm not going with you, do you think I'm crazy?!"

Kurt suddenly got very quiet and looked at his feet.

"Rocky, Kurt may look totally creepy but he's actually like really sweet." said Kitty sweetly. She pressed a button on Kurt's watch and hugged the blue creature. "He's just a cute, fuzzy elf."

Kurt gave Rocky a weak smile, showing a set of fangs. Although she was scared, Rocky managed a small smile as well.

"Okay, then! Now that we've got that over with, let's get going." said Scott.

-BAMF-

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An instant later, Rochelle was standing outside her house.

"What the hell was that?" she asked.

"That" said Kurt cockily, "Vas teleportation, courtesy of the fuzzy dude!"

"Cool" said Rochelle, "I like it!"

"Rochelle" said a voice coming from behind her. A bald man was coming towards here in a wheelchair. Finally! Someone calling her Rochelle.

"Rocky, meet the professor." said Scott.

"Nice to meet you, professor." said Rochelle politely, offering her hand.

The professor shook her hand and went straight to business.

"Rocky, I would like to offer you a spot at my institute. Are you interested?" asked the professor, "I believe my students explained the concept to you."

"Yes, yes they did" said Rochelle, who was starting to get nervous, "and I definitely want to go. I just walk around this town being a nobody. I'll go anywhere that I'll be accepted."

"Very well" said the professor, "Now we must talk to your father. Whatever happens, we'll be there to help you. Are you ready?"

"Yes" said Rocky, "Yes."

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When Ian Thomas opened the door, a horrifying sight met his eyes. There was Rocky, his little girl, standing there beside a man in a wheel chair. Behind them was a group of four teenagers in uniforms. They had to be mutants.

"Rocky" he said, "Get inside."

Rochelle just stood there.

"Dad" she said, "Give them a chance, please."

Ian grabbed his daughter, pulled her inside the house and slammed the door.

"Rochelle Thomas! What in the world gave you the idea that you could bring that mutant scum here with you?! Why were you with them? Are you out of your mind?"

"Dad!" screamed Rochelle, almost sobbing, "I know you hate them, but do you hate me? Do you hate me now that I'm a mutant?"

"You're what?!" yelled Ian. He had never been so mad in his life. This could not be happening. He never should have kept Rocky. How could he ever have thought that he could save her by sheer isolation?

"Dad, I am a mutant, whether you like it or not. I want to go to the Xavier Institute to get help." yelled Rochelle, "It's the best thing for me!"

"You are not going!" shrieked her father, "You will not be living that long."

Outside, the X-men could hear shouting, but they couldn't make out words.

"I'm getting concerned" said the professor, "Kitty."

"I'm on it!" she said.

Kitty phased through the door just in time to see Rochelle being thrown through a sliding glass door. Rochelle tried to run back towards Kitty, she was bleeding badly. Her dad cut her off; he had a piece of broken glass in his hand and was advancing towards his daughter, preparing to stab her.

Kitty screamed, "Rocky! Use your powers! Now!"

Rochelle tensed her hands and like before, energy emerged from them, pushing her dad back through the wall behind him at full force. Just then, Scott blasted the door open with his eyes.

"Rocky! Get your stuff, we'll hold him off." said Scott, "We're getting you out of here!"

Rochelle sprinted to her room and dragged the big suitcase out of her closet. She stuffed in all her clothes, her laptop, her special blanket, and the picture of her mom. The whole process took about three minutes. She didn't want to keep the others waiting so she ran down the hall as fast as she could with her heavy suitcase. When she got to her front door, Scott took her bag, in order to save time. Everyone ran into the black van that the professor had arrived in, except for Kurt who simply teleported. As soon as the door was shut, the van speeded out of the driveway and they were free of Rochelle's murderous father.


	3. The Xaiver Institute

**XAVIER'S INSTITUE FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS**

Rochelle woke up in luxurious room and immediately went into a panic. This wasn't her room. She looked out the window; this wasn't even her city. There was a knock on her door. Rochelle hid under the bed.

"Rocky?" said a girl's voice, "Like, where are you? The professor like, needs to see you."

"Kitty?" said Rochelle from under the bed. The previous night's events returned to her slowly. The nightmare basketball game, the people chasing her, her dad attacking her, and the black van. Rochelle began to cry. Kitty crawled under the bed beside her.

"Aw, Rocky." she said, "Don't worry about anything. I'm sure you'll totally love this place! Even if you don't, you can just like leave at any time."

"Thanks, Kitty" said Rochelle, "It's just it's kinda scary moving to a new place overnight to escape from someone trying to kill you, ya know?"

Kitty giggled, "Yeah, that would be like kinda scary. Hey, let's be like friends. What do you say Rocky? Are you ready?"

Rochelle smiled at Kitty. She already liked this place where everyone called her Rocky. It made her feel at home. Like she was special, she was Rocky. Hey! Maybe that could be a superhero name. That was pretty much what she was, wasn't it?

"Let's go!" said Rocky.

Kitty took her hand and pulled her up through the bed.

As she walked down the hall with Kitty, Rocky began to ask questions. "So, are we superheroes?"

"Well, yeah." said Kitty, "That like what we do here. We learn to use our powers to help people."

"Cool!" said Rocky, "Do we get cool names like Supertron or something?"

"Yes, but like not quite as supertron-ish type. I'm like Shadowcat, Kurt is Nightcrawler, Scott is Cyclops, and Jean like chose not to have a nickname." said Kitty, laughing, "You're funny, ya know."

"Really?" said Rocky, "Nobody's ever given me a compliment before!" She gave Kitty a hug. That's what friends do, isn't it? Kitty didn't seem to mind, it must be right.

"So, if there's other people like us, then how come I've never seen any of them?" asked Rocky.

"That's like one of the most sucking things about being a mutant." said Kitty, "We like can't let anybody know outside of the institute. Not even our friends. It's like just too risky. The world would like totally freak if they found out about us, ya know."

"Oh," said Rocky, slightly disappointed, "Yeah, I guess everything couldn't be perfect about this."

"Sometimes being a mutant totally sucks." said Kitty, "Actually it sucks like most of the time, but there's nothing we can do about it. We might as well like just try and enjoy it. The professor is in there, just knock. I'll be around if you need me, se ya!"

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Kitty walked through the wall opposite from the door and Rocky was alone. She knocked on the door.

"Come in, Rochelle."

Rocky walked into the room. The professor was there, along with a big, tough looking man and a woman with white hair and tanned skin.

"Did you have a good sleep?" asked the professor.

"Y-yes... professor." said Rocky feeling very small and intimidated by the adults who must also be mutants.

"There's no need to be scared, Rochelle" said Professor Xavier, "This is Logan, and this is Ororo. I promise you, they mean you no harm."

Rocky nodded.

"So, I understand that you have recently developed the power of generating force fields."

"Yes, professor" said Rocky.

"Now, you must be very careful, Rochelle." said the professor, now sounding very serious, "You are very powerful, your force fields are amazingly strong, and they will only get stronger as you grow older. You may even develop more powers. It will be a long and particularly difficult journey through adolescence for you. "

"Oh great," said Rocky, "You mean this isn't all I'm going to be stuck with?"

"First of all, we never think of our powers as a bad thing here." said Ororo, "You have a gift, be proud."

"Okay..." said Rocky, "I can do that. So what do I have to do to control this 'gift'?"

"Well, here's the problem," said the professor, "As far as I can tell, you won't get full control of your powers."

"Well, when I tense my hands, I push things away. I know that much." said Rocky.

"Well actually, when you just hold up your hands you are generating a weaker force field, which only retains distance. Nothing can move towards you."

"Oh joy!" said Rocky sarcastically, "So I can never use my hands again?"

"No, you just can't flatten your hands. We'll be helping you to learn how to do things without activating your powers." said Professor Xavier.

Rocky felt a little bit better, but she didn't really like this. She remembered what Kitty had said about making the most of her powers and asked the professor, "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow", he said in a matter of fact, no nonsense voice, "You must master these skills before you start school here, in a week. Logan, please escort Rochelle to the dining room so that she can join the other students for breakfast."

"Breakfast!" thought Rocky. She was very hungry. She had done a lot of running the previous night, and she had not had dinner.

"Come with me, kid" said the big man in a gruff voice.

As the two of them left the room, Rocky heard Ororo say

"Charles, this girl could be dangerous to us all. What are we going to do if we lose her trust?"

"Storm, I truly believe that regardless of this girl's destructive abilities, she is a good person." replied the professor.

Rocky smiled as she walked out of ear-shot.

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Walking down the hall with Logan, there was an awkward silence. Rocky didn't like it. She was relieved when she got into the dining room. It was noisy, filled with shouts and laughter. All the teens from last night were there. Logan left the room and Rocky stood there awkwardly, but only for a second. Kitty immediately ran up to her and grabbed her.

Breakfast was total chaos, but Rocky got to know the other students really well. They were great people. Even Kurt didn't seem so scary anymore. He was actually kinda funny. She learned that they were in Bayville, on the east coast of the United States. Wow! That was a long drive! The district was on spring break, so there would be lots of training sessions to attend with Logan, who she learned was also known a Wolverine.

After breakfast, Kitty showed Rocky around the Mansion. There were many large, magnificent rooms, like libraries and conference rooms; but the really impressive rooms were even bigger and made entirely of metal. Rooms like the danger room, which had all sorts of machines, designed to attack people who were inside in order to improve the students abilities.

The week went by quickly; Rocky learned how to control her powers, and how to use them for defense. With Logan's training methods and threatening, she found that she actually did have the skills to do many of the sports she had failed at before. Unfortunately, she could not play basketball, and she never would be able to again. She had figured out that there was no angel days ago. It must have been her force fields slowing her down.

An average day consisted of waking up a 7:30, fighting over the bathroom, fighting over the last pancake, fighting over who went last in the danger room, lying around in pain for the rest of the morning, fighting over the last sandwich at lunch, hanging out with Kitty, a session with the professor, fighting over the last piece of pizza at dinner, more hanging out with Kitty, and then going to bed, which included fighting over the bathroom again.


	4. Mutant Crush

_This is the last chapter that I have pre-written (I started writing this before I had even heard of this site). I was really hoping to get a few more reveiws, andI really, really, really wanted people to say it sucked. cough she's crazy cough_

_Just I want to improve my writting, but I can't do that without haters! Where are you? Damn them haters, always there when you don't want them to be and you can never find them when you do want them to be. Thats why we hate haters  
_

_Yeah, so this chapter is the first obvious link to the show (see title chapter located below). Personally, I think this one sucked and needs alot of work, but hey, it's hater bate! Just a warning, next chapter is going to be extremely long, and it might be a while before I get it up. But do you know what will make it magically appear faster? Thats Right! Reviews!_

**  
MUTANT CRUSH**

At the end of the week, school started. It was Rocky's first day at Bayville High, and her first day at school with her mutant secret.

"...and over here's the cafeteria" said Kitty, who was giving Rocky a tour of the school, "and down here is the language hall. Here's your first class, you better go. I'll like see you at lunch!"

"Thanks Kitty!" said Rocky.

Before Kitty left the room, she quickly pulled her friend back out into the hallway. "Just to warn you," she said, "The teacher's a bit of a spazz."

"Well that just fills me with confidence" said Rocky, "Can you come with me? Please?"

"Bye Rochelle" said Kitty, who was obviously getting annoyed with her.

"Fine, I'll go alone. Bye!"

Rocky had never transferred schools mid-year before, so wasn't really sure what to do. Kitty had tried to give her some advice, but the only words she could make out were the 'likes' and 'totallys', but they were givens. She found herself standing in front of the teachers' desk.

Rocky began to stutter, but managed to get out "M-my n-names Rock- I mean Rochelle" Damn! She had been so used to answering to Rocky over the last week that she almost forgotten her own name.

"I- I'm new here" she continued.

"I can see that" said her teacher, "When I heard you were coming, I gathered all this stuff for you, I hope we won't be repeating things that you already learned at your old school..." the spastic teacher said as she piled books, a large poster of the school's code of conduct, and an assortment of other things that Rocky was sure she would not be needing.

"You can take a seat over there" said the teacher, pointing to an empty desk beside a girl who was talking to two of her friends, who were sitting behind her.

Rocky took her seat and the lesson began. With about 10 minutes left in the class, a rather ugly boy started humming. Apparently, this was a regular occurrence. The teacher yelled in frustration and ran out of the room. Everyone began to talk with their friends. Rocky put her head down. She still wasn't completely over the time difference, so she was a little tired. She didn't sleep. It wouldn't be a good thing if she slept through a bell on her first day of school.

"You" said the girl beside Rocky, "What's your name?"

"Me?" asked Rocky.

"Yeah, you" said the girl, "Who else?"

"Oh, yeah... that's right, sorry." stuttered Rocky, "Um... Rochelle, my name's Rochelle."

"Wow, what's with the freak out?" asked the girl behind Rocky, "You're as bad as the teacher."

"Well, thanks" said Rocky, now more confident, "I just feel so welcome here now!"

"No problem, I'm Kysha by the way, this is Lindsay and Terra" said the girl behind Rocky, gesturing to the other girls, "Welcome to Bayville. Where you from?"

"The west coast of Canada" said Rocky, "I got here at the beginning of spring break"

"Cool" said Terra, "What block do you have next?"

"Science" replied Rocky, "With Mr. Bothwarte."

"Hey Lindsay and I have that block next as well." said Kysha.

Lindsay added, "Come with us, we'll show you the way!"

The bell rang and Rocky was dragged out of the classroom by the girls. Were these people her friends? They were sure acting like it, but it didn't feel right, like it did with Kitty. Well, maybe Kitty would be her best friend; these girls would just be casual friends.

When Rocky, Kysha and Lindsay entered the classroom, Kitty and Kurt were already sitting at the side of the classroom.

"I think I'm going to go and sit with my other friends for this class." said Rochelle.

"Nu uh uh" said Kysha, "Rochelle, you are going to stay with us. You're the new girl, you need help."

"Come on Kysha," said Lindsay, "Rochelle, lets meet your friends."

"Sure, why not" said Rocky, as she led them towards Kitty and Kurt.

Kysha and Lindsay exchanged disgusted looks as they saw who she meant.

"Rochelle! How vas your first class?" asked Kurt as Rocky approached him.

"It was a little boring, but then this guy in the back of the class started humming and the teacher ran away" said Rochelle, "And then I started talking to these guys!" She gestured at the girls behind her.

"The humming guy... that would be Todd." said Kurt, "We've done some 'extra-curricular' stuff with him. Not the most pleasant of people."

The rest of the class passed rather awkwardly, with Kysha and Lindsay whispering to each other and refusing to talk to Kitty or Kurt. After the bell rang, Kysha and Lindsay left in a hurry. Kitty went to her next class, and Kurt went with Rocky to math. Nothing of interest happened in the next class, aside from the teacher attacking Rocky with extensive tests to see what level of math she was at from her old school, making her very angry. Later during the class she pantsed him with her powers. Kurt said it wasn't a big deal, because nobody would realize it was her.

