She was supposed to be in bed.

Since leaving the Program, though, Annie had decided that rules were for other people. So she was sitting out on the roof, which was easy to get to from the bedroom window if you didn't mind pulling yourself up over the edge by your fingers. Which she didn't, not when the alternative was staying inside all night long.

She looked up at the stars and sighed softly, the breeze ruffling her hair. Until she'd left the compound, she'd never seen real stars, in a real sky. In the whole time since she'd left the compound, she'd never spent a whole night under cover. Never passed a night without looking at the stars.

She looked at them because they were beautiful, and because they couldn't be contained. Animals could be caged, trees uprooted and transplanted, even mountains leveled, but the stars were utterly indifferent to humanity.

She was scared witless.

What was she doing?! She'd been loose for less than three months, she couldn't pass herself off as a normal teenager! Not even as a mutant teenager! It was hard staying 'shifted all the time, even if it was only her face and hands. She knew enough about her genetic donors to know that looking like them would make trouble for her. But she couldn't do it every minute of every day, she didn't have that kind of control yet.

And even leaving aside the matter of her appearance, she didn't have the basic social knowledge to get by. She didn't know enough about music, current fashion, those silly magazines that girls her age read... Jubilee had asked her what her favourite magazine was, and Annie had gotten the feeling that "New Scientist" hadn't been a good answer.

She sighed, resting her chin on her knees. She had to stay somewhere. Here, at least, people would accept that she'd never gone to a conventional school. They'd expect her to be a little strange, a little off. And she could learn from them. Learn how to be normal. Learn how to make the computers give her their secrets. And then, finally, she'd find out why her sibs had died.

"Annie, isn't it?" someone said behind her.

Annie clenched her fists, fighting the reflex that curved her claws out of her fingers and tried to send her at his throat. The cuts in her palms healed almost instantly. "That's me. You're...uh...Mr. Summers, right?"

"That's right." The tall, good-looking man squatted beside her on the gently sloping tiles. "What are you doing out here at this hour?"

She shrugged, not looking around. "Sunbathing?"

He chuckled dryly. "Uh-huh. You know, I think you and one of the other teachers are going to get along."

This time she did look around, grinning. "If you mean Mr. Logan, I kinda accidentally kicked him in the head. I think it upset him."

This time the chuckle sounded a lot more genuine. "Oh, that was you, was it? Guess I'm lucky you didn't do the same to me, with me sneaking up behind you like that."

"Damn straight." She tilted her head back, gazing up at the stars again. "I'll go back in, I promise. I just wanted to look at the stars for a while."

"Fair enough." He paused, and cleared his throat. "Just out of curiosity...how did you get up here in the first place?"

"Climbed outta my bedroom window."

His head tilted questioningly. "The window that's a floor away from the roof? With an overhang after that?"

"It's not that hard." Annie stood up, and grinned. "Want me to show you?"

"I really don't think that's a good idea--"

Annie shrugged, and stepped off the edge of the roof. Turning in mid-air, she caught the edge of the roof, using her momentum to swing her legs against the wall and get her feet securely on the small ledge. After that, it was child's play to dig her fingertips into the cracks in the stones, and start climbing down. She paused first, and looked up. The teacher's head was framed against the stars. "See?" she said brightly.

"Please don't do that again," he said weakly. "You nearly gave me a heart-attack."

"Oh, okay, okay." She sighed deeply. "I'll use the stairs next time."

"I'd appreciate it."



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Scott sat on the roof until his heart stopped fluttering and resumed a normal rhythm. She'd just stepped off the roof! A little thirteen-year-old kid had stepped off the roof! He'd tried to grab her, but she'd moved too fast, and she'd disappeared over the side and then when he'd looked over, there she'd been, just hanging from the wall! He hadn't been able to see more than a vague outline in the faint starlight, but he was willing to swear she'd been grinning at him.

"Scott?"

He looked around, to see Jean climbing out of the same trapdoor he'd used himself. "Hello, love," he said, still feeling a bit weak and limp from shock.

"Are you okay? I could sense your panic from all the way downstairs." She sat down next to him, absently tucking her skirt around her legs. Autumn was here with a vengeance, and it was chilly.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just watched a student jump off the edge of the roof, but I'm fine..." He hastily forstalled her worried exclamation. "Don't worry, she's fine. But I think we should institute a rule about not climbing the outside of the building."

"Oh dear..." Jean smiled ruefully. "Let me guess...the new girl? Annie Winslow?"

Scott nodded. "She's a strange kid, Jean." He smiled a little. "But I can understand it, I guess. I don't think she's spent a lot of time around other people."

