When Rogue got downstairs, Mystique was mumbling into the telephone in the kitchen, and held out the receiver to Rogue as she passed. "Phone for you, Rogue. It's Irene."
Irene? What the hell was she calling for? "Oh. OK." Rogue took the phone and tried not to look at any of the boys. The loudest noise in the kitchen was not the two Brotherhood women talking, but the boys eavesdropping. She turned her back on them. "Hello?"
"It's me, Irene."
"Hey. Um... why are ya callin'?"
Irene made an astonished noise. "It's your birthday. It's not every day a girl turns sixteen, is it?"
Rogue had to smile. "'Spose not," she said carefully.
"How are you, Rogue? You have everything you need, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. Mystique's got me pretty much covered. So, gonna make me a birthday prediction, Destiny?"
"Unlikely, Rogue. Honey, I can't come up with predictions on command." She paused. "You don't sound happy."
"Why should Ah be happy?" said Rogue hotly, clutching the receiver tighter than was necessary.
Irene sounded a little desperate. "It's your birthday, Rogue."
"Yeah," said Rogue, lowering her voice. The boys' ears were practically out on stalks. "Sounds like a good reason to be happy. Why, Ah can't see. But don't worry yourself about it, Irene. Ain't like you're mah mom or anything."
There was a wounded silence on the other end of the line. Rogue knew she'd hurt Irene's feelings, but she felt slightly angry at her for not being there. Even though it wasn't Irene's fault. Ah'm under stress at the moment, she thought. Besides, sixteen's not too old to act like an immature little bitch.
Oh, what was the big damn deal with sixteen anyway?
"Rogue," said Irene softly. "I'm sorry you had to be sent away. I'd be angry too. It's for your own good, don't you see that?"
Rogue felt a wave of shame engulf her. When she spoke she sounded slightly choked up, "Yeah. Ah know. It's just kinda pent-up over here at the moment, but- gotta go, Ah'll be late for school. Talk to ya soon, bye Irene." She slammed down the phone and immediately hated herself for it: Raven was very strict in reinforcing the one call a week rule. Rogue had used up her only call to Irene. She hadn't even apologised to Irene for being cruel.
"Who was that?" asked Lance, frowning.
Rogue pretended not to hear and went upstairs to get dressed. As she ascended each step she felt steadily worse, until by the time she reached the second floor of the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House she wanted to crawl into her bed, yank the blanket over her head and wait out the hours 'til her seventeenth birthday rolled around.
"This is pitiful. Ah've gotta be optimistic," she muttered, picking out her favourite black leather skirt. She blinked and almost managed to laugh. God, Ah never thought Ah'd hear mahself say that!
She made herself a solemn promise. From now on, Ah'm gonna be a good Brotherhood woman and beat on the X-Men whenever Ah can. Ah'm gonna be a good daughter to Irene and not snap at her for stuff that ain't her fault. Ah'm gonna heed Mystique and listen to what she says, 'cause though Ah hate to admit she knows better than Ah do on some things. Ah'll get mah own back at all the teachers by listenin' in class and gettin' good grades. When Ah get to do and be all those things, everyone will know Ah'm serious about who Ah am. No more playin' around. Ah'm sixteen now, Ah can't be a kid any more.
Feeling slightly redeemed by her noble (but unspoken) profession of who she was going to be now that she was sixteen and an adult (even if the damn government didn't see it her way); Rogue got washed and dressed. She walked down the stairs in as confident a fashion as she could manage, and found the boys watching television, as usual.
"Come on, guys, we've gotta get to school," Rogue said, leaning against the doorway in a way that reminded the boys spookily of Mystique.
"What do you care, Rogue?" Todd asked, catching a fly on his tongue. "You always get a ride with Mystique."
"Not any more. From now on Ah ride with you guys," she said gruffly.
The boys all gave her strange looks.
"What? Ah had thought ya wouldn't be so horrified by the thought of me catchin' a ride to with ya'll." Brazenly, Rogue went on, "As far as Ah'm concerned, Mystique can take her ride and shove it up her-"
"Ahem."
Rogue nearly jumped out of her skin as Mystique materialised behind her. "Oh. Uh... Mystique. Hi." She heard the boys give valiant attempts to stifle their laughter.
... Rogue was dead. Rogue was SO dead. Nobody dared disrespect Mystique. Absolutely freaking nobody!
