Hook bored.
Yay, story time! Based on true events…minus all the mutants and X-men part. You get what I mean.
The looks I received were far from friendly.
Scott and Jean charged through the school grounds with Kitty, Evan and I almost running to keep up. Not that the attitude toward me was too different from normal, but I could see Kitty cringing next to me from the comments that were being hurled at us.
I brushed every insult off as I made my way to my locker, but my eyes narrowed as I spotted Kurt edging away from us.
"What's Kurt doing?" Kitty asked whilst she waited for me to get my books.
"I don't know." I answered. "Maybe he's…" OOF!
A humungous red and white blur whacked into me, further encouraging my bad mood.
"Sorry, sorry!" I felt myself being pulled up, before being dropped. "Or maybe not."
I glanced at the boy through my bangs.
"Look, why don't you freaks back off?" The voice drawled. "I've already had trouble with one, that stupid mind-reader of yours."
Duncan.
"Like, back off, jerk!"
Duncan turned 'round to face Kitty.
"Awww, look, the cat's got some bite after all!" Guffaws greeted this comment. "Feeling safer now that everyone knows your little secret?"
I stood up.
"Come on Kitty, we're gonna be late for class." I pulled off a trembling Kitty.
"Enjoy it freaks! It may be your last one!"
I dragged Kitty into the bathroom.
"…yeah, and as if I'd date Scott Summers anymore. Seriously, now I know what his 'little eye problem' is…" Taryn trailed off as she noticed me and Kitty watching her scathingly.
"Is there, a smell in here?" Her friend asks.
"Totally."
I bore my teeth into a grimacing smile. The two girls stared at me incredulously before making a quick exit.
"You OK, Kitty?"
"Totally."
I shook my head.
"OK, no I'm not. How we going to get through this Rogue?"
I'd have hugged her if I could, but I couldn't for the obvious reasons.
"Come on, Kitty. It's only 'til graduation, right?" I asked. Technically, it was meant to be a rhetorical question, but she answered.
"Then we have the rest of our lives to get through!"
I hesitated. She had a point. She was absolutely correct. I was going to answer – rather foolishly – that she had us friends before the bell rang.
Kitty smiled at me sadly before telling me where to meet her at lunch. She disappeared behind the swinging doors.
Thinking about it as I walked to class, maybe answering that question like that was wrong. What if one of us hadn't made it through that battle with the sentinels? What if I was still trapped there? How 'bout our other upcoming battles?
I tripped as I entered the classroom into a fray of laughter. As I walked to my usual seat at the back, people edged away from me, staring and whispering.
I rolled my eyes and sulkily sat down.
"Good morning class!"
I stared down at my notebook instead of answering. As she marked the roll, I felt Mrs. Chapman's eyes linger on me for a moment.
"Well, because of recent events…" she coughed and all eyes turned to me. I slumped on the desk. "I think many of you would find it…reasonable to move mutants to a separate part of the classroom. As a safety pre-caution." Again, all eyes on me, some jeering, some pitying. "If you please, Rogue."
My name rolled off her tongue like…sweat rolls off metal. I shuddered.
A few people sniggered as I weaved through the desks and plonked myself down at the furthest desk.
"Now we can start." She picked up her textbook. "Can someone please tell me what the name of the Trojan prince who 'allegedly' kidnapped Helen from the Greeks?"
Her eyes swiveled around the class before resting her beady little eyes on me.
"Rogue, would you like to answer?"
"Paris," I answered lazily. My mind immediately switched back to that moment when I was staring into those red-black eyes of Gambit. Of course that moment was wrecked when he nearly blew my hand off with that damned card of his. Again, the moment was wrecked when Mrs. Chapman's voice cut through my daydream with a sharp, "Wrong!"
I scowled as she picked on another student, who, of course, answered the same question with the same answer. Infuriated I waved my hand around in the air for about ten minutes, whilst she picked other people. Finally she picked on me.
"Mrs. Chapman," I asked, innocently, sweetly (ahem, that's according to a matter of opinion). "Why did you correct me when my answer about Prince Paris was correct? Because it was correct, and therefore you didn't need to."
"Oh, Rogue!" She laughed, thus making my skin crawl. "I'm surprised that you're still seething about that!" She was talking deliberately slowly, acting like I was a two-year-old. Believe or not, I did. "Normal people would have forgotten about that ages ago!" She laughed again, this time accompanied by the class. "Do you know what I mean, dear?"
She was right. Oh, not about the normal thing. Not about the forgetting thing. No, I was seething. Indeed.
"Oh, don't worry Mrs. Chapman, I know exactly what you mean." I stood up. "You are discriminating me from the class, insulting and picking on me in what you probably think are subtle, and you obviously have a fear of mutants…"
She too stood up.
"A fear? This, this, this is an outrage!" The class shrank back in their seats, and realized that they were inching toward me, and just resumed their normal position. I rolled my eyes again. I think that it'll become a condition, then I'll have to wear shades like Scott. Rolling-eye-itis. I think. "You-you-you, mutants! FREAKS! You think that we normal people, those who have been living in peace, will accept you weirdos?"
