Once we got back from the mall, we all wandered back into the main building, most of the students just kind of depositing themselves on the couch. I trudged slowly up to my room to decorate my way-too-bare walls and put the rest of my things away, all with the help of Semisonic blasting out of my boom box. I was tired, but I wanted to get everything done tonight - besides, I knew that my ever-present insomnia would keep me from going to bed for at least another two hours.

By the time I was done, the place looked a whole lot better. My new Apollo 13 poster was on one wall and my Tombstone poster was currently taking up another. Various comic strips, astronaut and space pictures, and other cool stuff decorated what remained of my walls and the back of the door, and I smiled as I taped my sign up on the front :

The dry-erase board was proudly armed with the upcoming episodes of Quantum Leap and Highlander for the week, along with an empty spot for The Sentinel, which I didn't yet know the title for. I had a carefully modified version of "the wall" (on which I put pictures of all the cool people I like) which displayed pictures of Jack Dawson, Jim and Blair, Duncan MacLeod and Methos, Krycek and Shep, Seargent Riggs, and Harry Stamper. There was already no longer a floor, long since buried underneath bags, books, and tapes, and the bookshelves in the closet were overflowing with just the things I'd packed from home. I set my autographed stuff on the desk by the lamp, and decided that this was most definitely a job well-done. I flopped down onto ceiling-staring central (the bed), and was listening to the ending chords of "Closing Time" when Jubilee ran in my door, carrying something under her bright yellow jacket. What it was, I couldn't tell, but whether that was because I was lying upside-down -- or not, I wasn't sure. In any case, I rolled over to look at her right-side up, wondering whatever in the world was so important that she had to barge right on in here without even knocking.

"What --" I began, but before I could get anything else out she slammed the door and shushed me with a finger to her lips. What was going on?

"You gotta hide me!" she squealed. "Quick! Oh -- the closet!" She leapt for the closet, slamming the door shut behind her as there was a rather loud and impatient knock at my door. I got up to answer it, still wondering what was going on and whether or not I should divulge the walking sparkler factory's location, should the subject come up with whomever I was about to talk to. I opened the door to see a vary miffed-looking Paige; she glanced around my room as I opened the door a bit further.

"Hi. Have ya seen Jubilee?" she asked, exasperation and impatience evident in her voice. I suddenly wondered about that "bundle" Jubes had been harboring underneath her jacket.

"No." I shook my head. I heard the closet giggle, but Paige obviously didn't over the noise of the music that was still playing. "Why?"

Paige sighed, the exasperation becoming more evident than before. "She stole mah ice cream! Mah Reese's Peanut-Butter Cups ice cream! Arrgh!!" The accent was on, full-force, although I had to admit that the stolen food sounded pretty good. I wondered if -- if Jubilee had taken the ice cream -- she might consider giving me some. "At least, it had tuh be her!" Paige continued. "Who else wouldah stolen mah ice cream? Jonothon?! When Ah find her ... Jubilee!!" she yelled out into the empty hall. "When Ah find ya, ya're dead meat, ya hear me?!!" With that, she turned on her heel and was gone, fuming off down the hall to continue her now-futile search for the culprit. I suppressed a giggle as I closed the door and addressed the closet.

"It's safe now. She's gone." The closet door slid open slowly, revealing Jubilee holding a carton of -- was that? -- Reese's Peanut-Butter Cups ice cream.

"Thanks!!" she said, sighing with relief as she emerged from the closet. Thank God I hadn't put my X-Men and Gen-X comic books in there! I was glad to have decided to hide them in an old box under my bed until such time as I found a more suitable place to hide them. "Want some?" she asked, offering me the already open carton.

"Sure!" I said, grabbing the spoon she offered. We dug in, and somehow managed to finish the entire carton in 10 minutes between the two of us. Man, that stuff was good. I could understand why Paige would want the stuff back, but now I wondered about the validity of that thought. We sat there on the floor giggling, and I could tell that I was going to have a lot of fun here. Of course, right now there was the question of what to do with the evidence....

"Hey -- I've got an idea!" I said. I continued in response to Jubes' interested look, and her eyes lit up as I revealed my plan before we rushed off to put it into action.