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When the lunch bell rang, Rocky went with Kurt to the place where the mutants usually ate their lunch. She saw Kysha, Lindsay and Terra walk by and exchange worried looks. Rocky looked away, she wasn't so sure that she liked these girls at all now.

"Whoa!" said Kitty, "Jean, is that like the guy that you and Logan went to see at the rodeo."

Rocky spit out her milk, "Holy Crap! That's big!"

"Who? Oh, yeah. Fred" said Jean, "He's actually kind of sweet when he's not ripping lockers off a wall."

"Was that was like really him?" asked Kitty.

She was cut off by Kurt.

"You and Rogue?" said Kurt laughing, "She's going to have to be some actor. Doing a love scene with a girl who thinks we tried to kill her?"

Scott and Kurt began to laugh uncontrollably. Just then, Fred walked by with a large tray of food. His face got very red and he glared at the two boys. He walked over to an empty table, but when he put his food down he slipped and the entire contents of the tray hit Duncan Matthews in the face. Before anyone knew what was happening a food fight had broken out.

Rocky deflected a large sandwich that was heading towards her and Kitty, but then some soup came flying their way. The soup not being dense enough for Rocky to stop splattered all over the two girls.

"Ugh!" exclaimed Kitty.

"You two stay here." said Jean, "This could get messy."

"Like that hasn't already happened?" said Kitty, while spitting the revolting cafeteria soup out of her mouth.

"Excuse us for skipping desert." added Rocky as Kitty phased them through the floor.

Kitty and Rocky ended up in the girls change room. Luckily, there wasn't anyone there to see them.

"This mutant stuff isn't too bad after all" said Rocky.

"Yea, it's like totally awesome in food fights" said Kitty with a laugh.

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Since they both had gym next block, they decided to get changed into their gym strip from their now brown and soggy clothing. In gym, the sport they were playing was badminton. Rocky enjoyed this sport a lot. The rigorous training with Logan over spring break had helped with all physical activities. She would not be able to participate in most of the sports in gym, due to the limited control she had over her powers.

After school, Rocky was outside, standing on her knuckles, wearing the X-men suit that she had been given soon after she arrived at the institute. Her suit was mostly black, like her team mate's suits. It had a yellow belt with the X-men's logo on it, below the belt the suit was black; above the belt, and the suit was bright red with a v-neck collar in yellow. There were more X-men logos on the shoulders, red boots, and yellow gloves. She had to learn gymnastics to improve her fighting skills, but unfortunately, with her powers, she could not land on her palms. Therefore, the easiest solution was teaching her how to land on her knuckles properly. Needless to say it wasn't working very well. But what choice did she have? None. Her powers wouldn't be controllable for years and years. Probably not until she was too old to do gymnastics anyways.

Nearby, Kitty and Kurt were playing a game of mutant keep away with a football. Rocky was playing with them earlier, but her powers made her unbeatable. Wolverine decided that she better make good use of her time.

Logan and the Professor were talking, when suddenly the professor received a telepathic message.

"Jean's been Kidnapped!" he said.

"Elf! Go find Cyclops." said Logan, "I gotta ride."

Cool! Her first mission! Rocky could hardly wait. She and Kitty piled into the X-van. Kurt joined them a few minutes later and they took off. At first they were just driving around, but then they received coordinates from Wolverine. Jean was trapped in a warehouse in the far end of town.

They arrived just in time to see Fred flying off towards the city dump. A red beam of light shone up through the roof of the warehouse.

"Yeah Cyclops!" yelled Kurt.

The three younger X-men cheered.

"Hey," said Rocky, "Scott's lying on the ground over there."

"Then... who?" said Kitty.

A girl with brown hair, white bangs and gloves came walking out of the warehouse.

"Who's that?" asked Rocky.

"Shhhh!" hissed Kitty and Kurt together.

"You are an Angel, Kate" said Scott as he looked into the girls eyes.

"Mah names not Kate." she said, "And ahm no angel."

"But you helped us?" said Jean, "Why did you do it?"

"Ah- Ah just don't know! Ahm so confused!" said the girl as she ran away.

"No! Rogue! Wait! Come back!" yelled Scott.

He tried to run after her but slipped and fell in the mud.

"We owe her." said Jean.

"Oh yeah," said Scott, "Big time!"

"So..." said Rocky to break the awkward silence, "Was that Rogue?"

"Yeah, that was her" said Scott, "She's one disturbed girl, and I don't blame her."

Back at the institute, later that night, Rocky couldn't sleep. That was a real shock. Her first mission. Her first mission! Why wasn't she excited? She didn't feel proud or exhilarated, just shocked. All the other X-men didn't seem bothered by the sight of that girl... Rogue. Well, maybe they were all just as afraid to admit it as she was. As she fell asleep, her thoughts drifted back to the subject of Rogue. The one she had heard so much about but so little about at the same time. Nobody had wanted to tell her what happened to Rogue, since she was still recovering from her own recent experiences. Rocky made a mental note to ask Kitty about her, as she fell into unconsciousness.


	5. The Freaks From the Institute

_Many thanks to Alley Alvers and keyko101 for your reviews and to everyone else who has also reviewed for me. A couple points:_

_-I live in a fantasy world where Rogue is spelt Rouge. I am Canadian, I'm learning French, I know that is what red is in french... BUT it should be spelt like that, cuz Rogue is like Row-goo._

_-My grammar and spelling is thanks to spell check and my good friend Chloe (fyi: just her name was used for this story, she is nothing like that)_

_-This chapter is very, very long, but I wanted to add the training sessions, cuz they're fun. There are parts of this chapter that are rather cheezy, but whatever, it's only fan fiction. _

_Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you (drum roll) CHAPTER FIVE! _

**THE FREAKS FROM THE INSTITUTE**

Morning came much too soon, but by some miracle (and a large amount of caffeine), Rocky managed to make her way to the danger room.

"Good Morning X-men!" said a voice that was much too loud for so early in the morning. Rocky could tell that her team mates were all thinking the same thing as her: OH-NO. Not today, not this morning. She was going to die.

The first one to speak was Scott, "L-Logan?" his voice trembling with absolute terror.

"Yeh got a problem with that, Kid? Okay, so today..."

Wolverine was cut off by Kurt, "But vasn't Storm supposed to do our morning sessions?"

"She's away, so yeh get me. Now, like I was saying..."

Once again, he was cut off, this time by a loud series of groaning and protesting.

"But Logan!"

groaning

"An man, I so tired"

more groaning

"Can't we just skip training this morning?"

even more groaning

"Please god! Have mercy on us!"

okay, the groaning is just getting old now

"Just kill me now!"

GODDAMMIT STOP GROANING!!!

"Will you just SHUT-UP!" snarled Wolverine; suddenly the large room became very quiet, except for the apparently rabid man's growling, "Now, the object of this course is to get this 500 pound block from here to the other end of the room."

"Alright!" said Rocky as she cracked her knuckles, "Stand back guys, I got it covered."

"Oh, and no powers." said Logan as he left the team standing there, speechless, "GO!"

"...Well this like totally sucks" said Kitty.

"Tell us something we don't know" groaned Rocky.

"We better start pushing" said Scott. Nobody moved.

"Um..." said Kitty, "Hey, Kurt. Why don't you like go first?"

He sighed, "Sure, vhy not? If ve van't breakfast, I'd better…" He took a shove at the block, "Did I say breakfast? I meant dinner."

"Come on guys" said Scott with an expression that was so obviously saying 'shoot me', "Lets push all together."

Everyone pushed together as hard as they could. The block moved an inch. This was going to be a long morning.

"Ja!" yelled Kurt, "Only 20 feet minus 1 inch left!"

Half an hour and 4 feet later...

"Okay, screw this!" exclaimed Rocky, "I'm done with this stupid pushing by hand stuff." She brought her hand up to the side of the block. "Just pretend it's still hard to push".

"Rocky!" hissed Scott, "That's cheating."

She stopped pushing with her powers.

"Okay, your loss" said Rocky.

"Scott!" yelled Kurt and Kitty.

"Hey" said Scott, "It's not my fault she chose this moment to start listening to me."

"That was like sooo not cool Scott." said Kitty.

"..." added Kurt.

"No! Not the silent treatment! No Kurt! Anything but...that." wallowed Scott, who was now on the floor crying like a little girl, "Come on Jean! Back me up... Jean? Jean?"

Jean groaned, "Just five more minutes, Mom!"

"Oh my god!" said Kitty with a hint of jealously in her voice, "She gets to sleep through this? That's like totally not fair at all!"

"No wonder she's been so quiet this morning!" said Scott in amazement.

"Vhatever!" said Kurt, "Rocky, push already, will you?"

"Kurt..." said Rocky.

"Ja?"

"We've moved 12 feet while we've been talking"

"REALLY?!" said Kitty Scott and Kurt.

"Well, I am rather insulted" said Rocky as she moved the block another foot.

Meanwhile, up in the danger room observation station Logan was jolted out of his sleep. "Must remember to choose a more interesting torture next time" grumbled the evil teacher. He had been rudely awakened by the annoying kids yelling 'Billy'. Who the hell was Billy? What kind of stupid name was Billy anyways? He looked out the observation window. The twerps had made good progress. They were laughing. LAUGHING?! He was a failure! A failure! He looked back to the window just in time to see Rocky push the block forwards. The little cheater! He got on the speaker, "I saw that big shot! I thought I was pretty clear when I said no powers. Correct me if I'm wrong."

"Sorry Mr. Logan" Rocky thought fast, "You see, I slipped and you know I don't have control over my powers. Oh, Mr. Logan I didn't mean to, please don't be mad. Please?" She started to cry.

"Oh, all right" said Logan, "Just make sure it don't happen again"

Wolverine stepped away from the window. And the X-men (not including Jean) burst into a fit of silent giggles.

"Wow" said Kitty in between suppressed laughs, "You are good!"

"I didn't know you had that kind of acting skill in you!" said Scott, "I mean- you fooled Logan!"

"No Mom!" grunted Jean, "I don't wanna go to school. The other kids make fun of me!"

"You, know ve should really record her saying all this stuff." said Kurt.

"You, know we should really continue pushing." said Scott.

Everyone looked at Rocky.

"I don't think so guys, Logan's watching us for sure now." said Rocky, "Come on! Only 2 more feet left! We can do this!"

20 minutes later, block finally touched the wall. Jean yawned. "Wait a minute" she said, "How did I get here? And why is my shoulder on fire?" She looked around at the four groaning figures on the floor in front of her.

"You don't remember?" asked Scott.

"Remember what?"

"Never mind, you don't want to know."

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The brave, undefeatable X-men walked proudly towards their battle: A day at Bayville High! (dun dun dun dun) With terrible enemies like the Mrs. Smith, the English class and the Math homework.

"My back is about to snap in half" said Scott.

"I am going to die" said Jean.

"Make the pain stop!" said Kurt.

"Must...kill...Logan...nyahahahahahaha" said Kitty.

"Kitty?" said Rocky.

"Hey guys!" said Kysha, "Whoa! What happened to you? You look like crap." The X-men glared at Rocky.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." said Rocky.

"Whatever" said Kysha, obviously trying to suppress conversation politely, "Rochelle, come with us. Ladies, lets go. Bye people."

Rocky managed to get in one apologetic look over her shoulder before she was dragged off by Lindsay. That girl was strong.

The girls dragged Rocky over to behind a tree, where the X-men couldn't see them.

"Rochelle!" hissed Lindsay, "Are you out of your mind?"

"Um...could you fill me in on the problem?" asked Rocky.

"Rochelle, it's your friends." said Kysha, "We need to tell you about them. As your real friends, it's our duty to protect you."

Rocky froze. She automatically assumed the worst. Did these girls know about them? Did they know that they were mutants? Stone face time. "What about them?" she asked.

"Well" said Terra, "We don't want to be mean, but..."

"Shut up Terra" said Kysha, "The point is that your friends are freaks from the institute."

"What do you mean by freaks?" asked Rocky, while thanking god for her stone face. Please don't say mutants, please don't say mutants thought Rocky.

"Rochelle, they're just different, that's all" said Terra, "Kind of outsiders, we just don't get along so well with them. But if you..."

"What Terra means to say is" broke in Lindsay, "They just keep to themselves, that Kurt kid won't let anyone touch him, and the taller boy always wears those hideous sunglasses."

Rocky was shaking with rage. They didn't know anything. They had no idea what it was like for them. They had no right to criticize them. "You assholes!" she shouted as she ran back towards the X-men. The bell rang and Rocky went to her first class, Science.

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Rocky made sure to sit far away from Kysha and Lindsay. She was still furious. Kitty and Kurt noticed that she wasn't saying much. During the lab, when everyone was talking and nobody would overhear them, they approached her.

"Rochelle!" whispered Kitty, "Something's like totally wrong. What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." whispered Rocky.

"Rochelle, tell us! Please." whispered Kurt, "It's obvious that you're upset."

Damn! They knew about her stone face. She couldn't fool them. But she was an actor! They had said so themselves just this morning. "Okay, you want to know" she said a little louder, "I'm in a lot of pain! I'm just in a bad mood. Pushing 500 pound blocks at 6 in the morning puts me in a bad mood. Is that understandable?"

"Oh" said Kitty, giving Rocky a squeeze, "Sorry for like assuming stuff." Kitty was smiling again, but Kurt just looked at her with a disappointed look on his face. He knew she was lying, but she ignored it. He couldn't force the truth out of her. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, so she would just wait until it all went away.

Rocky's next class was math. Great, alone with Kurt. This wasn't going to make it easy to avoid talking. She went straight to the classroom and put her head down on the desk.

This lasted about 2 minutes, until Kurt grabbed her arm and dragged her out the back door of the school. "Rocky!" he said, "I can tell you're upset, and it's not because of the training session. Vhat happened this morning?"

Rocky took a deep breath, "Fine, I'll tell you, but you have to promise that you won't get mad, and I don't agree with any of this, okay?"

"Sure, Rocky." said Kurt sympathetically, "Don't worry, I'll trust you."

"This morning, when they took me away behind the tree, they told me that you guys were all freaks." said Rocky.

"You mean they know?" asked Kurt with a hint of panic in his voice.

"No, no they don't." replied Rocky quickly, "They just said that you were loser freaks from the institute, but only because you act a little differently. Like Scott's shades and you not touching people, that stuff."

"But you live there too." said Kurt, rather confused, "Vhy do they vant you and hate us?"

"The problem is that they don't know!" exclaimed Rocky, "That's the problem!"

"Oh" said Kurt calmly, "Then you have to tell them, obviously."

"But how Kurt?" asked Rocky, "I don't know what to say, and besides, I'm still mad at them."

"One thing I've learned by... you know, being different is that real friends will be your friend regardless of where you live, what you can do, or… what you look like. Just wait until you calm down a little bit." said Kurt. Rocky couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks Kurt" she said. Just then, the warning bell went off.

"Come on, ve better get to class."

