Thank you everybody for reviewing! One small note --- Fateema: You're right. Thanks for pointing that out! It's been changed.
This next bit gets into the Drama side a bit more. Just warning you.
PART THREE: BFD
~ X ~
Kurt whistled the counter-melody of "Red Red Rose," an arrangement of a Robert Burns poem that the choir was singing, as he jogged down the tree-lined path to the football field. The sun was hanging low in the sky, almost touching the treetops, and casting odd shadows on his face. He was feeling a little anxious. This was going to be Kitty's big moment, and he wanted to be there for her. The cheerleading tryouts were just starting.
He skidded to a halt next to the track, and stood back with some other guys and watched the tryouts. Oddly enough, Lance wasn't around. He was probably out joyriding, or something. Kurt turned his attention to the field. All of the girls looked the same --- blond, skinny, with rather plump breasts. He saw the one who had advised him to join choir, and braved a wave. She just blinked at him like he was a mental patient and ignored him. Kurt sighed, dropped his arm, and concentrated on looking for Kitty. There she was! The pink bow on her ponytail was bobbing slightly in the wind.
A whistle sounded, and the girls on the field began to huddle into small groups. Kurt made out a table down the field from them, at which sat the big three, Bridget, Leila, and Titania. They seemed to be bored with the proceedings. Bridget was filing her nails and Leila and Titania were yakking with each other and giggling, pointing at some of the girls. Kurt followed their fingers. His blood boiled when he saw them directed at Kitty.
And then he really looked at Kitty. She'd been so quiet these past few weeks, feigning headaches in the morning to get out of Danger Room sessions. And he heard she'd been ditching P.E., too, although nobody could confirm that. It was bizarre behavior --- especially coming from somebody as bouncy and happy as Kitty. Something was really wrong with her. She looked pale, and gaunt. He could practically see her ribs when her t-shirt blew against her. She was shivering in the light breeze. And she had obviously padded her bra with tissue paper. She was tired, drooping. The instant this thing was over, he decided, he would drag a story out of her.
So he stood there with his arms crossed, looking stern and rather concerned, and watched the tryouts.
The girls came forward in teams of four, shrieking and whooping, doing high kicks and claps and cheers, and the first three teams all passed the scrutiny of BLT. But the fourth team, Kitty's, messed up. None of the girls were coordinated with each other. The other three girls finally just gave up and stopped cheering, but Kitty didn't.
"B! A! B A Y! B A Y V I LL E! GOOO, BAYVILLE!" she yelled, and clapped, finishing the cheer.
The three judges just stared. One of them began to smirk. The other two licked their lips. And then it happened.
One second Kitty was swaying on her feet. The next, she was falling through the air and landing flat on her back, passed out on the grass. Her head bounced up from the turf slightly, and her pretty little nose began to bleed. Nobody moved toward her.
"Keety!"
Kurt moved on instinct. He raced across the grass, plowed through about fifteen girls, and knelt next to Kitty. Just as he gathered her in his arms, he looked at the judges. They were cackling like hyenas and high-fiving each other.
"I so knew she'd fall for it!" Bridget said.
"That conversation … man, we totally nailed her!" Titania replied, laughing.
"Hell, it's not like we'd have let her on anyway!" Leila threw in.
Kurt was speechless with anger. He didn't know which pissed him off more: the fact that they were laughing at Kitty, or the fact that they'd done something else mean to Kitty, at some other point in time. His face curled up in a snarl.
The judges finally stopped giggling and went quiet.
"I'm going to take Keety to za nurse," he announced. "And vhen I figure out vhat you did to her in za first place, I vill personally make sure you all take it in za ass."
A quiet "ooooh!" when up from the surrounding girls. Kurt silenced them all with a glare.
Bridget snorted. "Would you listen to this guy? Look, you can't blame us for her falling over. I mean, if some stupid girl just happens to be one row over in the locker room, and just happens to overhear a conversation about how fat and ugly she is, we can't be held responsible for the consequences. Besides, you couldn't touch us if you wanted to, little man. We frickin' own this high school. We're BLT!"
There was a long, ugly pause as Kurt gathered his thoughts.
"BLT, ah?" He turned his head and spat in the grass. "BFD."
And with that, he stalked away, carrying Kitty off the field.
~ X ~
"So, you like it?"
"Oh Scott, it's beautiful."
Jean was positively glowing, staring at the small bouquet of wildflowers tied with a yellow ribbon. She was blushing uncontrollably. For some reason, the idea of riding around in a convertible and going to the movies was making her a little weak in the knees. It was a Thursday afternoon, and technically they shouldn't have been going out, but Scott had promised her dinner and a movie in town. He never mentioned a bouquet.
Jean bit her tongue to keep from laughing. Here she was, a powerful, intelligent young woman with an amazing mind, getting all weak and giggly just because some boy had given her flowers. Then she looked at Scott's coupe. It was gleaming in the driveway. She could see it shining like a diamond from where they were standing, on the front steps of the Institute. Scott had washed his car, she suspected, just for her.
He offered her his arm, and they took off.
~ X ~
As usual, Kurt had reacted to his enemies with a lot more courage than he felt. He didn't take Kitty to the school nurse. It was too dangerous. Instead, he ducked behind a building with Kitty, and teleported.