Mystique looked like she was torn between ripping Rogue's head off her shoulders and bursting into evil laughter. "Am I to take your little outburst to mean you decline my offer of a ride this morning?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Rogue meekly, wishing she could evaporate into thin air and die. Impressing the boys was not worth losing what respect Mystique had for her. Rogue and Mystique had just started to establish a weird kind of rapport, but now...
"Very well." Mystique folded her arms and promptly shapeshifted into Principal Darkholme, which made all of the Brotherhood teenagers flinch slightly. "The period before lunch I want to see all of you in my office. There's someone you'll need to meet- particularly you, Rogue."
"Me?" asked Rogue, frowning. "Why me?"
"He has wanted to meet you for a long time," said Darkholme rather dismissively. "Well, I'm leaving. All of you get to school soon, because I'll know if you come in late."
"Yes, Mystique," chorused the boys as Mystique gave them a massive glare. Rogue didn't bother to speak. All of them were silent until Mystique left the house. They heard the front door slam, and then all of them (minus Rogue) launched into a tirade she'd heard about a million times before. That morning, it seemed, her brethren were all truly feeling the Mystique-hate.
"That psycho bitch rules our lives and I'm sick of it," moaned Lance, getting up and stretching after five excruciating minutes of Mystique-hatred. Rogue rolled her eyes and wondered why the expression coined most often to describe Mystique was 'that psycho bitch-lady/woman'. Surely they weren't so entirely dumb they couldn't think of some other way to describe her. Rogue was halfway intelligent and she was pretty sure she'd never once called Mystique a psycho bitch.
"Hey, genius math man, ya ain't been here nearly long enough to get sick of anything," she pointed out.
The boys looked at her. "Well, you can't seriously like her," said Fred incredulously.
Rogue shrugged. "She's OK."
"Can't blame Rogue for likin' Mystique. Mystique picks on us more than Rogue," Todd sneered.
"Ah didn't say Ah liked her. Ah said she was OK," Rogue said hotly. "And Ah- Ah-" The boys looked at her condescendingly. "Aw, shove it, slimeball," bitched Rogue finally, regretting her earlier profession of unity with the boys.
Not unsurprisingly, Rogue was late to school that morning. It was hard to tear Fred from the living room before the end credits of Powderpuff Girls, after all. Rogue sprinted to her first class, went through her "No, Ah'll never be late again, Ah promise." speech and sat down, musing. Did she like Mystique? It was hard to like someone that... evil. Yet she'd been nothing but civil and concerned (... and, well, slightly psychotic at times, she thought without cracking a smile) towards Rogue since Rogue's arrival in Bayville. And she was a friend of Irene's. But right now Rogue felt so confused about where her relationship with Irene was that didn't seem to mean a lot.
Sometimes she missed Irene badly. She supposed it was natural, as Irene was the closest thing Rogue knew to a mother. Irene was her home in Caldecot, the dinners they ate, the conversations they had, the money shelled out with nary a complaint so Rogue could satisfy her whims. Irene was part of Rogue, part of where she came from.
Sometimes she felt angry and resentful of her for sending her away to Bayville, away from everything she knew, and in turn felt disgusted at herself for acting so immature. It wasn't Irene's fault she was a mutant with a particularly disturbing and harmful power.
"... what do ya do?"
"I can see the future. My mutant friends call me Destiny."
"Nice. Do you ever see mah future?"
"Yes."
"What about mah present?" asked Rogue sceptically. "Ever see that?"
"I do. I saw it in the past, which made it your future then."
Rogue thought about Irene- Destiny- a lot that period, getting hardly any of her work done. So she can see the future, Rogue thought sceptically. Did she ever see how much of an evil little bitch Ah was gonna turn out to be?
Her next class was French. Rogue had mixed feelings about French. French was good because it was her best subject. She had a natural aptitude for the language and the culture. There weren't many in the way of undesirables in the class, but the one prevalent one she found to be a real problem. Kurt Wagner, the teleporter from Germany, was another student in the class.
"Bonjour, classe," rasped Mrs Connell as she took her place at the head of the classroom.
Everyone pulled themselves out of their own little worlds for a few seconds in order to answer, "Bonjour, Madame Connell." Rogue, remembering her oath that morning, made herself try and concentrate.
