Disclaimer:
This story came to me as I was relaxing in a nice hot bathtub full of bubbles, reading and having a snack. I had to run, soaking wet to get a pen and paper to write down the outline (I wrote it back in the tub), if you think the story gets weird at times I place the blame on the Brio and Animal Crackers I was eating at the time I thought this up, they are a dangerous combination.
This is a dimension #2 Griffin story, which means it follows the story line of "The Tiger's Cubs", "Give me a Happy Ending" and my 'What if…' "The Price of Acceptance".
Griffin in any dimension is mine, all mine. So if you want to use him please ask, submit a blood sample and write a 1,000,000 word explanation on what you want to do with him and then I might let you borrow him, the same thing goes for Metallica and the twins Loric and Navar.
As ever Marvel owns all the rights to the X-Men, I admit to borrowing them from time to time for my own purposes, without their permission, but since I don't make any money from this, I hope they will take pity on me and ignore what is in fact my tribute to their creations.
Dear Marvel,
Please don't prosecute me, give me a JOB instead and have my twisted mind working for you!
With love
DelCreed.
P.S: I've read Gen-X #75, how do you think Logan is going to feel when Jubilee goes A.W.O.L on him for a change?
: : Jono speaking
# # Griffin speaking
' ' Thoughts and Telepathy
"Water" or "No pool at School" By Del Creed (griffincreed@hotmail.com)June 2, 2001
Xavier's School for Gifted Youth, Snow Valley, MASS.
Day one of a 'HEAT WAVE'
With the temperature hovering around a sweltering 95 degrees the sweating members of the young mutant group known as Generation X were less then happy campers.
"Ange, I swear if you play 'Living in the fridge' one more time I'll make it come true." Jubilee threatened her team-mate. She, Angelo, Page, Jono, Griffin, Artie, Leach and the twins Loric and Navar were trying to move as little as possible as they worked at catching the wavering breeze being cranked out by a noisy, rotating fan that was trying vainly to push the meagre supply of cold that air-conditioning was cranking out into the muggy room (As I writes this it is near freezing because of a freak weather system hovering over Quebec), "Can you believe it will be this hot for the next two weeks?"
# Talica is lucky to be off visiting Cable in Scotland this week, she gets to miss almost all of this… 'course she doesn't really feel heat or cold all that much. # Griffin sighed, # I would like to be metallic right now.# Jono shifted slightly trying to follow the fan's movements.
"Starsmore, don't move like that, your leather B.O. is being blown on me." Page glared at the, short, T-shirt and leather bandaged clad, Englishman who looked up guiltily at her, knowing that he had been hogging the fan. Page looked around the room and frowned, "Were is Monet?" Everyone shrugged, but Leach spoke up.
"Leach see her leaving school, she tell Leach that she stay in hotel till it not hot anymore." This statement made everyone in the room grown longingly.
"You'd think the Chica might have invited her handsome amigo along." Angelo muttered.
: No, she didn't ask me to join her.: Jono spoke in to their minds, and they all laughed and Griffin, sounding like Robin Leach, said.
# Welcome to hotel 'Posh' they have gilded chairs with extra thick pillows for pampered bottoms, buckets of sherbet, gold toilets, and a pool in every room. That's the kind of hotel she'd choose.# Everyone froze for a second then burst out laughing. Jubilee's voice came out in a whisper at first and ended as a shout,
"Oh my gosh Griff… that's it, you're a genius!" By now she was up and dancing around the room for joy as they all watched her as if she'd lost her mind.
"Okay who's going to get up and go tell Signor Cassidy that Jubes has finally gone off the deep end?" Angelo asked, the twins raised their hands at once.
"Ange think for once, what did Griff say they have at hotels?" Skin rolled his eyes.
"Gold toilets." She shot him a 'think harder' look, "… and … and a pool?"
"Bing, bing, bing, yes a pool, full of cold, refreshingly wet, WATER!" That got everyone's attention.
# Um, J-Lee we don't have a pool here.# Griffin said quietly, she smiled happily. (I would like to point out I have never seen a pool in Gen-X, if you have and I've missed it then I'm sorry, but as far as I know they have no pool at the school)
"Then we'll just have to get one, won't we?"
