Reckless Streak
The way Kitty saw it she had three options in her current situation.
Her first was to put her fingers in her ears and childishly shout out "La la la la la la la I can't hear you La la la la la la" as she phased from the room away from the lecturing pair of Jean and Scott.
A second option, which was gaining in appeal with every uptight "Alvers is bad news for you Kitty" from Scott and disappointed sigh from Jean as she silently agreed with everything her idiot boyfriend said, was to kill them both. Slowly and painfully. Or maybe just torture them. Like sew their lips shut and then start yammering on and on about how they were total idiots for so long regarding their own relationship that they really didn't have a right to try giving her advice.
As the icky violence thing wasn't really in Kitty's nature, though she could dream and wish it were so in situations like this, she had her third option. Blackmail. They'll like totally blame her resorting to that on Lance, but she really didn't think he'd mind.
"Kitty, we just don't think that you're really thinking right now," Jean was saying gently as Shadowcat made her decision among the options. "You're young and your hormones are acting up and Lance is the first guy to really show an interest in you and he does have that tall, dark and handsome with the bad boy sex appeal going for him, but what you're feeling isn't love."
Scott was gaping at his girlfriend at the end of her little speech, probably over the way she'd let it slip that she thought Lance was "tall, dark and handsome with the bad boy sex appeal," and Kitty was having a hard time not laughing at them. Until it sank in that Jean thought of her boyfriend as tall, dark, handsome and having bad boy sex appeal. Then Shadowcat put her hands on her slim little hips and did some gaping of her own at the redhead.
"Ok, that is enough," Kitty practically shrieked at the older girl. "First of all, Jean, Lance is so far from 'the first guy to really show an interest in me.' I may not have been as popular as Rah-Rah-Riley at my old school, but I totally had guys who were into me there and Kurt was, like, all over me when I first came here so you're way off base with that assessment. Second, you are so far from being an expert on love it's pathetic. Need I remind you how much time you wasted on that dumb jock Duncan when it was totally obvious that Scott was in love with you and you with him? You've got no right to tell me what I'm feeling or not. As for the whole young and hormonal thing, I'll just say Duh to that.
"And speaking of hormones, neither of you have a right to be lecturing me on that subject when what I saw you two doing last night was way worse than anything Lance and I were doing, have done or will do for quite some time yet. I mean, you were like totally about to have sex in the front seat of your car with five other cars parked around you," she glared at them both furiously. "I, like, totally respected you both and listened to your 'holier than thou' speeches and tolerated your superior looks and attitudes forever, but no more. If you refuse to give me some credit for being mature enough to know what I'm doing even if I may get hurt doing it, then your opinion of me really isn't worth trying to change. I love Lance. I know neither of you like him because he's a member of the Brotherhood, but there's a lot more to him than that and I'm glad you can't see it because he's better than both of you.
"Which reminds me," she moved to stand toe to toe with Jean, "you better stop thinking of my boyfriend as 'sexy.' Keep those thoughts for your goggle boy," she smiled at her own use of Lance's nickname for Scott before moving back and giving them both her sternest glare. "Now, I don't want to hear another word about this from either of you unless it's an apology. If either of you try to make me feel like some stupid child or that loving Lance is wrong again I swear, here and now, that I'll tell everyone exactly what you two were doing in that car last night and you better believe that kind of gossip will never be forgotten."
Both bored and furious with this situation, Kitty turned on her heels and left the rather shocked couple behind her.
Muttering under her breath she stomped past Kurt, Logan and Hank who all looked at her a little curiously as she made her way upstairs to her bedroom.
She phased into the room and once in the privacy of her room she began venting out loud and gesturing wildly with her hands as she spoke of how 'perfect Jean' and 'perfect Scott' were 'perfect morons' who didn't know a darn thing about anything and had no right to tell her squat about love and/or life.
With great interest, Rogue removed her headphones and set aside her homework to watch her roommate's tirade. At one point Kitty looked right at the goth girl and huffed, "Can you believe them?!" before going back to her rambling. Wishing she had popcorn or something for this show, the girl in green propped her chin up on her hand and continued to watch with numerous smirks and a few quiet chuckles at certain things the pacing girl said or ways she gestured.
The ringing of Kitty's cellphone effectively ended the ranting, much to her roommate's disappointment.
"What?!" Shadowcat snapped when she answered the phone.
"Uh … Kitty?" Lance said uncertainly on the other end. "Is something wrong?
"Lance," with a relieved sigh upon hearing his voice Kitty flopped on to her bed.
Rolling her heavily made up green eyes at how the other girl went from ranting near lunatic to her usual bouncy valley girl flirt self within a heartbeat, Rogue put her headphones back on and went back to her homework.
