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It seemed Mr. Holloway's accent intensified as his anger did, giving Gunther the scolding of his life. He even made allusions to his own childhood, where corporate punishment was prevalent. The scope of the boy's punishment seemed a little drastic to Alice, who was surprised that her teacher would react in such a strong way. The mixture of shame, slight fear, and regret painted on Gunther's face said it all in regards to his own feelings.

She was glad he was being reprimanded, perhaps even a bit smug, but then she became acutely aware of the whole class silently watching their teacher order Gunther to write an apology to her. The scene Mr. Holloway was creating in the classroom caused her to blush in embarrassment, and she suddenly wished that she had not anything to the obnoxious bully at all. If what he had said was true...if the other students really did think she was a suck-up... Well, that opinion was certainly not going to change anymore.

She sighed and watched as Gunther shuffled back to his desk, head hanging in dejection.

"I'm sorry about that, hun. Some kids can just act stupid. You can still work on the pieces since there's only two, if you'd like."

Alice nodded and cleared her throat, head reeling over all of the drama that had occurred in such short minutes. "It's okay...I was almost done with it anyway. We might as well move on to the face painting..." she trailed off, collecting the pieces from her teacher and fitting them back together as best as possible. Eventually her classmates turned away, the buzzing teenage chatter filling the room again.

The video was inescapable. There had been a horrified crowd gathered in the room adjacent from Alice's, replaying it over and over again on what seemed to be an endless loop. She couldn't handle it, so she attempted to escape to the library. There too, was a large group huddled around one of the desktops, watching it on repeat. And one in the dining room, and one near the classrooms, and one in the living room...truly, the video torture was everywhere in the mansion.

And it was not like leaving the school was an option with the media-frenzied chaos going on outside.

The fourteen-year-old resigned herself to her fate and curled up on the comfiest couch in the living room, conveniently as far away from the television as possible. Even so, she could hear the all-too familiar beginnings of the video: the stupid teenage boys making stupid teenage comments, the muffled sounds of tires squealing, a dull thud, and then...the screaming. So much pain in those sounds, so much undeserved pain... She had only seen the accursed, grainy video once, but she had heard its terrifying audio too many times. She knew she would be hearing the screams in her dreams that night, and for the nights to come.

It was...beyond words, how cruel and unfair and violent the things that had transpired in that video were. Alice could not attempt to view it a second time without the bile rising up in her throat and the nausea hitting her in overpowering waves. Yes, she was outraged. Yes, she was concerned for Gina, though she did not know her personally. The fourteen-year-old had heard enough wonderful things about the gargoyle girl to know that she was a lovely human being and was the least deserving of the horrible beating she received. But that did not mean she wanted to see it again and again...

Some of the older boys were freezing the video on the cops' faces, trying to make out their identities amongst the poor-quality pixels and grains. It was fruitless, but their angry need for vengeance, for justice, continued to fuel them.

Some of the students made frustrated comments about the police, about the justice system in general...about "normal" humans... Alice wanted to cover her ears. It was all too much. Too much graphic violence, too much divisive hate, mutant politics she couldn't understand.

She would hear the screams in her dreams...

Chaos. Utter chaos.

An unknown assailant, face hidden by a drawn hood, stuck a knife into a man’s neck, quickly ending him in a gush of blood. The man had been on the outermost fringe of the group, completely unaware of the death that would rapidly overtake him. His eyes glazed over as he fell to the ground, prompting the rest of the group to cry out in fear and panic.

OhmygodI’mgoingtodie―

Alice screamed beneath the muffling hand, which was quickly removed as the remaining men backed away from the knife-wielding figure. She was pushed aside as one of the men charged at the assailant, feeling the breath get knocked out of her by the sudden force. Through blurry eyes, she watched the turbulent exchange unfold. Shoving, choking, bleeding... She covered her face in horror as the one brandishing the knife stabbed himself in the chest, another shriek ripping through her lungs.