: From who?: Jono asked but then answered his own question, : We could ask Sean.: As a single unit the nine youths stood and went hunting for their Irish headmaster. They found him ten minutes later in the kitchen guzzling a tall glass of ice tea and in between sips he ran the droplet covered glass over the hot skin of his forehead, they surrounded him to present a unified front, and cut off any possible escape routes. : How's the tea sir?: Jono asked. Sean looked around him.
"Fine, how can I help ye all?" Jubilee smiled and pushed Page closer to him, figuring her country charm might be the way to go on this one.
"Um… Sean," He smiled at her, she opened her mouth, and then nothing came out. Griffin whacked her in the back with his tail and smiled showing her his sharp fangs, "Canwehaveapoolplease." Page blurted out all at once. Sean's eyebrows raised.
"It's a grand idea Lass, but I can't say yes," as nine pairs of eyes looked pleadingly at him, he explained, "I'm na sayin' no, I'd be likin' one now too, but you'll have to ask Emma, this is her school and it is on her land." They started to walk off muttering to each other about planning sound battle strategy, multi-media presentations, thorough research, "And don' wait too long, Em's leavin' for a meetin' with Xavier in three hours." They all rushed off in different directions.
*********************
A half hour later;
They decided to send the little kids in first, they approached the door to Emma Frost's room cautiously and knocked timidly. When the door opened Ms. Frost, in a white bathrobe, stood there looking down into the upturned, hopeful faces of four little boys, each was wearing swimming trunks and held various blown up plastic items. Artie had a beach ball, Leach was wearing water wings and the twins each held an end of a large inflatable raft.
"Can I help you?" She asked as four sets of eyes looked at her, they smiles sweetly, "What do you want?" she asked again. All four children coursed together,
"A Pool!"
"No." And the door closed on them before they could protest. Jubilee, who along with everyone else, except Page, was watching around the corner, drew back and slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
"This is going to be harder then we thought. Who's next?" everyone looked at her, "Oh, I am okay I can do this I have a killer speech all worked out." She walked down the hall and signalled the boys to fall back, as she knocked on the door. There was no answer. "Now I know your in there Frosty." She muttered, she knocked again, there wasn't a sound, she looked up the hall where the others waited and she shrugged at them, before knocking again on the door… harder. Jubilee kept up her barrage of insistent knocking, punctuated with cries of "Ms. Frost" for five minutes, till the door was violently yanked open and a dripping wet Emma frost hissed,
"What is it Miss. Lee? What catastrophe has befallen us that I'm so urgently needed? Is the school being attacked? Is Sean singing again? Has California fallen into the ocean?" Jubilee, who was wearing a sarong, flip-flops, large sunglasses, and had a thick layer of neon pink nose-coat (Usually seen as a completely white sun block, it can be found in neon colours, I had some in yellow) streaked like war paint down her nose and across her cheeks, smiled happily as she snapped her gum and said,
"You know Ms. Frost, when I was with the X-Men," Groans came from the end of the hall and Jubilee ignored them, "we had a pool, I remember once Bobby waited till Hank was about to jump in when he-"
"Miss. Lee you hammered on my door and interrupted my nice cooling bath to tell me about some asinine prank Robert once pulled?" Jubilee shook her head.
"No, I did it to tell you about how much fun it is to have a pool… like I did when I was with the-" The door was slammed so hard that for a moment Jubilee enjoyed the gust of air it had created. "Note to self, never talk to Emma when she's wearing a scowl and a towel." She walked back to the others, "Well Jono your on, what's your Idea?" He nodded and led them off down the stairs and out the front door.
********************
Emma's Bathroom:
The sound of laughter and shouts erupted under her window, Emma who had been brooding in her bath looked up and sighed.
"What is it now?" Again stepping out of the tub and wrapping her, now damp, towel around herself, she opened the frosted glass window looked out into the backyard to see Jono just as he, held by Griffin's TK powers, pretended to jump off an invisible diving board as his mental voice boomed in her mind.
: Cannonball!: He went flying out and was caught midair and floated to the ground where the rest of Gen-X, sans Page, was pretending to swim on the grass.
