I woke with my face stiff with dried tears. I shrugged; it was getting to be a habit, if an unpleasant one. It wasn't even worth mentioning anymore really. A slight shift to a more comfortable position and Jeeves over me, his weirdly expressive face giving away his concern.

I had had a somewhat restful night; at least as restful as I normally did. I hadn't even been disturbed by anyone knocking on the door.

I tried to ignore the numb feeling. Not one of my family even cared enough to check on me. Maybe I was over reacting last night; perhaps I had been too distraught. But my family's lack of any concern at all for my emotional well being seemed to state otherwise. That realization that my formerly loving family thought they couldn't trust me still hurt; the fact that they didn't even care about how I felt about it shocked me to my core.

I gathered my clothes while Jeeves disabled the lock-down, which consisted of a small machine placed over the doorknob.

Then I opened the door.

Ian was sprawled out in the hall in a sleeping bag, snoring away. I nearly tripped over him. Quietly stepping over him, I looked back to warn Jeeves of his presence, and caught sight of the other side of my door.

It was now sporting large gouge marks, shallow but long. Perhaps made by a big knife? But they seemed too symmetrical, as if by five knives at once... or Freddy Krueger claws? The door knob itself was dented and broken.

In short at least someone had cared enough to beat the hell out of my door. And I hadn't heard a thing.

I held my finger to my lips to silence Jeeves, and he knew what it meant. We crept around, I into the bathroom and he into the kitchen. It was nearing 6 am, and while running into Ian was acceptable, running into my parents was straight out.

I hated confrontations, and was not willing to just forgive them right out. They really thought I was no better than that ass we had stirring up trouble over the summer. I didn't even know how I could forgive that, even if I wanted to try.

Luckily enough, even though a quick shower now involved a good 20 to 25 minutes including waking up and hair time, no one seemed to be awake when I cautiously stepped out. Ian was still asleep, rather loudly. Out here he couldn't hear his alarm going off. I poked him with a toe as I went by.

“Zzznerk. What?”

“Wake up little brother, you'll miss school.”

“Huh? Min!?!”

And I was promptly rewarded for my good deed of the day by being knocked down by a meat projectile.

“Ow! Ian, shhh! Mom and dad are asleep, and I want it to stay that way!”

Say what you want about my little brother, but he was never really slow on the uptake. He looked like he wanted to explode under the pressure of unspoken words, but instead he hugged me tight for a moment and then got off.

“Sorry.”

I had a feeling that apology was meant for more than knocking me down or yelling.

“Don't worry Ian, I'm fine. None of what happened was your fault.”

He was smart alright... he caught the lie as soon as I said it.

“What time is it?”

“7:30.”

“Oh my god I'm going to be so late! Look, I need to get ready, but trust me on this, alright? They didn't mean it. They were out here all night, trying to get to you; we all were. Jeeves did something to lock us out.”

“I know, I asked him to. Just go get ready, breakfast will be waiting for you. Try not to wake them up alright?”

“You know this isn't going to go away if you dodge them.”

He gave me a long suffering sigh which I ignored.

“No, it won't. But I just don't feel like it right now. I'd rather be in school than deal with this.”

I'd rather go to school than deal with my parents right now; how screwed up was that? I left him to get cleaned up and headed downstairs to find a simply huge omelet filled with an unusual smell completely covering my plate. My coffee was already done and steaming next to it, with a small milk on the other side.

The old me would have an issue eating all of that; the new me? No way I could.

Jeeves was busy making another one, a little smaller. I spotted bacon, ham, and basil going into the mix with the cheese. Rather than question it I just sat down with knife and fork.

Once that omelet was done and beverages distributed at Ian's customary table setting, Jeeves touched up my coffee and sat down. So, no breakfast for the parents. I should order him to do it, but I was feeling pretty petty. Heck for all I cared, dad could miss work.

I only managed to get half of breakfast down, but it was tasty. I wish I knew how Jeeves did it. Then again if I did I'd likely have to do it myself, and that would be wasting time better spent elsewhere. I had, even in the midst of my fever dream, built Jeeves for this very purpose after all.

I hoped I'd have a handle on this by the end of school today; if not I might have to find a place to stay. I half didn't want to come home. For all that my loving family seemed to care by trying to ruin my door, they didn't trust me. I really didn't want to stay where I wasn't trusted. But then again, where could I go? Where would I be trusted; if not by my family, then who?

I could deal with such things from strangers. The same from my friends, former friends, and peers alike. It hurt.. It hurt a lot. But I could do it. But from my family such lack of trust was an entirely new level of hurt. Sure, Ian said it wasn't like that, but what did he know? He was a kid.