Math class passed in an eon of meaningless numbers and stupid stories about the teacher's 4 year old daughter. As boring as it was, Rocky dreaded the end of the class. Next block was English, with Kysha, Lindsay, and Terra. How was she going to avoid them? She didn't want to be angry during class. What if she attacked someone? She needed to get anger management help. Rocky couldn't stand knowing that she would be able to kill someone with her bare hands. It was just scary. The bell rang. She began to panic even more. Kurt sensed her uneasiness.

"Come on Rochelle." he said without hesitation.

"Where are we going?" asked Rocky.

"To find Kitty" said Kurt, "Ve're going to find her, tell her vhat you told me, and then ve're going to stay vith you until class starts."

"Thanks, but you don't have to." said Rocky, "You have to get to your own class."

Kurt dragged her towards Kitty's classroom. "Since vhen have I had a problem vith timing?"

Kitty, Rocky and Kurt were joined by Scott and Jean. Kurt helped Rocky explain the conversation she had with the three human girls that morning. Then they ate an entire bag on stale gummy bears. Pretty soon, even Scott was laughing at the lame jokes on the "Drink Milk" posters. It was a lot of fun, but all good things must come to an end. The warning bell rang and the group drifted apart. Kitty walked with Rocky to her classroom before going to her own. When they got to the door of the classroom, Rocky froze.

"Are you like gonna be okay?" asked Kitty, she looked a little worried.

"Yeah, I think so." replied Rocky.

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When she stepped into the room, she saw that there were only 2 seats left. There was the one she had sat in the previous day, the one beside Terra; it was definitely out. She headed to the other seat. It was at the back of the classroom, beside the boy who had been humming at the end of the last class. What had Kurt called him? Toad? That was a weird name. She wondered if he could be a mutant. But he didn't live at the institute. She decided that she wouldn't pay any attention to him.

The class started, the ignoring of Toad was going well, until they were given time to do their homework. Kysha and Lindsay were looking at her and whispering. Terra was looking at her pitifully.

"Yo Rocky"

She turned around to see toad leaning back on his chair with his feet on the desk. There was a few flies hovering around his head and he smelled utterly repulsive. He kind of looked like a toad. She just stared at him in shock, trying not to wrinkle her nose in disgust.

"Yep, I know." he said, "Hey make them look away, will ya. I'm hungry, yo."

"Sorry?" asked Rocky.

"Just make 'em look away" said Toad, "The flies look so good."

"Yea..." said Rocky, "I can't help you with that. However, if you are interested in knowing what's on the other side of the wall then see me."

"Whoa, you gotta lighten up, yo." said Toad defensively, "Cummon, just push their heads the other way."

"No Toad!" said Rocky, now thoroughly annoyed. The bell rang and she ran out the door, and nearly knocked Kitty over.

"Whoa, like where's the fire?"

"Over there" said Rocky, gesturing to toad.

The girls giggled.

"Like, come on!" said Kitty as they ran off to the cafeteria.

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"How did it go?" asked Jean as soon as Rocky sat down at the table.

"As well as an hour can go sitting next to Toad can go." said Rocky, expressing her annoyance in her voice.

"Ouch!" said Kurt, who was practically vacuuming up his lunch, "That must have been real fun."

"Well, he certainly is quite a character" said Rocky, "Makes a great first impression. Begging a girl to turn people's heads so he can eat bugs- charming."

"Eeeeewwwwwww" said Kitty, "Like, not when I'm eating!"

Everyone burst into a laughing fit. They were having a great time until the three girls that had insulted the X-men walked by.

"Oh...my...god" she heard Lindsay whisper, "I can't believe she still wants to be seen with them after all the stuff we told her!"

That was it! The last straw! Rocky felt herself going out of control. She had to go calm down. Somewhere, not here. There were too many people.

"I'm just going to go for a walk" she told Kitty, fighting to keep her voice steady, "If I'm not back for gym, then come find me, okay."

"Okay" said Kitty, "Do you like want me to come with you or anything?"

"Nah, all be fine." and with that, Rocky picked up her bag and left the crowded room.

Rocky arrived at the construction site behind the school. She dropped her bag and clenched her fists. Rocky was enraged. These girls were just trying to use her to make the X-men mad. Even though they didn't know that they were insulting her directly, it hurt. It really hurt. She set up a couple cinder blocks. She needed to smash stuff.

This is Kysha... CRASH

This is Lindsay... CRASH

This is Terra... she's not all that bad actually... PLONK

After knocking over several dozen more cinder blocks, Rocky was feeling less angry. She decided to head back to the school. By now, Kitty would be waiting for her downstairs. Rocky went in the door leading directly to the change rooms. As she expected, there was Kitty, unlocking the locker that they shared.

"Hi Rochelle!" she said, "Is everything like alright?"

"Yeah" replied Rocky, "I just had to blow off some steam. You know, break stuff."

"Oh, well it's a good thing you did that before gym then" said Kitty, "I mean, if someone just like bumped into you everything could go sideways."

"I know!" said Rocky, who was feeling a little frustrated now, "That's what sucks so much about this. I can hurt people! I don't want to hurt people. I can even hurt people by accident. Your so lucky to not be able to hurt people easily with your powers, Kitty."

Their conversation was cut short by a large group of girls entering the change room. Rocky was a little disappointed that she wasn't able to get a comforting word from Kitty, but she knew it was for the greater good.

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After school, Rocky walked home alone. She knew that it was stupid to let the girls hurtful comments get to her, but she didn't want to be seen walking back to the mansion with "the freaks from the institute". She took a long detour before finally, after making sure that know one she recognized from school was watching her, headed back to the institute. When she reached the steps to the front door, Kitty ran through the door, straight at her.

"Rocky!" she screamed, "Like where have you been? We were like so worried about you!"

"Oh," said Rocky casually, "I just got lost. I was having trouble with my locker and when I came out, you guys were gone. Then I ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere along the way. But I'm here now, so it's all good."

"Well, the professor like wants to see you anyways." said Kitty, she believed Rocky's story, "He's in his office."

"Okay, well I better get going then." said Rocky as she pushed the door open with her powers, "Bye Kitty! See you later!"

Once outside Professor Xaiver's door, Rocky knocked.

"Come in Rochelle" said the professor's friendly voice.

"You wanted to see me, professor?" asked Rocky as she sat down in the chair in front of the antique desk at which the professor sat.

"Yes," said Professor Xaiver, "I am aware of the incident at school today."

All that she could think of to say was, "Oh..."

"...and the real reason why you took so long getting home"

"Oh" repeated Rocky.

"You just have to remember that we are not freaks, Rochelle." said the professor reassuringly, "No matter what other people say, no matter what other people call us, we are just as human as they are. You understand?"

"Yes professor," said Rocky, "But sometimes it's hard to ignore."

"I understand, but just remember: we're a family here. The other students will understand and accept all your feelings. Don't keep secrets within these walls, there's plenty of time for that out in the world."

Rocky couldn't help but giggle at the professor's last comment. She liked his old fashion sense of humor. He was becoming almost like a new father to her. The theory that they were like a family at the institute was truer than she had realized.

"Yes professor" she said, "May I go now?"

He nodded and Rocky walked out the door and into her room to start on her homework before the afternoon training session outside.

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A little bit later, Rocky made her way out to the forest as instructed through telepathic message courtesy of Professor Xavier. When she got there, she was surprised to see the professor waiting for her and her team mates. The professor? He's going to do our session? Well this sucks, it's probably just going to be some sort of boring meditation. Rocky joined Cyclops and Jean Grey who were already there, and she could see Shadowcat and Nightcrawler approaching together. They were supposed to refer to each other by code names during training sessions. Of course they hadn't been doing so that morning, but the professor wasn't there then, it was different.

"Good afternoon, students." said the professor as Shadowcat and Nightcrawler joined them.

"Good afternoon, Professor." chorused the X-men.

Professor X sensed they're disappointment, "Don't worry, this won't be the least bit boring." Immediately, everyone began to puzzle. What was the professor going to teach them that would be exciting? "I heard about this morning's session" continued the professor, "I believe that it was very irresponsible of Wolverine to push you that hard."

"...and?" asked Rocky.

"And" answered the professor, gesturing to Wolverine who was walking towards the small group in uniform, "Go get him with everything you've got!"

"YEAH!" shouted the students.

"Wha?" said Wolverine, "Oh no!" He took off running into the forest. Of course all injuries the young mutants could give him would heal in a matter of seconds, but still, this was not going to be pleasant.

"Lets like go get him guys!" said Shadowcat with a very un-kitty-like evil grin on her face.

The students took off. Cyclops, Shadowcat, and Rocky running; Nightcrawler galloping on all fours, and Jean flying.

"Rocky!" yelled Cyclops, "Make sure he doesn't get away!"

"On it!" yelled Rocky in reply. A sustaining, flat hand force field that would stop any one else would slow him down enough for them to catch up she didn't want to spoil the fun and stop him completely. When they were within a few feet of Wolverine, Rocky released her hold on him. He tried to run, but Kurt teleported in front of him and wrapped his tail around the big man's ankle, causing him to trip. Shadowcat phased him through the ground and into the center of a large boulder. Jean then pulled him right up through the rock and lifted him into the air with her telekinesis then him slammed against a tree.

"Cyclops!" shouted Jean, who was obviously straining to keep her hold on the struggling man, "Now!" Cyclops pressed the side of his visor and a beam of brilliant pinkish red light blasted Wolverine right in the chest. Jean finally was able to release him, and she collapsed in exhaustion. Nightcrawler teleported Wolverine several feet above the tops of the trees for Rocky to force field him to the other end of the forest. Nightcrawler returned to the ground a second later, grabbed Shadowcat and disappeared again in a cloud of sulpher smoke. The team waited a few moments.

"What are they doing?" asked Cyclops, "They better get back here soon from where ever they've go..."

-BAMF-

"Commander the subject is underground and ready to be found a slaughtered again!" said Nightcrawler to Cyclops.

"Oh" said Cyclops, "So that's where you went." Nightcrawler looked at Cyclops, rather confused.

"Come on guys!" said Shadowcat, "Lets like get moving before he digs himself out!"

The rest of the session continued that was for the better part of two hours. Catch Logan. Torture Logan. Let Logan go. Rocky hadn't had that much fun for a long, long time. When everyone was thoroughly exhausted, the session finally ended. The X-men were laying around in one of the mansion's many living rooms. They were laughing at the wonderful images of their 'tough' instructor cowering against trees and hiding behind logs. Wolverine walked past them trying to hide his embarrassment, making them laugh even harder.

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Once the hilarity of the event died down (at about 11:00 that night), Rocky felt herself feeling nervous and self conscious again. As she got ready for bed, she dreaded the next day. Rocky knew that Kysha and her pack of back-stabbing bitches would find her and force her to talk. There would be no way around telling them that she lived at the institute. Either she would put up with them and hate them for the rest of her time at Bayville High, or she could get it over with, make them hate her and hang out with Kitty. The second option sounded much better. That was what she was going to need to do... but she was scared. This was silly! She had super powers! She was practically invincible! She shouldn't be afraid of anything. Rocky shook it off and tried to fall asleep.

The next morning, Rocky woke up early. Early even for the students at the Xaiver Institute. Now that was seriously early. Rocky groaned. There was going a training session starting in a few hours. Great, that's exactly what she needed. She had to get away, but the problem was how. Nobody would let her skip the session just because she wasn't in the mood. If she pretended to be sick, then she would be stuck in bed for the entire day, and she would just be procrastinating. She knew that she would continue feeling this way until she got over her fears and told the girls from school the truth. She could just leave, but then there would be a huge panic and a search party sent out. Apparently, the students were always in danger. But she could leave them a note. There would probably be hell to pay when she got back, but she could handle that. Rocky was always in trouble when she lived with her family, so she was used to it.

She ripped a piece of paper out of her school binder and scribbled 'Need some time, be back after school- don't look for me, Rocky'. She taped it to her door and made her way to the hanger.

She walked past the giant black aircrafts. This was a lot for their small team. She wondered if the professor was planning to recruit any more students. Rocky knew they wanted Rogue, but whether they were going to get her was another question.

She made her way over to the launch bay and typed in the number password to open the massive door. Her plan was to jump off the ledge, and land herself safely on the ground using her powers. She scooped up her back pack and stepped off the edge, letting her hands hang lightly above her head, praying that it would work. When she reached the ground, fully intact, Rocky wanted to kiss the ground.

"Creepy", she said to herself.

Rocky set her watch for quarter to seven, so she would know when to start heading to the school and began to walk towards a part of town that she knew she had not been to yet.

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After about an hour, Rocky arrived a large building with a sign out front saying 'Brotherhood Boarding House'. She gazed up at the ancient turrets. What kind of place was this? Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate. An earthquake! Since there was no place to go, she put her hands out, using her powers to stable her self.

Then, from inside the old building she heard a familiar voice, "Lance! I didn't mean it like that, yo."

"Toad" groaned Rocky, "Is that actually him?" Her question was answered by Toad himself as he went sailing out of a second story window. Was he okay? He seemed to be.

He looked up. "Yo" called the disgusting creature up to the window that he had just been dumped out of, "I think we've got and X-geek."

Uh oh, that couldn't be good. Rocky bolted. That was the only thing she could think of doing as the three teenaged boys who must be mutants headed for her. She ran and ran, but they were still following her, and gaining. Okay, lets make this simple thought Rocky. She turned around, extended her arm, spread her hand, and stopped the boys in their tracks. It worked! They were pathetic compared to her.

"Whatcha going to do now?" she said cockily. Whoa! Bad idea screamed Rocky's brain.

The boys smiled. They definitely had something in mind.

"This" said the boy with the brown mullet. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists and rolled his eyes into the back of his head. The ground began to vibrate. Rocky fell and let go of her force field. Immediately, Toad was airborne over her head. Rocky wanted to scream, but decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to let these boys know they scared her. Instead, she brought her hand in front of her face and tensed her hand, half a moment before Toad's foot collided her mouth. He went flying. She jumped back up onto her feet and created a really powerful force field, knocking the other two boys all the way back to their old buildings.

Just then, her watch beeped. Time for the real battle. She was still confused. She could take on three bigger boys with mutant powers by herself, but she couldn't tell some girls who she could take down with no effort at all where she lived. What was it going to do to her? She fought to keep this attitude all the way to school.

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When Rocky arrived on the grounds of Bayville High, she saw Kysha, Lindsay, and Terra sitting by a large tree in the middle of the grass. The other students from the Xaiver Institute weren't there yet. At least she couldn't see any complications or side tracks. Rocky took a deep breath and walked towards the girls.

She was getting closer. She was still getting closer. She was there. Rocky stopped. Stone face firmly in place. The three girls looked up at her.

"Where's you pack of losers Rochelle?" said Kysha. Her eyes looked cold and uninviting. Lindsay looked the same. Terra was suddenly very interested in her math text book.

"I uh… I mean…I…I have to…" stuttered Rocky, under her stone face she had gone completely white, but managed to get out, "I… I have to tell you something."