"Hey now splashing, I'm swimming here dude!" Jubilee shouted at Jono. Below her window Emma saw Page poke her head out of the library and ask them,
"Cannonball, where is ma brother?" Angelo called back to her,
"Jono did a 'Cannonball' unto the pool chica not Cannonball your brother. Country mouse, what you doing in there come join us in this nice, refreshing, invigorating POOL!" Emma leaned out the window and shouted.
"All of you get inside, Griffin you and the twins are too pale to be out in the noonday sun without sunscreen, and from how your all acting you've all been in the sun too long, and no pool!" She slammed the window down and climbed back into her large white bathtub.
************
Rec-Room;
"Well, that was Jono, the boys and Jubes, that leaves you and me Griff, I don't know what Page is doing." As he spoke Sean came in.
"So how is it goin' in the trenches, who's left?" Angelo and Griffin waved silently. Sean was about to say 'Well at least you all tried' when Page ran past, trailing papers onto the floor. "Lass?" She paused.
"Sorry can't talk right now sir, I have more research to do." And off she went muttering about pie charts. Angelo stood up,
"I need a soda (He would've gone for a smoke but I made him quit J)." and he walked out of the room.
*****************
Kitchen;
Emma sat licking her last spoon of Hagindas ice cream when Angelo walked in and went right into the fridge without seeing her, she saw his hand reaching for a soda, but his fingers reached out and were about to snag a beer.
"Don't even think about it Angelo." She said coolly. Angelo's head slammed into the bottom of the freezer as he jerked in surprise.
"Signora Frost, I didn't see you there." She shot him a look.
"Obviously you didn't, I believe the soda is at the front of the shelf." He shrugged and took out a can of Dr. Pepper.
"It is very hot," She nodded, "On days like this in the barrio the fire department would sometimes open a fire hydrant for us to play in when I was a kid, after the gangs came they didn't do that anymore." She was listening 'Okay you hooked her now real her in, Ange go for it.' He coached himself. "It was on days like that that I'd dream of…" he took a deep breath before he continued, "I'd dream of… having a pool and learning to swim." Emma's face closed up and she stood taking her empty ice cream container to the trash (Caramel Cone Explosion is choice).
"I said no pool and I mean it." Angelo ran to block her path.
"But it is so hot we are melting here." He insisted and then proceeded to let all his skin drip down his body till he looked like one of those wax covered wine bottles you find in Italian restaurants, and soon he was nearly a puddle at her feet. "Only you can save us." He insisted from the floor. Emma just stepped around him and picked up her travel bag, which she'd left near the door as she called back,
"If you are so hot go take a nice refreshing shower." In the hall she found Page carrying a large folder. 'Finally someone who has something besides a pool in their mind.' Actually Emma was surprised she couldn't sense any of Page's surface thoughts, because the girl was so focused on something.
"Ms. Frost I've done some research on the Internet and printed up various statistics on the benefits of Aqua fitness and how beneficial a structured regime of aquatic activities is to-" Emma turned away from her and headed for the front door, "But Ms. Frost you haven't seen my demographic yet." Page called after her fleeing teacher.
'If I hear one more request for a pool I will not be held responsible for my actions. By the time I get back from this meeting with Xavier they'd better be over this water kick their all on.' As she reached the entrance and the sound of someone gasping caught her attention, she looked up to see Griffin crawling across the floor, slowly on his hands and knees, wearing an illusion of torn, dusty kakies, a pith helmet, and if she wasn't mistaken he even had a weeks worth of beard on his face and was surrounded by a cloud of dust. The boy looked for all the world as if he'd just crawled out of the desert and was gasping for water. Emma frowned at him and kept right on walking out the front door. Once on the porch she gasped when she saw the rest of her students all gasping and flopping about on the ground like fish out of water. Perhaps the fact that all of them, thanks to Griffin's illusions, were from the waist down fish had something to do with it.
# Please, you must put us in the water if we are to survive, we are the last of our kind.# She turned to see Griff behind her now, a merman now too, and he was holding out his hand to her, pleading.
