Hey everyone!

This is like half a year late - but it's here! And, not only is this chapter being released, I've also REWRITTEN the first 2 chapters! Because I wrote them 3 years ago and they were awful. I highlyrecommend going back to read them as Jacelynn now has a new backstory, now with 50 percent less edge! That's the "canon" backstory going forward. Also - the other old chapters (basically 3-8) will also be getting some editing and quality of life improvements, but there won't be any more major story changes.

So yeah! Please enjoy! And as always, reviews are always appreciated.

Lance was pissed off.

She could tell. There wasn't even time for her to sit upright before the tremors unceremoniously threw her out of bed.

"It's not even eight!" she called out to the empty room.

Unsurprisingly, there was no response.

As she picked herself up off the floor, she couldn't help but wonder what it was about today. Had Todd done something dumb? A quick glance to her clock disproved that theory, as there was no chance in hell Todd would be up before 10:00 on a day he didn't have to be.

Pietro maybe? No, he was probably on his morning run around the perimeter area of Bayville. There was no way it was Fred so…

Had she done something recently? She paused, head tilting to one side, as she pondered. She couldn't think of anything.

(Well, nothing in the past 24 hours. She had done plenty to piss him off over the summer.)

The closest she could think of was maybe her roasting him on his thing for Kitty the other day, as she was obligated to under the rules of friendship. And to be fair, it was mostly because he drank the Coors she had been saving in the back of the fridge right in front of her.

Nothing out of the ordinary. That was pretty typical behaviour for them.

Curiosity sufficiently peaked, she threw on a glamour and wandered downstairs to find him. Which wasn't all that hard since the first floor had exactly three rooms and he was in the first one she checked. Slumped over the kitchen table, scribbling in a notebook, grumbling to himself under his breath.

Leaning on the doorframe she asked; "Did Scott walk by the window or something?"

"Shit!" he jumped, the pen clattering onto the table. "I didn't realize you could be so quiet."

"I didn't realize you were so easy to scare," she shot back, a playful smile on her face.

"Can I help you with something or are you just here to be annoying?"

"I was wondering what made you try to cave in the house today?"

Lance closed his notebook and started folding the loose papers up. "Oh, sorry about that. Didn't realize it was that bad."

"Is something up?" she asked, taking a few steps closer to the table. The pace of him clearing whatever he had been working on quickened.

"Nothing at all. Things have been kind of boring honestly. The cycle of going to work and coming home, y'know?" To her ears, it sounded like he was going for a casual tone―but he way overshot and ended up somewhere in the realm of very fake.

"Right," she said, unsure of what else to say.

The papers got shoved into the cover of the notebook, which then got shoved into a pocket as he stood up. "Listen, I'm gonna go smoke. Talk to you in a bit, ok?"

"Yeah, sounds good." Actually, it sounded off and mildly concerning, but she wasn't about to press when he clearly didn't want to talk about it. She was a lot of things, but she wasn't planning on adding "massive hypocrite" to the list.

Still, that early morning conversation nagged at her. Even when she was attempting to occupy herself with a vice of her own (namely the one that made her take things that didn't belong to her). She missed out on what likely would have been a few good hits because her head was preoccupied with-

Worry? Concern? Whatever it was it was a feeling and it was gross. She hated feelings. She'd been getting more of them recently―especially the concern one. It popped up in the back of her head whenever one of her friends did something stupid; which they were ever so prone to do.

Try as she might, the feeling lingered in the back of her head right up to the start of the school year.

Jacelynn liked assemblies. They got you out of class and provided excellent cover for ditching.

She did not, however, like being at assemblies.

Needless to say, she was not overly thrilled by the fact that they were about to watch what was absolutely going to be a boring and overdrawn assembly about loving school. Normally she would ditch, but there wasn't much point to it when none of her friends wanted to go since they were intent on watching the train wreck that would be Lance attempting to woo Kitty.

Bets were placed the second Lance walked away. Todd ended up winning―guessing correctly that he was going to try and mess with the new principal. Unfortunately, no one had bet on him attempting to bring down the roof on everyone.

Taken more than a bit by surprise, Jacelynn lost her footing and stumbled, smacking into Pietro on her descent. He grabbed her shoulder with one hand and braced the wall with the other in an attempt to avoid sending them both to the ground.

"I can't believe he's going to kill us all over a girl!"

"Oh 'Lynn, don't you know that it's one of the grandest gestures of romance possible?"