Well, considering it wasn't yet midnight, Jubilee and I had finally wandered into the den, hoping to watch VH1 only to find that it had been commandeered by Paige, who was watching some nature documentary. We decided to stay anyway, and made comments on this and that, basically driving Paige nuts. Angelo came down and decided to join our MST-ification of the documentary, and we were in the process of driving Paige to the brink of insanity and back when a psionic voice rang through the room.

*Wot's this?!*

Jubes and I glanced at each other as Jono came into the room, holding what appeared to be an empty ice cream carton and a spoon. Paige looked up to see what was the matter, and was suddenly transformed into ... well, it wasn't pretty. I got the notion that one could possibly fry an egg on the top of her head right about now....

"Jonothon Evan Starsmore?! How could you do that?! How... could you...?" The look on her face went from one of fuming anger to extreme puzzlement as she contemplated the sight before her.

*But Sunshine ... I didn't....* he protested, even as she realized the impossibility of what she had originally thought to be the case.

"He couldn't have," she finally just stated simply. Then she turned to us, a look of pure murder in her eyes. "You two ... Ooh!!!!!!"

We took off at a dead run, only praying that it would be enough of a head start.

I couldn't sleep. It just didn't come this early. Well, it was early -- early in the morning, that was. It was 2 AM, and I could not sleep. I sighed and climbed out of bed, hoping that I might be able to find something to do. It felt so odd here; like I didn't fit in just yet. Sure, I fit in with Jen and all, but I wasn't sure about everyone else. I knew it would take time, but it just felt so weird because it seemed like I had know all these people for so long, yet I hadn't. All that comic book reading, all that fanfic, all that drawing -- I felt like I knew them so intimately, yet my knowledge didn't even scratch the surface of who they truly were. And now I was here, one of them. It was just so sudden, and I didn't feel like I was ... good enough. Like I deserved to have something so incredibly cool happen to me.

I turned on the light and grabbed a book off my nightstand: Catch-22. I opened it and settled down on the floor in a cross-legged position, my back supported by the bedframe. I looked at the page, but I wasn't reading the words. I was thinking.

Well, I knew Jen, so being around her was no big deal. And this whole Jono thing -- I'd dealt with her and her "crushes" before, but never in the same place as the object of said crush. That would be weird to deal with, I decided. And Jono himself -- I didn't know what to think about him. I'd always liked him - always connected with him somehow when I read the comics. Now, though, I hadn't really gotten to talk to him but I already felt like he just brushed me off. Like I didn't matter, which was actually how I felt most of the time. Insignificant. Annoying. Small. Alone.

Angelo was cool, and so was Everett. They liked to have fun, and so did I. I was sure that they wouldn't have a problem playing hockey with me, or teaching me how to actually get a basketball in the basket, if I approached them right. I mean, Angelo was cool and laid-back, and so was Ev. I figured I would get to be pretty good friends with them. And Jubilee -- if tonight was any indication, she and I would get along just fine.

Paige and Monet, however, were entirely different matters alltogether. Actually, I felt around Monet a lot like I did around Jono: small, stupid, and inferior. But that was okay with Monet -- she just exerted that air. I didn't know what it was with Jono, and that was driving me nuts. Oh well, I'd get over that. Paige was pretty cool - I didn't know if she really liked me all that much, but she was willing to study with me and that was cool. I didn't think we'd ever be incredibly close, but it's always nice to be friends.

But back to Catch-22, I reminded myself. I still wasn't done with it, although the book report on it had been due at the end of last quarter. Just chalk it up as yet another book report done on a half-finished book -- that was the way I did things. Got a 98 on that thing, too. Not half-bad. But I found that I liked the book -- I found it strangely intriguing, and it drew me in so that I actaully wanted to finish it. Back to the words on the page....

The next morning, the alarm went off way too early for my liking. I slammed my fist down, hoping to smash it into oblivion and make the awful noise go away. But I only got ... air? I opened my eyes and looked for the alarm clock, which seemed to have moved of its own accord during the night. Well, there it was, right there on the nightstand, only it was ... two feet down?! Was I --?