"By the time I come back I want you all to have written two full pages, single spaced, about why no means no, and-" She looked at Jubilee, "you will all use regular 8 by 11 paper, unlike last time when Jubilation handed in a 3 page report written on post-it notes. You have all been wasting my time with this pool nonsense, I couldn't even enjoy my bath without being interrupted twice." There was growing all around as the fishtails disappeared and they stood, marching back into the house… all except for Griffin who called to her,
"Ms. Frost?" She closed her eyes and sighed.
"Yes Griffin."
"Have a save trip." And he hurried back into the slightly cooler house. Emma smiled,
'Sabretooth's son in deed, no he is Charles' to the point that even if he doesn't get what he wants he remains polite.'
***************************
Griffin's room forty minutes later;
On his bed Griff was thinking about how dogs panted to cool themselves off because they didn't have sweat glands, and if he should try it to see if it could cool him off too, but the image of someone walking past his door and hearing him stopped him from trying. Something Ms. Frost had said nagged at him, something about interrupting her… Griff sprang to his feet and darted around the room grabbing various items till he'd made a pile on the bed,
Food = a box of animal crackers Check.
Towel = a large 6X4 safari printed one Check.
Drink = a bottle of Brio from his mini fridge.
Cloths = Bermuda shorts, clean underwear Check.
Book = one of those books Page hides behind the VCR, he looked at the title and cover 'One Small Secret' with two people hugging as they kissed Check.
Picking up his towel wrapped bundle he sunk out of his room and hurried away to Emma's room. Once inside he went straight to the bathroom and stood in awe for a moment at what he saw, there before him was one of the biggest, sunken, marble, bathtubs he'd ever imagined, it had three steps leading down into it.
# No wonder she keep saying we don't need a pool, she already has one.# With a smile he turned on the taps and selected a bottle of dark blue bubble bath. #Cool, blue water.# Happily he set out his things, cloths on the counter, towel on the first step, food, drink and book within reach on the second step, then he stripped off his cloths and sunk down into all that luscious water.
*******************
Frost Enterprises:
Emma had just finished greeting Charles Xavier, and was leading him into her office as she told him about the children's latest crusade, when she noticed that an alarm had been tripped in her room at the school.
"Do you think the children and Sean are under attack?" Charles asked worried about everyone, especially his son and Jubilee. Emma typed a command into her keyboard.
"We'll soon see." A huge screen appeared as a large section of wall rolled back and on the screen was… Griffin, sitting in her tub surrounded by mounds of bubbles, reading a romance novel as he munched on an animal cracker. Emma looked up sharply when she heard Xavier snigger, but both their attention was drawn back to the screen when they heard Griff gasp.
*********************
Bathroom;
The book was full of kissing and mushy stuff but it also had some good jokes and funny situations, over all it wasn't bad, he put it aside to pick up the bottle of Brio (A nasty Italian soda that only I like and the rest of my family avoids) and unscrewed the top for a sip. Griffin had just taken a gulp when the door opened and in walked Jubilee with a bundle very much like the one he'd brought in.
"What are you doing here?" They both asked at the same time.
"I came for a swim in Emma's tub." Jubilee said frowning.
# Well I was here first.# Griff pointed out. She just kept staring at him with a calculating look in her eyes, Griff was getting nervous. # What?#
*******************
Frost Enterprises:
"This should be interesting." Emma took a seat were she could watch what was happening, as Jubilee reached for Griff's pile of cloths and he started to get up to stop her, but realized he couldn't stand up without exposing himself.
"Emma shouldn't you be calling Sean?" Charles asked, but Emma just smiled.
*************************
Bathroom:
# J-Lee what are you doing, don't you even think of tossing my cloths in.# Griff warned her. Jubilee held up a pair of green camouflage briefs that only had wide crisscrossing, black elastic in the back instead of fabric.
"Oh these are nice." She chuckled.
# They're made like that to let my tail through without having to cut out a lot of holes.# Griff growled as he started to blush. Jubilee walked to the edge of the tub and tossed them at him.
"Put them on." Holding his briefs Griff looked at her, "I'm not getting into a tub with a naked Creed, Wolvie would freak." Griff frowned at her and said,
# Who said you were staying?# But under the water and bubbles he was pulling on the underwear as he spoke. Jubilee put her cloths next to his, set a bowl of grapes and a bottle of Jolt cola next to his food and stripped down to her bright green camisole and panties that looked very much like a swimsuit.
