Taking Off The Gloves
Ask me a couple of years back what I expected from running away from home, and I'd have told you then that I figured I'd be somewhere in Alaska planning out next move. Oh, and please, before you go thinking my running away from home was some cry for attention, I'll set you straight on that right now. Attention was the last thing I wanted or needed, especially after putting the boy that had a crush on me into the hospital all because he stole my goddamn first kiss. Hey, sorry about that, Cody.
So, yeah. Ask me what I expected from running away, and about the last thing I could have thunk up was to be attending some posh private school somewhere in Upper State New York. The name's Rogue, by the way, and no, that's not my real name. My parents were about as far from Hippies or Hollywood as you could get, born, bred, and raised as they were in Meridian, Mississippi.
See, me and my folks had a falling out after I put Cody into a coma. Maybe if I'd just beat him senseless proper like, then my Daddy wouldn't have been too mad about it. Turns out though, it was the kiss itself. Suddenly all those stories about Muties on Fox News came home to roost, all the ones Daddy would shout his support for after having a few too many beers in the evening.
Doing the smartest thing I could back then, I ran. Then I met a guy up in Canada, got saved from a bunch of times, and let me tell you, I got sick of that real fast. Not being saved, no, just the feeling of being helpless that came with it. So, I figured it was about time to live up to my chosen name and finally become the Rogue everyone around this posh school thinks I am.
"Miss Marie D'Ancanto, may I ask what you're wearing?!"
There's just one hitch with my plan, and that was Miss Grey, soon to be Missus Jean Grey Summers, not as if the ring on her finger was keeping her from flirting back with Logan every chance she gets. Anyway, that's a whole other can of worms I'm not about to get into right now. Currently the issue at hand is my skirting the school's dress code.
See, it wasn't the just the kiss that put Cody into a coma, it's every inch of my skin that'll suck the life straight right outta ya, and it's something I can't control, not yet. So, through no fault of my own I picked up a reputation as being one of those poser Goth kids, the ones that'll dress up as if they actually expect the sun to smoke their ass like they're some real life vampire.
"Just some shorts and a shirt I borrowed." Shorts and a shirt that were a damn snug on me. Hey, hips don't lie, am I right?
Now, back when I was still new to the school, the first thing I learnt about Miss Grey was that she was a genuine mind reader, or telepath as some fancy folk might say. So I wouldn't be lying none to say she knew just about everything that was running through my head just as quick as I thunk it. Lucky enough for me I had myself a couple of roommates that were in on the plan, and just maybe about as much my polar opposite as you could get.
"Hey, teach! Sorry I'm late!"
Enter Jubilee, dressed in yellow lulu lemons and the matching top, along with a pink denim vest she'd bought off Amazon. Jack shit was left to the imagination, and Jack had just left town. Miss Grey looked about ready to get into every actual infraction Jubilee had just broken, not just tip toed up to like me, and then Kitty ghosted in from the hall looking herself a vision of the prim and proper naughty librarian fantasy that had more than a few boys in class putting their text books over their laps.
Sorry guys, but you ain't fooling no one.
"Wow, Chica! I told ya my threads would look way rad on you!" Jubilee squealed.
The first thing I'll tell ya about Jubilee is that she's a girl that can't resist doing something she's been told not to. So why don't I give you a second to figure out the first thing she did after hearing she wasn't supposed to be touching me without my express permission. Poke me, tickle me? No, she full on hugged me until the hall was filled up with fireworks and she was a dizzy mess sprawled out across on the floor. As for Kitty? Well, word to the wise, she's the Fake Out Queen when it comes to a High Five, psyche!
"Jubilation, do you mean to tell me...?"
"That Rogue's borrowing my fav shorts and shirt? Like, the ones I wear all the time, as in to almost every class? Uh, duh? C'mon, you're the 'Path, catch a clue! And you can't tell me she doesn't look smoking hot in them!"
Heck, for the veins bulging on Jeannie's forehead you'd think I'd gone and slipped her some skin. Pot kettle? Meet the fucking the fucking cauldron, ya promiscuous bitch, always flirting with Logan when you already got a nice guy like Mister Summers having fucking proposed to you!
Anyway, as Jubes and me were outright ignoring Miss Grey, Kitty locked eyes with her for a straight up High Noon showdown, and there was that polar opposite stuff I was talking about. I swear, the only reason Kitty spends as much time as she does being so anal retentive about the rules is just so she can flaunt them whenever she wants without actually breaking them, and damn if Jeannie doesn't know that too.
