BreakDown

Disclaimer: I'd love to claim these 'marvel'ous characters as my own, but Marvel would sue me and take away my medication. Such good medication...

Author's note: This chapter is pretty short. Please review and let me know what you think. ^_^

The sun shone bright and clear on the gates of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, making the young woman approaching them thankful she had her sunglasses. A few feet before the gate, she stopped in her tracks as a football landed at her feet from seemingly nowhere. Leaning over to pick it up, she was startled by a loud *BAMF* and a shout of "Vatch out!" followed shortly by a body landing unceremoniously on top of her. There was a brief period of confusion as she lay sprawled on the driveway, the boy scrambling to right himself and offer assistance as the sounds of the gate opening and people gathering filled her ears, when a laugh bubbled its way up her throat. It was soft at first, barely audible over the voices surrounding her, but it quickly grew loud enough to make her roll over in search of more air. She hardly noticed the people staring as if she'd lost her marbles when an image of herself, laid out on the pavement with sportsjacket askew and chin-length dirty blonde hair sticking out at odd angles, sent her rolling into another laughing fit. This continued for a good minute until a familiar voice yanked her back to reality.

"Van? Vanessa Laughton, is that really you?" Wiping moisture from her eyes (and wondering when she'd lost track of her sunglasses), Van blinked as she met eyes as green as the purest emeralds framed by hair that shone like fire in the morning sun.

"Jeannie," Van said, smiling softly as she pulled herself into a standing position. "Well, if it isn't Little Miss Perfect in the flesh. Long time, no see, huh, Angel?" Before she could finish speaking, Jean Grey was hugging her tightly and fighting back tears of joy at seeing her childhood best friend. The rest of the students stared on in awe.

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A round of introductions and an apology from Kurt later, Van found herself sitting on a couch next to Jean and surrounded by the mansion's residents.

"My God, Van, what ARE you doing here?" Jean asked, unable to get over the shock of Van's sudden appearance. Van grinned and started searching the pockets of her sportscoat before speaking.

"Well, Angel, I was having dinner with my parents about midsummer when my dad says he wants my last year of high school to be the best, so he and mom have decided I should go to this boarding school in Kingston, New York. Realizing the place wasn't too far from Bayville, I asked if I could go a week or so before school starts to visit my best friend whom I have neither seen nor heard from since we were fourteen. They agreed because they don't really give a shit what I do anyway so long as I don't get into trouble, and here I am!" Van didn't see the look of confusion on Jean's face as Van found the cigarettes and lighter she'd been seeking. Before she could light the cigarette she'd slipped between her lips, though, there was a sharp *SNIKT* that left Van staring at her cigarette impaled on a shiny metal claw. Van's eyes moved up the claw to glare in annoyance at the large man standing behind the couch.

"If I can't smoke inside, nobody smokes inside," Logan practically growled before moving back to his spot against the wall. Van cocked an eyebrow, switching from annoyed to unimpressed, and opened her mouth to respond.

"Van, I was wondering," Jean cut her off, as much to get answers as to save her friend's life. "We're the same age, and last I checked we were in the same grade, so why are you still in high school? You should be starting college, like me." Van grinned and caught Jean's gaze with her sparkling blue eyes, but there was a sadness to them that Jean had never seen before.

"You see, Jeannie, when we were eight years old, you fell into that coma, right?" Jean merely nodded, unsure where this was going. " Well, I...I never left your side. I stayed with you, day and night, waiting for you to wake up...praying for you to wake up. I-I missed a lot of school. So much that the principal contacted my parents and told them the only way to keep me from being expelled was to hold me back a year. My parents told him to do what had to be done to insure I could return to school whenever I was ready. Of course, that didn't happen 'til some bald guy in a wheelchair came to wake you up," Van said with a sad little chuckle, her eyes focused on the lighter she was fidgeting. Jean rolled her eyes.

"That 'bald guy in a wheelchair,' as you so love to call him, is-"

"'The distinguished Professor Charles Xavier.' Yeah, yeah, I know. I got to hear about him every summer since I was eight, remember?" Van grinned, amusement replacing the sadness of before. A smirk Jean reserved for special occassions (that always scared the daylights out of Van) crawled its way onto Jean's face.

"I was going to say 'at the door,' Van-es-sa," Jean drew out her name as Van's eyebrows slowly rose. Turning towards the rec room door that connects to the lobby, Van blinked a few times as Professor Xavier smiled and moved farther into the room.

"Ms. Laughton, I presume?" the professor asked amid the poorly concealed giggles and snickers of the surrounding students. Van merely nodded. "I believe this is the first time we have met in person."

