Lucky Me

Chapter 018


I wasn't a happy person.

Not only was the information of my mother's trying to kill me weighing heavily on my shoulders, but I was still stuck in Never-Never land with the spawn of Peter Pan and Tinker Bell (otherwise known as Daisy Meagon). A few more days passed awkwardly between me and everyone else, some ignored it, some still 'wanted to talk about it' and others just avoided me. It wasn't like I had cooties or anything! Of course Adrian had a pretty good reason to avoid me.

But now we were all sitting outside in the middle of they considered the backyard (the place between the woods and the mansion) it was a dreaded 'getting to know everyone' activity, lead by— you guessed it— Group Activity Leader Summers.

"As you know, there are a few new faces here." How would the new faces know who was new and who was old? "We decided to dedicate this day to getting to know the people of your future team…"

This was when I got distracted. I would have thought by now that these people realized that long speeches didn't work for me. I tuned out, but this time I was rolling the word 'team' around in my head like a mad bouncy ball.

There were a series of groans from some, and I snapped back to attention.

"This is re-tard-ed," Chris muttered, and Jubilee popped her gum in reply. I had no clue what he was talking about. The one bad thing about zoning out is by the time I zoned back in, I had no clue what everyone else was complaining about.

I decided to play it cool for the time being and leaned over to D-M, "What is going on?"

"We're getting paired up, and have to do some games with them," she stopped her explanation when Chris let out another protest. "You two are alike, maybe you'll get paired with him."

"Oh gee, thanks."

"All right gang, here's how it's going to be broken down. Remember; spend 15 minutes with each person." When did this turn into day camp? "I'll pair you off and let you know when to rotate."

"Kerry and Jubilee, Monet and Adam…" My name was spoken, therefore I didn't listen anymore. Jubilee rolled her eyes and got up, waved me over to follow, and we both plopped down about ten feet away from the group.

I picked at the grass as she started, "So, like, what's your full name?"

"Kerry Michelle D'mon." I paused, and looked at my watch. Fourteen minutes and thirty seconds to go. "And you?"

"Jubilation Lee. Is Kerry short for anything?"

"Nope."

Silence decided to take part of the conversation, at least until Jubilee spoke up again, "Who's your favorite person?"

That caught me off guard, but this was a great way to learn what to pester the other people about. Except D-M. I didn't want to know more than I had to about her sugary self. Well, her and Chris. Wait, no, her, Chris, and Bobby-Jerk.

"I don't have a favorite."

"That's like so not possible. Who do you hang out with the most?"

"Stitch."

"My fav is always goin' to be Wolvie." And that topic filled up the remaining 12 minutes of our time together. Her talking about what a great guy Mr. Logan was, how cool, and what he gave her before something yadda yadda yadda. I almost leapt away from the girl and her serenade of the Saint Logan stories when it was time.

"The next set of pairings will be, Chris and Kerry, Adam and-" Oh, joy. I got stuck with Mr. Pessimistic himself. I decided to attempt to be nice to this guy, although he slammed the door in my face, and never had one kind word to say to anyone. I walked over to where he leaned against a tree.

"Hi, Chris." I made the first move. Shouldn't I get something for saying it?

"Listen, I'll make this easy for you. The only reason I'm at this place again is because I didn't have anywhere else to go. I've tried to be friends with these people, and it didn't work, so I don't feel like chit chatting with another of their brainless minions. So for fifteen minutes we are going to play the quiet game. You be quiet, and I'll be quiet, that way we can at least say we got along."

I couldn't think of anything to say. Wow, I mean wow. This guy laid down the law, and there I sat just taking it. For a few minutes I could only stare at him as his frown became uglier. Then, what was the naturally reaction when someone was playing superior to me? I got mad. When I got mad, I was not held accountable for the things I say or the blood that was spilt.

"What is your problem?" I snapped. Not exactly a strong argument, but it was something.

"I'm a mutant teenager with raging hormones that have been dammed up since I was thirteen. Sorry if I'm a bit rude," he replied sarcastically. Something about him reminded me of Bobby-Jerk.

"Oh, like that's a one man show. Have you looked around?"

Chris shifted, sat up, and looked at me over his sunglasses.

"Look here Girl Scout, I don't need these people. I don't need anyone. The sooner everyone gets that through their heads, the happier we'll all be."

"I can say this about you; you're going to have those 'raging hormones' dammed up for a very long time."

We ignored each other after that and waited for the bell to ring to let us swap. I trudged through all of the interviews, and as it was down to only one more person I had the whole 'questions to ask to make Mr. Spent-too-much-time-in-the-sun-Summers' happy. I had Adrian next, and as I was making my way to him, D-M pulled me over.

"What was with you and Chris?"

"We don't get along." Duh.

"Huh, that's funny," she paused, sighed and continued, "He's cynical, mean, pessimistic, and spiteful."