“Stop it sis.”

Stop what?

“What?”

“You're brooding. I can see you doing it. Don't, you'll starting driving yourself crazy.”

“What do you mean you can see me do it?”

He grinned.

“And there is your curious face. I've been keeping an eye on you, and you're still as expressive as ever. I can tell what you're feeling just as well as I ever could, even the new things.”

“That's... pretty creepy, Ian. And what do you mean new things?”

“Well, you never used to brood before.”

I took a little offense at that, gathering my school supplies and shoving them in my backpack with perhaps a little more force than necessary.

“I wasn't brooding Ian.”

He shrugged.

“Well I don't know what else to call it.”

“How about thinking?”

Though I did used to think as Myrc... didn't I?

He shook his head again.

“Thinking implies you aren't worrying yourself to death looking for meanings that don't exist in statements other people make, and then contemplating doing something drastic about it.”

I rounded on him.

“I did not hear anything that mom didn't say. She said it, dad said it, they both said it. The only reason I'm talking to you is you didn't say it. Oh and Ian; you have dishes to do.”

I hit the door running, Jeeves right behind me. His indignant squawk was music to my ears. I was still a bit early, but the running felt good. Any physical activity I could actually do without collapsing felt good at this point, and physically I felt awake, and alert. My energy levels seemed better than they had been since my mutation.

Of course, I wasn't buying it. The anemia as supposed to be a persistent condition; but for now I would take what I could get. I blew past my resident shadows with waves for both, One of whom was in a car and returned my wave with rolled eyes, and the other....

The other was chasing me.

This had been the first time I had seen MCO agent Leonard Sands both close to me and alone. I admit the sight of him actually running after me filled me with a small amount of dread. Surely he wasn't silly enough to try kidnapping me off the street alone, with a CIA presence very aware and in a car not 50 feet behind us?

I was pretty sure Jeeves was not in the mood. One wrong move and MCO agent Leonard Sands would find himself a human pretzel, very likely with salt included. He had to know how he looked; a man in his mid 40's with a beaten up trench coat over a short sleeved dress shirt and slacks running after a young woman.

He looked rather ridiculous puffing along, in fact.

Ricky was not at our corner; I was apparently too early. Perfect. I decided to try and push it. Before I had the strength and conditioning to easily run all the way to school. Yesterday I had started at the midway point, but today I'd try for the full distance.

That and we would see if the MCO's finest could keep up. I am feeling pretty rude at the moment.

“Hey, come on Minerva! Wait up!”

Aww darn it. Now I couldn't pretend that I hadn't heard him.

“I'm trying something here Mr. Sands! Keep up please, then we can talk after!”

The minor annoyance of wasting breath melted away when I heard his yell of 'alright!' (thereby wasting his own breath) and another yell behind me. I think it was Ricky. I couldn't make out what he was yelling, and I admit I didn't try too hard.

Proper breathing was key. I managed to make it all the way to the school gates before I all but keeled over, feeling like my lungs would explode. Jeeves of course was right behind me, and was probably on his slowest setting. I bet he had setting just to screw with me; that would explain so much!

The increased noise of clopping footsteps told me I had company. Mr. sands hauled up, blowing much harder than I did with clear reproach he couldn't properly express in his eyes. I waited patiently with a smile until he could resume upright posture.

“Miss Campbell, that was cruel. Simply cruel! I'm an old man, forced to follow you and then you run off just when I was going to ask you a question!”

“I'm sorry Mr. Sands, but I felt like running and decided to test my stamina while I was at it.”

“Oh? And how did you do?”

Was it me, or did I hear more interest than I should here?

“Terribly I'm afraid. Before I could have run this route with no problem, and still been able to run laps around the track. My forms getting better, but my stamina is still crap.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

I waved that off, even though he did sound genuinely sorry. Not much I could do to change it, it simply was. I wasn't even sure that my regen power would let me work my stamina back up; some forms of regen did, and some did not.

“Anyway, what was your question?”

He actually paused and gave a sort of shudder; the ripple seemed to transform him from butt of a joke to a serious professional.

“Did you notice anything strange happening around your house last night?”

Urk.

“No Mr. Sands, I didn't. Though Jeeves used some sort of device to block out sound; to help me sleep. Why, did something happen?”

“No, just thought I saw something is all. There was some yelling last night though...?”

“My family and I had a fight. I'd prefer not to talk about it.”

