Chapter 4
"Oh come on Kitty," John pleaded with her.
"No," she said very forcefully. "Absolutely not."
"Kiiiittyyyyyy," he begged. "Seriously. It's the last day of summer, and you're telling me you just wanna sit on your ass and do nothing? Pleeease?"
"John, I told you no! If you want booze, you can walk into that store and get it yourself," she said, crossing her arms in denial.
John was sitting in the driver's seat of Storm's borrowed Jetta with Kitty riding shotgun in front of a liquor store at 6pm on a Sunday. After their trip to the amusement park, summer had flown by much too quickly. A new semester was starting on Monday, and everyone was bummed.
"Come on John, let's just go, okay?" Rogue said from the back seat. Her and Bobby, now a couple, had been strangely silent in the back of the car and it made John picture some disgusting images in his head. Which is why he was pestering Kitty to phase through the walls of the store and jack a bottle of, well, Jack.
"But I don't want to steal it," he said, waving some cash in her face. "All you have to do is grab a bottle, lay the money on the counter, and high tail it outta there." He retained as much decency as to not desire to steal the booze, it was just the fact that none of them were old enough to buy it legally. "Come on. If you don't, I'll have to go in there and steal it, and wouldn't you hate to contribute to my criminal record?"
"Oh, the non-existent one?" Rogue asked, pointing out his obvious attempt to make himself sound cooler than he was.
"Yes, that one. Now, like I said… come oooooonnn," he begged some more with Kitty.
"John, don't make her do that, that's unfair," Bobby began raising his voice from the backseat. "Just cuz she is the only one capable…"
"Oh, she's not," he said, rounding on Bobby with angered tones. "Rogue could just slap her some skin and do it herself, but yet again, she's proving that she is anything but a rogue."
She looked as if she might slap him, but contained herself.
"Alright, everyone just stop yelling!" Kitty practically screamed, and snatched the money out of John's hand and phased herself through the car door and toward the liquor store, brunette ponytail swaying.
John cackled triumphantly as Bobby sighed in disappointment. Bobby didn't know Kitty that well, but he knew this wasn't like her. She was just doing it because she had been pressured into doing it, and he hated that.
Kitty looked back one last time to the green Jetta where John sat in the front seat, giving her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. She wondered why Xavier had ever let someone like John get his license, and why Storm would ever let him borrow the car.
She sighed, so not wanting to do this right now. But, she would never hear the end of the "chicken-shit" chants from John if she turned back now.
She peeked through the wall of the store very tentatively, and looked around. The only person she could see was the clerk, who was leaning against the wall behind the counter, reading a magazine. Surely he thought the bell above the door would alert him if anyone entered. Guess again.
She quietly phased the rest of the way through the wall, and crouched low to the ground. She peered around the store, completely lost. After all, this was her first time in a liquor store.
If I were Jack Daniels, where would I be? she thought to herself, peering down the aisles of booze. She spotted her prey, and went in for the kill, so to speak. As she grabbed the black-labeled bottle with it's auburn liquid sloshing around inside, she noticed something else. It was a foggy glass bottle with some palm trees and pineapples on the front that looked very tempting. It was a bottle of Malibu Tropical Pineapple rum.
Well, as long as I'm really doing this, she thought, and grabbed that bottle as well. Then, she turned to face the counter, still crouched low so the teller wouldn't see her. She crawled over to the counter, and phased somewhat through the back and up to the register. She thought for sure that if this had been John, he'd have snatched some money out of the register instead of putting some in it. But, that's why she was blessed with this gift and not him. So, she reached up and laid the money into the register, even putting each bill into the correct slot. She grinned to herself as she turned around and began crawling toward the wall she had come in.
Just as she thought she was home free, the bell above the door sang it's tattle tale song as a customer walked in.
"Shit," she hissed under her breath, and jumped behind an aisle.
"Hey Jim, how are you?" she heard the teller say.
Whew, she thought. He hadn't seen her.
"Pretty good, how 'bout yourself?" came the reply.
"Oh I'm hangin' in there. Hey the Malibu rum's on sale, just so you know," said the teller again.
She ruffled her brow and looked down at the bottle in her hand, and sure enough there was a bright orange sticker on it reading "20% off."
I'll be damned, she thought. I overpaid. Oh well. It's John's money anyway.
All of a sudden she only had seconds to think as she noticed the customer, Jim was his name, heading her way. Thinking fast, she phased her hand through the wall and set the bottles on the ground outside. She pulled her hand back in just in time as Jim came walking around the aisle.
"Uh," he said, looking down at her, confused.
"Uh," she said, voice cracking, thinking of something to say. "Damn! You caught me." She stood up and faced the now confused teller. "I was gunna surprise you."
"Do I know you?" he said. He couldn't have been older than twenty-four, but his dumbstruck face made him look twelve.
"Uh, yeah! Remember, senior year chemistry class?" she said, making up all this bullshit as she went. Plus, she had a hard time seeing how he would believe she was out of high school, since she was only seventeen at the moment.
