Heya! Chapter 3 looms!
I've always adored the X-Books New Mutants and Generation X and especially the characters Cannonball, Mirage, Jubilee, Chamber and Husk. Seeing the Gen X reboot has inspired me. What about you?
Please review and I am open to suggestions and comments as usual.
These characters belong to Marvel except for Nick, Miri and Joe. They are mine. Have fun!
-Maria
Episode 3: The Class Reunion (Part 2)
That's when Nick noticed no one else around him, kid or adult, seemed especially concerned by the siren-like wailing Jubilee was making. They glanced her way in mild amusement before resuming their conversations and games.
Nick suddenly spotted two familiar (and very welcome in Nick's case) figures trotting out of the crowd towards him. It was his friend from play-group Miri and her mum Danielle Moonstar.
Jono and Jubilee's class at Xavier's Institute, where they attended school as kids, had had the nickname of "Gen X." And the Gen X'ers had a not-so-friendly rivalry with the class before them, called the "New Mutants," which included Dani Moonstar.
So it made sense Jubilee was eying the approaching woman with more than a tad of contempt.
Dani was a striking woman with her long, long black hair in two plaits down her back and dark tilting eyes. Her hair was so glossy it gave off shimmering purple lights.
Miri was almost six, but already as tall as her mother's shoulder. Her hair was dark too and plaited into prim braids, but in certain lights it had an odd auburn hue and her eyes were round, luminous and green.
"Nick!" the girl called out. "I brought the Red Monkey Book!" she said excitedly, clutching a large picture book with a red stuffed monkey on the cover. "I know how much you love it!"
"Great …" Nick replied, forcing a smile.
Oh well, at least Miri was here now. He knew her and she would play with him. He wouldn't have to talk to the other strange kids and he was relieved and grateful. He'd willingly read the stupid Red Monkey Book if it meant Miri staying here with him.
Miri gave him a puzzled look. "Where is your hat?" she asked.
The girl was wearing a neat little hat with fox ears. Nick stared at it. He wanted one, but, of course, was too polite to ask his father for it. His mum had told Nick he must never whine or pout to get things.
Nick suddenly realized all the kids running around the treehouse had on hats that looked like different animals. Well, except Joe, who presently cannoned into Miri. Nick didn't think much of Joe, even from what little he'd seen of him, but the fact another kid didn't have an animal hat on made Nick feel better.
"Here is mine!" Joe crowed as he disentangled himself from Miri.
His was a turtle hat. Oooh, Nick wanted it even more than Miri's fox hat.
"Watch me be a real turtle!" Joe shouted. He pulled his arms inside his shirt sleeves and then his head inside his shirt collar and rolled around on the floor. "Now I'm invisible!" the boy's muffled voice said from inside his shirt. "You can't see me!"
"Oh, Joe, we can too see you!" Miri responded, giving Joe a playful swat.
She looked at Nick, smiling and rolling her eyes as if to say, "Kids!" in an exasperated way.
Miri was the eldest kid in the play-group and, by the looks of it, probably the eldest kid here, Nick concluded. He liked Miri all right, but she could be a bit bossy and condescending due to her age. When she and Nick got together, Miri decided what they should do and what they should play. Nick figured they would argue a lot more if he wasn't so timid. However, he secretly admitted that it was nice to have a bigger kid around to tell him what to do.
"We're all supposed to wear animal hats here at school," Miri explained.
Nick felt very annoyed at this – and especially at his father. Nick was dressed to the nines in a three-piece suit with a tie. His father insisted his boy "make a good first impression" at school, but Jono forgot about the school dress-code? Or maybe he didn't even know about it?
Wasn't it Jono's responsibility to know this? Nick thought furiously. Couldn't he have gotten a syllabus or something?!
Jono's incompetence as a parent, and his fussing and fluttering to make up for his blunders, were perhaps what infuriated Nick the most about his father.
Jono would forget there was no milk in the fridge for breakfast and then run to the supermarket to buy twelve quarts. He'd be fifteen minutes late to pick up Nick from play-group and then for the next week straight arrive an hour early.
The man practically stank of trying too hard. It made Nick not only feel angry and exasperated, but also embarrassed and ashamed of his dad. Why couldn't Jono just handle problems in an efficient businesslike manner like parents were supposed to?
Like Nick's mum always had?
"Don't worry, Nick," said Dani, bending over to put her hand on his shoulder.
