Lucky Me

Chapter 026


Chapter 26: Not this again!


Us 'kids' decided to hold a meeting, and much to my amazement, it was in Adrian's room.

It was the only room occupied by one of us where you could actually saw the floor. Why were we together all in one place and by choice? Simple. We were seeing which classes we had together and which ones we were free from each other.

Of course, Chris was late and when he looked at me he just busted out laughing.

"What's your problem?"

"Not a thing, Koo-key."

Okay, no more caffeine for him.

Back to the classes, so far it seemed okay, not the greatest, but okay nonetheless. I had English with D-M (joy), and Western Civilization all four had together, and get this, home economics with Chris and Adrian.

Ha! Chris learning how to cook and clean and be little Sammy Homemaker! Hah!

I had Business Math with R. Drake, and Adrian who didn't seem the least bit concerned over having a housemate as a teacher. The others had classes together, but it really didn't concern me in the least. I found out what I wanted to know, oh and we all had Bobby-Pervert for whatever math class was on our schedules.

Fun-o-fun.

And just to put my life in a real tailspin about school, D-M brought out those ugly uniforms again. I couldn't help but roll my eyes and groan. The guys got to wear normal khaki colored pants, and a light blue polo shirt.

I about threw a fit (again).

Why should they get out of having to wear that horrible plaid mess the sugar princess and I got stuffed into?

Life was not fair!


"Kookie," Why was it when Scott said that name I got a cold chill? "Come in here a moment would you?" 'Here' was the Professor's office.

Why do they put it in form of a question? It's not like Jeopardy where I actually had a choice in the matter. It's more like that annoying millionaire show where the 'final answer is' whatever the 'superiors' want.

"Coming."

I had been meandering around looking for something to do (actually looking for my Stitch that just suddenly walked away) when Scott's head popped out and called me to them (like some sort of legion of vampires or something).

"Have a seat, Kerry."

At least the Professor knew better than to ask. I would have done what he said regardless. And I just dropped down into the first thing that I thought would hold my weight. So sit I did, and waited. Just staring at the man (well everything around him) behind the desk, as Scott scampered off somewhere.

"How are you these days?"

I swear I would have raised my eyebrow if he hadn't done it first. He just gave me a look that was a cross between 'I-know-you-know-I-know-what-you're-thinking' and 'don't-look-at-me-like that.'

"Uh, except for banging myself up in landing, I guess I'm pretty okay."

"And how are getting along with the other new recruits?"

Suddenly I did not like where this was going.

"Okay I guess." Leaving out that Chris and I constantly fight. I think he stole my Stitch doll, and we'd recently got into a banging-on-the-wall war (which was stopped by a very angry Cajun and Mr. Logan). Daisy-Mae—I wasn't sure. She was irritating, backhanded with the things she said (and boy crazy, let's not forget that factor) and was eternally happy. Adrian…well….and Adam, hung out with most of the 'upper class' so I didn't talk to him too much.

"That is excellent news to hear."

Could I change my answer then?

"Scott said you wanted to see me, sir?" I turned to see an Adam enter the room, followed by a grumbling Scott.

Two of us and the head honchos? What on EARTH was going on around here?

"We wanted to talk to you," no, really? "Storm is out on a mission at this moment, or she would be here as well."

One death glare from the Professor and Kerry was going to now stop making little remarks!

"As you both are aware, you are two out of five new recruits we have taken under our wing." Oh, ha ha, Scott just had to get a mention of wings in there didn't you? "Apart from learning to control and master your powers, we also teach teamwork. When we get a group of new students, they usually form a new team and all teams, naturally, need leaders."

Okay, I really didn't like where this was going. If this led up to what I thought it would— I wanted to run (or fly, that still sounded so weird to think I could say and do that) away from this room now.

"And after considering the traits we normally look for in team captains, which are determination, a willingness to learn," that disqualified me right there, "someone who will take charge," strike two, "and isn't afraid of doing what no one else is willing to, or is afraid to do." Strike three! It was outta the park and gone!

"And you came up with us?" Adam asked, he sounded kind of happy about it.