"So you gonna tell me what's wrong?" Lance was prompting Kitty.
"Jean and Scott have just been driving me crazy since, like, the second they broke up our date last night," Shadowcat said as she picked up and hugged the Tweety Bird toy that had had the privilege of sharing the bed with her last night. "It's like what we saw never even happened, they're acting so superior I could scream."
"Want me to spring ya?"
"Huh?"
"Want me to come over and take you away from there for a day of fun and relaxation and making out and no passing judgements?" he offered invitingly.
"I can't," she groaned regretfully. "I've got, like, tons of homework due tomorrow."
"Bring it with you," he suggested easily.
"Seriously?" she put aside the toy he'd won her the night before and sat up with great interest in his offer.
"I'll be there in five minutes," her boyfriend accurately identified the agreement in her tone and hung up with a slight chuckle.
For a second she stared at the phone in her hand in disbelief then it sank in that he was on his way over and she sprang up off the bed.
"Whatcha doin'?" Rogue noticed her roommate's frantic movements and looked up curiously.
Kitty stuffed her school books into her bookbag and prepared to dash from the room to rush out and meet her date before answering, "Lance is picking me up."
"It's a school night," Rogue reminded as the other girl started leaving the room.
"I'll be back by curfew," Kitty promised before vanishing from sight.
~*~*~
Lance was just about to honk the Jeep's horn to announce his arrival when Kitty came rushing through the gate of the institute.
She threw her bag in the back seat as she opened the passenger side door then hopped into the vehicle next to him.
"I love you," she stated before grabbing his shoulders and pulling his mouth to hers for a surprisingly intense kiss.
"Ken and Barbie should tick you off more often," he said with a goofy grin a few minutes later when she finally let him up for air. "Cyclops and Jean," he explained when she looked confused by the names he used.
"Oh, I like that one," his girlfriend laughed as she gave him a big smile then settled back in her seat.
"Any thing you wanna do today?" he put the Jeep in gear and pulled away from the mansion.
"Surprise me," she said with a smile and flip of her long brown ponytail.
~*~*~
"The road, Kitty, stay on the road," Lance was glad to hear that the panic he felt didn't come through in his words.
"This is, like, so cool," Shadowcat said as she phased the Jeep through the tree she'd been about to slam into when she ran off the road again. "I'd almost totally forgotten about practicing for my license. Every time I tried to get someone to ride with me, they all just vanished until I forgot all about my permit."
Daring to open one tightly closed eye to see that they'd made it safely past that obstacle Lance stifled a sigh of relief and loosened his grip on the dash upon seeing that they were on a nice straight safe stretch of road.
"Just remember to stay between the white and yellow lines," he told her firmly. "And no more phasing through things. Learn to hit the brakes and move around them."
"What's the fun in that?" she took her eyes off the road to give him a smile.
"It's not supposed to be fun, Kitty. I'm trying to help you get your license and there isn't a DMV tester in the country that would pass you if you use your powers during the test. You've gotta play by their rules. Avoid obstacles, use your brakes, come to full stops at stop lights and signs, stay on the road, use your turn signals, and," he say her venturing over the yellow lines as a truck approached from the opposite direction, "keep your eyes on the road!"
"Oops," she actually giggled as she barely got back on her side of the road in time to avoid collision.
"Maybe we should find a nice place to park now so you can get to work on that homework of yours," Lance suggested hopefully as he cursed himself for having the brilliant idea of letting her try driving his Jeep.
Kitty sighed disappointedly behind the wheel, but nodded and he said a silent prayer of thanks to whoever had been listening to him.
"Where should I take us?"
For the first time in the twenty minutes he'd put himself through this torture he allowed himself to actually look at their surroundings to figure out where she'd driven instead of just looking to make sure she wasn't about to wreck his ride.
"There'll be a road up on the right soon. Take it and we'll end up at a nice peaceful lake where you can get your work done undisturbed," he said once he'd gotten his bearings.
"Aye aye, captain," she quipped as she looked anxiously for the turnoff then took it in a heart-stopping squeal of tires as she failed to slow enough for the sharp turn.
When they made it to the end of the bumpy dirt road to the lake and she brought the vehicle to a stop, Lance honestly wanted to get out and kiss the ground.
"Oooh," Kitty said suddenly as she put the Jeep back in gear, "we totally need picnic fixings for this."
"I'm really not that hungry," he gulped and hoped she'd stop the vehicle's progress back toward the main road.
"Neither am I just now, but we can't hang out next to a lake on a day like this and not have a picnic," she gave him a smile and pulled back on to the blacktop. "Now where is that grocery store we passed?"