Author's note! I'm really sorry this chapter is so short, but I wanted to post it before I leave... I'm going to be gone for three weeks, and I didn't think it was fair not to post what I've got when it's been such a long time between chapters... in any event, you know the procedure. The characters belong to you, X-Men belongs to Marvel and the WB, read and review, give me your opinions, etc. Again, I apologize, this is only a little more than four typed pages. :P
Nikki rolled over in her bed, tangled in the sheets, and coughed. She rolled over again and fell onto the floor with a thump, eyes snapping open, and then they opened wider.
Something wasn't right. She had a strange sense of déjà vu. And she felt rather sick, come to think of it. She stood up carefully, head aching, and tottered on her feet until her balance returned. Something was wrong. Or missing. Nikki peered around the room blearily, but saw only Ali, still dozing on the bed. She looked at the clock, which read 9:58 AM. It was Saturday.
"Ali?" she asked, voice sounding rather hoarse.
"What?" inquired a muffled voice from the bundle of blankets.
"Did anything... strange... happen last night?"
"Mmmf," Ali muttered.
"I'm serious," Nikki said, puzzled frown touching her forehead.
"Did what happen?" Ali asked, poking her head from beneath the covers, bleary looking eyes focusing gradually as she began to wake.
"Anything strange," Nikki said, persistence stemming from the slight panic she now felt.
"I dunno," Ali said, "I didn't get in until two..."
"Oh," Nikki said, "...Maybe I was dreaming..."
"Yeah, you woke me up for that?" Ali demanded, "It's not even twelve o'clock. And it's -Saturday-!"
Nikki said, "...Sorry..." and stumbled into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, as a lift of her arm in a certain direction pulled at what seemed to be a newly healing scab. She twisted her arm around so that she could see her left shoulder. There was a tiny puncture wound there, almost like a mosquito had bitten her, and she'd scratched the scab away.
That's odd, she thought, before Jenna pounded on the door.
"Nikki! Are you almost done?"
"Yeah, Jenna, one second--" And she forgot about déjà vu, strange wounds she hadn't remembered receiving, and her sense of uneasiness.
Nikki went down to eat breakfast.
X
Joey's boots clumped loudly on the stairs as he went down into the kitchen. "Good morning, everyone," he said cheerfully.
"You're awfully chirpy today," Ali grumbled at him.
"-I- am going to be social," he informed her.
"Social?" Ali asked, "What ever could that mean?"
"It means that the school's having a club fair," said Joey, "I'm going to see what they've got."
"Clubs?" Ali snorted, "That's stupid."
"Not really," Joey said, "I met Dustin at one of the school clubs."
"Who's Dustin?" Nikki asked curiously, entering the kitchen.
"My boyfriend."
"And... you're from California?" Nikki asked.
"Yep."
"Poor thing," she said sympathetically, "You must miss him."
"Yeah..." said Joey, looking at the floor, "Yeah, I do." He was surprised at the sudden, rather guilty feeling that enveloped him: he had forgotten to call Dustin. Oh, shit. This wasn't good. Calculating in his head between the time differences, Joey decided that Dustin wouldn't be awake at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning, any way.
He helped himself to one of the pancakes on the platter that Rafe had put on the table. Actually, the end result was closer to crepes - Rafe had sniffed and insisted that the American version of pancakes was a waste of flour, too thick and greasy for anyone to truly appreciate the flavor. He'd been forced to compromise with the rest of the students, who didn't value French cuisine like they should, and the final product was neither one nor the other. They tasted good, though, that was what mattered to Joey.
Still, the vague feeling of guilt persisted. He'd call after the club fair, Joey promised himself.
X
Nikki begged off the trip to the school fair, saying that she was tired and wanted a nap; Ali steadfastly maintained that clubs were a waste of time; Darien simply shook his head and vanished from sight. Cam, Jenna, Lee, and Rafe agreed that it might turn out to be an interesting trip, after all. They walked a mile to the public transportation stop and waited for their bus.