"The fact that I'll tell Page you have her missing book say I am." And with that she slid into the water, only to disappear under all the bubbles, Griff shot out an arm and fished her up. "Gosh it's deeper then it looks." She sputtered.
# I'm sitting on a step.# Griff explained, soon they were both just relaxing in the cool water. # What Emma said about us interrupting her bath made you come here too hu?# Jubilee nodded. A moment later the door swung open and Angelo wearing a towel, carrying a paper a shopping bag and a waterproof walkman strolled in and he froze seeing Griffin and Jubilee together in the tub.
"Oh my bad, didn't mean to interrupt you two." He started to edge his way out when Jubilee said,
"Ange you turkey we're like dressed here, so if you have something to put on you can stay too and-." Griff stopped her, looking at Angelo he asked.
# What kind of food did you bring to the pool party?# Angelo smiled and opened his bag and pulled out…
"Salsa, corn chips and Dr. Pepper." He offered the two in the tub, they looked at each other, nodded and he placed the food and two cans of Dr. Pepper on the edge of the bath.
# Okay your in, snag the glass over there and I'll share my brio with you guys.# Angelo, who'd pulled out a dark pair of boxer shorts and slipped into them under his towel, grimaced at Griff's offer and Jubilee said,
"I don't think so, that stuff is an acquired taste." She shook her head, "And I need to acquired it like an extra hole in my head." (I had my last wisdom too pulled out, so I had to make her say that, because I have an extra hole in my head and it hurts)
# Aunt V, loved this stuff and you get use to the taste.# Griffin said as Angelo happily swam across the tub to the back corner, where he could still reach the chips and salsa by extending his fingers. Soon they were back to talking about why there was no pool at the school. # There is only that shallow river in the bio dome. #
***************************
Frost Enterprises:
"Emma, is that true you don't have a pool at your school?" Xavier asked.
"Charles it is a school, students use to go home in the summer, and I never saw the need for a pool." She watched the screen. Charles wheeled over. "Pools can be dangerous, we have small children at the school Artie and Leach the-"
"Emma, are you deigning them a pool to protect them?" She nodded, he sighed, "Emma I too have lost students, Thunderbird, Jean, Morph, Jean, Warren, Jean… well you get the jest, you can't wrap them up in bubble wrap, they are not your Hellions." Emma sighed she knew he was right but she just couldn't help caring about all the possibilities. They turned back to watched the screen and the professor laughed when he looked at it.
*******************
Bathroom:
Griff, Jubilee and Angelo all looked up as the sounds of a struggle reached them through the door.
"I was here first Jono!" It was Page's voice, "Don't even think of… get your hand off that door" The door opened and the three in the tub could see Jono and Page trying to push each other away from the door so they could get into the room first.
"Um, yo amigos." Angelo called out, they both looked up shocked.
: Kinky Jubes, two guys hu?: Jono teased, and Jubilee blushed.
"We're decent," She looked at Griff, "well mostly decent."
# It's for my tail!# Griff huffed. # Are you two just going to stand there or are you coming in, the price is an interesting food or beverage.# Page held up a bag of sour skittles and a bottle of soda water, Jono's brow creased so you knew he was frowning, # Or some good music.# Griffin added knowing Jono couldn't eat and seeing a boom box by the door. Jono quickly plugged in the music as Page, wearing her cropped T-shirt and workout shorts stepped into the water, as Griff and Angelo quickly moved all the food to higher ground because the water level was rising. Jubilee sniggered,
"Hey Jono, I never fingered you for a tidy-whities kind of guy, I thought you'd be black bikinis at least." Jono had gotten into the water and was sitting on one of the higher steps to keep his black leather bandages from getting wet, he looked at Jubilee and just shrugged. "Maybe Griff will lend you some of his wild underwear." Everyone settled in and it was quiet with just the soothing music till…
"See Leach said he see Jono go in here." Everyone looked up to see Leach, Artie and the Twins at the door, still wearing their swimsuits, "Can we play too?" The older students smiled and waved them in.
