Enjoy it! I know, it's rather late. But I've had homework and band and more band and more band! It's been nuts! Jebus! Anyway, I was gonna add an extra section to add length, but then it would have taken another day. So you all can just wait!
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Chapter Ten : Focus
"Settling in well?" Pietro asked nastily as Lorna descended the stairs. It was later that evening.
"I…" She looked confused. "Did I do something to upset you?"
"Of course not." He rolled his eyes. "You're just the replacement for my sister."
"Replacement?" He had obviously perked her curiosity. "What happened to her?"
"She died."
"Oh…" Lorna blushed. "I- I'm so sorry!"
"Whatever." He stood up to go into the kitchen. Lorna tugged on a strand of hair nervously. She hadn't even wanted to leave her aunt's house as it was. She didn't do well meeting new people.
"Don't worry." A voice cut into her thoughts. She spun around.
"Um… Lance?" She guessed at his name.
"Yeah." Lance tried to smile at her. "Pietro's just upset- his sister died just a few days ago."
"That's awful." Lorna frowned. "I really didn't want to make a fuss or anything…" She fidgeted again.
"It's just a little awkward." Lance assured her. "We all miss her."
"I don't want to intrude." Lorna sighed.
"I told you not to worry. Pietro's got issues with his family." He looked down. "He didn't think she'd die before they had the chance to make amends."
"They fought a lot then?"
"Oh yeah." Lance smiled at the memories. "Usually over something stupid. Pietro loved to drive her crazy. She loved to hex him into things- walls, chairs, windows. He would do something stupid- like steal her journal or play a stupid prank on her. She'd get mad, and…"
He trailed off with a sad smile.
"They really do love each other though." He sighed. "Well, did."
"There's a lot of history between you all, isn't there?" She asked softly.
"Yeah. There really is." He ran a hand through his hair. "Mystique tell you about the X-Men?"
"Yes."
"One of 'em came from our team- Rogue. She's the Goth-y two-toned hair one." He explained. Lorna clearly had no idea whom Rogue was. "Uh… Yeah. Anyway, we never really found out why she left. She still hasn't told us, even though she spent the night here the other night."
"How many girls have stayed here?"
"You're the fourth." Lance grinned wryly. "There was Rogue, and then this girl named Tabitha. She was wild. Then there was Wanda."
Lance was surprised he had even managed to say her name. She had been close to him- well, as close as a person could get to Wanda. She didn't like friendship very much. He tried to smile at Lorna.
"And now you're here."
"But no one wants me." Lorna sighed softly.
Lance didn't argue with her. It was true.
"Where the hell were you, Stripes?" Logan demanded as the girl walked in the door. She had wandered around Bayville aimlessly until after dinner, when she had suddenly shown up at the door.
"I was out."
"We were, like, really worried Rogue!" Kitty frowned. "You could have, like, been… I dunno!"
"I'm fine." Rogue snapped. "I was just out."
"Rogue, I really didn't mean to say anything to upset you!" Jean sighed. "I just thought you might want to talk about it."
"In case you haven't noticed, Red- I don't talk about things very much!" Rogue rolled her eyes. "And it had nothing to do with anything you said!"
It was a lie, and Jean knew it. However, Rogue knew the redhead wouldn't call her on it- after all, no one wanted to scare her off again. Which was just fine with her- it meant most of them would leave her alone.
"Rogue, where were you all night?" Scott repeated Logan's question softly.
"I was just out!" Rogue was beginning to get frustrated. She was exhausted and didn't have enough sleep. Remy had followed her around half the day- even after she had told him to stop and thought he had walked away. Wanda was still talking to her, trying to gain contact with people again. It was all too much and too confusing.
"I can smell the jerks from the Brotherhood all over you." Logan growled. "And the Cajun. Care to explain that?"
"Uh…" She hesitated.
"Oh my God!" Kitty stared at her. "You were hanging out with them?"
"No, I wasn't "hanging out" with them!" Rogue spat. "I went over to the boarding house. And the stupid Swamp Rat is stalking me."
"You, like, went to their house?"
"Stalking? Mein Gott!"
"Rogue, I know you're upset because of Wanda!" Jean interrupted the chatter. "But you can't just run off with our enemies without at least telling someone!"
"They're our enemies?" Rogue scoffed. "So, we held a funeral for them because we fight them? They're hurting right now, more than any of us!"
"That doesn't change the fact that you left." Jean snapped. "I know it's unsettling to hear Wanda talking to you!"
The room was completely silent. Rogue fidgeted.
'So now they know. What's the worst that can happen, Rogue?'
"Shut it." She answered aloud again. She had been doing it all day, so it seemed habit. "Just shut up because I can't deal with any of this!"
Even Logan seemed unsure of what to say. Kitty's hand was hanging in the air, as if she wanted to reach out to her friend but was afraid to. Kurt's mouth was wide open, and his eyes hopeful. Scott looked nervous. Jean seemed surprised that she even said it.
"No one said anything." Jean said softly.
"I think it was the psyche she was talking to." Kitty whispered. Things were obviously serious from the lack of "likes" in her speech.
"Screw it, I'm going to bed!" Rogue snapped, and stormed up the stairs. No one noticed the red eyes move away from the window.
Thump.
He closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
Thump.
Catch the ball again.
Thump.
Up again.
Thump.
The rhythm was easy to focus on. And Todd desperately needed something to focus on. Tossing the rubber ball up to meet his ceiling once again, he tried to concentrate on just the noise.
Thump.
