Lucky Me
Chapter 027
"Now, let's say yere faced with a guy packin' a gun," Mr. Logan said to a bunch of half-dead kids at four in the morning on a Saturday. "What do you do?"
No one responded. At this moment if a guy with the gun popped out of the ceiling I didn't think any of us would care. I think all of us together got maybe a total of three hours of sleep, tops. Darn Adrian and his stupid video games!
Even the perky princess (Daisy, the one who makes Coke nervous) was glaring at the short, yet very strong little man.
"No answers? Okay, then, I'll pick ya out." He did a scary grin thing, and looked over at me; at least I think he did, hard to tell with closed eyelids. "Kookie, you're a leader of this pep squad, what do you do?"
I sighed, opened my eyes, and lifted my head off the body it was leaned on, "I have no idea."
He tilted to his head to the side for a second as if thinking it over and then kept talking, "What would your first reaction be?"
Wet my pants? "Try to blend in with my surroundings?" Yes, this was the result of many (six) 'Leadership 101' courses with Mr. Sadistic Summers. He had me hide in the woods one night, and said that if he could find me in less than ten minutes I'd have to start all over again. I stayed out there for five hours straight. Only reason he let me go in was because it was close to midnight and the next day I had school.
"Not bad, but if that weren't an option? What would you try to do?"
"Get the gun from him?"
"How?"
"Ask him politely?" Oh, that would work D-M. But it wasn't any better than my replies. I'd never had a real boom-boom gun pointed at me. Water guns? Yes. Bullet guns? Not so much.
He gave her a look, like a predator-being-teased-by-its-prey type look. This was NOT the guy you needed to be mouthy to apparently.
"Kerry," I'm here, doesn't mean I have to make sense. "What is your choice as co-leader?"
"Ask the advice of the leader, and if he wasn't around- I'd run." I smiled innocently at him, and withheld 'and let someone else on the team deal with the guy.'
"Why run?" What was this? A surviving death course or something? Hello! The imaginary guy had a gun why wouldn't you run? That would be my reaction, besides throwing someone in between me and the loon with a gun. "Well?"
"Because I don't have any way to take the gun," And that was the truth. At this he gave that creepy grin thing again, and nodded his head. Why wasn't he drilling Adam? He was the leader guy of us!
Supposedly…
"That's what I'm here to teach ya to do; now what if it's a mutant? There ain't no way to disarm a mutant of his powers."
Kick high if male, pull hair if female.
"Run and scream?"
"Ha!" Chris piped up, he sure was lively for this time of day. Stinkin' night owl. "All you'd have to do, Koo-key, is sit on him and let your big butt squash him!"
I glared at him, and lucky for him the nearest thing to me I could throw was Adrian and I wasn't that strong yet, so I continued to glare.
Mr. Logan decided to ignore the last comment and went on with his questions. "What if it was me comin' after ya?"
This took a second then I answered, "Pray."
Four o'clock sessions with Mr. Logan for self defense in martial arts and all that other bruise-the-bad-guy stuff, and then the others get to eat. Me? Scott liked to start the classes bright and early. Like right after Mr. Logan's. So there I was starving, sleep deprived, and all around not your average morning person.
Oh some co-leader I was going to be. I'd probably end up letting the bad guys have what they wanted if they let me have a bed to sleep in.
And cookies. Couldn't forget the cookies.
Grumpy and upset in the middle of the Danger Room on a cold metallic stool wearing my skin tight jeans and one of the skimpy t-shirts (I needed to do laundry) I waited. Apparently today was question and answer day at Xavier's mansion because all he (Scott) did was to ask a bunch of questions about scenarios (mostly which he brought to life using the Danger Room).
"Now let's try another scenario." And then I was on the beach of an island lined with nice trees, and it even simulated a breeze. This place was so weird, who needed to pay for a vacation when you could just make up whatever one you wanted? "This was a living island, and the plants are what hold you captive. What do you do, or how do you get the others to work together to escape?"
"Get a big weed whacker."
There was silence for a split second, and then "No weed whacker, just you and your team's powers. You need to strategize a plan to free yourself without hurting anyone else."