"I wonder if they have a culinary group?" Rafe said, looking quite enthusiastic.
Jenna snorted. "Somehow, I don't think they're quite ready for your kind of food."
"Why not?" Rafe asked curiously.
"Generally, they just make breaded chicken, or something."
"Ah! Poulet pané! I make a very nice one, with basilic to taste and une huile sensible--"
"It's too sophisticated," Jenna insisted, further argument halted by the arrival of the bus.
The driver eyed them suspiciously, wary of any traveling groups of teenagers. For a moment it looked as though he was going to refuse to carry them, but instead contented himself with scowling in the direction of their direction. Cam led the way to the few empty seats left in the back, vaguely offended by the accusatory glares.
Lee, however, seemed to find it rather amusing. "How can you not laugh? He looks like an angry gorilla."
Joey snorted softly, picturing the man being studied by Jane Goodall. "And what sort of species might you be?" the imaginary doctor asked the man softly, and ran away in fright when he pounded his chest and screeched in rage. He grinned to himself. It was pretty funny, now that he thought about it.
X
"That's -all-?"
"Well, we didn't have much--"
"Why didn't you do more tests?"
"I told you, there was only so much time."
"Still, that's nothing. The data--"
"If you cared so much about the data, you wouldn't have pushed us into this. Any more and it would have been suspicious. We can't afford that."
"You seem to be forgetting who's in charge, here."
"Yes, sir."
X
Joey walked into the gymnasium, which had been brightly decorated for the occasion. "CPHS WELCOMES YOU TO THE 13th ANNUAL CLUB FAIR!!" the sign proclaimed cheerfully. Booths had been set up at regular intervals along the walls with another block in the middle, creating aisles that could be navigated easily. Each booth had its own sign and club representatives sitting on chairs, watching the crowd with amusement.
He could see that most of the other students there were freshmen, although there were a few new arrivals who were also examining what the school had to offer. Rafe promptly dragged their group over to the Culinary Club booth. "Bon jour!" he greeted them.
"Uh... hi..." the girl said, a little off put by Rafe's enthusiasm.
"Of what food do you cook?" Rafe asked, mangling his English in his excitement.
"Easy things, stuff that everyone can do," the girl replied, edging her chair back a few inches. "We make mud pies towards the end of the year."
"-Mud pies-!" Rafe exclaimed, affronted. "And people eat them?"
"It's not -made- of mud," the girl said, "It's crumbled brownies and things."
"I -see-," Rafe said grimly, narrowing his eyes.
Joey didn't hear the rest of the exchange because he wandered off to have a look at some of the other booths. He himself wasn't interested in cooking, being quite horrible at it. The last time he'd tried making dinner, his parents had taken a bit each and smiled in that way that showed they were too nice to tell him it was horrible.
To put it succinctly, he was not interested in the Culinary Club, although he could hear Rafe's arguments even across the gym.
He paused several feet in front of one booth, labeled "GSA - Gay/Straight Alliance." He wasn't sure whether to go closer, but the guy sitting behind the counter grinned at him. "Hey there," he said, waving Joey over.
Joey nodded and asked, "May I have one of the papers?" There was a pile of them on the floor.
"Sure," the guy said, leaning over. The pause gave Joey a chance to sneak a better glimpse of what he looked like. The teenager, probably seventeen or eighteen, was a bit shorter than Joey, or looked as though he would be if he weren't sitting. He had a stocky build, brown hair and eyes, a rather puppy-dog look accentuated by deep dimples. Very cute.
"New this year?" he asked Joey conversationally.
"Yep," Joey said, "I'm Joey."
"Kevin," the guy replied, holding out a hand. They shook; Kevin had a strong grip.
"Are there... a lot of members?" Joey asked after thinking how to phrase the question.
"Actually, yeah," Kevin said. "Not everyone's gay, of course, but," here he imitated one of the teachers, adding a comical grimace, "CPHS supports diversity and tolerance in all its shapes and forms."
Joey laughed appreciatively. "Hey, that's not a bad impersonation."