Kitty handled it well, even though she was out like a light. Kurt took them home in two jumps. They appeared behind a tree in a nearby park and he stopped to rest and pant for a second, and then they disappeared again, in a cloud of smoke. *BAMF!* they appeared in the basement Med Lab at the Institute. Their sudden arrival startled Hank McCoy, a.k.a. "Beast," who put his apish, furry hands on his hips and looked at Kurt disapprovingly over the rims of his glasses. Then he looked through his glasses.
"Good Lord! What happened?"
Kurt didn't want to say anything until he was sure he wouldn't burst into a diatribe. He laid Kitty down on a bed. Hank started an IV and took some blood. In a few minutes, the Lab was buzzing. The professor wheeled in, accompanied by Ororo, and they started conferring with Hank and treating Kitty at the same time. Between Hank's flustered accounting of what had happened, Ororo's asking for gauze, and the professor trying to decipher what Hank was saying, it was quite a din. The professor saw Kurt behind his two friends, looking lost. Fear for Kitty's safety and a burning anger were coming off him in waves.
"Um, Kurt, perhaps you could wait outside while we help her. I promise I'll come out in a few minutes."
Kurt nodded quickly and left. He didn't know what else to do. The professor got busy with Kitty's blood sample, taking it to the machine and starting a reading, and Ororo was helping Hank examine her.
~ X ~
A quarter hour later, Kurt was pacing back and forth in the hallway outside the lab. He didn't even stop pacing when the doors clicked open. The squeak of the professor's wheels on the marble floor was like background noise. Finally, he felt something grab his arm, and he looked down. It was the professor. They looked at each other. The older man said nothing to the younger, and simply guided him over to the bench in the hallway. Kurt sat. There was a long silence.
"You should have heard vhat zose girls said to me," he said.
That got Charles' attention. "What?"
By the time Kurt had finished his tale, the professor was rubbing his temple, trying to ward off an oncoming headache.
"I knew something was wrong," he said finally. "I could feel it when I looked at her." He sighed. "If only I'd asked. All right, Kurt, well thank you for telling me. We'll make sure Kitty gets good care."
"For vhat?"
"Well, her blood sugar levels are astoundingly low. They're so bad that iron levels and things like that have been thrown off. Frankly, it's a miracle she's not worse. I'm just not sure how she did it! She's been eating just like she does normally."
"She's also been throwing up regularly for at least two weeks," Hank announced behind them. He was standing at the door to the infirmary, stripping off a massive pair of rubber gloves. "Her back molars are a bit, um, 'untidy.' She'll have to get things cleaned and capped back here when she wakes up. And Charles, I think we'll need to put some … some baby food on the grocery list."
Kurt actually felt embarrassed for Kitty. He was dragged out of his reverie by the professor.
"All this, just because of what those girls said. Unbelievable what words can do to a person," the headmaster muttered.
"Can I stay vith her until she vakes up?"
"I think that's all right, but I'm not her physician. Hank? What's the verdict?"
"I think it should be fine," Hank said. "You can go in, Kurt."
"Actually," Kurt said, "I'll be zere in a minute. She might need some sings from her room."
Hank's eyebrows went up, along with the professor's, but they didn't say anything.
"All right, then," Charles said. "Go on."
~ X ~
Kurt bamfed out of the Lab and ended up in Kitty's room. He wasn't sure what made him say that she'd need some things, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was true. In a few minutes, he'd grabbed an extra blanket off her bed, her CD player, and her beloved stuffed dragon, Mr. Fluffle. He flopped down on her bed, threw the blanket around his shoulders to warm it up, and sighed. His golden eyes flicked to Kitty's bedside clock. It was only 5 pm.
He wondered blithely if Kitty had planned on being anywhere tonight --- perhaps at a restaurant, celebrating with all her new friends from the cheerleading squad. Poor girl. Poor deluded girl. All of her hopes and dreams shattered because of gossip. He scratched his head and wrapped the blanket tighter around himself, annoyed with the entire world. This was BLT's fault, and it was Kitty's fault, but in some small way, it was also the fault of everybody at the Institute. Why hadn't anybody done anything? He had at least noticed something was happening to her, but even he didn't go far enough. This could have been prevented.
He was pissed off, and his thoughts wandered to Lance. When it came to Kitty, Lance was where most of his anger seemed to pool anyway. But this time, he was really irritated. Where was that @$$hole? He was supposed to be Kitty's boyfriend, for crying out loud! He didn't even go to the practice! Logically, Mr. Alvers should have been the one carrying her off that field, but oh, no. Couldn't have been Lance telling those bitches off for hurting Kitty. Couldn't have been Lance picking her up and getting her home. Mr. Mysterious Bad Boy was too busy causing mayhem to pay attention to someone who really mattered.
Kurt growled, and felt the blanket getting warm. It wasn't that he minded yelling at those girls, or holding Kitty in his arms --- he just wasn't sure he had the right. That was the problem. It didn't seem to matter how nice he was to Kitty --- she was glued to Lance. Like so many things in his life, she was off-limits.
And that was what made him the angriest: the fact that someone who he liked a lot … All right, who he loved … could never be with him. Ever. He felt his chest tighten up, and got out of her room before the situation could overwhelm him. The last thing Kitty needed was rough, salty spots on her extra blanket.
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:o( Poor Kurt. Don't worry, it ends happily. Kind of. :-)
Translation, for those who are not familiar with the term: BFD = Big F*cking Deal.