I sighed, and my stomach rumbled its complaint. "I would become a vegetarian and eat my way to freedom."
"Deadly plants." Well, why the heck didn't he say that from the get go? Not like it would have helped me any, but I wouldn't have been so quick to shoot off my mouth with that last comment. When I got sleepy one of two things happened, I either become extremely stupid or my mouth forms and spits out words without consulting my brain.
"How did we get on this island? And what are 'my teams' powers anyway?"
"Now you're starting to think as a leader." Correction co-leader! Adam was leader thankyouverymuch.
This was turning out to be a fun day.
After getting the third degree about what to do if a living island suddenly attacked us, I was given the homework of reading all the information about my team. Why? Because it would help when I had to strategize future missions.
So fun! And I finally got to eat! Not much because the boys attacked the 'fridge and pantry. But back up to my room I went with four separate files each about an inch thick, and it was only ten in the morning. I was up since three thirty.
Bed was a callin'!
But before I could get in there, someone called me away.
"Hey, Kookie, up on the roof in ten." And Mr. Warren walked to the end of the hall, opened the study's window, and out he flew.
You had got to be kidding me. I just spent hours with the two bossiest people to be stuck with in the morning, and now I was supposed to fly around and pick up weights and stuff? Why me? In fact I brought my complaining to him, and he showed me mercy (I think Mr. Warren actually had a date).
"If you can pick up both weights in under five attempts, you're free to go." And that was the deal. It was sort of like the one with Scott but less hiding in prickly bushes and me scurrying up trees. So I tried, and on the fourth time I actually was able to do the stupid dive and pick up both weights, but I couldn't pull up in time. When I started to walk back to the mansion intent on going to bed, Mr. Warren called me back, and said that I didn't fulfill the part of the bargain yet.
"You never said I had to land right," I pointed out, he, in turn, rolled his eyes and shooed me away.
I was running around the mansion for most of the day after that, and I was so tired. But they didn't let me stop, oh no. 'A leader is always ready to take lead and take action' yeah well, this co-leader was ready to take action to get her hind end in a bed in under five minutes- but, of course, I couldn't.
Saturday's were the busy busy days apparently, because after all the lessons, I had to go to Dr. Hank for yet another check up.
"Long time no see my sweetly named patient!" How could a man who got two hours a sleep a month always be so personable? Must be part of his mutant ability. Blue fur and a cheerful attitude…and smart, real smart.
"Hey, Dr. Hank," I muttered climbing on the bed. A nice bed, a bed that wasn't very soft, but it was still somewhere to lie down on.
"Do not fear my feather friend, for the procedures which must proceed shall be done with before you can say 'cookie', Kookie." Ah! My head, he spoke in his little rhymes and weird words again! Argh! That was cruel and unusual punishment for a girl with low resistance to big words and understanding them.
I kept forgetting to bring a dictionary down there when I came to talk to him.
"And now, m'dear," then he pulled out this long torture stick otherwise known as the needle. "Time to take some blood."
I felt faint.
"Hey, Kookie," was what woke me up from where I had fallen asleep on my nice lovely, wonderful bed with Daisy-Mae's folder on my face. I woke up with a huge picture of her staring back at me, needless to say I 'eeped' and sat up quickly. Looking over at the invader of Kookie Land, I yawned, and dropped back down with D-M's folder now in my lap.
"What are you up to?" He asked, picking up one of the folders, I squinted at him.
"Mr. Summers wants me to read all this junk about the team."
"Uh-huh, anything interesting?" I guess I wasn't getting rid of him anytime soon, might as well entertain him.
"Yeah right. So interesting I feel asleep reading it." I said picking up D-M's folder again and flipping through her medical history and such. These things were very thorough. Even who was and wasn't-uh, experienced in the bedroom.
Like I even cared?
"Anyway, Jean made me come and get you, something about some cooking or stuff." He shrugged, and gave me that smile again. "Didn't really pay attention."
I waved him away, and curled up on my bed with Chris' folder next to me. I picked it up and opened up his medical history. Had his appendix removed, yaddayadda, oh he had an ingrown toenail (I told you these things were thorough), and what's this? At fifteen he was found to have…
"Oh, crap."