MomDadTobyMomDadTobyI’mgoingtodie―

But the unknown man did not falter, did not so much as twitch, when the knife entered him. Instead, the other brute collapsed, clutching at his chest, as if he had been stabbed instead...

MutantmutantmutantThey’redead―I’mgoingtodie―

The fourteen-year-old was barely conscious of the fact that the one of the men, now sober with the realization that two of his accomplices had just been murdered by that...that creature, had grabbed her once again, her arms twisted in his painful grasp. Tears were freely flowing from her eyes, but she was hardly registering anything below the sheer, primal fear that consumed her. It was fight or flight...

"Move again you damn freak and Imma blow your head off."

She was trapped, there was a gun, there was no choice. Her body chose fight. In a few seconds, the man gripping her would begin coughing, wheezing, as chlorine gas invaded his lungs. In thirty seconds, the other remaining man would begin to as well. In one minute, they would feel quite short of breath, perhaps even unable to breathe.

I’m going to die.

"Yeah, I met her. Nice kid; just try not to rile her up for the sake of your room."

Alice tilted her head in confusion at her teacher’s response. His chuckle and his comment on not riling Kait up did not make any sense to her, and she wondered if this was going to be a regular occurrence with him, if she was going to be in a perpetual state of perplexity around him. “Uh...” she began, unsure if she should question him or not, “Nevermind.” She decided against it, accepting that there were some things she was just not going to understand when it came to Mr. Holloway.

"'Scuse me a second, sugar."

The teenager nodded and continued with her drawing, waiting until his back was to her to watch him march up to another student. Said student, when he noticed Mr. Holloway approaching, instantly froze, eyes wide, hand scrambling to scribble over whatever obscene object he had drawn on his partner’s portrait’s forehead. She rolled her eyes and tried to stifle a giggle. Boys were such―

“Hey new girl.”

Alice had barely enough time to look at the speaker before her paper was stolen from her, taken right from her unprepared fingers. “Hey! Give that back!” But the boy promptly ignored her, instead sneering.

“A heart? On a guy? That's stupid."

She frowned as the doughy, obnoxious boy insulted her picture. It wasn’t any of his business, was it? So why was he butting in with his oversized, stupid head? But she could not, of course, bring herself to actually say such things out loud. She was the new kid. How she handled her next few choices could cement her standing at Xavier’s, or at least in her art class, for the rest of the year. “Can you please give me back my paper?” she asked as calmly as she could, trying very hard not to call him any names.

Gunther responded with a taunting wave of the page, his teeth glinting in a mean grin. “Or you’ll do what? You gonna tell the teacher? You little teacher’s pet.”

She did not know what she had done to warrant such rudeness, but the brunette decided she did not want to play nice with the boy, despite her regularly friendly disposition. She had already asked nicely. “Listen, jerk. Give me back the paper. Now.” Alice tried her hardest to be intimidating, eyes squinting in an attempt to seem tough. She wasn’t very convincing, but it seemed for a moment that Gunther was considering relenting. But then he heard his friends snicker at his failing resolve, and he knew that if he stopped, he would never hear the end of how he’d bowed down to some dumb new girl.

With a krrrrsh, Alice watched in horror as her paper was ripped in half, right down the middle, the torn sides floating in slow-motion to the ground. It was only a simple sketch, she knew that, but she still felt like crying. The boy was just so...mean! And she had tried so hard. She stared at his snickering retreating form, and dazedly wondered how the situation had escalated so rapidly. Her eyes settled on the remains of her picture as she sighed in resignation, shoulders slumped.

*snuggles Liz* I'm in the same boat!

I'm sorry for being so...not here lately! I know I owe many people posts, but November/December has gotten crazy. Sorry for making y'all wait. Hopefully things will calm down soon. Until then, however, posting will be nonexistent-to-slow for me.

Spooky! Hah, welcome to MRO!