"We're listening" said Lindsay with an evil smile. Rocky didn't get this 'we' thing. Did they all share a brain or something? All this was just adding to the intimidation, but she couldn't turn back now. They were already expecting her to say something.

"Iliveattheinstitutetoo" blurted Rocky. Ooh, she thought. Maybe that was a little too fast.

"Wha?" asked the three very puzzled girls all at the same time. They really did share a brain.

Before her voice started shaking even more, she stammered, "I-live-at-the-institute."

Terra looked up from her book. The three of them looked her in confusion.

"Rochelle" said Kysha, who was sounding more human than she had ever been since Rocky had first met her, "We're so sorry, we didn't know…"

"I know" Rocky cut her off, "I'll leave now."

"No" said Terra, "Stay… please?"

The other girls gave her a funny look, but Rocky knew they agreed with her.

"Well come on" said Kysha, sounding mean again, "Sit down and let us apologize."

Rocky smiled. They didn't care. They were real friends.


	6. Speed and Spyke

_These are the events that take place during the episode "Speed and Spyke". Yes, there is alot of repeat and I used the exact lines from the actual episode, but this shows it from a different point of view, has extra/ different scenes, and has Rocky in it. Please don't sue me for copyright. KTHX_

_Thanks to Alley Alvers (she changed her name to something, but I forget what) and Neko... something for your reviews. I really appreciate them. I really like this chapter, and I hope that everyone enjoys it._

_A couple things:_

_-I have no idea how to spell Alma Moter, and neither does spell check_

_-In case it seems like I'm making a Rocky-Spyke relationship, I'm not_

_-Rocky's probation mentioned at the beginning of the chapter is from when she ran away in chapter five and skipped training_**  
**

**Speed and Spyke**

"Stupid rules" grumbled Rocky, as she pushed what seemed like the millionth box to the side of the enormous sub basement, "Stupid punishment, stupid basement, stupid boxes."

For the last two weeks, Rocky had been cleaning up a sub basement every day before school, in between her training session and breakfast. She began to apply more force.

"Come on, Hurry up" said Rocky through gritted teeth, "Move faster, I want my breakfast." The box she was pushing crashed against the wall, maybe that was a little too hard. Thank god it was Friday. The only thing keeping Rocky going at this point was that after only six more boxes, her probation would be officially over.

"There" she said, very pleased with herself, "All done… food time!" She ran off towards the stairs. Tomorrow there would be no probation, and even better, Storm was back. In her excitement, Rocky ran straight into Logan's back as he was walking into the dining room.

"Change first, Bigshot" growled Logan.

"But Logan!" protested Rocky.

"Now" bellowed Logan, sounding fiercer.

"Fine" shouted Rocky as she ran off towards her room to change.

"Stupid Logan, stupid probation, stupid rules, stupid- stupid- stupid" Rocky mumbled as she stomped down the hall.

With her head in a cloud of grumpiness and fatigue, she ran right into a strange boy. The boy had tan skin, almost identical to Ororo's. He had blonde hair cut into a strange fashion and was wearing a green bathrobe. Rocky was rather shocked to see him, she knew that there wasn't supposed to be guests, and an intruder would be a very, very bad thing. Since he hadn't tripped any alarms and he was in pajamas coming out of a spare bed room, she decided that he belonged there.

"Oh, hi…" said Rocky awkwardly, "Sorry for bumping into you like that. You must be new here." The boy fingered her and continued walking.

Rocky darted into her room, got changed for school as quickly as possible, grabbed her backpack and took off once again towards the food.

"Kurt, if you ate my muffin again, you are in big trouble blue boy!" said Rocky as she entered the dining room.

"Um…" said Jean, "Actually, Kurt isn't here yet. You made good time this morning."

Rocky shrugged. "Sweet" she said as she sat down in her usual seat, beside Jean.

"So like where's this new guy?" asked Kitty with a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

"Still sleeping" answered the professor, "He had a rather difficult evening."

"Um…yeah," said Rocky, "I'm going to have to disagree with that."

"You saw him?" asked Jean, "Did he seem to be adjusting well?"

"Well, he doesn't exactly seem to be the conversationalist type" answered Rocky, "So I would say…no."

-BAMF- "Ah! I love the smell of bacon in the morning"

"KURT!" shrieked Kitty, "Do you have to do this every single morning?"

"Mmm… Ja" said Kurt as he reached out to grab two muffins.

Rocky glared at him. "Ha" she said, "Beat you this morning, didn't I?"

"Oh, um… hi Rocky" said Kurt sounding slightly nervous, "I…I didn't see you there."

"I think he knows who really trashed those lockers" said Scott, "Did he tell you?"

"No" replied the professor, he tapped his head with one finger, "And I'm not going to pry. He'll tell us when he's ready."

"If you ask me" added Logan, "He's looking to settle that score personally. Pass the sausages, Red."

Jean put down her knife and fork, put her hands on her temples and the giant plate of sausages lifted in to the air and began to move towards Logan.

"Ewe." said Kitty, "That stuff like totally plugs your arteries, you know."

Logan looked at her. "I appreciate your concern" he said as slid out his claws, spearing three of the sausages.

"I suspect you may be right about Evan's intentions, Logan" said the professor.

"Yeh, trust me Chuck" said Logan, "I may not be able to read minds, but I know what a boy's thinking about when he's been wronged… ELF!"

Kurt was suddenly hanging from the light, grabbing for some pancakes in front of Logan.

"Ugh…" sighed Logan, "How many times do I gotta tell you? Ask and it'll get passed to yeh."

"Sorry" replied Kurt, "I didn't vant to interrupt you." He teleported back into his chair.

"That's better" growled Logan, "Now mind your manners."

"In any case," interrupted the professor, "I might be best if Evan had other things to distract his mind. I've already enrolled him at Bayville. Now Scott, could you introduce him to the basketball coach?"

"Sure" replied Scott, "After that last game he played in New York, coach will jump at him."

"Good" continued the professor, "And let's hope that Evan's desire for vengeance is short lived."

Basketball… This boy was a basketball player. Rocky felt tears coming on.

"Hey, guys" said Rocky "I'm gonna start walking now."

"Okay" said Kitty, "So I'll like see you in class later today."

"Mmm Hmm" mumbled Rocky as she walked out the door.

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No sooner had Rocky left the gates of the institute when she heard the professor's voice inside her head. By now, Rocky was getting used to this concept. It didn't make her jump like it had when she first arrived.

"I'm sorry for bringing up the subject, Rochelle" said Professor Xaiver in Rocky's head, "I completely forgot, I shouldn't have been so inconsiderate."

"Apology accepted" thought Rocky, "Don't worry, I'll be okay. I just didn't want to hear any more. I will be back after school, you can count on that."

"Okay" replied the professor telepathically, "Have a good day. See you this afternoon."

"Thanks Professor" thought Rocky. She felt the professor leave her mind.

Rocky took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do this" she said to herself.

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Rocky arrived on the grounds of Bayville high. Terra was already there waiting for her.

"Hey Terra," called Rocky, "The others aren't here yet?"

"Nope" replied Terra, "You're early today, Rochelle. Why?"

"Finished breakfast early" said Rocky quickly. She tried to avoid the topic of her life at the institute. One subject could lead to another and soon she would be caught in a trap of dead end questions, which was very hard to talk one's self out of.

"It must be kind of weird waking up every morning and immediately having all your friends around you." continued Terra.

Rocky gritted her teeth, annoyed with her friend's persistence. "Sorta" she said, "But we usually give each other space." Damn! Why did she say that? Why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut?

"You don't want to talk about that again?" asked Terra.

"Yeah, not really" replied Rocky.

"It's okay," said Terra, "I understand."

"You do?" questioned Rocky.

"No" replied Terra, simply, "I'm actually really confused, but saying that I understand is just so much easier."

Rocky paused. "Okay then…"

"Hey guys!" shrieked Lindsay.

"Are they clones?" whispered Rocky to Terra. She giggled.

"Hey, Rochelle!" said Kysha, "How come you're here so early this morning?"

"Uh…" began Rocky, but she was unable to finish because Kysha had already moved on to another subject. How did they have so much energy so early in the morning?

As the two girls, who were acting a lot like they had been drinking for several hours began to stumble towards the school, Rocky and Terra followed at a safe distance. Rocky's first class was math, so she said goodbye and ran to catch up with Kurt.

"Hey" he said as Rocky arrived by his side, breathing hard, "Took you long enough to catch me."

She glared at him. "Bag-heavy-tired"

Kurt laughed at her as they took their usual seats in the math classroom. "You are pathetically veak, you know that, don't you?"

"Shut up" she said, "I don't have to be strong."

Kurt sniffed the air. "Vhat's that I smell?" he said, "Oh, I know. It's an excuse!"

"You're just jealous." said Rocky, she punched her fist into her palm, "All the benefits of muscle and I don't even get my hands dirty."

"Whoa" hissed Kurt, "Stop, people alert."

"Now whose making excuses?" said Rocky as she began to take out her books.

Kurt then proceeded to mumble something in German and Rocky ignored him. Now, most of the class was in the room. She let her eyes drift towards the classroom door to watch the stream of students meandering into the classroom. She was jerked out of her semi-trance by a new but familiar face. Rocky nudged Kurt.

"Hey, check it out" she whispered, "It's the new kid."

"Really?" asked Kurt, "Vhere?"

"Back of the classroom" replied Rocky, "The one with the skateboard. Call him over here."

"Vhy me?" asked Kurt, "You call him."

"Because he hates me" hissed Rocky.

"Okay, fine" said Kurt, sighing, "Vhat's his name again?"

"Um… um um um… I know this… uh… Evan!" whispered Rocky, "It's Evan."

They turned back to look at the new boy. He was looking around for a place to sit. A kid bumped into him. Evan whirled around a glared at them. Rocky kicked Kurt's knee.

"Ow! Vhat was that for?" said Kurt, "Oh yeah, Hey Evan! There's an empty seat over here." He gestured at the desk in front of him.

Evan walked towards the two mutants with a cold expression on his face. Although the boy gave her a hostile glance, Rocky kept smiling. Once he turned his back, she mouthed "You see?" to Kurt. He shrugged and the lesson began.

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Later that day, the mutants were sitting at their table for lunch.

"Hey" said Jean, "Its Evan!"

"Evan!" called Scott, "Come sit with us."

Evan turned to look at them. He glared and began to walk away. Then, he started walking back towards their table.

"Look man," said Evan, angrily, "I'm here to learn, train, and then get the hell out of this mad house. I'm not interested in being friends. So fuck off."

The X-men stared him.

"Okay, so it's not just me" said Rocky, awkwardly, "This guy has issues."

"And it could mean big problems" added in Scott, "If we don't have his trust, then we can't work as a team with him."

"Well, it's not like that hard." said Kitty, "We'll have quite a few chances for that. At least he's agreed to live at the institute, unlike Rogue."

"Well" said Jean, "You do have a good point, but it's still going to be pretty difficult."

Rocky thought back to math class, when Evan had semi-willingly come to sit with them, when Kurt had asked him to. If anyone had a chance with him, it would be Kurt.

"I nominate Kurt to try and bond with him." said Rocky.

"Vhat?!" exclaimed Kurt, spitting out a rather large amount of the sandwich he was eating, "Vhy vould I have a better chance?"

"She does have a good point, Kurt" said Scott, "You're a guy, you're his age… No matter what excuses you come up with, you'll still be the best one for the job."

"Vell, you see" said Kurt, "I'm actually a girl and I'm 20 years older than I look."

The group laughed, but Rocky ignored it.

"Come on Kurt." said Rocky impatiently, "We don't even know anything about this guy. For all you know, he could be the best friend you'll ever have."

"Alright, fine" groaned Kurt. He mumbled something in German.

"Rochelle!" called a familiar voice from the other side of the cafeteria.

Rocky sighed. "Kysha." she said.

"Whoa" whispered Kitty, "Do they like stalk you or something?"

"Yep" replied Rocky as she got up and left to join her friends, "See you in gym."

"Okay" she shouted as Rocky walked away, "Bye!"

Rocky looked over her shoulder to see Kurt already flirting with Kitty.

"Well that didn't take long" she mumbled to herself.

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After school, when Rocky arrived in the danger room, Wolverine was waiting for her. The rest of the team, including Evan, was waiting there already. Evan was wearing his own uniform, and looked very serious. He had a skateboard under his arm, and was wearing a helmet.

"'Bout time you showed up" growled Wolverine, "This here is Spyke. Your challenge today is to whip him into shape. Half-pint, you'll be doing a different session with Storm out back."

"Okay" said Kitty enthusiastically as she dropped through the floor, "Like, see ya later."

A couple members of the team, including Rocky waved.

Wolverine didn't waste any more time. "Spyke will be riding his skateboard down this track. Jean, you'll levitate these iron balls for Spyke to destroy and dodge." commanded the big man, "Cyclops, you will attempt to blast Spyke, while he tries to dodge. Nightcrawler, you just get people where they need to be; and Rocky it's your job to keep Spyke safe."

Jean flew up to a platform with several iron balls piled on it. Nightcrawler teleported Cyclops and Spyke to the top of the course, and Rocky got into position under the winding track.

She knew that she couldn't let Evan fall. Not only would he get hurt, but it wouldn't help earn his trust at all. Rocky took a big breath and cracked her knuckles.

"What are you waiting for, Bigshot?" thundered Wolverine over the intercom, "Give the signal!"

"Really?" asked Rocky, "I get to do it?"

"Yeh, yeh" said Wolverine impatiently, "You have the most vital role in this session. Now get on with it."

"X-men, Go!" shouted Rocky.

Spyke jumped on to his skateboard, full of confidence. Wow, he was good. He did a couple small jumps, and then jumped into the air and landed on his hands, on top of the board. Jean began to levitate one set of balls towards Spyke. He screamed and literally dove off the side of the track. Rocky began to slow him down with a weak force field and slowly brought him to a complete stop. She smiled up at him. He looked down at her, slightly amazed.

"Whoa, dude…" said Spyke, "Creepy."

Nightcrawler efficiently teleported Spyke back to the platform at the top of the track.

"Hey, Spyke" said Cyclops, "Just a tip: save the tricks for after you've got the dodging figured out. Keep things simple, and it's less likely to get complicated."

Spyke snorted. "I don't need your help, man" he said, sounding very frustrated, "You don't even know the first thing about skating."

"Vell, you don't know the first thing about fighting" muttered Nightcrawler under his breath.

"What was that, freak show?" yelled Spyke.

"Uh…uh…" stuttered Nightcrawler, "Nothing."

Jean's hair started to float. "Come on you guys!" she yelled, "If we ever want to get out of here, you have to stop fighting."

Rocky realized that it was time for her to step in.

"Positions X-men!" she yelled.

"X-men Go!"

Reluctantly, Nightcrawler and Spyke stepped away from each other.

"Boys" said Jean telepathically to Rocky as she lifted up the first set of balls.