"Sure guys just no splashing." The boys nodded eagerly and soon they were all telling stories about pirates and sailing the high seas. "We'd better enjoy this, once Frosty is back we'll never see this 'Privet Pool' again." Everyone agreed with Jubilee.
# So what did Bobby do to Hank when he was about to jump into the pool?# Surprisingly no one groaned as Jubilee launched into a funny story of frozen swimsuits and Hank's revenge.
**************************
Frost Enterprises:
"I'd forgotten all about that incident, Bobby couldn't go anywhere without Hank paging him every five minutes." Xavier reflected as he wheeled away from the mirror. "I miss having Jubilee at the mansion." Emma's head jerked up.
"I'm her guardian she has to stay with me, and she, Griff and the others will be spending a month up there later this summer."
"Stand down Emma I'm not hinting that I'm taking her from you, I'm just keenly aware right now, seeing her there, about how I've missed her." Charles decided to change the subject. "This heat wave will be lasting two weeks." Emma nodded, "They could come early to the mansion, I do have a pool-"
"Oh not you too," Emma groaned and went back to watching.
********************
Bathroom:
The members of Gen-X were in heaven, sure all the bubbles had melted, but the water was still blue and everyone was having a high old time telling stories about how they'd learned to work with their powers before coming to the school.
"The first time we turned invisible we didn't-"
"know we had because we can see each other even if-"
"We've faded out. We were in the backyard and when Talica called us in-"
"for dinner, we sat in our seats and she told Griff to go and get us, and we said 'we're here'."
# Talica was so surprised she spiked out and screamed, it's a good thing aunt V was away and the four of us were alone, they would have taken the twins away from us for sure if they'd ever known about that power.# Griff hugged his little brothers who were sitting on either side of him.
"How did you reappear?" Page asked, the boys smiled.
"We sneezed." They said together and everyone was laughing, as the door opened and in walked Sean Casidy. With his arms crossed Sean stood shaking his head looking down at them.
"What are all of ye doin' in here, your invadin' Emma's privacy now everyone of you out of that bath, empty out the water and pick up your things." With grate reluctance they all collected their belongings. Page wrapped herself, Leach and Artie in towels and led them out the door and the twins were quick to follow their friends, as Jono wrapped his towel around his waist and collected his boombox he waited for Angelo to finish putting the leftover food in his bag and they left casting one last longing look at the tub. Griffin looked at Jubilee and asked her,
# Well are you getting out?# She smiled at him.
"Oh you first." Griffin blushed because he realized that she wanted to see what the back of his underwear looked like and he insisted she get out first. They argued back and forth as the water level fell when there was only an inch left Sean's patience was at low ebb too.
"Enough both of ye get out of there this instant." He ordered. Jubilee looked up at him.
"Been hanging out with Frosty too much Irish, your starting to sound like her, we'll both go at the same time." Both she and Griff stood and walked up the steps, "Oops forgot my Jolt." Before he could react Jubilee darted behind him and looked, "Wow, so that's how your tail is attached." Griff's face flamed and he spun to glair at her.
# Do you mind?# He growled, she only smiled back at him, grabbed her things and a towel before telling Sean,
"You know you ruined a real bonding moment here Casidy." With that said she wrapped herself up in the large towel and left the room. Griff frowned as he held up the bright yellow towel that barely managed to cover him, he frowned. Sean saw his face and said,
"Now lad you know you shouldn't have been in here, no need to get angry about it." Griffin shook his head and told him that wasn't the reason he was frowning. "Then what's wrong?"
# Jubilee took my towel and left me this 'hand towel' to use.# Jubilee's laugh reached them, she was waiting outside the bathroom door. Griffin snagged his Bermuda shorts from the counter and tightening his grip on the mini towel he ran after her. # J-Leeee!# Sean sighed and closed the door.
***********************
Frost Enterprises
Emma was still dabbing at the tears of laughter in her eyes and listening to Xavier's laughter, when Griff had turned to look at Jubilee he'd presented them a full view of 'how his tail was attached'. They'd watched as Sean had closed the door behind them, locked it and turned to look around the bathroom.