She wasn't sure where causing large scoreboards to crash fell on the scale of grand romance but it was probably pretty high. It was also the only casualty of the mini quake, and after one mildly lame joke the pep rally went on as scheduled (re: rather boring). But she had fun cracking jokes with the guys at the expense of their new principal (and definitely not paying attention to the lingering feeling of where Pietro's hand had been on her arm because that was just kinda weird).

"Y'know, it was only a matter of time," Pietro remarked as they headed out of the gym.

"Matter of time until what?"

"Until you fell for me."

She stopped mid-walk stared at him and his smug expression for a long moment before sighing deeply. "Pietro that was awful. "

"I think you and I have two very different definitions of awful."

"I'm pretty sure that I'm the correct one in this situation, though."

"You just don't have a good enough appreciation for the art."

"The art of bad pickup lines?"

"The art of fantastic pickup lines. Obviously. "

"I'll believe that when I hear one."

The sly smile that appeared on his face rose her fight or flight instincts. "Is that a challenge, 'Lynn?"

She groaned, realizing exactly what was in store for her. "Pietro don't even-"

"Sorry, can't stay, gotta go start working on the best lines you'll ever have heard!"

And just like that, it was just her.

Oh, she was in for it now.

The rest of the day was a pretty standard "first day back". Go to your class, see who's in it with you, have the same introduction read to you each and every time, icebreakers. At one point, lunch was thrown in there.

Her classes weren't so bad, at least. Two she kind of liked, one decent one and one that she intended to never step foot in if she could help it. She even shared some classes with her friends, which was a bonus.

Still, she was out of her seat and through the door the first second possible, hoping to evade most of the hallway rush. She was almost in the clear when she felt someone tap her shoulder. Great, she thought to herself, dumbass freshman. She wheeled around, a sharp "What do you want" about to be said that instead died in her throat.

This was not a freshman.

"Hello," the girl said. "Sorry to bother, but I'm new here and I'm having trouble with my locker. Do you think you might be able to help?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure," she responded.

The girl, who then introduced herself as "Risty Wilde, from Manchester England" had definitely carved out a look for herself. The chic, short purple hair. Her clothes were cute too, in the fitting in a seedy punk rock concert venue sort of way.

She was kind of hot, Jacelynn admitted to herself after she finished helping out. Reminded her of a girl in Seattle she had been… friendly with, for lack of a better word, while she was there.

She should find out if she liked girls. To satiate her curiosity if nothing else.

"For the record, I think this is a tremendously bad idea," Jacelynn commented as she slid into the passenger seat of Lance's jeep.

"Then why are you coming?" asked Pietro, who just about materialized in the back seat.

"Because you idiots would get yourselves killed without me. Besides, I'd never miss a good fight," she grinned.

"Fair, fair. Oh hey, while we're waiting for the others, I've been working on some new lines and-"

"Oh god,"

"How about this one? Are you a keyboard? Because you are my type."

"That barely even makes sense!"

"Pickup lines don't have to make sense―it's all about the delivery."

"No, I'm pretty sure they do.

"Okay, how about-"

The stands were packed. From her vantage point, it didn't look like there was a single seat left anywhere―just a sea of red and yellow. And she had a pretty good view, considering they were standing on top of the announcer's booth.

Todd passed her the stolen microphone, and she tried not to cringe at the damp feeling on her hand. She allowed herself one centring breath and a look at Lance―who nodded with affirmation. Her words, laced with suggestions the crowd couldn't hear but complied with anyway, echoed around the stadium. "Ladies and Gentleman, I'll be taking your attention for just a few moments, if you will settle down… And do remain seated, my friends have an important message to share with you."

And with that, every pair of eyes turned upwards, and the game screeched to a halt. Amusingly enough, a couple of the players had even sat down on the ground. With her part done, she passed the mic over to Lance.

He starts his great speech, introducing the world to mutantkind. They had gone over only a rough plan before they had gotten here (and she was using the word 'plan' rather liberally here.) Still, her queue was obvious. When everyone turned―in wide-eyed horror as the soccer field split in two, she took the opportunity to slide down from the announcers' booth into the bleachers. Her illusion shifting to make her seem like an average Joe taking in the news of mutantkind for the first time.

Oh, she was gonna score so big today.

It was simple, really. The people sitting shell shocked didn't even feel their money slip out of their purses or their wallets taken from their pockets. People who were in the process of getting up to run had a hundred other things on their minds that came before the location of their cash.

