Oops! Sorry I forgot about the disclaimer in the first chapter, so here it is: Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men.
This chapter is dedicated to 100 Silver Wings. Hope it makes you laugh again. :) Also, huge thanks to everyone who reviewed. Miss-Abigail123: you could consider this Kurtty friendship if you want to. :)
I tapped my pencil against my chin thought carefully. So how would I execute my plan? I had to get my CD back. I bit my lip and the pencil eraser and paced up and down my room. Suddenly I stopped and sighed, falling onto my bed, only to jump back up. I got it! Quickly, I started scribbling down my plan on as many Post-it notes as I could get my hands and tail on.
Fifteen minutes later, after doing recon in the form of crawling along the ceiling into the rec. room and a few feet into Kitty and Rogue's room, trying to find the CD. I noticed Kitty had it in her laptop case, sitting in the rec. room. Slightly frustrated, I 'ported back to my room. My plan hinged on them going back to their room.
All of a sudden, I heard laughter from the rec. room. Yeah. It was that loud. I 'ported down to the rec. room let out a strangled cry as I saw what everyone was laughing at. Me. On Kitty's computer screen.
Aw, schei— my brain started saying, but then I cut it off. I ran across the room and leaped at the laptop. Jean threw a sudden force field at me and I hit it facefirst. I tumbled to the floor and 'ported to sit on top of the table the laptop was balanced on and ripped the power cord out, 'porting away with it.
"Kurt!" Kitty screeched, running into the same force field I had hit. Hurriedly apologizing, Jean took it down and they rushed after me. She hit me with a painless psionic blast that disabled my teleportation.
"Hey! Zat's not nice!" I shouted over my shoulder as Rogue lunged at me and I leapt up onto the wall, computer clutched in my tail. I scrambled onto the ceiling and pressed a bunch of buttons, which didn't do anything. I let a strangled screech as the laptop fell out of my grasp. Logan caught it and held it so everyone could see it just as the CD was getting to the "no you di'n't" part.
I dropped down onto Logan's shoulders and snatched the computer again, but as I went to jump off his shoulders, Evan grabbed my tail and kept me from moving, making me fall onto the ground.
"The computer!" everyone shouted unanimously as it flew up into the air. Scott caught it at the last moment and I ripped my tail out of Evan's hands and slammed my finger onto the "eject" button and the CD came shooting out at me. It hit me in the nose and I cursed loudly as everybody dissolved into fits of laughter. I gathered myself and the remains of my pride up off the floor and tried to stalk haughtily out of the room.
Except haughty is impossible when there's about three different Post-it notes stuck to your feet and tail. Growling softly, I 'ported back to my room and repeatedly smashed my face into a pillow. I chucked the CD across the room and sat for the longest time with my face buried in my pillow, tail twitching irritatedly.
Suddenly, a noise came to my attention. I raised my head off the pillow and saw Kitty creeping around my room, hands in the "gun" formation, muttering the Mission Impossible theme quietly. She did a quick tuck-and-roll and snatched up the CD.
"Sha-zam!" she declared, miming firing a few shots at me before doing another tuck-and-roll towards the wall. I kicked myself into action and leapt at her, and she laughed and phased through the wall, leaving her hand, holding the CD, stuck through the wall. I heard her laugh faintly and grabbed her hand, tickling her palm by sweeping my tail barb down her fingers. Her fingers convulsed around the CD and pulled through the wall.
Annoyed, I slammed my fist against the wall. Operation CD had failed. Epically. Now came plan B.
XXX
"Keety? Rogue? Let me in, please?" I asked pathetically, forehead resting against the warm wood of their door. I heard movement in the room and my tail twitched spasmodically. "Bitte?"
I stood there for another few moments before the door unexpectedly swung open and I staggered forward, running into Kitty, who stepped out of my way, looking amused, smiling broadly. As I fell to the ground and rolled over quickly, Kitty dropped the CD on my face, hitting my nose.
"Gott im Himmel, vill you stop doing zat!" I cried, rubbing my nose as Kitty started laughing again. Rogue bit her lip to keep from laughing, sitting cross-legged on her bed with a small book. Kitty covered her mouth with her hand and sighed, then held a hand out. I accepted it gratefully and she hauled me upright. I snatched up the CD and stuffed it in my back pocket using my tail.
I kept a hold of Kitty's hand and tickled it again, making her giggle and phase her hand out of my grasp. "Zanks." I 'ported back to my room and took out the spare keys to the X-Van I had. Wielding the keys like a weapon, I made deep crossing gouges in the back of the CD, then threw it in the trash.
XXX
The next day, I spent an hour messing with my image inducer so that I had seven different outfits available to me, though I wouldn't really need it unless I went out into town. I'd spoken with the Professor again, and we'd come to the consensus that while I could get away with no inducer in school, I'd have to wear it around town, something I didn't mind at all.
