Day One: Introductions

[Andy 60]

"Well, I just happen to have some in the car," Danny said, "no such thing as a sober party back home, and I don't intend on it being that way here either. Just don't tell my bro, he'll get jealous."

[Vergere 1]

Catalina went over to where she saw Brett sulking around in a corner. She sat down at a chair nearby, "Not partying?"

Brett looked over at her, suprised at being addressed. "Oh. No." He shrugged, and returned to watching the band. "I don't like crowds."

"Then why are you here?"

He shrugged again. "Nothing better to do."

[Rogue 4]

"You know I'm in, Mr Universe." Neil took a look around the party to see if anything else was of interest. Nothing really caught his attention. He did however notice a pretty blond girl with a shirt advertising for Hawaii was glancing over in the direction of their table every so often. He smirked at first, thinking she was looking at him until he made the realization that she was looking at his friend. "Hey, Mr. One-man Zoo. Don't look now but that girl at twelve o clock is definatly checking you out man."

[Drake 53]

"Do you keep all these nicknames in a book somewhere that you pull out and memorize every night or do you just pull them out of your ass?" Marcus asked with a grin. "Now what about a girl...?" He turned to see who Neil was talking about and locked eyes with Natalie.

His eyes widened a bit and he turned back quickly. "Yeah, that's her. The girl I showed my powers to. Natalie."

[Andy 60]

"Right, I'll be back then," Danny got up and went to fetch some bottles. He came back a moment later and passed the drinks round the table. "If you don't like that there's some other random stuff."

Danny looked over at Natalie, then back to Marcus. "Oh that must have been what they were talking about. You know, she was talking to Kelly and Lance earlier in private. It was this afternoon, after she was attacked by that shark."

[Drake 53]

Marcus' mood darkened and his grip tightened on his drink. "What? I can't believe she told them. I asked her not to." He took a couple gulps of the alcohol without looking at the label then made a face and looked at the bottle. "What is this? Smirnoff." He took another long drink then hit it to the table. "So much for trusting in friends."

[Rogue 4]

Natalie rose, bidding farewel to her friends and crossing the crowd towards the table.

"Ah yes..." Neil said, tapping his own bottle against his. "Speaking of untrustworthy friends, here comes yours."

[Drake 53]

"Oh boy," Marcus said. "You guys better back me up with this."

[Rogue 4]

"Hey, you deal with your girls. I'll deal with my own." Neil responded. This wasn't his brand of trouble.

Natalie walked over to the table, standing beside a vacant seat. "Hey Danny, Marcus." She looked over to Neil. "Oh, hi. I'm Natalie."

"Indeed, I've heard tons about you blondie."

She seemed nervous. "All good things I hope..."

"All a matter of opinion of course."

[Vergere 1]

Catalina nodded to Brett's comment, then looked over at him again. "Do you dance?"

Brett looked over in suprise. "What!?"

Catalina smiled softly, "I asked, do you dance?"

"I... uh... Hey!" He turned sheet white when she just grinned and pulled him to his feet, dragging him out to where the crowd of people were having fun with the music.

In her soft voice, as she began to dance, "I never asked if you danced well."

Brett just looked at her dumbly for a moment before smiling faintly and following suit.

[Drake 53]

Marcus turned and gave Natalie a nervous smile. "Hey Nat. This is Neil. He says that he doesn't deal with girls, whatever that means."

***

Peter pulled into the beach parking lot with Scott still on his tail. The Russian pumped his fist in victory and parked his bike in an empty spot with Scott pulling up beside him.

"Better luck next time, Summers," Peter said, laughing. He took off his helmet and gloves.

Kurt was grinning from ear-to-ear. "That was awesome! Let's do it again on the way back!"

"How about no!" said Hailey.

The group made their way to the Cove and went inside to join the party.

[Andy 60]

Chase spotted Jean, Scott and the others entering the Cove and went over to them.

"Hey Jean, I know this probably isn't the time or place, but how do I go about getting a room at your place?"

[Vergere 1]

Kelly and Lance went outside to get some fresh air and step away from the sound for a minute, and as they're out enjoying the ocean breeze, Kelly notices the newcomers to the party. "Psst. Lance. Go say hi."

He glanced over at the group, and just looked mildly amused that someone was still wearing shades at this time of day. He grinned and tugged Kelly along with him as they meandered through the crowd - as people were almost pouring out the sides of the Cove boundaries - to go meet them. "Hey there!" He waved, and as he approached the new group, held out his hand to the closest person. "Lance Elliot. I don't think I've seen you here before... welcome!"

Kelly just smiled and stood a foot behind Lance, and gave a small wave.