"Oof!" I bounced on the mattress, opening my eyes and slamming my fist onto the stupid alarm clock. Wow -- what a weird dream. I got a vague feeling, along with a flash of *Clark Kent*, but figured it was just the residual traces of sleep floating around in my still-fuzzy mind. I shrugged and dragged myself unhappily out of bed and slowly made my way down to the bathroom. I yawned and tried not to run into any open doors as I finally made it to my desired destination, only to have to go back to get fresh clothes. Grumbling, I tried the trip again.

I had reached the doorway a second time when a surprised male voice rang throughout the hall.

"Madre de -- who did this?!!" Angelo yelled. I smiled as I heard another voice follow the first.

"Hey Ange, what's the -- augh! Hey -- what?!" Followed by another:

*Wot in the -- bloody --!* I turned as three sopping wet boys climbed up the stairs into the hall, dripping all over the carpet and looking, all in all, quite amusing.

*Wot's the meaning of this?!* Jono demanded of me as I laughed uncontrollably at them. I'd never imagined that it would be this funny....

Monet, Jen, Jubes, and Paige all emerged from various rooms to see what the fuss was all about. Jubilee immediately dissolved into giggles; Paige and Jen did the same after a moment while Monet seemed to snicker a little. And was that a smile?

"Come on, chicas! Which one of you did this?!" Angelo demanded. No one answered.

"Boys! What is the meaning of this?!" Uh-oh; here was Emma, climbing up the now-squishy carpeting of the stairs to see what was going on.

*Some bloody ... bloody ... dumped water on all o'us!* Jono managed to get out. He looked especially amusing, what with his bandages all wet and soppy, as well as his hair hanging down in his face in a wet clump. I wondered if Jennifer found this so amusing, considering....

"Get off my carpet!" Emma was yelling at them. "Now!" The three boys reluctantly trudged back down the stairs, making squishing noises every step of the way. Emma then turned to all of us, giving us one of the coldest looks I think I've ever received.

"And once I find out who did this ..." The threat was left unfinished as she stamped angrily back down the stairs, to leave all of us laughing in the hall.

"That was ... so great!!" Jubes gasped to me, holding out a hand. I high-fived her, laughing along with her.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

"You dumped water on them?!" Jen asked -- or stated, I really couldn't tell.

"That was so ..." Jubes dissolved into more gales of laughter. Jen just sighed and turned on her heel, striding back into her room and closing the door. Apparently she didn't quite appreciate my having dumped water all over Jono. Well, too bad. I thought it was funny, although I also had a sinking feeling, like I was going to get caught and that he'd hate me for life or look down on me or something. I suddenly hoped he never figured out it was me....

"Did you see the look ... on their faces?!" Jubes squealed.

"It was the best!" I gasped.

"You are incorrigible," Monet stated before disappearing into her room. Paige was gone as well, and I managed to stumble into the bathroom to take my shower.

Almost an hour later I entered the kitchen to be greeted with accusing looks from Ev and Ange, who were sitting at the kitchen table and warily shoveling Cocoa Puffs into their mouths.

"Hi." I greeted them; they just grunted in response and gave me looks that I thought they might need licenses to wear. Hmm... could it be that they were just the slightest bit miffed? Nah... I did notice, however, that Ange's hair looked kinda fuzzy, which amused me. I began searching for the bagels, deciding that they were the very confection that I so craved this very morning. I searched all the cabinets in vain until I finally found a half-empty, sloppily-sealed bag of chocolate chip bagels in the back of the freezer. Who in the world kept bagels in the freezer? Obviously, someone here did. I began, thus, searching for the toaster. Of course, upon careful examination, I found that I could most definitely not find the toaster.

"Um, do you guys have a toaster?" I finally ventured to ask.

"We did." Angelo got out between spoonfulls. "Don't know where it went."

"Great. How am I supposed to toast a bagel without a toaster?" I threw my hands up in exasperation.

"I'm sure Lee could help you with that, chica." Angelo noted grumpily. I just stuck my tongue out at him. He smiled, which made me smile, 'cause it meant that he wasn't mad at me anymore. If he ever knew that I was the one who had helped Jubes set up the buckets in the first place, that is.

As I continued my ongoing search for the toaster, Jen happened to enter the kitchen. We exchanged "Morning"s before she headed for the juice. As she did so, I suddenly realized something.

