GYM CLASS

"Well, this is going to be fun." Bobby said sarcastically as the mutants all sat together in gym class.

Kurt, Kitty, Amara, Roberto, Sam and Bobby were all sitting together for gym. They were all in the same grade, but none were really sure why the teachers placed them so many of them together.

Probably some stupid reason like to watch over them.

"Uh-huh." Amara nodded. "How long do you reckon it'll take before we're accused of using our powers to cheat at this?"

"Not a clue." Kitty glanced around her friends, trying to determine if any had a power that could be vaguely useful in gym without it being obvious. Maybe Kurt in cross-country if he was really behind. "Probably in the first ten minutes, unless we don't get called out."

"How many of zese people even know vhat our powers are?" Kurt wondered aloud.

Sam shrugged.

The whistle blew and the students all stopped talking and turned to their coach Miss Geranuldy, or Miss G. A strong woman in her early thirties, she held a whistle around her neck and a white shirt over shorts. She was about five foot two but still sort of radiated hardness and toughness.

There was a private bet going on between the X-Kids that some-day they'd find out she and Logan were related somehow.

"What are we playing today, coach?" A guy called Nick asked her.

She bounced a ball in her hand and threw it at Nick. He caught it before it hit him. "Dodgeball." The coach smiled.

Bobby touched Amara on the shoulder. "Are you getting déjà vu?"

Amara nodded. "A little. Has Ms. G had a clone attack recently?"

"Nick – Tarra. You're captains. Pick a team." Ms. G ordered. The two kids stepped forwards and began to pick in Girl/Boy order as was Ms. G's custom.

"Mutants last?" Kurt whispered to Kitty.

"Gee, you think?"

As they'd predicted, the mutants were the last to get picked. "Bobby." Nick pointed. Bobby joined his team.

"Amanda." Tarra said after a moment.

No-one moved.

"Amanda, you're on my team."

The mutants glanced at each other. "I think that's you, Amara." Kitty said, pushing her lightly on the back

"Oh!" Amara joined Tarra's team, rolling her eyes at herself.

"Kurt." Nick said, pointing. Kurt walked over.

"Kitty." Tarra said.

"Sam." Nick pointed, out of girls.

"I guess that means you're with me, Robert." Tarra shrugged apologetically. Roberto didn't mention she'd gotten his name wrong. It was close enough.

The whistle blew and the game began.

Principal Clarkson was walking outside the gym when he heard the shouting. Carefully he opened the door to find a group of eleventh graders (Most of them were around fifteen at the beginning, so they'd be grade ten, and then obviously next year they were grade eleven…) arguing.

"What's going on?" Clarkson asked.

A boy called Jake stepped forwards. "He was using his powers!" He shouted, pointing at one of the mutants – Bobby – angrily.

"I was not!" Bobby protested.

"Sure you were. No-one can throw that good without telekinesis."

"I don't have telekinesis!" Bobby snapped. "I can shoot ice out of my hands. I can also turn into ice or whatever. I don't have freaking telekinesis."

"Oh really?" Jake asked. "Turn to ice."

"Yeah, that'd help." Kitty rolled her eyes. "He should prove he didn't use his powers by using his powers."

Kurt looked at his watch. "Wow. It's only been two minutes since ve started and already zey've accused us of cheating."

"I think it would be alright for just this once, for Bobby to prove what his powers are." Principal Clarkson sighed.

Bobby hesitated and glanced around. Then his hair turned bright white. The humans in the class watched in astonishment as he turned to ice from the top to the bottom.

"How come your clothes change to ice too?" Tarra asked.

"What?" Bobby blinked.

"Why do your clothes change? I mean, they're not part of you. If you were holding onto something as you changed would it turn to ice too if you tried?"

"I… I don't think so. I never thought about it." Ice-Bobby shrugged.

Then he turned back into regular Bobby.

"How do we know that you don't have two powers, and also have telekineses?" Jake retorted, but looked a little shaken.

Bobby gave him a disdainful look. "Do you know how rare it is for a mutant to have two strong powers? Some people have powers that can be used for more than one thing, like how Storm can fly, but… the only one in Bayville close to that is Jean. And her telekineses is way stronger than her telepathy."

