"Just Friday"
or
'Polarity'
NOTE: Only Avalanche and Gambit are living in the mansion though their friends in the Acolytes and Brotherhood are always around to hang out with them and borrow the Danger Room to train. The Professor and Logan got tired of Remy busting their security system every time he snuck in at night to see Rogue and Lance was spending so many nights just crashing on their living room couch that Jean and Kitty forced Scott to swallow his pride and offer him a room. Both Remy's and Lance's main motivation for accepting their own rooms in the mansion was the tangible agony it causes Summers to see their faces every day. And their respective girlfriends of course.
This day-in-the-life takes place one week after "Just Thursday". Thanks to Rose Gilmore, slickboy444, koolkame, Agent-G, and Kikyo-Pyroana-Sulane for wanting more of what should have been a simple, crazy one-shot. Proof that reviewing works (hint hint). Hope you found it worth the wait.
Part the First: Morning Madness
Betsy Braddock kicked off her second Friday at the Xavier Institute with a migraine the size of Great Britain itself.
"Urgh, my brain," she groaned.
For some reason, she never expected lessons on controlling her telepathic finesse with the Professor and practice to develop her telekinesis with Jean to be as mentally fatiguing as they were. She certainly didn't expect them to be draining enough to deplete her defenses within a week enough to catch a cold.
Just in time for the weekend too.
A tissue zipped into her hand just as she sat up to sneeze. It felt like she'd just blown her mental shields out her ears: voices flooded into her head and her mind hummed with the morning buzz.
—can't forget training session tonight with Logan—World Book of Records my butt! I'll just—it can-not wait, I'm yooouuurs—don't know which one I'm most suitable with—wonder where Betsy is—
Not wanting any of them to find her in such a state, Betsy stumbled out of bed and to the wardrobe she shared (reluctantly) with her roommate, Emma Frost, to find that said roommate had once again removed to little clothes Betsy had brought over with her to make room for her own. Cursing herself once more for requesting a roommate, she grabbed the first shirt and pant combo her hand touched and began making herself halfway respectable.
Fifteen minutes later, Betsy clomped down the stairs to the kitchen in Emma's skinny jeans, a crimson tank top she'd borrowed from Jean, and her own black flats. She exaggeratedly stretched out the tight jeans. Her own clothes were still on their way from Maldon.
"Good morning, Elizabeth," Emma greeted with a smirk from the refrigerator as Betsy made her way through the swinging kitchen door, "Nice jeans"
Betsy scowled. "Gee, thanks, Ems. Nice necklace"
Emma had accompanied her usual skintight outfit with a large flashy red stone necklace surrounded by diamonds on a gold chain. Not even in Princess Amara of Nova Roma's collection had Betsy seen something as gaudy.
But Emma purposefully missed the tone. She winked at Betsy and fingered the necklace in one hand, pulling out orange juice with the other. "Isn't it spectacular, dear? I received it the other day from a secret admirer…who seems to have quite a taste in red gems…"
Betsy sniffled and rolled her eyes. Turning, she noticed for the first time that though the kitchen was busy, it wasn't to its full capacity yet. She could overhear some of the New Mutant's discussing something heatedly, something about the world's fastest animal, near the back of the long kitchen table while others scattered unevenly among the remaining seats. She wasn't last one up.
"Where the bloody hell is everyone?" she asked Ororo by the sink. "Doesn't everyone usually wake with the crack of day around here?"
The weather witch laughed gently. Betsy liked her laugh. "Not when it rains, child," Ororo explained, indicating the falling drizzle outside and the softest roll of thunder. "You'd be surprised how prominent the link is between mutation and sinuses. And no, Bobby, you cannot bribe me with Whole Foods coupons to stop the rain," she added without even turning around as Bobby, Roberto, and Sam came in behind her.
The three boys groaned. "But we've been saving up for months!" Bobby whined.
As the weather witch turned to the three newcomers, Dr. McCoy picked up the conversation with Betsy just where Ororo had left off.