This time, Spyke was able to dodge them. Rather awkwardly of course, but he didn't fall. Nightcrawler teleported Jean to the next platform, and she levitated the next set of balls. This time, they caught Spyke by surprise and he fell of his skateboard. Rocky caught him again.

While he was still in the air, Cyclops said,

"Next time, try and smash the balls with some spikes."

"Dude!" shouted Spyke, "How many times do I gotta tell you? I don't need your help."

"Hey Spyke" shouted Rocky from the ground, "He's just trying to help you, and all we want is your trust. That's important when you're a part of a team."

"You know I could cream you, you pathetic chick." said Evan rudely, "Do not mess with the spike man. WHAM!" As he said the last word, he shot a spike from his wrist, aiming at the ground in front of Rocky's feet. The spike shattered as it hit her force field. She smiled at him and giggled.

"Dude" said Kurt, "Don't mess with the person holding you up 20 feet off the ground."

Spyke scratched the back of his head. "Uh… sorry?" he said, "What's your name again? Nightcrawler! Could you?"

Jean sent a telepathic message to Nightcrawler.

-BAMF-

He glared at Jean, and seemed to be thinking something along the lines of 'I hate you, stop telling me what to do'.

As nearly an half an hour passed by, and Spyke improving quickly, both at the tasks in the training session, and at getting along with the other X-men.

Wolverine entered the danger room. "Yeh thinking of wrapping this up any time soon?" he asked.

"This is your fifteenth run, Spyke." said Cylops, "Do you wanna take a break?"

"No time for breaks, man" replied Spyke, "You got me here to train, so lets train."

"You heard the man" said Wolverine, waving his hand for Rocky to give the signal, "Let's roll"

"X-men Go!" repeated Rocky.

Spyke jumped on to his skateboard once again. He dodged the first set of balls, destroyed the second. Then Cyclops began shooting at him. Spyke dodged the first two blasts, but the third hit the back of his board and he went flying.

Oh no! Rocky wasn't ready for that at all. She began to sprint over to where Spyke was falling. Just in time, Rocky caught him from above. She let him drop the remaining few inches to the ground.

"Not too shabby, Porcupine" said Wolverine, offering his hand.

"Since when does Logan get this friendly?" whispered Jean to Rocky.

Spyke took the hand and Wolverine pulled him up to his feet.

Kitty's voice was heard over the intercom in the control room. "Spyke" she said, "The coach just called. Says you gotta come to the gym. You have a game tonight."

"There wasn't one on the schedule" said Spyke as he took off his helmet.

"Well there is now." said Kitty, "Coach says Principal Darkholme like put it together last minute. Says he wants you suited up in like one hour, cuz you're starting against PS104."

Kurt teleported to the ground. "Dude!" he exclaimed, "All right! You get to play against your Alma Monter!"

Scott and Jean looked at each other.

"Yeah" said Evan in an ambitious voice. His voice lightened up, "Hey, do you guys wanna come and watch?"

"Sounds like fun" said Scott, "I'll be there. Jean?"

"Yeah, me too" she added.

"And I'll be coming as well." said Kurt, "I've never actually been to a basketball game before."

"Nothing personal, Evan" said Rocky, feeling kind of bad, "But I think I'll pass. Sorry."

Kitty came out of the elevator. "What's happening?" she asked.

"Are you coming to Evan's game?" asked Kurt.

"Yeah!" she squealed, "Of Course! I was like totally planning to anyways."

The group left the danger room and went up to their rooms to change. Kitty, Jean, Kurt and Evan all left with Scott in his car, shortly. Rocky was alone in the mansion.

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The previous night, Rocky had fallen asleep, before any of the other students had gotten home. Today's first training session wouldn't begin until one in the afternoon. It was the first time that the students had been able to sleep in since Rocky had arrived at the institute. She lay there enjoying the sunlight shining on her while she was still in bed.

"Rocky?" said a voice from outside the door, "Are you like even in there?"

"Yeah, Kitty" groaned Rocky, "There's something called sleep. You should try it some time."

"Rocky!" shouted Kitty, who was now by her side and shaking her, "It's 1:45! We've got our training session in fifteen minutes and you still need to eat and then get suited up."

"What?!" shrieked Rocky, now sitting bolt upright, "I forgot how much I loved sleeping in. If I'm not downstairs in two minutes, come and wake me up again."

"You can count on that" said Kitty as she walked out of the room.

Rocky jumped out of bed, and threw on her uniform. It took two tries to get it on the right way in her hurry. She ran downstairs. There was nothing in the dining room, so she ran to the kitchen. There she saw the leftovers of breakfast and lunch sitting on the counter waiting for her. She grabbed two sandwiches and ate them on the way back upstairs. Rocky brushed her hair and teeth at lightning speed and arrived in the danger room breathing hard, while putting her hair into a pony tail.

Everyone stared at her as she walked towards them.

"And that," said Rocky, "Is how to wake up and get to a session almost on time in fifteen minutes"

"Yer up first" said Wolverine as he walked away with the rest of the team, leaving Rocky standing in the giant room alone.

"Wait!" shouted Rocky, "What am I doing?"

"You'll figure it out" growled Wolverine over the intercom.

The room suddenly began to change. Lasers came out of the walls, and large metal pillars grew out of the floor. Rocky diagnosed the room in her head. Okay, there were lasers- she couldn't block those. Dodging, just perfect. Large metal things sticking out of the floor of mystery, yay.

She was jerked out of her thoughts when she heard Wolverine's voice.

"Get your head out of the clouds!" he boomed, "The session's starting in 3…2…1…GO!"

A laser shot at her, but she dove out of the way. Three more lasers began firing. Rocky dodged them all with a shaky back flip on her knuckles. As she was getting up, one of the pillars began falling right towards her. She stopped it with a force field, stood up, and broke it off from its base with a stronger force field.

Okay, she had this figured out. Dodge the lasers and break the pillars whenever possible. Now she just had to keep it up for the rest of the fifteen minutes that she was expected to be in there for.

"This is cruel and unusual." she muttered.

When Rocky finally turn finally finished, she entered the control room completely exhausted. Ever one else was sitting there talking. Apparently, this was supposed to be one of the 'learn each other's strengths and weaknesses' exercise. There was definitely no learning of strengths and weaknesses going on, what so ever.

"You got hit twice!" growled Wolverine.

"I know." replied Rocky in a flat voice, "It hurt."

"Don't yeh be a smart alec with me, Bigshot." he growled, a little louder, "That is un-acceptable."

Rocky glared at him. "You try doing gymnastics on your knuckles." she snorted as she took her seat.

Kitty's turn was next, so Rocky would be watching her alone until she was done. She stared out the window with her chin rested on her palm. If it hadn't been for her seven hours of extra sleep, she would have been falling asleep. Suddenly, somebody tapped her on the shoulder. Rocky turned around and was shocked to see it was Evan.

"Oh, hi" she said, trying to sound nice, since she was aware that her usual tone didn't sound all that inviting.

"Hey, um look man" said Evan, "I know why you didn't come to the game last night, and I just wanted to say sorry."

"Sorry?" asked Rocky, "Yeah, I think we're coming from different directions here. I didn't come because basketball kinda depresses me. I really don't care about yesterday morning."

"Well, it's good we're cool then." said Evan awkwardly, "So… I have to know: What's so depressing about b-ball?"

"I used to play it" said Rocky, putting her stone face on, "But I don't have full control over my powers and I can't play any more. I just miss it."

"Oh, yeah" said Evan sympathetically, "I guess I'd really miss the game too if I couldn't play."

"Could you… not talk about that?" asked Rocky, "Sorry, but you know…"

"Oh, um… sorry 'bout that" said Evan, "So… Rocky, huh? Is that your real name?"

"No" she replied, "Of course not. It's just a nickname, but it's what everyone except the professor calls me here. I only use my real name, Rochelle, at school."

"Okay, so Rocky here and Rochelle at school. Got it." said Evan, "Can I ask you why you don't care about me being rude to you?'

"It's always hard with a transition like this." replied Rocky, "We all went through it. It's a perfectly good excuse. Seriously, don't worry about it."

"Hey, you know what?" exclaimed Evan, "I got cleared for my charges this morning!"

"Wow, good job" congratulated Rocky.

"Spyke! Rocky!" shouted Wolverine from across the control room, "You've been sitting there talking for the entire time. Can you tell me anything about Shadowcat's performance?"

"She's uh… very good at passing through stuff." replied Rocky, who was slightly flustered.

Wolverine growled at them. "Stop yer yappin' and start watching" he said in annoyance.

Rocky, smiled at Evan and that was the end of all slightly significant events for the rest of the session.

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Later that day, Rocky was sitting in her room, listening to music. She was enjoying her time procrastinating. There was a large pile of books stacked on her desk. At least two hours of homework in all three of her morning subjects. As she sat there staring at the books, Rocky began to enjoy herself less and less. She had to get out of there.

-BAMF-

Kurt was suddenly perched on the end of Rocky's bed, hanging on with his toes.

"KURT!" shouted Rocky. She knocked him off the bed with her powers.

"Oof" groaned Kurt as he peeked over the top of bed, "Knock knock?"

"What?" questioned Rocky in a very irritated voice.

"Vell, the rest of us were going to go hang out in the pool." said Kurt, "I was just wondering if you'd like to join us."

Yes! Saved by the annoying blue thing. She was getting out of here. "I'll be there in five" she replied, "Now get out." Rocky pointed to the door.

Kurt didn't bother using the door. He disappeared in a cloud of foul smelling smoke.

Out at the pool, Rocky and Kitty were chatting. Kitty was floating on a red pool mat, and Rocky was swimming around her.

"I can't believe I haven't been in the pool here until today." said Rocky.

"Well, today is like the nicest day since you got here." said Kitty, who was half asleep, "And we've been totally busy."

"I guess your right" said Rocky, "It's so…"

Kurt cut her off. "CANNONBALL!"

Oh no! This was bad. Kurt + Excited Disaster. Kurt rolled himself into a ball, his tail flying behind him. He was falling, falling, and then splash! He landed right in front of Rocky. He made a huge splash, tipping over Kitty's mat. Scott and Jean laughed from the other side of the pool.

"Ugh!" shrieked Kitty, "Kurt knock it off!"

Rocky pushed Kurt underwater.

-BAMF-

He was standing on her shoulders. Rocky grabbed for him, but Kitty was already pulling him down.

"Ewe!" shouted Kitty, "Professor! Kurt's like totally getting fun in the pool."

"I am not!" protested Kurt.

From over on the side of the pool, Evan shouted, "Hey, check this out!"

Kitty and Kurt stopped fighting. Everyone turned to watch. Evan ran to the side of the pool, jumped into the air, and kicked his legs up above his head.

"WOOHOO!" he screamed, "Uh oh."

Suddenly, spikes appeared on his back he fell into the pool, right on top of Kitty's mat, popping it.

"Sorry" said Evan, scratching the back of his head.

Everyone except Kitty laughed. She just stood there with her arms crossed looking very annoyed.

Evan was going to fit in just fine. Whether that was a good thing or not, that was a different story.


	7. The Visitor

Yes, I know it's been months. Yes, I should be locked in a box and forced to write more. Yes, I am evilishful. But here I am- presenting you with the over 10000 words of Candee really needs to get a life fluff. I haven't actually written anything for this story in two months now. What I've been doing is writing another story. It does have Rocky in it, but it's made up of entirely OC characters. I didn't think anyone would want to read that, so I haven't posted it. Let me know if you're interested.

By the way, this chapter isn't finished. I get way to caught up with detail (somebody needs an editor). Theres maybe 1500-ish words written in a notebook somewhere, and I'll try and post those as soon as I can find the book and get them typed up. Other than that, don't expect to see too much more of this story.

**The Visitor**

"LIKE OH MY GOD LETS LIKE TOTALLY GO TO THE MALL!" shouted Kitty as she ran into the room.

Rocky couldn't take it any more. She pounded her friend into the wall. Kitty phased through the wall. Rocky growled and lifted Kitty into the air. She smashed her through a window and let her fall. Kitty hit the ground unconscious. Rocky jumped through the broken glass and slowly lowered herself to the ground.

She checked Kitty's pulse. There was none.

"I did it!" cried Rocky, "She's finally gone!"

Rocky began to do her victory dance, when suddenly; a pink and yellow clown carrying a spork fell out of the sky and landed on her head, knocking her over.

Rocky woke up on the floor, rubbing her neck.

"Well that was kind of weird" she said to herself.

-BAMF- "Rocky are you alright?" asked a rather shocked looking blue elf.

"Yeah…" said Rocky, "Other than the fact that I just had a dream that I killed Kitty, just fine. Wait… what are you doing here? It's…" Rocky looked at the digital clock on her night table, "TWO AM!"

Rocky held up her hand, so that she could throw Kurt out the door, but before she could attack, he teleported on to her bed.

"Easy, easy" he defended, "The professor sent me to come and get you."

"Why now?" complained Rocky, "Can't this wait until the morning? He knows we have training in a few hours." She knew that her complaints wouldn't work, but anything was worth a try.

"Rocky…" said Kurt nervously, "Your Dad's here."

No! No, no, no, no, no. This could not be happening. He was supposed to stay in Canada and leave her alone. He was supposed to stay out of her life forever. He was supposed to disappear. He was not supposed to decide he wanted her back and come find her. She started to cry.

"Don't worry" said Kurt comforting her, "He can't make you do anything, and you know it."

"Thanks" she said as she wiped her eyes and put her hand on his arm, "Lets just get this over with."

-BAMF-

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Kurt had brought Rocky to right outside the door to the library. For a few awkward minutes, they just stood outside the door.

"We could go in" suggested Kurt to break the silence.

Rocky sighed. "Why not?" she said disappointedly, "I'm gonna have to eventually."

She opened the door, and she was surprised to see all four other students standing there. Ororro and Logan were standing by the door. Kitty ran towards her and embraced her in a bone shattering hug.

"We won't let him take you away." promised Kitty.

Rocky just wanted to stand there forever. She wanted time to stop. She wanted anything to happen that would mean that she would not have to go around the corner where she knew her father was waiting for her. She wanted to be with her friends, her family, not go back with her dad.

"YOU GET MY DAUGHTER IN HERE RIGHT NOW OLD MAN!" bellowed Rocky's father from around the corner, "OR SO HELP ME, I'LL HAVE NEWS CREWS HERE BY MORNING!"

Rocky wiped the tears from her cheeks and put on her stone face. She pulled away from her friends. "I have to go now." she said.

"Just remember" said Scott, "We're right here in case he tries anything."

"Yes" added Jean, "I'll stay in telepathic contact. Just ask me for help and we'll be right over there."

"Thanks" murmured Rocky as she stepped around the corner. What she saw was terrifying. Her father was standing over Professor Xavier with a grip on his shirt.

"WHY ARE YOU HIDING HER FROM ME?" snarled Ian into the professor's face, "YOU THINK YOU'RE SPECIAL WITH YOUR POWERS! YOU JUST THINK YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT!"

"Please Ian" pleaded Professor Xavier, "It is rather early. After living with her from fourteen years, surely you must know how much she loves to sleep. I know that after only two months."

