The New Team

Acacia's POV

It's a few weeks since Li broke the news about the new team leaders. Aaron wasn't so much upset about it as being more confused, while, Jade on the other hand had a full blown anxiety attack. She had several meetings with the Professor, most of them involved enough yelling to be heard by every person in the mansion.

I don't know why he puts up with it. I don't see why he hasn't kicked her out yet.

Aaron will be a great leader, I look forward to working with him, but Jade... Not so much. She doesn't have self control, and when she is in control of her emotions, she's like a child. I can't decide which Jade I semi like more.

It's not that I don't respect her; she saved my life.

It's just I don't see why she's put on such a pedestal. She's dangerous, yet people around here let her get away with all sorts of crap, especially Aaron.

They've been making us work out every day for the past two weeks, and it's taking a toll on my body. Am I getting some sort of six packish type thing? Yeah. Am I enjoying it? Absolutely not.

Belle is working on her ability to snap her fingers and make objects appear, as well as using her blue staff. Lauren has been told to lift weights until she can lift a man three times her size. Blake and Dan have been running laps all day. Terry has sweat so much that he can actually see his toes now, but every time he takes a sip of water he loses that ability. Aaron's basically watching all of us and making sure we're doing stuff. Li says she's working on her aim with her pistol, but I'm pretty sure she's making sure none of us try to strangle Jade.

Jade has been making me work on my combat skills since my mutation is literally only a defense mechanism. I've been beating up dummies and punching bags for three days straight; I'm beginning to lose feeling in my arms.

The red punching bag sways back and forth in front of me, it's metal hinges squeaking each time it moves. "Again." Jade orders me, watching over my shoulder. I groan and plant my feet like she told me, shoulder length apart. I raise my fists and narrow my focus in on that one spot on the bag before throwing my right fist at it. It is followed by my left, then my right twice more, and I finish it off with a side kick. "Better."

"Better?" I drop my arms by my sides in disappointment. "Two hours later and all I am is 'better'?" Jade's green eyes look at me with the same blank expression.

"Yeah, better. You don't suck but I doubt you'd survive an actual fight." I let out a huff of breath and roll my eyes.

"I can fight." I glare at her. "I was on the streets for months, being chased by a bunch of people who wanted to lock me up and do crazy tests on my body! Before that I was alone because my entire family got killed trying to protect me!" I stomp my foot on the ground as tears threaten fall down my cheeks. I try hard, and I don't like being told I'm not good enough. "My only friend was a dog!"

Jade steps closer to me, allowing the difference in our height to become obvious. She's only three inches taller, but her confidence towers over me. I can see all of her fading acne scars. She has tiny freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose, but they're barely noticeable. Her jaw is clenched, but it looks natural for her. "Then fight like it." She pushes me aside and immediately swings her right fist at the bag. Everyone in the room stops what they're doing and turns their attention to Jade, and unfortunately, me.

The bag flies back, only to receive two quick undercuts from both fists. Then she spins and kicks it with the flat part of her foot, sending it flying across the room. She lowers her leg and turns her body towards Aaron. "Hey!" She holds out her arm and waits for him to throw another punching bag to her. He grabs a black one and walks it over to her.

Jade lowers the chain that holds it and attaches the claps to the top of the bag before raising it again. I just stand there with my arms limply at my sides. I'm useless compared to her. She looks back to me and nods to the new bag. I shake my head as I scratch the raw skin on my hands. "I-I can't." Jade's expression almost softens and she takes a closer step towards me.

"Yes you can."

"I don't have raw, physical potential. I'm not you!" Everyone watches me throw a little tantrum. "I'm not some emotionally unstable teenage girl with superhuman strength and a great ass!" Jade can't control herself from smirking at that last part, but she does notice my tears.