"Yeah. So what makes it so funny?" I yawned.

"It's just that y'all have all that in common and don't get along, who'd've thought?" With that she walked away.

Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing!

What crawled inside her and ate her heart? I was nothing like Chris! He's rude, hateful, and so condescending. He'd make a much better match for Monet (only because I didn't really care for either of them).


Thankfully, Miss Munroe decided we needed to get to know some of the 'senior' staff before Mr. Summers decided to make the younger ones hold hands and sing 'I Love You' or something as distressing. Un-thankfully, the woman also had a 'list' of people to get paired. Of course I didn't get teamed up with Dr. Hank, Sam, Mr. Warren, Mr. Kurt (who I hadn't seen around much) or anyone else I had come to know a little better than just their names.

"We will team you up with a senior member of the school that Charles, Scott, and I think will best suit all of your needs and future position on the team with exclusions of Jubilee and Monet." Why the heck were they excluded? Was the position of snob already filled? Jubilee was okay, though her Wolvie worshiping did get old rather quickly.

When Jubilee and Monet heard the news they smirked at each other and sauntered into the house. Who needed them anyway!

"Daisy, you will be spending the next few hours with Hank."

"Neat!" Typical D-M reply, she seemed a bit too happy as she made a beeline for the sliding glass door.

"Adam, you will be with Logan. He's waiting for you in the woods."

"Wicked." And then Adam was gone.

"Adrian, you will be with two instructors, Bishop and Maggot, who are in the gym."

Adrian didn't say anything, just got up and left. He's a pretty neat guy, or at least one of the more tolerable.

"Kerry you're with Scott."

Stab! Stab! Stab!

"Chris," Miss Munroe paused as if dreading saying the next words. "Bobby is waiting for you in the men's dorm."

"No way!" In a flash the boy was on his feet and in their faces. "I'm not spending any time with that clown! I don't want to do it! I'm going to go back to my room and -"

That's when I got up to leave. Talk about a big baby.


After the nightmarish meeting with Mr. Large-and-in-Charge Summers, he announced the next activity would be in an hour and we had 'down' time until then. I don't know why they paired me with him, perhaps just to aggravate me? Who knew, he did most of the talking, and I did all of the nodding.

D-M made herself cozy next to Adam who was going on and on about the 'way wicked way' Dr. Hank had cured the Legacy Virus with some female doctor. I decided to avoid any and all living beings at that moment. I had three more hours to 'play' with this group; I didn't want to buddy up to them anymore than necessary.

I made my way back up to my room just to dig around for something to read (like a manga book or something, oh like no one else had a closet obsession). When I got to the top of the stairs leading into the men's hall, I heard shouting. Not a joking shout like Bobby-Jerk and Dr. Hank liked to do when they knew Mr. Remy had a hangover, this was a fight shout.

"I'm not your 'little buddy' anymore, Bobby! So stop calling me that!"'

It was Chris, I was getting a real knack for hearing ….okay, eavesdropping. Like it's not a common practice!

"Chris, I know I wasn't there all the time but you gotta understand-"

"I don't have to understand anything! No one was there for me ever from this place! You talk a good talk, but really suck at following through!"

Whoa, I'd have to ask D-M about this. I knew while I'd been grounded she's gone shopping with the 'gossip gals' (Mrs. Jean and Miss Rogue) on some Saturdays.

"Calm down, let's talk about this without the shouting."

I heard a loud groan, "I don't want to talk about this! And I sure as hell don't want to 'work this out'. You don't know what I've been through so stay out of my way or better still, drop dead!"

Then there were heavy footsteps, a slamming door, some pounding with shouting on the door from Bobby-Jerk, and then Chris' heavy metal music blasting.

Definitely worth investigating-later.


"Don't make me fry you, chicken."

"Oh that's original. Steal that line from the Spongebob?"

"Bird brain."

"Dried-up gnome."

"Dog face."

"Bieber fan."

"Oh, that was low."

Yes, this was still continuing the day of 'activities' and yes, Chris and I met up again. We'd been bouncing insults off of one another for a good fifteen minutes. Why? We were tied together. This was their sick entertainment apparently. D-M, the three boys, and I were tied together around our waists and ankles making it very hard to move. But that's the point, or that's what Mr. Super-Snore-Summers said. We were to move thirty feet, as a group, from point A (the porch) to point B (where Mr. Logan and Mr. Bishop were).

I didn't think these people had cable, otherwise they wouldn't be this twisted!

"Can't you two just get along?" D-M pleaded.

"As soon as he's dead."

"Is that a threat?"

"More like a promise."

"You're both acting like babies," Adrian peeped in, all of us were pulling and tugging at the ropes from all different directions. We had to work together, but I didn't think anyone was going to listen to anyone else. Meanwhile, everyone watching was having a good laugh at our antics. I was not a tool used for anyone's amusement!