"It's a study I've been working on most diligently," Hank informed her over his mug of coffee. It read 'Start the day with a smile—Get it over with'. "I've actually got it partially proven"
The psychic glared wryly at her physician as she indicated the tissues shoved in her pockets. "Really, you don't—"
"—understand that it's nothing personal, Lance"
The heads in the kitchen turned upwards to Kitty Pryde's voice as she phased herself and her boyfriend down through the ceiling. Betsy started and made to dodge out from under them but the two air-walked absent-mindedly down to the tile without noticing her. The sudden entrances and exits of Kitty and Kurt still had Betsy on a hair pin trigger. Emma hadn't even flinched.
"How am I supposed to not take it personally that you plan on leaving me?" Lance asked incredulously, releasing her hand the moment they were clear.
"Heeey now! Who's leaving who?" Tabitha asked, poking her head out from the New Mutants powwow. Betsy could see more than read her eagerness for mansion gossip as the blonde got up and walked around to the couple. She'd learned the hard way that a pencil didn't fall in the Xavier Institute that Tabitha Smith didn't hear about.
Kitty sighed and rolled her eyes. She addressed Tabitha, oblivious to her audience. "Lance is having difficulty accepting the fact that once Joe Jonas realizes he's madly in love with me, he's going to ask me to marry him and Lance is simply going to have to move on"
"Buuuuurn, dude," Tabitha said sympathetically, patting his shoulder as she grabbed the carton of orange juice that Emma was just getting ready to pour and chugged some straight up.
"Barbarian," Emma spat as Tabitha handed her back the carton. Betsy smirked to herself and headed towards an available seat while Tabitha shrugged.
Kurt who had been hanging upside down from the TV arm and chatting with his sister checked his watch and choked on his Kitty-free muffin as Betsy passed.
"Oh no!" he announced in alarm, "I almost forgot to remind Forge to shut off his space/time gizmo before the radiation killed us all! Be right back!" he called and then teleported in a cloud of smoke.
Bets threw out a small telekinetic shield to keep the smoke out of her lungs but the mere thought of the brimstone smell evoked another sneeze out of her. Good thing her tissues were handy.
—igloo the size of a barn? I can top that in my—if I save up maybe I can get seats that aren't in the nosebleed—mygodohmygodohmygodohmy—enough that it'll make an atomic explosion look like a firework— look into your heart and you'll find love, love—improve second floor security after sneaking in—godohmygodohmygodoh—
There was a chorus of 'God bless you's, 'Guesundteitds', and a couple joking cries of 'Swine Flu!' as Betsy blew her nose and plopped down in the closest chair that Amara had pulled out for her to fall in. Bobby, Sam, and Roberto sat on the princess' other side.
Lance glanced around on the other side of the kitchen, trying to tune out his girlfriend's praises for the boy band, and asked no one in particular, "Hey, anyone know where Mr. and Mrs. Beetle-Up-My-Butt are?"
Emma finished pouring her water and shut the refrigerator with some unnecessary force. "They are not married"
"…yet" Bobby corrected. Several voices giggled.
"They get called away on an emergency around three last night with Monsieur Logan and his mini-me," Remy supplied, shuffling a deck of green-backed cards.
Rogue elbowed him and her beau corrected himself, not in the least bit irked.
"Mademoiselle Laura, pardonez moi. Remy heard 'em say something 'bout a mutant and an earthquake and the ville des angels, homme"
"What were you doing up at that hour?" Kitty asked, perplexed. "I was unconscious the second I walked out of training yesterday!"
"Yeah, and what's a 'veal duh and gels?'" Sam Guthrie added from the New Mutants tangle.
Remy went to answer but Rogue held an ungloved hand just over his bare knee. Fortunately close enough, Betsy heard the Southerner mutter threateningly, "Answer the first question, Cajun, and you'll be eating through a bendy straw for the next month"
The Cajun replied by plucking the top card off the pile and flashing Rogue the King of Hearts. With a sultry smile, he answered, "Remy don't mind none if Remy's petite be the one feeding him"
Betsy wanted to laugh but her throat felt like sandpaper. After suffering a brief coughing fit (damn her immune system) and missing Rogue's reply, the Brit went about answering Sam's ignored question. She'd had some French speaking friends back in Maldon, England and knew how to maneuver the language well enough to get from point A to point B. More or less.
"He's talking about the City of Angels, if I'm correct," she told the Mansion's other Southerner, "You know, Los Angeles?"
