The wolves will chase you down
They'll bring you to your knees
And run you ragged to the ground
Just like they did to me

- Hell, Olivver the Kid

Hugh was always better at whistling than me. Hell, he was better than me at a lot of things; sports, making friends, and even though he was about as dumb as a rock, he still did better in school than me. But for some reason, the one thing that always bothered me was that he was better at whistling.

When he was a kid, he'd just whistle random notes while I struggled to even make a sound. When we were a bit older he learned easy little jingles: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday, Mary Had a Little Lamb. Those were the ones that drove me the most insane, much to his pleasure.

If we were sitting at a table, not saying anything as usual, he'd just whistle dumb little jingles to annoy me and I couldn't get mad because angry Violet was a dangerous Violet.

And that's all I could think as I sat across from Bobby at the breakfast table as he whistled some jingle he heard on the radio- poorly, might I add. At least Hugh could get the notes right. Bobby seemed so peaceful, calmly whistling to himself, unaware that across the table I wanted to rip his tongue out of his mouth.

Apparently I wasn't the only one going a little insane. Just as I was about to open my mouth to ask for silence, John cut me off by saying, "Ice Cube, if you don't stop whistling I will literally melt you."

The room fell silent, Bobby's lips still pursed in his song. After a moment, he said sarcastically, "'Hey Bobby, if you don't mind could you please stop whistling?' That's all you had to say, John. All you had to say."

"Bobby, if you don't mind could you shut the hell up?" John snapped back. And here kids, we have the perfect example of an argument with a morning person against someone who hates the world.

"You know my favorite thing about you, John?" Bobby asked cheerfully, shoveling a piece of pancake in his mouth. A small piece dropped from his lips as he spoke again. "Your positivity!"

"Do you want to know my favorite thing about you?" John repeated, holding up his hands for silence. Everyone at the table - which was me, Amara, Rogue, and Bobby - fell silent as we waited for the snide joke to drop. "This right here. When you're silent."

Ah, there it is. Who would John be if he wasn't rude and sarcastic?

"I like it too but you don't see me being a dick about it."

Everyone jumped when Logan's voice sounded from behind us. Twisting around, I made eye contact with him as he strolled into the kitchen. Things had been surprisingly good between us ever since the Danger Room session where he watched me explosively vomit all over the place. By 'good' I mean he nodded at me once when I passed him in the hall but from what I know about Logan, that may as well make us best friends.

"John, Violet: Chuck's got chores for you," he continued, glancing between me and John.

A chunk of pancake fell out of my house when I said, "What, why?"

John looked at me, disgust written all over his face. He shook his head slowly. "Disgusting."

I replied by opening my mouth completely and letting all the chewed up pancake fall onto the place. John finally broke and chuckled.

Logan snorted and shook his head before saying, "Since you got kicked off Alarm Duty, he figured you could do a few things for him."

"Like what?" I asked, poking around at my chewed up pancake before pushing it away.

"Groceries." Logan dropped a list, a credit card, and a set of keys on the table. "We usually get everything delivered but there's a few things Scott forgot to order."

Bobby looked up, confused. "Wait, aren't you in charge of ordering groceries now?"

Logan sent him a long harsh look before turning to us and saying, "Just don't mess it up this time." He walked away, only nodding to Rogue as he left.

Amara grabbed the list and started reading out loud. " 24 tubes of toothpaste, 3 jars of minced garlic, 5 jugs of bleach, and lots of tampons."

At the word 'tampons,' John and Bobby both made a revolted face. Amara narrowed her eyes. "Are you seriously grossed out by the word 'tampon?'"

"Look, I just don't need to hear about it," Bobby said raising his hands in defense. "I'm sure becoming a women is a... beautiful process."

"Oh God," Rogue breathed. "Bobby, I love you, but please never say that again."

Bobby shot up, his face morphing into one of shock and joy. A slow smile formed on his face. Rogue froze, realizing the three little words she let slip out of her mouth. "Wait, you love me?"

"That's our cue to leave, Vi," John said and we started cleaning up our plates. "Get out before it gets too mushy."

"Awe, this is so cute," Amara said, holding her heart. John reacted by making a gagging noise and dumping his plate in the sink, not bothering to rinse it off. I started to rinse the sticky plate but he grabbed my arm and hauled me out. "You two are just jealous that you're not in love."

John snorted. "And what are you then, living vicariously through them? You're single too."

