Ok, I hope you people like this chapter! ^_^
Sorry it took me a while… *sighs* college is just being a big meany! .
Enjoy! =^_^=
A Lovers Feud
By: Alex Destine
Chapter 13
Kitty was sitting on her bed watching the dark clouds move slowly in the gray sky. Definitely not a good day to go to school, more like one of those 'I want to sleep in' type of days. Nevertheless, Scott wouldn't let them stay and she knew the Professor wouldn't let them either.
~~ Like, they can't give us a break, you know. ~~ Kitty hugged her pillow tighter as she felt a gust of wind blow into her room.
The soft breeze along with the cloudy day made everything look so sad and melancholy, she wished Pietro was keeping her company, he always made her smile.
Just thinking of him made her smile, and that kiss… it had done so much more.
~~ It was so slow, almost as if he had wanted to say so much with that one kiss. ~~
It had taken Kitty by surprise… not the kiss, she knew he would kiss her, but the slowness of it. She wasn't expecting that at all.
Pietro was always moving, always talking, always joking. He could also be a romantic and slow down from time to time but it never lasts. Yesterday however, he had been serious. He was trying to tell her something, she only wished he would say it already.
~~ But like, I guess for now… it'll be like this. ~~ Kitty's gaze was still captivated by the small drops of rain that were starting to fall.
"Hey! You planning on walking to school today?" Rogue was standing by the door watching her roommate. "Not a good day for it."
"Like, ok… I'm moving, I'm moving." School was not appealing, at all… but at least she'd get to see Pietro.
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"Get your ass up!!" Lance was pulling on one end of the blankets.
"NO!" Pietro was pulling the other.
"You're not staying home today! You're not sick and you're not going to rearrange the furniture again!" Lance grabbed onto one of Pietro's legs.
"Ah! Let go of me!… Oh, come on Lance! I wont rearrange anything! I swear!" Pietro wanted to sleep… just to sleep… just… for… a bit… more.
"GET UP!" Lance finally pulled hard enough, causing Pietro to land on the hard carpet floor of his room.
"Ow…. I'm up, I'm up…. You lousy dictator." Pietro made his way slowly to the bathroom.
"Two up, one to go." Lance always had the same problem every rainy day. Nobody wanted to get up! Did they think he wanted to go to school on such a cold day as this?
~~ HELL NO! ~~ Lance usually had no problem with Freddy, the promise of a huge breakfast always got him going. Now Pietro and Todd… well, those two were a headache.
Good thing waking Pietro up today hadn't resorted to violence… the young speed demon would usually get up after Lance had him pinned on the floor and begging for mercy. Well, in all honesty Pietro Maximoff never begged, he would usually say:
"Ok, ok, ok, ok, okokokokokokokokokokokokokok" until Lance let him go. Now that Lance thought about it, that was rather fun.
Now he had to wake Todd. That was rather difficult. Lance couldn't punch him like he did with Pietro and he couldn't cajole him with promises of food like Freddy… he had to reason with him. Usually you could reason with Todd Tolensky, but not when the young boy's brain was half in a coma and the other half barely understanding you.
Lance knocked on Todd's door a few times.
"Todd?… are you up?…. yeah right, like he's up." He knocked again.
"Todd! I'm coming in." Lance opened the door and was met by complete darkness. He tried to make his way toward Todd's bed but found he couldn't see it, he could only guess it's location by where he had seen it last.
~~ Dear God, please don't let me step on something….~~
"OUCH! Damn it!" Lance grabbed his foot as a small lamplight was turned on.
"What you doing here yo?" Todd's eyes were halfway opened and his hair was one big mess… and to Lance's surprise the bed was on the opposite direction of where he was going.
"What are you doing over there?" Lance asked pointing at the bed.
"Don't you remember? Pietro was bored last night." Todd simply dumped himself back on his pillow.
"Oh, right. Almost forgot…. Hey, HEY! Don't go back to sleep! Come on, we have to get going." Lance now walked toward his friend while trying not to step on the CD cases, magazines and pizza boxes on the floor.