Members of the class were nodding their heads, some of those being people whom I used to talk to occasionally. I growled in my throat.
"Like, Katherine Pryde, she can waltz through anything! She could kidnap people –our children!- or kill someone, or something! And Jean Grey! She can read minds! This is not right, it's a breach of our privacy. And then, you! You're one of the freakiest! You can't even touch people without killing them!"
The look appearing on my face must have been tragic. I flinched, and my heart was pierced again. A menacing smile formed on her face as she saw my reaction.
"See, Rogue? Do you see why I'm acting like this. I am merely protecting myself and my students from freaks like you!"
I couldn't stand it anymore.
"I used to be one of your favourite students, remember! This is just like racism! Us 'mutants' are just people with different abilities! You and all those who hate us are like those racist people you were insulting a few weeks ago! You hypocrite!"
A sharp intake of breath was heard from all around the classroom. Maybe I'd gone too far. Oh well, she really deserved this.
"It's in hard times like these where the true characters of people emerge, isn't it?" She pointed to the door. "To the principal's, Rogue."
I scowled, whereas she smirked. The class was clapping. As I reached Mrs. Chapman, she stood in front of me, arms crossed, seeming taller in all her glory and triumph.
"You don't belong here, Rogue. Get out."
I reached the door in slow motion. All heads turned to watch me as I walked. They scrutinized my every move. Eyes were narrowed as I touched the door knob. Guess what, I rolled my eyes! Amazing!
Then, the worst happened. I dropped my bag, and my books tumbled out. I mean, on a scale of one to ten of embarrassment, it barely makes a four, but when you're whole class looks about ready to laugh at your accent, the teacher is totally against you and the world's ready eat you up, it's about an eleven and a half.
I bent down and heard laughing. Realising I had hipster jeans on and that I was bending down, I shivered at the possibilities of the thoughts that the boys were having.
"Here, let me help." A girl with straight, jet black her was also down on the floor, gathering my papers and pens. I squinted at her, not really knowing who she was. I think her name was Yvonne. She smiled as she handed me the last of my stuff.
"Thanks."
She shook my hand (weird, right?) and wavered for a moment. Then her eyes widened and we looked down to where we connected. The rip in my shirt provided the perfect gap where her thumb had fitted, touching my bare skin. I gasped as I pulled away, memories and thoughts flying through my head. The girl collapsed, and I heard screams all around me.
I ran through the open door. I ran through school. The bell rang as I reached the main corridor, and the students there were still oblivious to what had happened. At the lockers, Scott began running too, away from Duncan and his football jocks. They probably wouldn't have beaten Kitty and I up, us being girls, but they wouldn't have hesitated on Scott. Kitty ran out of her classroom as well, dodging flying pens coming after her. We nodded to each other as we together made our way through the hallway.
We burst through the doors and I smiled as the sunlight hit my face. I wasn't out of breath yet, thanks to Logan's danger room sessions.
"Guys! Wait up!"
Jean was also running toward us, clad in full sport uniform, balls pelting after her. I ducked my head to hide my laugh as a ball hit her on the back of the head.
The drive home was tense, and everyone knew that the worse hadn't even hit yet.
The professor greeted us with a grim smile. We returned with grimaces of our own and hit the rooms.
I think I must have fell asleep or something, because I jolted when I heard a voice in my head.
Students, please dress formally and meet me at the front door.
Sigh, can't a girl get some rest around here?
As Kitty emerged from the bathroom, I saw she was rubbing her eyes and yawning too.
"Where'd you sleep?"
"Fell asleep on the couch. Kurt 'ported onto me coming home from school."
I rolled my eyes (AGAIN!) as we discussed why Kurt was acting so distant.
"I think it's because he's still classified as 'unidentified'." Kitty stated the obvious. My eyes were almost rolling up into my head when we finally descended the stairs.
"Glad to see you finally joined us." Scott was in a bad mood. Someone had egged his car when he was getting groceries.
"Well, we have to get to school so that you can plead your cases to the school board. They want to know why a girl fainted in class today."
Everyone's eyes swiveled to me. And I rolled my eyes. No seriously, I think I have rolling-eye-itis.
"Rogue! You should be more careful!" This comment, of course came from Miss Goody-goody-gum-drops Jean.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault! I didn't ask her to help me!"
Jean opened her mouth to retort but the Prof. interrupted us.
"She's right. It's not like she can help it. It's not like any of us can help being what we are. But that's not how they see it. We can get through this. You, as my students, have the responsibility to…"
I was furious all of a sudden. I couldn't take another inspirational, responsibility pep talk. I stormed out, passed a stunned Prof. Xavier who managed to choke the final words out.
"…because we-we are the X-men?"
And the statement became a question.
I shook my head and (yes) rolled my eyes, except I wasn't the only one. Kitty followed my determinedly, rolling her eyes too, Scott and Jean catching up to us as we walked into the black night.
Hmmm, never knew rolling-eye-itis was contagious.
Hmmm, what'd you
think? See that little mini button down there. No, lower, lower,
left…yep, there. That's the review button. Would love it if you
reviewed, because the more I get, the more chance that I'll do a
sequel. Ta ta!
Hook