"Hey, Jen - you 'find' stuff, right?" She looked at me a moment before nodding hesitantly.

"Uh... yeah." she finally confirmed. As she did so, her eyebrows arched, heading for her hairline. "Why?"

"Can you find me the toaster?"

"The toaster?"

"Yeah." I held up the frozen bagels to emphasize my point. "The toaster. You know, it toasts bagels..." She just gave me a look. "Come on!" I pleaded. "All I want is a toaster so I can toast a bagel! Pleeeaase?"

"Fine." she said, rolling her eyes and muttering something about Jubilee and the effect she had on certain people named Alison. Ange and Ev stopped shoveling chocolate cereal puffs into their mouths and watched as Jen closed her eyes. She appeared to concentrate for a minute before opening her eyes again.

"You know, I can't concentrate with all of you staring at me!"

"Sorry." We mumbled collectively as Ev and Ange went back to their cereal-shoveling. Although, I still had a feeling this worked kind of like Jennifer's "gray elephant" principle. I smiled to myself, thinking about that very principle and how it had gotten soaked this morning...

I think Jen got the drift and she glared at me, but then, being the wonderful person that she is, she once again closed her eyes and (once again) commenced trying to find me the toaster. After a very long minute, she opened her eyes.

"Didja find it?" I asked. She said nothing, only went over and opened a very high cabinet over the fridge, pulling down a beaten-up, generic-looking and dingy silver toaster.

"Thanks!" I smiled, taking the toaster and happily plugging it in, envisioning crisp bagels and cool cream cheese spread perfectly over them in a manner I could never accomplish if I tried for thirty years. Well, one could always envision... As I was about to insert the jaggedly- and unevenly-sliced bagel, however, there was a bright flash of light, followed by a

BOOM!!!!

I opened my eyes to see Jennifer staring at me funny; Ange and Ev had stopped eating, spoons frozen halfway up to their mouths, My head hurt, and so did my hands - upon careful inspection I realized that they'd been burned. Rather badly, I might add - and they hurt.

"Ow. That hurt." I noted appropriately.

"Whoa, chica!"

"Did the toaster do something wrong?" Jennifer finally queried.

"I didn't do it!" I protested.

"Of course you did! Look at your hands." Angelo pointed out. I did so, failing to see his logic.

"But... I didn't! Did I? I would know if I had... right?"

Jen shrugged, a generic "I don't know" look on her face. Suddenly Jubes came running in, followed by Paige and Sean.

"Saints preserve us! What happened in here?" Sean wanted to know.

"Um... I don't know?" I offered.

"She blew up the toaster." Jen accused. Well, thanks, oh best friend mine...

"Kewl!"

"I didn't do it! And if, by some odd, insane, cosmic and uncanny chance I did, I didn't mean to!" I insisted. Sean just looked at the charred counter where the toaster had been, and then glanced down at my hands.

"Well, no matter what, you'll be needing ta get those bandaged, lass."

"Okay." Well, at least we could agree on that. Because my hands hurt, and my head was really beginning to pound. I followed Sean out of the kitchen, trying to ignore all the talking I could already hear drifting out into the hallway. Jennifer started to follow, but then hung back as if she'd changed her mind.

"Now lass, considerin' where ye are... what ye are... ye may have to accept the fact that you were responsible for... whatever happened." Sean was saying. I nodded absentmindedly. That would be weird - if I had actually blown up the toaster. Well, it would have been cool, too... but weird. It was like mutant powers were always something I'd dreamed of, and I knew that since I was here I must have them, but actually manifesting them... it was beyond anything I could ever imagine. It was... just different. And cool. And strange. And almost frightening, because now this was real life, and... anything could happen, and I wouldn't necessarily be okay. Oh, stop it! I was thinking like Jono or something. Argh... this was cool, no two thoughts about it!

We arrived at the med lab, and he took out some rubbing alcohol and began cleaning off the burns on my hands. Not a pleasant experience. It hurt, but I figured it was babyish and stupid to complain so I didn't. I guess I'm not really one to complain about stuff like that. After he had done that, he took out some gauze and began wrapping up my hands. It was as he was doing this that he finally spoke again.

"Now, what exactly happened?"