"Yeah," Van nodded again. "When you first came to help Jean, my parents removed me from her room while I was napping. The first I heard of you was Jean bouncing on my bed and telling me about the man that brought her back and wanted to teach her about her 'gifts.' It's a pleasure to finally thank you in person for waking Jeannie up." Xavier began to reply, but Van continued, "And it is equally pleasurable to finally insult you in person after so many years." Jean gasped and the room went silent.

"V-van!" Jean stuttered. "Could you be any ruder?"

"I can try," Van responded, her expression still the same wide-eyed, blinking gaze. Her eyes never broke contact with Xavier's, and Xavier's kind smile never left his face.

"It's alright, Jean. I understand Ms. Laughton's rather biased view of me, as I am the person who took away her closest friend. However, I do hope that she can understand the necessity behind your being here." The tense silence stretched out, the only sounds made by students shifting in preparation to defend their teacher. The professor's eyes shined with his request for acceptance while Van's face seemed a stone wall, mute with unforgiving. Though Xavier's expression never changed, his eyes searched Van's own for some sort of telling emotion until he finally grasped the meaning behind her look: Van could never forgive him for taking Jean, but she would accept him for keeping Jean safe. A brief incline of his head portrayed his understanding, and Van slowly nodded in return.

"Yeah, I guess I can." After a few more moments of silence, Scott Summers cleared his throat.

"Well," Scott said, feeling the desperate need to gain control that is common to all leaders, "whose turn is it to fix dinner?"

"Oh!" Kitty Pryde sat forward in excitement. "I, like, found this great new recipe on the internet!" The room suddenly exploded with noise as the rest of the students, minus Rogue and Scott, gave their reasons for missing dinner and swiftly exited the room.

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Several hours later, Van had learned a few very important lessons. The first was that you should never, ever, attempt to drink one of Logan's beers. The second, and perhaps the most important, was to always find an excuse, even a bad one, to avoid eating Kitty Pryde's cooking. The very memory of the putrid smoke spilling from the kitchen as Kitty prepared dinner made Van nearly revisit the burgur she and Jean (and Scott, as he'd insisted coming) had picked up.

Before they'd left for dinner, Professor Xavier had invited Van to spend her time before school in the institute instead of the hotel room she'd rented, so after eating they'd gone and picked up her luggage and paid off the room. Then there was a rather interesting bit of miscommunication as Jean and Van, who had spent their childhood sharing eachother's bed, naturally assumed they would have the samrangrangement at the institute. Storm, who had already prepared an extra room for Van, spent most of the conversation with an amusingly confused look on her face, causing Van to spend most of the conversation laughing. Just thinking about it now made Van begin to laugh which caused Jean to stare at her as if she had two heads.

"Care to share?" Jean asked from her desk chair. Van just shook her head, leaving Jean to figure it out on her own, while laying back on Jean's bed and making herself comfortable. Jean simply rolled her eyes and continued catching Van up on her life to date. "So, then I was asked out by Duncan, and we went out for a while, but that didn't work out, so we-"

"Wait," Van interrupted, sitting up. "What do you mean 'didn't work out'? What happened?" Jean stared at her nails for a moment before answering.

"Duncan is...well, he's a bit of jerk, and when he found out about my powers, he wanted me to use them to help him pass his tests at school. I was so disgusted, I told him it was over and...it ended there." Van narrowed her eyes, sensing the hesitation from Jean regarding this topic.

"Angel, we've known eachother for a long time; long enough for you to know better than to try lying to me. This Duncan guy, you dated him for a couple of years, right? And you're gonna tell me he just let things end and dropped it?" Jean stood up and walked toward Van's luggage, transferring Van's clothes to hangers in the closet in an attempt to avoid the conversation. Van stood up as well and grabbed Jean's hands, making her drop the clothes she was holding on the floor, and pulled her close enough to wrap her arms around Jean's slightly smaller frame. She felt tears on her shirt, and she knew that this was something Jean had kept bottled up for some time. "What happened?"

"A bunch of the students went out one night," Jean said, her voice barely above a whisper. "We went to a local club that had yet to put up a 'No Muties Allowed' sign, and I had gone oustide for a little fresh air when I felt his presence. His thoughts were screaming at me. 'Stupid mutie bitch, thinks she can pull that shit on me, I'll show her ass.' Before I could even breathe, he and his buddies had me surrounded. They were all obviously drunk, and I was so shocked at the images I'd seen in his thoughts....I couldn't move, could barely think...he wanted to rape me, beat me 'til I bled..." Jean was shaking now, and Van squeezed her tightly, running one hand up and down Jean's back while using the other to caress Jean's hair.

"Did he?" Van asked softly. Jean shook her head.

"No," she replied. "Scott had gotten worried and came outside to look for me. While Duncan and his buddies weren't really afraid of Scott, they knew better than to cause any real trouble when Scott pulled out his cellphone and dialed the police. I haven't gone anywhere alone since, and when I see him around town, he gives me these awful looks..." They were quiet for a moment as Jean calmed down, but Van had something important to ask.