"Acacia, listen to me." She reaches out and touches my arm with her surprisingly soft hand. "All you have to do is picture the punching bag as every person who has ever hurt you and let your emotions cover what your body can't. If you find yourself getting tired physically, tap into your emotional fuel line and keep going." I hate to admit it, but what she's saying makes sense. Just as she's beginning to warm up to me, someone crashes into a rack of plastic weapons, which grabs her attention. "Hey! Blake! Why aren't you running?" She walks away from me, yelling for Blake to clean up. "Where is Daniel!" I close my eyes and take a deep breath in attempt to stop myself from crying. When I open my eyes Aaron is walking towards me.

He's sporting a sleeveless black Under Armor tank and black basketball shorts. He really pulls them off.

"Hey Keesh." He stands right in front of me and gazes down at me with soft eyes. I rub my nose on the back of my hand and murmur a reply. "Hey, stop crying." He reaches out and wipes the area under my eyes with his thumb. "You're doing great." I avoid contact and cross my arms.

"Not according to Jade." Aaron laughs and plays with a few of my dreads.

"No one fights well according to Jade. Not even Jade fights well according to Jade." He can tell that I'm avoiding him and he doesn't like that. "Hey." He grabs my hands and starts lightly tapping them against my cheeks. "Why are you hitting yourself?" He keeps going, even though he looks at me with a concerned face. "Seriously Acacia, why are you hitti- stop that!" Aaron only stops with I break and start laughing. He drops my hands and smiles wide. "I'll talk to her, okay?" I nod my head. "'Cause I don't want my little dread monkey feeling incompetent." I smile up at him and he winks at me. "Jade?" He calls her name while maintaining eye contact with me.

"What!" Jade shouts over to him. She seems to be overwhelmed with Lauren's incapability to untie her stretched and knotted arms.

"Can I speak to you outside?" She groans but does as he asks and follows him out the sliding doors and into the hallway.

Aaron's POV

I wait patiently in the dimly lit hallway for Jade to walk through the sliding doors. The doors open, and a glaring Jade walks through, swaying her arms excessively by her sides. "What." She plants her feet together right in front of me and crosses her arms. I give her a small smile.

"Jade, I know you're stressed, but-"

"This is stupid. Goodbye." She turns on her heals but I grab her arm and pull her back around.

"Just hear me out okay?" I hold up my hands defensively. Jade purses her lips and turns her focus to the wall next to us.

"Fine." I take a deep breath.

"I know being a leader is stressing you out. You feel like you have to be on top of everything and everyone all the time, but you don't. You have nothing to prove to these guys." Jade's expression softens to almost the point where she almost looks sad.

"They all think I'm crazy Aaron, I have to show them that I can be levelheaded."

"Making Acacia punch a dummy for three hours straight isn't going to make her think you're sane Jade. You're the only person I know who can actually do that." Her gaze falls to the floor shamefully. "You're trying to make them as tough as you, but some of them aren't capable of that and it's okay." I gesture towards the workout room with my hand. "Lauren isn't going to sling bad guys across the room like you want her to, Blake isn't going to let some guy get close enough to her to result in actual hand to hand combat, and Dan..." I laugh and shake my head, "we both know when it comes to an actual fight Dan isn't going to run away." I catch a glimpse of a small smile on her face and rest my hand on her shoulder, close to her neck. "And as for the leadership stress... I'm right here with you, and I'm not going anywhere." She finally looks me in the eyes with a tad bit of confidence.

"Thanks Aaron." I smile at her.

"Oh, and one more thing," I open my arms wide and gesture with my hands for her to bring it in. She gives me a 'really dude' look before accepting the opportunity. I had to bring her into the hallway, otherwise she wouldn't have hugged me.

"Permission to squeeze?" Jade mumbles into my chest.

"Permission granted." She squeezes gently, which still forces all of the oxygen in my lungs to leave my body. "Oop, yep, that's good." I pat her on the back so she knows I'm having difficulties breathing and she lets go. "Go get 'em tiger." She crosses her arms again and playfully nudges me in the side with her shoulder before entering the workout room.

Three.
Two.
One.

"WHY IS EVERYONE JUST STANDING AROUND?"