"Uh-huh!" Jake shouted. "So you admit one of you has got telekineses!"

All six of the mutants in the class stared at him. "Well… yeah." Sam said. "She graduated last year though."

"She could be watching us, though." Jake pointed out.

All six were about to point out the absolute stupidity of a graduated student spending her spare time spying in the classes and using telekineses to cheat in a game she isn't even playing for a team that just as many of her teammates were fighting against… but Ms. Geranuldy blew her whistle sharply.

"That's enough! Listen, I don't really care who here's a mutant and who isn't. Okay? Now, just play dodge-ball and I don't want to hear another complaint about mutants using powers!" She snapped.

Amara snorted. Ms. G stared at her. "Got something to say, Aquila?"

"It's nothing, it's just… well, it took two minutes this time." Amara shrugged, blushing. "How long do you think it'd take next time?"

Something about what Amara said struck home with Principal Clarkson. He wanted to do something. But as long as mutants were playing, they'd be accused of breaking the rules…

And suddenly it hit him.

"A lot longer." He announced. The students all turned to look at him. "Because there won't be any chance of them believing you're breaking the rules."

"Okay," Kitty nodded, "why not?"

"Because the game is about to start over. And in this game," Clarkson paused for dramatic effect subconsciously, "mutants are actually allowed to use their powers."

For about ten seconds there was absolute silence. Then everyone all started talking at once.

Everyone but the X-Men, who just stared at each other and Principal Clarkson in astonishment.

"Principal Clarkson!" Jake protested. "They'd kill us if they used their powers! They're… terrifying!"

"Gee, thanks." Bobby said, rolling his eyes.

"Well…" Clarkson turned to the X-men. "Tell me. Do you think that you could play a game with your powers without hurting anyone?"

"I guess so." Kitty said, stepping forwards. She glanced around the gym. "But we'd probably destroy the gym."

"Easily fixed." Clarkson gestured out the window at the empty oval. The sun shone down with barely a cloud in the sky. "You can play out there. It's a beautiful day."

"But… we'd have to pick again then!" Tarra said. "We'd have to do it while knowing what their powers are."

Clarkson ran his eyes over the mutants. "I believe there are three mutants in each team. That's already even." He shrugged.

"Do you even know what our powers are?" Amara asked curiously.

Tarra stared at her and shook her head.

"Well this way you'll remember better." Principal Clarkson shrugged. "Assuming that's alright with you, Miss Geranuldy?"

Ms. G shrugged. "If they stop complaining about the mutants using their powers, it's fine."

"Excellent." Clarkson nodded. "Jake, Nick, could you two collect the balls and take them out to the oval? You can use that line as the divider between the teams."

Jake and Nick stepped forwards and began collecting the balls. Nick opened the bag and Jake began to pour them in. The students all stared at each other, and then slowly trickled out to the oval.

"Is this really happening?" Kitty asked Kurt as the two of them went along the back of the queue.

Kurt shrugged. "Unless ve're having the exact same dream."

The whistle blew. "Alright, you all know the rules! Nick's Team – that side. Tarra's team – that side." Ms. G pointed. "If you're hit, you're out. Line up. If a teammate catches a ball, you come back in if you're in the front of the line. If someone catches you're ball, you're out. Whatever team loses all their players first comes last. Got it?"

The students all nodded.

"We've played a hundred times." Jake groaned. "That necessary?"

"Yes." Ms. G looked at him. "Especially since this time we'll be playing with a definite variation on our game."

"One way of putting it." Sam shrugged.

Bobby, Kurt and Sam were on Nick's team. Kitty, Amara and Roberto were on Tarra's. They all looked at each other and shrugged.

"Alright!" Ms. G looked around the teams – well, more specifically at six of the members, looking cautiously around – and nodded. "Begin!" She blew her whistle.

Bamf!

Kurt vanished and reappeared directly at the balls. He grabbed four of them and threw them back to his teammates. Tarra had been the second one to the balls and grabbed them, throwing five back to her team.

Her eyes on the other team, she reached for the last ball. Then she leaped back as Sam threw a ball at her without any powers.