"Come on guys, let's work together on this," Adam pitched in.

"What after school special did you phase out of?" Chris grouched. Man, that guy was annoying.

We moved maybe a foot in five minutes. It was closer to the porch, which was really okay with me, because that made me closer to Summers, the closer I got to him, the quicker I could choke him!

"I'm sick of this," Chris whined. "What's the point of this stupid exercise?"

"To get the five of you to move as one," Miss Munroe answered easily. "Also to see if the positions predicted earlier are indeed what positions everyone will take."

"That makes sense."

It did? I was lost. What in the world did they mean by 'positions'? This wasn't cheerleading (I would have quit a long time ago if it was) so how could they assign positions?

"Come on let's get this over with," Adam prodded, "I'll start walking sideways, Daisy you do the same, Adrian you lead. Kerry and Chris, you two walk backwards."

"Do I look like Michael Jackson to you?" Chris shot. This was one grumpy boy.

But not as grumpy as me.

"Just do it!" I fused at him; he gave me a side glare.

I knocked him with my wing.

"Idiot."

"Mushroom fungus."

The other three started to move, and then I did as well. Chris was a jerk, man, this was getting annoying. With four against one he didn't have much choice but to move with us, mumbling and cursing the whole way. I hoped they let me keep some of this rope cause I was going to hang him with it later.

"We're almost there," Adrian informed us. The watchers were still laughing. We never got to see past almost. Mr. Difficult tripped over my feet (like I don't do that enough) and one, two, four, everyone on the floor! Not only did he trip but he tripped in a way that he and I were on the bottom of the dog pile.

You think it hurts to be fallen on, try to be smooshed while you had wings! Ouch and ouch!

"Dang! We were almost there!" Daisy-Mae bemoaned as we waited oh so patiently for the adults to untie us. My face was squashed into the ground, and when I finally could breathe again, all I wanted to do was kill Chris.

"That was fun!" D-M chirped.

I rubbed my neck as my wings 'accidentally' smacked into Chris. He tried to do a death glare, but compared to the ones I had seen, it was nothing!

But as I looked up to the 'leaders' of the group…they were smiling.


She did my hair.

I buckled.

Daisy did things my hair was not supposed to do. Curls and highlights (not permanent). I even let her whining win me over with agreeing to do make-up. I think I was still hazy from being smooshed into the ground by three people two days ago.

She took pictures.

I wanted my room back!

I needed to find and destroy that camera.


It was six when I heard a banging at D-M's door, the owner of the room was down in the rec. room (on my couch, I still had claim on it) with the dateless of Friday night crew. I think she just liked to flirt. Always flipping her hair, and doing this really annoying eye look thing. But back to the knock on the door.

"Wh-at?"

The next three words brought a smile to my face felt like it break my head in half. I was so happy.

"Your room's ready."

My room was finished! Complete! Together! No more singing daisy in a plastic pot, no more Daisy in the morning telling me to lighten up, no more Beiber, and I finally got a place to hide!

Only down side, I remembered when I made my way back to my room (when you'd been stuck with D-M for two weeks you were more than happy to pack up your stuff in two seconds flat and run), was that Chris was next door.

I groaned, or did I growl? Either way I made a none-too-happy noise. What made me remember he was next door was the blasting music. My hands were full with the box of my stuff which made it hard to turn the knob on my door. And there was no one to scream for to help, I mean even if there were people around they wouldn't be able to hear me over the screaming and drums Chris called music.

"I can help you," came a very quiet voice. It was Adrian, he seemed like he was embarrassed to be around me. Why else would his cheeks be a tomato red?

"Sure." He gave a small smile, a little boy smile, like the ones that you couldn't help but smile back at? "Thanks."

"S-sure," Adrian shut the door behind me and my box hit the ground. My room. It was-remodeled or something! It was completely different from how I saw it last (okay, last time I saw it there was a huge hole in the wall and floor, but I meant when I last saw it whole without the hole…my head hurts).

I had a wall, a window seat (that was new), and my bed was made. That would be the last time that would happen. My eyes had to slow-ly take in everything. My closet was open, and there was something different about it as well.

It was empty!

Empty-except the note inside.

'Dear Ker-bear, (as if that didn't give it away)

The group agreed that it was time for you to get a new wardrobe. Something that is more revealing with fewer holes.

Love!

Daisy-Mae'

They took my clothes?

For Christmas I was going to get these people a satellite. The nerve! Well, there went my happy mood! At least they gave me my cookie sheets and a new computer, a laptop! Whoa!

These people liked me! They really liked me!

Ha-ha, I made a joke.

Anyway, on my bed there sat Stitch, with his dilapidated body and fluff still sticking out from odd areas. I sighed. At least I got my room back.

But I wonder how long that was going to last.