"WHY I OUGHTTA…" screamed Ian.

"Dad stop!" said Rocky loudly and firmly. She didn't yell. That would just add to the racket her father was making.

"Rochelle" said her father. His face softened. He let go of the professor and began to walk towards her.

Rocky stared at him. She was afraid of him. As he got closer, her fear turned to anger, and her anger turned to hatred; cold, deep unbridled hatred. She had never felt anything so strongly before. This man coming towards her had no right to be her father. None at all.

He tried to hug her. Rocky wouldn't let him. She put up her hand and pushed him slowly backwards.

"Get away from me." said Rocky in an incredibly cold voice. She was breathing hard.

"Rochelle" pleaded Ian, "I just want to…"

"No" Rocky cut him off, "You will sit in that chair and you will tell me what you came to tell me. Then you will leave me alone forever."

He didn't really have a choice. Rocky was pushing him towards the chair with increased force now. Ian's face was full of longing, grief, and regret. Rocky's face remained blank and expressionless.

Rocky didn't actually want to hear what he had to say, but she knew her father was not planning to leave until she heard him. Of course, she could just force him out, but he would come back. And if he couldn't get in, he would tell the world their secret.

Ian looked at Rocky tentatively before speaking. When he realized that she would never show any signs that she was ready to listen, he began.

"Rochelle, I…" he stuttered, "I don't know what came over me that night."

"You know, I'm having a hard time believing that." scoffed Rocky. It was obvious that she didn't believe him at all.

"Rochelle, you're my only daughter. I love you. Nothing should ever be able to change that." said Ian desperately.

Nothing_should_ be able to change that. Something _did_ change that, however. Come to think of it, did Rocky's dad ever really love her? She had always felt insignificant compared to her younger brothers. Maybe deep down inside she wanted him back, but that part of her would be staying deep down inside. Rocky was entirely convinced that he only wanted her back so that he could torment her.

She let go of her stone face and felt her eyes well up with tears. "You never really cared about me." she said, choking on the tears that she had held back for too long, "I can tell. Why won't you just leave me alone?"

"Because…" he said, looking at his feet, "I've already made this mistake with your mother."

There was now a rush of mixed emotions tearing through Rocky: anger, confusion and many others. He had neglected her for years. Decided he wanted her dead when she developed her powers. He showed up at her home in the middle of the night, threatening Professor Xavier. And now he'd been lying to her for her whole life?!

"You lied to me about her?" shrieked Rocky, "You know what! I just don't care what you do any more. Figure something out with Professor Xavier, but I'm going back to bed and I am not going with you!"

With that, Rocky stormed out of the room. She stomped past her friends with her stone face in place again. They ran after her.

"Rocky!" Kitty shouted after her, "Like what's happening?"

Rocky turned around and yelled in Kitty's face, "Why don't you ask them?" She extended her arm, opened her fist and sent the small group of mutants sailing back into the wall. The last thing Rocky needed was them trying to get her involved with the decision again.

She thought about attacking again, but only for a split second. What was she doing? She was hurting her friends. This wasn't what she wanted to do. She wanted to hurt her father, not them. This was the first time she had felt this way, since the night the X-men had tracked her down.

She felt like a monster, hurting innocent people who only wanted to help, possessing deadly power. Rocky instinctively ran. Last time she had attempted to run home, but this time she was already home. She got to the top of the stairs, was disoriented to a minute, and then took off towards her room.

As she was running, someone suddenly grabbed her wrists. At first, Rocky thought it was her dad. She tried to get him off, but whoever it was had a grip on her that prevented her from using her powers. She thrashed around and looked into the face of Wolverine.

Rocky fell on to her knees and attempted to regain control of her breathing. The big man let go of her wrists and helped her to a sitting position, leaning against the wall. Ororro kneeled down at her side.

"Take off the mask, Rochelle" comforted Storm, "We all know, and besides, you need to relax."

Rocky let go of her stone face and instantly, her face turned bright red. "He lied to me!" she shouted, "He lied to me for all these years about my own mother!"

Ororro and Logan looked at each other.

"Well that wasn't what I was expecting the hear." said Logan, sounding confused and slightly shocked.

Rocky just sat there in her cloud of confusion and misery, ignoring everything else. She could hear the voices of Ororro and Logan, but didn't pay any attention. She couldn't believe that her father had managed to convince her that his stupid lie was true for her whole entire life. It was just ridiculous. On top of that, he had said she had killed her. That idea had haunted her ever since she was told it.

After what seemed like an eon of blubbering, screaming and struggling, Professor Xavier suddenly appeared out of the haze of commotion. He put his hands on Rocky's temples and her vision went from limited to nothing.

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When Rocky awoke, she was in the medical room in the back corner of the mansion on the basement floor. There were small windows all along the top of the outside wall, which light was streaming in through. Not morning sunrise light, but full on daylight. She gasped and sat bolt upright, she had missed the training session, and probably most of the school day. Then Rocky noticed a pressure on her wrists. She looked down; she was still in her pajamas and her wrists were strapped to the table.

Rocky's head was swimming with distorted fragmented memories of what must have happened the night before. They began to confuse her, so she tried to focus on freeing her hands.

This task proved it's self to be quite impossible without either of her hands. The only power she had without them was her stone face, if that was even a power at all. Boring the metal bands off her wrists was not going to work. How did she even end up in these things anyways? Was she really that out of control that they were forced to do this?

"Good Morning Rochelle, I presume you slept well."

Rocky jumped at the professor's sudden appearance. "Uh… yeah, I think" she said confused, "Could I ask what happened? I remember my dad coming, the conversation we had, and then… hurting them… but what after that?"

"Ah, yes" replied the professor as he undid the metal bindings on her wrists, "I thought you might be curious."

"And…" pushed Rocky. It was slightly nerve-wracking not knowing your own actions, she decided.

"Well, you were rather upset. However, you've seemed to have brightened up quite a bit." continued Professor Xavier casually.

"Yes, well that's nice. But what brought me to the handcuffed position I woke up in?" asked Rocky impatiently. She immediately winced in regret of her rudeness. "Please?" she added awkwardly.

"Very well." he said seriously, "Like I was saying, you were very upset. You were thrashing around shouting things that none of us could make out. Even your thoughts were practically impossible to read they were so jumbled up. The point is you were out of control, not thinking straight, and you were becoming dangerous."

Rocky rubbed her temples. "Oh man." she groaned, "Do I want to know what happened next?"

"With everyone's help and a few seconds gap between your spazzums, we were lucky enough to get you down here." continued the professor in the same serious tone "You were still out of control, so we had to strap down your hands. Eventually, as a last resort, I was forced to go into your mind and put you to sleep."

"Okay… that's not all that bad; but not all that good eith…" Rocky trailed off. She didn't know if she was imagining it or not. She thought she could see the head of her father in the side of the doorway, behind Professor Xaiver. Rocky just sat there staring with her mouth slightly open.

The professor turned around. "Ian, please leave" he ordered calmly. When he turned back to face Rocky, she was glaring at him with her arms crossed.

"What" asked Rocky through clenched teeth, "is he doing here still?"

"Rochelle you have to understand a few things for this to make sense." the professor tried to explain.

"What else is there to understand?" cut in Rocky, "He's here, he shouldn't be, he has to leave and get out of my life!" She knew that she sounded like spoilt brat, but this wasn't fair to her.

"Rochelle listen to what I have to say" pleaded Professor Xavier.

"No!" shouted Rocky, "If you're going to let him stay, then I'm going to go give him a reason to leave on his own." She stood up.

"Rochelle!" yelled the professor angrily, "You will sit and listen or so help me, there'll be one on one training sessions with Logan every day for a month coming your way." This shut her up.

"Rochelle, you are a wonderful girl." began the professor, "If you were my own child, I would be very proud. For this reason, your father does not want to lose you. Did you know that he's been tracking you down ever since the night you left?"

"No, but now he found me. All is well." remarked Rocky sarcastically, "He's found his 'perfect', 'wonderful' daughter. Gee, I bet he really missed ignoring me."

"All I expect of you is to tolerate him for one week" said Professor Xaiver.

"Fine." grumbled Rocky, "What time is it?"

"I believe it's almost 11 o'clock." he answered, "Why?"

"Third block just started. Today that's Science. Okay, I'll be there by the time the class is half way through." muttered Rocky, "Sorry Professor, but I can't stay here practically alone with him." With that she left the room headed towards the stairs.

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As she was walking up the stairs towards the bedrooms, Rocky caught sight of Ian coming around the corner. She put on her stone face.

"Hey!" he said in an exaggerated joyful voice, "The Rocky has come back from the dead!"

Rocky didn't show any signs of hearing him, other than 'accidentally' ramming her shoulder into his. She tried her best to ignore him.

"Don't you remember?" asked Ian in the same voice, "I used to call you Rocky. It was our special thing. Come on, it hasn't been that long."

"Everyone calls me that here" said Rocky in an emotionless, bored voice as she walked into her bedroom and closed the door in her father's face.

She turned around and let out a sigh of relief as she walked towards her dresser. "Pretty nice room you got here. Is this the real reason you don't want to come back?" Rocky winced at his voice.

"Get out!" she yelled in frustration, "I have to get ready for school. You can't change my mind, so why don't you just go home?"

Ian ignored her last comment. "You don't have to go to school today." he laughed, "Come on, get dressed and show me where the best place to get ice cream is in this town."

"No"

"There has to be at least one good ice cream shop in a cute little place like this."

"No"

"Alright, you don't like ice cream? How about pizza?"

"No"

"Tacos?"

"No"

"Sushi?"

"NO!" screamed Rocky, losing control of her temper, "Leave now! God, you're annoying!"

"You know you're hungry!"

"That's it!" Rocky sent him flying out into the hallway and slammed the door using two force fields that were probably a little stronger than they should have been. She kept a palm towards the door as she got ready so that he wouldn't be able to get back in. She threw her science book into her backpack on top of her X-men uniform, which she carried with her at all times.

"Yeah," said Rocky to herself as she gazed at the shiny golden buckle with the red 'x' trademark in the center, "I belong here."

When she stepped outside her door, Ian was waiting for her. He had put on one of his hideous checkered shirts and a pair of old sneakers. He jingled his keys with the large, tacky Donald Duck key chain. "Want a ride?" he asked.

"No" replied Rocky, now more annoyed than ever.

"Okay, then we'll walk together." said Ian cheerfully, "Just like on your first day of school."

"It's… not… my… first… day… of… school." said Rocky, fighting hard to keep her voice under control.

"Minor detail" said Ian.

Rocky sped up, making distance between the two of them. She put her open hand against her lower back, forcing Ian to stand alone in the door way of the large mansion. "Finally" thought Rocky as she sprinted towards Bayville High.

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Rocky ducked awkwardly into her science class in the middle of a lecture. She tried to get to her seat without being noticed. Unfortunately, Rocky was not so lucky.

"Miss Thomas," questioned the teacher, "Would you like to provide an excuse?"

Rocky sighed, threw her backpack down on her chair, threw Kitty and Kurt a glance and walked up towards the teacher. "Just call Professor Xavier." said Rocky, trying to make it seem like nothing was wrong, "He'll explain everything." She wrote down the phone number of the institute on a piece of scrap paper, handed it to her teacher, and went back to her seat. The lecture continued.

"What are you doing here?" hissed Kitty.

"This is school, I go to school, I am supposed to be here, so I'm here." answered Rocky. She tried to seem completely immersed in what the teacher was saying, but Kitty wouldn't buy it.

"Yeah, but like not today." she persisted.

"Listen" said Rocky firmly, but quietly, "He was following me around wanting to go get ice cream. What would you have done?"

"I would have like totally gotten ice cream." whispered Kitty, "I mean, like duh. Who wouldn't have?"

"Just forget it." sighed Rocky, "You wouldn't be able to understand this, no matter how hard you try."

"Girls!" The teacher shot them a threatening look. Rocky smiled at her friend and was content with the silence.

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Lunch dragged on forever in an awkward silence. Gym class went by in a similar fashion, with the addition of Rocky scaring the whole class with her aggressive hockey playing. After school, Rocky approached Kitty at her locker. Kitty pretty much ignored her.

"Hey" said Kitty dryly.

Rocky attempted to break through the tension. "Do you wanna go do something before we go home?" she asked, "Ice cream, maybe?"

"Nah." replied Kitty in a bored voice, "I've got some homework to do."

"Come on!" complained Rocky, "Why not?"

A brown ponytail whipped around, almost hitting Rocky in the face. "Because you need to get over this. You're being unreasonable, and unpleasant to be around. I know it's hard for you, but this is an important decision that you'll regret later." Then Kitty was gone in the flood of students leaving the school.

"But you were there," sobbed Rocky to nobody, "why don't you understand? I need you…"

"Rocky!" shouted a cheerful voice from behind her. Great, just the person she wanted to see. Rocky put on her stone face and walked away, completely ignoring her father. She saw Terra standing alone by the street, and walked up beside her.

Terra looked over to see who was standing next to her. "Oh, hi Rochelle" she said, "We didn't see you this morning. What happened?"

"I just had some uh… stuff to take care of." answered Rocky, suddenly realizing that she couldn't confide in this girl.

"What kind of 'stuff''?" asked Terra, staring at her curiously.

"Just… stuff"

"Stuff involving what?"

Rocky took a deep breath. How was she supposed to get out of this one? "Stuff…" said Rocky, while holding her breath, praying for this to be the last question she would have to answer, "involving the reason why I'm at the institute that I'm choosing to keep private."

"Oh, sorry." said Terra awkwardly, "I didn't know you were uncomfortable talking about whatever you don't want to talk about." She smiled. "Hey, my dad's here to pick me up. I gotta go, but I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, okay" replied Rocky. It kind of made her sad to see other girls with their fathers. All she could think of was that the lucky girl didn't have a father that tried to kill her. Rocky turned back towards the school. Her father was leaning against a tree and waving. Not only being just 'there', but also embarrassing. She glared at him and began to walk away.

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When Rocky arrived in the danger room, she was surprised to see it set up as a gymnastics gym space. There were mats everywhere, bars had sprouted out of the floor, and large platforms towered over bigger, cushionier mats. This was all very exciting, but everyone knew the feeling would not last too long. In fact, it was being smashed to pieces at that very moment, as a certain large, burly man in black and orange spandex suit came walking in one of the doors.

"Alright X-men!" shouted Wolverine, "We're about t start a skill building unit. Today we'll be developing our agility; tomorrow morning we'll practice alertness; tomorrow afternoon there'll be a test involving lasers."

"Hey, wait." said Cyclops, confused, "Alertness tomorrow _morning_?"

"Yeh got a better suggestion, kid?" growled Wolverine.

This was obviously a rhetorical question, but it didn't stop Rocky. "Tomorrow afternoon?" she suggested.