"Emma is it really worth all this trouble, because now that they know about it your bathtub will be fair game." Emma gritted her teeth.
"Sean seams to have the situation well under control." Emma said as she raised the remote to turn off the monitor, but a moment before she switched it off they both saw him drop his bathrobe and caught glimpse of an Irish moon. Charles was now laughing so hard he nearly fell out of his wheelchair. "Alright, alright fine, but I have a reputation to uphold so you're taking the credit for this one Xavier." She picked up the phone and spoke to her secretary for a time. "I want it started today." She finished, hung up the phone and looked at him, "Are you happy?"
"Are you?" He asked her, she smiled.
"Once I return to the school and tell Sean that room is wired I will be."
**************************
Rec-Room
All sitting together again Gen-X took their seats around the fan in silence, it was about five o'clock, they'd been ousted from the bathtub an hour earlier and they couldn't think of anything but how much fun the afternoon had been. Jubilee looked over at Griffin and was surprised to see a puzzled look on his face, his eyes suddenly went wide and he was laughing (No sound, just a big smile and his shoulders moving, it was like watching someone laugh on TV with the mute on).
"Griff what's up?" Griffin sighed.
# Did any of you notice that Mr. Casidy was wearing a bathrobe when he kicked us out of there?# Page's jaw dropped.
"No Mr. Casidy would never have…" she looked at the old fan and finished, "That rat, well he can kiss those muffins I make good-bye because I think there will only be enough for us tomorrow." Angelo patted her shoulder.
"Ya he'll be devastated. I'm thinking more along the line of revenge, say something like water balloons, just after they've been in the freezer for fifteen minutes." The others liked that Idea. Suddenly the ground was shaking.
"Perfect, not only did he trick us he's singing." Jubilee snorted, Jono shook his head.
: No, listen engines… those are… trucks, big ones coming this way up the drive.: He was looking out the window and everyone ran to join him. There coming up the drive was a dump truck followed by transport truck with a crane/back-how on it, a fleet of pickup trucks and last but not least a flat bed semi with a large fibreglass…
": # A POOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!# :" Everyone shouted and ran for the front door excitedly. Once out side they watched the driver of the transport truck step down and walk over to them.
"Hey can any of you kids show us where this goes, the boss lady said you would know?" Nine sets of arms grabbed him and led him around back to the large expanse of grass that was between the schools and the bio-dome, the driver set to work with the men from the pick up trucks as the driver of the semi walked up to Jubilee.
"You Jubilee?" He asked, he'd been instructed to find the Asian looking kid by his boss, she nodded, "Then this if for you." He gave her a small white envelope.
# I hope that isn't the bill for all this.# Griffin joked, as Jubilee opened the letter and read her eyes teared up. # J-Lee I was kidding, are you okay?# He put his arm around her shoulders. # It is the bull isn't it?# She smiled and handed him the note, he read it out to everyone. # To the next generation, Enjoy. The X-Men. PS: Jubilee, can't wait till next month when you'll be with the X-men again.# It was an emotional moment for the firecracker and Griffin decided to take advantage of it, he leaned over and kissed her cheek quickly as he hugged her. Jubilee's surprised eyes met his nervous ones and she smiled and hugged him back. All of the Gen-Xers watched as the back-how dug a gaping hole into the lawn and before they knew it the dump truck was leaving and the workmen had started to shape the hole as others fitted the filter and other mechanics onto the outside of the pool's fibreglass hull (I'm making this up, because if you read I'm Nova 1, you know why I don't have a pool). When Sean came out he was as surprised as the kids had been, not to mention that the water balloons Angelo had prepared earlier and but in a Styrofoam cooler had added to his surprise when he was hit by fifty of them. The man in charge came up and said that they were loosing the light and that everything would be ready first tomorrow morning. As the crew started packing up Emma drove up and slammed her car door.
"What is the meaning of all this? Why is there a big hole in my lawn Sean?" She looked at the uncertain faces of her students. "You went against my wishes and got them a pool didn't you?" Sean, still dripping wet, shook his head no, but Emma dead eyed him, "If not you then who?" Jubilee handed her the letter, but she had a strange knowing look on her face. "Charles never could mind his own business." She growled.