"You empathize with her," Jean said softly, resting her head on his shoulder."

Scott nodded, resting an arm around her shoulders. "We have a lot in common, I think...well, she has a
lot in common with me when I was her age." He chuckled softly. "She was sitting in my stargazing spot."

"Remember how I used to have to come up here to drag you down for dinner?" Jean chuckled too. "Even in the dead of winter, you'd be up here in your coat and your little bobble hat..."

"Hey, you knitted that hat for me. I still have it somewhere." He kissed the top of her head gently. "I love you. Did I mention that today?"

Jean smiled. "Only five or six times."

"I'm slipping. I used to average an even dozen." He grinned down at her. "But there's still time to fix it."

His fiancee giggled softly. "There is indeed. Shall we go downstairs?"

Scott nodded, feeling suddenly blissfully happy. He had never, would never get used to the wonderful, startling knowledge that this woman loved him. "Let's."



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Annie trailed Jubilee into class, wondering what on earth she'd gotten herself in for. English? How could you have a class for English? Didn't everyone speak it already?

"All right, everyone, settle down..." It was the bald guy. He looked a lot like Chase, only older, and without the tattoos. "As most of you know, today we'll be discussing Shakespeare's 'Macbeth.' Annie, since you're joining us for the first time today, I don't expect you to have read the play, but--"

"I've read it," Annie interrupted.

"Oh. Well, then, you'll be able to join in our discussion." He didn't reprimand her for interrupting, even though the rest of the class were muttering, but he did raise a gently interrogative eyebrow. "Perhaps you'd like to start us off?"

Annie blinked, puzzled. "Uh...start off?"

"What did you think of the play?" he prompted.

Oh, that. "I thought it was stupid."

"And why is that?" he asked, a little condescendingly.

Annie shrugged, leaning back in her chair. "It was stupid," she explained patiently. "I mean, killing the king in their own home? With knives? Seriously bad decision. It woulda worked if they'd just thought it through a bit more."

He blinked at her, looking extremely surprised. "Indeed?"

"Oh, yeah. For preference, I'd've left the king alone, and focused on the other two, you know, the sons? A little accident, say, out hunting, and there Macbeth'd be, the heir, all nice and proper. But no, they had to get all impatient and they screwed it up."

There was a moment of silence.

"She's right," John agreed. "It was a really stupid plot."

Several people around the room nodded. "It was kind of implausible," Bobby offered diffidently. "I mean, this Macbeth guy was supposed to be really smart, right? And he was a soldier and all. He shoulda been able to come up with a better plan than that."

Annie nodded smugly. "It was dumb," she agreed. "I mean, I came up with at least a dozen better plans before I even finished it."

Xavier looked a bit rattled, but he rallied himself creditably. "That's probably true. However, 'Macbeth' was not supposed to be a realistic play. It was actually written as a piece of political propaganda."

"It was?" Jubilee asked, showing interest for the first time.

"Indeed it was. King James ordered it written to strengthen his own claim to the throne."

"Really?" Annie leaned forward, eyes brightning. "Wasn't he the same one who rewrote the Bible?"



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Annie sighed, staring at her chemistry textbook with a mournful expression. "Why do I have extra homework?"

Jubilee, who hadn't had so much fun in chemistry ever before, grinned. "I think Ms. Monroe wanted you to stop asking questions."

"But she told me to! She said if there was something I didn't understand, I should ask!" Annie sulked, glaring at the book. It wasn't as if reading an extra chapter was going to be hard for HER, but still. It was the principle of the thing. "She just didn't wanna admit that she didn't know."

"Yeah, teachers hate that." Jubilee looked critically at what she was prepared to tentatively call a new friend. For the sheer entertainment value, if nothing else. "Are you gonna do it now?"

"Not if I don't have to." Annie eyed her saxophone. "Is there someplace I can practice with that where I
won't bother anyone?"

Yana, who was a cute little blonde kid of about nine, looked up, following Annie's gaze to the battered black instrument case. "<If you want to play music, you could go to the gazebo,>" she suggested in Russian. "<My brother goes there to draw. He says it is very peaceful.>"

Annie responded without thinking. "<Thank you, little one,>" she said absently. "<That's a good suggestion.>" Belatedly, she realized that Jubilee and Yana were both staring at her, open-mouthed. "What?"

"You speak Russian?" Yana asked in her halting English.

"A bit," Annie said guiltily. She HAD to forget about her early training, or she'd never pull this off... "I grew up around a buncha Russian people," she said truthfully. A lot of the scientists HAD been Russian, at least originally. "You pick it up."

