Hi there! Yes, I'm updating again! WOOHOO! Gotta keep moving. First, I wanna thank todd fan again for being my only reviewer so far. U rock dude! Thanks for your support!
Disclaimer: Do you think I should do this for every chapter? No? Yes? Maybe? Urgh! Oh well, here it is: I don't own X-Men or Lilo & Stitch bladdy bladdy blah! Are ya happy, owners?! Grrrrrrr!
Just another note: I know there were a lot of spelling mistakes in the second chap, so those corrections should be fixed by the time this chap is uploaded. Okey-dokey then!
On with da fic! (Remember, let me know which format is better!)
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Chapter 3
"I'm gonna stuff you in the blender, whip you up, and feed it to the social worker! And when he says, 'Mmm, this is good! What's your secret?', I'm gonna say-"
Suddenly Jean felt herself being pulled out of the doggie door came face to face with none other than . . . the social worker.
Jean gasped, then she quickly changed her expression to a more peaceful nature. "-love," she finished, "and nurturing." She quickly got up off the floor and faced the social worker. It was then she fully realized that she could not be exactly face to face with him. The fact was, he was in a wheelchair. ()
She looked down and smiled at the social worker. "Uh, hi," she said, unintentionally holding up the hammer that was still in her hand. She quickly put it behind her and dropped it. "Hehe, you must be the . . ."
"Yes, the stupid head," he finished.
"Oh," uttered Jean, remembering the little car incident a few minutes ago, which to the reader might seem like ages ago. "Oh, I'm really sorry about that. And if I knew who you were, of course I would've never . . . I can pay for that."
"It's a rental," he replied flatly. "Are you the guardian in question, miss?"
"Yes," Jean replied, feeling a bit of her confidence returning. "I'm Jean. And you are mister . . .?"
"Professor. Professor Xavier."
Jean couldn't help but make an odd face. "Professor Xavier? That's a strange name for a social-"
"Yes, I know," he interrupted. "Are you going to invite me in, Jean?"
Jean knew she hadn't finished pulling out all the nails, so they were still stuck outside. "Uh, I just thought maybe we could sit out here and talk."
Prof. Xavier gave her a dark stare. "I don't think so."
"Right," she replied quietly. She began to point to the door, then changed her mind. "Uh . . . this way."
She led Prof. Xavier around to the side of the house where there was another door. They had to get through some thick foliage first, though. And with the Professor's handicap, it took a while. When they finally got there, Jean tried to open the door. She found it locked too. "Uh, wait here," she said to the Professor as she went around to the back of the house. He could hear a window being smashed, some quick footsteps occasionally stumbling over unknown obstacles, the needle of a record player being slightly scratched as the record was being turned off, and another voice crying, "Hey!"
Soon there were more quick footsteps followed by the door swinging open. "So," gasped Jean as she tried to catch her breathe. "Lemonade?"
As the Professor rolled inside, he asked, "Do you always leave your sister home alone?"
"Oh, no! Never!" she quickly replied. That was when she spotted a picture on the refrigerator of a girl that looked something like Rogue with the back of her hand on her head. She was lying down in a corner with the words 'ME ALONE' pointing at her.
Jean quickly jumped in front of the fridge, covering up the picture. "Except for just – now," she added quickly, crumpling up the picture with her hand without the Professor seeing it. "I had to – um, run to the store to get some-"
Suddenly a pot that had been resting on the stove began to make a high-pitch whistling sound and black smoke began to come out of it. The pot was accompanied by other pots and pans, dirty and covered with leftover filth. Jean dashed over to the stove and turned it off, lifting the pot's lid at the same time to let out the steam/smoke.
"You left the stove on while you were out?" Prof. Xavier asked, with a hint of disbelief.
"Just a simmer!" she replied as she forced the lid of the pot back down again. She began to sniff it, pretending it actually smelled good. "It's comin' along great." She lifted the lid and looked to see what was actually cooking. It made a gargling noise, then Jean recoiled with a shriek of horror when she saw the thing that was too gruesome to be described in a G-rated fic.
"Found that this mornin'," said Rogue. Jean jumped in surprise again, not hearing Rogue enter the room.
"Rogue!" she snapped at first, then she remembered the social worker. She quickly changed her tone to a more loving pitch. "There you are, honey face!"
Rogue couldn't help but make a face. She knew that Jean was trying to impress the social worker and everything, but was it really necessary to call her honey face?
"This is Professor . . . Xavier," Jean continued. The Professor rolled over to Rogue and extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, Rogue."
Instead of shaking his hand, though, Rogue tilted her head and looked at the back of his hand. "Your knuckles say 'Chuck.'"
Xavier decided to pull his hand away, while at the same time clenching his fist and causing his knuckles to crack. Rogue just stared at him, and he stared back.
"Charles Xavier . . . you don't look like a social worker."