______________

Dan's POV

I'm sprawled out on the couch in the living room. Jade finally let us shower and eat and I'm so tired. My body is crying. Belle tells me this is just sweat. "Hey Dan." Acacia pops her head out of the kitchen. "We're doing a thing, c'mon." I groan and try to sit up, but the area around my stomach clenches and I fall off of the couch.

"Owwwwww." I hear someone sigh and I lift my head off of the ground to see Jade and Belle standing over me with their arms crossed and looks of sassy amusement plastered on their faces.

"Come on Dino." Belle grabs one arm while Jade grabs the other. They begin to drag me across the wooden floor.

"That's it big boy." Jade groans sarcastically as she pulls me into the kitchen. Everyone is standing around the marble island, watching me.

"Look who finally decided to show up." Blake says as she looks at me through a champagne glass. I jump to my feet as soon as I see the bottle sitting on the counter.

"What're we celebrating?" Li chuckles as she pulls a knife out of the drawer.

"The Professor gave us permission to celebrate our becoming a team." She hands the bottle and knife to Jade, who looks around at everyone with a shy expression. Blake and Terry begin to chant her name, and I decide to join in. She slides the knife up the neck of the bottle in one quick movement, sending the cork flying across the kitchen. Foam spurts from the bottle as Li and Aaron rush to fill everyone's glasses.

I notice Aaron nod to Belle in a non conspicuous manner. She nods back and opens the fridge, pulling out an identical champagne glass filled with a similar golden liquid. She switches glasses with Jade when she's not paying attention.

I begin to laugh out loud, which no one notices. Everyone is too excited about drinking their first glass of champagne, probably. I just find it hilarious that Belle switched Jade's champagne with sparkling white grape juice. She probably won't even notice.

I clink glasses with Aaron and down my glass, while he, on the other hand, takes baby sips. "You know what I realized."

"What." I point around the room with my glass.

"I am literally the only one here who is allowed to drink." Aaron laughs and shakes his head. "Dude I need older friends." He speaks into his glass which causes a pleasant echoing sound.

"Can't argue with that." I'm about to make some witty retort when Lauren stands on a chair and shouts for us all to pay attention.

"If you will please relocate to the rec room, we will begin karaoke!" She sounds so excited, and Li, Belle, and Terry cheer with her, but Jade, Blake, and Acacia just look at each other and shrug.

"Yeah I'm gonna need another glass." I reach over Acacia to get ahold of the almost empty bottle while Aaron eyes the now tipsy girls (and Terry) tumbling through the doorway.

"Better make that two." I laugh and clink glasses with him again. This time we both down our glasses before following the rest of the group.

Jade is sitting on the couch when we walk in, while the rest of the group is arguing over the tv and the karaoke machine hooked up to it. "Hey Jade." I plop down on the couch next to her and Aaron sits on the other side. "You don't seem as tipsy as the others." I say even though I know the answer. She just watches the rest of the group with a disappointed look on her face.

"I think I've built up a tolerance to alcohol because I really don't feel anything." I bite my lip to hold in my laughter, but I can feel my dimple breaking into my cheek.

"Did the champagne taste a little grapey to you?" I try so hard to maintain my composure, but Aaron's frightened expression makes me break into a smile.

"Yeah actually, it did."

"Huh." I nod along with her, attempting to act just as confused. I feel a pinch on my back and I turn to see Aaron glaring at me. I just wiggle my eyebrows at him and he rolls his eyes.

Shouts of success come from the everyone standing around the karaoke machine as the screen lights up with a purple light. "Oh yay." I say in an extremely straight monotone. "It's working." Belle's thin arms shoot up in the air in triumph as she makes her way over to us.

"Time for some karaoke, bitches." She pumps her fist in the air and jumps in circles. I don't know how she does that with her knee high converse boots; she's the only girl I know who would add height to the bottom when she's already taller than most girls. Her blue eyes set on Jade's hunched shoulders and she drops her arms. "Jade honey what's wrong?" She lets out a little sigh.