She quickly made her way through a good section of the bleachers she was at before they became they emptied―the former occupants spilling out onto the field in every which direction. One raced by, her small black purse flying behind her as she sprinted. An idea formed in her head at the sight and all of a sudden she was running. Her long strides quickly caught her up to the other girl. With an "unfortunate trip", the two teens hit the ground, but not before Jacelynn had gotten hold of the purse strap. The thin band severing from the bag with ease. She rolled, holding the bag tightly against, back up to her feet. By the time she looked back, the girl had already scrambled off.

This was just too easy. She laughed to herself, starting to pull out any valuables from the bag and quickly stuff them into a pocket.

"Somehow I don't think you're Tyler from math class."

Her head snapped up just as a spike pinned the purse she had been holding to the ground just behind her.

"Why can't you people ever let us have any fun." She switched back glamours―and launched herself at Spyke.

He dodged with a speed she didn't know he had. Moving back and launching a spike at her. Then another. Vaulting forward the first sailed over her head. The next she caught in her hand and hurled right back.

He twisted to the side to avoid his own projectile. Preoccupied, and wide open for her to come in and ram her elbow into his side. He stumbled, regaining his footing just for her to slam into his back. The second he hit the ground she was pinning him down. She pulled back one fist, Ready to knock him out―but then!

Amid the chaotic sounds of the battle, she heard a startled yell―Pietro?! She looked up, scanning the destroyed field for any sign of him. And that brief moment was all her opponent needed. The next thing she knew it was her hitting the ground. She stifled a groan, caused both by the impact and the sight of a spike-cage sprung up around her.

The fight rather sufficiently lost at that point, Jacelynn picked herself up off the ground and maneuvered out of the contraption Spyke had done up, intent on dragging the others home before the five of them did something else really dumb.

She found Fred pretty quickly―it was hard to miss him considering he towered over just about everyone. He waved and gave her a thumbs-up, so she could only assume he was fine. Their resident speedster was lying on the ground next to the remains of the bleachers.

Worry spiked in her chest as she speed-walked over, only to be shoved back down. He was fine, it was just the X-Men they were against, she probably didn't have anything to worry about so why did she even care?

"So," she asked, keeping a deliberate "casual" tone to her voice. "Are you dead or what?"

The question was met with a groan.

She crouched, sticking out a hand. "Not dead then? And here I was thinking I lucked out."

"Am I in heaven?" He mumbled, making no move to get up.

"I don't-"

"Because I'm staring at an angel."

"Oh my god, Pietro."

"That was smooth and you know it."

If only she had somewhere to slam her head repeatedly. "You are insufferable."

"And yet you still talk to me."

"That's because we live together. Unfortunately. Now I'm going to go get the others. You can come home or die here - I don't have a preference."

They were essentially alone on the street, which she couldn't help but be a little thankful for. Their little group looked pretty defeated. Pietro had collapsed in the back seat, staring blankly up at the night sky. Fred had placed Todd in the back as well, who made a quiet groan of protests. Lance was leaning heavily on Jacelynn as she walked him up to his jeep. The rain that Storm had summoned continued on and Jacelynn couldn't help but wish Lance had a car with a roof on it.

"Well, at least you know how it feels to have a bunch of rocks fall on your head." She quipped, "We can bond over it."

"I don't even have the energy to tell you to fuck off convincingly."

There was a beat of silence. "I'm sorry things didn't turn out quite the way you were hoping."

He scoffed. "When do they ever?"

"Lance -"

He waved her off, pulling himself away from her and opening the passenger door. "You guys are going to have to give me a few minutes before I can drive," he told them as he dropped into the seat.

"Drive?" she asked, "You're kidding me right? I don't trust you to drive us down the street right now.

"Who else will?"

"Me, obviously."

Todd jerked into an upright position. "Nope nope nope. This ain't happening again dawg get me out of this car." He attempted to climb over Fred, who only pushed him back down.

"You are not driving my jeep. Never again." Lance interjected.

"Oh come on, you're being dramatic. My driving is not that bad."

There was a long moment of silence as they looked at her incredulously. "It's not!" she protested, "You guys have only had me drive you once and we got home fine."

"You did 80 in a 50 and almost hit two fire hydrants," Lance reminded her.

"And a tree," Pietro added helpfully.

"First of all, we were not that close to hitting the tree so it doesn't count. Second of all. It's either I drive us home or we sit out here in the rain until Lance can.

That was met with another bout of silence as they mulled it over.

Lance sighed deeply. "Fine, but if you total my jeep you're the one paying for it."

"We're going to be fine. It's a ten-minute drive home. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Hey Jacelynn, did your licence get suspended for driving all these guys crazy? Or was it because you almost killed two pedestrians."