"I just wanted to toast a bagel," I explained, "and as I plugged in the toaster there was just this flash and an explosion, and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the floor with this pounding headache and burned hands." He nodded, looking pensive as he reached over and took out a bottle.

"Do ye still have a headache?" he asked. After I nodded he took a pill out of the bottle and handed it to me. "Here, then. This'll help." I was handed a glass of water that he got from a nearby sink and gratefully swallowed the medicine, hoping that it was fast-acting. As I was finishing the water, Emma walked in looking... well, once again, does she ever look anything other than "Emma"?

"I have been informed as to this morning's events." she told me. "I do in fact believe this was a manifestation of your powers, and would therefore like you to stay here for testing." I shrugged and nodded, seeing no reason to protest. Sean left, presumably to teach classes or something given the time of day, and the "testing" began.

It took nearly all morning, and was incredibly dull and annoying. At first it was just a lot of poking and prodding and medical mumbo-jumbo, a lot of which I remembered hearing on ER and things like that. After all that, though, Emma jumped in with the weird psychic stuff that I wasn't quite as used to, and that was when it got interesting.

Most of the pure "psychic" testing I didn't pass, which wasn't much of a surprise to me at all. Jennifer had tried to test me in a lot of that stuff before, and I had always failed miserably. It just gave me a headache, which seemed to encompass all of my head and encircle it with a ring of throbbing pain that would not go away. Of course, complaining to Emma Frost wasn't going to help, but that didn't make my head stop hurting, either. And on it went, boring me - and probably Emma as well - to death. But finally, something worked. Well, actaully it was the failure of something to work the worked, but whatever.

"All right," Emma said for what had to be the gazillionth time this morning. I stole a glance at my watch and saw that almost two hours of this had passed. Would it ever end? "Now I'd like you to move that pen. Ah - without touching it, of course." she reminded me as I was about to reach for it.

"That sounds like an Arena/Gobble project." I complained. Emma's eyebrows Rose in question, but she voiced nothing and just pointed to the pen. Well, fine. If she wanted to watch it just sit there and me make a fool out of myself, the she could go right ahead. I mean, how was I supposed to do this? How did one go about moving things with one's mind? Think like George Malley?

I closed my eyes, trying to get the pen to move, trying to focus some semblece of concentration on doing what there was no way I could do anyway. I could feel Emma watching me, making me uncomfortable, and this was obviously not working. I opened my eyes and shrugged.

"I'm sorry, I guess -"

BOOM!!

And the pen was... well, it was no longer on the table. Emma looked at the charred table and then back at me.

"I...?" I asked.

"I believe that is obvious." Emma answered. /Duh! Way to go, Alison, sound stupid!/ "Now we only have to find out exactly what it is you managed to do."

"Blew the pen up?" I suggested. Emma only sighed - apparently, she didn't appreciate my wonderful knack for stating the obvious.

"Yes; wait a moment, please." She turned to a computer and began typing things up. This was going to be a really looonnng morning...

"All right," she finally said, turning back to me, "I believe the computer has an explanation for exactly what happened." I sat up, wondering myself what exactly I had done. I mean, it's not every day I blow things up just by trying to move them with my mind!

"The computer traced your energy output during the test; during the time you were attempting to move the pen, there was a massive buildup of telekinetic energy iniside the pen. When you stopped trying, however, the energy stopped building up and reached a critical point, thus causing it to explode."

I nodded. It seemed to make enough sense, so who was I to argue? It actually sounded kind of like what Gambit did, only not. Whatever.

"But what about the toaster, then? I wasn't trying to move that." I wondered.

"I don't know about that." Emma admitted. "The most likely explanation is that you unconsciously projected the energy into the toaster, possibly by thought alone, and ended up causing it to explode." I nodded, but this time a bit uneasily.

"Then I could blow up anything without meaning to."

"Yes, you could. That is why you will begin working on controlling this power immediately." Emma advised. I agreed with that, for sure. I didn't want to go about blowing everything up, especially if I wasn't meaning to.

"However," Emma continued, "it is almost time for classes to begin, and now is not the time to practice this; just be as careful as you can. You may get something to eat now, but make sure you're on time for class."

I got up then, leaving and heading upstairs to the long-deserted kitchen for something to eat. Preferably non-toastable.