Jubilee stood in the hallway outside homeroom. It had been so long since she had been in a regular school she almost couldn't remember what to expect. Stiffening her resolve she threw her shoulders back. If she could face down Magnito, Sabertooth, and Bastion high school didn't stand a chance.
Pushing the door open she cautiously slipped inside and sat down in the first empty seat along the wall. The classroom quieted as the students got a good look at the new girl, but no one could comment before the bell rang. The teacher stood up and began taking role.
"Jubilation Lee?" Jubilee waved her hand. "Everyone, this is our new student, Jubilation, from New York. I'm Mrs. Hanover, by the way." The lady was mercifully brief.
"I prefer Jubilee, Ms. Hanover." The lady nodded, made a notation on her role sheet, and then continued with the first of day announcements.
Jubilee didn't really pay attention. She knew she was the object of covert glances from around the class. The second bell rang releasing students to their first period of the day. Jubilee kept her head down as she gathered up her bag. Her hope of not being noticed failed.
"Hi, I'm Merlyn and this is Cecil." The boy was tall and skinny with a shock of white-blond hair; his eyes were a dark hazel, standing out against his pale lashes. He was one of those people who looked like his name. If she had to guess what a young Merlyn the Magician looked like, this boy would be it.
Cecil, on the other hand was his opposite. Her hair was a dark shock of auburn, smoothly framing her round face; her skin was pale, splattered by brown spots. Her eyes were the most startling thing about her. They were light silvery blue, circled by a darker color.
"Hum, hi." Jubilee wasn't sure how to react.
"So, what's your next class?" Cecil's voice was mellow, with a little scratch to it.
Jubilee frowned, pulled out her schedule for a look. "Literature, World History, Spanish, Trigonometry, Gym, and then Art."
Merlyn nodded wisely. "Lets go then. Mr. O'Connell hates it's when we're late."
Jubilee's eyebrows rose. "I take it you're in the same class?"
"Yep. Amazingly enough we have all the same classes. Looks like we get to take you under our wings and show you the ropes."
From her days before the X-Men Jubilee knew that if she fell in with these two she would never be one of the Pretty Happy People. "Thank you, that would be wonderful."
Jubilee slid smoothly into a chair next to Cecil. Inside she boiled a little, but she felt surprisingly happy to be mad. Between classes she had lost Cecil and Merlyn and one of the Pretty Happy Cheerleaders had found her.
The girl had been rude from the start, not introducing her self, just stepping in front of Jubilee and started in. "I just thought you might like to know that you've started out on the wrong foot here. Those two you've been hanging out with are the most unpopular kids here. I can see you're the type of person we would want on the cheerleading squad, but we can't condone association with those people."
Annoyance grew while she waited for the bitch to stop speaking. A part of her almost wanted to give a full powers attack on the girl, but there was no way this would go over well.
"Well, then I guess I'm never going to make it with the fearleading squids." Jubilee tried to sound as loud and cheerful as she could before turning her back on the girl. It felt good to insult without worrying that when she turned her back she wasn't going to die. Life was good.
"Hey, Cecil, did you know that we're not one of the Pretty Happy People?"
Cecil looked blankly at Jubilee.
Merlyn, however, smiled. "Do we care?"
"Nope."
"So, how was your first day?"
Jubilee paused with her foot lifted and sandal half off. "Excellent! I made two friends, Cecil and Merlyn and I pissed off a cheerleader who told me I couldn't be one of them if I didn't drop the first two people who were nice to me."
Joline laughed. "Excellent start to your first day. Are you going to invite them over?"
A frown marred Jubilee's face. "I hadn't thought about it. All my friends in Massachusetts lived with me and even if I had made any outside the school I don't think I would have dared invite them over."
Joline hid her saddened expression. "Well, I just wanted to know a timeframe so we could clean the place up some." She turned a brilliant smile on the girl. "You don't want me to be embarrassed in front of your new friends, do you?"
"I'll ask them tomorrow if they want to come over this weekend."
"That's great! Now, about that mess your room has become in the last five days…"
Comically Jubilee shuddered. "I hate cleaning."
"Cleanliness is the spice of life!" Joline held her hand up, cheerfully waving the blue paintbrush around, adding to the already well-splattered wall.
Jubilee took a long serious look at the wall. "Nope, I don't think they would notice the mess for all the colors."
Joline put on an offended face and turned her back on the girl. "Go clean your room, little girl. And don't forget your homework, and dinner will on the table around sevenish. Or something like that."
Nodding wisely Jubilee headed for her room, already planning dinner. Joline didn't have a clock in her workroom and tended to forget silly things like food. It felt nice to take care of the woman every now and then. In five days Jubilee and Joline had settled into a routine. It helped her push the bad memories away.
Jubilee knew this couldn't last forever, that it was a kind of hiding, but she wasn't ready to deal with her old life yet. This new life was like a kind of medication, the longer she pretended it was real, the less her old life could hurt her.
I think I'm a bit in shock. I've been writting on this story for almost two years now. I hate to say this, but for a long time it was put on the shelf, I couldn't get in the mood the write Jubilee. But now its back on my mind, so here's another update, though truthfully I have no idea where I'm going with it now. My plan in the begining was just to simply ONE: take some of the stuff Jubilee had been through and make her react a little more realistically and TWO: take Jubilee away from the acadamy. Now that those two goals have been accomplished I'm just writting for the fun of it. It will go where the fates decide from here. Debbie