"Remember, there's no "I" in "Group Projects"-"

The class gave a collective groan. That was both cheesy and terrible. No one liked collaborative projects, mutant or human. The teacher struggled to talk over the collective disapproval

"-so I expect you to work as a team. Check your hand outs for details and your partners are assigned by me." Another round of groans and this time the teacher waited with a single raised eyebrow until they quieted down.

"This project is due by the end of the week so don't waste any time. Email your questions to [e-mail]. I expect to hear from you because you will have questions. Anyone have a formal complaint or anything helpful to add to today's discussion?"

The bell rang which dashed all hope the teacher had of getting anything else out of the classroom. The overall mood lifted considerably as soon as the teacher dismissed them.

Leo, like many others, had his nose in his information packet while he packed his bag. His partner was listed at the top of the page as Emily Graves. The Mansion wasn't that big so he knew who she was, but he still didn't know know her. He'd seen her around in classes, sure, but hadn't ever actually talked with her.

Which was a shame because last week he'd thought about giving her a high five for that Life is Strange tee shirt.

He checked his schedule even though it hadn't changed-- PE. Thank goodness. He was going bonkers being cooped up inside. So he tapped out a quick email before he got changed.

To: Emily Graves ([e-mail])
From: Leonardo DeValdenebro ([e-mail])
Subject: Group Project
Message: Hey, you want to get together some time today? I want to get this over with.
Leo

That was easy enough. He considered his part of taking the lead and initiating the project as over and done with and he wouldn't think about it again until he got a reply.

Her first few classes of the day had just felt so... Pent up. Ugh. Sometimes the general mood in classes just reinforced each other, and they'd had a particularly boring lesson followed by the prospect of a research project, which normally Emily would relish because she could actually learn a thing or two on her terms, and excel. But it was a group project. Ew.

Nobody ever seemed to carry their weight, it was so annoying. She just hoped she didn't get teamed up with a dude, her classes were freaking insufferable. Teenagers had the most gross emotions.

She yawned and debated going to her dorm and taking slightly more asprin than was recommended. She had a free period, which was nice at least. Most people wouldn't be in their dorms, so she could get a few moments of respite from all of the other students and their stupid feelings. She walked towards her room as her phone chimed and she pulled it out quickly and excitidly, expecting a message back from her dad or Bailey (Whom she totally hadn't been messaging in class...)

Instead she was greeted with an email from her 'partner'. Greaaat. Her fingers danced across the touchscreen with uncanny practiced speed.

To: Leonardo DeValdenebro ([e-mail])
From: Emily Graves ([e-mail])
Subject: Group Project
Message: Not really, Just pick whichever bits you'd pretend to do and send them over to me, I'll do it in a few days. Nobody ever actually does what they say they will so you needn't bother with these pretenses.

He'd been changing when the trill of his email sounded. Oh. Had someone posted a response to his latest speculation of Audubon X? Because he was excited to read the going theory on the different types of psychics.

What he got was... not that.

"These pretenses? Ha!" His thumbs patted out a reply, tapped back some, and fired off his response before he'd actually spell checked.

To: Emily Graves ([e-mail])
From: Leonardo DeValdenebro ([e-mail])
Subject: Re: Group Project
Message: I'd rather just do it myself.

He'd typed more initially. Specifically, he'd started in on her use of a comma instead of a period and the potential quality of her work, but the PE teacher was strongly encouraging him to put his phone away so that he would pay attention to the day's explanation.

He'd do the project before midnight, now, because he didn't want to think about it later. And maybe because she was being a brat about it.

Emily made her way back to her room and grabbed another asprin, swallowing it unceremoniously before flopping back on her bed spread eagled. She really got sick of the normal school classes some days. Half of the teachers were boring as anything, and over half of the students were really really annoying little brats. The mansion even had those weird American things... what were they again? Jocks. Shudder.

She felt herself starting to actually relax and dose before her phone beeped and she felt another little flash of 'Maybe one of them has replied!' before seeing that it was that Leo kid again...

"Oh." Her eyes narrowed as she read it. "Oh..." She re-read it again. "OH! you little jerk," She used a word stronger than jerk, "I'll give you a-" She grumbled as no word strong enough came to mind and began furiously replying instead.

To: Leonardo DeValdenebro ([e-mail])
From: Emily Graves ([e-mail])
Subject: Group Project
Message:Look here you little ****** I don't have the time or inclination to mess around with you, if you're anything like the rest of the class you've got very little on your mind other than hormones, and I'd like to actually get a passing grade, so you can shove your attitude and just go back to pretending to care about your grades.

To anybody else reading the partially censored message it would come across a little incoherent, however it made perfect sense in what Emily's mother had lovingly dubbed Bratanese.

Leo did not see the message. He was too busy working up a sweat getting his butt handed to him in a futbol match. He was a human in a mutant school. He didn't have any delusions that he would beat the mutants. But, hey, it put him in a way better mood.

In fact, he was having such a good time, Leo showered, changed, and was halfway through his last class of the day before he even thought to check his phone.

He stood.