"I'm not going." Replied Todd through his pillow.
"What do you mean 'you're not going'? You're not sick, are you?" Lance tried to feel Todd's forehead but it was stubbornly stuck onto the pillow.
"I'm tired… I don't wanna go." Todd was whining, Lance knew he would soon crack up to his demands.
"Todd… we have to go to school cause otherwise you'll just be here all day… with Pietro." This made the young boy look up.
"With Pietro?"
"Oh yes… and I'll give him sugar too." Lance had this evil look on his face.
"You wouldn't…." Todd's eyes grew wide.
"You know I would." Lance had no problem giving Pietro sugar… so long as he was nowhere to be found afterwards.
"You animal!…. fine, fine… but I really don't wanna go! I feel like today is just not meant to be my day Lance. It's as if I had this weird feeling that I'm destined to stay in this bed for the next 24 hours!" Todd tried to make his half-asleep brain come up with semi-decent excuse for staying home today. Apparently mysticism didn't work on Lance.
"I'll be waiting for you downstairs." And with that Lance left the young boy to his musings.
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Things had been relatively quiet during breakfast; Pietro was taking a nap on the kitchen table, Freddy was eating rather slowly and Todd kept whining because they never left him any of the good cereal. Lance blamed it all on the weather.
However, not even the weather could keep someone as active as Pietro down, unfortunately. Once in the car the white-haired sophomore had decided to imitate the sound of rain and was, because his only reason for existence told him to, annoying the hell out of Lance.
"Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip …" counted Pietro.
"Hey…" Lance was going to have a headache… and they hadn't reached the school grounds yet.
"Drip, drip, drip…" continued Pietro.
"HEY!"
"Drip, drip, drip…"
"Stop it." Lance wanted him to shut up.
"drip, drip, drip…"
"Pietro!"
"Drip, drip, drip."
"Please?" Lance was loosing his mind.
Todd, who was sitting in the front seat this time, was keeping a close eye on the road in case Lance mental sanity snapped.
"Drip, drip, drip" continued Pietro
"I asked you to stop." Lance was trying to be nice.
"Drip,drip,drip,drip."
"Pietro, cut it out!" 'Nice' wasn't working.
"Drip,drip,drip,drip,drip,drip,drip,drip."
"Now I'm telling you, Stop it!" Lance's grip on the steering wheel was turning his knuckles white.
"Drip,drip,drip,drip,drip, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP!"
"You enjoy annoying the hell out of me, don't you?"
"DRIP!"
"Don't make me go back there!" Lance looked at Pietro through the review mirror, Pietro did not feel threaten.
"Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip …"
"You're going to be very sorry if I get up from here."
"DRIP, DRIP, DRIP…….. DRIP!"
"I'm going to give you one more chance, please stop it."
"DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP."
"Ok, THAT DOES IT!" By then, thank God, they had reached the school grounds and Lance had just finished parking the car. Obviously both boys made a run for it. In any normal case Pietro's speed would've saved him but when he got up to run away from the wrath of the eldest Brotherhood member Pietro noticed that he still had his seatbelt on thus giving Lance the perfect opportunity to catch the young annoying sophomore and start pounding him inside the car.
While Lance pounded Pietro, and Todd and Freddy waited for the normal display of violence to be over, a bright red convertible made it's way into the parking lot.
"What is Alvers doing?" asked Scott as he parked the car.
"I think he's stuffing something into his back pack." At least, that's what Kurt thought.
"Like, no way! The back seat probably broke and he's like fixing it." That's what Kitty thought.
"Gee, maybe if I'm lucky he's beating up Pietro." Evan was very lucky indeed.
At that moment a door in the Brotherhood's car was opened and out of it came Pietro half dragging himself away from Lance.
"Promise you'll never annoy me like that again!" shouted Lance
"Bite me!" Of course, Pietro knew he shouldn't have said that.
Lance was about to make the young speed demon take back his words until they all heard the very excited voice of one X-geek coming loud and clear.
"Alright! Go for it Lance!" Evan finally got to see some Pietro bashing.
