Title: Dream Still Alive (I know the title sucks, but I've got less than 10 minutes to get this posted in! LOL)
Fandom: X-Men
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: OCs
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: The power of words lose their sting when you realize you have friends.
Word Count: 2,276
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 414: Gossip
Warnings: Future Fic, AU
Disclaimer: All recognized characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission. The rest belong to the author.







She felt their eyes on her as she began to undress. She had known some of these girls her entire life yet still did not feel comfortable around them. Her cheeks burned as their whispers rose. She tried to rein in her emotions, firmly telling herself there was no reason to believe they were talking about her. Even if they were gossiping, there were others in school about which to talk, giggle, and point. She wasn't actually their favorite target, even though she often felt like it. Honestly, their favorite targets were normally the boy with the fly eyes and other such young mutants who actually looked like mutants but were what many of even their own kind considered to be hideous and who didn't have the powers to make them "worthy" mutants, only the deformities.

She choked down the ball forming in her throat and turned as she struggled into her gym shorts. She'd always hated changing amongst other people, even if these were mostly the same kids around whom she'd always changed at school. It shouldn't be fair, having to change clothes at school at all, but then, life was never fair. They'd all been taught that from a very early age. Being decedents from actual X-Men, none of them were strangers to the plague of prejudice. However, she'd watched the waves of species hate rise and fall over her few, short years of growing up as a human child of two mutants. The tides had been shifting for a long time now.

She was acutely aware that she had been a disappointment to everyone but her parents, and sometimes felt that she was even to them. They hadn't asked for a normal child, and although they acted perhaps even more loving to her than other X-parents she'd witnessed, it was never amiss on any of the three of them that she could never wear the badge of X, could never continue her parents' careers or dreams. There was, indeed, little, she could do to bring honor to them. One of the few things she could do was to continue her top-notch grades, but with classmates who actually possessed superior intellects, even those honors were not match, her grades always paling in comparison to the real geniuses even if they far surpassed all her other classmates. Then there were the mutants who always seemed to carry a grudge against her when she showed more wisdom concerning their powers than they did.

She turned again, struggling to get her left foot in at it continued to seem to fight a battle of its own against her. When she finally managed to land it through the right cuff, she felt a sneer. She knew when someone was looking at her. For as often as her mind plagued her with thoughts that someone was ridiculing her when they were not even studying her at all, she never missed when she was being stared at. "Aw, look, is your mutie power finally developing?"

She slowly raised her head to stare back up at the girl who was sneering down at her. It was true what they said: the captains of cheerleading squads were always bitches, no matter what school they attended. Honestly, despite what the X-Men believed and the pictures they painted to especially the outside world of truly normal humans, the newest Xavier's student body was very far from being an organized, peaceful team. They could barely cohabit amongst each other without someone being hurt, but those who were hurt rarely dared speak a word aloud about it, especially not to Miss Frost.

Ariel noticeably gulped as she slowly met the cheerleader's gaze. The blonde threw her head back and laughed, dazzling feathers protruding from her back and spinning in a brilliiant array of colors. "Oh, no! I was wrong! She was just imitating a lobster!" She raised her hands into the air above her perfectly-coiled head and pressed her fingers together repeatedly, imitating the opening and closing of a lobster's claws. "What do you say we call her Lobster Girl? Oh, wait! There's already a lobster girl, and her mutant gene is actually active!"

The other girls were quieting down. A few sniggered. Some looked like deer caught in the glow of headlights, uncertain whether to bolt right or left, whether to risk the cheerleaders' wrath or simply be glad they were not the ones currently being teased and keep their mouths shut and heads down. A couple even start sliding toward the dressing room doors. The aforementioned Lobster GIrl shrank as far back into the dark end of the lockers as a person possibly could.

"Snap snap, little Lobster Girl wannabe!" Celeste trilled, pinching her fingers at Ariel. "Hurry up now and get dressed the rest of the way, little Lobsty!" More snickers rang throughout the locker room. "We wouldn't want to keep Miss Frost waiting!"

A retort perched on the tip of Ariel's tongue, but she bit it back. It wouldn't do to try to chastise Celeste. The girl seemed to have the headmistress wrapped around her little finger, and it was scarcely surprising. After all, she was best friends with the headmistress' daughter, Victoria, and seemed to be even more like Emma than Victoria was and she was surely the spitting image of her mother. Ariel didn't know why Emma even pretended to care for the other kids unless it was, as she'd heard some of the adults whisper, to keep up her own appearances. She surely didn't actually care about them or she'd never allow them to be bullied the way they --

"Leave 'er alone." The voice was brusque and deeply accented. It came, Ariel realized, blinking rapidly, from one of the Guthrie clan, the one who spoke the least honestly. She would have been pretty for she had blue eyes and blonde hair like her mother, Husk, but her vast muscles always rippled oddly on her body. They also seemed very heavy, causing the girl to often seem to stoop. Ariel had heard her teased mercilessly many times before and was reminded, with a pang of guilt, that several of the popular crowd had declared that she stooped so low she drug her knuckles across the ground.

"Or you'll what?" Celeste snapped, leaving Ariel to move closer to the "Guthrie Freak". "Beat me to death with your hairless knuckles?" It might have been cool, if she had exhibited other animalistic attributes, to have her arms swing so low or be vertically challenged in such a manner, but as it was, her stature only gave the others another excuse to rip on her. It also didn't help that, unlike Paige's other children, no one really knew who her dad was.

Guthrie started to withdraw, but another girl stepped between them. She had pointed ears, and although she was not very tall herself of stature, she carried herself with all the pride of her father, Captain Britain. "Yoo'll di nothin'."