"All of the higher ranking students," those who wore spandex most of the time "elected and voted on who they thought would be the best ones to fill the role."

Okay, then why were two of us here? For moral support? To help spread the word? As a witness when Adam got around to saying he was in charge? What, I was missing it here!

"There is always a need for a second-in-command. Just in case something should happen to the leader," Professor answered, and stared at me. I didn't like getting stared at by him (or anyone for that fact!). "Of course this will mean you will have more advanced and thorough training in this new field you will be taking on."

No. Nonononono. Kerry didn't want any more training! Kerry was sick of getting up at six in the morning, being forced to lift heavy objects while the Cookie Caper watched and nagged me, and then go to the roof where I had constantly be instructed on the proper way to take flight and how to land (which usually ended up with me rolling around on the grass and hurting myself). Now they wanted me to add being an authority type person to a bunch of unruly brats (I loved my peers—some) and work harder for it? No! I was about to start school! I couldn't deal with this stress!

I needed chocolate!

"This is so wicked. So we'd be under whom?" Adam sure seemed hyped up about all of this.

Scott spoke up, "Considering everything, and that I already work with Kerry, I would be teaching her."

Oh, man! I needed like two, three, EIGHT tons of chocolate and I needed them now.

"Naturally you may eitehr accept or decline the offer," like anyone was going to deny this man anything, "but we sincerely hope you two will be up for the task."

"I am so for it! This is so awesome. When do we start?" What happy bug bit him?

"Kookie?"

Resorting to friendly tactics was not going to work!

"I don't think I would be right for the job," I admitted. My reply sounded so textbook.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't even like half the people I'd be ruling over." This got all three of them to stop and look at me. Two with glasses, and one with that blasted eyebrow raised (was it tattooed on him like that or something?).

"You wouldn't be 'ruling' over anyone. You would be in charge, but not ruling." So the difference between ruling and being in charge would be—what? I didn't get to collect taxes from them?

Scott again, "You don't have to like the people work with, Kerry." Oh, resorting back to my real first name.

"But if I had to lead them, then that would mean I'd have to try to keep them alive, right?" Just to make sure they'd follow me here. No response I guess was as good as I was going to get. "So why would I try to keep some people alive I don't even like?"

"Who don't you like?" Was Adam's question.

Scott did something freaky; he crossed his arms and smirked. That wasn't the response I was going for. The Professor even just smiled at me and nodded, then looked at the smirking Scott who looked at him and then nodded.

Ut-oh.


"What are you doing?" I jerked up at the sudden questioned, hit my head on the table, and back down to the floor went Kookie. Rubbing my aching skull, I crawled out from underneath the dining room table, and looked at the person.

He was looking back at me with a completely clueless expression on his face.

"Someone stole Stitch," I informed, and clambered to my feet. It was the night before school started and I tried to go to bed but I was too used to holding my little friend to go to sleep.

"Oh-kay."

"And I am looking for him?" I knew it was late but come on! Why else would I be crawling around under a table at night?

"Just so happens that this," Stitch! He pulled out Stitch behind his back! I nearly ripped my beloved toy when I grabbed him from his arms and squeezed the fuzzy alien plush against my chest. "Was stuffed in my pillow case."

I gave him my best 'yeah right glare'.

"It's the truth! What would I want with that thing?" A smile, a very cute smile, "After all I gave him to you."

Yeah, yeah, I know, and when D-M noticed Stitch was once again full of fluff and not wearing it on the outside, she played twenty questions trying to get me to buckle and tell her where I got the new one from.

I hadn't said a thing.

"Well, we've got school in the morning. Night." And with that, he left me cuddling my toy. I thought I smelt something on Stitch, something besides what my room smelt like (plywood and smelly glue) and it smelled good.

Ah! I was turning into a girl-girl! Or even worse a Daisy Mae!


This should qualify as cruel, unusual, and illegal treatment of any breathing, thinking, and feeling being alive (except maybe for Barney and Chris). First class of the morning, wasn't only English with a teacher who had a name I couldn't pronounce but I also had it with the perky princess of the East coast and Kenney.