It bounced on the ground and Kitty grabbed it. Although one would have expected her not to be a good thrower, she was an X-Man and as such had training. She threw it hard and fast, hitting one of the norms on the leg.

Roberto grabbed one Tarra had thrown to the team. He hit it hard and fast. Very, very hard. It slammed through the air directly to a girl on their team.

She yelped and ducked. It hit the ground hard and dug up some of the grass. "Be careful! You nearly took my head off!"

Roberto shrugged. "Sorry."

A ball hurtled from Nick's hands, straight towards Kitty. She saw it coming but didn't move. To Nick's astonishment, it fell directly through her.

"That's… is that in the rules?" Nick called out. "It did hit you."

"No it didn't." Amara pointed out.

"I'm not sure if it's in the rules." Kitty shrugged. "But they said mutants are allowed to-" She jumped into the air as a ball scattered under her feet. "-Use their powers. That's my power." She continued without skipping a beat.

Nick looked to Ms. G. She shrugged. "I'd say that counts as dodging. If she knew it was coming enough to do whatever she just did, she would have known to duck."

"Okay then." Nick shrugged and dodged a lousy shot by one of Tarra's team members.

Three people on Nick's team were out by now, five on Tarra's.

"Try and catch a ball." Tarra called out to her team, her feet firmly placed on the ground, one behind the other. "But not if it'll get you out too."

As she was glancing around behind her shoulder, Jake saw his opportunity. A ball came hurtling out of nowhere towards her.

Kitty grabbed her shoulder tightly and the ball phased harmlessly through both of them. Tarra looked at her in surprise.

Kitty shrugged modestly.

A ball hit her on the side of her shoulder.

Kitty grimaced but didn't complain. Not that complaining would do all that much. She calmly walked to the 'out' part of the field and sat in line, waiting for someone to catch a ball.

And grinned when she looked at the long line of Nick's group compared to Tarra's.

"They're killing us." Nick said to Jake. There were only five people left – Nick, Jake, Bobby, Kurt and a girl called Jaz.

"You think?" Jake replied, raising an eyebrow. "We need a way to slow them down long enough to regroup." He dove for a ball and threw it hard at Amara. Amara ducked but the boy behind her got hit on the knee.

"Sure." Jaz said behind him, ducking. "How?"

"Not a clue." Jake shrugged. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"I do." Bobby grinned from behind.

"Not talking to you, mutie." Jake brushed him off.

Bobby shrugged. "Fine."

"Jake? Shut up." Nick said. "What's your idea, Bobby?"

"This."

Bobby's brown/blonde hair turned white and it continued until the ground. Then he stepped forwards and ice shot out of his hands.

It slid across the bottom of the line, and moved up. Before anyone could react, there was a huge wall of ice separating the teams.

"Hey, you can't do that!"

"What?"

"That's not fair."

"That's weird."

"Hey! We're winning!"

"Wow." Jaz shook her head. "How long will it last?"

"Depends on Amara." Bobby said as Kurt joined them. "She'll get rid of it in a minute. But what are we going to do?"

"Catch balls. We have to get our team in." Nick said, taking over as leader. He looked at Kurt. "What's your power?"

"Teleportation."

"Could you catch balls with that?"

"Nope. I could dodge zem easily, sure, but… I'm not so sure about catching zem." Kurt shrugged. "I guess I could try but…"

"Hey, how come you weren't on the news?" Jaz asked. "I mean, there wasn't a picture of you. We didn't even know you were a mutant until you teleported at the school board meeting."

"Is this the time?" Kurt asked, dodging the question. He knew he wouldn't get away with the hologram inducer forever… but until then, he was going to let people think he was reasonably human.

"No." Jaz shook her head. "Okay, what are we going to do?"

"Catch dodge balls." Kurt shrugged. He glanced at Bobby. "And after all, you're so good at this game." (I know Kurt wasn't there at the time but I don't really care – it needed to be said)

"Actually…" Bobby thought for a moment. Then he turned back into Iceman. "That's creepy, you know that?" Jake told him.

"Don't care. And I do have an idea."

