Re-Evolution: Episode 2: In the Blood

Morgan awoke from a deep slumber feeling stiff and groggy. The previous day had been... eventful, to say the least, but she hadn't expected to feel this wiped out from it. She didn't get up right away, instead opting to cover her eyes with the back of her arm as she grumbled her displeasure to the empty room.

Briefly, she contemplated skipping school and sleeping in, but she'd made a promise to Darcy to check out the listings for cheer yesterday--plus, there were the guys. She really hoped to run into them again to talk about yesterday some more.

With a soft groan, she flopped over to her side and slowly slid out of bed. 

"Maybe the calamity at Calamity took more out of me than I thought," she murmured softly. It certainly seemed like it might have. She felt a deep, kind of bone weariness, and she was oddly hungry, despite being slightly sick to her stomach. 

There were no clothes laid out in her room today. If Greg was planning to pull something like that again, at least he hadn't done it while she was sleeping.

‘He probably won't’, she thought to herself as she drifted over to her dresser and began tossing clothes on the bed. ‘The cat's out of the bag, after all. If I'm lucky he won't mention anything about my goth clothes for a few weeks or so.’

Moving around, unfortunately, made everything worse. That queasy, unpleasant stomach sickness, the ache in her limbs and the exhaustion that pounded behind her eyes all flared uncomfortably as she tried to start her day

"Fuck...I feel like ass."

She heard the sound of the shower hissing from the other room. Seemed like Greg was busy with his own business this morning, for the moment anyway. And unlike yesterday, he was probably going to expect breakfast waiting for hi.

Morgan pressed her hand to her head with a low groan, vowing to have an extra cup of coffee today to try and help her shake this exhaustion. She dressed as quickly as she could in a black skirt draped in more silvery chains, striped black and red leggings and matching armsocks, a black and body hugging t-shirt with a pair of bloody fangs in a crimson smile, and a short red leather jacket. 

She grinned at herself in the mirror, touching up her makeup the same as yesterday, before she draped the inverted cross around her neck. 

She might feel like ass, but that didn’t mean she had  to look like it.

While she was dressing there was a beep on her phone, which was laying on her dresser.

She took another moment to comb her hair, tucking it over her ears with a smile. She made sure it was fully free of tangles before she finally scooped up the phone and took a peek at the notification.

There was a text message from a very recent addition to her contact list. Todd. 

**Had a great time last night. See you in school?**

A smile crossed her face as she scanned the message.

"I think I've caught *someone's* eye." She walked out the door as she typed.

**It was a real blast ;). We should meet up**

Morgan nearly thumped into her brother as he was coming out of the bathroom, towel around his waist. 

"Oh! Uh... sorry," Greg mumbled, stepping back a pace.

Morgan yelped, fumbling with her phone as she came to a sudden stop, only for the jerking movement to send her head spinning again. She pressed her hand to her head , and flashed her brother a tense smile. 

“...Hey. G'morning, Greg."

"Whoa, you okay?" He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder  to steady her, looking at her with concern. 

"Just a little dizzy. I think I slept kind of badly last night, but I'm fine." She straightened up under his hand, and gestured towards the kitchen, shoving her phone into her pocket before he could see it and start wondering who she was talking to. "I'm gonna go cook us some breakfast, alright?"

He gently took his hand off her, and rubbed his jaw, nodding. 

"Thanks. I'll be down as soon as I'm dressed, alright?"

Morgan nodded, before carefully making her way down the stairs. 

"Take your time. What do you want, eggs again? Bacon?"

"Oh man I'd love some bacon," he called after her. "I'm kinda starving."

"Yeah, me too," she agreed. "Maybe a bit of protein this morning will do us some good."

Slipping into the kitchen, Morgan got to work. Flicking the oven on, she got the eggs and uncooked bacon from the fridge, and started up the coffee pot for herself. It was the sort of routine that was familiar to her. Ever since she was a kid. Mom was hardly home, and it had eventually fallen on her to make sure the two of them were fed and ready for the start of the day.