"Of course," Kevin said, and grinned. "Well, hope to see you at the next meeting - it's this Thursday."
"I'll be there," said Joey, with a returning smile. He walked off with a slight bounce to his step, pleased to have found what looked to be a nice group of kids... and he didn't realize until later that his resolution to call Dustin had completely slipped his mind.
X
Jenna Sintor perused the aisles thoughtfully, reading the banners without much interest. So far, nothing had really stood out. There was the computer club, but she wasn't fond of the computers, really, and the boys sitting behind it had attempted to catch so desperately that she hurried onto the next booth without a second glance.
This time, however, she found her face forming a large smile. "CAR CLUB," said the sign. Now this is more like it, she thought cheerfully.
After the initial disappointment of the culinary club, Rafe had wandered off to one side of the gym, rather moodily. Lee followed after him, slightly curious at the sudden shift in mood. He was a rather bouncy personality usually... she wondered at the sudden change. "Hey, Rafe?"
"What?" he said, a bit surprised at the peevish note in his voice.
"Are you feeling all right?"
"Fine. Magnifique." Face blank, he turned away from her and shoved his hands into his pockets, stalking off. Lee blinked, more in surprise than anything else. The girl's glasses slipped and she slid them back to the bridge of her nose, watching the French boy as he disappeared through the door, presumably to lurk somewhere until the rest of them finished browsing.
The Institute students had been acting very oddly recently... She followed after him, and found that he was standing at one of the floor-to-ceiling length windows that opened out onto the school's courtyard. "Hey," she said, standing next to him and looking as well. There was nothing there to catch the eye, only a few benches, one tipped onto its side, and a rather gnarled looking tree that seemed to be on the verge of death. The grass grew long and untamed, licking the sides of the chipped-painted benches.
"Rafe, you can tell us if something's wrong."
"It is not."
Lee glanced sideways at him. "You're just not acting like yourself."
"I don't know why," Rafe said, sounding puzzled. "It happened yesterday also." He shrugged and continued, a bit more cheerfully. "I suppose it is part of being a teenager."
"Yeah, which you're almost -finished-," Lee snorted.
"I told you, I don't know," Rafe said, and shrugged. "It will not help if you continue to ask."
Nikki rolled over in her bed, tangled in the sheets, and coughed. She rolled over again and fell onto the floor with a thump, eyes snapping open, and then they opened wider.
Something wasn't right. She had a strange sense of déjà vu. And she felt rather sick, come to think of it. She stood up carefully, head aching, and tottered on her feet until her balance returned. Something was wrong. Or missing. Nikki peered around the room blearily, but saw only Ali, still dozing on the bed. She looked at the clock, which read 9:58 AM. It was Saturday.
"Ali?" she asked, voice sounding rather hoarse.
"What?" inquired a muffled voice from the bundle of blankets.
"Did anything... strange... happen last night?"
"Mmmf," Ali muttered.
"I'm serious," Nikki said, puzzled frown touching her forehead.
"Did what happen?" Ali asked, poking her head from beneath the covers, bleary looking eyes focusing gradually as she began to wake.
"Anything strange," Nikki said, persistence stemming from the slight panic she now felt.
"I dunno," Ali said, "I didn't get in until two..."
"Oh," Nikki said, "...Maybe I was dreaming..."
"Yeah, you woke me up for that?" Ali demanded, "It's not even twelve o'clock. And it's -Saturday-!"
Nikki said, "...Sorry..." and stumbled into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, as a lift of her arm in a certain direction pulled at what seemed to be a newly healing scab. She twisted her arm around so that she could see her left shoulder. There was a tiny puncture wound there, almost like a mosquito had bitten her, and she'd scratched the scab away.
That's odd, she thought, before Jenna pounded on the door.
"Nikki! Are you almost done?"
"Yeah, Jenna, one second--" And she forgot about déjà vu, strange wounds she hadn't remembered receiving, and her sense of uneasiness.
Nikki went down to eat breakfast.