"Oh. Kewl!" Jubilee beamed. "So what'd she say?"

"That I should go play in the gazebo. It's the little white thing you can see out the window of that room with all the plants, right?"

"Right." Jubilee grinned at her. "Thanks for not doing it in here."

"I like you both too much to want to make your ears bleed." Annie picked up her sax and ambled out the door. "Later."

She found the gazebo -- empty, fortunately -- and took the sax out of its case. "I know you don't like me much," she told it seriously. "But I'm gonna learn to play you, if it takes me WEEKS."

The sax looked obstinant. "It's not MY fault the old guy died," Annie told it crossly. "I TRIED to revive him, but he'd already stiffened up. He'd have WANTED someone to have you, instead of leaving you all mixed up in the trash."

It didn't say anything, of course, and she sighed, putting it to her lips and giving it a hopeful blow. The noise that came out sounded SORT of notelike...she adjusted her fingers and tried again.

About an hour later, she'd gotten a few more notes down, and was trying to make a tune out of them. The whole business was a lot harder than it had looked.

"What's that godawful racket?"

Annie lowered the saxophone and gave him a reproachful look. "I'm doing my best, Mr. Logan," she said in an injured tone. "I've only been learning for a week."

He grunted, giving the instrument a hostile look. "Can't ya practice quieter?"

"No. It goes all droney." Annie remembered that not everyone could buffer their eardrums against loud noise, and felt a little more sympathetic. He DID have very sensitive ears, after all. "I'm sorry if it bothered you."

The craggy face softened a bit. "Yeah, well...I guess you're doin' your best. It just...uh..."

"Sounds awful, I know." Annie sighed. "I haven't gotten the hang of making notes yet."

"Yeah, I noticed." He gave the instrument a baleful look. And he could hardly fault the kid for having a hobby, even if it was a damn loud annoying one. He looked around. "You got a book or something you're learnin' out of?"

Annie shook her head. There were books you could learn music out of? THAT had never occurred to her. How could you write music down? It didn't have any words. "No. I'm just kinda...teaching myself. I can make a B-note, wanna hear it?"

"Uh... no thanks, kid. I heard it already." At least, he assumed he had. He'd heard enough to make his ears really WANT to go numb. "You should talk ta...uh...I guess Doc Grey'd be the best. There are some kids who have music lessons." And if the kid with the violin didn't tune it properly, he was going to do something drastic... "She could fix some up for you too."

"Really?" The blonde girl, whose angelic appearance didn't fool Logan one bit, tilted her head. "That would be interesting. How many kinds of music are there? Would I learn all of them?"

Logan blinked. "I dunno. How many kinds you wanna play?"

Annie thought about it. "I want to do the one they play in the bars," she decided after a minute. "Jazz. With this." She held up her sax proudly. Probably the only halfway-valuable thing the kid owned.

"Makes sense," Logan approved. She might be a bit odd...it had taken him an hour to explain basketball to her, since she'd obviously never even seen the game played...but she was a sensible kid, he'd give her that. "Okay...well, guess I'll see ya at the self-defense class."

"I'm not going," she said mildly. "Don't need to." His eyebrows rose, and she gave him a very direct look. "If you don't believe me, I could knock you down again," she said calmly.

Well, he could hardly argue with that... "No thanks, kid," he said a bit grumpily. She'd dented his ego with that kick, if not his head. "But you better go explain to Summers why you ain't gonna play."

She nodded, slinging the sax over her shoulder by a worn strap. "That's true," she agreed. "That's be polite, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah. They like it if you tell them when you're not gonna be there." He snorted, and they exchanged an eyeroll at that obvious foolishness.

"If it'll make them feel better, I suppose..."



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Having taken her saxophone back to her room, and spent ten minutes polishing off her homework, Annie ambled down to the gym where the self-defense classes were getting underway. Everyone else was wearing either spandex-workout gear or sweatsuits. Since she wasn't going to stay, Annie hadn't bothered to change out of her worn jeans and loose t-shirt. "Hi, Mr. Summers," she said brightly.

"Hello, Annie." He smiled at her from the floor, where he was leading a group of students through their warm-ups. Logan was already on the other side of the room, rather impatiently coaxing a cluster of kids through a basic throw. "You're a little late, but if you get changed fast--"

"Oh, I'm not staying," she explained. "I just came to tell you that I wasn't coming. I mean, that I'm not staying. I already know how to defend myself."

He frowned, standing up. "Annie, I'm not sure you understand. This class is compulsory. That means everyone has to attend."