Nick was very intimidated by Miri's mum, for she had a ferocious temper. Miri was a bit of a hothead too and often talked back to Danielle. Mother and daughter argued often and loudly and Nick, who had been raised to be accommodating and polite since birth, was frequently terrified by their fierce spats. Dani, however, had never spoken to the shy boy with anything but gentle words.
"I brought you this," Dani added, pulling an animal hat out of her bag. It had the silver spots and fuzzy ears of a snow leopard! How did Miri's mum know his favorite animal was a snow leopard? Nick couldn't remember mentioning it to Miri or anybody really.
But then Dani was always doing rather odd things around Nick when he thought about it - especially when the boy felt particularly anxious or sad about missing his mum. On days he was especially depressed, she'd show up at play-group with a Happy Meal for him or his favorite flavor of cake - black walnut, another penchant he couldn't recall disclosing to Dani or her daughter.
These little favors struck Nick as quite strange, especially since Dani never indulged Miri with such treats. Dani had a reputation as a very strict parent.
Nick was so shocked he could barely stammer a "thank you" to her. He put on the hat. It didn't fall down over his eyes or squeeze his head. It fit perfectly.
Dani smiled tenderly at the boy. "I was going to give it to you at play-group, but I forgot."
"Play-group?" Jubilee interrupted rather rudely.
Yeah, the Single Mutant Mums Play-Group, Jono explained to her. Nick and Miri are a part of it.
"And Moonstar and you?" Jubilee said, scowling. "You make quite a fetching mum, Starsmore."
Why, thank you, Lee, Jono replied humorously.
"Fraternizing with the enemy much?" Jubilee muttered to Jono, but loud enough so Dani could hear her clearly.
The fact that Jubilee had spoken these provoking words when she could have easily just sent Jono a private telepathic message was a double affront on Dani's honor and, in the old days when they were kids in school, Jubilee might have been spoiling for a fight from the fierce-tempered Moonstar. As it was, Danielle glared at her.
Com'on, those days of old class rivalries are over, Jono entreated the two women, trying to smooth things out between them. He didn't think they'd fight in front of the kids, but with Dani's temper and Jubilee's mouth, he didn't want to tempt Fate.
Dani's all right. She's helped me out loads since I got custody of Nick, he explained. Bloody 'ell, there are some days I'm ready to build monuments to single mums - specifically for Dani.
"Jono has a long way to go, but he's coming along," said Dani with a gracious smile at her fellow single parent. She and Jono had never had a personal quarrel, despite their classes' rivalry when they were school-kids. Truthfully, Dani rather liked the quiet-spoken young man who was slowly but surely coming into his own as a father. And though kindhearted, she was stern and didn't just hand out empty praise.
"Of course, Nick here is a great teacher," Dani added. She ruffled the small boy's hair, making it somehow messier. Nick usually hated when grownups did that, but for some reason he didn't mind so much when Dani did.
"But a good support network is always a great asset, especially when you're a single parent," she explained in that brisk take-charge manner Dani, a born leader, was known for. However, she narrowed her dark eyes slightly at Jubilee, smirking a bit. "You should join us, Lee."
"I'll consider it …" Jubilee growled, noting with clear disapproval the reassuring hand Dani had placed on Jono's arm.
There was a hubbub in the crowd of people gathered inside the treehouse, with several shouts and exclamations.
What's up? asked Jono, craning his neck to see over heads to the apparent fray.
Nick, hyper-vigilant as usual, took a tentative step behind Miri.
"Oh-Ho! That's most likely Cannonball's son," Jubilee said with a laugh.
What appeared to be twin balls of fire shot out of the assembled people, followed by shrieks and screams. One fire-ball rocketed into Joe, sending him careening into a crash straight into a table loaded with hors d'oeuvres. Pimento cheese sandwiches flew in every direction. Another fire-ball ignited the frilly curtains over one of the windows cut into the tree's bark.
"Yep, that's definitely Cannonball's kid," Dani chuckled, crossing her arms and flashing Jubilee a smile in a rare moment of solidarity between the two women.
Adults, dragging children out of harm's way, parted like an Old Testament miracle to let through an approaching man with a young boy strapped in a harness and leash. The harness was actually a backpack shaped like a monkey and its "leash" was the monkey's tail, but everyone present understood its purpose, because the boy was hovering about three feet off the ground and straining against his restraints.
