Disclaimer: I don't own. I have a low amount of money since the windshield accident. I wouldn't recommend sueing. Tara and the currently unpresent Nanaki are property of Takamo while Julius and the currently unpresent Natasha belong to another friend, Fallen Angel Hell's Gate(until she changes it again). I own all others that are unrecognizable.
If he had parents or even anyone to answer to he would have been in trouble, but he had neither nor want for them. The thought wouldn't leave him alone while he made up his current bed on Russ' couch. He knew he should care or maybe just talk to someone about the institute he'd overheard several students talking about. His pride wouldn't let him so he contented himself with the couch and his usual bad night of sleeping.
"You sure you're going to be okay? I mean, sleeping out here like this...?" Russ came into the living room with a couple of sodas and tossed him one. He sat down in the worn-out recliner opposite the couch and watched his friend.
Landon shrugged then thumped the soda lid a few times until it was alright; he counted to ten then flicked the top open and took a drink. "I've been doing this for the last seven years. Don't worry about me," he said, though, he was still trying to figure out what to tell Kelly about his suggestion of parent/teacher conference. There was no parent. "What do I tell Kelly? He wanted to see my parents but they're deceased."
Russ shrugged. "The truth?"
"Yeah, sure. I can imagine his face if I were to tell him, 'I'm sorry, Principal Kelly, but my parents are deceased, killed by my sister when we ten. I'd be happy to hold a seance for you if you'd like to speak with them still'....get real, Russ."
He still smiled when he thought of the hoots and hollers from the male and female students as Duncan had run through the halls, naked except for the bandage wrapped around one of his hands. Landon had leaned against a set of lockers with Julius, watching with interest. Not all were amused by their antics, though; some gothic girl with a white streak at the front, Rogue, he thought, from one of his classes, had given them a pitied look then walked off.
"It was a suggestion. We going to do it in the morning...?" Russ asked, finishing the last of his soda and walking toward the kitchen. He pitched the can in before turning back. "I've got the guns in a trunk in the garage."
"Call Kellie and the rest will learn before the night's up. What time, Russ?"
"Try six a.m. That's right before school would start, right? It'll give us time to prepare... see you in the morning."
"Go to bed."
Landon waited until Russ was gone to dump the remaining contents of his soda down the drain and then struggled to make himself comfortable on the couch's rough cushions. He hated staying with Russ, but he hated to burden the same person repeatedly. The longest he'd ever stayed with one person was the three months he'd spent at Angel's but otherwise, he switched almost every night.
Tomorrow was one of the nights he stayed with Jax. Hallelujah.
Five-thirty a.m. found Scott awake and thinking much too hard. He was laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling with a scowl that could have cracked plaster with it's tension. His mind hadn't stopped racing through facts since they'd met with the Professor and Katherine in his office, concerning several students whose home lives needed to be brought to their attention.
Landon's parents, sister, and any extended family were detailed as deceased or MIA (missing in action). Jax had a blank history with nothing, not even a birth certificate. The two were known for sleeping everywhere from other classmates' houses to the school gym on rare and unusual occassions.The Professor was talking about offering both young men a place to stay at the institute, with them; it hadn't gone over well with himself or Katherine. She'd explained that it might be a blow to their pride over such a question, especially considering Jax was nearly twenty.
Jean's voice broke through his thoughts. GO TO BED, SCOTT!
I'm thinking. The Professor doesn't always drop things like this so suddenly...what's changed?
Her voice was beginning to take on it's irritated tone. I don't know, Scott. It's not either of our places to question the Professor's choices or any decisions he makes...if you don't go back to sleep and stop projecting within the next twenty minutes, I'm going to pay you a visit with a pair of pliers. For your teeth.
Scott sighed. Good-night, Jean.
He'd no sooner had the thoughts then their alarm went off. He tossed the covers off and scrambled out of bed, pulling on his uniform in a hurry while the sound of others moving around drew his attention to the facts. Something was wrong, really wrong for them to be woken up on a school day, by the alarm.
Scott met the others, including a sleep-deprived, no make-up, scowling Rogue. He spoke to her but earned a logan-sounding snarl and a death glare; he moved beyond her to stand with Jean and Kitty. Kitty also looked sleep-deprived but more awake while Jean was strangely silent and avoided looking at him.
