Submission

Glee, Scott and BIG expectations.

Scott straightened his tie before he knocked on the door. It was one of those doors that had complicated directions to reach. If Sara were here, she’d be humming bits from Phantom of the Opera. Just as well that she was doing something obscure and possibly fascinating somewhere else on the planet.

The name Glee conjured to the brain some chirpy, grown-up version of Orphan Annie. Someone who could burst out into song at a

Jean’s greatest failure in attempting to be normal.

New school. New people. Nobody here knew anything about Jeannie Grey. About the voices. About the creepy things that happened around her. About the way she knew things nobody had told another soul.

All under control, now. Professor Xavier had helped her get a grip on her powers. Stop the voices. Stop the things floating around.

She could feel the thin veneer of normalcy cracking under the pressure, sometimes. She’d

Sam and Scott, post meltdown, disagree on his view of getting along.

“Sara’s idea?”

“Not… entirely.”

“Hm,” Sam joined Scott on the balcony. “I thought I detected a thumb on the scales.”

“So what? Duncan got everything he deserved and then some.”

“I can’t deny he’d earned some justice,” Sam allowed. “But I’ve always felt you should allow your enemy

Paul, in the visitor’s room, explaining to his parents why his bail was set so high.

“Five thousand dollars?” Dad was shrieking. “Loitering is a bullshit offense. Especially in an abandoned structure. Why the HELL is your bail five thousand freaking dollars?”

“Um… Uh…”

“Spit it out, boy.”

“There’s -ah- someevidenceontapeofplottingrapeandmurder…”

Dad’s face when deadly pale. “You stupid little shit…”

Tenderness from an unlikely person in an unlikely place.

Ow.

Not fair. The heart-warming speech should have worked. The whole ‘pick on someone your own size’ thing inherent should have at least made them ashamed of themselves.

But no. Sara had to get an ugly of thugs who took her whole shame-on-you speech as an open invitation. At least the kid got away. She’d made certain.

Which left her back open for attack.

_Mental note. Don’t

When glitter goes awry.

Silly Season had started early. It was an excuse for the humans to vent some of their usually-socially-inhibited insanity and to allow things to ‘all hang out’.

Not literally. There had to be standards.

Rael had done his best, with all the other nonhuman JOATs, to make sure the possibility of damage was limited. A certain amount of nonsense was expected, even permitted, during Silly Season. Already, some of the harmless mainstays were occurring.

Not only

Anywhere in the story: “It happened, and because it happened, it had to exist whether they liked it or not.”

There were thousands of words to describe Shayde. “Annoying” just happened to be in his top five. She had a uniquely twentieth-century disregard for others’ established preferences and his in particular. And this wasn’t the first time he wished inwardly that he had not been the first responder to her spectacular arrival.

Rael found her.