1

"Make a hole!", Rogue called out. "I'm late!"

In any other dormitory, a nubile Southern Belle clad in only a towel probably would not raise all that much alarm. In the X-Mansion, everyone took the warning seriously. Some with powers to simply be elsewhere used them, such as Kitty dropping through the floor or Kurt leaving only an acrid puff. Others with the ability to simply rise above the girl tried to account for others who couldn't: Jean and Scott floated to the ceiling while the stiffest of breezes caught Ororo's draping dress and Jubilation's rain coat. Maybe getting out of situations was more one's thing as Rahne managed to morph into her smaller form take cover behind one of the professor's many pedestals that lined the hallways of his manor. Barring all that, the creativity that was honed in classes came in useful as Bobby simply froze himself into a cocoon against the wall.

And then there was Jaime. The collision with Rogue's skin was all but inevitable.

"Jaime!", Rogue heard her voice echo along with two resounding face palms. She looked around and saw that not only were there a lot more Jaimes in the hall in varying states of wooziness, she could see the annoyed look on her face without aid of a mirror. With a snarl, she grabbed her doppledanger's hand and dragged it back to her room.

She slammed the door. "Arggh! I gave 'im fair warnin'.", she lamented.

And then a spark of genius struck her.

Her counterpart, wrapped in an identical towel stood just against her door somewhat patiently. Rogue rushed to her 'clone' and poker her exposed shoulder with an ungloved hand. The copy reached out and ran her hand down her own arm. "Duh.", Rogue surmised. "I don' drain myself. Or if I do, I collect the essence or whatever it is. I'm really gonna hafta start paying more attention to Dr. McCoy."

Then the line between genius and insanity became very blurry.

The copy gave her a look that mimicked her own hesitancy. Rogue's eyes flittered as she scanned her memory for everything Jaime told her about his power set. Casting off her own hesitancy may be a bit much. So instead she focused on an intent and the copy.

Her counter part slowly gathered her in her arms and gently kissed her. The uniqueness of this opportunity was two fold. Firstly, no one would come to get her no matter how late she was lest she lose what little was left of her temper with Jaime. The other was that she could finally touch someone that wouldn't be killed...or she was trying to take down. She could feel her own fingers against her any time she wished. But that simple, elusive first kiss... She showed herself some talent. Another thing the world was missing out on due to her ability, as the professor made her call it.

She could tell her copy agreed with her assessment. Now this was truly strange. Scott had a brain injury that kept him from controlling his optic blasts so when she had momentarily usurped his ability she could hold them back, but the world was still a shine of red. Mr. Logan's senses felt like being hopped up on what she imagined cocaine must be like, with an uncontrollable vividness that bothered her to no end. No wonder he had his disposition. But with her copy, her perception was not added to or even duplicated like she might expect. It was somehow more personal than being in her own skin.

Skin.

Her counterpart gave them both a bit of space with a pause. They allowed their towels to drop. Rogue tentatively reached out. "No.", she told her copy. "This is wrong.

"Isn't it?"

The copy gathered more courage and began to reach out. Then she simply didn't exist anymore.

This set Rogue more to cursing than actually bumping in to Jaime to begin with.

2

"I don't get it.", X-23 declared. Scott kept his gaze on the road since he was driving. Jean turned toward her from the passenger seat however. Kurt countered, "Well I get it all the time." while stretching his arms behind X-23 on one side and Kitty on the other. While Kitty giggled at the perposterousness of the statement, the glare he got from the black haired girl was enough to convince Kitty to phase into the middle seat while Kurt bamfed into existence into Kitty's previous place.

"Don't get what?", Kitty asked.

"The classes the professor had me sign up for.", X-23 replied. "New life, new rules: I get. His house, his rules: I get. But these classes aren't tracking, or martial arts, or hacking or anything of any use at all. What am I supposed to do with History?"

"Well, that depends.", Jean informed. "It could inform your perspective on how governments fail or succeed if you wanted to be a lawyer. It could tell you what answers have already been found if you want to become a scientist. It could even point you in retro directions if art's your path. It all depends on you and what you want to be."

The red head frowned. "What do you want to be?"

X-23 turned to the open window, trying to distract herself from the scents of the other people in the car. "Free."

3

"Toad, get your ass in gear!", Lance yelled toward the creek.

Todd snapped up another fly. "Why? Not like school ain't gonna be there later yo'."