X
Joey's boots clumped loudly on the stairs as he went down into the kitchen. "Good morning, everyone," he said cheerfully.
"You're awfully chirpy today," Ali grumbled at him.
"-I- am going to be social," he informed her.
"Social?" Ali asked, "What ever could that mean?"
"It means that the school's having a club fair," said Joey, "I'm going to see what they've got."
"Clubs?" Ali snorted, "That's stupid."
"Not really," Joey said, "I met Dustin at one of the school clubs."
"Who's Dustin?" Nikki asked curiously, entering the kitchen.
"My boyfriend."
"And... you're from California?" Nikki asked.
"Yep."
"Poor thing," she said sympathetically, "You must miss him."
"Yeah..." said Joey, looking at the floor, "Yeah, I do." He was surprised at the sudden, rather guilty feeling that enveloped him: he had forgotten to call Dustin. Oh, shit. This wasn't good. Calculating in his head between the time differences, Joey decided that Dustin wouldn't be awake at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning, any way.
He helped himself to one of the pancakes on the platter that Rafe had put on the table. Actually, the end result was closer to crepes - Rafe had sniffed and insisted that the American version of pancakes was a waste of flour, too thick and greasy for anyone to truly appreciate the flavor. He'd been forced to compromise with the rest of the students, who didn't value French cuisine like they should, and the final product was neither one nor the other. They tasted good, though, that was what mattered to Joey.
Still, the vague feeling of guilt persisted. He'd call after the club fair, Joey promised himself.
X
Nikki begged off the trip to the school fair, saying that she was tired and wanted a nap; Ali steadfastly maintained that clubs were a waste of time; Darien simply shook his head and vanished from sight. Cam, Jenna, Lee, and Rafe agreed that it might turn out to be an interesting trip, after all. They walked a mile to the public transportation stop and waited for their bus.
"I wonder if they have a culinary group?" Rafe said, looking quite enthusiastic.
Jenna snorted. "Somehow, I don't think they're quite ready for your kind of food."
"Why not?" Rafe asked curiously.
"Generally, they just make breaded chicken, or something."
"Ah! Poulet pané! I make a very nice one, with basilic to taste and une huile sensible--"
"It's too sophisticated," Jenna insisted, further argument halted by the arrival of the bus.
The driver eyed them suspiciously, wary of any traveling groups of teenagers. For a moment it looked as though he was going to refuse to carry them, but instead contented himself with scowling in the direction of their direction. Cam led the way to the few empty seats left in the back, vaguely offended by the accusatory glares.
Lee, however, seemed to find it rather amusing. "How can you not laugh? He looks like an angry gorilla."
Joey snorted softly, picturing the man being studied by Jane Goodall. "And what sort of species might you be?" the imaginary doctor asked the man softly, and ran away in fright when he pounded his chest and screeched in rage. He grinned to himself. It was pretty funny, now that he thought about it.
X
"That's -all-?"
"Well, we didn't have much--"
"Why didn't you do more tests?"
"I told you, there was only so much time."
"Still, that's nothing. The data--"
"If you cared so much about the data, you wouldn't have pushed us into this. Any more and it would have been suspicious. We can't afford that."
"You seem to be forgetting who's in charge, here."
"Yes, sir."
X
Joey walked into the gymnasium, which had been brightly decorated for the occasion. "CPHS WELCOMES YOU TO THE 13th ANNUAL CLUB FAIR!!" the sign proclaimed cheerfully. Booths had been set up at regular intervals along the walls with another block in the middle, creating aisles that could be navigated easily. Each booth had its own sign and club representatives sitting on chairs, watching the crowd with amusement.
He could see that most of the other students there were freshmen, although there were a few new arrivals who were also examining what the school had to offer. Rafe promptly dragged their group over to the Culinary Club booth. "Bon jour!" he greeted them.
"Uh... hi..." the girl said, a little off put by Rafe's enthusiasm.
"Of what food do you cook?" Rafe asked, mangling his English in his excitement.
"Easy things, stuff that everyone can do," the girl replied, edging her chair back a few inches. "We make mud pies towards the end of the year."