[Rogue 4]

"Ah, right." Natalie said with a nervous smile. "That's okay, I don't deal with girls either. Which I guess, in a roundabout way gets me to my point." She looked over at Marcus, hoping and praying that she wasn't about to get rejected like she did before. "Wanna dance?"

***

Jean smiled at him. "Real easy. Either Scott, Peter or I will have a sit down with your parents, just to make sure they're okay with it."

Edited May 9, 2008 by Rogue

[Andy 60]

"Okay," Chase replied, "that won't be a problem. My brother might need a room too, but we'll sort that out some other time."

***

Danny looked surprised, as he'd got the impression that Natalie and Marcus weren't getting on. He waited to see what would happen next.

[Drake 53]

Marcus' eyes widened. He wasn't expecting that. Did she really want to dance with him or was she using it as a reason to get him away from his friends so she could berrate him more?

He looked over to Neil who couldn't seem to stop laughing and Danny who just shrugged as he took a long drink to avoid having to say anything.

Marcus sighed a little then looked back to Natalie. He would have to deal with this on his own. "Sure, I guess." He got up and went out into the crowd with her.

[Andy 60]

Danny watched Marcus go with Natalie. "Well, that really wasn't what I expected to happen," he said to Neil.

[Rogue 4]

Natalie breathed an inward sigh of relief, leading him into the crowd until she found a good spot. It was a slower song, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and settled in against him. She could tell that he had a lot going on in his mind, and she had a lot going on too.

She spent a long nervous moment trying to remember her well rehearsed words, but they seemed to have run away on her when she needed them most. "Marcus...I wanted to thank you for saving me out in the surf this afternoon. And appologize...for the way I reacted to..." She realized that they were close to other people, and didn't want to say it outright.

[Vergere 1]

As it switched over to a slow song, Catalina and Brett jumped away from each other and looked around.

Brett motioned to the bar, "I think I'm going to go get something to drink..."

Catalina nodded, "Yeah... um, I think I see one of my friends over there..." She waved hesitantly and scurried off in the opposite direction.

[DeltaRanger333 0]

"Hey, Scott Summers, nice to meet you. Peter Jean and I have been around for a bit. We're from the New Xavier Institute. We've been kind of busy though. I did most of the work" Scott said with a half laugh, looking back waiting for a reaction from Peter. "As for the others, they're pretty new. This is Kurt Wagner and Hailey Hudson. I'm sure you'll see us around."

[Vergere 1]

Lance tilted his head slightly, "Really...? So is it nice there?"

Kelly nodded to Kurt and Hailey. "I think I saw you two today... at school." She furrowed her brow slightly as she motioned to Hailey. "You took an interest in the fight at lunch, when Trent tried to beat up Danny."

[Drake 53]

Peter crossed his muscled arms over his broad chest. "If by work, you mean talk then yes, you did. Aside from that...it was mostly Jean." He smirked.

While Lance spoke with Scott, Jean and Peter, Kurt, Hailey and Lila split off to talk with Kelly.

"Oh yah," said Kurt. "We're both new to the school and so was the guy that got picked on. Us new people have to stick together, right?" He laughed nervously.

Hailey smiled, better at acting than Kurt. "Don't mind him. He gets this way all the time around girls." She laughed a little. "I'm sorry, I don't think Lance there introduced you. What was your name, again?"

***

Marcus shrugged and finished Natalies sentence for her, "to what I am? A mutant? I'm not ashamed of it any more." He looked down, conflicting thoughts going through his head. He didn't want this to end badly again but he also had to find out the truth. "So, um, Danny was telling me that he saw you talking with Kelly and Lance earlier after...well, after the shark attack. You weren't...telling them about me, were you?"

Edited May 9, 2008 by Drake

[Vergere 1]

She held out her hand. "Kelly, Kelly Reed. I'm a senior at the school." She rolled her eyes and motioned to Lance. "I'm also the doofus' girlfriend." She smiled warmly at the group. "He owns the Cove, and I'm here all the time after school. So where's everyone from? Your friend... Scott? said you were new to the area."

[Drake 53]

"Well Lila here is a local," said Hailey, motioning to the newest member of their group. "Kurt, Scott and Jean are from Bayville, New York. Peter's been around but he's from Russia." She patted Peter's arms. "Siberia, right muscles?"

"Da," said Peter before returning to his own conversation.

"I come from just outside Toronto, Ontario in Canada. Actually, I just arrived this morning before school. I don't know why I'm not tired." She laughed.

[Vergere 1]

"Typical globetrotters! Well, I'm from Australia, soo... I went through the whole 'new kid' thing a few years back. You all enjoying your time here yet?" Kelly was still smiling warmly. "Had time to enjoy the beaches and surfing and amazing weather?"