If you ever met me, you might think I was deaf and dumb, but I'm not. I just don't talk a lot. Kinda hard to if the only language you know died a long time ago and belonged to an alien race of humans. I hate not being able to talk. I hate the way I look. I look like a monster. All rusty coloured and unable to touch people for fear they'll be hurt badly. Jubilee doesn't seem to mind. She talks to me, and gives me apples and stuff. I like her. She's the only one I actually like. Jubes is like a sister or something to me.

Oh, here she comes. Bearing gifts of red apples. I spear an offered apple and slice it into pieces, giving some to her.

"Hey," said Jubilee. Something was bothering her. I could feel it. I looked at her in concern. She saw my concern and sighed.

"Wolvie didn't come again," she said sadly.

I felt angry. That SOB! How dare he! Too busy fauning over that 'I'm-so-wonderful' Kitty, I suppose. Men! Too stupid to realise what's in front of him. He can't see how much Jubes loves him. He's so dense!

"Wolverine is such an *ssh*l*," I muttered.

"Yeah," agreed Jubilee. I distantly registered her shocked expression. "OH! MY! GOD!" yelled Jubilee. "Penance! You spoke!"

"I did?" I asked. Shock crossed my face. "Holy Atlantis! I did!"

"This is so cool!" yelled Jubilee. "We gotta go tell Frosty!" Jubilee grabbed my hand, ignoring the pain it caused her, and dragged me to where Frosty was.

"Frosty! Frosty!" yelled Jubilee, seeing our teacher.

"Yes, Jubilee?" asked Frosty.

"Penance talked!" shouted Jubilee.

"She WHAT!?" yelled Frosty.

"I talked. Ya deaf or somethin'?" I asked, getting angry. "It so hard ta b'lieve I can talk after listening to you people rabbiting on about whatever all the time?"

Jubilee was staring at me in surprise.

"Way to go, Penance!" she said. I smiled. Frosty was in shock.

"I... think I need to sit down a moment," she said.

"Well, me an' Penance have to go do bonding stuff," said Jubilee. "Can we borrow your Gold Card?" Frosty handed Jubilee the card. Jubes then grabbed me again and ran off, pulling me after her.

We stopped at her room and she grabbed something from a drawer.

"What's that?" I asked, staring at the strange bracelet.

"It's an inhibitor i've been working on. I figured you could use it when we did stuff. It'll cancel out your mutant gene and make you normal while it's on," said Jubilee.

"When did you get so smart?" I asked.

"Happens when you hang out a lot with Beast," said Jubilee. I grinned and put it on my wrist. Then me and Jubes went to the mall.

Halfway there the inhibitor worked and I became the person I was before I became a mutant. Jubilee wasn't surprised.

Later, after we'd done a lot of shopping we were sitting at a cafe having something to eat.

"This has been the coolest day," said Jubilee. "Well, apart from the start."

"Yeah. You really should forget Wolverine. He's not worth it. Forget him. He so doesn't deserve your love," said Penance. Jubilee sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Penny. It's just that I've loved him like heck for years, and he never noticed. And then that cow, Kitty, turns up and it's 'Goodbye Jubilee'. I ain't got a chance with her around. He doesn't even come over to see me because of her."

"You're rambling," I said. "About Wolverine."

"Yeah. I know he's not worth it."

"But?" I prompted.

"But I love him." We got up and headed home.

It wasn't till later that day that I realised that some of the X-Women (and Men) had been at the table next to ours. We'd been so absorbed in our troubles that we hadn't noticed. I am so dead when Jubes finds out.