X-Men Evolution is a trademarked product from Marvel, all the characters are owned by Marvel and not me. This is a work of fiction based off of said series. I make no money off this, yadda yadda yah.

"In The Garage" - by Val Shrum (kiyonekatz at yahoo dot com)

Chapter 8

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The next day took forever to get through. Lance called Kitty and made plans for a real band practice in that day. They had just four short days to come up with something amazing. Amazing things take work. The Insititute has a music room, somewhere downstairs. Kurt was able to borrow a bass guitar, another electric guitar, and the drum set. After school, Kurt rushed home to have Logan drive over to the Brotherhood house with the equipment as Kitty and Lance made their way straight there after school.

"You listen to the tape last night?" Lance asked as he moved a few things around. They decided to practice in the basement, which seemed to have enough room after re-organization. Kitty helped with the labor.

"Yeah! I even tried to play along with some. I'd like to say I'm not half bad." She posed, confidently.

"We'll see about that when we all play together. I'm still not believing Kurt as a drummer." Lance commented. He started to set up his amplifier, and a some other sound equipment.

"I don't believe him, either, to be honest. Then again, I wouldn't have believed you to be some awesome guitarist, so who am I to judge?"

Lance blushed, "I'm not some 'awesome guitarist', Kitty. I just love to play."

"Lance gettin' busy down in the basement." Said a male voice from above. Kitty and Lance looked up to notice it belonged to a boy known as Todd, or as they'd like to call him - Toad.

"Make yourself useful or get lost, Toad. Same thing goes with Fred. Tell him not to disturb us unless he feels like helping out."

"Helping out? With your little 'band'? Yeah right. I'll see you once you're bored of this, Lance. Later." Toad left the basement area.

Kitty raised an eyebrow, "Well that was weird."

"It wouldn't be a day in the Brotherhood house without Toad annoying someone." Lance moved a box, then went to stand near Kitty.

"Really? I thought that was Pietro's job."

"Naw, Pietro's just better at it. Toad has the charm to pull off being funny while annoying at the same time." Lance commented.

"Now we just gotta wait for Kurt to show up with the equipment, and Wanda to uh... join us, right?"

Lance nodded, "We can hope Wanda hasn't changed her mind."

"Let's hope." Kitty sat herself up on a box, so she was a little taller than Lance. She looked over and said, "Uhm... about yesterday."

He tilted his head to look at her, "What about yesterday?"

"Totally my fault. I'm so sorry about that. Kurt sees me as a little sister... and like, he wasn't expecting... to see... uh..." Kitty's voice trailed off, "You know."

"You don't have to explain it to me, pretty Kitty. I understand." Lance said softly.

"Just don't be mad at him, 'kay? He's like my best friend. He's already pretty sorry for what he did."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry about it."

The side-outside access door to the basement was knocked on. Lance walked over and opened it up for those moving equipment could bring them in. Kitty hopped off of her box and went to help. They had it. The whole band facade was set up. But the real question was, could they play?

Wanda walked down the stairs to the basement. She observed the construction of the scene, "You guys are going all out for this."

"Why shouldn't we?" Kitty asked.

"Let's just see how we sound together." Wanda went over to the bass guitar that was set up. She pulled the strap over and on, plugging it in and playing around with the tuning.

Kitty whispered to Lance, "... she looks eerily professional. I... don't think I should do this, Lance. I don't know..."

"What do you mean?" He touched Kitty's shoulder, "You're great. And we're in this TOGETHER, okay? C'mon. Go get your guitar on. I'll pass out music for everyone."

She made a face, but did as she was told. Kitty pulled off her hooded sweat shirt to reveal a tank top. She picked up the freshly delivered guitar from the Institute. She tuned the guitar in hand. 'I so do NOT belong here.'

Kurt sent Logan off and went to the drum set. He sat down in the stool as Lance passed by him, "Lance, buddy. No hard feelings about yesterday, right? I wasn't thinking straight."

"Whatever, Kurt." He tossed a small stack of papers at him. Kurt looked it over. It was the songs, written out so they could be read to play on the drums. It wasn't anything too demanding. Kurt skimmed the pieces and felt prepared.

Kitty looked over her pages, 'I'm doomed. Totally doomed.'

Wanda observed Lance, "Are we going to get to this, or what?" She commented impatiently.

Lance strapped on his guitar, "Alright. Obviously, I'm lead guitar. Kitty, you just follow rhythm with the chord tab I gave you. Let's do the first song, and work our way down as we find what our style is like. Drop D tuning. I taught you that, right Kitty?"

Kitty nodded and tuned her guitar accordingly.

He took a breath. Lance went over to a machine and pushed a few buttons then nodded. He stepped back and started to play the lead in. He picked out the notes, then Kurt came in with the drums, Wanda and Kitty followed. He sang into the microphone, "Eight o'clock, Monday night and I'm waiting to finally talk to a girl a little cooler than me. Her name is Nona, she's a rocker with a nose ring. She wears a two-way, but I'm not quite sure what that means."

"And when she walks, all the wind blows and the angels sing. She doesn't notice me!" Kitty jumped in to harmonize a little, like she had heard on the tape. He played onward, "Cause she's watching wrestling. Creamin' over tough guys. Listenin' to rap metal. Turntables in her eyes. It's like a bad movie. She's lookin' through me. If you were me then you'd be. Screamin' 'Someone shoot me!' As I fail miserably, tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want. She's the girl all the bad guys want."