"Miss D'Ancanto, Miss Pryde, and Miss Lee? Please be seated, and might I have a word with you three after class?"
There it was, everything this stunt had been all about, the murmur that came after an oh so obvious detention had been dished out. Fuck if I could barely keep the smile off my face as I found my seat. Fact is, I'm done playing Miss Nice Rogue, the one always hiding behind sweatshirts and opera gloves. I mean honestly, who wears that shit? It's time for everyone to learn it's their problem if they touch me, because I'm done hiding.
"She's just pissed Kitty wore it better." Laughed Jubilee with a swipe of her curled hands and a catty meow.
With half our shared spare blown listening to Miss Grey tear into each of us, Jubes, Kitty, and me headed to where all the disreputable kids hung out, the unofficial smoking area out back behind the garage slash auto shop.
"You still got detention." Kitty pointed out.
"Please, Kit Kat. It's not like I'm locked in there with her, but vise versa. Between pulling another bullshit essay outta my ass about what I did wrong, I'm gonna be thinking long and hard about just exactly how I'd go down on Mister Summers if I ever had the chance."
"Jubilee, he's twice your age!" I had to chime in, even if the thought of Jubilee thinking the loud kind of thoughts that gave any telepath a headache made me smile.
"As bad as I am at math, that pegs him at what? Only thirty, right? Hey, it's not my fault I got skipped a couple of grades, my wise and worldly seventeen year old friends."
"You really did summer school every single summer growing up?"
As much as Kitty was a major nerd, school during summer was just as much sacrilege to her as it was to me. To this Jubilee only shrugged, which was saying something for a girl we normally had to forcibly shut up. Busy as we were chatting, I caught a whiff of smoke that had me falling behind Jubes and Kit by a few steps. Shit, he just had to be out here today of all days, the day I was out to show I was sick of hiding.
Kitty and Jubilee must have caught the sweet smell of cigar smoke too, and not the cigarettes the two boys they had the hots for usually smoked, that being Allerdyce and LeBeau. Squaring up my shoulders, I wasn't about to go be afraid none of Logan, even if I had been planning on dressing in my usual attire for the gym class me and Jubes had with him next period.
Now, something I'll tell ya about Logan is this, he don't treat ya like a kid unless ya go acting like one. So outta Kitty, Jubes, and me, it was the baby of our little group who he treated her age, that being Jubilee. Kitty herself had been born with an old soul, acting herself somewhere in her late twenties. But me personally? I had to grow up fast out on the road, and I hadn't none stopped since coming to Xavier's.
Logan always respected that, too, something which I always tried to pay him back in kind for. Too bad his choice in women sucked, because personally I knew he could do better than Jean. Hell, I'd said as much in the past, having tried my best to steer him towards Miss Munroe instead. But damn, he was just an ol' hound dog with a bone he wouldn't let go of.
Turning the corner, there he was leaned up against the wall to enjoy himself a cigar and a little peace and quiet.
"Rogue." He said with a grunt and a nod, just the same as always.
Well, golly gee, if I didn't feel exposed standing there as I was in the shorts and shirt of a girl who was two years younger than me. And no, it wasn't any better if Jubes was going to be turning sixteen in a bit over three months, as she was still fifteen at the moment while I was just two weeks shy of turning eighteen, something that made all the difference.
Then Logan went and stomped out his cigar under foot, a genuine Cuban if my nose wasn't misleading me, to walk off without saying another word. And yet, sitting there on the steps that led into the garage, the very ones that LeBeau and Allerdyce would loiter, I swear to you I could feel his eyes on me like I never ever felt them before. Full on, intense enough to make me borrow Jubilee's pink denim vest just so I could have something to pull around myself.
"Just so you know, Chica, you can borrow that for the rest of the day if you want."
"What?"
In that moment I figured something out a little late, that both Kitty and Jubilee thought I was embarrassed because Logan had caught me showing more skin that I usually did. Except it wasn't that, no, not embarrassment, but instead the realization that a god damn grown man had just looked at me as he would a grown lady. Just as I'd seen him stare at Jean for years.
"Rogue, could you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?" asked Kitty, out to prove herself a smart ass.
"One, bitch."
"Rogue? Language! There are children present."
I didn't even need to see Jubilee scowl at Kitty for everything to go back to normal between us, laughing with them as I tried to forget everything I had just seen in Logan's eyes. Time would tell soon enough if I'd been seeing things, even if I were to admit I was more scared to wonder if I wasn't. Fuck if my expectations already hadn't already been proven wrong once before, though, because Alaska this sure wasn't.