Little ******!?!

"Leo? Do you- uh, need something?"

He set his phone down in a hurry, embarrassed. He hadn't known Emily was so...

"Bathroom." He insisted. Because he was already embarrassed enough that he wanted to go dig a hole and hide inside it. He escaped from class with only his phone and stood for a long moment in front of the mirror in the bathroom attached to his room.

B***. She was biting his head off without reason. Yes! Totally uncalled for. He re-read the email for the bajillionth time.

To: Emily Graves ([e-mail])
From: Leonardo DeValdenebro ([e-mail])
Subject: Re: Group Project
Message: I'm not messing.
I don't think I'm hormonal. (Isn't that a girl thing?)
I especially love the assumptions you've made about me, but honestly this isn't about me. It's about the project. (I make exceptional grades, thank you.)
Meet me in the library. Or don't. I don't care

Emily actually started to drift for a bit after she sent the message, it was nice and relaxing. She couldn't actually get any rest or REM sleep though, she was interrupted when students started getting back from classes early and they interrupted her rest. She sat up a little and sighed, grabbing a drink from the water on the nightstand and trying to shake the sleepiness.

Her phone pinged again and she sighed. Her brow furrowed as she read it. Maybe she had judged him wrong. He wasn't entirely without a brain. But...

"A girl thing??" She repeated out loud angrily. She spent the next few minutes typing and retyping reply emails, her fingers furiously dancing across the screen, constantly pausing to delete and retype spelling mistakes. She growled in frustration and threw her phone to the other side of her bed and took a few moments to cool down. He was an ass, but she did need to get the work done.

She glanced at the mirror by the desk on one side of the room and saw that her hair was a large mess. She quickly jumped into the shower and spent a few minutes drying her hair off, slipping on an uncharted top that she'd gotten with the game when her and her dad played it. She finished getting dressed and hastily brushing her hair and then moved towards the library to meet the jerk.

He should have gotten dinner first. Leo knew that in his brain, but his stomach was all tied up in knots. Emily clearly didn't like him. He wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve that, but he also didn't like the idea that anyone would just be so... so... malhumorado.

He walked the stacks and let his fingers trail along the spines as he looked for the correct decimal and letter pair for this project. He was serious. He wanted to get this over with because this weekend they were merging an experimental branch of coding into production on AX. He'd rather spend his time squashing bugs instead of this ridiculous volley of emails that just made him grouchy.

He wasn't a grouchy kind of guy! The feelings didn't sit right with him.

He had a stack of 4 books that seemed like a decent start, those he dumped on one of the study tables while he went to go find a dictionary. When her next smart mouthed email came in, he figured that he ought to be prepared to pick her apart point by point.

Paper, the books, and one pencil waited for him back at the table. He didn't expect Emily to actually come. And if she did, he fully expected to get an earful and then to watch her leave.

Ugh.... He was such a Brat! Emily couldn't think of good words to send to convey how frustrated interacting with this Leo kid made her. She'd just turn up, and give him a piece of her mind, then they could actually get on with doing the project. She had her laptop with her, it seemed to be faster than a bunch of the school computers, it was just easier to do things on that.

She was wearing an open cardigan over her shirt so it was still visible, and skinny jeans that were 'artistically' torn in several places. She'd been in a relative rush so her hair was combed, but not styled or anything. She didn't care about stuff like that all that much anyway, if a Girl snorted or judged her in a corridor she'd probably just deck them and get into a bunch of trouble.

She'd recognised him now actually that she was walking into the library. Okay, so maybe she had judged a little too quickly. She pushed those thoughts aside and made it to the same area as he walked back to the table, she swung a chair out and dropped her bag next to it.

She leaned against the side of it, not actually sitting down and looked him up and down, more studying his body language than his body in itself. She also paid attention to his emotions. "Leo."

No scathing email came. It was almost worse that way. If she'd sent him angry words, he'd know she was still angry and still not here. Whatever she was doing, he was already in the library which he considered one step towards being the more productive of the two of them.

He sank into the chair at his chosen study table like a man beneath the sword of Damocles. His phone, he put on silent and positioned front and center before him when he picked up a book, it was hidden beneath the paper. Out of sight, out of mind. He had some material with which he meant to familiarize himself.

>"Leo."

He jumped so bad that there was no hiding it. Leo was one of those readers with laserbeam focus, able to shut the world out unless the world came to him. He leaned back in his chair so that he could get a look at her. She appeared to have taken a shower recently. Huh. Guess she didn't have a waterproof phone case.

"So nice of you to join me." He smiled even if he felt more nervous than anything else. "If you're here to shout, go ahead and get it over with and then let me know when you're done." He pulled the book back up to his face more to hide behind it than anything else.

Emily eyed the boy as he spoke to her in return, studying the emotions that were flowing out from him. Was he... He was definitely a little rebellious but, that was fear mixed in. Not an extreme amount of it, but there was a healthy level in there that she could only assume was a result of herself and her own actions. Hmm. She really wasn't used to anybody being scared of her, period.