Logan entered with Storm a few steps behind him then stopped, looking over them. "Where's Spyke and Elf?" he demanded, noticing the two missing. Shuffling and shoving from the hall drew their attention to the two figures coming down the hall with quite a bit of noise. Logan's humorless voice cut them. "Knock it off!"
Kurt and Evan entered the room with their eyes downcast and their expressions somewhat apologetic. The blue one took his position against the wall beside his foster sister while the spyked one remained hanging around the doorway.
"Your little friends, the Brotherhood, have decided to play their WILD card early this morning on the school's football field. You all get the joy of finding and convincing them otherwise. I don't expect you to fail...Auroro and I have classes in a couple hours or we'd come with you. Don't screw this up." There was a threat to it.
Storm's nod from behind him was all the threat they needed. If she was allowing Logan to talk for both of them and make demands, there was no hope of an appeal.
"Well, hell, y'all," Rogue scowled, straightening from her place against the wall and giving them all a sunny smile that caused more worry. She dropped it within in moments and spoke with her accent exaggrated thanks to her lack of sleep. "Shall we get ta work or do ah gotta go beat the brotherhood all by mah lonesome?"
Jean interrupted, "We're all going, Rogue. We should go before anyone starts to arrive at school, namely any faculty..."
Five-thirty a.m. started out differently for Angel Blade. She slammed the button on her alarm clock off three minutes early then dropped one leg down to kick her best friend, ignoring the pain of her leg hitting the wooden night stand.
"Too early, Angel." Tara pulled the covers over her head and burrowed into the covers warmth and quietness, unlike the morning activities. "Not six yet."
"Nope, not yet, but we still have to get dressed before we meet Landon. Tara." Angel hissed the name this time with another warning kick before climbing out of bed and going to her closet. She rearranged hangars for a moment then pulled out a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans, tossing them onto the bed along with her sneakers. "You shouldn't have stayed up playing with that thinga-majigy."
"Don't call it that. Do we have orange juice...?" There was a longing and the hoarse rasp of sleep present in the voice, even though, it's owner was closer to awake then it gave away. Her head had come out from under the covers, but she hadn't moved to get up from her makeshift bed, frowning at the ceiling.
"Yep."
"Thank the gods." Tara got up, dragging her feet and struggling to remember where her clothes were.
Angel mumbled something on her way out of the bedroom but closed the door and entered the bathroom across the hall. She pulled on her clothes then applied her dark eye-liner to her eyes and blue gloss across her lips, making them look frozen and dead. She outlined her eyes for a moment longer then stuck her tongue out to test the image; it worked for her even if it did make her look creepily shadowed.
She returned to her bedroom to find Tara's bed empty, her bag and several articles of clothing missing while Tara's sat on the floor, just inside the closet. She shook her head.
At least we've got orange juice, she thought on her way through the hall and into the kitchen. She made a point to tiptoe past Vel and Kristal's door. They'd freak if they knew she and Tara were getting up at five-thrity to go play on the football field with their friends and guns. It was violent and stupid; Vel's way of putting it. I'm starting to dislike him.
"I have orange juice. Did you know that it tastest like orange..?" Tara tipped up another glass of orange juice and swallowed the contents, making a face before pouring some more from the pitcher on the table.
"Yeah. It's called ORANGE juice, hon. What did you expect it to taste like? Spaghetti Os?" She rolled her eyes and got another glass down, filling it with the orange juice and a few taps of cinnamon from the shaker nearby. Tara scowled. "Sorry I said anything. I gotta call Damien...don't get addicted to that. Orange juice is a bad addiction."
There was a chuckle. "As opposed to kool-aid...? Powdered or liquified?"
"Shut up, Tara." Angel walked into the living room but stopped at the phone, dialing Damien's number then counting rings until his voice would pick up. She repeated over and over that had better be home if he wanted any students present in his class. She'd just hit ring eleven when his voice picked up, irritated and sleep-drugged.
" 'Ello."
"Hi, Damien," she chirped into the phone, delibertly forcing herself to sound chipper about the whole thing. She waited until he mumbled something non-understandable. "We need a ref for today. Please, Damien? I doubt if I woke you up either...you get up at four-thirty to meditate of something. Please, please, please, please."