Greg could cook, a bit..a little...but Morgan had developed a quiet love for it as she got older, taking it upon herself to prepare breakfast and dinner most nights when they were younger. 

As the pan heated and the coffee brewed, she checked her phone again. 

It seemed that she had- there was another text that she hadn't heard beep. Thank goodness Greg hadn't heard it either.

"Guess i must have made a good impression on him." she mused

**You name it, I'll be there** It was followed by a little frog emoji.

"He's really committed to the aesthetic too. Kinda cute." Morgan snickered. 

She tossed a few strips of bacon into the pan, and let them sizzle before texting back. 

**How about lunch? I'd say before class, but I have to check the results of the cheer tryouts with Darcy.**

She thought a moment before she sent a follow up.

**looking forward to it, Leapfrog** She sent him a little bat emoji in return.

The reply was almost instantaneous. **Yo hell yeah. See ya there, vampirella.**

Morgan heard Greg's heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. 

"Smells good, Morgan."

Morgan once more shoved her phone into her pocket and quickly cracked some eggs into the pan to cook with the bacon. 

"Doesn't it?"

In truth, thinking of eating just made her feel sick to her stomach, not to mention the smell of the bacon. But today was a big day..so she was determined to push through. 

"Figured we could use a little meat this morning."

"Yeah definitely," he nodded. He paused, and smiled at her a little wanly. "Hey, thanks for making breakfast.... sorry... again."

"You're welcome, you know I never mind a little cooking." Morgan brushed her hair over her shoulder "...and it's...fine. I appreciate the apology. I'm sorry I didn't text you sooner, but my phone died and things got busy."

"Just, tell me you plugged it in last night, then," he said, getting down some plates for them and setting the table. It was obvious that he was trying his hardest not to be argumentative this morning.

"Yeah. It's all charged up, Greg." Morgan said, flipping the bacon and watching it sizzle. "...Greg. Can I ask you to do something?"

Morgan could hear the beat of hesitation before he answered. 

"...Yeah. Of course. What's up?"

"...I got the sense you don't think highly of most of my new friends." She said, starting to shuffle bacon and eggs onto his plate. "But please don't give them a hard time for hanging out with me. I've made other friends too, Darcy...another girl who tried out for cheer squad...but the guys have been real nice to me so far. I don't want you chasing them off, okay?"

Greg took a breath, as if gathering himself and sighed it out in a long puff. 

"Morgan.... I'm not trying to get in the way of you hanging out with friends. Just... just be careful, alright? And... I'm glad you made some other friends too."

"I know how to be careful, Greg." She passed him a plate laden with eggs and bacon, before dishing herself a much smaller plate...but with a bit more bacon than egg. 

"But they're not as bad as you think." She got out the juice and milk...and Greg's protein powder, before she set them all down and took a seat opposite him. By way of changing the topic slightly, she continued, "Darcy's pretty fun, though. I'm hoping we both make the squad."

"When will you hear the results?" he asked, staring at his milk as he stirred the powder into it. The spoon made a noise like a bell in the glass that arced right through Morgan’s headache.

Morgan leaned heavily on the table, pouring herself a glass of orange juice with a shrug. 

"This morning. Darcy suggesting bringing my veils just in case." She paused, and ran her hand through her hair. "...Greg...Can you get me some coffee? I forgot to pour myself a cup."

"Oh... sure," Greg nodded, and pursed his lips, looking her over as he stood. "Are you sure you're okay? You're looking kind of under the weather."

"I'm just tired, Greg." she muttered, grabbing her juice and taking a long sip "Tryouts were rough, and then that big dumb fight took the rest out of me."

He sighed and put her coffee next to her on the table.

"Yeah I'm not feeling so hot either to be honest. Let's just try to get through the day. We've uh, got that thing tonight. Ororo texted me to confirm." He paused. "She's the student council president."

Morgan grabbed her coffee with perhaps a bit too much excitement, lucky she didn't knock it over as she took a long sip. 

"Yeah, I remember...the uh...tour of the Institute, right? " She leaned on her hand. "Student Council president's one of us, huh? A mutant. I wouldn't have guessed."

