Fireworks

"Well it may not be the most romantic setting but at least we're alone," Jinx purred in the dark.

"Yeah just you and me babe," Logan grinned. He kissed her passionately.

Then the lights came on. "What is going on here?" Ororo snapped as she walked in the open door.

"We were just having some private time," Jinx blushed.

"IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DANGER ROOM?" Ororo shouted. They were right in the middle of the room.

"We shut the power off," Logan said. "We figured it would be the last place the kids would find us."

"You two are worse than a pair of teenagers!" Ororo snapped.

"Well what are you doing down here?" Jinx asked.

"Finding a safe port from Shipwreck," Ororo muttered.

"Good luck," Jinx smirked.

"Look, Charles is still unconscious and Roadblock is going to be stuck trying to get Ms. March out of the laundry chute," Ororo said. "Although I don't think he's in any hurry to get her out."

"In the where?" Logan scratched his head.

"Long story," Ororo sighed. "It was before the exploding birthday cake."

"Exploding birthday cake?" Jinx asked.

"There they are!" They heard Low Light's voice.

"What are you all doing hiding in here?" Cover Girl and Low Light walked in.

"Well Ororo was hiding from Shipwreck and Jinx and I wanted some time alone," Logan sighed. "Which is obviously not gonna happen."

"In the Danger Room?" Low Light looked around. "Uh…isn't this…?"

"We shut the power off," Logan pointed. "Just to be safe. Which means nothing's gonna happen."

"Unfortunately," Jinx sighed.

"What are all of you doing down here?" Hank walked in. "Its getting wild up there! The kids are really getting restless. Tabitha just blew up some more decorations. Lance and Peter are fighting over Kitty again. Some of the human girls nearly got into a fight with Wanda. Pietro's spreading rumors as well as teasing the football players. Shipwreck is now chasing Destiny around and Rogue is threatening to run away from home!"

"We'd better get up there," Logan said. "Before they tear the flamin' mansion apart."

"Yeah we'd…" Hank walked over to them. What he didn't notice was that the door was closing behind him.

"Hank the door!" Logan shouted. Too late it locked behind him.

"Well no problem," Hank tried to open it. "Oh dear, that door has a manual lock on it doesn't it?"

"Yeah and it can only be opened on the other side," Logan groaned. "Way to go Hank!"

"Well can't you just cut through it with your claws?" Jinx asked.

"The door's made out of solid adamantium," Logan pointed out. "So are the walls now, remember? After the last couple of visits by the Misfits, Chuck put in some 'modifications'."

"Well just turn on the emergency voice control activation switch!" Ororo threw her hands up. "Computer open door to Danger Room."

"Uh 'Ro?" Logan said. "Power's off. Remember? Except for the back up lights and air generator, there's nothing on in this room."

"So we're stuck in here?" Cover Girl asked.

"Looks like it," Logan sighed.

"Oh crap…" Ororo looked at the door.

************************************************************************

Rogue had managed to clean off the cake off her face in one of the bathrooms upstairs. "Well I knew this was gonna be a disaster!" She grumbled.

Wanda, Xi and Althea were in the bathroom as well looking at the mirror. "How much you wanna bet it was Pietro who set it off? It smells just like his handiwork!" Wanda said.

"Actually it smells more like vanilla," Todd poked his head in.

"Toad!" Wanda snapped.

"What?" Todd said. "The door was open and all you guys are doing is standing there looking at yourselves in the mirror! I mean it ain't like you guys are on the can or anything are you? Or taking a bath!"

"It's still a matter of privacy!" Wanda snapped.

"Privacy? You let Xi in there!" Todd said.

"Well Xi isn't exactly like other guys remember?" Rogue said.

"You got that right!" Todd pointed behind them.

They looked and gasped. Xi had taken some of Rogue's lipstick and was now applying it to 'his' lips. "What?" Xi blinked.

"Xi for God's sake what the hell are you doing?" Rogue shouted.

"I'm trying on lipstick," Xi said simply.

