AS OF YET UNTITLED
By Scrawler and LatvianIce
Rawk.
Scott Summers tried hard to pay attention during anatomy class, but on that day it just seemed near impossible. It was not that he disliked the class or his teacher, Mrs. Wyeth, but rather that his mind refused to concentrate. He glared at the source of his frustration: Duncan Matthews. Handsome, popular, rich, disgusting Duncan Matthews. At the moment, Duncan had Jean Grey whispering secrets into his ear. Duncan noticed that Scott was looking his way and gave him a cheeky thumbs up. Jean looked up, too, blushed slightly and waved. Scott pushed his ruby sunglasses up with his forefinger, then turned around quickly in his seat, embarrassed at making such a geeky gesture, and in front of Jean Grey of all people!
Scott knew just then that it was time for a popularity upgrade. But how? He looked around the room absent-mindedly, searching for inspiration, but then realized that a science classroom probably wouldn't be all too popularity promising.
He then decided that he should be focusing on the popular kids. Duncan came to mind immediately. What made Duncan popular? Duncan was a sports star, but Scott knew that it was too late in the school year to join anything. Duncan had plenty of money and a cool car, too. Scott was sure that his own car was as cool, if not cooler than Duncan's. He wasn't poor by any means, either. Professor Xavier gave him and the other students living at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters more money than necessary, really. Of course, there was one huge difference between Duncan and himself. Scott was a mutant, with laser-like beams shooting out of his eyes, hence the sunglasses. Duncan was a "normal" human and considered himself superior.
Scott sighed, nearly defeated. Finding a way to become popular was much harder than he thought it would be. Then inspiration hit.
A student had turned all the way around in his seat to talk to Duncan. "Duncan, dude, awesome party Friday night. I'm still hung over!"
A party! The perfect solution! Scott grinned to himself excitedly.
Mrs. Wyeth noticed Scott's gleeful expression with a scowl on her face. "Honestly, Scott Summers, if you weren't mature enough to be in anatomy, then why did you sign up? I'd expect a student of your age to hear the word 'breast' without resorting to such childish behavior!"
As the part of the class who were awake laughed at Scott, he immediately hid any hint of happiness, much less any expression at all, from his face at once.
A short mumble of incomprehensible words were quickly followed by Scott's apology. "Sorry, Mrs. Wyeth, I'll-"
"Control himself next time!" Duncan cut in. "But you've got to cut him some slack, Mrs. W," Duncan's voice grew understanding and tender. Of course, it did this in a mocking sort of way, which left Scott dreading what he would say next. "He really doesn't get out much."
Duncan's friends snickered, his minions giggled and shared high-fives, and the lesser people laughed excessively loud so as to perhaps gain a tiny spec of Duncan's attention and appreciation. Scott, quietly, sunk down into his seat. He couldn't really complain about this one, it was not mutant- related in any way, but was simply regular high school student behavior. The take and ignore sort of thing.
Mrs. Wyeth gave a short chuckle. "Oh, Duncan, you're such a tease!" Scott's left eye twitched dangerously fast with a great repugnance for how well Duncan Mathews had won over the teachers. Not that Mrs. Wyeth disliked Scott in any way, but she liked Duncan better.
Ignoring the desire to spit out his own tongue in disgust, Scott went back to thinking about his party. He was keeping a straight face this time, though, for good measure.
A party had to work. The event would be timely, social, and "kickin" in a mansion. Scott had to fight back a grin because, well, with those components properly distributed, and then some raging teenage hormones sprinkled here and there, the party could not fail!
But what kind of party? The only sort Scott had ever been to were... ah, he couldn't hide it anymore. He'd been to a third grader's birthday party before the plane crash and then a book reader's club party of sorts when he helped out at the old folk's home. Even those weren't the most successful of parties. The third grade party was that of Cindy Bellman's, and she let her dogs chase Scott around the yard for an hour accidentally-on-purpose. And with the elderly, he broke his arm during the "book walk" for a collection of "The Babysitters Club" books. He would have had them too, Scott remembered, clenching his fist, if only Old Man Jenkins hadn't tripped him with his walking cane.
But still... those parties were all Scott had for reference. Oh, and of course Duncan's party, but falling off a balcony wasn't something he was sure the professor was insured for at the institute. It was funny, though, because he obviously should be with so many balconies tactically positioned, just waiting to have place in a lawsuit.
'What good books have I read lately...?' Scott instantly rid that though from his mind. He couldn't have a book reader party! Half the popular kids couldn't read! He needed something everyone would not hate and throw things at him for. That would take some serious logic, Scott figured. Perhaps even some all-nighters with the process of elimination "party style" would be in order.
Looking over and between some heads Scott saw Jean. She always told him to lighten up some- or was it Kurt who did that? Scott dismissed his uncertainty. He was sure that even if Jean didn't tell him to lighten up, she'd be surprised, even somewhat impressed with Scott's decision to have a party. Scott smirked cockily, bobbing his head to what he felt was the motion of success. What he looked like was a bobble head toy looking at Playboys. And, no doubt, Mrs. Wyeth noticed.