"I know what compulsory means," Annie said patiently. "I just don't think there's anything you can teach me."

"Really." He folded his arms across his chest, looking down at her with that funny visor he always wore for things like this. "I know that you have at least some training, given what you did to Logan, but I still think that you should attend the class. There's always more to learn, you know."

Annie looked him up and down, and grinned. "Don't take this the wrong way, Mr. Summers, but I seriously doubt it. I'm gonna go study, okay? I'll be working, I promise." She turned to leave.

"You think so?" Even though she hadn't, intellectually, been expecting it, the faint sound of motion behind her gave her enough warning that she didn't automatically break the teacher's neck when he grabbed her.

Instead, she grabbed the arm that was around her neck, dislocated the elbow with a practiced twist, elbowed him in the ribs hard enough to crack a couple, and then did the over-the-shoulder toss he'd probably been expecting. Using the arm she'd just dislocated meant that instead of rolling when he hit the floor, he just lay there and tried not to scream. "Yes, I think so," she said firmly. "And you've only got yourself to blame for this. I TOLD you I knew what I was doing."

She looked around. Everyone was staring at her, open-mouthed. "I warned him," she appealed. "You all heard me warn him."

"I...yeah, we did. Did you have to hit him that hard, though?" Bobby asked nervously.

"I was making a point," Annie said firmly. "And anyone else who tries to grab me is gonna get the same, IF they're lucky." She looked around the class, eyes hard. "I don't do grabbing. We all clear?"

"Crystal," John agreed weakly. There was a suspiciously deep snicker somewhere behind him.

"Good. Uh...you guys just keep warming up, or whatever it is you're doing. I'll take him to the sickbay." She helped the teacher up, slinging his uninjured arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry I had to do that, by the way."

"You didn't have to..." Summers trailed off, grinning ruefully and wincing at the same time. "Okay, maybe you did. But you didn't have to demonstrate quite so hard."

"I wanted to be sure you believed me." Annie shook her head...which was about on a level with his armpit. "You're lucky I knew it was you. I could've killed you."

He blinked. "What?" What kind of child HAD they welcomed into their midst?

"Overtrained. Me, I mean." She patted his back reassuringly, hauling him along like a little tug pulling an ocean liner. "I've been learning since I started to walk. It's reflex, now."

"I see." Scott had actually encountered a couple of people like that before...Elektra, for example. Once martial-arts training reached a certain point, it seemed to just...sink in. Stop being a habit, and start being a reflex. Admittedly he'd never seen anyone quite so young in that state, but presumably it happened. "I see."

"You said that twice," Annie observed, steering him into the infirmary. Jean was already there, presumably called by one of the other students. "Dented your boyfriend a bit, Doc. Sorry. He started it."

"I know I said it twice." Scott gave Jean a deeply embarrassed look. "Uh...I did start it. Sort of."

Jean nodded, helping him onto the padded bench that was optimistically called a bed. "So I heard."

Annie stuffed her hands in her pockets, looking a bit guilty. "I'm pretty sure nothing's broken," she offered apologetically. "But I did dislocate his elbow."

Jean gave her an exasperated look. "You couldn't have just thrown him?" she asked, sounding rather annoyed.

"I was making a point," Annie said mildly.

"You made it, too." Scott winced as Jean touched his elbow gently. "you don't have to come to the class again...do you have any practice you do on your own time?"

"I do katas in the morning and evening," she offered.

"All right. We'll count that as your self-defense course unit." He winced again. "I'm starting to wonder if Logan didn't get off lightly."

"Oh, he did," Annie assured them blithely. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it." She paused. "I'm not in trouble, am I? Only the Professor told me not to hit any more teachers, but you DID start it and I DID warn you."

Jean frowned, but Scott nodded. "I did start it. Don't worry, Annie, you're not in trouble."

She beamed. "Good. Sorry about your arm."

Jean frowned as the girl scampered out the door. "Scott, we can't have students starting fights with the teachers--"

Scott shook his head, wincing. "It was my fault, Jean. She told me she could take care of herself, and I didn't believe her. And you can believe ME, the next time someone tells me they know more about martial arts than I do, I'm not going to grab them around the neck from behind, no matter how little and helpless they look."

Jean frowned, but nodded reluctantly as she fussed with his arm. "I'D certainly think twice before I tried it."

Scott nodded and sighed wryly. "Logan enjoyed it, didn't he?"

Jean shook her head, grinning reluctantly. "Oh, he did indeed."

Scott sighed again. "Oh, great. You know, dear, I really don't LIKE him very much..."

Part 3