"Why are you doing that?" Rogue asked.

"Because that's what you females do," Xi said.

"So why are you doing it?" Althea asked.

"I have never considered the possibility of having any female characteristics," Xi told them. "I am just curious what would it be like to be a female. Perhaps by imitating some of your habits I can better understand females."

"Oh boy…" Wanda groaned. "Xi it's…not that simple."

"Xi right now is not the time to be experimenting with stuff like that!" Todd groaned. "Trust me!"

"Besides that color is so not you," Althea said. "I mean look at it. It totally clashes with your coloring." She took a tissue and wiped the lipstick off Xi's mouth.

"It does?" Xi blinked. "Why do you wear this stuff anyway? I mean what's the point of it?"

"It makes girls look good," Todd said.

"Well it's more than that actually," Althea said. "Sometimes lipsticks can help prevent dryness. Try this one. It has moisturizer in it," Althea took out a lipstick from her purse and started to put some on Xi.

"This is not happening," Rogue moaned.

"Althea what the hell are you doin'?" Todd shouted. "What are you trying to do? Warp his mind or something?"

"He's not a he," Althea said. "Let's face it, Xi is at a disadvantage when it comes to this kind of stuff."

"He ain't supposed to know about this kind of stuff because he chose to be a guy!" Todd said.

"I did?" Xi blinked.

"You said to call you a he, remember?" Todd told Xi.

"I did that because it was easier at the time," Xi said. "You could have called me she if you wanted."

"Yeah and Xi did have a huge crush on you before, remember?" Althea said. "Now hold still. I'm gonna put some lip liner on you as well."

"I am not watching this," Rogue stammered. "This is unbelievable."

"For once I am in total agreement with you," Wanda said.

"There!" Althea said. "You look fabulous."

"Really?" Xi looked at 'his' lips. "You think this color is me?"

"Actually that does look good on you," Todd said. "Really. It brings out your eyes."

"You think?" Xi blinked as he admired himself. "Well it does feel nicer than the other one."

"Told you it's the moisturizer," Althea said. "Its lip balm, helps keep your lips from getting chapped."

"Really?" Todd asked. "Had no idea that stuff could be so practical."

"Yeah I got a different one, wanna try?" Althea asked as she rummaged through her purse.

"Well my lips have been feeling a little chafed lately," Todd admitted.

"I can't watch this!" Rogue walked out.

"Yeah I'm getting out of here before those two get into the eye shadow!" Wanda followed her.

They didn't get far when they ran into Scott. "Where did you put Duncan?" Rogue asked.

"I stuck him in Kitty's room to recover," Scott smirked as he pointed his thumb at the door.

"Wait, isn't that where we stuck Lockheed?" Rogue asked.

"YEOWWWW!" Duncan could be heard screaming from inside.

"Oh yeah," Scott grinned. "My mistake. Oh well."

"Excuse me," Wanda said. "I'm gonna go find my brother and pay him back for the birthday cake facial." She took off.

"This is a nightmare," Rogue groaned.

"Things are gonna be fine Rogue," Scott said.

"Which party are you at?" Rogue snapped at him. "There's already been a lot of fights and explosions, and if Wanda has her way there's gonna be a lot more! Professor X is out cold, Ms. March is stuck in the laundry chute and I don't know where most of the other adults are! Xi has decided to explore his feminine side and he's taking Toad for the ride with him! The Misfits are running loose. Shipwreck is hitting on Irene. Meanwhile most of the human guests hate us more than ever. Which means our chances of ever going back to school are growing less by the minute. Of course I've been humiliated so much at this party I don't think I ever could show my face back there even if I wanted too!"

"Rogue it's gonna be okay I promise," Scott said. "It's…What's this about Xi and Toad?"

"Don't ask!" Rogue said. "You really don't want to know!"

"Hey has anybody seen Kitty?" Lance walked up to them.

"Not now Lance!" Rogue groaned.