Amara shrugged easily. "I have my eye on someone." She winked.

"Good luck with that one, 'Mar," he said sarcastically before walking out the door.

Amara deflated a little when he said that. I didn't really get why; it's not like John's approval mattered much on anything. Either way, I didn't think too much of it and followed him out of the kicthen.

"So which car are we taking?" I asked Logan after he tossed John a key dangling from a landyard. "The Lamborghini, the Ferrari, the Camaro? I mean we'll even take the Rolls Royce if we have to."

Logan snorted. "The Jeep."

I deflated. In a room full of luxury cars, we were taking the only one that wasn't a sports car. Not that I was complaining or anything - I never had a car and didn't even have my own license. John on the other hand had something to say.

"Oh c'mon Logan, just let us take one of the nice ones for a spin. I heard you got to take Scott's Mazda after Stryker attacked. Heard you put a claw right through the key hole."

Logan froze momentarily, as if John had forced the memories of the attack back into his mind. He shook his head, as if to literally shake the memory out of his head. "No room for all those tampons in a Mazda," Logan said finally before walking away. He turned around, his eyes narrowed at John. "Don't crash it, kid."

"No promises," John joked as he unlocked the car. I slid into the passenger seat as John got behind the wheel. It took a few minutes for him to adjust the seat and figure out which radio station we wanted to play before we finally got on the road.

We had been driving for about five minutes as I quietly sang to myself, when the song changed to All Star by Smash Mouth. John immediately cranked it up to an unbearable volume.

"John!" I screeched, covering my ears. Of course he couldn't hear because the music was so loud. I sacrificed one ear to reach over and turn it down. "John, I'm not going to lose my hearing over All Star of all songs."

"This song is a musical masterpiece," John said. He tried to act serious but his lips kept twitching as he fought back a laugh. "I mean, 'Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb?' Genius!"

At that, I couldn't help but laugh. John took that as a good enough excuse to turn the music back up, and this time I let him. Together, we screamed all the words to All Star as we drove to the grocery store. About part way through the song, we had just reached the outskirts of the city and that's when we saw it. An orange glow in the distance. I looked at John, who had turned the music off.

"Wasn't me," he said with a shrug. Regardless, he turned right at the next light, even though the grocery store was to our left. I switched to the local radio station, hoping there would be something in the news.

"The upscale restaurant Nico's is currently evacuating its guests after a gas leak caused a major explosion in the kitchen. We can confirm there has been one casualty but as of now we have no updates," the women on the radio reported. I turned to John.

"We have to help them."

"Wait what?" John looked disgusted. "They'd never do the same to us."

"You don't know that, John," I snapped. "I'm trying to cling to any hope I have left that the world isn't out to get me and that there's good people in this world. So maybe we need to start being good too."

John parked the car a couple blocks from the burning building. He turned to me as said seriously, "Look, Vi, it's not about being good and bad. It's about us or them. They will stop at nothing to make sure we know we're hated, and you shouldn't put your life on the line for them."

There was a long moment before I said, "I guess I'll have to find that out on my own." Without another word I unbuckled my seatbelt and slipped out of the Jeep. After a few moments, John got out too and started to follow me.

"Just this once," he said quietly as he walked beside me.

When we got there, the scene was so much worse than we thought. The fire was almost double the size of the restaurant, and there was a massive group of people behind police tape. Some were crying, some were yelling at the cops, but the most notable was the woman who was screaming hysterically as an officer tried to hold her back. She was screaming,"My baby is in there! H-he's wearing a yellow jacket and he went to the washroom when the kitchen exploded!"

I glanced back at the restaurant to see firefighters attempting to get inside. A massive wall of flames blocked the door and even the water wouldn't be able to stop the flames long enough for someone to get inside. But luckily, I knew someone who will.

"John, the door!" I yelled, pointing at the building. He nodded and held out his hand; the fire vanished.

Mid-run, I transformed into a lion, causing the crowd to scream. Even the firefighters at the door were so shocked, first by the fire vanishing and second, by the random lion, that they couldn't stop me as I burst through the swinging doors.

The smoke rushed into my lungs, filling it with a choking heat. I crouched, trying to avoid the thick plumes of smoke but hardly succeeding. I scanned the restaurant, trying to pick out the yellow jacket of the young boy but the thick smoke and the flames blocked most of my vision. Even my heightened sense of smell was useless.