"Mr. SUMMERS!"
Luckily, anatomy was Scott's last class of the day. Unluckily, he still had to sit through a half out of detention. Mrs. Wyeth had not been all too pleased to find him disrupting her class for the second in one day, and had given him detention. It wasn't like Scott hadn't been in detention before, so he wasn't too worried about that. The Brotherhood Boys seemed to enjoy getting him into trouble.
Wearily, Scott trudged into A104, the after school detention room, and handed his detention slip to Mr. Eggers, the supervisor of detention. Mr. Eggers' hair held a certain interest in Scott. Not quite an afro, but it had the potential. Many times Scott thought of questioning the man about his choice of hairstyles, but today was certainly not the day. He couldn't risk having time added to his detention sentence.
Scott picked a seat close to the window and was not surprised to see Lance and Pietro enter the room not long after. It seemed to Scott that the two, along with their other Brotherhood buddies, spent more time in detention than class itself. Once they had shown Mr. Eggers their slips, they made their way over to Scott. Lance sat down on one of the desks with his feet on the chair. Pietro took a seat in front of Scott, who pretended not to notice their presence. He was trying to focus on his party, but Pietro was tapping his shoulder quickly, as he did everything quickly. He wanted to get Scott's attention and would not stop until he got it.
When Scott finally looked up, Pietro had a smug look on his face. "Hey, Summers, going to the dark side, are you? Seems like you've been in detention an awful lot this year. And this time without our help even."
Lance cupped his chin in his hands. "Gee, Shades, I don't think the other X-Geeks would like that very much. Without your goody-two-shoes friends, you'll be all alone."
Scott turned so he could face Lance as well as Pietro. "I'm not going bad, so you don't have to worry about that. And anyway, even if the other X- Men weren't my friends anymore, I've still got plenty of people to hang out with."
Pietro and Lance looked at each other from the corners of their eyes, clearly unimpressed.
"In fact," Scott declared, feeling bold, "I'm having a party this weekend. Come if you think you're da shizzle." Scott felt he knew many more cool words than he let on.
Lance raised his eyebrows, but it could hardly be seen through his long hair. "We'll check our calendar." He then turned to Pietro, and they whispered quietly to each other for the final ten minutes of detention.
-X-
Scott breathed a sigh of relief as he got out of his red convertible, finally back at the mansion. He had called Professor X from his cell phone while driving home, and had been given the OK to throw a party that Saturday night. Scott walked through the mansion's hallways, his mind still trying to come up a theme for the party. So far his only idea was to have his guests come dressed as their favorite Babysitters Club members. He himself would be Kristy, the club's powerful leader. Or maybe Mary Anne.
Scott slapped himself in the forehead as he walked into the kitchen. What was he thinking? The Babysitters Club? What kind of lame party would that be? He plopped himself into a chair, not knowing that there was somebody else in the room.
Logan closed the door to the fridge and looked at Scott, one eyebrow raised. "Something wrong, kid?"
Scott looked up, surprised. "Well, kinda. See, I'm throwing this party on Saturday, but I can't think of anything cool to do. Have any ideas?"
"Want me to pick up a couple o' six packs for ya?" Logan was completely serious.
"What? No!" Scott was appalled. "I'm only eighteen!"
Logan shrugged his shoulders. "Haven't been to many high school parties, eh?"
"Uh, yeah, of course," Scott lied. "Tons of them."
"Sure you have," Logan mumbled, his boots clunking on the linoleum tile has he exited the room.
-X-
Jubilee was sitting in the common room, her DVDs spread across the floor around her. She was deep in thought, Scott noticed. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Organizing the DVD collection," she said without looking up. "Wanna help?" When Scott nodded and sat down beside her, she said, "See, I'm wondering if I should sort them alphabetically, or by genre, or what? What do you think?" Scott didn't answer.
"Uh, Scott? Something on your mind?" asked the younger mutant.
Scott felt silly telling his problem to such a younger girl, but Jubilee would probably know much more about parties than he. "Yeah, actually, I need a really phat party theme."
Jubilee pretended not to notice that he used the word 'phat'. "How about a movie theme? Look through my DVDs and find something."
Scott was intrigued. He picked up one box after another, until he found something that caught his eye. "Hey, what's this?" He help up a black case with the word 'CATS' written across the top.
Jubilee let out an excided giggle followed by a loving sigh. She gazed sweetly at the DVD long enough for Scott to have considered leaving the two alone. But Jubilee's lips pursed, her eyes narrowed and her fists clenched before Scott could rise to his feet. The unnerving sound of each of her knuckles popping gave Scott the willies.
"You... DON'T know what CATS is...?" the young girl whispered sharply.
Scott looked suspiciously around the room. "Is it a cult?"