Suddenly, the door burst inwards and Jubilee tumbled into the kitchen in a frenzy, looking like she'd come running full tilt. Betsy forced herself to dismiss the notion everyone in her house of residence was trying to give her a heart attack.
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! Did you guys hear?!"
"Hear?" Jamie asked, "Hear what?"
Betsy hadn't noticed Kurt's return over Jubilee's entrance. When he spoke, though, she saw him perched on the window seat, hand over his heart.
"If it was loud and explosive, I swear I just got here"
Jubilee gulped in some much needed oxygen and then raced through her message in only two breaths.
"Logan radioed in saying that they're bringing in a new mutant from California but that Scott got hurt badly saving Jean on their mission and now they should be landing soon and he needs medical assistance from Hank and Jean is so royally pissed at Scott that they weren't speaking to each other on the entire trip back and all signs point that they might break up!!"
The only immediate responses to the message were stares and silence as Jubilee's fellow X-Men tried to process the overload of information.
For her part, Betsy didn't completely grasp the reaction. She'd noticed in her time spent with them that Jean and Scott in particular did more than their fair share of bickering. So the newest X-Man had to wonder why this out of everything that had happened since her first day there would be considered 'unusual' among her teleporting, telepathic, trained-for-anything teammates.
Then there was a flurry of voices and Betsy was surprised to find her question answered.
"Logan said all that?" Kitty gasped.
"Well, I might have paraphrased a bit," Jubilee admitted nonchalantly.
"Well then you must have paraphrased wrong!" exclaimed Amara.
"Yeah, this is Scott and Jean we're talking about!" Kurt added.
Tabitha clarified. "Those two are, like, unhealthily head over heels for each other!"
"Obsessively and creepily head over heels!"
"I think they qualify as one symbiotic being these days…"
"Already on their way to two point five kids and a dog!"
"Well I—"
"But it's all true!" the messenger insisted, cutting off whatever Emma was going to say. "It came over the Professor's private line and everything!"
"Jubilation…" Ororo asked in a chiding voice as she crossed her arms, "was this supposed to be a secret?"
Betsy looked back to Jubilee as the New Mutant scuffed her toe on the kitchen floor, grinning sheepishly.
"Weeell…" she admitted, "it was until I kinda overheard and began telling everyone…"
But Jubilee was forced into silence as the door swung open once more of its own accord and Jean Grey stalked through it in full uniform and full fury. She didn't say anything, just marched past Emma, Kitty, and Lance to the refrigerator and jerked it open with her mind, but her emerald eyes shone of vengeance and total destruction. Betsy, who had never before witnessed the wrath of Jean, thought she looked frighteningly demented.
"Hank, you in here?"
Logan came through the door, supporting a limping Scott who was glaring at the back of his girlfriend's hair as she shoved her head inside the fridge. As Beast got up to help Logan, Betsy could swear she saw the intensity of his eye beams even through the ruby quartz.
Apparently, Jubilee hadn't over exaggerated.
"Oh my stars and garters! What happened?" Dr. McCoy asked as he went around to support Scott from the other side.
Jean pulled her head out of the fridge, slamming the door shut without touching it, and responded curtly at the same time Scott spat, "Nothing"
"There was an accident," Logan supplied, sending annoyed glances to his two eldest students who still weren't facing each other. "I think his leg might be broken, fractured at least"
Betsy clamped her hands over her mouth and nose, feeling another sneeze, and tried to hold it in as not to interrupt the conversation unfolding but to no avail. She sneezed/snorted into her hands, and then winced at the volume of the thoughts in her head.
—SEXIST EGOCENTRIC PRICK!! —WELL EXCUSE ME FOR HAVING A SENSE OF CHIVALRY! NEXT TIME I'LL LET YOU DIE! —YOU FREAKING ASSHOLE! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I NEED TO BE SAVED?! —I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE THE TWO TONS OF STEEL BEAM FALLING TOWARDS YOU THAT YOU WERE DOING NOTHING ABOUT?—RIGHT, BECAUSE I'M A DEFENSELESS PRINCESS WHO NEEDS YOU TO WEAR MY PANTYHOSE INTO BATTLE!!—WELL, IF YOU'RE FISHING FOR AN APOLOGY, YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT BY OVERREACTING TO—OVERREACTING?!?!—
Jean spun around, gleaming murder in her eyes and Betsy cringed. Never tell a mutant, redhead, or girlfriend that they are overreacting. Scott had said so to Jean Grey who fell into all three categories.