On the whole, though, Sunday was very boring, though. Very boring indeed.
XXX
Monday morning, though, was the complete opposite of Sunday. I woke up two hours early and paced around my room a few hundred times, then went and took a shower, got dressed, and went and paced more. Then I felt the Professor touch my mind.
Kurt, there's nothing to be that anxious about. I called yesterday and got everything sorted out. Your schedule is the same, except you've got new rooms. You have to go to the main office and talk to the secretary, and she'll give you your new room assignments. The classes are very small, for special students. Not special education students, special as in your sort of special.
They're mutants? I wondered in a cohesive thought so the Professor could "hear" it easily.
Not really. It's difficult to explain, but you'll see. Try to calm down, it will be fine, I assure you Kurt.
Right, zank you, Professor. I thought, and I felt him leave my mind. I really was not reassured, and continued pacing, watching the minutes on my clock count up, feeling sick to my stomach, jittery. Not in a good way. Sighing heavily and rubbing my temples, I frowned at my reflection and turned my image inducer off, smiling at my real reflection.
I jumped and knocked a small dish of earrings over as an alarm in the room next door went off and somebody rolled out of bed. I scooped the spilled jewelry up with my tail, the dish with my hands, and put them back on the table in their proper place, realizing I'd forgotten to put my earring in. I always wore an earring in my left ear, though most of the time it was covered by the hologram. I wouldn't stop being myself just because I wasn't wearing a fancy watch.
Simple gold hoop in place in my left ear, I 'ported down to the kitchen and grabbed my backpack from the hall before pouring myself a bowl of cereal and chowing down, watching the doorway to the kitchen as I heard people thundering downstairs. Kitty came down first, finishing putting her necklace on.
"Nice earring, Kurt. New?" she asked conversationally. I swallowed my cereal.
"Ja. Figured I'd do somezing new for my, sorta first day of school." I answered, taking another bite. She nodded and found something for breakfast, eating at the counter as the rest of the X-Men came into the kitchen. I got a few other compliments about my earring before everyone finished and Scott offered a ride to school, which I accepted, along with everybody else.
"Uh, well . . . somebody's getting voted off the island. Any volunteers?" Scott announced. There was a dull hum as everyone thought about it.
"I know Jean's going, so that leaves three of us who can ride. Kurt should go, 'cause it's a big day for him; Evan, you go 'cause you're his best friend—" Kitty started reasoning, checking us off on her fingers
"And Kit, you go too, cause yer his best friend too. I can get a different ride." Rogue cut across her. Kitty looked like she was going to argue, but said:
"Thanks."
"Yeah, zanks, guys." I said, smiling at them. "But who are you going to get a ride from?" I asked Rogue.
"I don't think Logan woul' be to bothered." She answered nonchalantly as Logan walked in.
"It's only coz I owe you, Stripes." He growled, peeling a banana with one of his claws. Rogue grimaced at him and left, snatching up his helmet. I smiled at her as Logan shook his head exasperatedly, but I knew he'd put up with Rogue. Anything for Rogue.
"Let's go. Kurt, got your entourage?" Scott joked. I held my arms out and Kitty and Evan each took an arm. Evan's not gay. I've asked him. The only reason he took my arm was because he's used to it, and it's just the way I ask people to teleport with me. So quit freaking.
I nodded to Scott and 'ported out to the garage and waited for Jean and Scott to show up a minute later. I vaulted over the door into the backseat of the convertible and everybody got in the car in a more normal way, and as we left the garage, we saw Logan and Rogue roaring down the driveway on his bike ahead of us.
We got to school a few minutes later, Rogue making a small scene, and suddenly wanting to back out, turn my inducer on, and act like it was okay, no freaky de—elfin dude here. No fuzzy dude. Kitty suddenly gripped my arm, Evan held my tail (gently), and they stopped me from pressing the button. Scott drove around to the side of the school and let me teleport in to the building, an empty classroom near the main office that I could see into through a window. I took Kitty with me for moral support, and took the most person-free route to the main office that I could. I only saw one person, who didn't see me because they were drinking at the water fountain.
"I'm here to pick up a schedule for Kurt Wagner," I said in a low tone to the secretary. She looked at me oddly, but the Professor must have told her about me because she didn't say anything, just handed me a piece of paper with my new rooms on it. "Zanks."
"See? It wasn't that bad." Kitty said to me as we left the office and teleported down long stretches of hallway towards the back of the building. My tail , which I was fighting with to stay low, around my ankles, was trying to swish agitatedly back and forth, but I just held it as it hit the lockers with a rattling clang, nervously fingering the barb.
"Vot if—" I started.
"Kurt, don't think about "what if". Think about what is. Like, you know you're going to be great. The way you're acting you'd think you're going on trial for murder. Calm down, my Fuzzy Elf." Kitty said, leaning her head on my shoulder. I nodded and 'ported down another stretch of hallway and arrived outside the door to my new AP Bio room.