“You don't have to if you don't want to. Adjustments like this can be rough; I know, I've seen them all. For the record your family and hometown are accepting you much better than most would. Sorry, don't mean to preach; you better get going, you'll be late for class.”

He walked off with a wave just as Ricky showed up and tried to skewer him with a death glare. Well at least today I'd managed not to get overtaken by him. Even if I had to start well before he did in order to win.

Now there was a moral for you; cheat to win. No way would I do that.

“Min, why didn't you wait? Was that guy bothering you?”

I gave him my best 'duh' look.

“Because I didn't want to talk to the guy you just scared off. And he wasn't bothering me per se, just kind of annoying. That's the MCO guy, Leonard Sands, close up.”

“Oh, so that's the guy huh? He doesn't look so tough.”

I punched him in the arm. He barely noticed, the jerk.

“He doesn't need to be; he can get power armor air-dropped here inside of 13 minutes with a phone call. That's the real threat.”

I could forgive the skepticism he showered me with.

“Really? And just how do you know that?”

I waited just before going through the doors of the school for the appropriate dramatic flair.

“The internet of course.”

“What? They just post things like that on the internet?”

I shook my head.

“The MCO doesn't, sure. But other people do. Some enterprising citizens managed to time the rapid response times of the MCO in the area, from the old decommissioned air force base they bought at Chinook. So here should be half the time of their response to Cedar creek, a town noted in the data and twenty minutes away by car.”

Ricky immediately focused on the most important question... of sorts.

“Chinook has mutants?”

On any other day I'd try to hide my irritation. Not today.

“No, they have had 1 manifestation, and one incident. Both incidents apparently warranted some sort of response, and the MCO was commissioned to deal with both threats. The manifesting mutant was a fire type, apparently that's a pretty common power, and the other was a villain named 'Strobe'. Both incidents were handled successfully and are a matter of public record.”

“What happened to the mutant who manifested? Did the MCO kill the... guy? Girl? None of the above?”

“A him, and no there is video footage. The MCO's hands are clean on this one at least; the poor guy melted under the influence of his own power. It seems he had the power to generate heat and flame... but no resistance to it.”

Finally we made it to the classroom; Ricky had been doing a pretty good job distracting me from my problems, but I just wanted to relax, and he wouldn't take the hint.

“That's just sick. You saw this footage?”

I nodded as I sat down. Hopefully he would shut up once the teacher got here. That would be nice.

“Yes, it was on YouTube for over 24 hours before it was taken down. It's all over a thousand seeded pirate sites now. If you want I can show you later.”

The green tinge he was sporting was amusing.

“No, that's alright, thanks. I don't want to see someone melt in any way shape or form. Wow, guess you are actually kinda lucky, huh?”

I couldn't help but notice him cock back his arm to punch me in my own, then stop as if unsure whether he would break me or not. I couldn't really fault him, as much as I wanted to. I was pretty weak.

“Yes Ricky, I am luckier than some, though not as lucky as most. I do appreciate not spontaneously bursting into flames though.”

Just in the nick of time, Mr. Welch came in.

“Alright class, settle down and let's get started. Pass your homework to the front please.”

There were some groans as a few students remembered that they forgot to do said homework. That was pretty standard. I would never be one of them again, at least. Nothing wrong with my memory. Ricky had remembered his too, and passed it up. A quick glance as it went by revealed it to be... wrong. Not just a little wrong; very, glaringly, wrong.

I had also forgotten my laptop. This was mildly bad. I'd have to actually use notepads.

I mean, fish flipper musculature just wasn't wired that way! The tendons were all in the wrong places!

It actually took effort to refrain from commenting, and I basked in the slight stab of pride I felt when I managed it. When Ricky started to talk again I simply pointed front, and directed my attention there. I caught his frown from the corner of my eye, but decided to ignore that too.

I didn't think I'd told him I had already read the book. Maybe my memory wasn't perfect? Come to think of it, what did I have for breakfast yesterday? Some sort of bagel thingie? On the other hand, I could remember every detail of the jet engine I worked on yesterday, from the tolerances required in a liquid fuel line to the shielding chamber I designed to store any radioactive fuel, if I decided to go that route.

So maybe it was selective?

Maybe I was reading too much into this. But if my memory had suddenly grown selective from a technical standpoint, then would I lose more of me? Lose even the memories that made me, me? No, wait. Don't let your thoughts spin out of control; remember what Ian said earlier. Maybe this is what he meant by brooding?

“You OK?”