"What?" Tarra yelped as a huge wall of ice erupted over the field. The balls thrown by their team bounced harmlessly off. "How is that in the rules?"

Roberto shrugged. "They said mutants are allowed to use powers. That's Bobby's power."

"Making big walls of ice?"

"Does that question really need an answer?"

"He can get more detailed." Amara shrugged. "At the cruise we went on he was making fantastic ice-statues. And he proved the fact that he was insane."

"How?" A girl asked.

"He told us to 'guess this movie'. He made a giant ice-berg right where we would have crashed into it." Amara shrugged. "Not his smartest move ever. So what are we going to do?"

"Wait – how'd you get out?" The girl asked. "If the cruise was about to crash into an iceberg…"

"Scott destroyed it before we got close." Amara shrugged.

"Great." A boy called Eric groaned. He looked at Roberto and Amara. "So do either of you too have the ability to melt that?" He asked half rhetorically with the vague hope that they did.

"Actually…" Amara rubbed her hands together. Eric yelped as she turned from a school girl to Magma in front of him. "I do."

"Wait." Roberto held a hand up. "We can talk strategy while they do. I mean, neither Kurt nor Bobby can get rid of the ice. We have the advantage."

Amara allowed her look to fade back to normal. "Okay. How?"

Roberto handed her a ball. "Throw it through. Burn it."

Amara glanced at Tarra, who shrugged. Then she threw it hard.

It blazed through the ice. They heard a yelp but no-one left.

"Is anyone out?" Eric asked Ms. G "We can't see through the ice."

Ms. G shook her head, looking bewildered. "No-one's out… but this is definitely getting strange."

"Ooh, I have a bad feeling about this." Amara groaned. She looked at Roberto reproachfully. "Now can I melt the wall?"

"Okay…"

Starting from the top, the ice dissolved as lava poured over it. All that was left was a puddle through the middle of the pitch.

"What the…" Tarra stared.

All over the pitch were ice-statues of Bobby, each one in a different pose. Two were holding balls – one about to throw and the other holding it against his chest.

Automatically they scanned for the real Bobby. But he had iced up and was standing very still. Either that or he'd suddenly developed the mutation of invisibility.

But the really weird thing? No-one else was there. Just statues of Bobby.

"See?" Amara said. "That's how insane he can get."

"Okay team." Tarra called out. "Get the statues."

"How'd he do that?" Kitty asked. Only the coach could see what had happened on both sides – the out people on Tarra's side hadn't been able to tell what was going on.

"What do you mean?" The girl who'd gotten out before her asked.

"Bobby can't turn other people to ice. He can cover them in ice, and I guess he'd be able to change it so that the statue covering them looks like him… but they shouldn't be able to breathe."

"I'm getting a flashback to Jean and Scott's lessons. And Mr. McCoy's. And that one of Ororo's…" Amara said as Roberto exploded into flame.

"What the… that's your power?" Eric yelped. "Setting yourself on fire?"

"It's not fire." Roberto/Sunspot shrugged. "It's an aura or something. It won't burn, it's just yellow. Look." He grabbed Eric's arm. Eric flinched but then realised it didn't hurt.

"Creepy."

Roberto shrugged and grabbed a ball. He threw it super-hard and it slammed hard into one of the Bobby statues.

It exploded into shards of ice.

"Okay Bobby." Roberto called, his aura dying down as he turned back to normal. "Just a warning – you're made of ice. That's what'll happen if I hit the right you. I really hope that one wasn't you. You know I wouldn't mean to hurt you – but you also know that I'd hit the statues and I can't tell which one's you."

None of them reacted.

"Okay then." Roberto shrugged.

"Get them!" Tarra shouted, and then they threw the balls hard and fast.

About ten seconds later, they realised this wasn't the smartest move. Seven statues had fallen down in a sort of domino effect, and Tarra's team realised something.

Dodgeball is very hard to play when the other team has all the balls.

That's when Kurt, Nick and Jaz reappeared with a bamf!.

Bobby had just finished outlining his plan. They all nodded.

