Still own nothing. Except Mattie.
Still having a blast writing this!
Double Trouble
Mattie could feel herself blushing. She tried not to look at Bobby, who still had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She could feel his arm with every fibre of her being. It was like a beacon to all of her senses. Even her toes were telling her that Bobby had his arm around her. She willed her embarrassment away, and was rewarded with the hot feeling that told her she was now blushing even deeper. Great. Just fantastic. She closed her eyes in mortification at her own stupidness. It was just Bobby, it was just an arm and it was time she got over herself.
"Don't you think?" Bobby grinned down at her.
Mattie stared up at him, horrified. Fuck! What had he said? What was the answer? Why hadn't she been listening? Because you were too busy getting embarrassed by the fact that he's got his arm round you in a purely friendly way. She answered herself.
"Yeah." She smiled and nodded, desperately praying that this was the right answer.
"Too right." Sam chimed in.
Mattie sighed with relief. Obviously she had managed to give the right answer.
"Well, we'd better get to class." Bobby gave her shoulder a quick squeeze, and then he and Sam headed off down the corridor.
Mattie sagged with relief. At least now she had most of her brains attention. A small part was still watching Bobby, but the rest was back in communication and apologising deeply for ignoring her.
Ray waved goodbye as well catching up to a group of friends. Mattie was left with Paige and Amara.
"Do you know what class you have now?" Amara asked.
Mattie dug around in her bag a pulled out her timetable, that the Professor had had sent over. She studied it. There were the days, and hours, and subjects. But not in any order that she could recognise.
"Maths?"
Paige gave a sigh and took the timetable from her unresisting hand.
"History."
Amara grinned. "That's with me. Come on, I'll get you there."
"See you a lunch." Paige called with a wave as Amara grabbed Mattie's hand and dragged her though the crowded corridors.
X
School was school. Mattie reflected as she sat doing her homework that night. There was at least on person from the Institute in every one of her lessons. So at there was one face she knew. And when lunch time had come around she had a whole group of people to sit with. It cushioned the blow of having to move schools, having to leave everything she knew. Her other school seemed to have existed years ago, in a whole different life time. She wondered briefly what her friends had been doing all day. Then she squashed that thought, it was too painful to think about her old life. She had to focus on what was happening now. And she had to get all this work done. The work load was heavy and she didn't want to get behind in her first week.
Paige strolled into the room and slipping a CD into the stereo jacked up the volume. Caught up in the beat she danced round the room, but stopped when she saw Mattie.
"Sorry." She shouted over the music. "I guess I got used to being on my own. Do you mind having music on while you work? I can't work without it. But I'll turn it off if you want."
"No. It's fine. I always have something on when I'm working." Mattie reassured her.
Paige turned the music down and wandered over. "How come you're working so hard anyway? They can't have given you that much. Not on your first day."
Mattie sighed. "I just don't want to get caught out. It's doing the copies that are taking so long. What is up with that anyway?"
"Copies?" Paige leaned over the desk. "What copies?"
"You have to write two lots of everything. So that it can be double marked when you hand it in."
Paige looked confused. "What?"
"The homework. You have to do two copies of everything." Mattie repeated, starting to sound unsure.
"Who told you that?" Paige asked.
"Bobby."
Paige gave her a look. "Bobby. Bobby told you something and you believed it?"
Mattie frowned. "I've been dumb. Haven't I."
Paige nodded. "Don't worry. He does this to everybody. He's just doing it to you because you're new."
"Not making me feel any better."
"Would it make you feel any better if I said we should get him back?"
"Yes!" Mattie was frantically trying to think of how to properly thank Bobby for making her spend hours on her homework. Unfortunately she couldn't come up with a thing. Being an only child and not knowing anything about practical jokes was starting to be a bad thing. She found herself wishing for a brother or sister, so she'd know what to do. "How?"
Paige gave a wolfish grin.
X
Mattie entered the Rec room and threw herself onto one of the sofas with a sigh.
"Hey. How'd the homework go?" Bobby asked. From the silence that followed his question, Mattie knew that she and Paige weren't the only ones who knew about his trick. Sam's shoulders were shaking as he tried not to laugh. Ray was suddenly very focused on the magazine that he was reading. Jubilee cast her a sympathetic glance, but was trying to hold back a smile. Only Jamie looked up in interest.
"It's all done. No thanks to you."
Bobby's face split into a grin. "Paige ratted me out, didn't she?"
Mattie didn't both to reply.
"Sam you have got to get better control over your sister." Bobby told him as both Sam and Ray burst out laughing, unable to contain themselves any longer.
