Part IV: The mansion, about midnight…

"Okay, Truth or Dare it is, who's going first?" Jubilee asked.

Long pause. Everyone looked at each other apprehensively. "I'll go first!" Allen exclaimed too loudly.

"Shh! Okay, go!"

"Hmmm. Charlotte, truth or dare?"

"Uh-oh, here it comes."

"Shut up, Bobby. Truth, Allen."

"How many people can you hear getting it on within a mile radius?" (Giggle, squeal!) "Shhh!"

"Aw, hell, how did I guess?"

"Answer the question, girlfriend!" John said gleefully.

"Shh. Let me concentrate!" Charlotte shut her eyes.

"Is it really hard?" Rogue asked.

"About as easy as picking out the sound of one flute from a symphony. You've just gotta know what you're listening for."

"And what exactly ARE you listening for?" Kitty asked wickedly.

"Yes, yes, yeeeeesssss!" Jubilee yanked Bobby backwards onto her bed.

"Shut up, both of you—ah!" Charlotte opened her eyes.

"She said 'ah!' That was promising!" Bobby and Jube sat up again.

Charlotte grinned sheepishly, "Just one couple." She turned pink.

For a minute, the other students failed to grasp her meaning, then Jubilee gasped, "Ooooh myyy Godd! They're not!"

"Ooh la la!" Remy said.

"I didn't say—" Charlotte began.

"—You wouldn't blush if it wasn't a certain pair of lovebirds we all know!" squealed Rogue, falling over laughing.

"Hey, Char, how often do you listen in?" John wanted to know.

"It's not my turn anymore!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Well, it is, but I get to do the asking."

"Ask away," Kitty said.

"Truth or dare, Andy!"

"Dare."

"Ooh, now she's gonna make ya an offa ya can't refuse!" John said in his Al Capone voice.

"John, did anyone ever tell you you're the king of corny?"

"Ya wanna light my fire, Nadine?"

"It'd take a bigger blowtorch than you've got—"

"—John, Nadine, be quiet. What can I dare Andy with?" Charlotte appealed to the group for help.

"Well, Tremor's got to shake something up," Kitty murmured, wracking her brains.

"How 'bout shakin' up a certain BED!!" Jubilee crowed.

Gasps, squeals, and giggles erupted, "Shh!"

"That bed's already shaking!"

"Allen, I did NOT need that picture!" Rogue said.

"I like Jube's idea!" Nadine said. "And Charlotte can listen in and tell us if they notice or not!"

"That's SO sick!" Kitty had her hands on both sides of her head. "I like it!"

"But they'll know it's me! I'm the only one who can—"

"—Remember that time when you had a bad dream and you shook the whole house?" Bobby asked. "There's your insurance, but I bet they'll be too surPRISED," he winked nastily, "to make the connection."

"Oh jeez."

"DO it, Andy! Consider yourself dared!" Charlotte ordered.

Andy put his hands on the floor and stared at them intently. In the "party room" no one observed a change, but in the Summers-Grey bedroom, the occupants of the bed were rudely interrupted from their…entertainment…by a sudden jolt. Charlotte had sworn that she wouldn't listen in, but her face gave her away, and all the kids hissed, "Well?!"

"Well what?"

"Don't tell us you weren't listening, I saw you grin!" Jubilee shrieked.

"Shhh! Jube! Alright, alright!" Charlotte grinned wickedly. "They most certainly felt it!"

"And?"

"Well…Ms. Grey ended up on the floor and Cyclops just said, 'Sorry.'" The room erupted into squeals and howls of laughter and frantic shushing by the cooler heads.

"Do they know it was me, Char?"

"Andy, I'm not butting in again—"

"—Please? It's my ass on the line for this one!"

"Wait a sec. I…think they've already forgotten."

"Oh."

"Woohoo! Okay, Andy, your turn. Pick somebody," Nadine said.

"Truth or Dare, Jubilee."

"Truth."

"Are you a virgin?"

"No, I have mad passionate sex with a complete stranger every Tuesday during the evening rush hour on I-90."

"Mm. Kinky. I take it that means yes."

"Duh, Bobby!"

"Your turn, Chica!"

"Ooh, Allen, that Spanish is such a turn-on!" said Remy.

"Get the hell away from me, you crazy Cajun!"

"Truth or dare, Bobby!" Jubilee said, raising her voice.

"Ssh!"

"Dare. No, truth! Dare-tru-no, dare!"

"You sure about that, sugah, we don't want ya to rush into anything!" Rogue said, rolling her eyes and flopping backwards onto her bed.

"Dare, it is," Bobby said, banging a mock-gavel on Jubilee's desk.

"Make a dirty ice sculpture."

"Dirty as in dusty or dirty as in nas-tey?" Bobby asked.

"Nas-tey!"

"On the front lawn!" Remy exclaimed, then had to shush the hysterically giggling girls.

"Uh, no, they might not recognize Andy's little bedquake, but my signature's a little too easy to identify."

"Right here's fine, Nadine can dry it up," Rogue suggested.

"Actually, with Nadine's assistance, I could get pretty detailed!"

"Shall we make it a double-dare of a different sort?" Nadine asked.

"Go for it! How 'bout a self-portrait?" Andy said.

"How about a portrait of Andy's prank!" Kitty squealed.

"Kitty!"

"That's dis-GUS-ting!"

"Oh, PUH-leeze!"

"Y'all are wimps!"

"Good God, is Rogue actually speaking in favor of that one?" Nadine exclaimed.

"I got it, I got it!" Bobby said. "My muse has spoken, stand back, everyone!" He whispered something to Nadine, who giggled, then he got to work. He built a strangely shaped mound of ice into an oddly-curved lump, then Nadine took over. "Take it away, Firefly!"

Nadine generated a tiny flame from her fingertip that grew into a blowtorch-like blast that carved the ice into the shape Bobby wanted. At one point, she cut too close and one of the lumps fell off. "OW!" Bobby exclaimed.

"Ooh, I think I'm going to pass out." Allen covered his eyes.

"God, Nadine, have some respect!" John pleaded.

Nadine glared at all of them, then smiled wickedly at her flaming finger. "Ooh, my God, she's going to pull a Lorena Bobbitt on us!" Andy exclaimed, holding up his hands in horror.

"Oh no, I'm much more creative than that."

Remy smiled, "There is something soo sexy about this sadistic mademoiselle!" Nadine made a few choice gouges in the sculpture. Remy recoiled, "Mon dieu!"

"Bobby, for the love of God, fix it before I'm scarred for life just looking at it!" John demanded.

"Okay, Nadine, step aside," Bobby repaired the sculpture carefully. "Better?"

"Much," the boys agreed.

"Tah-dah! My masterpiece!" Bobby said in a fake-sounding French accent. Remy made a face.

Nadine suddenly grinned, reached around Bobby, and tapped one finger against the sculpture. Her skin began glowing, and the sculpture slowly began to melt. "Oooh, I can't watch!" Andy dove behind Rogue's bed.

She melted the whole thing and evaporated up the water, "There, no mess. Whose turn is it?"

"Ugh!"

*****

To Be Continued…

*****

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