Bryce entered the living room. He enjoyed the temperature of the Mansion. He had been outside for so long he forgot now nice it felt indoors. He worked his way around the couch and jumped down onto it. He lay there for a few minutes with his eyes closed.

This reminded him of those hot days back home. Just relaxing around the house. He missed those days. He hadn't seen his mom is almost a month. He sent her a letter 2 weeks ago. He wondered if she got it.

Bored. He flicked on the TV.

Fade walked downstairs, wearing her dancing pants (her leopard, loose-fitting pj pants) and a black cami. Her raptor-like claws were painted black and she was carrying a pen in her hand, drawing intricate designs on her other hand, no, they did not look all that good, after all, she was on the move. Forgetting to look up to see where the last stair was, she hit the ground level and stepped again, waiting for her foot to hit a surface that was lower, another step, yet her foot slammed on the floor much sooner than she expected and she tumbled over.

She heard the TV and saw an unfamiliar boy and quickly, she scrambled to her feet, not noticing that the pen she was holding branded her on her cheeks, arms, and forehead during her tumble. Her cheeks turned red and she rubbed the back of her neck, praying that the guy didn't see her.

*Oh, duh, if you didn't want him to see you, you should have just used your power, well, too late now, he would suspect something if I used it now, smooth one Jenny, very smooth* She would call herself Jenny when she was angry with herself or annoyed with herself, almost as if Jenny was a different person, someone she could blame everything on and get away with it, but whether she was calld Fade or Jenny, she was still the same person.

Orb's thoughts were interupted by a loud KABOOM coming from the hall. He assumed that someone dropped something, or fell. He didn't turn around, but faced the TV. He heard someone stumble to their feet.

He couldn't resist. Orb turned around saw a girl, markings all on her face, leopard pattern pants. He smirked at her. "You okay?

"To a certain extent." She blushed, giving a half smile. Her body was perfectly fine, well, with the exception of the pen brandings, just now he saw her and her social status dropped a tad bit down to retard. Slowly, she walked over to the couch and stood next to it, looking at the tv. "Anything good on?" She asked. Her foster father would always stand when he watched tv, once, he stood there the entire movie! Occasionally, after maybe 15-30 mintues of standing, he would sit down. Fade didn't like her foster father, but she didn't mind standing while she was watching tv, not anymore at least.

"News...more news...weather...news..." Orb groaned, scooting up on the couch. Not that the news wasn't interesting. He watched it quite often, but there was a limited amount of "news" someone could take in before getting tired of it. Seemed like the only news anyone ever heard about for the past few years was all about mutants. No stock market news, no celebrity marriages (unless to a mutant)...just...."Us" Orb thought.

He turned to her again. "I'm Orb" he introduced himself. "I know, the same sounds really cheeseball. It was my screenname on a mutant chatroom before I came here...guess I wanted at least one thing from my old life to tag along...But in any other case. You can just call me Bryce."

"Nice, the name's Jenny. Well, Fade, call me Jenny when you're mad at me or annoyed or something like that." She shrugged. Her legs were tired, so she sat down on the couch. "So, where're you from?" She asked, yet again, making her famous small talk question.

"Toronto" Bryce said, smiling at her as she sat down. "Yeah...The Great White north...I love it up there...though the way things are run with this entire...mutant issue. Its alot different." He stared at the floor between his legs. He didn't like making conversations awkward. "Thank God for places like this..."

"Amen." She smiled. Quickly, she threw her hands down and walked over to the television, flipping through the channels manually. "Well, I hope you don't mind me changing this here. If you want, I can change it back." She said, turning back to Orb, feeling bad that she just hoped up and began changing the channels without asking.

"No its fine go ahead." he said, tossing the remote back onto the coffee table. "I was going to get something to eat in a bit anyway. If you want to join..." It took him alot of energy to get up off the amazingly comfy couch and staggered to his feet. Putting his hands in his pockets he waited there for a few moments...

"Its almost hard to believe...but this place has been so boring lately...i want something to do. I get jealous of Tricity and all them...getting so involved with everything..." Orb said, trailing off. "But I guess its for our own good..." He shrugged.

"I agree though." Fade said, getting up from her squating position. "They always have the excitement, I'm always just stuck sitting around, hoping someone gets in a fight nearby so I can jump in and prove myself able to help in certain situations. I'm sick of just waiting and waiting and whenever I talk to them, they have to rush off to join some other kind of excitement and I jsut watch them leave."

Bryce nodded. He understood how it felt. He sat down on the arm of the couch, crossing his arms. "I'm not saying I want to be a super hero or anything...I just want something more...than just sitting and being left out of everything. You know i've never been in the danger room...not once...?"

"Me neither." Fade shrugged. "I wouldn't mind being a superhero, I mean, it's something to do. I've been around this place for a while, but I guess I need to be around it more, I'm too young or naive or whatever they think. I mean, I'm not mad at them, not annoyed, if anything, I owe them my life, but now I want to repay them, help out, do something. Something good, for a change." She sighed. *great, Jenny, you probably sound like a little girl that wants to run out and save the world from a comet or from the evils of hell. Nice, you sound like an idiot* She thought after she had already opened her mouth.

All Bryce could do was nod. He knew how she felt. If it wasn't for this school he couldn't even imagine what would have happened to him. Between things with him and his dad. Leaving in a normal highschool. The way his parents looked at him. The X-Men gave him a new home and he was more than grateful for it.

"Yeah..." he said quietly after a few moments of complete silence, except for the TV. He didn't know what he wanted to do next. He was bored. Hungry. And wanted to just go somewhere, or do something. But what?

"So...what is there to do around here for fun, then?"

"i honestly have no idea. So far, all I do is run around and meet new people, oh, and get in trouble occasionally." She shrugged before she stretched her back and twisted to the side before it popped. "Can you think of anything? I'm up for just about anything, anything at all." She said, which was a slight understatement, she wasn't going to just do anything, she's not a bad kid, she wouldn't run around, setting the place on fire or anything like that, but she was bored out of her mind.

"Well...I haven't left the Mansion in a long time...there's a mall just inside the city. If you want we could go hang out there...if there is really nothing to do here, why not just leave..." Bryce was just pondering on doing something fun.