All four Brotherhood members turned around toward the shiny red convertible. They hadn't been aware they had an audience all this time.
"Hey! This is a private Pietro beating! Get out of here!" but Lance knew it was hopeless to try and catch the young sophomore now.
"Oh my God! Pietro, are you like alright?" Kitty ran toward the white haired boy and knelt down beside him while putting a hand on top of his head in concern.
"Oh Kitty!… it was awful!" Pietro hugged Kitty tight as he told his sad tale. "I just wanted a cookie and Lance told me he'd beat me up with a bat! I don't know what got into him, I was only… OUCH!" a book made contact with Pietro's back.
"Don't give me any ideas Pietro or next time I'll really use a bat!" Lance always had a good reason for his Pietro beatings.
"Come on Alvers, whatever he did it couldn't have been that bad." Scott wasn't really trying to help the young sophomore, it was simply an unspoken rule that whatever Lance did Scott would criticize and whatever Scott did Lance would make fun.
"Hey, shut up Summers. Who the heck asked you?!" the dark haired boy couldn't believe his luck. He had definitely had enough X-men run-ins to last him a lifetime.
"Now really, most we start a fight now?" it was just too early for Jean, simply too early.
"I think you should beat Pietro up more often!" Evan was a little disappointed his New Yorker counterpart had run away.
"Like, what's wrong with you Evan?!" Kitty didn't like that idea.
"Hey Pietro… are you… well, umm… are you going to let go of Kitty any time soon?" Kurt found it so curious that Pietro was still clinging on to Kitty for protection.
Pietro pretended to think about for a moment.
"Well… actually… no, not right now." Pietro smiled devilishly as he held on tighter to Kitty's waist.
"Yo! I'm gonna puke." Todd took his backpack from the car and started to make his way to the school.
"I'm gonna be ill." Rogue took her things and followed in the direction Todd had gone through.
Lance and Scott stared at each other, then their eyes wondered toward the 'happy couple'.
"Aw… are you ok now Pietro?"
"Well, I'm still a little scared of Lance. I mean, the guy did try to kill me. But I guess now that you're here everything is ok." He had such a sweet innocent face that unless you knew how Pietro Maximoff really was, you'd think he was a perfect angel.
"Aw! That's like, so cute!… hey, your hair smells like raspberries!" Kitty was still patting him on his head.
"Oh yeah, that's my new shampoo that I rescued from the evil Todd. Can you believe he wanted to steal it from me?!" Pietro had been outraged.
"Well like, why don't you let him use it?"
"Cause… it's mine." It was so simple.
"But like, he wasn't going to use the whole bottle, you know."
"I don't care, it's mine." Pietro pouted and Kitty sighed, no progress was going to be done today regarding Pietro's sharing habits.
"Ok… now I'm going to puke." Scott couldn't believe he was witnessing this.
"And I'm already ill." There were few things both Lance Alvers and Scott Summers agreed on… this was one of them.
"We seem to have a most uncomfortable audience… let's get out of here." Pietro got up and while holding Kitty by her waist made a mad run toward the school. Nobody saw that one coming… or going.
Lance looked at Scott for a while, then decided to look at Freddy.
~~ No more X-geeks, no more X-geeks.~~ Lance needed to find some sort of deserted island where he would be free of noisy X-geeks.
Freddy looked back at Lance and decided they needed some 'No X-geeks time'. So he took both their backpacks and placing a hand gently on Lance's shoulders moved him away from the shiny red convertible.
"Just one day… one day… no X-geeks. Just one day…" Lance needed a break.
"I know Lance… I know." Freddy was patting him on the head now.
Back inside the red convertible Evan was mumbling about how there wasn't enough Pietro bashing while Kurt gave him funny looks and called him a sadist.
Jean was wondering when was the last time they had a normal morning while Scott was looking at Lance's retreating form.
~~ This plan better work… it has to. It will… I'll make it work. ~~ Scott already had himself an idea.