"Oh, really, Cassie?" Celeste snapped.

"Din't make me remind yoo I'm an empath on top o' me Dad's gifts. I'm sure'n yoo wouldn't want me spillin' yuir feelin's all o'er th' place, Celeste. Shall we start wit' how Shogo turned yoo down fer a date?"

"Don't you dare smile, Mermaid!" Celeste shot back at Ariel rather than Cassie. They all knew it took a lot for Cassandra to lose her temper and actually fight them, but they also all knew they didn't want to be on the receiving end of those Braddock fists.

Green eyes glowed as another blonde stepped up to the growing group. "Yoo're all bark, Celeste." The leather-clad daughter of Rahne Sinclair, who'd once worked closely with the Braddocks and whose loyalty had been passed on to her other rebellious daughter, squarely positioned herself between Cassie and Guthrie, facing fiercely off with Celeste. They all knew, unlike Meggan's peace-loving daughter, the Werewolf was always up for a brawl and couldn't care less about her progress at the school. She'd sooner hit the streets on her bike than spend another day at this place and was constantly heard arguing with her mother about the entire idea of being an X-Man and fighting for others.

Yet, here, Ariel thought, another smile chasing over her upturned lips, she was choosing to fight for two freaks who could barely stand for themselves. She knew Guthrie, or any of her siblings, could probably take Celeste in a fair fight, but rather or not the cheerleader would fight fair was another issue entirely. Furthermore, she herself was definitely the weakest link on the team, being the only one amongst them whose mutant gene had defaulted and never activated. Many of them considered her a human for that purpose alone, and all the encouragement and reassurance from the elders that she did indeed possess the X gene had served no purpose other than increasing their jealousy and wrath at her for they'd felt she'd gained unfair advantages from their elders.

"I said stop -- "

Moira growled, her fangs baring and glistening, as Celeste's wings rustled and she a hand to strike Ariel. Ariel cringed, expecting the hit, and was shocked to feel a hand slid into hers. The other hand curled its fingers around her hand and squeezed her tightly, reassuringly. Everything grew quiet in the locker room. No one spoke. One of the ailuranthropes' tails made a soft sound as it whisked through the air, but she grabbed her tail and held it so as to not make another sound. She was the first one Ariel saw when she dared to crack open an eye. Stroking her spotted, bushy tail, she felt almost as scared as Ariel felt.

And then the hand squeezed Ariel's again, and a timid voice spoke up from right beside her. "Miss Frost is waiting. Do we really want to face her wrath?"

Celeste stared at the girl holding hands with Ariel for a long moment during which, still, no one spoke. Moira was growling lightly, but Cassie, who had grown up with her, stayed standing between Moira and Celeste, hoping the situation would finally diffuse. At long last, Celeste spoke with an indignant air. "You would know, wouldn't you, limo driver's daughter?"

Grace smiled, a thin expression on her black lips. "I would, wouldn't I?" she said and, holding to Ariel's hand, guided her to turn around and walk away. Ariel could practically hear her knees knocking together, but she knew that, especially with their backs turned, if Celeste tried now to attack them, Moira would rip her apart. At least she did have some friends, she thought, an odd, warm feeling beginning to settle in her tumultuous stomach.

"And if you bother her again," Grace called back over her slender shoulder, "I will let Miss Frost know what you have been doing not just to Ariel but to everyone."

Ariel was one of many to gasp aloud. "You! She -- She'd never believe you."

"I'll open my mind to her and let her see the truth for herself."

"I -- I -- "

A few kids began to snicker again.

Celeste stomped her foot. "Shut up!" Thy hushed instantly, but Ariel knew the tables had been turned. She was not surprised at Cassie's or Moira's courage, but she had been surprised and grateful for Arlee Guthrie's intervention. She was even more stunned by Grace, who was, as graciously as her namesake implied and gently too, leading her out of the girls' locker room. She had never heard the green-skinned girl speak more than a couple of words at best.

"Just keep walking," Grace whispered against Ariel's dark hair. "We're almost there. She cares more than you think."

Ariel opened her mouth to ask who cared about her, but they were moving out of the door and into the gymnasium before she could voice her question. Victoria, Miss Frost's daughter who had been given, by her mother of course, her own dressing room, was already waiting outside. To her growing surprise, she spoke to them both the moment she saw them emerging. "Are ye two all right?"

"We're fine," Grace spoke hurriedly, dropping Ariel's hand. All Ariel could do was stare at the headmistress' daughter who seemed a younger clone of her in every way except that her long, blonde hair had a touch more red to it and she sometimes spoke with a funny accent Ariel had never quite been able to place.

"What happened in there? What took you guys so long?"

"Ask your bestie," Grace chirped to Victoria, causing Ariel's eyebrows to raise in unspoken questions.

She didn't speak again until Grace had pulled her over to the side on the gymnasium floor. "They wouldn't have you believe it," she whispered urgently to Ariel, "but Miss Frost does actually care about us. Yes, my Father works for her. What those snobs don't know is he always has and Miss Frost has always been kind to him."

Ariel was full of questions, but before she could ask of them, the bell rang followed by the sharp blow of their Coach's whistle. She tried to keep a low profile throughout their gym session, but she was very much aware of the other girls who stayed nearby her. Once, Celeste threw the ball only to have Moira blast through it with a claw. The Coach blew the whistle again, but no matter what happened for the rest of the day, Ariel couldn't seem to stop beaming. She had friends! Let the whole rest of the school laugh about her! Let them all gossip all they wanted! She had friends! Maybe Xavier's dream wasn't dead after all.




The End