"I just wanna know where she is!" Lance asked. "I've been looking all over for her ever since the birthday cake blow up! She was really upset!"

"Something tells me you can blame Pietro for that!" Scott snapped.

"I just want to talk to her," Lance said. "I can't find her!"

"Well I haven't seen Remy for most of the evening so shut up!" Rogue said hotly.

"Well you did threaten to beat him up so he's probably doing the smart thing and laying low," Lance reminded her.

"Maybe Jean's seen her!" Rogue said.

"Uh Jean isn't exactly noticing much right now," Lance said.

"What do you mean?" Scott asked.

"I think you'd better see for yourself," Lance told him.

He led the way to the main living room. To their surprise they saw a crowd standing around a table. Jean was dancing on top of it. "I am the Dancing Queen!" Jean sang loudly. "Young and sweet playing the tambourine oh yeah!"

"Jean what are you doing?" Scott ran up to her.

"MOSH PIT TIME!" Jean shouted as she jumped off the table. "WHEEE!"

Scott and Lance barely caught her. "Geeze Red you weigh more than you look!" Lance said as he and Scott helped her stand up.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked.

"Never better!" Jean lightly brushed them off and went to the table where the punch was. "You know this punch is great! YAHOOO! PARTY!"

"Jean what's gotten into you?" Scott asked.

Lance took a whiff of the punch. "About a shot of Baccardi and a ton of vodka by the smell of it."

"What?" Scott yelped. "You mean she's drunk?"

"Give the man a prize," Lance said sarcastically. "Way to watch your girlfriend, Summers. Look the punch bowl is nearly empty. She must have at least drank half of it!"

"Oh this night is getting even better," Rogue groaned.

"Okay Jean I think you've had enough," Scott tried to take the punch from her.

"Hey this is my punch!" Jean snapped. "Get your own!"

"Give me the punch Jean," Scott said.

"No!" She pouted. "Don't wanna! So there!" She stuck out her tongue and walked away.

"Oh great!" Rogue threw up her hands. "Come on, let's get her before she does something stupid!"

"Good luck!" Lance snickered.

Jean had staggered to the back of the room where Kitty was talking to Amara. Scott and Rogue quickly caught up with her. "Jean I think you should go lie down or something," Scott said.

"Jean I think you should go lie down or something," Jean mocked him in a funny voice. "Man and people call me a party pooper. Of course with any party for Rogue it's bound to be a disaster anyway!"

"Jean!" Scott hissed.

"Scott!" Jean mocked.

"Will you behave yourself?" Scott asked.

"What's going on?" Kitty asked, noticing the others.

"Nothing," Scott said.

"Waddya mean 'nothing'?" Jean asked a little too loudly. "It's obviously something!"

"Kitty hi!" Lance waved. "Look I'm really sorry about the cake thing…"

"Not now Alvers," Scott said.

"Why not?" Jean snapped. "At least Lance is interested in Kitty's well being which is more than I can say for you!"

"Jean…" Scott tried to take her arm

"Spend half the night ignoring me drooling over Ms. Personality over here," Jean snapped pointing at Rogue.

"Jean keep your voice down and don't talk like that!" Scott snapped. "You're ruining Rogue's party."

"Oh yeah," Jean slurred. "Never mind my feelings and wishes. Just trample all over them as long as Rogue's happy."

"Jean are you drunk or something?" Kitty asked.

"Oh look it's Kitty," Jean snickered. She bent her head down so her face was right in front of hers. "Meow, meow, meow…" She started singing the Meow Mix song.

"Oh my god you are drunk!" Kitty said.

"She's beyond drunk," Pietro came up with the rest of the Misfits. "She's plastered."

"If you jerks had anything to do with this…" Scott growled.

"Hey it wasn't us!" Althea snapped. "We didn't bring any alcohol. Some firecrackers maybe but no alcohol!"

"Yeah we even frisked Shipwreck and everything!" Fred told them.

"I have a pretty good idea who the culprit really is," Lance pointed at the jocks standing by the punch bowl.