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As Todd walked down the crowded hallway all he wanted was to forget he had a first class. In fact, he wanted to forget he had a second one and a third one and all the others while he was at it. Unfortunately the endless babbling of excited happy high schoolers was making him sick.
~~ How could this many people be so happy on a day like this yo?! ~~ the sky was still cloudy and it looked like they wouldn't be seeing any sunlight today. It was one of those perfect days to forget you had to come to school. Of course, leave it to Great Dictator Lance to remind you 'rather forcefully' that you had to go to school. He was at least glad Lance never pinned him to the floor like he usually had to do with Pietro.
~~ Well, that's cause I'm the baaaaabyyyyyy!!! I'm just one friggen year younger then Pietro for God's sake. ~~
Even though being the baby did have it's advantages, like Lance not beating on him and Freddy always leaving some edibles behind after the great Blob strikes the kitchen, it also usually meant he was played the most pranks by Pietro and being told what NOT to do on numerous occasions by Lance while Pietro did whatever he wanted anyway.
~~ Life is so unfair yo! ~~ thought the young freshman as he made his way to his locker. He supposed his life at home could be worse, it had definitely been worse on his previews foster homes. He shouldn't complain, he should be thankful he finally had someone who would be worried if he got home late… even if that same person would use screaming as a way to show their concern.
Todd was a little too wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice he was going to go through a very jock populated hallway on the way to his locker. If you were a normal person you could take any route you wanted to reach your desired destination, but if you were Todd Tolensky you had to watch out for football player areas.
"Hey Toad! Where do you think you're going?!"
~~ Oh damn! ~~ Todd turned around to stare at a group of jocks that were leaning against the lockers. The one who spoke was non other then his 'favorite' person, Duncan Matthews. He thought about running but the hallway was just too crowded for that and the only way he could get away was if he used his mutant powers. That wasn't an option.
"Hey Duncan… yo! How ya doing? Just getting to my locker, no big deal. Later." Todd tried to run away, he really did but he could never go fast enough.
"I don't think so little Toad. You're not supposed to be showing that ugly face of yours around here." Duncan had grabbed Todd by his neck and had pushed him hard against one of the lockers. It had been too long since the last time he had picked on the Toad. Duncan had almost missed it.
Todd found it a little harder to breath now. Funny, it had been a while since Duncan had picked on him like this. He was beginning to get used to the quiet normal mornings, guess it was back to hiding and dodging.
It was moments like these that he didn't mind Lance treating him like a baby. That is, if only Lance decided to show up soon. Todd didn't care which Brotherhood member came by, he just needed one… preferably Freddy. That would teach Duncan to mess with 'the Toad'. Unfortunately for him, no Brotherhood members in sight, but as if his luck just couldn't get any worse he did see someone he recognize. Problem was that was the last person on Earth he wanted to see right now.
"HEY! What do ya'll think you're doing?" Rogue was standing in the middle of the hallway with hands on her hips looking incredibly mad.
"Stay out of this! It's none of your business!" Duncan was not going to let that little girl spoil his fun.
"Oh, I think it is my business." Rogue moved in closer to Duncan.
"And why is that?" Duncan didn't think it'd look great if he pushed a girl down in front of his friends and cheerleaders, but if she kept this up he was going to have to do something.
"Because football for brains… you're trashing him in front of my locker." Rogue was standing very close to the two boys now.
"Oh!… My bad. Guess we're going to have to move Toady." Duncan's defenses were down now and this was Rogue's perfect opportunity. She slammed the back of her boot down on Duncan's foot as hard as she could and as he was howling in pain Todd used this chance to run away from the jocks.
Both Rogue and Todd made a mad run for anywhere that wasn't where the jocks were right now. Once they figured they were far away they stopped to catch their breaths.
"Oh my God!… *pants* I didn't think that would work!" Rogue was still high on adrenaline and she felt all… giddy.
"I've never seen Duncan in so much pain yo!" Todd was glad he was out of there, not that he had actually needed any help… but he was glad anyway.
"I feel like I want to do that again!" Rogue was all smiles. Devilish smiles.
