Title: Old Friends with New Beginnings
Chapter 1: The Stage is Set
Story Summary: Jean is dating Duncan and helping him deal with his personal issues. Trouble ensues, hurting their relationship. Scott questions whether now is the time to confess his true feelings or not.
A/N: A HUGE thank you must go out to my sister, who was an excellent beta that accepts the geek in me regarding all things JOTT.
"Spoken"
'Thoughts'
Telepathy
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As Jean was struggling to create a wooden birdhouse for shop class, she was convinced she was destined to fail the project. She followed the directions precisely – at least, she thought she did. But she still couldn't manage to get the rectangular box to form right angles. 'Why is this course even required?' Jean thought to herself. Another science or math class would have been much more appealing in her eyes.
"I give up. I'm going to have to ask Scott for help." Jean announced to no one in particular. All her other classmates had already built their birdhouses and were now on the opposite side of the large room painting them. Jean knew Scott was really good at building things, so he was the obvious choice in such a situation.
At her declaration of defeat, the final bell rang. The teacher reminded all students to hand in their completed birdhouses by the start of class on Monday. 'At least I have the weekend to bribe Scott into helping me.'
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On the way to Scott's car to meet the X-Men for a ride home, she ran into her boyfriend Duncan Matthews.
"Hey, Jean."
"Oh. Hi, Duncan. I have to run and meet Scott and the gang to head home, but you're welcome to walk with me so we can chat." With that, Duncan slid into step beside her.
She'd been dating the varsity football quarterback for a few weeks now and they were what the rest of the school considered 'going steady,' although Jean and Duncan had never officially discussed the matter. Few girls in school could argue his good looks, which had been what first attracted Jean. But as far as Jean was concerned, they were at the stage of the relationship where they were still getting to know each other.
"Let me give you a hand with that," Duncan said as he took Jean's birdhouse materials out of her arms.
"Thank you. So how was your day?" Jean probed as they continued walking to the parking lot.
"Good. You should have been in my lunch period today when Johnny laughed so hard he had soda coming out his nose!" Duncan laughed as he recalled the event.
"Somehow I'm not sorry I missed that one," Jean smirked.
As they approached Scott's car and Duncan continued rambling about his day, Jean noticed Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and Scott were already piled in and ready to go. Evan was staying after school for some pre-basketball season training. The parking lot was buzzing with students hurriedly getting into their cars. Everyone was anxious to get home on a Friday afternoon and start their weekends.
Suddenly, and with a serious tone, Duncan turned to Jean and said, "So, I wanted to talk to you more, but I have to run to football practice. I was hoping I could come over to your place this evening. How's right after dinner sound?"
Jean was taken back by Duncan's invitation of himself to the Institute and found herself saying okay before realizing it. Professor X didn't like unexpected guests at the mansion for fear of their secret being revealed.
To compensate for her blunder, Jean quickly added, "We can take a walk around the gardens and enjoy them one last time before winter arrives." Jean figured the professor would be okay with that as long as they avoided spending significant amounts of time inside the mansion.
"Okay, great," Duncan stated as they reached Scott's car. He greeted Kurt, Kitty, and Rogue in the backseat with a nod, then turned to Scott and said, "Summers."
Duncan knew Scott disliked him, he just didn't know exactly why. The only justification Duncan could muster was he was popular and had an attractive girlfriend, while Scott was aloof and alone. He knew Scott and Jean were friends, and he was sometimes jealous of the bond they obviously shared with each other. Sometimes he thought Scott must have a thing for Jean, but he tried to downplay such thoughts. He knew Jean would never cheat on him. She wasn't that kind of girl. However, he couldn't say he trusted Scott.
Scott sensed the tension in Duncan's greeting and returned it with an equally terse, "Matthews."
Jean also sensed the tension between Scott and Duncan, but she didn't understand why they held such strong grudges against each other. They didn't even know each other that well. In an effort to avoid further awkwardness, Jean quickly got in the front seat. Duncan gave her the birdhouse materials back then kissed her quickly on the lips. Kurt and Rogue exchanged looks, while Kitty tried unsuccessfully to suppress a giggle. Scott tightly gripped the steering wheel and said, "Let's go," shifting the car into drive.
"See you later tonight, Jean," Duncan shouted as they pulled out of the parking lot.
Scott strongly detested Duncan. He disliked him not only because he didn't think Duncan was good enough for Jean, but also because Scott was envious. It had been love at first sight for Scott ever since he first met Jean, and times like these when he saw Duncan lay a hand, or worse yet lips, on her made him furious at himself for never speaking up about his true feelings towards her.
But, Jean was his best friend and he wasn't going to risk losing that by saying straight out he didn't like Duncan. Scott respected Jean too much to tell her what to do, but he certainly wasn't going to go out of his way to be nice to the guy.
Once Duncan was out of earshot, Kitty gave her unsolicited two cents. "Jean, I can't believe Duncan is coming over tonight! He's, like, such a hottie."
"Yeah, hot like a magpie in the July sun," Rogue retorted.
Jean couldn't help but laugh at Rogue's comment about her boyfriend, but she directed her comment at Kitty. "He's not too hard to look at. I'll give you that, Kitty."
Scott made an effort to reroute the subject. "Kind of weird how he invited himself over, though. You don't think he suspects anything about us, do you?" directing the question to Jean.
"No, no," Jean quickly replied.
Jean knew why Duncan wanted to see her. He had been having trouble at home lately. Apparently his older brother George was an all-star, Division I college football player, and Duncan had been feeling the pressure from his father to match George's football performance. Nobody else knew of Duncan's family pressures, but he felt comfortable enough to share them with Jean. He'd asked Jean not to say anything to anyone else. Jean intended to keep that promise, so she didn't divulge any details to her teammates.
The rest of the car ride home was consumed by Kitty's complaints about the unfairness of freshmen being excluded from auditioning for the school musical. Jean and Scott rode in silence until pulling into the mansion's garage. As the others were heading into the mansion, Jean grabbed all her school stuff and remembered her shop class assignment.
"Hey, Scott," Jean called after him.
Scott turned around to face Jean. "Yeah, what's up?" Scott was still thinking about the way Duncan had so nonchalantly kissed Jean. Although he was upset at Duncan, he surely wasn't going to take that anger out on Jean. He figured he'd save it for later in the Danger Room.
"I was hoping to bribe you for a favor."
"Oh," he replied, his interest peaked. "What's the favor?"
"I have a birdhouse to make for shop class due Monday, and I just can't get it to fit together properly. You've always been good with your hands. Would you mind helping me out?"
Scott smiled because he knew he wouldn't have a problem assisting her. Plus, he'd be guaranteed some private time with her this weekend, which was always a bonus. "Sure, no problem. I'm free Saturday afternoon after Danger Room training. We can do it then, assuming I survive training with Logan," he smiled.
Jean laughed. "Great! I definitely owe you one." Jean was grateful for Scott's willingness to assist her in what he must have considered a simple task. "What do you want as your bribe?" she smirked.
"Oh, I'll think of something and let you know. Don't worry," Scott said with a grin as he headed into the mansion.
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Feedback please! I promise JOTT is definitely to come, but I thought Duncan needed more depth to prove Jean wasn't a moron for dating him. I'm seeing about 9 chapters at this point.