He was wearing a hood (built into the backpack) with little monkey ears and goggles over his eyes and shouting the same words over and over: "Boom! Boom!"
His father was being dragged along behind the kid like he was walking a Great Dane. "Lex, whoooa, son!" he called out.
"Boom! Boom!" the boy yelled gleefully. Two more fire-balls sprouted out of his chest and shot into the crowd. Another set of frilly curtains caught fire. People scurried to beat out the flames.
"Sam," said Dani, nodding to the man.
"Dani," Sam replied, looping the kid's leash around a sturdy branch, before collapsing against the wall, looking exhausted.
"That kid needs more discipline," Dani clucked, shaking her head.
"Ah got the kid a leash like you said, Moonstar," Sam replied grumpily.
"That might not be the problem," Jubilee put in helpfully. "It might be, like, great balls of fire."
Sam wiped his forehead. "They ain't fire , Lee," he panted. "Dr. Grey seems to think they are psionic balls of energy that kinda act as homing missiles."
"Oh, well, that makes me feel so much better," Jubilee commented, jiggling Shogo.
"Ah well, ah lady's feelings are always mah priority," Sam replied with a grin and an accent that just oozed Southern charm.
No matter the circumstances, Sam Guthrie, known by his many friends and few enemies as Cannonball, could rarely stay in a bad mood for very long. He was just too good-natured.
"How you, Miss Jubilee?" he asked. "Dani?" He hugged both women enthusiastically as his son zoomed around in circles like a parakeet on a string.
Though Jubilee and Dani belonged in different classes at Xavier's, Sam never saw the boundaries set by these rivalries. During the old days, and even today, he was everyone's "big brother," always open and available for support and advice.
He certainly had had enough practice as a big brother, growing up the eldest child on a rural farm full of younger siblings. Sam had changed from the gangling, clean-cut young man who first attended Xavier's. His long straw-colored hair was pulled back in a ponytail and cannons were tattooed on each of his big biceps, but his genial, easygoing personality seemed unchanging.
"Uncle Sammie!" Miri yelped, dropping her dignity for a moment as she jumped to be picked up by Sam.
"Yah gettin' big, little vixen," he said to the girl as he swung her around. "Pretty too, like yah Mamma."
As Joe romped up, apparently recovered from Lex's psionic blast, Sam said: "Show me yah muscles, Joey!"
As little Joe and tall, handsome Cannonball flexed together in a show of manly bonding, Joe exclaimed: "Lookit! I got inna fight, Uncle Sammie!" as he pointed excitedly at his "shiner."
"Ah, yah gonna be a soldier, son, jus' like yah Granny! You win?" Sam asked.
Joe shrugged and smiled. "Nope, that kid ovah there beat me up!"
"I didn't!" Nick peeped, hiding behind Dani. "I mean, I didn't mean to," he stated truthfully. "He ran into me!"
"Well, now," Sam drawled, clapping a hand on Nick's shoulder. "That is impressive. I never seen anybody lick Joey here inna fight. An' you weren't even tryin'?"
"Uh …" Nick replied, not sure what to say to that. Apparently, he had fought and won his first fight and the first day of school hadn't even begun.
"Ain't never seen you 'round here," said Sam, smiling benignly at Nick. "Whose boy are you?"
"He's Jono's from play-group," Dani explained.
"Ah," Sam replied somewhat coldly, seeming to suddenly notice Nick's father standing nearby. Sam Guthrie's kind and tolerant nature extended to everyone – all except his little sisters' former suitors. He'd never met one he didn't despise.
Jono had always felt indignant and resentful of Sam's attitude towards him. He and Paige had not parted on particularly bad terms. Hell, they'd not really ever argued during their awkward teenage courtship.
Better look elsewhere, mate, Jono thought, wryly recalling what Jubilee had said about Sam and shotgun weddings. Jono had never done anything to compromise Paige's honor. He hadn't laid eyes on her in more than five years, in fact; and they'd certainly never done anything to make a baby.
"Hey, Sam! Lex, wait up!" a female voice called out.
A very pretty young blonde woman, ushering two small boys alongside her, appeared out of the crowd. It took Jono a few moments to recognize her and when he did his jaw would have dropped if he had one.
It was Paige Guthrie, his first love.
Next time: Things get awkward as young lovers are reunited and the kiddos meet their new school teachers.