Pietro appeared next to him. Wide, jaundiced eyes never saw the slap coming. "Why is because if any of the normies catches you ditching for no reason you'll get us all in trouble. So leave the bugs and get in the jeep!"

"You ain't the boss of me.", Todd attempted.

Slap.

"I wanted to go to school anyway.", the boy sulked.

Pietro disappeared only to remanifested exactly where he had been. Only now, a spray of mud had been kicked up by an attempt at a clearly impossible acceleration. The white haired teen fell face first into the mud.

Todd laughed like it was a disease with no cure. "I'm glad I'm coming now, yo. If you're gonna do this all day, I wouldn't want to miss it."

Pietro scowled, then sped off as Todd bounded toward Lance' jeep.

A feminine screech let all know who Pietro bumped into on his way to reshower. Wanda walked up to the passenger door when Todd arrived.

"It never fails to surprise me how your very presence seems to be a cool summer breeze, milady.", Todd attempted. Again.

Wanda was so tired of it that she let him know why. "That's because I alter the probability of the air currents around me to keep you down wind.

"Toad!"

And with that, she yanked the door open and got into the jeep.

A freshly showered, regroomed and redressed Pietro appeared next to Fred in the back seat. "Come on, we ain't getting any younger!", he barked.

Todd sighed. Putting on another fake, stupid smile the boy stuck himself to the back of the vehicle.

4

Jean led most of the other girls from the X-Mansion down the halls of Bayville High. The girls mostly tried to keep X-23 in their midst. Anyone that bothered to watch her for ten seconds could tell the reasoning.

One boy nodded in their direction. X-23 glared confrontationally.

Another said "hey" in passing. She snarled in return.

The next wiggled his eyebrows with a quick, "Hello Jean." The girl quickly transferred her notebook to her right arm and drew back her left, clenching her wrist.

Jean grabbed her by the wrist. "Be nice.", she said calmly.

X-23 glared at her. Then with a shrug relaxed. Jean sensed her returning to a calm...er, by her standards at least, state. They continued on as X-23 tried to ignore the mundane scents that continued to annoy her. And then she smelled him. "Who is that?, she asked aloud.

Todd slinked down the hall, hunched over avoiding the side long glances of the people who looked normal. He spotted the gaggle of girls from the X-Mansion. And they could look at him with that false pity that made them sleep better at night, the kind that's just to show oneself that they were better people because they cared even if they did not actually do anything or reach out. Or they could look at him with revulsion he himself instigated. One gave him at least some control over his fate.

Standing up straight, Todd called out. "Looking good ladies." He then hocked into his hand as only he could and dragged it back through his hair, taming it as if no other substance known to man was up to the task.

"Ew.", Jean stated abruptly. Then she sensed the one thought that stood out from the background by it's sheer uniqueness. Spinning she turned on X-23. The dark haired girl waved her fingers at Todd. "Eeeewww."

X-23 shrugged. "You said 'be nice'."

Jean was no more surprised than Todd himself was. In a half daze, he kept his eyes on the dark haired girl that somehow had more than a passing resemblance to Wolverine. He was in no condition to avoid the collision.

"Hey, Jean I was jus/", Rogue quickly ended when she was knocked down.

Todd snapped out of the spell he was in immediately. "Oh man, I'm sorry, yo. I wasn't tryin' to start nothin', yo."

He reached down and helped Rogue up. "Get off me, Toad! I mean, Todd! Gah!"

The only way to keep people from feeling as sorry for you as you are for yourself if with a cold shoulder. And Todd walked right into one.

"Sure, sure. Rogue.", Todd agreed. "I don't want any trouble."

The boy quickly slinked off.

Rogue stomped her foot in exasperation. And then she felt it. Through the one uncovered space in the back of her glove she could feel his...his...

"Is this his?", she asked the girls staring at her.

Jean slowly nodded.

"Oh my.", Rogue said and hurried to the washroom.

She bolted in and cast her gloves off. She ran water over her hands repeatedly and every single drop of the substance seemed to fight to stay on her skin. Why would he have this on his hand to begin with?

He had it on his hand.

He had touched her with his hand.

She had felt it on her skin.

And she was too busy being a cold shouldered to the world to put it together until just now. Or how he must feel about her as she had perfected the cold shoulder act. Or any one of a number of obstacles, all of her own doing.

In another twist of the knife, the realization that Todd Tolanski was going to be in class while she skipped to wallow in her own misery.