I could feel the air cooling behind me – John was calming the flames, starting at the doorway. John was powerful, but a burning building was far too large for him to put out quickly. I couldn't depend on him to stop the fire in time.

I jumped onto a dining table to get a better view of the building. The area next to the kitchen was completely demolished and the fire was making its way across the room, catching on curtains, wooden tables, and anything that would burn easily. The flickering, battery-run candles on each table was almost laughable next to the roaring flames.

Deciding the boy wasn't in the dining room, I leapt off the table and towards the area of the kitchen. A hallway was next to the kitchen, leading to the bathroom. Despite the fire having only been burning for maybe ten minutes at most, the hallway was already a tunnel of heat, flames, and smoke. The fire was melting the glue between the wood panelling and the walls, so planks of burning wood were tipping into the hall.

Creeping under one of the planks, I made my way to the boy's bathroom. I had to morph back into a human to pull the door open; the metal doorknob burnt my skin but I tried to push the pain away for the sake of the mission.

"Kid, you in here?" I wheezed. I stumbled – I hadn't realized how much of a toll the smoke inhalation was taking on me. If I didn't get this kid out soon, I'd pass out and then we'd both die.

I looked around and snorted, despite the serious situation. Even without seeing the boy, I knew he was in here. The water in the three sinks were running in a childish attempt to stop the fire. As if the sinks set between the kitchen and the stalls would be a barrier for the fire.

There was a squeak as the third stall door opened and the seven year old boy stepped out. He had ditched the yellow jacket and was just wearing a t-shirt. His skin was glistening and his hair and shirt were damp. At first I thought from sweat, but then realized he had covered himself with water as another way to protect himself from the flames.

"Who're you?" he whimpered. He was shaking badly.

"Violet," I coughed. "C'mon I'm going to get you out of here."

"There's too much fire," he whispered. I could tell he was trying his hardest not to break out into tears. "We won't make it."

"Don't be scared when I change, okay? I'm just trying to help." When he didn't say anything, I dropped to all fours and let thick, black fur sprout from my skin.

The boy tripped back, his green eyes wide and his lip trembling. He crawled back. I didn't blame him – I'd probably have the same reaction if a stranger randomly morphed into a lion in front of me.

I stepped forward, dipping my head to signal to him that I wasn't going to hurt him. He shakily reached out, the tips of his fingers touching my forehead, before his sweaty palm made contact.

"Cool," he breathed. A ghost of a smile touched his lips.

I nodded my head, telling him to get on my back. His eyes widened with excitement. He stepped forward, grasping my fur with his fingers and hesitating, just to make sure that's what i wanted. When I dipped down, he clambered onto my back. I stood, turning to face the bathroom door.

I pushed open the door, careful to not hurt the boy, as we made our way into the destruction.

The fire had spread in the few minutes I had been in the bathroom. All of the wooden panelling was scattered on the ground, with fire coating each planl. There was hardly anywhere for me to step that wasn't burning. At first, I tried to creep around the planks, but with every step, my paws got scorched. I tried swatting the planks away, only to spread the fire even more.

The boy on my back was coughing hard, burying his face into my fur. He'd been in here a lot longer than I had and would probably pass out from the smoke if I didn't get him out of here.

The hallway was too long for me to clear if I tried jumping but it would be a lot faster than trying to manouvre around all the fire. The problem: it would hurt a lot if I landed on the burning planks.

I could feel the boy's grip loosening and knew it was the right choice - if I didn't get out of here fast he'd pass out. And dragging an uncoscious boy through a burning building sounded worse than burning my paws.

I backed up as much as I could before taking of running. I only managed to get a step in before I was forced to leap. Heat tickeled my belly as I flew over the flames, but it was nothing compared to what I felt when I landed. The bottom of my paws screamed, forcing a roar to leave my throat. I jumped off, towards a fire free area, and landed hard onto my side. The boy screamed as he toppled over, my weight landing on his leg.

"Get off!" he screamed. I quickly rolled off, but couldn't help the screaming of my own. Sure, I had a high pain tolerance but that hurt. "A-are you okay?" the boy whimpered. His leg seemed to be fine, and his main concern was me.

I looked down as my scorched paws, with angry red burns covering the bottom, creeping upwards. I slowly shook my head no.

"The door's right there," he pointed. Sure enough, we were only a few feet from the door. I glanced quickly around the room to see it was blackened, but the fire was starting to fizzle out. Seeing the way the flames slowly shrunk before burning out completely, I knew it was John's doing. "We can make it. I'll help you."

