Disclaimer: The characters and events depicted in this story are fictional. Any similarity to any actual person, living or dead, or to any actual events, firms and institutions and other entities is coincidental and unintentional. The story is based on Dokyusei written by Nana to which permission to use its plot has been granted by the author. All characters used are the legal property of Marvel and its constituents.
Attitudes & Feelings, Both Desirable & Sometimes Secretive
Chapter IV : The Games That Play Us
"Rogue, do you know anyone named Alvers?"
The question effectively made Rogue pause, her spoon halfway to her mouth. "Alvers?" she asked, her eyes wide. "Yo' mean Lance Alvers?"
"Alvers-I-don't-know," Kitty said.
But based on how that creep Pete had so familiarly used that name, she could tell HE knew loads about that guy.
"Where did yah hear that name?" was Rogue's next question.
Kitty sighed, thinking it was inevitable that Rogue would work her way to this point. She told her about her lunchtime encounter with Pete.
"Pete…rescued YO'?" Rogue sounded as though she could not believe it, then she leaned in more closely to take in Kitty's face.
"Well…ah guess he has it in somewhere, come to think of it," Rogue said, slowly. "Only, it's pretty weird; yo'd think Pete wouldn't stick out for anyone…"
"He did not rescue me! I was like handling it!" said Kitty, feeling an eye twitch coming. Kitty exhaled loudly and slump over her food. "So what's the history between them?"
Rogue blinked and continued talking.
"Well, it was all such a muddled affair," Rogue said. "The only ones who really know the story are Wisdom and Alvers. At the start, apparently they both hated each other, come t' think of it they're both idiots. Alvers is harmless really. They were both took shop, yo' know? Ah think it was last semester. And then, one day they just weren't talkin' to each other anymor'. Last time ah saw them together in the same room they both got suspended. Apparently it had somethin' t' do with Michelle."
"Michelle?"
"Oh, Michelle Scicluna. Yah probably saw her 'round."
Kitty's could feel her eyebrow lifting at that account.
"Ah know, ah know," Rogue said, waving a hand as she resumed eating. "Like ah said, it was all very muddled. Yah would nevah get anything out of Wisdom, an' everyone's too scared of him to try, anyway. As for Alvers, well…he's not the talkative sort, so…" she shrugged. "Whatevah happened, it was serious enough for Xavier to transfer Alvers to another class an' Michelle t' ask fo' one."
"You mean, you guys were all classmates?" Kitty asked. That was indeed very interesting.
"Sure. He used to sit in front of meh," Rogue said. "An' Michelle was mah lab partner last year."
"Well, is he here now?" Kitty wanted to know, looking casually around. Actually, she reasoned out, she was not particularly interested in seeing this Alvers, but if he were here, she might as well take the opportunity.
"Umm, no," said Rogue. "Ah don't think he eats lunch here. Neither does Michelle."
Kitty lapsed into thoughtful silence, thinking of the scrap of sentence Pete had been saying before. He sounded angry, that was true, but weren't those words obvious enough? Curiouser and curiouser and she, Kitty Pryde, had to be sucked into the whole thing because she somehow because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
'Well,' Kitty huffed, trying to shrug the matter off. 'It's not really any concern of mine what happens between Wisdom and Alvers. Especially Pete. Yeah. And after what he made me go through today!'
With that, Kitty lost no time in burying the troublesome problem of Pete into the back of her mind.
So it was just her bad luck that everything came undone, when she ran into the Michelle Scicluna herself after lunch.
She and Rogue had dodged into the girls' washroom to freshen up a bit before the afternoon's physical science class. Rogue had gone into one of the stalls as another student exited.
"'lo Rogue," she said in a cultured British accent.
"Michelle," responded Rogue politely closing the stall door. Kitty was brushing her hair before the mirror and paused.
"Excuse me," she murmured to Kitty, and opened the tap beside her.
Kitty glanced at her, and did a double take as she took in the girl's appearance. Her long hair was bleach-blond and almost looked white. Her whole attire was perfect, not a hair out of place or a wrinkle in her uniform. There was something about this girl. And it wasn't until Kitty glanced back at her reflection in the mirror that she noted that she was very pretty in a posh kind of way. 'There's no way she would be with Pete!'