The mansion residents watched as everything that wasn't bolted down in the kitchen (and even some stuff that was) floated a foot up in the air and Jean screamed aloud, "YOU ARE SUCH A DAMNED TIGHT-ASSED BOY SCOUT THE ONLY THING YOU DON'T FIND TO BE AN OVERREACTION IS THE HARD-ON YOU GET EVERYTIME YOU WALK INTO A TRAINING SESSION!!!"
Betsy and several others had to duck as silverware, three cereal boxes and a bowl of fruit zoomed past them in the direction of Scott's head. Luckily, all the X-Man training was also useful in situations like this and Hank and Logan helped Scott avoid most of the projectiles; a red apple still managed to connect with his skull.
Jean's expression flickered to an evil smile for a moment before she spun on her heel and headed out the second kitchen door, the one that lead to the outside, some students moving further away from her path of vengeance.
The entire mansion shook with the slam, everything (and everyone) dropped back down to the floor simultaneously, and the kitchen fell into perfect silence for the second time that day.
Finally, Betsy heard the first verbal response come from Emma Frost of all people, sounding pleasantly surprised.
"Well I'll be damned. There is a God"
Heads swiveled in her direction. Glaring, Betsy had a smart reply to that comment and almost got to say it, but the next voice that spoke up didn't come from inside the kitchen.
"Um, excuse me, Wolf-Marine, was it?"
The attention shifted from Emma, past Scott who was clutching at the side of his head, to the main kitchen door as it swung partly open and a teen girl stepped halfway in wearing an odd combination of board shorts, flip-flops, a baseball cap, and a sweater.
Logan was brushing Rice Krispies out of his hair and merely grunted in response as the new girl glanced back over her shoulder.
"Yeah, could you please tell your daughter to stop staring at me like she's doing? Because it's kinda creeping me out, man"
"He is Project Codename: Weapon X, alias: Logan also known as Wolverine of the X-Men," Laura corrected, entering immediately after the girl and forcing them both fully into the kitchen. "Furthermore, I am not his daughter. I am his 23rd and only successful cloning attempt with the slight alteration of the replication of his X chromosome due to a defect in an unsalvageable Y chromosome. And I was told to watch you"
"Right, dude," the new girl said quickly, holding her hands up in surrender and shifting a little closer to Logan, "I promise I'm not gonna go anywhere. Please stop following me"
"It's alright, Laura," Betsy heard Xavier's voice intone as he rolled into the kitchen. "I'll take it from here"
Sighing as she pressed a tissue to her runny nose, Betsy allowed herself to hope that, perhaps, the daily routine of morning madness might almost be over.
Her gut feeling laughed at her, uproariously.
The former X-23 glanced at their mentor and looked to Logan once to confirm the order before she sniffed the kitchen air twice.
"Alex hasn't been here yet this morning," she remarked to no one in particular. "I'll go and make sure he didn't have his throat slit while he slept (since the idiot sleeps like the dead)" she mumbled the last part, turned, and exited the kitchen past Professor X.
"Because Alex, of course, is the mansion's prime target," Betsy had to laugh at Laura's priorities (a small cough/laugh hybrid).
"Hey, a Cutie with a booty like that?" Tabitha asked her, grinning, "Are you really surprised?"
From beyond the door, Betsy heard Laura very calmly responding, "I know where you sleep, Smith"
The only one who didn't take it as an actual threat was Boom Boom herself who made a noncommittal sound, returning to her black toast. The new arrival looked thoroughly creeped out and Betsy wondered if that was her face a week ago at her first encounter with the X-Men.
Dr. McCoy finished picking the last stray Corn Pops out of his fur and greeted, "Good morning, Charles. I thought you were downstairs helping Forge and Sage for the rest of the morning?"
"I was," the Professor explained, staring pointedly at Scott, "until a telepathic screaming match made it very difficult for me to concentrate"
The kitchen residents followed his gaze but for once, the X-Men leader didn't have a clear-cut reply.
"…she's being…difficult," he muttered, looking at the floor and still holding the side of his head.