"I'm a special classification."
"Did you ever kill anyone?"
Xavier arched his eyebrow at Rogue's odd question. "We're getting off the subject. Let's talk about you. Are you . . . happy?"
At first, Rogue made an odd gesture by opening her mouth in the shape of a smile, then changing her expression back to normal. After a moment, she said, "Ah'm adjusted, ah eat four food groups, an' look both ways before crossin' the street . . ."
What Prof. Xavier didn't realize (or maybe he did but decided not to say anything about it) was that Jean was giving Rogue certain signals behind his back that indicated what Rogue was supposed to say.
" . . . an' take long naps," she continued. At this point Jean showed her biceps, supposedly to indicate that she got a lot of exercise. However, Rogue interpreted her signal wrong. "An' get disciplined?"
Jean immediately tensed up. Discipline was definitely not a good thing to tell the social worker.
"Disciplined?" asked the Professor.
"Yeah!" smiled Rogue. "She discipline's me real good!"
Jean tried to mouth the word 'no' and put up her hand to stop her. Rogue misinterpreted the message again. "Sometimes even five times a day!" Jean covered her face. This was not good.
That was when Rogue started getting carried away. "With bricks too!"
"Bricks?" asked the Professor.
"Yeah, in a pillow case."
"Okay!" said Jean as she rushed in and covered Rogue's mouth. "That's enough sugar for you! Why don't you run along, you little . . . cutie?"
She turned to the Professor and let out a nervous laugh. "The other social workers thought she was just a scream. Thirsty?"
She turned to the fridge and opened it, but Xavier followed her there and put his hand on the door. "Let me enlighten you on the precarious situation in which you have found yourself." With that, he shut the door.
"I am the one they call when things go wrong." He glanced about the kitchen, which by now was an obvious and disgusting mess. "And things have indeed gone wrong."
He rolled out of the room into the den, where Rogue was sitting on the floor. She had four spoons wearing dresses like those in the play "Dracula" and had faces drawn on them. In her lap Rogue had a pickle jar that she had been trying to get the top off of. Then Xavier noticed a book lying near her called "Practical Voodoo." He realized that the spoons must've been people she knew. He watched as she picked up the spoons, viciously stuffed them into the jar, screwed on the lid and shook the spoons inside with the pickles still in there. Xavier raised his eyebrow when he witnessed this ritual. Noticing he was watching her, Rogue turned to him and explained.
"Mah friends need t' be punished."
Xavier glanced over at Jean, who had watched her and shook her head with a groan. He turned back to Rogue and handed her his card. "Call me next time you're left alone."
"Yup," she replied, taking the card without even looking at him. She was too occupied with staring at the pickle jar. With that Xavier rolled to the door. He turned to Jean one more time. "In case you're wondering, this did not go well." He grabbed the knob and with a firm pull yanked the door open. Nails flew everywhere. "You have three days to change my mind."
As soon as he left, Jean turned and flashed an angry look at Rogue. Rogue knew what that meant.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
She ran as fast she could, but Jean was on top of her in a matter of seconds. Jean managed to grab her, but then Rogue made a large pool of spit in her mouth and drooled all over Jean's arm. "Ewww!" Jean cried, letting go of Rogue. She immediately took advantage of the moment and dashed out of the room. Jean got up to chase her, but she didn't see which way her sister went. It took her only a minute to figure it out. She paused for a moment and heard the door of the dryer in the next room close creakily. She walked into the laundry room, placed a large bed sheet on the floor in front of the dryer, and climbed up on top of it. She then opened the door that led outside and loudly slammed it shut. As she suspected, Rogue climbed out of the dryer, thinking Jean had left the room. She unknowingly climbed out onto the bed sheet while Jean climbed down behind her. Without giving Rogue a chance to escape, she quickly grabbed the corners of the bed sheet and wrapped it around Rogue. Rogue began making growling animal noises from inside the bag as Jean dragged the bag back into the den.
When she opened the bag, Rogue reared her head up, snarling like a crazed beast and tried to get away. This time, Jean managed to grab her by the arm and prevented her from getting away. "What is the matter with you?!" she yelled. "Why weren't you at the school? You were supposed to wait there!"
Rogue tried to get away again, but Jean only gripped her arm tighter. "Rogue! Don't you understand?! Do you want to be taken away?!"
Rogue still struggled without an answer. This made Jean even angrier. "Answer me!"
"No!"
"No you don't understand?!"
"No!"
"No what?"
"NOOO!" With that, Rogue fell to the floor with a thunk.
Jean finally realized it was safe to let go of Rogue's arm. She heard her begin to whine, only it was muffled by the floor, so Jean leaned in to try and hear her. She finally groaned in frustration again and sat up. "You are such a pain!"
Rogue stood up. "Whah don't you sell me then an' buy a rabbit instead?!"
"At least the rabbit would be better than you!"