"I was home schooled," he said in a monotone.
"Oh," she said, voice cracking again. "My bad. Wrong guy. See ya later!" With that, she made a b-line for the door faster than she thought she had ever moved before.
She could barely contain her laughter as she rounded the corner, picked up the booze from the sidewalk, and walked to the car. Once back inside the Jetta, she immediately burst out laughing as John took the bottles from her.
"Have you gone loopy?" John asked, an eyebrow raised.
"No," she giggled, composing herself and proceeding to tell them the whole story through interruptions of laughter from everyone else.
Once back at the mansion, it wasn't hard to get the alcohol into Bobby and John's room, where the four of them sat, pouring helpings into shot glasses John had managed to lift from Cyclops' room.
"Aren't you glad you did it, Kitty?" John chided as he picked up his first shot.
"No, but I am glad I tipped the idiot at the cash register 5 bucks," she said, smiling.
John frowned, realizing that he had given her too much money, but didn't give it too much thought.
"Cheers," he said, holding up his shot glass for the three of them to toast.
He downed his shot of Jack with ease, the burning sensation being very welcoming to him. His blood ran, on average, ten degrees warmer than that of typical human temperature, so he gave off more warmth than the others. Thus, the burning of the alcohol wasn't as fierce with him.
The girls, on the other hand, weren't so lucky. And Bobby, for that matter. They coughed as tears came to their eyes, and they tried to fight the irresistible urge to gag.
"Pussies," John said as he poured himself another shot.
They went through almost a quarter of the booze without any interruptions. They were foolish to think such good fortune would continue. But then again, their judgment was already impaired.
They jumped, some choking on half-downed shots as the door flew open. They stared, dumbstruck at Peter Rasputin and Ray Creed. Peter looked wholeheartedly surprised, as did Ray, but Ray had good reason. He looked as if he had just gotten out of the shower, as the only thing he wore was a loosely draped towel around his hips.
"Jesus!" he yelled, trying to cover up better. "We said no girls in the room!"
"Oh," Bobby stated, his tone indicating how intoxicated he was. "Slorry."
"Slorry?" Ray said, now covered as best he could manage and strolling into the room. "I think you've had quite enough." Ray grabbed the bottle, but instead of taking it from them, he stole Bobby's shot glass and poured himself one. "How dare you not invite me."
"Slorry," Rogue said, already making fun of Bobby.
Everyone laughed, and passed the bottle around. Again, their enjoyment lasted a few minutes before being ruined again. But this time, unbeknownst to them, it was for good.
The door opening again interrupted their cheerful conversations, but this time they wouldn't get off the hook so easily. It was Jean Grey, flanked by an angry Storm. They stopped dead in their tracks, knowing they had been caught. No one said a word as angry glances were passed around the room.
Now, they knew. They hadn't even noticed that Peter hadn't come in when Ray had, and he was most likely the cause of their bust. John made a mental note to tell someone capable to beat up Peter someday.
Then, to everyone's amusement, Ray slowly raised a finger and a bolt of electricity shot from it, extinguishing all the lights in the room. As if Jean and Storm hadn't already noticed the booze. And it didn't help that while the lights were out, the clinking of bottles could be heard moving from the bed.
Storm sighed in disappointment, and flipped back on the pooped circuit just outside the room in the hallway. Sure enough, the booze was gone from the bed.
"Yeah, real smooth," Jean said menacingly, strolling around to see the bottles shoved hastily under the nearest bed.
They were caught red handed and they knew it. They didn't bother to make up excuses as they were drilled with the disappointment speech for the next half an hour.
"How did you even get it?" Storm asked, wholly upset.
No one needed to even answer, they were sure, because Jean had probably already sapped the information from Kitty's mind. Jean never really intruded into people's thoughts without permission, but in these circumstances, she would allow herself the choice.
"Kitty?" Jean asked, the disenchantment ringing through her voice. "Of all people, I would think it of you last."
Kitty frowned and let her head bow in shame. She knew she shouldn't have listened to John. And she knew he would never fess up either.
"It's my fault," he blurted, keeping his elegant cool tone.
Kitty was so surprised by this that she actually abandoned her shame to turn and stare at John, not believing he was actually taking responsibility.
"I asked her to do it. She even said no. Three times. I'm sorry. But please don't take it out on her," he said, still maintaining his arrogance even in defeat.
Kitty wanted to pinch herself, to make sure she wasn't in a dream. John never takes responsibility. There must be something in it for him. Yeah, there has to be. There's no other explanation.
Jean seemed somewhat impressed, but it quickly fizzled out. "Well," she began, "you have no idea how disappointed I am in all of you. John, Saturday detentions for a month. The rest of you, I'll see you this Saturday," she finished curtly and whipped around to exit the room. Storm followed, huffing and taking the booze with her. They would be regretting this for a long time. But not as much as they would regret it tomorrow morning.