That's right, Kenney in all his preppy, swelled ego glory.

"Well, well, well, look at what I got here." A bad haircut and a lack of tact when it came to pick up lines? "If it isn't my little Miss No-Name."

And wouldn't you know, he sat down right behind me, to the left was the smiling, make-upped, and hair curled D-M. She was talking up a storm with this other girl who didn't even reply but had a look of fear on her face.

I could sympathize.

"Okay class, settle!" Oh yeah, that's going to work. Haha! But amazingly enough everyone shut up in under two seconds. This was a world class phenomenon, a bunch of older teenagers listening to a soft-spoken teacher. "I'm sure you all are as excited about this year as I am!"

Sounds like a welcome-to-the-rest-of-your-life speech and I honestly tried to pay attention, but it didn't work. Another reason I shouldn't be put in charge (or co-in charge) of anything with a will to live. Mostly because I would NOT pay attention to it long enough to help it (number one reason my sister was put in charge of animals at our house, not me).

"And let's start this year with a good old fashion getting-to-know-you game!"

Not again! I hadn't had to get to know so many people since I was in the fourth grade! But at least I wouldn't be tied to these people!

"Let's all stand up, state your name, what you would like to be called, and something about yourself. I'll go first!" Oooh my goodness, was she for real? She seemed like an extension of the ever cheerful Daisy-Mae. They were multiplying! "My full name is Barbara Blackburn! I would like if you called me 'Mrs. Blackburn' and I have two children!"

Save me.

"Guess I get to find out your name finally," Came a whisper from behind me.

Perfect. What a wonderful start to the school year.


As if having that annoying boy in my first hour class wasn't bad enough, we also had Physical Education together. He insisted walking with me. I tried to get away from him, but I forgot how pushy everyone was in tiny high school halls.

Thankfully the P.E. seemed like a normal class. Meaning we had to 'dress out' in shorts and a t-shirt, but no physical movements were necessary beyond that point. The coaches were too busy yacking with each other and the rest of us were either whiny of wimps (not me of course).

But this also meant that unless I wanted to hide out in the locker room all hour, there was absolutely no way to avoid the bothersome 'K'yo' as he wanted to be called (which got him some shouts from English, apparently this was the 'hunk' of the school-ick ick ick).


"No talking. No throwing. No asking if you can leave, the answer will be 'no'. No drawing. No tampering with the heater. No writing, I give you the notes for the chapter at the beginning of class, only on tests do I want to see a pen or pencil moving. No sleeping. No note passing. No noise making. No late work. No eating. No drinking. No makeup work, which includes tests and reports. No distracting other students. No physical contact with another person in this room. No daydreaming. No tardiness, as soon as the bell rings the door is shut and locked and no students will be allowed in and they will be counted as absent and spend the hour in detention. No marking in the text books. No drawing on the desks. No…"

What military school did this guy get created in?

I thought Scott was bad; at least he let you breathe!

This was Mr. Military Man. This guy was someone who I think would be molded into a small idol and placed on Scott's fireplace to remember what a true strict type leader was.

Compared to this guy the X-Men's rules seemed—soft.

"Here is what you may do. You may sit in your assigned seat quietly. You may raise your hand to ask a question. You may bring your book to class, have it opened to the right page, and be waiting for my lecture. You are able to turn all assignments in on time, and properly formatted as I will instruct you to do at the time in which the assignments are handed out. You are allowed to keep focused on me, and nothing else, even if the building were to fall down around my ankles you do not focus on that you focus on me. You are able to speak only when, and if, I speak to you. Are there any questions?"

I think I heard someone blink it was so quiet. This was the class all four of the 'Xavier brats' were in. There were five seats to a row, and we were all filed into one row. It was some girl in the first seat, D-M, then Chris, then Adrian, and then me in the corner of the room closest to the door.

I was tempted to make a run for it after the hard-nose man was done with his little lecture of 'what not to do' and 'what really not to do'. In fact, the next thing I knew, he was passing out the first notes of the first chapter. Said he didn't want to waste any time beating around the bush with games and such like the other teachers liked to do. He even gave us a list of the 'no' and 'do' of his class, which I might say he shortened in his previous speech.