"What happened?" Jamie asked.
"Mr Drake, over there, told me that I had to do two copies of all my homework." Mattie told him, sending the three boys off into another bought of hysterics.
"At least he didn't tell you to do it in triplicate." Jamie replied, throwing a dark look at Bobby. "And for two weeks no one told me."
Mattie couldn't stop a smile twitching at her lips.
"Your name is Multiple." Bobby argued. "It's not like it took you that long to do."
Jamie glowered at him before sticking his headphones on and turning up the volume on his Diskman.
This set Bobby off laughing again. Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Mature guys. Real mature."
Ray threw a cushion at her.
Mattie picked up one of the magazines from the floor and settled back into the chair.
It was a good while after the boys had finally calmed down that Rouge strode into the room wearing her biking leathers.
"Bobby what have you done to you car?"
"What!" Bobby sat up like a shot. "What's up with my car?"
"Ah just went to get mah bike and..." She trailed off. "It's a mess."
"What!" Bobby leapt off the sofa and ran out the room, muttering curses about anyone who had touched his car.
Rouge turned on her heels and followed him out telling him not to blame her.
Bobby was back a few minuets later roaring with anger. Everyone looked up, Jamie even removed his headphones.
"What did you do to my car!" He yelled, towering over her.
"Nothing a bit of elbow grease won't remove." Mattie told him. She and Paige had triple checked this before applying any of the paint to Bobby's car. They wanted to get him back, not put themselves up for murder.
Bobby spluttered something unmentionable about her heritage. Mattie smiled sweetly up at him. "It won't take any longer than it takes to, say; write out all your homework in duplicate."
"What's up?" Sam asked.
"She..." Bobby made the work sound like an expletive. "She... She painted flowers on my car!"
Sam tried to keep a straight face and failed. Ray hadn't even bothered to try. Jubilee and Jamie roared with laughter.
"Bright pink ones?" Ray got out through tears of laughter.
Mattie swallowed back a giggle. She nodded calmly. "And blue ones, and purple ones, and yellow ones." She had to stop to bite back another giggle. She managed to continue. "It looks very pretty." And then collapsed into laughter.
Bobby's fists clenched. "This is war, Drew."
Mattie stopped laughing and eyed him steadily. "Bring it on, Drake."
"Watch your back." He told her coolly. Then turned and headed back to the garage.
Mattie raised an eyebrow at his departure and rolled her eyes at Jubilee.
Jubilee high-fived her. "Good girl!"
Sam and Ray got up to go and see the damage for themselves, still not quite able to keep their grins under control.
Paige appeared in the doorway. "How did it go?"
"Fantastic!" Mattie told her and recounted exactly how Bobby had reacted.
"I wish I'd seen it." Paige said when she'd finished laughing. "But Sam knows me too well. He'd have known I was up to something for sure."
"You two do know that he is going to be on the warpath now." Jubilee told them.
Mattie and Paige exchanged glances.
"Yeah." Mattie told her. She remembered Bobby's face and smiled, practical jokes were turning out to be quite good fun.
Mattie stayed well out of Bobby's way the next day. She didn't look at him or make any eye contact during training or breakfast. When it came to choosing rides to school, she and Paige made the decision to ride with Kitty. For his part Bobby was keeping his head down too. He was still smarting about the time that he had had to spend on his car to get it clean. It had taken him hours, and all that time he had plotted revenge. Mattie kept an eye out all evening, watching Bobby's every move. She knew he wasn't just going to let things go. Bobby knew that she was watching him, and made a point of ignoring her. The two of them existed in a state of watchful alertness that the other members of the Institute regarded with interest. This could turn out to be very entertaining.
The next day Mattie was once again roused from her sleep by her alarm clock. Paige grumbled and rolled over in bed.
"Shut that thing up."
"What are you moaning about? I'm the one who has to get up." Mattie grumbled back at her.
"Have fun with Logan. The one on one sessions are killer."
"That's what worries me." Mattie muttered. Then she hauled herself out of bed in to her uniform and hurried to the Danger room.
Logan was waiting for her. He was suited up and glowering already, standing to one side of him was Jean.
She smiled at Mattie and Mattie returned the smile and gave her a small wave.
"Okay, Chase lets get going." Wolverine said.
Mattie turned her attention to him.
"Most mutant's powers can be put into one of two boxes." Wolverine told her. "Offensive of defensive. Mine," he unsheathed his claws, "is offensive. Yours is defensive." He sheathed his claws again. "The trick is to learn how to use your powers for both defensive and offensive attack."
Mattie nodded.