"Go 'head then! You'll like it 'cuz it's smarter than me!" Rogue began making her way up the steps to her room.
"And quieter!!"
"An' you'll like it 'cuz it smells like YOU!" With that, she went into her room and slammed the door.
"GO TO YOUR ROOOOM!!!"
She opened the door. "AH'M ALREADY IN MAH ROOM!!!" She slammed it again.
Downstairs, Jean grabbed a nearby pillow and started screaming into it. Upstairs, Rogue grabbed a pillow and started screaming into it. When she was done, she fell back onto her bed.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rogue had changed into her pajamas and was sitting on her bed, petting her doll Scrump. She hadn't left her room since her argument with Jean. She had felt bad about the whole ordeal, but hadn't felt like leaving her room to go and apologize to her. After all, what if Jean was still mad at her?
She heard a knock on her door and Jean walked in as quietly as she could. "Hey, she said in a soft voice, "I brought you some pizza, in case you were hungry."
Rogue hung her head. She had long ago lost her appetite. "We're a broken family, aren't we?"
"No," soothed Jean as she put the plate of pizza down on Rogue's nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed. "Well, maybe, a little . . . maybe a lot. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
Rogue sighed. "We're sisters. It's our job."
Jean couldn't help but grin a little. "Yeah, well, from now on-"
"Ah like you better as a sister than a mom," added Rogue.
"Yeah?" replied Jean, kind of glad that Rogue felt that way, or was at least expressing her feelings. To be honest, Jean wasn't sure she could uphold the job of being Rogue's mom the way Rogue needed someone to be. She preferred being her sister.
"An' you like me better as a sister than a rabbit, right?" Rogue added, bending over and starting to cry.
"Oh!" soothed Jean again as she climbed up onto Rogue's bed and hugged her. "Yes, yes I do!"
Rogue wiped her tears, and thought that maybe now would be a good time to talk about what happened at the play rehearsal. "Ah hit Taryn today."
Jean looked at her in surprise. "You hit her?"
"Before ah bit her."
"You bit her." She left out a deep sigh. "Rogue, you shouldn't-"
"People treat me diff'rent." She hung her head again, not wanting to look Jean straight in the eye. Jean looked at her sister with concern. Rogue had always been different. It was now, however, that it started to take effect on the way Rogue thought of herself and the world around her. Jean never had this problem when she was Rogue's age, certainly not at the same degree as her. All she could answer was, "They just don't know what to say."
After a moment, Jean continued. "Tell you what? If you promise not to fight anymore, I won't yell at you, except maybe on special occasions."
Rogue thought about it. "Tuesdays and bank holidays would be good."
"Yeah, would that be good?" Jean teased while tickling Rogue a little. Rogue giggled at first, then she quickly remembered her pictures. "Hey, mah camera's full again!" She handed Jean her camera which was sitting on the nightstand. Then she looked at her pictures on the wall. "Aren't they beautiful?" Ever since Rogue had gotten her camera one year for her birthday, she made somewhat of an art out of it, taking strange pictures of people, who were mostly overweight, at the beach. Jean didn't understand why Rogue liked them so much. To her the whole thing was kind of disturbing. Then again, maybe that was why Rogue liked it.
Suddenly, all the lights in the room flickered off, and another strange, green light came from outside. Rogue jump off her bed as fast as she could and ran over to the window. There she saw some glowing object falling from the sky with a tail of smoke following it. "Look, a fallin' star!"
Jean soon got to the window and was able to study it for a few seconds. It didn't look like a regular falling star. They watched it, somewhat in surprise, as it landed somewhere in the forest not too far away. After it landed, the lights flickered back on. "Ah call it!" Rogue shouted. "Get out, get out! Ah have t' make a wish!" She began to shove Jean out of her room.
"Can't you move any faster?" Rogue shouted again as they reached the door.
"Oh no!" cried out Jean. "Gravity is increasing upon me!" she began to slow down and lean backwards on top of Rogue.
"No, it's not!"
"Yes it is, Rogue. The same thing happened yesterday." She fell back so far that Rogue couldn't hold her up and she fell with Jean on top. "You rotten sister!" she shouted as she crawled out from underneath Jean. "You're butt is crushin' me! Whah do you act so weird?!" She slammed the door, causing Jean's head to fly up. As she rubbed her head, Jean opened the door slightly and listened in on Rogue's wish. She saw Rogue kneeling by her bedside with her hands folded.
"It's me again," she said. "Ah need someone t' be mah friend. Someone who won't run away. Maybe if you can send an angel! The nicest angel you have."
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Another chapter done! I think this one is as long as the first. I just wanted to try and fit more into my chappies so I don't just write them scene by scene. Maybe you can write whether you like the longer chapters or not. Sheesh! That's another thing I'm making you write in your reviews! Sorry if I'm being too picky. R&R! Thanks!