Rogue didn't understand Kurt Wagner totally. He was such a joker. This class was no exception to the rule. He knew everyone thought French sounded odd spoken in a German accent. He played up to this, revelled in it. He put on a corny French voice that made girls smile and boys guffaw. Everyone except Rogue found him amusing enough, but she saw other things when she looked at him. She saw the friendly boy he'd been for about three seconds before morphing into a blue-furred monster, that night in Caldecot. She saw the little boy who cried when his parents fought on account of him.
Was the way he acted around everyone else just a front, something he put on to make himself seem more normal? Sifting through the sketchy memories, the things she'd picked up elsewhere, she knew that for much of his life he'd been home schooled. His only friends had been pen pals or faceless personalities on the Internet. How was it he acted as though he'd been at this for so long, this whole 'class clown' persona? He must've been waitin' his whole life for what he has now, Rogue mused. To show people what he has inside.
Oh, but she had to be careful or she'd start feeling sorry for him. Maybe even liking him. She'd rather... rather do something really humiliating than become friends with an X-Man!
Now, Scott Summers, Rogue could get. There was a simple guy, all right. It was easy to see what kind of person Summers was. He valued things like being super-nice to the girls he liked and courteous, at least, to the ones he didn't. And he was carrying on an illicit relationship with that red convertible he drove around in. Which reminded her... Rogue looked ruefully down at her hands, wishing she could jot down important notes on them like other people. Instead, she used the margin of her piece of paper.
new annoying quality- when i get to school early i see s.s. pulling up in that damn convertible of his. s.s. kind of pats his car every time he gets out of/into it. loser.
With a grin, Rogue looked up and straight into Wagner's eyes. He'd turned around and happened to make eye contact with him. He gave her a sunny smile, and Rogue scowled in return. Blue-haired freak smilin' at me, Ah dunno, he comes near me Ah'll make him wish he'd tangled with Fred instead...
It was a normal day, boring as birthdays went, and it took all too long for their meeting with Principal Darkholme to roll around. Rogue was feeling pretty low by this point- not depressed or angry, just... neutral. She knew she ought to cherish her neutral moments because at least she wasn't bursting into tears or feeling explosive anger, but she just couldn't. Maybe neutral's just a fancy way of sayin' boring.
And it was boring, to sit in the front office and be ignored by Dorothy the Perky Secretary, except for the moment she cheerily told the Brotherhood that, "... Miss Darkholme will see you in a minute, kids." That had been fifteen minutes ago.
Why couldn't Mystique have adopted the guise of a PTA official, or a custodian, or even another student? Why did she have to be the principal of Bayville High? Rogue moodily turned her back on the boys to stare into a distant corner.
...
"Hon?"
Rogue sat up straight. "Huh?"
"Hon, Principal Darkholme will see you now," said Dorothy the Perky Secretary, her hand lingering on Rogue's shoulder. Rogue pushed it away and dusted off her shoulder vigorously, giving her a funny look.
The boys stood mulishly around, waiting for her to get up. Principal Darkholme stood in the doorway, and waited there until each of her team had shuffled inside her office. There were usually only two chairs but she'd taken the liberty of assembling four, one for each Brotherhood kid.
"Where's this guy you wanted us to meet, Mystique?" asked Fred, running a hand through his mohawk.
"Mr Lensherr had to leave early," said Darkholme evenly, grimacing at Fred forgetting what to call her on school grounds.
"Pity," Lance deadpanned.
She gave him a hard look. "Pity is right. I had hoped he'd be more involved in his enterprise."
"Enter-what?" Todd asked, scratching the back of his head.
"Enterprise. Specifically, you people. However, he may show more often if we manage to secure another person." Darkholme waved her hand over a small device sitting on the desktop. A hologram appeared at her eye-level.
"Whoa!" cried Fred. Lance actually went as far as to nod approvingly.
Rogue said sarcastically, "Oh, yeah. Very Star Wars."
Todd snickered. "Save me, Obi-Wan! You're my only hope!" Even though no-one else even cracked a grin, he found this hysterical and giggled until Darkholme gave him a terrible death-glare. Rogue punched Todd on the arm, showing just how much she had learned from Lance.
"Yes, yes, it's all very futuristic. But do any of you see what the hologram is?" she asked, giving them a look that suggested she might kick them out of the Brotherhood if they got it wrong.
"It's a kid," Fred said finally.
"A guy. Around our age," Rogue supplied. "Why're we seein' this?"