"I'm no fun when I'm sober." Aaron chokes on the water he was drinking.

"I wouldn't describe your toxicity as 'fun'..." I scoff at the words coming out of his mouth. He told me about the one time Jade got really drunk and practically threw herself at him.

"Dude, it would've been if you had taken advantage of the opportunity." Aaron shakes his head at me in amazement.

"Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth or..."

"Shut it boys." Belle glares at both of us and reaches for Jade's hand. "Come on. Let's show them just how fun you can be." She pulls Jade towards the front of the room and shoos the crowd away from the machine. They walk somberly back to the couch when they realize it's not their turn. Acacia plops herself down between Aaron and I, spreading her legs like a guy would.

"That's not very ladylike." I say, nodding to her legs.

"You're not very ladylike."

"That doesn't even make sense." Acacia crosses her arms and buries herself further into the couch.

"You don't even make sense." I look over to Aaron, who is just sitting in his corner laughing. I roll my eyes and turn my attention to Belle. She leads Jade to the middle of the 'stage' and hands her a wireless microphone. I can't hear her but I can read the words 'I assume you know how to use this' off of her lips. Jade nods and takes the microphone, holding it close to her chest. She looks extremely awkward up there. I hope Belle knows what she's doing.

She clicks through all the settings and chooses a song. Aaron takes one glance at the title on the screen and leans across Acacia to talk to me. "Jade doesn't know this song."

"And?" His eyes widen when he realizes I'm pretty much clueless.

"She can't read well. I've been trying to teach her but we haven't made enough progress for her to-" As soon as the first beat of the song plays over the speakers Aaron is cut off, and Belle begins to sing into her microphone.

"Carry on my wayward son," She winks at me when she sees the surprised look on my face.
"There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest." She walks over to Jade and leans against her, striking a pose.
"Don't you cry no more."

Everyone cheers when the music keeps going and Belle starts to do a cute little dance. Aaron watches nervously as the next stanza starts. If Jade really can't read, then this isn't going to go well.

Jade eyes the screen from her position and slowly lifts the microphone to her lips.

"Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion. I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high." My jaw drops open when she starts to sing. It's not that her voice is super impressive, I mean it's pretty good for a Jade, but she was actually reading the words. I look over to Aaron. His nervous cheek biting turned into a huge, overwhelmingly happy grin. Jade smiles when she sees the look on his face, and I can physically see her entire body relax.

"Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man, though my mind could think I still was a mad man.
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming,
I can hear them say..." Belle grabs Jade by the arm and spins her around dramatically, allowing her to set her feet just in time for the chorus.

"Carry on my wayward son,
there'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more." Belle taps Jade on the shoulder and motions for her to follow her steps. Jade watches the first few side steps Belle does before jumping in and doing them with her. Step right, step right, feet together, step left, right foot crossover, step back... They do it in sync. Belle has this sassy look on her face, a sort of 'hell yeah I'm awesome' expression, but Jade just has this cute little focused look like a baby learning her first steps.

I didn't think it was possible for Jade to act... Adorable?

"Masquerading as a man with a reason." Belle starts the next stanza off, switching on and off with Jade.

"My charade is the event of the season."

"And if I claim to be a wise man,
Well, it surely means that I don't know."

"On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about, I'm like a ship on the ocean," Jade steps forward and adds a confident, theatric approach to her singing. "I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say..."

"Carry on my wayward son,
there'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest,
don't you cry no more!" I whistle as Terry slides across the floor on his knees, acting out the guitar parts. It's safe to say he has no idea what he's doing. Blake stumbles to the front in a laughing fit, but she calms herself down just enough to play the organ part on her own air keyboard. This is the worst thing I've ever seen, but I'm kind of digging it.

"Carry on," Belle points her microphone towards Blake and Terry so they know to join in.

"You will always remember!"

"Carry on," Then she drapes an arm around Jade and rests her head against hers.