"But how did he know about the 'pool' situation?" Sean asked.
"when I met him this afternoon he asked how the students were doing and I told him how they were all acting before I left." The students looked doubtful as Angelo asked quietly.
"Are you going to make then put the lawn back the way it was before?" Emma looked broodingly at the big hole in the ground and sighed.
"Well half the work is already done and if Xavier wants to waste his money on a big water pit fine-" the kids all cheered, "but, I want you all to promise never to swim without a partner and the boys don't ever swim with out one of you watching them, is that understood?" They all nodded. Emma was about to head into the house when a direct thought tickled her mind.
'This was way cool of you Frosty.' Emma looked a t Jubilee.
'What makes you think I had anything to do with this… Mess?' Jubilee pointed to the mud flaps of the white truck that held the pool, the symbol for Frost enterprises was clear for all to see.
'That and the guy said that the 'Boss Lady' said we'd know where the pool went.' Emma smiled tightly.
'Good work Jubilation, if you tell anyone you can expect to never see the outside of study hall ever again.'
'You got it Frosty, but seriously thanks.' Jubilee nodded and ran to join the others who were looking down into the big hole the digger had left, just as Sean walked over to her.
"I want those papers I asked for on my desk by tomorrow." She reminded the students who groaned. She took in this dripping state and the balloon fragment sticking out of his pocket and said,. "I see they figured out that you'd kicked them out of the bathroom so you could have a turn in the tub." Sean grimaced.
"Ya, they pelted me with semi frozen water… Gasp Em how did ye know about that?" He squeaked, she smiled and held up a videotape.
"All my privet rooms are wired for sound and video, Xavier and I watched the whole thing from shortly after when Griff first tripped the alarm, luckily I switched off the monitor just as an Irish moon appeared on screen." If Sean's face got any redder it would have been purple, "Did you know you have a birthmark shaped like Road island on your-" Sean went white.
"YES, I know. Okay Em what do ye want for that tape?" She smiled as Sean thought, 'This is going to hurt.'
'You bet it will.' Her voice spoke in his head, "Dinner with you, someplace nice." Sean stared at her.
"You want me to take you on a 'Date'." She nodded, and he had to ask, "Why?"
"Lets just say, " She looped her arm through his, "that I liked Road island." And they walked into the school.
*******************************
By the big hole in the dirt:
The little boys were happily waving good-by to the back-how operator who'd given them each a turn in the digger, as Jubilee ran up and tapped Griff's shoulder.
"Why did you kiss me?" He blushed but didn't turn away.
# Cause I've been wanting to for sometime now, and it seamed like a good time to do it. Are you angry that I did?# She shook her head.
"Wolvie might freak at first, but honestly… I was planning on kissing you just before Angelo walked in." Griff's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped, Jubilee took advantage and kissed him back on the cheek. Griff turned to where Angelo and Artie were pulling Leach away from the edge of the hole, and he whacked the grey skinned mutant with his tail.
"Hey, what was that for?" Angelo asked.
# Lousy timing, Amigo.# Griffin snarled as Jubilee laughed and hugged him and everyone went back to the front of the school to sit under the large oak tree. Jubilee spoke up,
"You know Frosty said she wanted us all to hand in 'A' two page paper on why no means no, so I guess 'we' should get to work on 'our' paper." They all, except Page, started laughing, "I figure that a short paragraph from each of us will fill up two pages in no time."
"But Ms. Frost didn't mean…" Page looked at her classmates and sighed, "fine but it was your idea." Just as the trucks drove off, out of sight, a taxi drove up and deposited a sweaty, mussed, and thoroughly grumpy Monet St. Croix in front of the school with a large suitcase.
: Soooo, how was the hotel?: Jono asked. Monet glared at them.
"When I arrived the central air-conditioning broke, the restaurant had just been closed by health inspectors, and a child was sick in the pool yesterday, so it was drained and the staff was in the process of sanitizing it." She walked into the school and slammed the door behind her. Griffin asked,
# Do you think we should tell her about Emma's pool, she looks like she could really use it.# They all looked at each other and smiled,
# ": NAAaa!:"# they all laughed.
The end
June 4, 2001 1:34am