"Who have you told?"

"Well, since Scott saw what happened, pretty much everyone-"

"I meant about the images. The thoughts that dickhead projected," Van interrupted. Jean didn't answer, and Van sighed. "I thought so. You can't keep things like that to yourself. I know you, Jeannie. Harsh emotions like that will eat away at you, and the more you bottle them up, the worse it'll be when they finally break loose." Again, Jean didn't say anything. After a few minutes of holding her, Van leaned back and used one hand to gently lift Jean's face. "Promise me, Jean, that if something like that happens again, you will talk to someone about it. It's not safe to lock stuff up inside wio ouo outlet to speak of. So promise me, alright?"

"I promise," Jean said, giving a watery smile. They spent the next few minutes in silence, simply holding holding eachother in a timeless sign of love and friendship.They didn't move until a knock came at the door, followed by Scott's announcement that everyone was waiting for them in the TV room. Jean dried her tears and hid the redness with a little make-up, and they headed downstairs.

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In the TV room, all the snts nts were gathered around the couch where Jean and Van had chosen to sit. Ray, Bobby, and Sam were arguing over who got to sit next to Van (which Van found hilarious), and their distraction allowed Jamie to take the seat instead. Scott was sitting in a seat next to Jean's side of the sofa, Kitty and Kurt were lounging on the loveseat, Jubilee and Amara were layed out on the floor, Rahne shared a seat with Roberto by sitting in his lap, and Rogue was sat sideways across a recliner with a book propped in her lap. Once the boys' arguement had died down, everyone except Rogue turned their attention to Van.

"Umm..." Van blinked. "Yo," she said in response to their inquisitive looks. Jean cleared her throat to get their attention.

"So," Jean asked, "are we going to watch a movie?" Kitty smiled.

"Actually, we were hoping to, like, hear about you guy's friendship," Kitty said, causing Van to cringe inwardly at the Valley girl lingo. Jean just raised an eyebrow.

"OK," Jean said. "What would you like to know?" Everyone just kind of looked at eachother, not sure what to say.

"I know," Scott said with a smile. "Tell us how you two met." Van laughed.

"There's a fun story," she said, and Jean rolled her eyes. "You remember how we met, Jeannie?"

"Of course, I remember. I'm just shocked that you do," Jean replied with a giggle.

"Hey!" Van said in mock-defense. "My long-term memory is fine. It's my short-term that gives me fits." She gazed around the room and blinked a few timeWho Who are you guys again?" This earned her a slap on the arm from Jean and laughter from everyone else.

"Seriously, though, how did you guys meet?" Jubilee asked.

"Welllll..." Van began, running a hand through her hair. "When I was about five years old, I had this group of friends, and we spent our days riding around on our bikes. One day, a family came to view this house for sale in our neighborhood, and they had this red-haired girl with them that looked to be my age. About a week later, the family started moving in, and everyday my friends and I passed the girl playing with her toys on the front lawn. One day, I....well, I went a little funny in the head, I guess."

"A 'little funny in the head'? Just a little?" Jean prodded with an evil grin. Van just poked her in the ribs and turned her attention back to the others.

"So anyway, one day, while passing the house on our daily ride, I turned my bike towards the girl and rode up onto the lawn right in front of her. I stared at her face for a few minutes, then leaned in, kissed her smack on the lips, and took off as fast as my training wheels would let me. The next day, when me and my friends met up for our ride, Jean was there ready to ride with us. We've been best friends ever since." The entire room was in varying states of surprise and hysterical laughter.

"Y-you kissed her?!" shrieked Kitty, who was laughing so hard that she almost rolled off the seat before Kurt caught her with his tail. Jean's face was red, but she was laughing along with everyone else. Before Van could respond to Kitty, Logan walked into the room and waited for the laughter to die dsomesome.

"Sounds like yer having a good time in here. While I hate to ruin to laugh-fest, it's nearly time for lights out," Logan said with a smirk, and the students groaned. "Go on now, everybody get to bed. Ya can wake up extra early tomorrow if ya want." Slowly the students made their way upstairs, most of them still laughing at the thought of a miniature Van kissing a miniature Jean then running off in embarrassment.

Stopping at Jean's door, Scott knocked before sticking his head through. Clearing his throat, he pretended not to be bothered by the idea of Van sleeping in Jean's bed.

"I, um, I just wanted to say goodnight," he said.

"Alright," Jean smiled. "Goodnight, Scott." Scott nodded and slowly shut the door before heading off to his own room. *You're being stupid, Summers,* he thought to himself. *What kind of guy gets jealous of a girl?*

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