"Sorry I should have known," Scott said. "You guys are nuts enough without alcohol! We'd better tell somebody!"

"Don't tell my dad," Althea said. "He'd want to drink it!"

"A drink! Good idea!" Jean said happily. "I'll have another!"

"Jean I think you've had enough," Scott tried to take the punch from her.

"Don't tell me when I've had enough!" Jean snapped. "I'll tell you when I've had enough!" She jerked the punch back. However it spilled on one of the girls.

"Hey you spilled your punch on me!" Linda snapped.

"Ha! Serves ya right for being a bunch of stuck up…" Jean snapped.

"Okay Jean that's enough," Rogue grabbed her arm.

"Leggo!" Jean pulled away. "You're not the boss of me! Hell I should be the leader of the team!"

"Yeah right Jean," Rogue rolled her eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me! I'll roll your big swelled head off your shoulders!" Jean snapped.

"Just go ahead and try it!" Rogue snapped.

"Rogue calm down," Scott said.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Rogue shouted. "The last thing I want to do at my own birthday party is look after a drunken Princess Perfect!"

"Oh yeah?" Jean slurred. "Well if I'm the princess, you're the freaking queen!"

"What?" Rogue asked.

"That's right! All Hail Queen Rogue!" Jean threw up her hands. "The Supreme Ruler of Self Pity! And every freaking person in your house is your royal subject and don't say it isn't so, because we all know it's true!"

"Jean shut up you're making a fool of yourself!" Rogue hissed. Already several people were staring at them.

"Every day it's the same thing, 'We have to try to be nicer to Rouge', 'We need to show Rogue some understanding'," Jean said sarcastically in a high voice. " 'Let's encourage Rogue more, she needs it!' WELL, WHAT ABOUT MY NEEDS HUH? WHERE'S MY PIECE OF THE ACTION PAL?"

"Jean I swear…" Rogue was feeling everyone's eyes on her.

"SO YOU CAN'T TOUCH ANYBODY WITHOUT SUCKING OUT THEIR LIFE FORCE? BIG FAT HAIRY DEAL!" Jean snapped. "You wanna talk about voices in your head? Try spending afternoon with afternoon with these ditzes!" She pointed to the girls. "God I nearly went out of my mind half the time!"

"Why you…" Linda tried to attack her but was held back by her friends.

"I try to be nice to people and make them feel wanted," Jean groaned. "I try so hard to be a good role model and to help people and inspire them! And what do I get? 'God Jean's such a snob' 'She's Princess Perfect'! You insult everybody in your path and everybody loves you! How do you do that?"

"I don't do anything," Rogue said.

"Everybody wants to be Rogue's friend," Jean said. "Half the boys here are in love with you! And don't say 'yeah right' because I've glimpsed into their diseased little brains and I know for a fact it's true! Hell you could have even had Scott if you really wanted! We all know how easily led he is!"

"That's enough Jean!" Scott took her by the arm, but she broke free.

"I am so sick and tired of trying to live up to your standards," Jean slurred.

"My standards?" Rogue gasped.

"You think just because you're sooooooo popular around here that you can get away with anything!" Jean snarled.

"I'm what?" Rogue blinked

"She's popular?" Blake asked.

"Well compared to Jean she is," Mindy said.

"SEE WHAT I MEAN?" Jean shouted. "Even the teachers love you! They're always worried about your progress and things. But me… I'm not a problem at all! I can get through life without any guidance! You're the one that needs all the help. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!"

"Jean drunk or not if you don't stop babbling I am gonna hurt you," Rogue growled through her teeth.

"Oooooh!" Jean said mockingly. "I'm so scared! Go ahead and suck the life right outta me Rogue! You'd be doing me a favor!"

"What are you talking about?" Rogue asked.

"I suppose it's never occurred to you that unlike you, some of us just aren't that brave to be themselves!" Jean shouted. "That they'd do anything to be liked by people! Even if it means denying who they are and sucking up to jerks all the time!"