"We'll get warmed up first. Give me two hundred laps."
Mattie was horrified, two hundred! Then she remembered who she was and what she was capable of. Two hundred was nothing. Like Wolverine said, a warm up. She completed her run and came back to listen to what Wolverine had to say.
"We know that you can run. And that's good if you want to run away, or to something. But what if you can't run."
Mattie looked puzzled but nodded.
"Laps. Again."
Mattie did as she was told.
"What do you do when you can't run?" Wolverine asked. He nodded at Jean and Mattie saw her frown slightly in concentration. Mattie increased her speed, trying to push at her own best time. It was easier to run flat out when there were less people around. She didn't have to worry about crashing into anyone. Then she felt herself slow down. She tried to speed up, but found herself running on air. Jean had her hand out holding Mattie in place with her telekinesis. Mattie could do nothing, she was stuck.
"You can't run. If you're not on the ground." Wolverine told her.
"We've found this works quite well with Quicksilver." Jean told her.
"Who?"
"Pietro Maximoff." Jean said. "I believe you've met him before."
Mattie nodded. "The jerk from outside school."
"The point is." Wolverine interrupted. "You have to be able to defend yourself if you can't run." He nodded and Jean and Mattie was lowered to the floor again. "You have speed, and you can use it for other things."
He squared up to Mattie. "Hit me." He commanded.
Mattie didn't move.
"Chase. Hit me. You won't hurt me."
Mattie knew all about Wolverine's healing factor and adamantium bones. That didn't change the fact that she did not want to go toe to toe with him. She glanced at Jean who shrugged, then nodded.
"Kid, I haven't got all day. I'm not gonna hurt you."
"I don't know how to fight." She protested. "I mean okay, yes, I hit Jeff, and I punched Pietro in the stomach. But that was different. I mean, how do you fight? Where do you hit? What are the rules? What do you do?"
Wolverine relaxed his position and grinned at her. "Now we're getting somewhere. You do what you have to to win. There are no rules. And you hit anywhere that you can." He sunk into the fighter's position again. "Now. Hit me."
Ignoring the fact that this was all way to much like the Matrix, Mattie took a step towards Wolverine. She took another nervous step towards him, and then paused. She really really really did not want to do this. Wolverine took the decision out of her hands by lunging at her. His fist missed her as she side stepped. He rounded on her and caught her a glancing blow on her shoulder. Provoked she responded by throwing a punch at his stomach like she had done with Pietro. Wolverine was better, he moved so that her punch went wide. Then he struck out at her again. Mattie found that she could dodge his attack quite easily. Finding a way to stop him attacking was the difficult part. She was quick, but he was a trained fighter, and he was good. He kept the fight at close quarters so that she couldn't use her speed to add power to her punches or to escape. She was locked into a whirling dance, her every move countered by one of his. She had managed to avoid any more strikes after that first one to her shoulder, but now she was stuck for what to do next. She twisted away from a punch and aimed one at him. Wolverine moved gracefully bringing him along side her.
He gave her a grin. "You missed darlin'."
Mattie smirked back at him and slammed the base of her palm into the pit of his shoulder with all the speed she could put behind it. It worked. Wolverine shot back from the impact. Mattie spun and delivered at kick to his side. Wolverine caught her foot and thrust it up causing her to loose her balance. She tripped and landed flat on her back staring up at him.
"Good." Wolverine grunted. "You've got talent. We'll make a fighter of you yet."
Mattie sighed and let her head fall back onto the floor of the Danger room.
X
Mattie padded down the corridor; she was the only one up. All the others were sleeping the sound sleep of a Saturday morning. So she was going to use the opportunity of have a good long shower. With a bit of luck it would remove the pains that she was starting to feel. Who knew fighting was such hard work. Why did people do it? It hurt, and you were in pain all over afterwards. She turned the shower on, slipped out of her uniform and stepped into the hot soothing water.
Bobby waited until he had heard the water running for at least five minuets. She had to be in the shower by now. He leaned back against the wall, looking out for anyone walking past. Then he reached behind him and wrapped his hand around the copper water pipe. It was warm in his hand. He whistled. Sam's answering whistle floated back up the stairs at him. All clear. Bobby grinned. Tightening his grip on the pipe he froze up his arm, and then he turned his attention to the pipe. He felt the pipe creak as the water went from hot to cold at rapid speed. He grinned again.
There was a screech from inside the bathroom. Bobby released the pipe and took off down the corridor. He knew Mattie was fast and he did not want her to catch him.