I nodded, pulling myself onto my feet. My powers were already starting to kick in and the pain had dulled greatly. Together, with the boys hand on my back, I limped towards the door. He tried to push it open with his hand but I jumped in front of him, knowing the door would still burn him. I pushed it open, trying to ignore the heat on my shoulder.

Almost immediately the boy took off running to his mother, who was screaming hysterically. I, on the other hand, morphed back into a human, collapsing on my hands and knees. I slowly pulled myself up, limping towards the mother and her son. I wanted to make sure he was okay.

When I got there, the boy was already wrapped up in a blanket, sitting in his mothers lap as a fireman pressed an oxygen mask to his face. The mother was crying so hard I could barely make out he saying "My baby" over and over again. I felt my heart warm - I couldn't believe I of all people actually did something good. I had spent most of my life thinking I was a monster and here I was saving little kids.

"Is he okay?" I asked, my voice cracking. It was only then that I noticed the camera on me.

The mother looked up from her kneeling position at me, before slowly moving her son off her lap. She stood up and reached out with one arm, towards my face. I waited for her hand to touch my face, probably in a loving embrace as she thanked me for saving her son.

SLAP!

Silence fell over the crowd as everyone stared in shock. The pain didn't even register; all I felt was shock.

"How dare you go near my son!" she screeched. "You... you monster!"

"I saved him," I said hollowly. I could feel the cameras focusing in on my face but all I could do was stare at the woman.

"He would've been fine without you," she sneered. "You're a freak of nature and I'd rather die than let him turn into one of you people."

"Mom no!" the boy protested, reaching out for my hand. When she saw that, she shoved me hard. I stepped back, tripping over someone's foot and landing on the cement. And that's when it finally clicked.

That no matter what I did, and no matter who I helped, I was always going to be a monster.

I stood slowly, stepping towards the woman who was hiding her son behind her back. It was taking every ounce of strength in my body to not let Apex take over and hurt her, despite part of me wanting to.

"Don't you understand?" I asked quietly, staring at her. "Don't you understand that I have the power? I could easily kill you right now, but instead I chose to save your son. You don't have any power over me, and yet you choose to hurt me. I may be a mutant, but everyone can see who the real monster is."

I stood, walking away towards John. His face was a few shades paler than normal and his hands were shaking; his power was starting to drain him and he wouldn't be able to last much longer. "C'mon, we're leaving," I said, my voice low.

"The fire," John replied weakly.

"They don't want our help, John."

His hands dropped to his sides and he looked around; everyone was looking at us with fear clear on their faces. His eyes hardened and he turned away from the crowd, before looking at me. "Violet, they're always going to be like this. Humans will always treat us like this."

"I know that now," I said, not allowing any emotion to show on my face. "And never again will I risk my life to save one of them."

John grabbed my shoulders, turning my body to face him. When I still didn't meet his eyes, he gently cupped my face with his hand, right where the woman had slapped. Finally, my green eyes met his. "It's you and me, Vi. It's us against them."

I felt Apex's familiar rage boil in my stomach. My jaw clenched and my eyes flashed yellow. I looked back at them to see they were all still watching me. When they saw my eyes, they began to fall back. "They should have treated us with respect when they had the chance."

I turned away, storming towards our car with John right by my side. He was right.

It was us against the world.

When we got home, I stormed into the mansion, trying to avoid everyone. Logan saw me first, asking, "Where's all the tampons?" and then, "Wait why do you smell burnt?"

John followed more slowly after, tossing the keys to Logan as he passed. "We ran into a fire on the way."

"Did you start it?" Logan asked bluntly. John rolled his eyes.

"I helped stop it," he snapped.

"So why are you so moody?" Logan asked looking at me. I couldn't even answer, I just stared at him. Just then, Jubilee and Kitty burst into the room.

"Violet, we just saw the news," Kitty said, looking dismayed. "I'm sorry that lady treated you that way."

"Some people suck," Jubilee agreed patting me on the back.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, someone tell me what happened," Logan said, holding up his hands. His listened calmly as Kitty retold the story; she recited word for word what I'd said to the lady.

"Everyone's talking about it," Calvin added, walking into the room with Amara. Amara immediately went over to John to make sure he was okay. Not that he ran into a burning building or anything. "You're like the posterchild for mutant rights."