"Hey yo! No, no, no. I see why you would want to do it, but now Duncan is on to you. You won't be able to pull the same stunt twice." Todd did not want to be thinking that Rogue could be the victim of any jock prank.
"Relax sugah, I'm not going anywhere near those brain dead people. I'm just glad you're alright." Rogue was giving him a concerned smile.
"Well, I… it's not like… like I couldn't handle them! I've been dealing with people like Duncan all my life, you know." Todd wanted Rogue to understand that he could take care of himself.
"Oh I know that Todd." Replied Rogue.
~~ Ha! Finally seeing what an independent man I am. ~~ Todd's inner musings were sometimes as dangerous as Pietro's.
"That's why you should wait for Lance from now on." That last remark from Rogue definitely made Todd's eyes narrow. "He'll make sure they don't pick on ya anymore."
The bell rang at that moment and Rogue realized she still hadn't changed her books.
"Oh rats! I'm late again!… later Todd!" she said as she ran toward her real locker.
"Yeah… later." Todd didn't feel like going anywhere right now though.
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Pietro kept running with Kitty until he figured neither Lance nor Scott would find them. Unfortunately he had been so busy looking back that he hadn't noticed they had already arrived at the gym until he thought for sure they would hit the wall. Now was one of those times Kitty was glad for her mutant powers. As Pietro kept running they phased through the wall and landed on top of one of the gymnastic mattress on the floor.
"Oh my God! Like, don't ever do that again!" Kitty simply wasn't used to travel at those speeds.
"Oh my God! We so have to do that again! I want to do it again! Let's go!" Pietro found the phasing through walls part fun.
"Would you like cool it down! What if someone saw us?! We can't be doing stuff like this around school you know!" Kitty was sure she was going to be labeled a mutant around the whole school now.
"Would you relax. I came this way because hardly anyone is here this early in the morning. Besides, most Phys. Ed. Teachers give the class off on cloudy days like this one."
Pietro was indeed right. Not a single person was inside the gym at that moment, it was rather freaky actually.
"So like, these are the romantic places you take me to." Kitty poked on Pietro's arm for a bit.
"Kitty, I swear this weekend, after the play I'm taking you anywhere you want!" Pietro's mind then quickly registered a few things. The play. Darkholme was going to the play. Darkholme was bad… she was eeeeeeevil! And had to be stopped.
"By the way, what are you doing after lunch today?" he asked rather innocently.
"Like, what do you mean what am I doing? I'm taking math and history after lunch."
"Really?… and how are your grades in those classes?" Pietro was ever so concerned.
"Oh, like I'm doing great! I had a 100 on my last math test and a 97 in history, which like could've sooo been a 99 if the teacher hadn't been so picky. I was like totally mad, you know." Kitty went on and on and on…
Normally Pietro didn't have the patience to deal with such a conversation, but since he could stare at Kitty while he waited he found he rather enjoyed when she went on talking like this.
"… and so like, that was totally mean of her!… why do you ask?"
"Umm?… oh, right well… I think you should skip them and come help me with something." He still had his innocent little smile.
"Are you like insane? No way!" Kitty crossed her arms.
"Why not?… please! Pretty please!… besides, I need your help! And we can't very well have Mystique running loose on Friday, now can we?" Pietro placed his hands on his hips as he waited for Kitty to answer.
"Nuh huh!" she turned around not facing him.
Pietro sighed and decided he needed to be more coaxing in this matter. He moved closer to Kitty and wrapping his arms around her started to give her little kisses on her neck and cheek.
"Please… pretty please? You're so adorable, did you know that?" he whispered in her ear as he noticed her giggling.
"Like, cut that out!… oh, all right! I'll skip, but like don't be thinking it's going to be a regular thing from now on." She said as she leaned on him a little more.
"Oh, you're just so good to me!" they continued to kiss until a very annoying bell rang in the distance.
"Oh rats! We're like, late! Come on Pietro! Let's go!" Kitty jumped up like a light and taking her backpack started her way toward the exit.