I clung to Kitty like she was my life preserver.
"Fuzzy Elf, you've got to let go. It's okay, you won't drown." Kitty said gently, prying my fingers off her arm. "Go on." She gave me a gentle push towards the door with an encouraging smile and a nod.
I suddenly felt like a child on the first day of kindergarten, not wanting to let go of their mother.
"Gotta go," Kitty said softly. I smiled shakily and fumbled around on the door for the handle, finally finding it and turning it, still hesitating. Kitty blew a kiss to me, which I caught and put on my cheek, turning and walking into the room, the door shutting behind me.
"Your girlfriend's really nice. What's her name?" A soft female voice asked. I looked to my left and saw a girl with really pale skin and dark red hair and a big baby bump. She didn't seem to care about the way I looked.
"Eh . . . she's not my girlfriend . . . but her name's Keety. You're not bozzered by . . . zis?" I waved my arms around, indicating my fur and tail and stuff. The girl shook her head.
"I like blue. It's my favorite color. My name's Kaylie. What's yours?" Kaylie asked.
"Kurt. Is zere anybody else in ze class?" I asked. Kaylie nodded.
"There's a desk over there that nobody sits in." Kaylie pointed at a desk over in the middle of the small rectangular room. "By the way: nice earring."
I smiled and went over to the desk Kaylie had pointed out, sitting down and wishing that for the love of God this was not a class for pregnant girls. Thankfully, it wasn't. In a few minutes, the room filled up and Kaylie was the only pregnant girl. There was a guy who had a twisted face and couldn't talk right and drooled, a really quiet emo girl who had lots of cutting scars on her bare arms, another girl who needed a little machine sort of thing that she pressed to her throat to talk with, and a kid who was really smart, but had such huge self-esteem issues, he couldn't stand to be in a room with more than fifteen people. As the Professor had said, none of them were special-ed.
At least, not in the sense everybody uses it. I was now part of a group of kids that were known as the "troubled kids" or the "troublemakers" or "jr. special-ed". Three years of high school and I never thought I'd end up here. Never.
"We have a new student in class today, everyone. His name is Kurt." The teacher said, motioning for me to stand up.
"Hey . . ." I said lamely. "I come from ze Xavier Institute . . . and I'm a mutant. If you vont to call me somezing, call me Elf." I sat back down quickly and ducked my head down. Way to sound as useful as a horse with four broken legs, Elf. My internal monologue started up as the teacher started in on the lesson.
I found myself liking this class a lot better than normal class. Because it was so small, she could pay more attention to each of us and we got to have these really cool discussions. There was no pressure to be "normal" by normal standards. It was a really relax-and-be-totally-yourself environment, and I felt just as normal as I did when I was hanging out with the rest of the X-Men.
When the bell rang, I jumped slightly, but passed it off as a fidget. I pulled out my schedule and saw my next class was practically on the other side of the school. I stood and shrugged my backpack up onto my shoulders and went to leave, relieved to find that not many kids came down the hall I was in. I 'ported to the end of the hall and looked back, seeing Kaylie smiling at me, giving me a thumbs-up. I smirked and 'ported to the far end of the next hall. I was so busy looking around to see if anybody had noticed me I didn't see where I was going and ran into somebody. Just as I tensed up to 'port, I heard a familiar voice.
"Relax, fuzzbutt. It's me." Pietro said, a slight scathing edge to his voice. "Look at you, big boy not hiding behind a watch anymore." He smirked infuriatingly.
"If I vere you I'd shut up now." I growled, trying to push past him, but he held out his arm and stopped me.
"Thing is, I'm not you. So I'm not shutting up." He said, looking down his nose at me like he was effin' royal. Then something caught his eye. "Finally admitting it, eh?"
I followed his gaze to my left shoulder and realized he was looking at my earring. Why was everybody so Gott verdammt obsessed with my earring? !
"I vear vone every day. It gets hidden by my hologram." I said, eyeing Pietro's earring, in his left ear, which looked almost identical to mine. "You're not going . . . to ask me out or anyzing, are you?" I asked apprehensively.
"God, fuzzbutt! I may be gay, but that sure as Hell doesn't mean I'm attracted to you." He said as if I had offended him. I let out a sigh of relief and succeeded in pushing past him and getting to my next class just as the bell rang. As I closed the door behind me, everybody stared. The class was bigger and I was getting that pitchforks-and-torches vibe from them. I sighed and took an open seat in the corner, and their eyes went back to the front of the room. Rubbing my temples as a headache started, I knew this was going to be a long day.
XXX
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Hmm . . . I feel like for some reason you guys won't like this chapter as much. Maybe it's the gay references that are bothering me. Not like that—I'm not homophobic or anything (hell, just the opposite), I just get this feeling that nobody else will not like, but dislike. Rephrase: I have a feeling you guys will highly dislike the gay references. Prove me wrong, please . . . ?