She had this look of intense calm and quiet about her which Kitty could almost describe as cold.
Yes, definitely cold. Everything from the look in her eyes to her unhurried movements as she washed her hands in the sink. The girl appeared not to notice Kitty staring. After using the sink, she turned the tap off, got out her handkerchief, turned away, and walked out the washroom without so much as a look around.
"Kit…"
Kitty could see Rogue's reflection in the mirror.
"That's her, isn't she," Kitty said. It was more a statement rather than a query.
"Yes."
Kitty shrugged. "C'mon," she urged Rogue. "We'll be late for class."
As they walked down the corridor to the lab, Kitty could sense Rogue watching her quizzically.
'Right, Kitty! Snap out of it! So what about Michelle Scicluna? Who was she to merit any space in your thoughts?' she told herself. 'I'm sure Rogue's like really confused.'
They passed by the main bulletin board, and a name there immediately caught her eye. It was on top of the sophomore's honors list.
"Umm…well, she's our batch's number one student, too," affirmed Rogue, sensing her thoughts.
'So WHAT? Sowhat sowhat sowhat?'
It was a good thing Rogue could not read minds.
Kitty sighed as their science teacher went on to explain that for the upcoming experiment, they had to be paired into couples, boy-girl groups, no less.
"That way, we will facilitate the speed of the experiment, AND prevent the unfortunate incident of people being left off with no voluntary partners," Mr. McCoy said, his tone a little severe.
"So here we go," said the old teacher, digging into a box of papers with names for the boys, and another box for the girls. He started calling out names.
"God," prayed Kitty, an unpleasant feeling starting to spread at the pit of her stomach.
Judging from the way her day was going, why did she have this weird, horrible feeling.
"Peter Wisdom and Katherine Pryde," Mr. McCoy announced.
Kitty dropped her face into her hands. 'When it rains, it certainly pours,' she thought, sourly.
On the other end of the room, Pete was not looking thrilled himself. Kitty could feel her blood rising as she saw his dark scowl. 'How could he, like, be so uncouth as to show the world he had a problem with her??? They barely knew each other!'
'Well, she wasn't going to sink to his level,' she decided. She wasn't even going to complain to the teacher, as was her original impulse. She was going to let this guy stew.
As the class moved to their designated groups, Kitty affected an air of nonchalance.
"Well, we can start by cleaning the equipment," she greeted Pete as he reluctantly joined her.
Pete could not believe what she had just said, but before he could say anything, Kitty moved in, "You've got a problem with the grouping, I suggest you tell Mr. McCoy yourself."
"You mean yo' don't mind us bein' group mates?" Pete said, disbelievingly.
"I couldn't care less," said Kitty, opening her lab manual, ignoring him.
'If it's a sparring match he wants,' she thought, grimly, he's got one. 'Let the games begin…'
After classes, the two girls walked across the lawn slowly. The shadows were growing longer.
Kitty felt tired, but oddly satisfied, particularly with the afternoon classes. Perhaps her words had sunk in; Pete did not say so much as a single rude thing to her throughout the lab period.
"Well, ah'm sure this has been a long day for yo'," said Rogue as they came to the point where they had to go separate ways. "Don't worry, though, things will get better."
"Right," agreed Kitty.
"And don't worry 'bout Wisdom or Alvers, think o' them as nothin'," advised Rogue. "Or Michelle."
"I'm not worrying," said Kitty tersely.
Rogue smiled. "Good. Ah'll see you tomorrow, then."
"Bye, Rogue," she said with a bright smile and made her way to her bus stop.
It was certainly a strange day, thought Rogue as she made for the gymnasium and the track grounds behind it. Made all the more strange by the events clustering around the arrival of Kitty.
Up ahead, she caught sight of the lone figure making his way to the tracks, and she forgot about the day's events.
"Scott!" She called, smiling, as she recognized an upperclassman who was also a fellow runner.
Scott Summers turned at the sound of her voice.
"Rogue," he greeted her, stopping to wait for her, the fading sun reflecting off his ruby red sunglasses. "Ready for practice?"
"Yo' bet, sugah."
