Chapter Five
Two days later, the most horrible thing that I could ever imagine happening happened. It was early morning, the sun already painfully bright in the sky, my alarm clock blinking eight o' clock off to my side. I was about to turn over and drift back to sleep when my door was slammed open and Gambit strolled across the room. I blinked up at him still more than half asleep as he tossed some clothes at me from my closet. I swear he has no sense of personal space or belongings.
"What the fuck? Do you have any idea what time it is? Get the hell out of my room." I have never been nor will I ever be a morning person. Gambit should consider himself lucky that I didn't decide to throw things at him. He looked at me a little confused.
"We got t'ings t' do t'day. Didn' I tell y'?"
I matched his confused look with one of my own. "Tell me what?" I mumbled as I snuggled back under the covers. It was too early and I was sure we could deal with whatever it was later. It was his fault for not telling me before anyway. I could feel myself dozing off again when the covers were ripped harshly away and thrown onto the floor. "Hey!"
"We got t' go an' talk wit' Kelly t'day. We're trying t' get y' back int' school, remember?"
"Yeah, well we can do it later. Now give me back the damn blankets." I reached a hand down to grab the blankets but Remy grabbed my wrist and tried to haul me off the bed. Instead of fighting it, I let myself fall and, as soon as I hit the ground, I wrapped myself up with the blankets and curled up on the floor.
"Would y' get y' lazy ass up an' ready? We ain't got de time for dis!" He was beginning to sound just the slightest bit mad but I didn't really care and tried to drown out his voice to get back to sleep. I smiled when I heard his footsteps walking away, thinking that I had won. I was proven wrong not a minute later when I heard the footsteps of Fred coming into the room and peeked my head out from under the covers. I had a feeling I wasn't going to like whatever came next and leapt up from the floor.
"Alright! I'm up!" A look of disappointment passed over Fred's face.
"Aw man. Woulda been fun to," he grumbled as he turned and headed back out of the room.
"Y' better be down here by eight thirty, homme!" Came a shout from down the stairs as I made my way into the bathroom. Huh, like it was my fault that he hadn't told me anything was going on this morning. I contemplated locking myself in the bathroom and not coming down but decided against it as one; he would just pick the lock anyway and two; this was kind of important if I wanted to get back into school.
Remy looked up at me as I walked into the kitchen where he and Fred and Todd were all waiting. He looked back down at his watch.
"Five minutes early. I'm impressed." I didn't have the energy to glare so I just brushed past him and to the jeep outside.
"Let's just get this over with."
#
"What is the point of this again?" I asked as we sat in Kelly's office and waited for him to show up. Remy sighed rather angrily and answered.
"Y' all have t' show Kelly dat y' are good children an' dat y' won't terrorize de inmates when y' get back int' school."
"And why can't we 'terrorize the inmates'?" I mocked. I imagined that Remy rolled his eyes from behind his sunglasses.
"Because, den y' would get kicked out again an' I would still have t' put up wit' y' antics all de time. At least dis way I get rid of y' for awhile."
"Antics?"
"Oui, y'all are like children. Don' know how t' behave." I didn't want to do it but he was really asking for it so I reached forward and flicked his nose, actually a lot harder than I had meant to. And who am I kidding? I did want to do it. He made a pretty interesting noise and started cursing in French, all the while holding his nose. I tried not to snicker as I watched him and could hear Todd and Fred doing the same. I smirked at him as he finally looked up at me still holding his nose.
"Y' little bastard, I-" It was then that Kelly chose to walk in and Gambit managed to get his composure back pretty quickly though I knew that his nose still had to be hurting. I turned my attention back to Kelly as he settled behind his desk and cleared his throat to get our attention. I settled back and prepared myself for a boring morning of pretending to be good.
#
The meeting was shorter than I had expected, just as boring though. We played our parts as the reformed trouble makers and managed to talk Kelly into letting us back in. One fight or major mistake though and we would be kicked back out. The only problem was that it was almost summer vacation and, therefore, there wasn't much point in us going back to school this year. In my mind, that was just fine, we would just have to repeat a grade, not exactly a pleasant thing but also not a problem. Apparently, Remy found a problem with it because he insisted that we would not be falling back an entire grade.
Now here is where that absolutely terrible thing happens. Remy decided that we would make up everything we missed and complete the grades we were in by taking home schooling for the summer. So, now we would get to spend the entire summer sitting around learning.
The worst thing was that he doesn't even ask our opinion, just makes the decision for us and I was starting to get a little bit pissed. I held my tongue until we got back to the house before I rounded on him though.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I yelled as soon as I got out of the jeep, him right behind me. He looked back at me confusion.
"What are y' talking about, homme?"
"Did it ever even occur to you to ask what we wanted or do you just make all of our decisions now?" He still looked confused.
"I t'ought y' wanted t' go back t' school…"
"Yes, but I don't need you to speak for me. What if we don't want home schooling? What if we wanted to enjoy the summer?"
"Dis was supposed t' be y' last year I t'ought dat y' wouldn't want t' spend anot'er year at school when y' didn' have t'. De same goes for de ot'er two." I could see his point but I still wanted him to see mine.
"That may be true but you still don't get it. You're leader of the team but not our lives. You can't make our choices like we weren't even in the room, hell, I didn't even know that anything was going on today." He dropped his gaze slightly and I knew that he understood.
"Y' right an' I'm sorry. I'll let y' make y' own decisions from now on an' tell y' before I do anyt'ing, non?" He smiled and turned his head to include Fred and Todd in his gaze. "So, y' want me t' take y' out of home schooling?"
"No, you actually had a good point. I don't want to stay in school longer than I have to." The other two agreed with me.
"Good. De first assignments will be here in a couple days. No cheating either," Gambit warned. School by mail, at least we wouldn't be subjected to boring classrooms or lectures from teachers, just from Gambit and that was something we were used to. I turned to walk away, considering our conversation over but Gambit's hand latched onto the back of my shirt and pulled me back. I looked over my shoulder at him to find him glaring at me.
"Um, yes?" Then I remembered flicking his nose and knew that he was about to most definitely hurt me back. I wasn't about to hang around for that to happen, though. I shook the ground under us hard enough that we both fell and he loosened his grip on my shirt. When I went to jump back up, I felt my shoulder hit something hard and heard Remy cursing behind me again. "Oh shit," I half laughed when I stood and saw him holding his nose and rocking slightly, hissing breath through his clenched teeth. I began to back away from him, trying not to grin. "I am… so sorry… " I managed between choked laughter. I leapt back into the jeep and got out of there before Remy could come after me.
"Dammit, Lance!" I heard him call out in a slightly choked yell before I disappeared down the road. I was beginning to feel seriously sorry for Remy and all the, mostly unintentional, pain that I had so far put him through. I was also surprised that he still had yet to kill me and figured that it couldn't be too much longer.
A/N: Awwww, poor Remy and his nose… Well, Sailor Wade Lance didn't pull it but he did flick it!! Eh heh, I'm having too much fun with that… Hmm, it's just a bad patch, hell, they're not even really, officially going out. Lance just likes to chase her, yes? Hmmm, and something seems off about this chapter but I dunno maybe it's just me…