"-Mud pies-!" Rafe exclaimed, affronted. "And people eat them?"
"It's not -made- of mud," the girl said, "It's crumbled brownies and things."
"I -see-," Rafe said grimly, narrowing his eyes.
Joey didn't hear the rest of the exchange because he wandered off to have a look at some of the other booths. He himself wasn't interested in cooking, being quite horrible at it. The last time he'd tried making dinner, his parents had taken a bit each and smiled in that way that showed they were too nice to tell him it was horrible.
To put it succinctly, he was not interested in the Culinary Club, although he could hear Rafe's arguments even across the gym.
He paused several feet in front of one booth, labeled "GSA - Gay/Straight Alliance." He wasn't sure whether to go closer, but the guy sitting behind the counter grinned at him. "Hey there," he said, waving Joey over.
Joey nodded and asked, "May I have one of the papers?" There was a pile of them on the floor.
"Sure," the guy said, leaning over. The pause gave Joey a chance to sneak a better glimpse of what he looked like. The teenager, probably seventeen or eighteen, was a bit shorter than Joey, or looked as though he would be if he weren't sitting. He had a stocky build, brown hair and eyes, a rather puppy-dog look accentuated by deep dimples. Very cute.
"New this year?" he asked Joey conversationally.
"Yep," Joey said, "I'm Joey."
"Kevin," the guy replied, holding out a hand. They shook; Kevin had a strong grip.
"Are there... a lot of members?" Joey asked after thinking how to phrase the question.
"Actually, yeah," Kevin said. "Not everyone's gay, of course, but," here he imitated one of the teachers, adding a comical grimace, "CPHS supports diversity and tolerance in all its shapes and forms."
Joey laughed appreciatively. "Hey, that's not a bad impersonation."
"Of course," Kevin said, and grinned. "Well, hope to see you at the next meeting - it's this Thursday."
"I'll be there," said Joey, with a returning smile. He walked off with a slight bounce to his step, pleased to have found what looked to be a nice group of kids... and he didn't realize until later that his resolution to call Dustin had completely slipped his mind.
X
Jenna Sintor perused the aisles thoughtfully, reading the banners without much interest. So far, nothing had really stood out. There was the computer club, but she wasn't fond of the computers, really, and the boys sitting behind it had attempted to catch so desperately that she hurried onto the next booth without a second glance.
This time, however, she found her face forming a large smile. "CAR CLUB," said the sign. Now this is more like it, she thought cheerfully.
After the initial disappointment of the culinary club, Rafe had wandered off to one side of the gym, rather moodily. Lee followed after him, slightly curious at the sudden shift in mood. He was a rather bouncy personality usually... she wondered at the sudden change. "Hey, Rafe?"
"What?" he said, a bit surprised at the peevish note in his voice.
"Are you feeling all right?"
"Fine. Magnifique." Face blank, he turned away from her and shoved his hands into his pockets, stalking off. Lee blinked, more in surprise than anything else. The girl's glasses slipped and she slid them back to the bridge of her nose, watching the French boy as he disappeared through the door, presumably to lurk somewhere until the rest of them finished browsing.
The Institute students had been acting very oddly recently... She followed after him, and found that he was standing at one of the floor-to-ceiling length windows that opened out onto the school's courtyard. "Hey," she said, standing next to him and looking as well. There was nothing there to catch the eye, only a few benches, one tipped onto its side, and a rather gnarled looking tree that seemed to be on the verge of death. The grass grew long and untamed, licking the sides of the chipped-painted benches.
"Rafe, you can tell us if something's wrong."
"It is not."
Lee glanced sideways at him. "You're just not acting like yourself."
"I don't know why," Rafe said, sounding puzzled. "It happened yesterday also." He shrugged and continued, a bit more cheerfully. "I suppose it is part of being a teenager."
"Yeah, which you're almost -finished-," Lee snorted.
"I told you, I don't know," Rafe said, and shrugged. "It will not help if you continue to ask."