"Jean you are so out of the A list!" Mindy snapped.

"Do you know why I went with Duncan all that time, well besides his cute butt?" Jean asked. "It's because I was so desperate to be normal! That and the fact that there was very little on his mind. It was pretty easy to filter out his thoughts. But wanted people to like and accept me! I needed people to like and accept me…to love me….IS THAT SO BAD? IS IT?"

"Man she is so wasted," Todd remarked.

"It's like watching a car crash," Amanda said. "You want to look away but you can't."

"Why doesn't anybody love me?" She moaned. "Why? Why? WHY?"

"How the mighty have fallen," Fred grinned.

"You're really enjoying this aren't you?" Tabitha asked.

"Oh yeah," Fred told her. "Big time!"

"You love me don't you Scott?" Jean whimpered.

"Yes I do," Scott said quickly. Then he noticed everyone in the room was looking at them. "Jean maybe we should go somewhere…"

"OH SCOTT!" Jean shouted and kissed him passionately. Everyone in the room cheered and/or made catcalls.

"Well at least someone's gonna get some action tonight!" George laughed.

"All right what's all the racket about? What's going on?" Shipwreck wandered over.

"Jean's drunk!" Althea said.

"It wasn't me I swear! I did not even think of bringing any alcohol to this party!" Shipwreck shouted.

"We know that," Althea said. "We already have some other suspects but right now we need to get Jean calmed down."

"Where is everybody?" Shipwreck shouted. "I know Roadblock is locked in with Ms. March. Somebody fused the door shut somehow!"

"Yeah and with this group there aren't exactly a limited number of suspects," Lance remarked.

By now Jean was slobbering all over Scott. "Jean…please…now is not the time for this!" He gasped.

"Right!" Jean broke away giggling. "Let's party! WHOOO HOOO!" Suddenly several objects were starting to fly around the room.

"Something tells me Jean's powers are getting out of hand!" Kurt gulped.

"You think?" Linda snapped. A cup filled with punch floated around and spilled all over her. "HEY! NOT AGAIN!"

"Look! Even the objects are dancing!" Jean laughed.

"And you guys complained on how much my fireworks wrecked the place?" Forge yelped as a pillow hit him. The room was starting to get even more trashed.

"Dude, something tells me Duncan's idea of spiking the punch was not such a good idea," Blake whispered to his buddies.

"GET THIS THING AWAY FROM ME!" Duncan could be heard shouting in the hallway. "YEOWWWW!"

"Jean cut it out!" Rogue shouted. The objects stopped floating around.

"Fine! I can have a party all by myself! YEHAAA!" Jean floated up into the air and started to fly around. "TIME TO PARTY!"

"Well this is not good," Shipwreck said. "Who'd have thought that I'd be the responsible adult around here! Xi do you have lipstick on?"

"You don't like it?" Xi asked.

"Never mind," Shipwreck groaned.

"Well this is something I'd never thought I'd see in my lifetime," Lance quipped.

"Uh…Dude, did anybody know that Jean could fly?" Ralph asked.

"Nope," George said. "Not a clue."

"Cool," Blake looked up. "You can see up her dress."

"IT'S MY PARTY NOW!" Jean laughed. "YAYYY!"

"Okay how do we stop her?" Kitty asked.

"Jean come down here young lady right now!" Shipwreck snapped.

"Oh yeah that'll work," Pietro rolled his eyes.

"Jean cut it out!" Rogue flew up in front of her. "You're gonna hurt somebody!"

"Hey I can see up her dress too!" Blake shouted.

"Okay you are so dead!" Kurt tackled Blake.

"Cool a fight!" Jean watched it. "YAYY!"

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! I AM OUT OF HERE!" Rogue shouted as she ran out the back.

"Dad we gotta do something!" Althea said. "This party has officially gone into meltdown!"

"Don't worry!" Shipwreck said. "Leave everything to me!"

"Now I really am worried," Scott moaned.