"If you promise to skip my class today, we've got a deal."
"Deal. Thanks. Kiss, Kiss. Love ya lots."
Damien groaned. "Hang up the phone already, crazy," he said then dropped the reciever in her ear. The dial tone met her words. She turned back to Tara and gave her two thumbs up then re-entered the kitchen, gulping down her orange juice and cinnamon.
"We're in the clear. Football field, here we come!"
SIX O'CLOCK IN THE A.M. (BAYVILLE HIGH FOOTBALL/ SOCCER FIELD)
"Okay. We have, if my watch is correct, about an hour and a quarter before any other students start arriving...faculty might show up early but we have our devoted French teacher." Landon cast a look toward Damien's slouched position against his motorcycle. He recieved a frown. "Moving on.."
Kellie rolled her eyes. It was stupid for them to play out going over the rules and seperating into teams again. It wasn't like this was something new; it was older then the majority of them. They met on the football field at sometime, over an hour before school would start, and 'watered' the football field. It took that long for either cops, the faculty, or someone's parents to break up the game.
It's not really even a game. It's more like a group of kids running around with water guns-and too much free time-running around on a soccer field with super soakers and a lot of water. We used to play in an empty lot but now we have a field, she thought with a smirk but took hers from Landon and checked the amount of water in it.
"I want you guys to play fair this time, alright?" Damien looked around at them but stopped his gaze with a point look toward several of them. He shook his head and climbed into the bleachers, sitting down about midway up and making a begin hand motion to them. "Have fun."
Voices drew their attention toward the group of teens, mainly recognizable from the school, that were facing off in two lines. Kellie easily recognized two girls, Rogue and some preppy girl, from one of hers and Landon's classes among a group of others, including the best looking guy she had ever seen.
He was tall with brown hair and eyes. He'd dressed in an interesting enough outfit even if he did look kind of stupid with the way he stood, battle stance. He was still one of the best looking guys she had ever seen; she was instantly smitten.
Angel's voice broke into her thoughts. "Oh, look, mutant gang violence." Her voice held much more sarcasm then should have been legal in one sentence. She shook her head and started forward, intending to keep something stupid from happening from the set of her jaw.
"Not your place to get involved, Demon," Juilus announced, coming up behind her and shooting a stream of water into her back. He backed off a few steps afterwards, smirking. "It could just be a friendly game like ours."
"Julius?"
"Yes, sweetheart?"
And now she's going to hurt him. Kellie smirked when the favor was returned by a stream of water, aimed directly at his mouth. It only took a few moments for him to be coughing and studdering around a mouthful of water; within seconds, the others had gotten into the game and were spraying water across the football field in all directions.
Kellie squirted a steady, rather long stream of water at Corey's back then took off running, ducking behind Russ then running up the bleachers on one side. Damien's voice halted her,"Stay out of the stands!"
She was about to yell something back when the ground on the football field split in half while several clods of dirt rose up from their placement. She looked around a moment then noticed that the previous two lines of their classmates had become a wild fray of fighting mutants.
"Why don't we go offer them a hand...?" Julius called from his position on the field, giving Jax, who was sitting, placidly, beside their French teacher, a smirk. "What do you think, Serpent King?"
"Be my guest."
"Thanks. Let the good times roll!"
"Permitió que los tiempos buenos arrollen!"
"That would be Laisser les bons temps roulent."
"No, I was speaking spanish, Damien!"
Pietro Maximoff knew that something was wrong when his feet began to sink into the ground while he was trying to run across it. His fellow brotherhood members weren't doing well except Toad who seemed to be enjoying the change in climate and ground too much.
"What happened to the field?" he demanded just before a stream of water hit him square in the face, sending him sprawling on his back into a rather large puddle of mud. His once fine, beautiful white hair turned into a matted mass of hard brown spikes; he yelled something.
Lance responded, "We got some uninvited guests. I have no clue who they are but the X-geeks don't exactly look happy about their showing up. Maybe we can use that...?" His words were cut off by another earthquake-like shaking and splintering of ground and arguing from further down the field.
"It's water, yo!" Toad hopped over, grinning like a fool despite the bad ground and the fact that they had way too many people, especially too many armed people, in one area. That couldn't turn out well. "I'm guessin, yo, that them kids got somethin' to do with it but that's just my guess."