"I'm showing you three this because this boy may well be becoming a new member of our team. He is the rival of a boy who has recently joined the X-Men- of course; I don't need to show you what this other boy looks like."
"Nope."
"Nuh-uh."
"Nah."
"Um, yes. Please," said Rogue, trying to look as capable as possible.
Darkholme's black gaze locked on the young girl. "Rogue? Now, why haven't any of the boys pointed out the new X-Man to you? Young as they may be, the X-Men are and should be considered extremely dangerous."
"We've tried to show Rogue," said Todd defensively. "Girl never wants to go see 'em."
Darkholme glared at Rogue. "I was afraid this might happen. Regardless of what you might have suffered at the hands of the X-Men, Rogue, you mustn't be afraid to seek them out for yourself."
"Why, what did the X-Men-" began Lance.
"Shut up, Avalanche!" snapped Rogue. Rogue burned as the boys looked curiously at her. She turned to Darkholme. "Ah'm not afraid."
"Quiet. You are reckless. We will speak after this meeting, do you understand? Cardinal rule of our work, Rogue, familiarise yourself with your enemy."
Rogue's hands became livid fists. A fine flower of pain bloomed in her ribcage at the memory of what the X-Men had inflicted upon her. Rogue couldn't believe that Mystique would say such things in front of the boys. What if the boys asked what she was talking about?
"See him now, then," Darkholme said, and waved her hand over the device with a flourish.
Rogue was numb as the discussion continued. An image had come up- a young boy with dark skin in your typical skater-boy attire. His hair was bleached yellow, and Rogue had recognised him instantly.
"What's y'name?" asked Rogue, hands on her hips.
"Evan. I'm a freshman. What's yours?"
"You'll find out soon enough. So, how long've ya been here?"
"Since last week."
... She had talked with him. She had been alone with him. She'd made some rather disparaging comments about the girls who were his teammates but that wasn't even the worst thing, it was that- she'd been alone with an X-Man and she hadn't even known it. What if he'd attacked her?
Tried to attack her, that was, because Rogue was twice as good a fighter as any X-Man. She could have taken him out easily, but still...
God. He could've jumped me when mah back was turned or somethin'. Ah was off mah guard and that's the main thing. That's the really disturbin' thing.
The meeting ended, and Rogue waited for each of the boys to file out. Todd muttered something about meeting them in the quad, but Rogue didn't respond. Eyeing Principal Darkholme, she held her hands behind her back and said in the most respectful tone she could achieve, "You wanted t'see me, ma'am?"
"Yes, Rogue. I must confess it isn't so much about your refusal to be introduced to Evan Daniels that upsets me."
Cautiously, Rogue interjected, "So... you're not mad about that?"
"You have the right idea about these X-Men, Rogue. They are not your equals. Equal fighters, maybe, but not equal people."
"... all animals are equal," muttered Rogue. With a small grin, she quoted, "But some animals are more equal'n others." Now, where was that from again?
Darkholme nodded in approval. "Animal Farm. That's one of my favourites."
"Uh, yeah." Rogue twitched slightly and couldn't explain it.
Her strange reaction to Darkholme's liking of the George Orwell novel went unnoticed. "Now, what I wanted to speak with you about was your conversation with Irene this morning."
Rogue winced.
"Yes, you may well squirm. You were very rude to her, Rogue, and I will not tolerate that again. Irene is a great friend of mine and I have a lot of respect for her. Her talents are truly extraordinary and have been of great value to our cause. She mentioned you seemed angry about having been sent away for your birthday?"
"Ah didn't say that." Rogue paused and mumbled, "Wouldn't've thought Irene'd just tell ya everythin' in our conversation like that."
"Oh, rest assured, she didn't want to. But I can be very persuasive."
"Ah'll say." Rogue smirked.
"Rogue, none of this can be helped. You've become what you were born to be. Your whole life begins now, and it has been planned down to the smallest detail."
Rogue frowned and shook her head. "Nothin's final yet."
"Of course not. Now, I will permit you to call Irene this week but only so you can apologise for being rude and hurtful." There was a sarcastic little curl to Darkholme's voice. "And keep it short, not all of my money from the cause's leader can't go to your phone bills."
"No, ma'am."
There was a pause.
"So..."
"So, what?"