Welcome to Western Civilization with Mr. Poovey.

Such an evil man with such a whacky last name, go figure.


Next up, (fourth hour) was Physical Science with Mrs. Fletcher.

Apparently a 'bird' course, considering the teacher didn't talk for the first twenty minutes of class (at least to us, she was on her cell phone with someone named 'snooky'). So needless to say we didn't get much accomplished except the passing out of text books and roll call, after that she was on the phone again and said to read her hand out. I loved these types of teachers! They didn't want to really teach and the students, in turn, weren't really sure they wanted to learn what was not being taught! Yeah! I had nothing to do in at least one class (okay, two counting P.E.).


Lunch was a literal field day. People were everywhere, absorbing up the chairs faster than we could find places to sit. D-M apparently made friends when she'd come her in the spring; Chris (the dark and brooding) was with the rest of the people who looked as though they'd kill you if you smiled at them. That left me and Adrian, him being shy and me being very quiet in class, sat by ourselves. Apparently Sacked-Lunches Summers also cursed the Canadian with the brown paper bag.

"It's better than starving I guess," was his comment as he began to pull out a sandwich. He made a face, and got up to get milk or something.

Health nut.

Better than starving, but barely!

Bobby-jerk seemed to be making friends with great ease, he was standing at the lunch line and making people get back in order if they tried to skip and joked around with them (at least that's why I think they were laughing for). Wasn't he Mister Popular.

"Hey, there."

Oh, no.

Not again. There was a limit of how much of one idiot I could take at a time and this guy filled it in the first two seconds of my meeting him.

"You don't mind if me and my buddies join you, do you?"

Yes.

And then he sat down in Adrian's seat.

"My guys will be coming over in a second." And then he began to stare at me. I seriously disliked being stared at. It was so unnerving; I always wanted to make sure my nose didn't creep up my forehead or something.

"Someone was sitting there."

"Yeah, who?"

"Me."

Saint Adrian! Thou hast returned to me! (Dr. Hank and his quotes were messing with my mind.)

Kenney looked up at the tall guy (I'm 5'6.5, Adrian was about six foot) and though I didn't see the facial expression, Adrian looked blankly at the boy in front of him.

"Sorry, Adrian," Kenney said, got up, and moved to the other side of me.

Why couldn't he just go away?

Wait—Adrian? What's an Adrian doing being known by—by a thing like Kenney?

"So, dude, didja hear that the coach wants us to be at practice around three thirty instead of four?"

Adrian? Coach? Kenney and Adrian were on friendly terms?

I had the distinct impression I was missing something here.


I couldn't help but laugh at him.

Long and hard.

Chris' face was priceless as he came into class grumbling and cursing under his breath.

"Shut-up."

"Ha-ha," I said in a teasing tone. He glared harder.

Adrian couldn't help but shake his head with a smile on his face either. It was so funny that Mr. Macho was shoved into the girly-girl class to learn to bake and sew.

Ten minutes into class and this little assignment was handed out. It was a survey of our housekeeping skills. Things like "rate yourself 1-10 (ten being the highest) about how well you cook, sew, etc." And then she (Miss Reese) gave her speech about the plans for the year and how we were going to be broken off into teams of four and things like that.

"So I'd like to start the year accordingly, and tell you which groups you will be in. First off…" And this was when Kerry blocked out the teacher and drifted away on cloud 8.999, which meant I hadn't a clue what was going on until I heard my name.

My mind flew (ha-ha) back to a few days ago when I was "in debate" with Professor and Scott (more like me whining and them listening). They wanted me to be the stinkin' co-leader of the team of new recruits, as Adam was to be leader. I got to boss people around, and that would be great, but I have to put up with those people as well—not so great. Adrian was nice, Adam was okay, too (not to mention, he now 'out ranked' me), Daisy-Mae-I was going to skip Daisy-Mae, and then there's Chris-who could fry the feathers right off my wings. No matter how much I complained, they said a trial run was in order…OW!

Elbow to the side equaled pain!

"Ow! What?"