"For the record, I agree" Emma stated, gracefully pulling herself up to sit on the kitchen counter.
"No one's taking record," Rogue mumbled. Betsy nodded in agreement, rolling her eyes and grabbing a muffin that had fallen within her reach on the table. Her original breakfast choice of Frosted Flakes had been chucked at Scott's head.
As Betsy chewed, the professor turned to their guest. "And this is the mutant you rescued?"
The new student relaxed her posture, finally convinced Laura was really gone. She hung a thumb in the waistband of her shorts and whipped off the baseball cap to shake the professor's hand, replying with more confidence, "You bet! Lorna Dane from LA. Freshly mutantized. What's hanging?"
To Betsy's surprise, the wavy hair that tumbled down from the teen's head was a startling jade green. A couple students whistled in admiration as Betsy glanced up at her own lavender bangs. Becuase we don't stand out nearly enough, she thought with a sigh.
"From what we can tell, she's a telekinetic, like Red and Violet," Logan explained as he shifted all of Scott's weight to Hank so that the doctor could get him down to the medlab for a checkup. Betsy cringed at her Wolverine-chosen nickname but didn't clarify or complain. At least it couldn't be confused for anyone else's and it still beat her Tabitha chosen nickname. She hoped Lorna wouldn't get stuck with something like Booger.
From Hank's arms, Scott added, "Her manifestation triggered an earthquake that totaled a dozen cars and leveled an under construction building. Henceforth…" He indicated to his position in the blue doctor's arms.
The Cali girl shifted uneasily, "Yeah, really sorry about that…typical telekimesis problems and everything…"
"Don't worry, Miss Dane," Professor Xavier soothed, placing a hand on her shoulder, "everything will be alright"
Lorna smiled. Betsy sat up as the Professor continued in his 'normal morning business' voice (which sounded to Betsy very much like an anchorman reporting all sorts of oddities with a straight face) and Scott was carried out of the kitchen grumbling something about ripe fruit.
"Now," the professor continued, "I'll send Kurt for your things so you can start settling into your room. You're excused from school today as is Betsy—"
On Xavier's cue, Kurt had teleported out of the room from behind Betsy. The brimstone forced her to sneeze and she nearly choked on her muffin.
—gonna chew him out so badly he's gonna wish—doesn't have the slightest idea what it means to do what I—start off lying! How long do you expect—way too long checking my tongue in the mirror—madly in love—remix to ignition! —maybe let her rest until she's—
"Bless you. As well as Scott and Jean to catch up on sleep—"
"And patience," Logan growled, discovering a grape in the back of his jacket.
"—and Sage and Forge who were up all night with their latest project," Xavier finished.
"Besides, Tessa short-circuits in the rain," Sam added with a grin.
"Which is kinda hilarious," Roberto seconded, also smiling.
Betsy coughed, blew her nose and damned her luck as Bobby Drake stood up from the table on Amara's other side. He tossed his hair and said ever so politely, "Excuse me, Professor Xavier, but I would like to request permission to stay as well"
The Professor quirked an eyebrow and all of the New Mutants turned to stare at Bobby in confusion.
"Is that so?" Xavier responded, humored, "On what grounds?"
"On the grounds of Ms. Dane being in need of a tour guide, of course," he replied as if it were obvious. "After all—AHH!"
The nearby mutants jumped in surprise as Bobby bolted to his feet, hopping on one foot and clutching at his left sneaker which had caught on fire. Amara calmly took a sip of her orange juice, though Betsy noticed her brief smirk at Bobby's yelling. Lorna looked appalled and more surprised than anyone.
"Nice try, Robert," the Professor intoned. The twinkle in his eyes gave away his humor as Bobby finally managed to ice out the fire and plopped back down on his chair to numerous snickers. "I was, however, going to have Betsy show our newest possible student around"
Swallowing hard on her muffin, Betsy glanced up at the professor in surprise as all heads swiveled in her direction. "Me?"
"It should give you something to save you from the boredom around here while you're stuck at home sick," he clarified, smiling at his own use of the word.
"But Professor!" Kitty whined, hand shooting up in the air like a prized student, "I always get to tour the new students!"
