Chapter 36: Gotta Get Out of Here
"Okay kids," Logan said while standing on the only blue mat he'd pulled out that day. "Next week we have the tournament against the Brotherhood and it's occurred to me that one of you hasn't had enough sparring practise."
He gave the group a long look, then grinned.
"So to make up for that lack, and hopefully give the rest of you a chance to sharpen your skills," he said, "all of you will be sparring against Rogue."
Marie grinned as she stood up on the mat beside her father. That was the first time he'd called her Rogue. There were some groans from her teammates but a little hopeful excitement too.
"These will be three minute matches, just like the tournament," Logan went on, then nodded towards Scott. "Scott, you're up."
Scott took a deep breath and stepped onto the mat opposite Marie as Logan stepped off. The two bowed to each other on Logan's signal and the match began.
Marie had quite the workout having match after match. Although it was well within her abilities to end the matches quickly, she preferred to let them take the full three minutes, using them to help further the education of her peers.
Her final match was with Kitty. Both girls were somewhat apprehensive as they bowed to each other. The year before Marie had been jealous and angry because of the time Kitty was spending with Logan, and she had taken out her feelings on the other girl. Kitty well remembered doing poorly against her and didn't know if she dared to hope that her year's additional experience, and the fact that Marie was tired from the other nine matches she'd just fought, might actually give her a chance against Marie this time.
Thirty seconds into the fight, Kitty realised that this wasn't about winning. Marie wasn't even trying to kick her butt like she so clearly had intended to in their two matches last year. There was no sense that Marie was out to get her and every sense that Marie genuinely wanted to help Kitty improve.
Logan called for time and the girl bowed to each other. As they lifted their heads, Marie grinned at her.
"There you go," she said. "You didn't even end up on the floor this time."
Remy stood in the middle of Scott's bedroom with a ball of string in his hand, a second ball sitting on the desk, a bag of even more balls of string at his feet. In front of him stood Lance, Pietro, Todd, Ray, Evan, and John.
"Okay, today we're going to learn how to string up a room," Remy said. "It's really very simple, but time consuming."
He walked to the bed and tied the string to one of the knobs on the headboard.
"First, you tie the string to something in the room and then..." Remy got up and headed over to the other side of the room to the desk, "you tie the string to something else on the other side." He began wrapping the string around the desk leg. "And so on and so forth until the room is like a huge spider's web and you can't walk two steps into the room without touching string."
He stopped tying the string and looked at his teammates, some of whom looked dubious about the whole plan.
"Trust me, it'll be worth it," he said. "Tie string to everything you can possibly tie it to. Oh, but use some discretion okay? Don't tie the string to anything breakable. Better yet, put anything breakable in a drawer or something. It's going to be pretty obvious we were behind it but we won't get into any trouble if no damage is done. Now, because Wanda decided to string up the girl's rooms at the last minute, there are only two balls of string per room. Hopefully that will be enough. We also have to do Scott and Pete's room first because they'll probably be done with their double date before the little movie marathon party Tabitha and Lorna so kindly agreed to throw for us is over. Let's go."
The boys grabbed the balls of string from the bag and headed off. John paused after grabbing his string and eyed Remy warily. Remy gave John a nod and continued stringing up Scott's room.
"Want a hand?" John asked after a moment.
Remy glanced over, a little surprised. He had apologised as he'd promised Wanda he would but John had been somewhat unreceptive and even tried avoiding him as much as he could.
"Sure," Remy replied. "The sooner we get Scott's room done, the less chance of him walking in on us while we're doing it."
"Yeah, that's what I figured," John said with a nod.
They spent their time string up Scott's room in silence, until about halfway through the job when they bumped into each other. The abundance of string meant that John tripped. Although Remy was able to catch John before he hit the floor, he saw his friend wince and pull away as soon as he could. The reaction made Remy frown but he wasn't really sure what to do about it. He hadn't freaked John out that much, had he?
John was well aware of his reaction and he hated himself for it. He knew logically he was okay, that Remy wouldn't actually try to hurt him, but he'd also been having some nasty dreams of late that started out as memories of his father beating him, only for his father to turn into Remy. And Remy had a pair of eyes that were really scary in nightmares. It was difficult setting that aside.
