Laura's Journal
An X-Men Evolution Fanfic by Quill N. Inque
I do not own X-Men.
Chapter 9: The Path Chosen
I avoided everyone I could for the rest of the afternoon, mostly because I knew that Kitty would start interrogating me if I ran across her. I didn't want to answer a whole LOT of uncomfortable questions, so I remained in my room with J.R.R Tolkien for company until Logan barged in to tell me that supper was on the table.
I nearly jumped out of my skin as he flung the door open, and my claws shot out from behind my knuckles by pure instinct as my book went skidding across the floor.
"A bit high strung, aren't ya?" Logan snorted.
"Force of habit," I replied caustically. "What do you want?"
"Dinner's ready," Logan grunted. "If yer not there in five minutes, I'm eatin' yer share, Small Fry."
"Eat my share and I'll make you eat your arm," I warned him.
For a second, I swear he actually smiled. "That's a new one," Logan said drily. "Creative, too. Now c'mon, before th'food gits cold."
I reluctantly slid off of my bed and felt the carpet sink under my feet. Without even meaning to, I fell in step beside him.
"How's school?" Logan said, breaking the silence when we were halfway down the hall.
"Why do you care?" I asked warily. "It doesn't concern you one way or the other."
"The hell it doesn't," Logan growled. "I brought you t'the Institute, Laura, an' that makes takin' care o' you my responsibility."
Coming from anyone else, that would have sounded touching, but considering this was Logan talking his words seemed just as coarse and grumpy as ever. I wondered if his face would crack if he ever did anything else other than scowling.
"School is…challenging," I said, taking a moment to search for the right word.
"Yeah? How so? Are yer classes tough?"
My footsteps faltered for a moment. Geez, Logan actually was taking his crash-course in parenting somewhat seriously. "No," I shook my head. "The academics are simple enough, though the amount of 'homework' is kinda irritating. The greatest problem, to me, is the complex social hierarchy that everyone else seems to adhere to."
"Go on," Logan nodded.
"Most of the normal humans there seem to harbor virulently anti-mutant prejudices," I added, frowning as I did so. "This makes attending class difficult, especially when those whom the students look to for leadership try to assert their dominance over us."
"In other words, bullies," Logan snorted.
"I am not afraid of them," I snarled, just in case the thought may have crossed his mind. "Compared to HYDRA, those people are more of a minor nuisance than anything else."
"So I take it ya didn't make any new human friends?" Logan asked with his characteristic sarcasm.
I paled for a second, and prayed he didn't notice. I still hadn't told Logan about Chase, after all, and I had no intention of doing so until I knew what his reaction would be. "There is one," I said slowly. "He's been…nice to me, so far."
"He'd damn well better be," Logan replied fiercely. "Or I might have t'pay him a little visit. What's his name?"
I made a mental note not to have Chase come within a mile of the Institute if I could help it. "Chase Lancaster," I said warily, cautious of giving away too much at once.
"Th'same Chase that Kitty's always goin' on about?"
I tried not to swallow nervously. "Yeah."
Logan narrowed his eyes. "He ain't hittin' on ya, is he?"
"No one aside from you has ever hit me and lived more than five seconds afterward."
Logan sighed. "That ain't what I meant, squirt."
I know, I thought, before subtly changing the subject.
"So…what's Beast fixing for dinner?"
Logan gave me a fierce grin. "Beast ain't fixin' dinner t'night, Small Fry. Gambit is."
"The Cajun guy?" I asked.
Logan nodded. 'Hope ya like spicy food, kid, 'cuz Remy doesn't go easy on the Cayenne pepper."
I hate to admit it, but he was right. I could almost feel the fiery taste of the thick stew that was being served. Just the smell of it was like sticking your nose in a jar of mustard and inhaling, and since my sense of smell is sharper than that of most people, I had to avert my head as a grinning Gambit ladled his concoction into an empty bowl and shoved it into my hands.
"Enjoy, cherie," he grinned. "This is just the stuff t'put a twinkle in your eye."
I doubted that the fiery dish was more likely to make my eyes start watering, but I had learned that the rules of "etiquette" frowned on me voicing my opinion of Remy's cooking aloud. I tried not to breathe too deeply as I found a seat away from Xavier and the other X-Men; I didn't feel comfortable enough around them to sit at the long table they shared, since I still had a lot to learn about the niceties you adhered to in a setting like that. So I just nodded at Gambit and took a seat at the smaller, round table by the kitchen window. I wouldn't be bothered there.
I guess I'll come right out and admit that there was another reason I wanted to eat alone. I was still angry at Kitty for blackmailing me. That was actually an understatement: I felt madder than the red-bearded, trigger-happy cartoon freak called "Yosemite Sam" that Bobby had been laughing at on the television when I'd first arrived home from school.
Someone slid into the chair sitting opposite me, and I fought not to give Kitty an icy glare as she grinned that stupid smile back at me.
GodDAMMIT, I wanted to punch her in the face. I wanted to hit her so hard that she'd end up swallowing her teeth.
"So, like, how'd it go?" she asked. "You weren't in homeroom this morning."
"I was delayed," my tone was flat. "Principal Kelly decided that he could get his kicks by trying to intimidate me. He failed."
"He didn't expel you, did he?" Kitty blew steam off her spoonful of gumbo. "Kelly's always looking for an excuse to get rid of us."
"No. He gave me something called 'detention' and threw me out of his office," I snorted, laughing in spite of myself at the memory of how pathetic Kelly's punishmen had seemed compared to the hell that HYDRA had put me through.