Kitty looked over at Lance. He seemed natural up there at the microphone. He sang with just enough edge for this kind of song. The second verse kicked in. She concentrated on her own part. 'Second... Fourth... Fifth... fourth...' She thought. Her hand a little sore from the faster rhythm that she hadn't gotten used to playing. 'Seventh...' Kitty tuned out on the lyrics, until the pace of the song changed.

"There she goes again with fishnets on, and dreadlocks in her hair. She broke my heart, I wanna be sedated. All I wanted was to see her naked!"

Everyone stopped their instruments, Lance continued. "Now I'm watching wrestling. Tryin' to be a tough guy. Listenin' to rap metal. Turntables in my eyes. I can't grow a mustache. I ain't got no season pass. All I've got's a moped. Moped. Moped."

The song swung back into action until the final verse played and finished. Lance turned to the group. "Not bad, guys. Not bad. Hey Kurt, gotta work a little harder, buddy. I felt some hesitation and missed rhythm from back there."

"It isn't easy, you know." Kurt complained.

"Reminds me of that joke. You know... who's that guy who hangs around the band? Oh yeah, the drummer." Lance smirked. "Alright, what should we do next?"

Kitty and Lance idly retuned their guitars back to normal.

"Did you get around to writing out what you need to do for that one song?" Kitty asked.

"Sure did, let's do that one." Lance added, "But you're on lead. It's sung by a chick."

"Sure, yeah. That'll be fun." She tried to remember what Lance taught her about the different ways to strum. This song had more of a ska feel, so it wasn't as easy as the last one. She motioned with her hand, move down then strum upwards hitting only the important strings. With the way Lance set up this one, she only had to play a little bit. Not like the last song. Very easy, for her. She and Lance quickly re-tuned their guitars for the second song.

Kitty hesitantly signaled to Kurt to start. He started the drumbeat. In came Lance on guitar, as she added in her own backround guitar to how the song is played. She started in, "Something strange is happening lately. We no longer see eye to eye. Time has changed us, re-arranged us. And it leaves me wondering why. Now everything is different. Nothing feels quite the same. All the things we liked about each other have changed. I don't know about the things that you do. Whatever happened to the person that I thought I knew?"

Kitty mostly sang. Her voice started out not as confident as Lance's had. She looked over at his direction. Lance smiled at her. She continued, "You go one way and I'll go another. When nothing seems to work, then why should we bother? Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah. We've let these little differences tear us apart. They're breaking up our friendship and they're breaking my heart. You need me and I need you. If only together we could see this through."

"You go left." Kitty started.

"I go left." Lance jumped in.

"And I go right."

"You go right."

"Life is just one crazy battle. When argue, fuss, and fight. You're like day." Kitty smiled at Lance. This sounded pretty good.

"You're like day."

"I'm like day."

"And I'm like night."

"You're like night."

"But if we could get together. Maybe things can work out right?" The pace of the song slowed a little, "I can see so much in you. Why can't we just see this through? Why must everything in this life be so complicated? But through all this pain. It's not you I blame. Why can't you feel the same...."

Lance took over to his guitar solo. Kitty started in to go into the last verse, which was a repeat of the last verse sang. "We'll try to make it right now..." They sang together as the song finally ended.

Kitty looked hesitantly at Lance. "Was that good?"

He smiled back, "We're doing great. To the next one?"

"Sure, you're lead." He nodded as they went into the next song. It was a weird experience.

Kitty stumbled through each and every song. Some were more difficult than others, but she seemed to blend nicely into the backround with Lance's lead guitar. Wanda had absolutely no trouble keeping up, and Kurt? Well, Kurt figured out how to keep a steady rhythm without too many mistakes somewhere between the second and fourth song.

A tired Wanda pulled off the Bass. "I'm hungry. I'm going to head upstairs and order pizza. We've done enough today."

"Sounds like a plan, Wanda. May I join?" Kurt set down the drumsticks onto the snare drum, teleporting to meet her by the stairs.

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a few dollars for your share. You guys want any?" Wanda looked over at Kitty and Lance who were still working on technique.

"Oh sure, veggie lovers for us. Right Kitty?"

Kitty blinked, "Yeah, that's right." She pulled the electric guitar off and handed Wanda a ten. "Should be enough."

"I'll come back down when it shows up." Wanda moved back upstairs with Kurt following behind.

Kitty opened the guitar case for Lance's accoustic she had borrowed. She pulled it out and smiled. "I think I can play Breakfast at Tiffanys, now."

"I should hope so. With what we've been playing today, I'd be surprised if you COULDN'T." Lance laughed.

She pushed him playfully, then took a deep breath. Kitty played through the song softly, she sang with a lighthearted tone. Lance sang along, too. They reached the end of the song harmonizing together. Kitty laughed and poked him, "Tease."

"You're the tease." He reached over and tickled her on her side.

Kitty shrieked with a laugh, "Cut it out!"

"Only if you do." He laughed in return.

She giggled and squirmed under his touch until he stopped moving and leaned in closer. Kitty felt her heart caught in her throat. She closed her eyes and allowed Lance to place a soft kiss on her lips amongst their playful struggle.

It didn't even seem like a very long time, Kurt's voice echoed from above. "Pizza's here!"

Kitty pulled away and commented, "... seems to be our luck. We always get interrupted."

"We need to find a quieter place someday." He kissed her on the forehead before standing up and helping Kitty upright as well. Practice was over for the day.

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"Girl All The Bad Guys Want", by Bowling For Soup

"Little Differences", by Save Ferris

"Breakfast At Tiffanys" by Deep Blue Something

(Just mentioning again, even if they had been mentioned before)