"Can't we… stay here… for just a sec!?!?!?" Pietro had been very comfortable! He didn't want to move.
"No! Move it!" and Kitty started to walk without him.
"Oh, damn it…" he guessed they'd cuddle a little later.
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~~ Boring, boring, boring… this class is just too dull! Why can't they say something half interesting for once? ~~
Lance was trying to keep himself busy by decorating his 'already doodle filled' notebook. It was his last morning class and he was eagerly awaiting the final bell to ring so he could go have lunch. Of course, lunch in Bayville High wasn't something you looked forward to… but it was a break from the monotonous sound of his teachers talking.
He raised his head a little trying to look as if he had been listening to the teacher… or at least as if he understood half of what that man was saying. He regretted doing so immediately. His eyes met with the trademark red sunglasses of his 'favorite person'. Summers had been looking at him! Lance looked back down at his notebook and pretended he was busy with something.
He needed a break from these insane people! Just yesterday alone he had seen enough of them to last him his entire lifetime. Surely Summers was getting just a bit sick of watching him too. Lance ventured his head up again… nope; apparently the oldest X-geek wasn't getting tired of watching him.
Lance sighed as his doodles started to look like a stick person with sunglasses. He figured he'd next draw another stick person holding a machine gun and aiming it at the previews stick person. Then, of course, he finished his grand masterpiece by drawing arrows from the little stick people and labeling one as 'the Almighty Avalanche: Ruler of all you See' and the other as 'X-geek!'. Ah! It was the work of genius!
The bell decided to ring at that moment waking him up from his little fantasies of destruction and mayhem. He shoved his books into his broken backpack and headed toward the door. Unfortunately he didn't get a chance to cross it.
"Hey Alvers!" called the person that inspired his first stick person.
"Busy! Have to go! Don't bother me!" he wanted to race through that door and find his other friends and have lunch, was that too much to ask? But his arm was being held back now. He didn't like that. "Let go of me Summers."
"Hey, I just want to talk… I think you'd like to hear me out." Scott was taking Lance out into the crowded hallway, but he wouldn't let go of him just yet.
"What in the world gave you that idea?!" Lance yanked his arm free and would've left to find his friends but Scott's next words stopped him.
"You now you have a problem! I know a way we can solve it though." Scott was looking at him waiting for his reaction.
~~ Well will you look at that! Scotty here finally became useful and thought of a plan… it's about time! ~~ thought Lance as he continued looking at Scott.
"Hey Summers… my problem is also your problem so go and solve it already." Lance turned to leave.
"But I need your help!" Scott felt dirty all of a sudden.
"What was that again?" now this was worth sticking around for.
"I… I require your assistance." Scott felt really gross now.
"You need my help? You need my help. You need my help. You need my help…"
"YEAH! Yeah! Enough already!" Scott was beginning to have second thoughts.
"Well… since you ask so nicely. What exactly do I have to do?" Lance definitely needed something fun to do; he might as well bother Summers while he was at it.
"Well… I think I've finally figured out a plan, but I need your help on getting to Pietro." Scott and Evan had thought long and hard last night for this new plan; it had better work or else Scott would go crazy.
"I'm not sure Summers… I'll have to think about it." Lance was having fun!
"Oh, come on! You don't really have to do much. Just bring him to the back of the building after school. That's it." Scott was sure even Lance could handle that.
"And what exactly are you going to do?" he eyed the X-men senior suspiciously for a while. What exactly was their 'great plan'?
"Don't worry about that, we're not going to hurt him. Just bring him, alright?" Scott didn't wait for an answer; he simply turned around and left the Brotherhood senior out in the hallway.
"…. Fine… Weird nutcases… all of them!" and Lance made his way toward his very hungry friends.
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"WHERE IS HE?!" the huge mutant was pacing around the hallway looking nervous… probably because he was hungry.
"Freddy, relax! A teacher probably stopped him cause of something or other… you know how they are. Besides, I told you to take Todd and go to the cafeteria already." Pietro didn't mind waiting for Lance since he wasn't that hungry anyway, but Freddy would not leave unless all four of them were present.