"Not that I'm not grateful, Professor," Betsy began, "but Kitty's right and, uh, I think it would be easier if a more senior student would do the tour…"
"Well, I only have a chemistry lab today," Emma informed the Professor as she inspected her nails, "which I hardly need to be present for. I'll stay and assist Betsy in giving Ms. Dane a tour"
Professor Xavier threw Emma a curious look and therefore missed Betsy shooting him an 'Are you out of your mind?!' look.
But finally, he said, "Very well, then. Both of you young ladies will give Ms. Dane her tour. Now, off to school with the rest of you. You know how traffic is without rain at this hour
"Oh, and Bobby, Tabitha, Rahne, Jamie, Sam, Roberto, Amara," the clustered New Mutants glanced up at their mentor, "You are free to attempt what you wish today as long as no one is hurt and there is minimum property damage. Deal?"
The seven mutants grinned eagerly and exchanged high fives. Betsy was further intrigued by what the younger mutants would be up to but had no time to ask as the kitchen began clearing out rather quickly.
Suddenly, Kurt teleported back into the room right beside Betsy who jumped a foot in the air and clutched over her nose immediately.
"Bloody hell!" she snorted. "Can't you shout a warning or something?!"
"Listen," he whispered urgently as students headed out on either side of them, "we need you to keep an eye on Emma and keep her away from Scott"
Jamie bumped her and multiplied on his way out, apologizing six times over. Betsy replied in confusion, "What? Emma what? Who's 'we'?"
Kitty phased through Rahne and two Jamies to Betsy's other side. "Kurt and I have spent way too much of our matchmaking skills and genius level brain power on getting Scott and Jean together to have them break up over something as stupid as chivalry!"
"Seriously!" Kurt chimed.
"So we need you to make sure Emma doesn't, like, take advantage of the situation and make a move on Scott while he and Jean aren't talking. Got it?"
"What?! No! What?!"
"Keep the lioness off the wounded baby zebra until we get back. Kay?"
"Great!"
The duo teleported out immediately, leaving Betsy with no chance to respond. She'd kept her hands over her nose to prevent any more of her apocalyptic sneezing. So when the smoke finally cleared, all who remained in the kitchen were Emma filing her nails on the counter, Lorna near the doorway who'd narrowly missed the exit stampede, and a miserably sick Betsy still in her chair at the table.
Catching the drift of the new student's thoughts, she released her nose and turned to Lorna, answering with a sigh, "Yes, that actually does happen a lot around here"
Lorna chuckled a little nervously as Emma assured her, "Trust me, darling. After a few weeks, you won't notice the lack of privacy or even register the smell of brimstone"
Then I must have quite some weeks to go, Betsy mused to herself as she visibly shot Emma a wary look.
She then got up and went over to introduce herself to the newest possible X-Man.
"Hi, I'm Betsy from England," Betsy re-introduced herself, shaking hands with a smile. Lorna shook the hand tensely, still shell-shocked. "Digging the hair, by the way," she added in an attempt to lighten the mood and change the subject. The girl did have stunning jade hair.
"You should talk," Lorna laughed lightly, reaching out to flick one of the ends of Betsy's lavender mop. She seemed to relax a little bit more. "Yours come with the mutant power too?"
Psylocke endured the pain in her throat that came with laughing for a moment. "Some days I wish. It came in a bottle"
"You wouldn't believe all the awful things those dyes will do to your hair," Emma commented, lightly jumping down from the counter.
"Or your brain," Betsy added, knowing full well that Emma's golden locks were more thanks to L'Oreal than to her genes. She'd seen the shampoo herself.
"C'mon," she told the younger girl, placing an arm on her back and leading her out of the kitchen, "let's get started with your tour"
A/N: What I really should be saying is, TGFWATX (Thank God for Wolverine and the X-Men)! It got me back in my mutant groove :). So I've returned to what I've begun lovingly calling my 'X-Men: Devolution' universe (two years post-series with a couple of new evolution-ized members such as Sage, Emma Frost, and most notably Psylocke) and a few more ideas have been coming to me. We'll see if any of them survive the tempests in my brain and are deemed worthy to post.
NEXT:
Tessa then proceeded to smack Forge across the face and grab the front of his shirt. "THAT ENABLER COULD WIPE OUR PLANE OF REALITY FROM EXISTANCE, YOU MORON!! WHERE DID YOU PUT IT?!?!"