Still, as they continued stringing up Scott's room, John couldn't help but remember something Remy had said when he apologised the other day:
"Okay, well, that's great. I'm glad Wade was able to take care of your father for you, but what happens next time? What if Wade isn't there? If you spend your life expecting other people to save your ass all the time, you're always going to be a victim."
He practically yelled at Remy for that, proclaiming he couldn't understand, he had no idea what he'd gone through. Nevertheless, the words stuck with him. He hated the feelings of panic and helplessness that had come over him that day, even though he had been perfectly safe and never in any danger. Maybe Remy was right. Maybe he should try to learn more about this stuff. John really didn't want to get into any physical fights with anyone, but it would be good if he knew he could get out of them at a moment's notice.
"Hey Remy," John said while keeping his eyes trained on the new knot he was trying around the curtain rod. "I was wondering, umm, I think I've changed my mind about learning, uhh... get out of jail free moves."
Remy chuckled lightly at John's description. "No problem. We can start today if you—"
"No!"
Remy raised his eyebrows and looked at John. John cleared his throat, finished tying the knot, and started looking around for a new place to tie more string.
"Not today. We have the tournament next week," John said, trying to hide his anxiety. "I have a good thing going: I don't learn anything and Creed eliminates me after one round."
Remy laughed.
"Okay, after the tournament," he agreed.
Some time later, Marie arrived at the girls' dorm and found Wanda in Kitty's bedroom tying string to everything.
"Just getting started?" Marie asked.
Wanda yelped in surprised and glared at Marie who apologised with a giggle for startling her.
"No," Wanda said when she recovered herself. "Just finished Jean's room. It's taking awhile."
"Ahh. Want some help?"
"You are aware these are your teammates we're pranking?"
"If I lived in the dorms, would you be stringing up my room?"
"No."
"Well?"
Wanda grinned. "Sure, I'd love the help. I'm seriously regretting telling Remy I'd do this."
"Okay then," Marie started to reach for the string then stopped, "I'm just going to check out Jean's room first."
Wanda chuckled wickedly. Marie zipped out and scampered down the hall to Jean's room. She opened up the door and burst out laughing at the sheer amount of string she saw. It was tied to absolutely everything Wanda could find a place to tie it to: knobs on the furniture, the curtain rod, the curtain rings, the wardrobe was open and string had been tied to individual hangers, the legs and arms and other parts of the framework of all the furniture. If Wanda could get string around it, there was. Marie returned to Kitty's room shaking her head.
"Jean isn't even going to be able to walk in there without a pair of scissors," Marie said, giggling as she picked up the second ball of string intended for Kitty's room.
"Yeah, I know," Wanda replied deviously. "That knowledge is about the only thing making this worth it."
Stringing up Kitty's room went a lot faster with Marie's help and once that was done they moved onto Jubilee's.
"So, gotten any more roses from Pyro lately?" Marie inquired as they worked on Jubilee's room.
"Yeah," Wanda replied. She tried not to get all girly-gushy about it but she did think it was awfully sweet when a single red rose mysteriously appeared amongst her things occasionally, or located in a spot meant for her like inside her Cello case. "It's a good thing Father and Pietro can't come into the girls dorms. I think they'd freak if they knew how often my vase had a rose sitting in it."
Marie chuckled knowingly.
"Well, I'd love to hang around and see how this goes," Marie said once Jubilee's room was a mass of string, "but I suspect I should practice a little discretion and pretend I know nothing about this."
"Yeah, plus everyone knows you've got flying lessons and martial arts classes on Saturdays," Wanda replied with a grin. "There's your alibi right there."
Marie laughed. "Exactly!"
"Be sure to let us know how things go down on your end," Wanda said gleefully.
"Oh, don't you worry, I will."
Jean, Kitty, Scott, and Piotr were the first to return to their rooms, the rest of the X-Men still occupied with their movie marathon. They split ways when they got to the dorms and headed to their rooms.