She gazed at him steadily. "I don't. Shout." She replied in a low, prissy tone that carried her accent quite effectively. If there was one thing a good English accent could carry it was prissiness.

She didn't apologise, but she certainly didn't give him any more in the way of a verbal lashing. Her eyes followed his movements behind the book, with a venomous glare but she pulled out her laptop and opened a word document. And promptly dropped into the chair, keeping a close watch on his emotions.

Leo peeped at Emily over the top of his book as she spoke.

Oh? She didn't shout, did she? Not in volume, no. But she was shouting at him with her eyes and her body language and with her force of will.

He smiled at the interior spine of his book as she took a petulant seat at the table. Huh. He genuinely hadn't been expecting that. And she even brought a laptop that looked respectable. His regard of her jumped a cautious step up.

Leo's book shield dropped even further. "Would you like to tackle the intro or look into our topic a bit further? I got some books..." Though, she had the internet which was arguably a better resource. Still, it was what it was: an olive branch. Would she deign to work with him?

Emily couldn't help but smile a little at the way that Leo reacted to her actions. There was something... flattering about people reacting to her in that way. She wasn't used to being treated like that. In his own way, he was actually more respectful to her than most of the adults around the mansion. God, that was a weird thought. He was cautious, that was better than outright twinges of fear.

If there were two emotions that Emily would consider to be 'gross' it was probably lust and fear, they always felt uncomfortable to her. So putting him at ease, even if he'd been a bit of a jerk earlier, was ultimately a good thing.

"Well..." She began. "The nature of the research means we should probably start with a broad model, and pick some research within it to talk about. I'd suggest something like Agency theory, because it's been mentioned before in class and I've at least heard of some interesting studies and stuff we could cover."

She gave him a slightly more sly smile. "Also for research text books are... I dunno, kiddy. I like to look at journals online~" She added.

Was she... trying to nerdbash him? HIM!?

"Of course scientific journals and peer reviewed articles are of greater value, but this is a high school project meant for an entry-level introduction to a topic. When we get up in front of the class, we have to speak to our audience as much as we pistolwhip them with our intelligence."

Leo waggled his book in his hand and a single eyebrow. "Broad model. It's not kiddy to start with the basics and teachers love when you cite books in their own library 'cause lots of times they had a hand in placing them there." Psychology at its best. Leo might not be great one-to-one, but he had an idea of how people operated... except for Emily. She'd come out of the gate full on rawr.

"So why do you hate my guts?"

Agency theory was just dandy by Leo. He flipped around until he found the definition.

"You typing or should I?" He was just as fast on his phone, if a bit less accurate.

Emily was once again taken aback by Leo. He was... he was a bit of a nerd. She wasn't too geeky herself, she was smarter than she let on to most people, true. But the only thing she was vaguely nerdy about was Psychology, with the possible exception of some video games. His outward and emotional reactions told her that he was a bit of a know it all, or at least she suspected he was. Whereas she behaved more like a rebel than anything.

She tilted her head slightly to one side, a little taken aback by the way that he'd spoken about the topic. "Broad concept narrow finish is probably the best way to go with this, shows the teachers we started broad, found an interesting topic with supporting research and focused down on it will probably get us more marks." She thought it through for a few moments and admitted that text books were probably better overall.

"While you might be right about the level of information, it's probably also smart to include some more independent resources like journals, the teachers at least eat that up, even if it's only a little." She could do with some extra brownie points for the next mix up, or a better reference when she applied for university.

She sighed and shook her head at him. "I don't hate your guts, I'm in a bunch of classes with hormonal one track minded guys with superpowers that think it makes them the coolest kids around." She supplied. "It's easier to live in new york assuming that most people are crap, and be pleasantly surprised when they are in fact, not."

Her outloud thinking confirmed Leo's thinking. Of course it did. His thinking was sound and it worked on the teachers every time. Why wouldn't it for a wanna be rebel who was secretly/not-so-secretly a nerd? Smugness tried to creep in, but since Leo was trying to not be a complete jerk he kept a handle on it.

"That is a good idea." He conceded the point about independant journals easily. His ego wasn't so big that he'd pass over a good idea just because it wasn't his. Plus, bonus points. Those were like crack. He'd jump for the chance at 'em.

He was already scanning over the section about the topic Emily had suggested when she answered his question about her hating him. He had to stop in order to process what she'd said.

"Oh." Huh. Being a girl must really be different, then.

"So, you're a psychic then." Shoot! Had he thought anything pervvy since he got here? There was a mild flare of panic until he realized that the answer was "probably not." He'd expected animosity from the beginning and he really had come here to work. "I guess that makes sense then: the interest in psychology." Though it didn't explain the punky clothes. What was she trying to say there? Stay away? I like bad guitar filters?


Leo's phone buzzed against the wooden table and he snatched it up before the "silent" vibrations made too much noise.

"Uh. Did you say you're typing, then?" Should he swing around to see? He actually preferred this side of the table if he was being honest, but he didn't want to offend her. Mutants were just weird about their powers sometimes. He thought an apology after that just in case she was listening, but it was still true.