Ricky had a look of concern plastered on his face while staring straight ahead with glazed eyes at the blackboard, where Mr. Welch was diagramming the musculature of whales. He looked ridiculous, honestly.

“Ricky... do I brood?”

“Hah? What's that mean?”

Wait, he didn't know? Oh, right, he didn't read that much. Come to think of it, neither did I, so where did I know it from? No, focus! Focus!

“It means to think or worry persistently over a problem or situation.”

“Hmm, then yes you do lately. You never used to worry about stuff, and now you do.”

In my surprise I almost spoke normally as opposed to a whisper.

“I do?”

He gave a faint nod, still looking at the blackboard, still looking faintly ridiculous. But well, if Ricky noticed it, then it had to be true. Ricky was hardly the best at noticing things, even those things right in front of his face.

The lab section was easy, of course. The egg cradle took on some semblance of life as Ricky followed my plans, and I made adjustments, Our egg would most certainly survive. Aside from the occasional broken sentence, we didn't even talk.

“Here.”

“No, like this.”

“But what if...”

“This.”

He sat back in a mild form of awe.

“Ahh, so that's how...”

The other teams were somewhat less far along. Most were still in the planning stages. One team, I kid you not... had a box. A box! No way that was going to work. Even with the illegal tissues they were smuggling in to fill it with.

Toilet paper would have been better for that anyway.

The ringing bell shouldn't have taken me by surprise, but it did. I started stuffing things in my bag.

“Ralph, can you stow the cradle?”

There was a spot under the desk where all our projects were kept.

“Sure. See you in the next class.”

“See you there.”

Normally I'd do it myself, but I trusted Ralph, and I had to go to the freaking bathroom. Stupid walnut sized bladder. Stupid coffee. Stupid world. The bathroom was empty, which made it easy for me. I wasn't the only one to have a problem though, someone else passed me on my way out, without even a second glance.

I knew they had to know who I was, my hair alone announced that clearly. But whoever it was didn't care. Or maybe their bladder was too small for them to care just yet, and they would yell bloody murder at me later. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop among the girls, but they were acting like something straight out of the Twilight Zone... Or Stepford.

I couldn't say the acceptance wasn't welcome, but it felt weird; a little off for it to happen that easily. As if the girls attending school, who didn't even really know me, were more accepting of me than my own family.

It couldn't possibly be true of course, but the illusion was strong today. I wondered whether the lie was that the girls were accepting, or that my family was.

“Good morning.”

Sam. I pasted on a smile which felt in danger of slipping, (Why now, when I had been dealing so well all morning?) and turned to her.

“Good morning Sam.”

She of course, saw right through me and went from semi-vacant to full blown alarm in not time at all.

“What's wrong?”

My throat locked up.

“It's... look, I'll tell you later, alright? We need to get into class before Mr. Mullins calls us absent.”

She nodded.

“Later.”

Ralph was already in his seat as I took mine, and I settled in as a few more almost late students trickled in. He raised an eyebrow at me but said nothing, for which I was grateful. I could feel Sam's eyes on me from the back of the classroom.

Algebra was as easy as it was yesterday. The numbers did their new but customary dance inside my head and I scribbled down the answers to the equations Mr. Mullins eeked on the blackboard, in a few cases before he was done writing the entire problem.

It was all so boring!

In despair I started scribbling my own math in the margins... dealing with black holes and magnetic containment of such. Done right, a small (micro sized) black hole could be dropped into such containment and be fed a molecule at a time, with a return on the matter investment of right around 90%. That would be enough to make a unit the size of a large car battery able to power a city block.

Possibly anyway, at least that was what the maths were telling me. I'd have to dig deeper to be certain, burn rates and energy conversions and material construction and....

“Min, you OK?”

I looked up, blinking and a little tired all of a sudden. Ralph was above me, with Sam next to him and both were staring directly at me... along with a few other people.

“Huh?”

Ralph pointed down to my notebook, which was now filled with a few diagrams and reams of equations. Some only half finished and trailing off disturbingly.

“You were off in wonderland again. What was it this time?”

“Oh.”

Crap.

Their looks demanded an answer. I stood up and wobbled a little. Ralph grabbed me quickly in a gentle but firm grip to make sure I didn't fall and Sam just grabbed my stuff and looked at me expectantly.

“I'm fine, just got a little dizzy, is all. And it's the same thing ti was yesterday; power systems.”

Sam spared a glance at the notebook.

“Nuclear?”

“A good guess, but no. This one involves magnets.”

I didn't want to tell it it also involved a working black hole. She would likely freak out. Everyone likely would.

“Like Jeeves?”