"No way," Jean exclaimed upon opening her door. "No freaking way."
"What?" Kitty asked, pausing on her way, as her room was further down the hall from Jean's. She peered into Jean's room and covered her mouth to smother her giggles.
"Thanks for the support," Jean said dryly, and attempted to get into her room through all the string. "Okay, seriously, this is ridiculous. Where are my scissors?"
Kitty giggled as she watched Jean attempt to negotiate her way to the desk. Some of the string she was able to step through or duck under, but more of it was pulled too tight for her to move it up or down easily.
"This is so not funny," Jean said, then added slyly as another thought occurred to her: "You know, they might have done it to your room too."
Kitty paused then dashed down the hall to her room. She pushed the door in and was torn between bursting into laughter and crying out in anguish.
Kurt cracked up laughing. Bobby and Jubilee, and the rest of the sophomores in rollcall that Monday morning all looked at him.
"It's really not that funny," Jubilee said. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to clear a path? I've still got bits of string hanging off places."
"It was a pretty good prank though," Bobby said. "Have to get them back for it, big time, but it was good."
"Please," Kurt gasped out between his laughter, "please tell me you have photos."
"Yep," Bobby replied cheerfully. "I'll show you later. Photos are on my phone and I don't have it right now."
"Right. So they got all of you this time?" Kurt asked.
"Except Rogue, yeah," Jubilee replied, them mumbled: "Stupid lucky duck gets to live with her dad."
"Yeah," Bobby said. "I guess even Remy and Pyro aren't brave enough to sneak into Howlett's house."
"Either that or Wanda told them not to," Kurt said. "They're still friends, after all."
"Stupid fraternising with the enemy," Jubilee muttered.
"Alright maggots," Victor said at gym class later that day, as all the students sat around the blue mat upon which he and Logan stood. "Here's how the tournament is going to work. You're going to compete in three minute matches against each other. These are demonstration matches only, you will be judged on your individual performance by your specific coach."
He went on to explain that the boys would have a series of seven rounds during which one X-Boy and one Brother would be eliminated each round. The girls would have two rounds, one in which every X-Girl fought each Sister, and a second in which the X-Girl and the Sister with the highest scores from the previous round would face off against each other. Like last year, although there were seven boys on each side, the girls were uneven with four X-Girls and three Sisters.
"Remember," Logan spoke up once Victor had finished, "these are only demonstration matches. Accidents will happen but we don't want to see any of you deliberately trying to hurt your opponent."
Logan took a long look at the group, then announced the first match would be Piotr and Remy. John studied the blue mat as Remy played with Piotr in his usual style. John just wasn't interested. He was also half looking forward to and half dreading his match. With any luck it would be his last one for the year and he wanted it to be over with. His preference was that he didn't fight at all.
After three minutes, the fight with Remy and Piotr was over and Logan announced the next match:
"Summers, Allerdyce."
Stifling a sigh, John got up onto the mat. As he faced off against Scott—one of the better X-Men at that—all he could think about was how much he did not want to be doing this. He just wanted to run away from it all.
So John ran.
He bolted off the mat through the gap he left behind between Wanda and Remy where he'd been sitting. Scott stared after him in confusion.
"What the hell? Allerdyce!" Victor bellowed. "Get your ass back here or it's detention, coward!"
"Nu-uh!" John replied dancing around from foot to foot at the other end of the hall. "It's a legitimate strategy!"
Logan covered his mouth to hide his laughter. The other students weren't nearly so discreet.
"I said get your ass back here," Victor yelled. "Fight like a man."
"He who fights and runs away, lives to fire bomb another day!" John shouted back.
Before anyone could find a way to force him onto the mat (or worse, Scott got it into his head to chase him), John ran out the gymnasium doors.
"Quicksilver," Victor shouted at Pietro, "bring that Vegemite loving Kiwi back here or it's detention for all you!"
Pietro was on his feet in seconds and shot out of the gym, Remy pointing out, "Kiwis are New Zealanders."
"Same difference," Victor grumbled.
Continue onto JayCee's RedGold's Gym Class Anti-Heroes – Chapter 12