Kurt had then taken Nick and Jaz and taken them to the air. They went two-kilometers up, and then started to fall. Then they went back up, a little higher, and then started to fall. And then they went back up…

Jake had flatly refused to be teleported into the air. Kurt wasn't sure if he could teleport three people, so they didn't argue. Nick pushed him onto the ground and Bobby covered him with ice so he was just a little part on the ground with a face.

Bobby then placed a statue of himself in front of Jake to disguise it, and made the rest of his statues. When a fire-ball fell through the wall about an inch away from his face, he yelped and moved himself to the back before staying still – just as the ice began to melt.

He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. The looks on their faces!

Once they were out of dodgeballs the three of them teleported down to the ground. Bobby unfroze and looked over at Jake.

"Need some help?"

"Mmmfmmf!"

Okay, Bobby may have covered his mouth with ice.

"I got it." Kurt knelt next to Jake and placed his hand on his face.

Bamf!

A smell of brimstone and the two were standing there. Slowly each of them collected a ball. They grinned at the opposing team.

"Well… good one." Tarra said, genuinely impressed.

"Sank you." Kurt shrugged modestly, and then threw the ball at her. She just barely jumped to the side in time.

A girl grabbed the ball herself and threw it straight towards Kurt as he glanced around.

Suddenly a blue line whipped out from his back and curled around the ball. It had a little spade on the end and the rest of it was like a long thin snake.

"What was that?" Nick asked Kurt. Then he saw where the snake ended.

"A tail. You have a tail?" Nick demanded, his voice just a little high-pitched.

"Uh… yes?" A little splodge of colour covered Kurt's cheeks. Considering he was wearing a hologram over his true self, that was pretty impressive technology.

"Just checking." Nick said faintly as Bobby talked to Ms. G.

"Yep, that counts." Bobby nodded as a girl came back onto the court. "Tails apparently count in catching a ball."

Then Bobby spun around and caught the ball hurtling towards him. "So does that." He grinned as Eric left, disgruntled but knowing full well that he was out fair and square.

"Huh. He really does rule at this game." Amara commented as Bobby threw another ball hard and fast. Tarra just barely got out of the way in time.

Sunspot leapt high – really, really high – into the air, his hands outstretched to catch a ball, when Bobby shot a huge line of ice into the air. The sun blurred through it, and Sunspot disappeared to be replaced by Roberto.

"Aaaaaah!" He yelled, windmilling through the air, preparing to splatter onto the concrete.

Bamf!

Kurt's fingers wrapped around his wrist and both landed squarely on the ground as Kurt teleported them to safety.

"Hey, he left his boundaries!" Tarra pointed out. "It's against the rules to go into the other team's room." She knew perfectly well that that this qualified for him not getting out – heck, he could get his entire team in for saving someone's life – but she figured it was worth a shot.

"I think we'll let it pass this time." Ms. Geranuldy shrugged, blinking. She found herself rapidly regretting agreeing to letting the mutants use their powers.

Still, this game was definitely getting exciting.

Another ball was caught on Nick's team and Sam came back in. "What's your power?" Nick asked as soon as he was on the court.

"Flight. And minor destructi-Whoa!" Sam's legs shot together and he pushed himself into the air, spinning in a loop-de-loop as a ball just came a millimetre from his body.

Instead, it slammed into Jake.

"Damn it." Jake muttered, walking into the line.

The team might have been getting better, but Tarra's still had the advantage.

Roberto tensed and threw the ball hard at Bobby, who was ducking and weaving. Easily the ice-mutant avoided it. "Nice one." He said sarcastically as a girl on Tarra's team caught the ball.

Kitty stepped in with a grin as someone else walked off. "Okay. This is, like, getting exciting." She commented.

"Uh-huh." Tarra nodded distractedly.

Bobby threw a ball hard that slammed into Tarra's shoulder. She grunted but left. Bobby laughed and bowed to Sam, who rolled his eyes.

Kitty grabbed the nearest ball and threw it hard. It clipped him on the back of the head. "Ow!"

"Sorry man." Sam shrugged. "You did kinda deserve it though." He added as Bobby left the court, grumbling.

"Strongest player down." Amara said. "Good throw Kitty."

"Thanks."