"Yeah," he nodded, sitting back down to finish his breakfast. "She seems pretty passionate."

"Maybe I'll get to meet her on the grand tour." She grinned a little painfully, still leaning on the table "Piotr was alright too. Real big, quiet guy. Turns his skin into metal."

That got Greg's attention. 

"He does *what* now?"

"His skin turns into these metal plates." Morgan gestured to her arm. "Like it was some kinda suit of armor."

"Damn, now *that* is built. Not gonna lie I'm kinda jealous." Her brother whistled. 

Morgan snorted, sipping her coffee with something approaching amusement. 

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that."

"Hey just cause you're not into it...." He snorted, his nose wrinkling. But then he shook his head. "Anyway, Ororo like, can make it snow inside. I think she might control the weather or something. It was... kinda wow."

Morgan raised her eyebrows. 

"...She can control the weather, like, inside?...Huh, now I'm kinda jealous. that sounds intense." She brushed her hair over her ear with a broad smile. "Did I mention that the guys are mutants too? like, Dorian's got this killer voice that can shatter brick and Todd's supposedly got this amazing tongue and like, a 10 foot vertical leap."

Greg made a noise as Morgan laid the description on him, somewhere between a snort and a choke. 

"Uh-huh...."

Morgan nodded as she nibbled a piece of bacon, totally missing his discomfort. 

"it's cooler than it sounds in action." She tapped her finger on the table "Lance can cause earthquakes...and Callisto apparently has some kind of 'super tactics' or something. I think there's more to it but she's real tight lipped about it."

"I.... really don't know what to say to any of that, Morgan," he drawled. "Dorian.... is he a redhead?"

"Yeah, he's in my theater class," Morgan nodded."The one who dresses like a pirate."

"Yeahhh," Greg groaned, his lips pursing. "I ran into him yesterday, actually." He didn't sound pleased about it.

Morgan finally looked up from her breakfast with a downturn of her lips 

"...What? you don't like him or something?"

"I don't want to badmouth your new friend, Morgan, but he was harassing a girl over some breakup I guess. He got really in her face," he said, shaking his head. It was clear from his tone he was really trying to avoid coming across as pissed about it.

"You mean that preppy girl, Kitty right? They used to live in the same dor...." She paused "....hm. hmmm."

Greg raised an eyebrow. 

"Hmm what?" 

Morgan chewed her lip. 

"They used to live in the same dorm, I'm just wondering if it was *that* dorm. You know. The one we're touring tonight."

"Oh. ....oh. Ohhhh." Greg frowned as understanding dawned and he looked at his plate. "Well then."

"Yeah. Anyway. He's just upset about his breakup." Morgan shook her head. "Like, he shouldn't harass her, ya know? But he probably didn't mean anything by it beyond being kind of a drama queen."

Greg snorted again. 

"Yeah, he seemed like a drama queen. Just be careful with him, you know? He seemed like the kind of guy to uh.... you know.... start shit."

Morgan made a face but smothered any possible snarky reply with a sip of coffee.

Greg seemed to fumble for something to say. 

"Kitty invited me to MMA club,” he declared finally.

"MMA, huh?" Morgan looked up at him. "Wouldn't have expected it from seeing her. But I bet you're real excited. It seems like your kind of thing."

He nodded, picking up his plate, and offering to take hers as well. 

"Yeah. Kinda got my ass kicked in the first sesh, but...."

"Well it's been a while since we did karate." Morgan handed him her half finished plate, a small smirk of amusement on her face at the thought of Greg getting taken to task. "And these kids have probably been training for a while now."

"Yeah, exactly..." He looked at her plate as he picked it up. "You sure you're finished?"

“Yeah. I'll be honest, it's not sitting well with me." She stood from the table, slowly, so she didn’t have another dizzy spell. "I'll just grab something at lunch after i shake it off."

"Take care of yourself, okay, sis?" he urged, giving her a little smile. He scraped the rest of her plate into the trash. 

"You too, bro." She said, grabbing her bag. "Try not to get creamed in MMA again." she teased with a smirk "...meet you at the car."