X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

D&D is for Nerds 4.1

Anna noticed that every so often after her desk lamp was turned on, she would hear an occasional 'pop.' She assumed it was from the metal or plastic inside the lamp expanding as the heat from the bulb warmed up its casing. She also noticed how smooth the column of metal was that led up the crane-like arm of her lamp and found herself picking at it with the end of her mechanical pencil. The pathetic plastic of her pencil tip was no match for the evidently unyielding aluminum. However, she did notice upon further inspection, that she did leave an ever so faint scratch upon the otherwise spotless surface of the metal. Leaving her mark on the seemingly impervious metal alloy filled her with a bazaar sense of satisfaction, and after several more prods with the business end of her pencil, she just managed a second faint gouge next to the first.

What didn't find the tip of the pencil at any point was her algebra homework. The white paper was just as blank and crisp as when she had laid it out before her on the desk in her room a half hour earlier. Joining a course already a near quarter of the way through its curriculum didn't help her understand the gibberish on her page any easier, and Mr. Joe - while not a bad teacher per se - had around 30 other kids to keep up with. So, like always, Anna ended up falling between the cracks and had absolutely no idea what the hieroglyphics on her page were meant to mean to her.

It was all bullshit anyway. She worked all day at school, just for her crappy teachers to give her more work to do at home. It's like her freaking teachers were almost mocking them by calling it 'homework' to begin with. Because obviously she and everyone else didn't have enough work already. Especially her, between the personal training (personal torture was more like), that freaking Logan was putting her through every day as soon as she got home, then doing damn chores, and of course the fucking homework to put a cherry on the shit cake that was her life.

Anna dropped her pencil, rolled her head back past her shoulders, and stared at the ceiling. She wished more than anything she could call Jess right then and vent. It's not that certain people in her life weren't trying to make her feel welcome, like Ororo and Kurt - and even Logan in a weird way - it's just they weren't Jess. They could never be. Jess always knew what to say, always seemed to have some fun thing in mind to do in their crappy little shit hole of a town. Now though, it's almost like she has to pretend like Jess never existed, or like her folks never existed. It feels like is supposed to just have had this clean break from her old life and just be fine with it. Instead, she feels like she's been cast adrift in an ocean all by herself with nothing but the baking sun above and the sharks below for company.

Anna blinked. 'Speaking of company.' She thought and looked around. In her shared room with Kitty, she found herself alone. The other bed across the room was made the same way it had been that morning, with its mountain of stuffed animals and all. Anna checked her watch. "8:49" She mumbled and looked back at the bed.

Usually, around that time Kitty was in the room blasting tinny-sounding music out of her phone while she messed around on her laptop. Anna begged the 'forces that be,' AKA Ororo and the academy's credit card, for some noise-canceling headphones, and to Ororo's credit, she was quick to deliver. But thus far that night Anna hadn't heard a peep, not only from her room but from any part of the house.

This sort of thing happened from time to time. She figured it was just a big house and the others got up to - well - whatever they did in the rare moments of free time they were allowed. Once she even had the rare sighting of spotting Jean taking a walk around the perimeter of the property. Likely she was leaving the garage, where Anna knew for a fact that Summer Boy spent the majority of his time playing around with his dumb car. The others were usually just as predictable. Kurt and Evan were usually playing some stupid-looking video game in one of their rooms, and Kitty was in their shared room seemingly trying to see if she could make Anna's head explode with her dumb music. She noticed, every so often though, that the three of them would magically disappear just after dinner and be impossible to find.