"Your secretary," said Rogue with a snort. "Hon. Is she serious when she says that, or can't she remember anybody's name? Hon, good lord. The only person in the whole world Ah let call me anythin' like that is Irene. If Ah weren't on school grounds Ah swear to ya Ah would've broken that woman's face."
Darkholme was smirking at Rogue's Dorothy imitation, but appeared interested. "Oh? And what does she call you?"
Slightly embarrassed, Rogue finally said, "Irene calls- called me honey. When Ah was younger she... she used to tell me it was 'cause Ah was sweet. It used to make me smile." She shrugged and managed to laugh. "Little kids, huh? You can get through to 'em so easy. Ah mean, most of 'em are kinda... stupid, really."
Darkholme shook her head. "No. I've known young children wiser than many adults I've encountered."
"Well, maybe you could introduce me to some of these kids," said Rogue jokingly.
"Perhaps. Oh, and Rogue, I almost forgot." The principal reached inside her desk and brought out an envelope. Rogue took it and discovered a birthday card with some folded-up notes inside.
"Good old Irene," she said with a smile. "Ah never would've expected her to have the card here on time and all..."
"How much did she send you?"
"Forty bucks. Last of the big spenders. Ah'll be able to buy m'self somethin' real nice with this. Ah'll thank her when Ah call her, yes?"
"Yes," said Darkholme, nodding in approval. With hesitation, she extracted something from her pocket and held it out to Rogue. "Take this."
"Uh- what's that?"
"It's money, Rogue. For your birthday."
"That's twenty bucks. Not that Ah d-don't appreciate it an' all, but are ya sure ya wanna give me twenty bucks?" Rogue looked doubtful. Why was Darkholme giving her money? "Ah mean, you've been bitchin' about me runnin' up big phone bills an' yet now you're givin' me money outta the kindness of your heart?"
"Charming," said Darkholme sarcastically, and Rogue sneered. "Take it. It'll keep me honest."
"How else does a shapeshifter keep herself honest?" mused Rogue, but with her hand shaking slightly she reached out and took the money. Putting it into her pocket, she said, "Thank you, ma'am."
Looking slightly harried, Darkholme said, "Yes, it's quite all right. Anyway, Rogue, you'd better go. I believe it's time for your lunch now."
"OK. Bye, Principal Darkholme." Rogue opened the door to go.
"Rogue?"
"Yeah?"
"Happy birthday, Rogue." Darkholme was looking over some papers on her desk, sounded supremely uninterested and yet she looked very briefly into the pale face of the trainee terrorist whose birthday it was.
"Um, thanks." Rogue waved jauntily at the woman behind the desk, and she left.
- - -
DISCLAIMER: X-Men Evolution does not belong to me. If it did, I would give some XME writers on this site jobs writing for the show. XME belongs to Stan Lee, the WB, Marvel Comics, whoever you like. Star Wars belongs to George Lucas and Animal Farm belongs to George Orwell.
NOTES: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I had major-league writer's block. I should really be doing my stupid economics assignment, but this chapter, boring as it was, felt much more important. This is where I do a smarmy smile and say, "Don't you feel special now?" causing most of the readers to lob things at me and the rest to set my house on fire.
Next chapter will probably be quite short. I had a little bit of writer's block as to the rest of Speed and Spyke, and anyway my older sister will be home soon, whining, "I want to call my booooyfrieeeeend so get off the Neeeeeeeeet." Grr.
My best friend Helen and I have posted a fic under the pseudonym The Forces of Evil. If you're interested, it's a humour/parody XME fic called The Ragin' Ouch and there's loads of Scott-bashing... literally. Star-of-Chaos already reviewed it, so thank you for that. As much as it may seem, I don't hate Scott. I actually quite like all of the X-Men. But like I've said before, you can't expect a character like that NOT to have the piss taken out of him. He practically goes down on his knees and begs for it. :)
Oh my God! OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod! I SAW THE A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS TRAILER! Aiiiiiii!
... Sorry. It's just that I'm a rather obsessive fan of those books, and I think it looks so cool... very Gothic. And the girl who is playing Violet is Australian (doing a pretty damn good American accent) and she looks kind of like Angelina Jolie, and she wears this excellent costume in the trailer. She has these net gloves that go up to her elbows... friggin' awesome. And Sunny is sooo adorable! I am so excited.
SONGS:
Hate Every Beautiful Day by Sugarcult (If Rogue wasn't a sullen teenager before in this story, then she certainly is now, eh?)