Noise. The ball smacking the ceiling made noise. The ceiling, as it cracked with age and Lance's earthquakes, made noise. The walls made noise almost constantly. Wanda had always made some sort of noise.
Stop.
Todd needed to stop thinking. Every time he tried to think of something, it lead back to Wanda. And Wanda was dead. Thinking about her only made it worse. Nevertheless, it seemed the harder he tried to focus on other things, the harder it was to keep his mind off the dead girl. The ball dropped to the floor without his hand to catch it.
With a groan, he sat up on his bed. He didn't want to be there. He didn't want to be anywhere. Hell, he didn't want to be breathing and alive at that moment. But he didn't want to be dead either.
Focus.
He just needed something to focus on. Something small, something that couldn't possibly lead back to Wanda. The sun. The sun was bright. Then again, so was light. Light could come in all sorts of colors- red, green, purple, blue. Blue. Wanda's hands would glow in blue light whenever she was about to hex someone-
Focus.
Todd sighed. It wasn't any good. All he could think about was Wanda. And, since she was dead, it did no good to think of her. No good at all.
And yet all he could think about was the day he had kissed her. She had smiled at him. That was the first real smile he had ever seen from her. She was beautiful when she smiled. She was beautiful when she was angry, or sad. She was just beautiful.
This only made him miss her more. And he knew he would never have her back.
With a sigh, he layed back down on his bed and picked up the rubber ball.
Thump.
"Bobby?" Jubilee knocked on the door. There was no answer. "Bobby? I want to talk to you! It's Jubes."
She hated the nickname. She loathed it more than anything else she had ever been called (excluding "Fire Cracker" and "Light Show"). But she would always let Bobby call her that.
Bobby Drake was a moron sometimes. He was frequently annoying. His favorite thing to do was to play pranks- on anyone. He could easily be called a "waste of air". Yet Jubilee couldn't get him out of her mind. He was always in the back of her thoughts.
And he had been acting strangely lately.
He could fool Jamie and Roberto. He could fool Scott and Jean. He could even fool Ray- his best friend. But he couldn't fool the girl that watched his every move, that obsessed over everything he did, and thought only of him for hours. He couldn't fool Jubilation Lee, no matter how hard he tried.
Sighing, she pounded on the door once again.
"Robert Drake, answer the stupid door! Yeesh!" Jubilee grumbled. When there was once again now answer, she cried out in frustration and kicked the door. And kicked it again.
"Any particular reason you're beating up my door, Jubes?" A voice asked behind her.
"Huh?" She spun around to see Bobby with a quirked eyebrow and smirk. "Oh! I thought you were ignoring me in there, and…"
"You decided that destroying my door would solve your problems then?"
"Uh…" She felt heat rising in her cheeks. "I just thought I might get your attention or something. I wanted to talk to you."
"Kay. Talk." Bobby shrugged. Jubilee took a deep breath.
"Are you sure you're alright? You've been acting really weird, and I'm worried about you."
"Worried?" Bobby laughed. "Me? Jubes, you're out of your mind."
"But…" Jubilee began.
"No one else has noticed anything off." He pointed out.
"Bobby, come on. You've been quiet, and you only have time to joke around. You won't go near any of the senior X-men, even though you're always bugging them." Jubilee ticked off her concerns on her fingers. "What's up?"
"Nonthing." Bobby tried once again to shrug off her question. "Anyway, I only came down here to grab an extra controller for the squirt. He wants to play video games with us."
"But Bobby…" She sighed. It was no use. She knew he wouldn't listen to her.
He hurried into his room, and emerged a moment later with the controller. As he was leaving, he glanced at the scuff marks on his door and sighed mournfully.
"Jubes, you should control your anger."
As soon as he had ascended the stairs, she let out another screech and kicked the door one last time.
Freddy wasn't a complete idiot. He wasn't oblivious to the sadness and chaos around him. He missed Wanda as well- maybe not as much as any of the others, but he knew he missed her more than any X-Man.
He usually ate whenever he was depressed. If he ate, he would forget about his worries. Eatin was soothing. You could just concentrate on the chewing and nothing more. And, considering he was constantly hungry thanks to his mutant powers, it was relaxing for the large boy.
But somehow he couldn't eat. He couldn't do anything but sit in the armchair, watching helplessly as his family was torn apart.
Fred Dukes wasn't intelligent. But he was observant. He watched. He learned by watching. And he knew that Wanda was tearing up the group- and she wasn't even alive to do it.
That made him angry. She wasn't even alive, and she still had the ability to take over their lives in a way she never had before. He had never seen his best friend so depressed. Todd hadn't come out of his room in almost twenty-four hours. But Freddy found himself unable to stand up and make the trudge up the stairs.
He listened as Lorna and Lance talked. He knew she felt unwelcome. He didn't care very much that Wanda had been replaced- as far as he was concerned, Lorna wasn't a replacement. Rather, she was just another team mate. Just like Rogue and Tabitha. But, again, he couldn't stand up and make her feel at home.
"Why is he so quiet?" He distantly heard Lorna ask.
"Freddy's just like that- he doesn't talk very much."
"Why?"
"Pietro thinks it's a lack of vocabulary."
Freddy wasn't stung by the comment. He was used to them.
He wanted to stand up and eat. Or go check on Todd. Or even talk to Lorna.
But he didn't. He just sat, watching. Watching and waiting. After all, the boiling point was close. And he didn't want to be caught in the crossfire.
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How'd you like it? This is one of my favorite chapters! I like Lorna! And Rogue is finally confronted for her sleeping out- and Jean made a boo-boo! And red eyes? OMG!
Review, my lovelies.