The big man gave her a look, but continued speaking, "The best defense is a good offense. I want all of you to remember that. Cyclops, you're on landings; Jean Grey, I've got an obstacle course for you over there; Nightcrawler and Spyke, the two of you sill be working with the un-parallel bars; Shadowcat and Rocky, you two can practice your basic rolls and flips on the mat of your choice."

The team dispersed and Wolverine left the room. Shadowcat and Rocky still weren't talking, but they forced themselves to cooperate enough to spot each other. After a couple unsuccessful back flips, Rocky was getting frustrated. She rubbed her knuckles. They were aching like crazy, but she couldn't complain. Everyone already hated her enough at the moment. Just then, Wolverine walked over to the pair of less than talented gymnasts.

"Give me your gloves, Rocky" he ordered.

Rocky handed them to him, and he gave her an identical pair in return. "Oh, those ones still fit." said Rocky who was very confused by Wolverine's actions.

"That has nothing to do with this, and you know it." growled Wolverine, "I'm getting tired of your sarcasm big-shot."

Okay, she had definitely rubbed Logan the wrong way. Not good. "Actually, that wasn't sarcasm." corrected Rocky, "So, really, what's different about them?"

The big man turned around. He shoved her hands into the gloves. "Handstand, now." he barked.

"But why?" protested Rocky.

"Now!" growled Wolverine.

Rocky wasted no time. She bent down and placed her fists on the ground. There was definitely something different about these gloves. She kicked her legs up into the air. The usual, painful, pressured feeling in her knuckles was not there. She came out of the position with a summersault, as it was getting hard for her to maintain her balance.

"Squishy stuff!" she shrieked, "Yay! If you were anyone else, I would hug you!"

"Yeh, yeh." Wolverine shook her off, "Now get back to it. In twenty minutes you're switching stations." He left them alone again. Rocky looked over at Kitty and smiled weakly. Kitty just looked away and went back to practicing.

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The next day at around 4:30 pm, Rocky was in her room getting ready for her dodging test. She stretched the neck of her training suit open and stepped into it. Rocky looked in the mirror. She had never really been a girly girl at all. In fact, her suit was the most flattering item of clothing she could remember putting on in her entire life. In kindergarten, she would sneak the clothes of her little brothers to school in her back pack and change in the bathroom. When she was found out, her parents begun to just buy her the boy's clothes she loved wearing. As she got older, she started wearing girl's clothes, but only because of problems with sizes. Even now, with all her confidence, Rocky wouldn't wear anything but t-shirts and jeans.

She checked the clock. Less than half an hour until the test started. Rocky decided she needed to practice. She pulled her new gloves out of a drawer and put them on. Thanks to them, she no longer had a disadvantage.

There probably wouldn't be mats in the danger room, so it would be a good idea to practice on her own floor. Rocky stood at one end of the wide space at the front of her bed and did a back flip. She landed in a crouch position and shoulder rolled over to her desk. Then she stood up and did a front spring back to where the space was.

Rocky was beginning a dive roll when she heard clapping coming from her doorway. She was so surprised that she ended up sailing towards the floor head first. She put out her hand just in time to stop herself, and rolled on to her side instead. From the ground, Rocky looked up at her father. She groaned.

"You know," she said sarcastically, "You choose the best times ever to show up."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." defended Ian, "You don't want me showing up at all. Oh, by the way. You've got some sweet moves. Since when can you do that?" He offered his hand to Rocky. She ignored the gesture and got up on her own.

"Notice how when you came in I messed up?" she snarled at him, "I have a test on this stuff in fifteen minutes. You need to leave."

"I was standing there for a while, actually. I just surprised you, that's all. It could happen to anyone." he said, trying to start conversation "So, that's a pretty nice outfit you've got there. I always said you should show off that figure of yours." He reached out to touch the fabric.

Rocky put her hand to stop him with a force field. "Don't" she said.

"Okay, if that's the way you want it, then it's fine with me." said Ian, he gestured to her hands, "So what is that, anyways? Some sort of invisible wall maker?"

"Force fields." replied Rocky. She pushed him out the door and pointed him in the opposite direction she was heading with her powers, "I have to get to the danger room. Don't follow me."

Rocky held him back until she went around the corner. After that, it was obvious he was following her, but she pretended not to notice. After all, he'd just find his way there once she was in the waiting room and unable to stop him. When she reached the intersection in the hallway nearest to the danger room, Rocky stopped and turned around. Ian awkwardly tried to hide behind a potted plant. It looked rather pathetic.

"I know you're following me." she said calmly, "It's the third door to the right. Don't go with me, unless you want to be shot at by lasers."

Ian came back out into the center of the hallway. "Thank…" he trailed off. Rocky had already stepped into the elevator leading down to the bottom of the enormous room.

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It had turned out that none of the students were talking to Rocky. This made waiting for her turn very awkward. When they were done their own test, they would go to the observation room to avoid cheating. So far, Scott and Jean had finished their tests, and Kurt was in the process of doing his. They were getting called in alphabetical order by their code names. Rocky was next. Although she was nervous, she was also anxious to get in the room that could possibly kill her. It was just so aggravating sitting there watching her best friend talking to Evan, and completely ignoring her.

The thought of doing poorly to upset her father had crossed her mind a couple times, but it was really a useless thing to do. She didn't care about him at all, and it would only be sacrificing herself, and possibly her safety. It was very important to do your best during the tests. A failing grade meant much more than just having to re-do it.

She heard the sounds of firing lasers die down; the big metal doors leading to another elevator opening and closing. "Rocky, please enter the simulation." boomed Logan's voice. The doors to the danger room opened and Rocky walked through them. They slammed shut behind her.

"The center of the room, hurry it up!" Rocky began to jog. She stood on the x-men trade mark, directly underneath the observation room. A siren sounded. Laser guns came out of the walls in various places and then went back in. There were broken bits of dialogue coming out of the speaker.

"You better get my daughter out of there right now!"

"Ian, please…"

"She can do this…"

Oh dear. Rocky smacked her head with her hand. He didn't want her doing this. "Dad, stop it!" she yelled, "I have to do this, leave them alone and just watch."

There was no answer, but one again, the siren sounded and laser guns came out of the walls. The first laser fired. Rocky avoided it diving to the left. Another one fired and she did a backwards summersault. She saw a row of guns warming up to shoot. Rocky began to run, laser after laser scorching the floor behind her. The continuous trail stopped. Rocky looked around. Suddenly, two guns shot at her from different angles at the same time. She did a back flip, bouncing off the jelly in the fingers of her gloves. This continued for about five more minutes.

When the room finally shut down, Rocky collapsed on the floor to catch her breath. Although she was in good shape, it was hard to be on your toes for that long. She stood up and walked over to the elevator. It took her to the same hallway that she had been in when she went into the waiting room. Rocky took a deep breath and prepared to bombarded by her father.

She opened the door, and discovered that her predictions were correct. Ian was right there holding a bottle of water and shoving it in her face, smiling and rambling on about how great she had done and how amazing she was. Rocky pushed the bottle he was holding out of the way and picked up on from the tray.

"Yeah, that's great." Rocky attempted to brush him off, "Kitty's great too. Go see her." Rocky gestured over to the girl in the large room below them who was about to start her own test. Luckily, there would only be about ten minutes before the teachers' lecture began.

Rocky made her way over to one of the bench seats around the circular room. She chose a place against a pillar and leaned against it. She sat on her knees in a semi-kneeling position. For some reason, this position seemed more comfortable for her, ever since she developed her mutation. Sometimes, when she was alone in her room she would even rest her chin on her knees and tuck her arms in against her chest. This felt even better. It was also the way she slept.

Ian sat down beside her. "Well I don't want to watch them." he said, "I want to get a word in with the star of the show."

"Go away" said Rocky. She looked out the window.

"Hey" Ian said comfortingly, "I'm sorry about trying to stop your test. I hope I didn't embarrass you too much." He tried to hug her. Without taking her eyes away from the window, Rocky put up her palm and knocked him off the bench with her powers. He scooted back over towards her across the floor. She pushed him over to the other side of the room. Again, he tried to come back. He just didn't get it. Rocky rested her open palm on her lap. Eventually, unable to move forwards, Ian gave up and sat down.

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Wednesday started way too early as usual. Today, there would only be a session in the morning. Rocky wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. She would have time for once, but unfortunately, it would be filled with constant pestering from her least favorite person in the world. Hopefully, that particular person would still be asleep.

Rocky cautiously opened her door and looked up and down the hallway. It was clear. She sprinted down the short stretch of hallway and around the corner. She flattened herself against the wall. She looked around.

"Rocky?" She jumped and looked to where the voice had come from. It was only Jean. "What are you doing?" asked Jean.

"I don't want him to find me." replied Rocky in a whisper.

"He's still asleep," said Jean, "and you have to stop avoiding him."

Rocky didn't even reply; she just stormed off. Why did everyone want her to spend time with the man who had tried to kill her? Why was everyone being so stupid?

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During the morning's session, Rocky had been extra aggressive. It had impressed Logan, but had really scared everyone else. Afterwards, the other students had stayed around to talk for a little bit. Obviously, they weren't going to pay any attention to Rocky, so she just left.

On her way back to her room, Rocky heard a loud crashing sound coming from the kitchen. She instinctively flung open the door. During the session, they had been practicing fast reactions to certain sounds. Crashing was one of them.

"Oh no," groaned Rocky, "not you."

Ian was lying on the floor covered in pots and pans. "How does one get any food around here?" he asked her. To Rocky, this seemed like the most irrelevant question that he could possibly ask. She walked over him and pulled him up with her powers. Then she faced her open palms to the ceiling and brought the pots and pans that Ian had managed to spill everywhere to the height of the counter.

"Put them back" she ordered. Ian looked at the pots nervously. Then he looked at her. Rocky rolled her eyes. "Just take them, you coward." she said impatiently.

Ian picked up the pots as if they were about to bite him any second. When he finally finished, he asked again, "So how does one get anything to eat around here?"

"You go to the dining room and you eat the food that's on the table." replied Rocky, "It's pretty simple."

"Well, if it's that simple, then how come every time I reach for something it either floats away, slides away, has claws over it, or it gets grabbed by that annoying, freakish, blue friend of yours?" questioned Ian.

"Oh yeah," said Rocky, "you're not a mutant. Yeah, that complicates things for you. There's still about 15 minutes before everyone will be downstairs. Grab as much food from the room as you can and eat it in your room."

"Is this a scheme to get rid of me for breakfast?" asked, who was having trouble believing her.

"Trust me," said Rocky firmly, "nothing is safe from Kurt. He will take food right off your plate. Hey, I've gotta get changed. You better get going." Then, she ran out the door. She had actually just added the part about Kurt stealing food to trick her father. However, she considered, it could quite possibly be true. There had never actually been a human in the mansion with food on their plate.

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During science, Rocky sat with Kysha and Lindsay. The teacher was beginning a unit on force. This was boring Rocky out of her mind. She had reviewed all this with Professor Xaiver during her first week at the institute. She knew it backwards and forwards.

In gym, the sport was volleyball. Rocky got out of playing, by making up something about tender bones. That was everything that happened of the slightest significance for the entire school day.

When three o'clock finally came around, Rocky found Terra at her locker. This was what Rocky usually did at the end of the day, except with Kitty.

Rocky slammed her back against another locker. She sighed, closed her eyes, rubbed her temples, opened her eyes again, and smiled at Terra.

"Hi" said Rocky, noticing that Terra had been staring at her the entire time.

"Hi…" said Terra awkwardly, "Um, I'm not asking you to leave or anything, but don't you usually hang out with your other friends after school?"

"Well…" said Rocky, twisting her face up, trying to figure out what to say, "They somewhat all… hate me at the moment."

"Oh." replied Terra. It was obvious that she had no idea what to say. "What did you do?"

For a second, Rocky considered telling Terra about her father, but they were still at school where people could overhear, and she didn't know for sure that this girl was trustworthy enough. She quickly made up a weak lie. "I was in a bad mood and I said some stuff I shouldn't have." said Rocky, "That's all. We're kind of like siblings. We get along really well sometimes, and sometimes we rip each other's heads off."

Terra giggled. "That's so cool." she said, "So, being the Rochelle's-temporary-best-friend, what do I do?"

"Well, we usually start with a few hours of boot camp…" said Rocky. Terra smiled at her. "No, actually, I was wondering if you had time for a movie or something this afternoon."

"Well, I don't have that much homework." replied Terra, "But I don't know. I mean, we should probably plan a little ahead. What about tomorrow or the next day?"

"Please Terra" begged Rocky. She really didn't want to go home. "This is the only day I'll not be busy for the next who knows how long. Come on, there's showings of Shrek and Pirates in 45 minutes."

"Rochelle, I would, but I don't have any money." she said apologetically, "I really do want to go."

"Well, then I can lend you money." said Rocky enthusiastically.

"Okay, I guess that would work." said Terra, "Are you sure, though?"

"Yeah, of course I'm sure." said Rocky impatiently.

"Alright, let's go wait out front." said Terra, "I think my dad might be able to give us a ride."

The two girls walked outside and threw their bags down at the base of a tree.

"So…" said Rocky, "Pirates or Shrek? I really want to see both, so you decide."

"Um… Uh… Hmm…" muttered Terra, "I don't know."

"Yes you do." said Rocky.

"No…" whined Terra, "You're so mean. You choose."

"Are you rejecting my kindness?" questioned Rocky sarcastically.

"Eeny meeny miney moe…" muttered Terra. Rocky laughed. "Shrek" announced Terra, "Hey, my Dad's here."

Terra ran over to her car and leaned in the window to talk to her Dad, leaving the bags under the tree. Rocky walked over to them. She put her own backpack on, and picked up Terra's bags for her. She saw Terra's art project in the slightly open front pocket. The bag turned out to be heavier than Rocky had anticipated. It slipped out of her hand and she instinctively caught it with her powers. A split second later, when she realized what she was doing, Rocky quickly lowered it back to the ground. She looked around, nobody had seemed to notice. Good, no damaged done.

Terra turned around and walked back to the tree, scooping up her bag with some difficultly. "Oof!" groaned Terra, "This thing is so heavy."

"I know." replied Rocky.

Terra looked at her questioningly, must have figured out her question for herself, and said, "Come on, get in. He's going to give us the ride."

They settled in the back of Terra's car. Her Dad turned around to face them. "Hi Rochelle!" he said in a friendly, warm voice, "I've heard so much about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He held out his hand for her to shake.

Okay, how was she going to do this? Oddly enough, Rocky hadn't actually had to shake any hands since her powers had taken full effect. The hand was just another object that she was incapable of moving her palm towards without pushing it away. Professor Xavier had taught her how to do a great deal of things, but not how to shake hands. What had she learned that was similar? She could pick things up, she could do gymnastics, she could put on gloves. All these things proved useless for this situation. Wait! She could rest her hand on surfaces. All she had to do was slide her hand onto it from the side. She could just slide her hand into Terra's father's hand. By now, he was staring at Rocky very awkwardly, and was considering pulling his hand away. Rocky quickly slid her hand into his and shook it.

"Sorry, uh… memories." apologized Rocky, "It's very nice to meet you too." She forced a pleasant smile.