Jubilees eyes bulged. She snatched the DVD from Scott and jumped to her feet. Stepping on some of the other DVDs in the collection, she held CATS high in the air.
"CATS," she declared, thrusting the DVD upwards still, as though it was yet to be completely above all others, "is the single greatest musical of all time! It ran for twenty-one years on Broadway- the longest running Broadway hit ever! Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the songs based on TS Elliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats..." Jubilee kept ranting, her small face growing red, as she was yet to take a breath. Finally slowing down, Jubilee knelt on one knee before Scott, stroking the DVD gently. "CATS," she said with a sigh. "Is truly now and forever."
"Hmm," Scott said and repeated. "Hmm."
"Oh my gosh! Scott! CATS! Your party!" She pulled Scott's face in between her hands, directing his the eyes behind his eyewear to look, as far as Jubilee knew, directly into her own eyes. "You could have a CATS themed party!"
Scott drawled out a long, rather whiney "ehh" of indecision and uncertainty. It was awful rich of him to be putting down one of her ideas, Jubilee figured. If he, even for the slightest moment, planned on organizing the party alone then he should have jumped for joy at Jubilee's suggestion.
"I'm serious Scott, it'd be awesome!" Jubilee persisted, twirling around the room. Her yellow coat, while in mid spin, smacked Scott across the face.
While Scott massaged his cheek, Jubilee hastily piled the other DVDs into random boxes and shoved them in the general direction of the other side of the room. She was obviously finding her previous task less important than her new challenge. She had to help Scott with his party. Without her, he would surely be lost. More importantly than lost, Scott would be even MORE unpopular. Jubilee scoffed, what else was a party in high school held for than to boost popularity?
"Eh... I don't know, Jubilee..." Scott gingerly rubbed the back on his neck. He needed a hip party and Jubilee seemed to be very keen on CATS, but would it work? He'd never heard of the... Scott winced. It was a musical?
Jubilee stood up and put her hands to her hips. She gave Scott a proud smile. "Just stick with me, kid, and I promise you your party will be a hit. Jean will be all over you."
Scott stumbled on his words. "J-Jean-?" He looked up at Jubilee with his mouth slightly agape.
Jubilee grinned rather cheesy-like, but she had to in order to give Scott a little reassurance about her party theme. He was, after all, only a guy and one who had had little party experience at that. "Yeah, man!" She slung her arm over his shoulder and guided him up and out of the common room. "Chicks dig a guy with class."
Scott gave her a worried look. "But this will be a high school party- we have no class."
Jubilee waved nonchalantly. "Of course you don't. But if you did, then think how much it'd show up Duncan Mathews!"
"Do... do you spy on me?"
Jubilee snorted. "Like I'm that petty. I read your diary."
-X-
It was super time and Jubilee conveniently was able to switch table setting duties with Evan so she could talk with Scott, whose turn it also was to set up for dinner. All afternoon she had followed Scott around, popping out of his closet and the shower while he was doing in his business in the bathroom- all these costs to just try and convince him her party theme would be a good one. Scott hadn't much appreciated her following him around so... well. If she had slipped up a couple of times, maybe not stalk him so well that now he didn't know when he was alone or not anymore, and the very thought of someone being near tore at his mind and being. Scott disregarded the well being of his mind because of more important matters.
His party, of course, and where to set the forks. Sadly enough, he always seemed to forget.
Jubilee talked continuously and effortlessly as she helped Scott set the table. "I'm telling you Scott, there's nothing to worry about! Everyone will love it! OH! Besides having the party themed with CATS you could have the video of it playing on the big screen! You know, instead of traditional party pop music and grunge!"
Scott wasn't so sure he liked that idea. Kids were known to go crazy, foam at the mouth and tear apart decorative dollies crazy, when they didn't have their pop and grunge.
"I even got Logan to watch it once," Jubilee started as Logan walked into the kitchen. "And he loved it!"
Scott raised an eyebrow. "Logan? Logan loved CATS?" He cast a wary glance to the gruff instructor with the excessively hairy arms. "Our Logan? That Logan? Loved CATS?!"
Logan growled. "Have a problem with that, Slim?" He growled in a hairy beasty sort of way. "It's a good musical..."
Jubilee hugged Logan's arm. "He likes the Old Gumbie Cat act best!"
"Jubilee's trying to get me to agree to a CATS themed party this weekend and I-" Logan silenced Scott with a glare.
"Slim, just do as she says. Resistance will only delay you so long..." Logan shook his head and headed back out of the kitchen with a solemn look upon his face. He stopped. "By the way, Slim, forks go on the left."
Scott sighed. After he finished replacing the forks he shrugged to Jubilee. "Well... I guess you can tell me what I have to do to for the party..." she nodded, wide eyed and excited, waiting for him to say what she thought he would say. "The CATS themed party..."
Jubilee gave a high-pitched squeal of delight. Ah, the magic of pestering. It really does pay off. "And I'll spread the word."