"Me?" I asked, my face wrinkling up. All I'd done was tell a lady off.

"That entire situation perfectly showed how mutants get treated by some humans," Kitty explained. "If a mutant gets slapped when she saved a child's life, that really shows how most mutants get treated on the daily basis. Mutants are demanding she gets tried for assault to prove a point."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," the Professor said, wheeling into the room. "There are always people who fear mutants, but her actions don't reflect that of all mutants."

"It's not like anyone stepped in to stop her," I pointed out. "Being a bystander isn't any better than being the woman who slapped me."

"You did the right thing by not hurting her, Violet," the Professor said with a soft smile. "By not acting out, you're showing humans that we're not all monsters and that we want to live peacefully with them."

"I mean she did say she could kill them," Amara added from next to John. She hands were wrapped around his arm, but he was hardly paying attention to her because he was too wrapped up in the conversation.

The Professor chuckled. "Your wording could have used some work but at the end of the day, I'm proud of you, nonetheless."

"Thank you," I said quietly. "I really wasn't meaning to start some sort of movement though."

"Well you did," Calvin said with a soft smile on his face. He walked up behind me and wrapped me in a tight hug, pulling me close to his chest. "Maybe this will change some people's views towards mutants."

I locked eyes with John, both our gazes dark. Everyone was praising me like I was some sort of martyr fighting for mutants and humans to live peacefully, when in reality it was the opposite. I no longer cared about living peacefully with humans.

"What's even the point anymore," John said, speaking for both of us. "I mean why should we have to convince them to like us. We obviously have the power."

"That'd start a war, John," the Professor said grimly. "There'd be catostrophic losses on both sides."

"Really? I mean in this room alone we have two people who are invincible, one who can control people's thought, one who can phase through any weapon they point at us, three people who have a knack for blowing stuff up, and finally Calvin who can literally do all that if he wanted to," John listed off on his fingers. "And that's this one room, let alone the whole school."

"So what're you saying, we just go to war because some lady was mean to Violet?" Logan asked. He clearly wasn't buying anything John was saying.

"I'm saying we should stop letting them push us around. We should stop helping them if that's how they're going to treat us. They can fix their own messes from now on," John ranted.

"John, you're walking down a very dark path with that viewpoint," the Professor said solemnly. "You have the same views as the Brotherhood."

"Well then maybe the Brotherhood is right!" John started storming to his room, past the Professor. But before he could pass, the Professor grabbed his arm to stop him. I had never seen the Professor so serious before as he stared up at John.

"The Brotherhood dedicate their lives to a hateful cause. I've seen with my own eyes how much pain it causes, not only to humans, but to themselves. You can either accept that it will be a long process to living peacefully with humans, or you can join the Brotherhood and spend the rest of your life bringing pain to those around you."

The entire room was silent as we watched the Professor and John stare at each other. The tension was coming off them in waves, seeping into my lungs and cutting off my oxygen. Even Logan didn't have anything witty to say. Finally, John pulled his arm away from the Professor before storming off, muttering something under his breath.

"I should go get changed," I said after a long silent moment. "I'll check on John too. He's just riled up from what happened at the restaurant. He doesn't mean all that stuff."

I knew that wasn't completely true, and I'm sure the Professor knew it too. But without allowing anyone to say anything else, I pulled myself from Calvin's arms and followed John. By the time I finally reached him, he was already in his room, sitting on his bed, angrily playing with his lighter. When I came in, he let out a long sigh and said, "Look Vi, I'm not really in the mood-"

I cut him off by grabbing his face and forcing him to look up at me, just as he'd done to me earlier. "Just listen John. We're stuck here. We're stuck here together with a bunch of people who can't see how much humans truly hate is. Once we're stronger and once I can control Apex, we can get out of here. It's you and me John. We can leave here together."

John stared at me for a long moment before slowly nodding. "I promise we're going to get out of here one day."

I held out my pinky and he scoffed, but locked his pinky with mine anyways. After that, I fell on his bed next to him, and for the rest of the day, we lay side by side, our pinkies still locked as we listened to angry rock music and imagined what it'd be like for us to finally leave. By now, we both accepted that we didn't belong there.

A/N: drama drama Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! I'm going to try to write out a draft of dates and events that I want to happen. Next chapter I'm thinking it'll be on the less dramatic side - maybe some fluffy moments in there too. By the way, how is everyone handling the whole self-isolation thing?