Terra's dad turned back to the windshield and started the car. Terra nudged Rocky. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah, it was nothing." whispered Rocky in reply, "I just spaced out for a second, that's all. Don't worry about me."

They had been driving for a few minutes when Terra's dad asked, "So, Rochelle, would your parents by any chance be able to pick the two of you up?"

Okay, this was making things even more awkward. Rock decided that she didn't like meeting new people. She didn't want Terra to know that Ian was in town. It could lead to too many dead end questions. "My parents…" said Rocky nervously, trying to think of something to say, "Uh…" She looked at her feet. "Um… yeah… They… Uh…"

"Dad," interrupted Terra, "Rochelle lives at the Xaiver Institute."

Rocky looked at Terra, saying 'thanks' with her eyes.

"Oh," said Terra's dad, "Sorry about that, I didn't know. So, you're a gifted youngster, huh? I haven't heard much about that place, what's it like?"

"Apparently I am." replied Rocky, "Xavier's is cool. It's a lot of fun, actually. But… we're actually not supposed to tell people what goes on there."

"Really?" asked Terra, "Why not?"

Rocky glared at her friend. "I'm not going to tell you." she said.

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The rest of the ride passed equally as awkwardly as the first part had. The movie finished at around six o'clock that evening. Rocky decided to take the bus back to the institute instead of getting a ride with Terra again, for obvious reasons. When she finally returned home, her father was waiting for her at the door.

"Hey Rocky!" shouted Ian, "Long time no see. Where've you been all afternoon."

"Movie." said Rocky simply as she walked by him.

Ian followed her. "What movie" he asked.

"Shrek" answered Rocky. She didn't look at him, and started up the stairs.

"Did you like it?"

"Yeah"

"What was your favorite part?"

"Go away."

"Why?"

"Because"

"Because why?"

"Because"

"Because why?"

"Because"

"Because why?"

"I have homework." said Rocky finally. She opened her bedroom door, stepped in, and closed the door in Ian's face. She pulled her binder out of her backpack and slammed it on her desk. She only had some science to do. It would only take five minutes, and then she would be free to do what she pleased for the rest of the night.

Ian opened the door again. "Let me help." he said, "Just like old times."

"Dad." said Rocky in a confident voice, "My homework is about force. Tell me, who would know more about force than I do?"

"Uh…"

"That's what I thought." said Rocky as she pushed her father out the door.

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It was early Thursday morning, really early Thursday morning. Four am early. Rocky couldn't sleep. She had just had a bad dream. Another one about killing Kitty, but this one was very different. In this dream, Rocky had killed Kitty as a friend, instead of a person. In this dream, there were no clowns with sporks. Therer was nothing hinting that what she was experiencing in her mind couldn't actually come true.

The dream took place in the future, but the near future. Rocky was in her room, but it wasn't the room she was in at the moment, it was a run down room with a sagging bed and paint peeling off the walls. Although she didn't know why, somehow Rocky knew it was in the brotherhood house. She was just sitting there, like a zombie. There was a knock on the door; someone came in, but Rocky couldn't see their face. The mysterious person told her that it was time to go.

The dream jumped to the clearing by the rocky cliff at the edge of the institute's property. The X-men, without Rocky, were about 10 feet away from where she was standing. Beside her were the members of the brotherhood. Rocky held up her hand and knocked her friends off the cliff. She ran over to the edge and looked down. Jean was supporting the whole team. They were all glaring at her in bitter hatred. Jean began to struggle. Rocky knew that soon they would all fall unless she did something. The real Rocky had been willing her dream-self to save them, but the dream-Rocky pushed them downwards. Then she had woken up.

Now, Rocky was just sitting there thinking; thinking about all the stupid things that she'd been doing. She was wrecking all her closest friendships. For what? One stupid week of ignoring one stupid person she didn't like. Rocky couldn't believe what an idiot she was being. What if it was already too late? What if they wouldn't forgive her? What if she did end up with the Brotherhood? She had to fix this right now.

Rocky rolled off her bed, stood up, and ran down the hall to Kitty's room.

"Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!" hissed Rocky in a panicked half whisper. Kitty grunted and rolled over. Rocky jumped onto the bed and bounced on her knees. She shook the sleeping girl's shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Kitty, wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

Kitty opened her eyes and crack. "Rocky" she groaned, "Like what are you doing? Go back to sleep." Kitty closed her eyes again.

"No!" said Rocky desperately, "IhadadreamthatIwasinthebrotherhoodandyouallhatedmeandIhavetoappollogizerightnoworthatwillhappend." She took a deep breath. "AndI'vebeensuchanidiotandI'msososososososososososorry…"

"Rocky!" Kitty cut her off, "Like slow down… please."

Rocky was trying to catch her breath. "Bream… me… brotherhood… you… hate… me… I… so… sorry… don't… want… come… true… idiot… me…" gasped Rocky between breaths.

"Okay," said Kitty nervously, "You just like try to stop hyperventilating, while I try and figure out what you just said."

"Kay…" said Rocky quickly, before resuming her heavy breathing.

A few minutes later, when Rocky's breathing was more or less normal again, Kitty broke the silence.

"So," she said, "you like had a dream…"

Rocky nodded.

"And you were in the brotherhood…" continued Kitty.

Rocky nodded again.

"And we totally hated you?" Kitty asked, "Why?"

"I don't know." said Rocky, "Like we hate the brotherhood, only more."

"Okay…" said Kitty, processing, "And you're like afraid that will happen if you didn't apologize right away, right?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Rocky, "I've been an idiot, and I'm so so so so so so so sorry."

"Apology accepted, but…" Kitty said whit a mischievous smile, "like don't forget about the other part of this."

"Rocky sighed. "Yeah," she forced her self to say, "I'll put up with him. Anyways, it's only for another four days."

"No." said Kitty, "remember, you have to get along with him… and no avoiding."

"Alright, fine." grumbled Rocky, "Do I have to be happy about it?"

"No, but you have to like at least pretend to be." answered Kitty, "Now, we should really like get some sleep."

"Oh," said Rocky awkwardly, "yeah, sorry. Goodnight…err…um…morning. Uh, yeah, bye."

When Rocky returned to her room, she suddenly felt very tired. It felt so good to have her best friend back. Making a sacrifice was worth having something, instead of nothing. She closed her eyes, thinking about all the fun she was going to have, and all the nice things she would do for her friends.

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Three hours later, Rocky arrived in the dining room. Although tired, she was smiling profusely. She sat down at her normal spot. Kurt hadn't taken her muffin, but he was staring at it longingly. Rocky smiled even wider than she already was and haded tlhe muffin to her fuzzy friend. She laughed quietly to herself. Fffuzzy fffriend; that was alliteration.

Jean elbowed her in the ribs. "Rocky!" she hissed, "I know you're very happy o be friends with us again, but this is a little creepy."

"I'm not being creepy." laughed Rocky as she slid the plate of toast down the table towards herself, "I'm just trying to be nice, that's all."

Kurt seemed to have overheard them. "I appreciate the muffin," he supplied, "but… the hugs for everyone during training vere a little too much."

"Fer once I actually agree with the elf." said Logan threateningly, "If yeh ever do that again, Big-shot, then god help you, I'll…"

"Logan!"

"Sorry Chuck."

"And the Brady Bunch songs were just scary, man." added Evan from beside Kurt.

"Okay, okay." sighed Rocky, "I'll try and tone it down a bit."

The rest of breakfast passed a little less strangely than the first part. When most of the students were finished eating and upstairs brushing their teen, Rocky overheard a conversation between Scott and Professor Xavier, just as she was standing up.

"So Professor," asked Scott, "When are you going to tell her?"

"I don't know, Scott." answered the professor, "When this good mood dies down a little. I doubt she'll even listen right now. Perhaps after school."

"Rocky knew they were talking about her. She turned to face them. "I can listen now." she stated firmly.

"You heard me Rochelle." said Professor Xavier, "After school.

"But…" protested Rocky.

The professor gave her a stern look. Rocky sighed. "Kay…" she grumbled.

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Later that day, during science, Rocky had her head down on her desk. Everyone else was taking notes. Rocky didn't see the point. F equals M over D, blah, blah, blah. She could do all this in her sleep. Literally. In fact, she did all these simple equations sub-consciously in a spilt second every time she used her powers. All Rocky had had to do was look at the question to get the answer, and bring her thought process into her consciousness to show work. While working on homework, she had automatically tried to make force fields to move the objects in the questions.

"MISS THOMAS!" The shrill voice jerked Rocky out of her thoughts.

"Y-yes Ma'am?" stuttered Rocky.

"Rochelle Thomas I've had enough of this ignorant attitude of yours." said the teacher angrily, "You have paid absolutely no attention for the entire unit."

"Sorry…" said Rocky trying to think of something to say that might get her out of trouble, "for not taking notes. I have actually been listening. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I was." This was a complete lie, but Rocky hoped the teacher would by it anyways.

"Well then." said the teacher, "If you've been listening so intently, can you tell me what the definition of force is?"

"That's easy." answered Rocky, "A force is a push or a pull."

"Give me an example of a force."

"The force of gravity."

"What is force measured in?"

"Newtons."

"Would you be prepared to write the unit test today after school?"

"Yes." replied Rocky without thinking.

"Good." said the teacher, "I'll see you at 3:00 then."

"No, wait!" said Rocky, "I'm busy after school. Would lunch be okay?"

"You're right." said the teacher, "You are busy after school. You have detention right here until 4:00."

"What?!" complained Rocky.

The teacher ignored her and continued on with the lesson.

Kitty leaned over and tapped Rocky on the shoulder. "You're fine." she whispered, "The session doesn't start until like 5:30 today."

"Yeah, I know." whispered Rocky, keeping her eyes on the teacher as she did so, "But Professor Xavier said he'd tell me something important when I got home."

Just then the bell rang. The teacher walked over to lecture her some more. Fortunately, Rocky was able to grab her stuff and get out the door in time, leaving her teacher standing there looking shocked and insulted.

Kitty caught up with her a few seconds later. "Are you like actually gonna write that test?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Rocky, "I do know it all. Professor Xavier taught it to me in my first week here. Come on, what can I do?"

"Well, you do have a good point." said Kitty, "Hey, I like have some work to do in the library after school today. I'll wait for you after your detention and we can walk home together."

"Great," said Rocky, "see you later!"

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A little after four o'clock, Rocky and Kitty were walking down the road towards the Institute discussing what to do about the library's wouldn't ugly, old computers. They had concluded that they would start a petition to put sparkly stickers on the monitors. It was a much cheaper and much more fun way of fixing the problem. As they neared the gates Rocky spotted a figure leaning against the brick wall surrounding the large grounds. As they got closer, it turned out to be Ian.

Rocky tried to ignore him, but Kitty elbowed her in the ribs. "Uh… Hi Dad." she said in a very forced pleasant voice, "How long have you been here?"

"Oh, only about a half hour." replied Ian, "I went to the school looking for you, but you never came out."

"Yeah, I had detention." said Rocky, looking at her feet.

"Would you like Rochelle to let you in, Mr. Thomas?" volunteered Kitty.

"Why yes." said Ian politely, "That would be nice."

Rocky walked up to the thumb-print activated lock at the side of the gate, grumbling about what an idiot her father was. She pressed her thumb against the green scanner and waited impatiently for it to let her in.

The gates opened, and the three of them walked through.

"Say, Kitty." said Ian, "Would you buy any chance like to see Pirates of the Caribbean? My treat. That is if you can convince your friend to tag along as well."

Kitty looked at Rocky. Rocky rolled her eyes. If she didn't go, then the crazed Orlando Bloom fanatic beside her would never stop bugging her about this. "Fine." she groaned, "I'll go."

"Yay!" shrieked Kitty, "Thank you so much Mr. Thomas!"

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"Split… personality?" said Rocky, questioning Professor Xavier's sanity, "Isn't that just a lame excuse used by authors who are completely out of better ideas?"

"Well, yes." replied the professor, "But none the less, in this case it happens to be true."

"Okay," said Rocky trying to make sense of what she'd just heard, "so you're saying that the guy who tried to kill me is actually another person who happens to share my dad's body."

"Precisely." said the professor, pleased that his student was beginning to accept the highly unbelievable information, "You see, this alternate Ian Thomas is triggered by times of high stress, or unexpected circumstances."

"Why do I still find this hard o believe asked Rocky sarcastically. She had gone into this office not really expecting anything, but this was just ridiculous. First she was supposed to spend time with the man who tried to kill her, and now this man wasn't the one who tried to kill her, it was him alternate personality. This whole thing was just getting way too strange.

"Alright, if you need proof, then I'll give it to you." said Professor Xavier, "As a part of our agreement for Ian to stay here; he had to agree to let me go into his mind. I have to say that I was not expecting to find the alternate personality any more than you were expecting to hear about it."

"So why don't you just do something about it?" questioned Rocky, "Can't you put a box around it, or whatever it is you do?"

"I could." admitted the professor, "However, I must respect Ian's wishes."

"You mean you're just going to let him go around with a dangerous person inside of him?" shouted Rocky.

"Of course not." defended the professor, "It's just that the idea of telepathy makes your father, well, somewhat uneasy. Therefore, I have been teaching him how to control it while you are at school. When he leaves, we will continue the sessions over the phone. I have made it very clear that you will not be visiting home until he has full control."

"Thank you Professor." said Rocky apologetically, "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"You're welcome, and apology accepted." said the professor with a mischievous smile on his face, "Now, shall we discuss your detention?"

Rocky groaned and slumped down in her chair. Now this was the disadvantage of having a telepath for a guardian. She looked up with a flat expression on her face, and braced herself for the second punishment.

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The next day, the X-men were walking home together. Everyone was happy, as it was Friday, nobody had anything to do, and the training session was going to be a mock mission. Even though everyone was in such a good mood, not even everyone's high spirits combined could challenge Kitty's excitement. She wasn't walking; she was skipping, jumping, and cart wheeling the entire way back to the mansion.

"Like oh my god!" shrieked Kitty, "I am like so totally exited! Johnny Depp is soooo totally hot! Rocky your dad is like the coolest ever!"

"That's nice, Kitty." said Rocky nervously. She was trying to say as little as possible in response to her best friend's comments. When Rocky had accidentally said something negative, Kitty had freaked out and made her apologize to a movie poster. She decided that the best plan of action would be to just ignore Kitty. She turned towards Kurt and Evan who were walking on the other side of her. "So, did you guys all know about the weird split personality thing?" asked Rocky.

"Ja, we did." admitted Kurt.

"Only real men wear eyeliner!" interrupted Kitty.

"We woulda told you sooner, man," said Evan, ignoring Kitty, "but the prof said you had to get over it yourself before you could find out."

"He only told us to keep us from interfering." added Kurt.

"Just call me Mrs. Jack Sparrow…" sighed Kitty dreamily as the group approached the gates.

Ian was not standing by the gate as he had been the day before. Rocky assumed that someone had told him to back off.


End file.