With Bobby down Tarra's team was suddenly more energized. Two people were caught out and four were thrown out, leaving just Sam and Nick (Kurt had been brushed on the tail, and if his tail could catch people out it could get him out).

"Well… we're screwed." Sam said to Nick.

"I thought you X-Men were meant to be superheroes?"

"Well, yeah…"

"Superheroes don't give up that easily." Nick said as he picked a ball off from the ground. "Otherwise supervillains would rule the world. Then again, you X-Men don't fight supervillains."

Sam looked at him. "Pay attention to the news more often. See if you can spot anything along the lines of Magneto or Apocalypse."

"Whatever. My point is, it's not over-"

A ball slammed hard into Sam's ear. "OW!"

"Until we're both out." Nick groaned as Sam walked off.

"Yes! Just one to go!" Tarra cried from her spot in the line. "You can do it!"

Nick scowled. His hands curled around a ball and he threw it.

Almost in slow motion, he saw the ball arc into the air and fall towards the girl. It was heading straight for her head.

Then it fell straight through. "Nice one." Kitty said, picking up the ball.

She passed it to Tarra, who grinned.

The ball left her hand hard and fast. Nick didn't move as it hit his nose. "Hey! No head shots!" He complained, holding his nose.

Tarra shrugged. "Sor-ry."

"And… Tarra's team wins!" Ms. G announced. "Good thing too. We've only got five minutes left until the bell goes."

There were complaints. "Can't we just, like," Kitty said, "have a sudden death round?"

There were mutters of agreement.

Ms. G looked around the oval. Ice was still spread around, grass had been pushed up and there was a burnt patch of grass.

"I'm afraid not. The oval might not last that long."

Two days later they were back in gym class. "You reckon we'll be allowed to do that again?" Kitty asked Kurt.

"Nah. Ve were lucky, but I heard zat Ms. James filed a formal complaint against using powers."

"Pity." Kitty sighed. "That was actually quite fun."

"Not to mention it sorta helped improve human/mutant relations." Kurt agreed.

Eric and Jake were chosen as captains. They were playing dodge-ball again.

"Tarra." Jake picked, pointing.

"Amy." Eric said, looking at a girl. Once more, they were doing boy-girl choosing.

"Nick." Jake said.

"Bobby."

No-one moved for a moment.

"Bobby? Bobby – Drake, was it?" Eric said, looking straight at Bobby.

Bobby blinked. This was the first time in ages any mutant had been picked first for a team (well, not first but first for their gender…). "Uh… what?"

"You're on my team." Eric said, shrugging.

"But… I'm a mutant."

"Yeah?"

"We're not allowed to use our powers this game." Bobby frowned.

"So?"

"Uh… oh. Okay." Bobby said, a flicker of a smile crossing his face as he joined the group.

Jake looked at Eric oddly. "Lora."

"Amara."

Amara's eyes widened but she joined the team without argument.

"Nathan."

"Kurt."

Kurt joined the team. The three mutants who were picked looked at each other and shrugged.

Jake frowned for a moment. "Kitty."

Kitty blinked. "Kitty, you're on my team."

"Okay…" Kitty slowly stepped behind Jake. "But I'm not allowed to use my powers…"

"So? You're a good dodgeball player." Jake shrugged.

"Julie."

"Roberto."

"Sam." Nick said, taking the last of the mutants.

The rest of the teams were picked and the teams assembled in the gym.

"Now, absolutely no mutant powers this time round." Ms. G said. "The oval is still smouldering in some parts."

Amara flushed.

Ms. G blew the whistle.

After the game finished, they all walked out with a smile. There had been no accusations of mutants using their power throughout the entire game.

"Did we really… not get picked last?" Kitty asked Kurt.

"Ja." Kurt nodded, shaking his head in slow surprise.

It was lunchtime and they started walking off. "I've got an essay due tomorrow that I totally forgot." Kitty realised, racing off to the library.

Bobby hurried off before Kitty could ask him if he'd remembered to do his. He was gonna do it straight after school, honest!

"Hey, Bobby!" Nick called out, catching him by the arm. "We're having a game of soccer. You wanna join?"

Bobby blinked. "Uh… sure."

"Cool."

So... did you like it? Review then!