Pietro gave him a look. "Well aren't you intelligent, Toad?" He stood, brushing at dirt a moment then scowled and raced away, abandoing them to go work some more of his usually flawless appearance. They could deal with his father's wrath but he would be sitting that little lecture out.
Toad stared blankly for a moment then returned to his fight just as a bare, pale hand touched his face. It took only a few moments for her to absorb enough to knock him out.
"Ah hate absorbin' him. Ah always get an urge to eat flies," Rogue scowled then noticed the several cars that had just pulled up. Her mouth dropped open and she gave a low whistle. "We got company, y'all. Kelly's here early and our new students are playing with water guns."
"I zought zey was super soakers, Rogue."
"Shut up, Kurt."
SEVEN-FIFTEEN A.M. (KELLY'S OFFICE)
Tara knew they were in trouble. The office was packed with a combination of water soaked teenagers, scowling 'gang members', and several whining girls while Kelly was sitting at his desk, silently.
"Now that we've all talked," Kelly started, looking around the room but stopping on the ones dripping water onto his recently replaced carpet. "The X-Men and brotherhood are free to go; both groups will attend detention for the next week. Scott, Jean, you are not allowed on school property for the next week."
"What?!"
Tara tried not to laugh at the wide range of reactions. Some gothic girl simply rolled her eyes while the others in the X-Men catgory gave an interesting arrangement of reasons why they could, especially the two addressed as Scott and Jean. The brotherhood just nodded then exited the room.
Kelly didn't say a word until both groups had gone. He leaned back in his desk and folded his hands, allowing them to just stand there and think about their behavior.
She hated to admit it but he wouldn't get any apologies or even second thoughts. Most had been raised and weined on pulling stupid stunts or becoming involved in stupid stunts. She almost felt sorry for their new prinicipal, almost.
"Do you know how many school rules you've broken in one morning...?"
"Not yet, but I'm sure you're going to tell us," Jax said from where he stood, hovering around the doorway. His expression, if it could be seen, wasn't polite or even sorry. "We're just dying to know."
"Here's a few." He slammed the school handbook down on the desk, holding up one finger. "Obstruction of school rules. No students on school ground before seven in the morning. Misuse of school property and possession of weapons on campus...to name a few!"
A few of them- mainly, Angel, Russ, and Tara- had the decency to look ashamedly at the floor. The others just shrugged or looked around the room, avoiding his eyes.
The door opened and a very angry Katherine O'Brien stormed in, giving her students a look that automatically had all of them looking down except Julius. Her gaze settled on him and held; he looked away and around the room, frowning. Her attention found the giant pile of super soakers propped up to one side of his desk.
"I cannot believe you did this! You haven't even been here two days and I have to come give you lot a lecture. How many of you would like your parents called in? Should I call Vel and Kristal, Angel?" Juilus laughed, earning her immediate attention. "Julius Augustus Kanteon, how would your father feel about taking a plane all the way from Canada? Landon Keller, I can take care of you myself. Would the rest of you like me to recite your phone numbers?"
"No, ma'am," came the mumbled replies from their bowed heads.
Tara almost groaned when one voice decided to speak up. It was the one voice that should have kept quiet...Angel.
"We're really sorry, Ms. O'Brien, but we wanted to christen our new school." She glanced at Julius and Landon who nodded, trying not to look smug. She looked back at their principal. "We christened the school James."
Katherine wasn't amused. "Cute, Angel. You just earned your friends and yourself the honor of repairing the damage to the football field...I hope you all enjoy it," she said, though her voice dripped with pretend sweetness and sarcasm.
There were parrellel shouts from the gathered youths.
"ANGEL!"
"Aw, man!"
Tara shook her head, cutting her eyes toward her friend. "Remind me to thank you later. In the way of the circus." She gave her a smile that said other things.
"Um...I'm sorry?"
Random Line:
"Hey, Rogue! Rogue! Rogue, I know you're up there!" Rogue shoved her window up and looked down, half-expecting to see her cajun stalker. She didn't see him but instead the shadow of another guy with a cigarette, Landon from her class. He appeared in the process of throwing another rock but instead dropped it, offering her a brief wave. "I need your help with my homework!"