Adrian looked sheepishly around at my little outburst, "She's called your name three times."

"Oh, here!"

"There you are! I thought for a second I had a no show! Kerry, you're with table four."

I was at table 4, so much the better. At least I didn't have to move. Adrian wasn't paired up with me, so he got booted to table seven. And as luck had it...

"Guess we're together-Koo-keey," Chris smirked as he sat down beside me. "'Ha-ha.'"

"Oh, great. Now I won't have to ask for anything for Christmas." I then promptly rolled my eyes.


"Hello class!" Oh, boy. "Welcome to Business Math. I'll be your instructor Mr. Robert Drake. To you, sadly, you must address me as task master."

Some people laughed at his little comment. They actually laughed.

"This is going to be a trip," Adrian whispered over his shoulder.

"Unfortunately, the school board wants everyone in class to call me Mr. Drake, so that's what I'll be known as during school hours. And instead of drilling you with a long list or rules and stuff like that, I'm just going to say the basics are required. Book, pencil, paper, brain," more giggles. "and of course all homework turned in on time."

"Why him?" I muttered out loud.

"Would you rather have a class under Hank?" Adrian asked.

Good point. I'd fail that class for sure.

"Now, the very 'fun' job of getting you into assigned seating." a round of groans and 'oh mans' "Come on guys, you're hurting the new teacher's feelings."

"We wouldn't want to do that," some brunette purred (literally!) behind me. Yeah, he might be eye candy to those that did not know him.

"I'm not cruel and unusual; most people math fills that slot rather well, so I'm not going to make you sit in alphabetical order. In fact I've already got this arranged. Look under your seats and pull out the text books. Open them up, and if it isn't your name, move around until you've found you're name. No switching because I, being an all knowing teacher, will know if you've swapped."

Mine said 'Gladi, Tucker' so I had to get up and hunt down my name. And when I found it, I death glared 'Mr. Drake' who only lifted his eyebrows like he was innocent or something. I sat down very hard in my assigned seat (hurting myself more than making a point) and continued to glare at me 'teacher'.

"Now, since everyone found where they sit, it's time for the normal fifth grade level time of stating names and something about yourself. And since in the teacher's conference I was commanded by the school god known as the Principal to go first," he paused, "I will. My name, as I've said, is Robert Drake, and I've only just started to teach," yeah, like, hmm, today. "And when I was younger, I was notorious for stealing Twinkies from my best friend, Hank."

And me! You stole my Twinkie as well let us not forget! And because you stole my food, I ended up grounded!

"Now, it's time for you. Let's start with the first person on the middle row."

And that was me. This evil creature put me in the front of the class, directly in front of the blackboard. He wasn't human; he was some sort of thing Dr. Hank created in his lab.

"Please stand up and tell us your name and something about yourself."

As if he didn't know.

"My name is Kerry. My last name looks like it should be pronounced demon, but it's actually pronounced dee-moon." and I really wanted my 'special something about myself' to get him in trouble. Something like, 'and I've been living with Mr. Drake for the past five months.' But I doubt that would do anything but get me grounded. So instead, "And I've recently gotten the nick-name, Kookie, with a 'K'."

With that, the agitated Kookie sat down, and I saw Adrian smiling and shaking his head, and Mister Bobby "the Perv" Drake smirked.

"So you wouldn't mind anyone in here calling you by that nick-name?"

"It's better than what I've heard other people called."

And that time I got the class laughing.


The last hour, thankfully, was nothing more than a study hour. We were allowed to go to any teacher's room as long as we had a note from them that it was okay. But I was more than happy to just plop down my Kookie-self into the nearest chair and try to fall asleep for the last hour of school.

And this was only the beginning.

Not only for the school year, but for learning for today. When I got home I had flight lessons with Mr. Warren, then had Leadership 101 with Farmer Summers (the guy got up with the sun, and even before then, and then got me up), and then I had to go into the Danger Room. Of course they had yet to convince me to get into the spandex bathing suit thingie they called a uniform.

Ah, when'd my life get so complicated?

Heck, when'd I start living on a schedule?

When'd I start having a life?