"And Chase?" Kitty was practically squirming in her seat with eagerness. "How'd it go with him?"
"None of your damn business," I snapped.
"Did you talk to him?"
"Yes.
"What'd he say? What did you say?"
"Go to hell. You wanted me to talk to him, and I did," I growled. "Now give me the damn tape, now, or I swear I'll cut you up into so many pieces they won't be able to identify your body."
"All right, chill," Kitty held her hands up and fished a compact disc out of her pocket. "Here it is, okay?"
I snatched the CD, snapped it in two, and slid it back across the table. "You'd better not have made copies," I warned.
"I didn't, I promise," Kitty shook her head vigorously, and I knew she wasn't lying because her heartbeat didn't fluctuate. "Now what happened with Chase? Spill it!" she said, grinning from ear to ear.
I threw down my eating utensil in exasperation as I realized that Kitty would never leave me alone until I told her what had occurred between Chase and myself. I could see it in her eyes. "Calm down and lower your voice," I hissed, flicking my eyes in the direction of Logan, who sat at the other table with his back to me. "I…I don't want Logan to know, not yet."
"Know what?" Kitty's eyes grew as big as dinner plates.
I took a deep breath and gave her the Cliff's Notes version of what transpired between Chase and I.
Kitty let out a strangled grunt as she fought to smother her laughter as I got to the part where I had bluntly asked Chase how he felt about me. "Geez, poor guy," she said, taking a deep breath. "I'll bet he didn't see THAT one coming!"
"I was supposed to find out if he had the 'crush' on me, right?" I said, confused as to what was so funny. "Asking him directly seemed the best way to find out. He DID seem surprised, though," I added, somewhat hesitantly.
"I know I would be," Kitty nodded. "I'd probably be really uncomfortable, too."
I thought, with a twinge of something that could have been guilt, that that was exactly how Chase had seemed to react. I was momentarily lost for words, but then Kitty leaned forward and asked, "So what happened then?"
"He stuttered and mumbled a lot for a few minutes," I shrugged. "I started getting impatient, so I asked him again in the form of a yes-or-no question. He hesitated a few seconds longer, but then he finally found his voice and said yes."
Kitty looked like she would explode like an over-inflated balloon. "Told you so," she grinned smugly. "Gotta give him props for having the guts to come out and say it, though, especially in a situation like that. What are you going to do now?"
I gritted my teeth. I had no intention of telling Kitty that her forcefulness at breakfast that morning had influenced my decision. "I considered 'going out' with Chase from every angle I could think of," I admitted. "I factored in the potential risks against the potential benefits, and came to the conclusion that trying to 'date' him would NOT be a good idea. Chase would be held in contempt by those around him for choosing me, and I would be hated by more than Samantha Kelly and her groupies for what would be seen as rising above my social station."
"But you're still going to do it, aren't you?" Kitty grinned.
"Yes."
Kitty punched me lightly on the arm. "Atta girl! Way to go, Laura!"
I snatched her by the wrist and squeezed so hard that the veins there became visible, and with my other hand I unsheathed my claws and pressed the metal to the tender flesh. All it would take would be the slightest application of pressure to send Kitty Pryde's body bleeding out onto the tile floor at my feet.
"Oh, and by the way," I said, my tone deathly quiet, "Don't ever try to blackmail me again."
"R-Right," Kitty nodded furiously. "Got it."
I released her quickly, my anger at the other girl vanishing rapidly now that my point had been explicitly made. "I'm glad we understand each other," I said, getting up to take my bowl to the sink. I didn't want to keep talking about Chase anymore, especially with the annoying exuberant Kitty; the thought of him made me…nervous.
I felt like punching myself. No one other than Logan had ever made me feel anything approaching anxiety. How could Chase, who looked about as dangerous as a butter knife, make my stomach flutter like that?
I am almost ashamed to admit that my hands began to shake slightly as they gripped the banister when I headed back upstairs. My entire body, for all its indestructibility, began to shiver with a frightening combination of sheer terror and nervous excitement. Kitty's words, though she would never know it, had had more of an effect on me than I would ever admit. I was almost dizzy with the torrent of uncomfortably foreign and strange feelings that began whirling inside my head along with a storm of frenzied, manic thoughts that flew so thick and fast that I was barely able to make sense of them. I was terrified of what I would tell Chase tomorrow, scared of the consequences that I knew my decision would bring upon both of us, nervous as to when and even if I should tell Logan about any of it, and filled with a lack of confidence that left an empty, grapefruit-sized hole in my chest.
Tomorrow, I knew, I would come to that door that I guess almost everyone faces at some point in life, a door which, once pulled wide, can never be shut or closed again no matter how much you might want to forget what might lay behind it.
And when the time came at school the next morning, I promised myself stubbornly, I would look Chase Lancaster right in the eye and yank that door open.
A/N: I know what you're all thinking: I'm a horrible person for leaving you hanging like that, aren't I?
Yes, yes, I am. *Insert crash of lightning* BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I just couldn't RESIST the chance to build up some suspense, and I always like to leave my readers wanting more. XD Don't worry, Chase and Laura WILL have a chance to chat, and you'll get to see Logan's reaction to their socially awkward and somewhat dichotomous relationship very, very soon. And don't worry about my updating schedule, either; I finished moving into my dorm today, so hopefully I can start writing a bit more regularly now. Thank you all once again for your patience and understanding. :D Coming up in the next chapter: the moment you've all been waiting for!
And, finally, PLEASE REVIEW! If YOU have any suggestions or ideas, LET ME KNOW! ^^
Your humble servant,
-Quill N. Inque