"Nothing equals the splendor, now your life's no longer empty.
Surely heaven waits for you." Lauren and Li whistle louder than I ever could when Jade hits the high note and holds it for the perfect amount of time. It's time for the last play of the chorus, and there's no way I'm missing out on this. I purposefully sing/scream the words, which Acacia and Aaron actually join in on.

"Carry on my wayward son,
there'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest,
don't you cry no more." We cut it short, mostly because I do not have the lungs to go on any longer. That, and everyone on the 'stage' was a laughing mess. Belle pulled Jade into a hug that doesn't stay in one place, they're stumbling back and forth while still trying to hold onto each other. They finally break apart and Belle hurries over to Terry and Blake, who seem to have come up with the brilliant idea of climbing the fireplace.

Jade stands there in a tired state, but there's still a smiling glimpse in her eyes. She did a lot better than I thought she would.

Aaron rises to his feet and takes slow steps over to her. He's hunched over, not in a weird way, but like he's trying to level with her height, in a very personal way. "What a stud!" He says as he pokes her in the stomach with both index fingers, switching off with each word. His lips are stretched into a wide smile, showing his genuine happiness. Jade laughs and pushes his hands away, which leads him to loops his arms under hers and lift her into a hug. "I am so proud of you." She wraps her arms around his neck and burrows her face away from everyone.

"Well." Acacia speaks up. She's the only one, besides me, who hasn't gotten up from their seat. "That's fucking cute." She envies Jade, it's obvious from the glare in her eyes right now. I hope she knows she's not being subtle. "Did he really teach her how to read?" I nod my head slowly. It actually is pretty amazing. Then again, it's Aaron.

"Yep." She lets out a sad sigh.

"He's unbelievable." I accidentally sigh too.

"Yep." This conversation needs some lightening up. "I'm new to the whole accepting thing, but you know what? I think I'd turn for Aaron." She snorts and covers her mouth. Mission accomplished.

"I just don't get them." Her smile fades and she's set back into her lonely state. I lean closer to her and speak out of the side of my mouth.

"Rumor has it they were both in a mutant camp before this."

"How'd they get out?" I shrug my shoulders.

"I'm not sure. Something happened and everyone escaped." Acacia's eyebrows crease as she watches Jade and Aaron.

"I ran with some people for awhile, they came from a camp." She looks up at me and we make eye contact. "They said some girl went crazy and killed all the guards." My stomach jumps into my throat once I put the pieces together. If that girl was Jade, which makes complete, unfortunate sense, she's wanted by the entire country. There's no way Xavier would let her live here if he knew...

Which means he doesn't.

The lights begin to flicker and Terry screams. "DEMON!" Belle covers his mouth with her hand and instructs him to take deep breaths. Aaron's eyes widen at the word, but Jade pats him on the arm. I look over the back of the couch and see Logan standing at the top of the stairs wearing only sweatpants.

"I'm glad everyone is getting along but please for the love of God shut the hell up." He glares at all of us and begins to turn around. "Some of us are trying sleep." Logan begins to walk away, with his sweatpants hanging loosely off his hips. Jade whistles, causing him to flip her off with only his middle claw.

Everyone starts to go upstairs. Blake is first up. She tries to sprint up the stairs but she hits a wall and decides to crawl to her room. Belle and Lauren help Terry, who still isn't convinced there aren't actual demons hanging around here. Aaron chases Jade up the stairs, dodging between people in a messy, giggling fashion. Li decides she should clean up the kitchen, so she tells Acacia and I goodnight before leaving us alone on the couch.

"Acacia." I say her name in a completely serious tone. All I can do is watch Jade and Aaron disappear upstairs. If anyone found out, they'd be separated, and they can't be separated.

"What."

"No one can know."

"What? Why?" I turn my head and lean in closer, almost in a threatening way.

"No. One. Can. Know." If people found out, they'd ask questions. Jade would be in so much trouble, and Aaron is involved too. There is no a doubt in my mind that she would get cornered.

And everyone knows that when a wild Jade is cornered, she attacks.