Pietro's eyes moved from the hypnotic pace of Freddy's steps to the unusually quiet form of Todd. The young freshman was leaning against the lockers next to Pietro. His arms were wrapped around himself as he stared at his untied shoelaces. The white-haired boy had tried talking to him; he tried to joke around for a while, he made comments about the weather or about Lance and his low tolerance for the word 'drip'.
~~ Unexplainable! Simply unexplainable! ~~ thought Pietro as he tried to suppress an evil smile from showing. But again his mind wondered back to Todd and to the nagging question of why he was so quiet.
"Hey, are you hungry? You could always go ahead if you want Todd. Maybe save us a seat?" Pietro thought maybe the boy's lack of response was due to low sugar levels in his body.
Todd's eyes widen for a second, but quickly went back to stare at his shoelaces.
"I rather wait for Lance." Was all he said.
~~ Yo, I'm so pathetic… I'm doing exactly what Rogue said I should, 'wait for Lance, wait for Lance'. I don't WANT to WAIT FOR LANCE! But there's no way I can walk into that cafeteria by myself without those stupid jocks noticing. ~~
His neck still hurt on the places Duncan's fingers had squeezed this morning. He had almost gotten used to the quiet mornings when the only 'beating' he got was a slap on the head by Pietro, which was always followed by Lance smacking Pietro back for 'picking on little Todd'.
Now it was back to making sure he wasn't anywhere near jock populated areas. Either that or always be walking with some Brotherhood member. He supposed he should be thankful none of them knew what happened, otherwise they'd really be babying him and he'd have to start smacking some people.
"Hey Todd… what's that on your neck?" Pietro was really close now pointing at the purple marks that now decorated his skin.
"AH!… Umm, it's nothing… I,… well, I don't know how it got there." Todd started to pull the neck of his shirt up and then began to place his slightly long dark-gold hair around his neck.
"How could you not know how that happened?" As if Pietro was going to believe that.
"It's nothing, nothing…" Todd tried to smile at his concerned friend as if to make him understand that purples marks on a neck were a casual thing. Todd then moved closer to Pietro and whispered in his ear so as to not let their other friend hear him.
"Freddy and I were playing around wrestling and I guess he went a little overboard. You know how big he is; he sometimes can't control his strength… Anyway, I don't want him finding out cause then he'll feel bad yo, and it was just an accident." There, that was a good reasonable lie!
"Right… Freddy did that…" Pietro didn't sound convinced though. But his questions would have to wait as Lance decided to finally make his entrance.
"Look who finally decided to show up." Pietro stuck his tongue out at Lance as the older boy came closer.
"Sip it, Pietro. I thought you guys would be eating by now." Lance suddenly felt Freddy's huge hand grab his arm as the hungry mutant pulled them toward the cafeteria.
"Hey!… ok Freddy, I get it. You're hungry… let go! I can walk you know!"
"We have to go eat! We can't be late." Freddy was walking fairly fast for someone his size.
"Oh my god… isn't it hypnotizing the way his whole body jiggles as he runs?" leave it to Pietro to point something like that out.
Lance and Todd looked at Freddy's moving form, then stared at each other for a while, then they both looked at Pietro with menacing eyes. Lance then proceeded to punch Pietro on the shoulder… hard.
"Ow! Lance! Control yourself!" said a still smiling sophomore as he rubbed his damaged shoulder.
"That is NOT the mental image I want to have stuck in my head Pietro! Good God! What's wrong with you!?" Lance continued to ramble an endless list of "why me's" and 'you imbecile' as Pietro kept laughing uncontrollably.
Todd was simply walking behind his two bickering friends wondering why he wasn't enjoying this as much as he should. He suddenly stopped and made his way toward one of the windows as if in some sort of trance. Outside he saw all the other children as they were happily talking and giggling as they ate their lunch.
He didn't want to go out there… but he didn't know why? He then realized he was standing completely alone in the hallway and ran to catch up with his friends, because even though he didn't feel like going outside he certainly didn't wish to be left alone right now.