Wow, Sam actually paid attention when I said things.

“Not quite. This one is more containment of a persistent electro-magnetic field than the more simplistic use of electro-magnets in motion to power something.”

Sam and Ralph both nodded understanding as we moved. I got more steady with each passing step and finally gave a gentle shake to dislodge Ralph, with a smile to thank him for his help. He left us at the door to geography to go to his own class. Come to think of it, I didn't know what class he had this period. I'd have to ask later.

Sam took over for him though, hovering right at my elbow until I was safely ensconced in my seat. It would be nice if it wasn't so cloying. I could darn well walk on my own! I just needed a minute was all.

“Morning Sam, morning Min! Say have you heard the news?!?”

Ahh Maggie, the smiling bundle of energy. She draped herself around us both, dragging Sam ionto a crouch as she whispered conspiratorially.

“The school just announced the Halloween party! We all need to go, and go in style! We should plan costumes later, in study hall, OK?”

I nodded and Maggie moved, dragged a wide eyed Sam away, to her seat, whispering the entire time. They were plotting, of course, but not everything had to involve me. I was hoping this was one of those times.

Geography made me bored, but I didn't want to zone out again. So I amused myself by calculating the height of various mountains pictured in the text by extrapolating size based on picture scale then working up from there. I could get the answers to the foot; the textbook itself provided the answers. Mrs. Carson didn't seem to mind as long as I was keeping myself occupied.

I'd managed to work my way through most of the text by the time the bell rang; on to the next class, and so far I'd survived. Of course, my third class being over meant that the worst was yet to come. I snuck as best I could until waylaid by Maggie, who somehow managed to be completely silent while sneaking up on me.

“No, none of that, come on! You can at least bond with us before gym, even if you cant play.”

And with an arm around my neck, much the same way as she dragged Sam around, she dragged me into the girl's locker room. During rush hour, so to speak. I stood in the corner, trying to blend into the background as best I was able with bright hair as everyone chatted and got dressed. As usual, Maggie was the loudest, though all the girls were chatting about the party and who they hoped asked them out to it.

I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Pam, likewise, was silent. And staring at me with a look of unfocused anger. What had I done to piss her off now? Every time I made a break for the door, Maggie or Sam stopped me, while still dressing and chatting. So shouldn't her anger be directed at one of both of them? They were keeping me here, after all.

The general atmosphere in the place was friendly and welcoming overall. I might have to ask my new friends if they knew anything about why some people who had never had a problem with me before did now. The answer was likely the mutant one, but someone had to know for sure, and I wanted to.

After all, I couldn't fix a problem I didn't know about. And while I was tempted to just try and ignore it and hope the problem went away, recent events suggested that would be a bad idea. Thankfully Maggie and Sam let me escape just as soon as they themselves were dressed, and I went to join my sole gym partner, already in the bleachers and breaking out his colored paper.

Which reminded me, I had forgotten to buy some of that. Ordinary paper would just have to do, even though it was thicker and therefore harder to fold well. Not to mention ugly by comparison. I took a seat well up in the bleachers, in effect dragging Ralph up with me.

Bernie would find it very hard to hit us with a basketball up here. He could peg either of us, but we would have more time to react. .07 seconds, to be more precise, and how I know that I don't really know. Instead I opened the book on origami and looked for something simple.

I'd already done the jumping frog, so maybe the ladybug?

“You know, I've seen you draw schematics... I think you can manage something for me.”

Alarm bells went off in my head, but I was curious.

“And what's that?”

“Well, I need a tree. Or at least, a picture of a tree. I don't draw that well, but you do. So I want you to draw me one.”

He was clearly insane.

“Ralph, buddy, I don't draw. I sketch schematics. I've never drawn anything more complex than stick figures in my life.”

“Now that's not true. It might have been before, but I saw your notebook this morning. Your power supply looks like what it's supposed to. Just... schematic me a tree. Look in my text if you have to, but I want a tree. You owe me, and I'm calling in the debt.”

He shoved a piece of unlined paper and a pencil in my hands, and set his textbook across my lap, already open to a page with a tree on it. An oak, I think. I did owe him... a little. But I wasn't sure I owed him enough for what would undoubtedly be blackmail material later.

Well at least he hadn't done anything really awkward. His own fault if he wanted a crappy drawing. He sat down in front of me, back turned and watching the boys while he folded cranes. I didn't blame him, I would too. I certainly didn't want a repeat beaning. I couldn't see though because he was in front of me; I was too darn short.

So what else could I do? I sat back and drew.