I do not own any of the lyrics or songs or X-Men :(
Chapter 3
Once upon a time Marie had actually viewed Jubilation Lee as her friend...her best friend since she had caught Kitty and Bobby, but as she stood in front of her bedroom mirror staring at her reflection she wasn't too sure anymore.
In fact, Marie was pretty sure now that Jubilee was a member of the brother hood in disguise. With all of the skin that she had talked her into exposing she was pretty sure that that was what she was and that by getting her to show so much skin she was trying to kill everyone.
She tugged uncomfortably at the neckline and sleeves, trying to get the material to stretch. She huffed when it didn't go any further and settled for tugging at her gloves instead. Jubilee had thrown a tantrum any three year old would have envied when she refused to be parted form her gloves but she had at least settled for the shortest pair that Marie possessed.
Grabbing a bobble from the side of her table she carefully put her hair up into a tight pony-tail.
She didn't feel like herself at all.
At least she didn't have to worry about Pete accidently touching her, he had already proved that as soon as he came anywhere near her he could switch in his mutation and become pretty much immune to her skin.
After Logan had came to her door last night and Jubilee had sent him packing – the look on his face must have been priceless – they had all crept out her and Jubilee's shared room and headed for the danger room. Every room they past was filled with music belting out of stereos and voices both good and bad.
They were pretty proud of their idea and as soon as they had reached the danger room they knew that they had chosen right. Everybody had been so busy in their attempts to throw themselves straight into practicing that they hadn't thought to go somewhere else – like the silent abandoned danger room for example.
All three of them had walked into the eerie, silent, empty room and Jubilee had immediately switched on her iPod - which was plugged into a set of huge portable speakers - with the backing music to practice with.
And so now it was nearly eleven and she was ready to go and do the most nerve racking thing of her life.
The door of the room burst open and she looked away from her reflection to see Jubilee standing with a grin stuck on her face and Marie's old green coat clutched tightly in her hands.
"Remind me again why you aren't singing," Marie groaned as Jubilee shut the door and spun to face her.
"Because I am the irritating yet adorable and supportive best friend...duh," she replied bounding towards Marie.
She took a habitual step back – not comfortable with all of the skin that was showing.
"Rogue, chill. You will be fine," he friend reassured her.
She rubbed at her bare arms and smiled sheepishly.
"I feel like I am hardly wearing anything," she mumbled.
"It's only because of all of the layers you always wear," Jubilee explained patently for the tenth time that morning.
"What you are wearing isn't even that revealing chica so calm down,"
Marie rolled her eyes. She couldn't wait for the whole thing to be over.
"Here chica you are wearing this until it is your turn," she thrust the jacket at Marie who took it quickly, giving up on the idea of asking any questions.
Logan hated waiting. He really did. He was more action guy, not a stand around and wait guy – which was probably why he always got an earful from Scooter after missions.
But that was just what he was doing. The whole of the cafeteria had been transformed. A platform had been out in and seats had been placed at a comfortable distance from the make shift stage.
He still couldn't believe that Jubilee had had the nerve to send him away the night before. Being away from Marie had been close to torture and he never wanted to have to repeat the experience ever again.
The crowd of younger students began to chatter excitedly when the professor rolled in. Logan nodded at the older man from his place leaning against the wall. He had a fair view of everything from where he was – which was just the way he liked it.
Closely following the professor was Storm, Jean and Scott who all joined the professor at the front of the seats.
The next fifteen minutes passed like an hour for Logan as the student auditioning filed into the cafeteria. Finally he caught Marie's scent and his eyes stayed glued to the door until she walked through it a few minutes later.
He was shocked at first when he saw her. She was covered form head to toe and he wanted to know what the bouncing banana had planned because he defiantly recognised the grin that was plastered to her face.
"Jubes this outfit doesn't even fit the song," he heard Marie hiss to her friend who promptly rolled her eyes.
"It doesn't matter, you'll be fine," she hissed back.
Time ticked by as each of the groups took their turn. One of the kids who could control the flow of electricity dimmed all the lights but one that kept focused on the stage.
He listened with boredom and sometimes pain as they all went up, plugged in their backing music and proceeded to jump about and sing – or try to.
But he didn't care what they sang or how they sounded; he wanted to know what Marie was doing.
Finally her turn came and he watched as Jubilee darted excitedly to the speaker and attached her music player before darting even quicker to Marie and Pete and tugging Marie's jacket from her.
His mind stuttered to a standstill as he took her him from head to toe in the beam of light.
It wasn't that what she was wearing was revealing – in fact compared to many if the girls it was modest – but for her it was very showy. The sleeves were short and hardly skimmed the top of her arms. Her gloves were only to her wrist and the neck line of her shirt was exposing a fair bit of the white skin of her throat and neck – he could even see her collar bones.
He followed the line if her body further to see that she was wearing her normal jeans – though they did look a little tighter than usual. But there was a slim sliver if deadly white skin revealed between the waistband of her jeans and top.
He saw the blush that swept across her features and knew then that the whole idea had been that friend of hers.
"Chica you'll do great," Jubilee whispered reassuringly before leaving the stage.
He felt jealously surge through him when Pete reached out one huge, bone crushing hand and gently squeezed her tiny gloved one, smiling warmly at her.
The animal within him raged for freedom wanting to rip and tear at the other male.
Their just friends, their just friends...
"Logan I do not think Rogue will appreciate you clawing her friend to death and I will not tolerate you doing such a thing to a student of mine,"
I hate it when he does that.
The music began and Logan focused everything in him on Marie.
He could smell he slight nervousness at the situation and the way that she shook when she took in a deep breath.
"Tale as old as time
True as it can be"
Her voice was rich and soft as she sang the words to the song, smiling at Pete. There was a maturity to her voice that as far as he was concerned the others girls had lacked with their pop songs.
He listened intently as the song progresses and realised that Pete had a pretty damn good voice too.
He listened to the lyrics and the tune, trying to place where he had heard it before.
"...Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast..."
Then it hit him that the song they were singing was the one that Marie had hummed to when they had watch the film and he found it secretly amusing that in the excitement of getting to perform all of the other students seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that they were to be in an actual show.
He had never known that his Marie had such a beautiful voice and had kept so quiet about it.
Pete and Marie both turned to face each other in the stage as they softly sang the final lines of the song.
"Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast"
Silence filled the cafeteria and he knew that what Marie had just done had probably shocked all those watching – she was, after all, always so quiet.
After a few seconds the professor began to clap and the whole audience quickly followed his example. He heard some wolf whistles and yelling too and watched as a gorgeous blush covered Marie face as Colossus grabbed her hand. They both bowed to the audience before she darted from the make shift stage and grabbed her jacket from Jubilee.
"Girl, you did great," Jubilee shrieked as she helped Marie into her coat.
"And you...my man you rock," she added turning to Pete and planting a playful punch on his arm.
Their conversation drifted away as they walked to the opposite corner and the next student stepped up.
Now that he had heard Marie this was going to be a very long day.
Hi everyone.
So the song decided on was Tale as Old as Time.
Please let me know what you think.
Keep safe
:)