"Drake! You are dead!" Mattie emerged from the bathroom in a towelling dressing gown, soap suds still in her dripping wet hair. She had a bottle of shampoo in her hand and she hurled it down the corridor at him. It bounced off the wall as Bobby made it down the stairs.
Sam cheered as Bobby made it down the stairs uninjured.
"Let the games begin."
"And may the best man win." Bobby agreed.
X
Mattie was steaming as she entered her room to get dressed. And not just from the shower, which she had cranked up to full temperature after Bobby's ice dousing.
"That miserable, no good, conniving, ugly, half witted, intelligently challenge, snivelling..."
"I take it you have a run in with Bobby." Paige mumbled from deep beneath her covers.
"Dumb witted, foul smelling, ignorant..."
"I get the feeling that this could go on for a while."
"Illegitimate, underachieving, frost bitten, filth ridden..."
"So in the interests of my sanity."
"Suck up, conceited..."
"Could you just shut up for a second?! And we'll come up with a plan."
"Excuse for a human being!" Mattie finished, fully satisfied that she had discredited Bobby to the full extent.
"What did he do?"
"He froze my shower!"
"Evil."
"Uh huh."
"Don't worry. We'll get him."
"Oh yeah!" Mattie nodded emphatically. "He has it coming."
She curled up in bed and plotted Bobby's undoing. Paige turned over and went back to sleep. Mattie soon followed suit.
She was roused from her sleep by knocking at the door.
"Are you guys up yet?" She heard Jubilee call through the door.
"No!" Paige replied.
"Come on! Get up you lazy buggers." Tabitha yelled, throwing the door wide open and bouncing into the room.
"It's Tabby." Paige said to Mattie, just in case she'd missed it.
"How nice of her to visit." Mattie replied in the same bored voice.
"Oi!" Tabby laughed. "Come on. Everyone's up. Even Bobby is having breakfast."
"And you know how much he loves his sleep." Jubilee said from the doorway.
"Don't mention Bobby." Paige shouted. But it was too late. Mattie's face had already darkened.
"I'm sure I don't care about anything to do with Mr Drake." She said coldly.
"What did he do?" Jubilee asked, always ready for gossip.
"Ice shower." Paige told them after it became clear that Mattie wasn't going to.
Tabby and Jubilee exchanged looks. "Harsh." Jubilee said.
"Oh come on. I don't care. Time to get up." Tabby said. She opened her fist to reveal a glowing ball. She grinned and threw it at Mattie.
Mattie had the sensation of time slowing around her. She was the only one moving at real speed. Catching Tabby's projectile was easy. She knew that really time was moving exactly as it normally did. But her reactions were so fast that to her everything was slow. It was still weird, and it was still cool. She plucked the glowing ball out of the air and hurled it back at Tabby.
He quick reactions had caught Tabby off guard and she gave a shriek as her explosive headed straight for her. Jubilee's hands shot out and her multi coloured fireworks hit the ball and exploded with a bright flash, two feet in front of Tabby.
Paige was laughing from where she sat in bed, having watched the show without being involved in the line of fire at all.
Tabitha frowned. "I'll get you next time. Obviously I need the element of surprise where you're concerned."
Mattie didn't reply, she was to busy thinking.
"Did you say Bobby was having breakfast?" Jubilee nodded.
"Tabby. I think I have a job for you're little balls of fun."
Tabby perked up instantly.
"You can put a delay on those things right? So I have some time to work with?"
Tabitha nodded a smile playing at her lips. "What's the plan?"
X
Bobby was plotting over his cereal. Freezing Mattie had been fun, but it in no way made up for the insult to his car. She was not getting off the hook that easily. It could be pointed out that he had in fact started this with his trick about the home work. But a joke was a right of passage. She wouldn't be one of the team if she hadn't been had. She had crossed the line by messing with his car. And he was not going to stand for it. Cold showers were the least of her worries; it was going to get a whole lot worse.
A blur flashed past him and something landed in her cereal bowl. He just had time to recognise it as one of Boom Boom's balls of tricks before it blew. Milk and cereal went everywhere, covering him in Cheerio's.
What was Tabitha playing at? Then he remembered the blur, there was no way Tabby could move that fast.
"Drew!"
Stifled giggles led him to the hallway where Paige, Jubilee, Tabitha and Mattie were rolling around with laughter. At the sight of him they all collapsed onto the floor in peels of mirth.
"Not funny." He told them.
Mattie managed to get hold of herself to give him a smug look. "You're a mess Bobby. Maybe you should take a shower."
The other three relapsed into giggle fits at this.
Bobby turned and walked away. This needed careful planning and time. He was going to get her big time.