"I hope you've gotten over what that idiot Essex told you earlier," he said. "Let's just concentrate and do our best, okay?"
"Sure," said Rogue, feeling more relaxed, smiling.
They had known each other since junior high school, and it was to Scott that she had run to during lunchtime to unburden herself over what Essex had implicated in the corridor.
"Well, let's meet here after we change and let's go out for our usual run," said Scott, as he branched off to the male dressing room.
"Okay."
He got back first, and waited outside the track oval for Rogue.
"Hey, Summers!" somebody called from the other end of the oval.
Summers turned as he recognized the newcomer. "Hey!" He returned. "What're you doing here?"
The newcomer held up a notebook. "Thanks fo' your math notes, homme. Remy forgot to return dem t' you in class."
Rogue emerged from the female dressing room, and started toward Scott.
Scott had company, and the person was partially shielded from view. It was too late then for Rogue to retreat when she caught sight of who it was. Remy noted her hesitation with a great deal of interest.
"Rogue!" Scott said brightly. "I'm sure you know Remy Lebeau here. He's my classmate. Lebeau, this is Rogue."
Remy gave her a smile. "We've…met," he told Scott, who was oblivious of Rogue's struggles to maintain a calm face.
"Lebeau dropped by to return the notes he borrowed from me when he got sick," explained Scott. "You guys wait here while I dump these in my bag."
Rogue would have wanted to follow him, but Remy was ahead of her.
"Sure. Take your time," he said as Scott took off, effectively blocking Rogue off.
He turned back to her, suppressing a chuckle as he noted her glare.
The game had begun…
To be continued…
Read & review!
- Swing
Chapter Track: The Games that Play Us - The Blackouts (Living In Blue)
Author's Note: A little Pete Wisdom back history, Michelle Scicluna is a canon character, she was a Black Air agent.
Many thanks to the reviewers so far…anyone interested in being my beta for the story? The position is up for grabs.
Star – Ooo, a repeat reviewer. So happy! And Rogue and Remy finally interact. I didn't know that Anthony Stewart Head had to enhance his accent, sounds like a silly idea. True, he is hardly Cockney, although his accent became less uptight when he ate Band Candy (awesome episode). It's great to find someone else who likes Coupling and Red Dwarf. I got a couple of my friends to watch Coupling, we're now stuck in the giggle-loop. As for accents, I have no idea what I am going for, in most of my writing I rarely use accents, this fic has them for just about every character. I find myself going over the chapter six times to fix the accents. Driving me mad! As for Canada, I am biased since I was born and raised here, but it is a swell place to go. I went to England once and had a blast but I only got to see London and Windsor. I developed a love for Fanta, it was cheaper than water. So I was hyped-out on sugar for most of the trip. But it was awesome.
kittylover6678 – I will keep writing and may I say, you have a really long screen name, kudos to you.
NaijaStrawberrie – Awesome! You reviewed all my chapters, thanks a billion! I never know if anyone is reading this and reviews make my day. I will try to update often but editing is tedious. And I will soon be back at school. Why can't work terms last longer…intensive summer classes…urgh. I love how Pete and Kitty interact, more to come.
melissarxy1 – Thanks for reviewing and giving me that extra info. Don't know if John Constantine will show up cause I know nothing about him. If you can give me info on John Gideon and Michelle Scicluna that would be awesome, like why they hate each other so... And we all love the insufferable toe-rag that is Pete Wisdom. :D Computers can be evil, mine is a money pit that shuts down for no particular reason and always sounds like it will self-destruct.
Alley Alvers – I am like the poster girl for love/hate relationships, I think that's why I enjoy Rogue and Remy so much.
cooltangerine – More ROMY on the way!
gambit-rogue – I love ROMY too! Double review, I am so happy! Updates will try to be consistent. Any other pairings you'd like to see? I already am planning on some St. John and Wanda…I have a soft spot for that pairing. Although writing an Australian accent will be even more work.
lee – The answer to your question will be answered in the next chapter…so I guess you'll have to keep reading…
BrOKeN dArK AngeL – The plot shall thicken further…mhahaha. And congrats on being reviewer number 13! I love that number…