Lucky Me
Chapter 034
I lay face first in my pillow.
I didn't know if I was asleep at any point, but I either went to sleep or into a coma. Maybe I was dehydrated from crying so much. After Angel, Dr. Hank, and all the others calmly tried to explain what emancipation was to me, I just nodded, got assisted to my room, and then crashed. I crashed into tears on my pillow.
I knew Mom wasn't happy with me, but to get rid of me legally and forever? I thought she loved me. Sure she tried to have me killed, but there was no hard evidence to back it up. It could have been a coincidence.
Well, it could have been!
As upset as I was, I didn't think it was affecting me as I thought it should have been. Perhaps I knew it would boil down to something like this. Honestly I thought Mom, Heather, I guess was what I needed to start calling her pretty soon, would just forget about me, and in the highest hopes, forgive my genetic problem. I guess not.
"Are you alive?" he came; I hadn't even heard him open the door.
"Yes," I answered lifting my head up for a moment before dropping it down again. For a person who didn't have a heart, why did it break? Maybe it would have been better if I was heartless and cold; I could laugh about this situation then. "I change my answer, no."
"I'm—sorry about your problem."
"Yeah, well." I turned to look at him when I felt my bed go down. He sat on the edge, holding Stitch, and pulling on his ears.
"I can't believe you're not strangling this guy to death." He looked over at me, and gave a half-hearted smile. "Isn't he usually your sponge?"
"You're so compassionate."
He shrugged, "Yeah I guess I am." And he's just so un-egotistical! (Ha!)
I rolled my eyes, and thought up something to say, "Leave me alone to die."
He laughed at the remark and bapped me on the head with Stitch. "No can do. It wouldn't be ethical. Besides, you said you were dead and you can't die twice."
"I've read some of the files, if you live here, you can die twice." He snorted at that remark and then leaned down on top of my legs. Correction, he then began to crush my legs, for such a skinny guy, he sure was heavy!
"Fair enough." He looked at me (over the wings) and got that eerie serious air about him. "Is there anything that I can do?"
Saying 'leave' was going to be my first response, but I didn't need to more evidence about being the heartless creature he thought I was. He was actually trying to be nice, and in a sneaky way I asked Miss Oreo who said what on both my team and on hers. He apparently was completely for promoting me to leader, and was one of the ones who stood up to the Professor after wrongly accusing me of being to blame for Adam's mistake. I was think that was after I told him to grow a backbone. So, I would try my best to grow a heart-at least toward him. Only in a friendly way. Honestly!
I thought about the offer, "Sugar."
"Sugar?" He questioned lifting himself off my legs. "I didn't know you thought of me like that." Followed by his oh-so-make-my-brain-putty smile.
But I had enough sense left to pick up Stitch, and chunk it at him. "I want cookies, cakes, candy anything with chocolate. Anything that Scott doesn't want me to have. The big bird wants to pig out."
He raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything more.
"Hey Ker-ree!"
Oh ,am, make it go away, please. But apparently it wasn't going to happen, and less than a second later Mr. Yohalm was in his 'cool' guy look by leaning on my locker and crossing his arms. It had been about two weeks since the dance, and he had forgotten all about me (oh watch me cry a river) and now he suddenly remembered me?
"How can I possibly make you leave?" I asked with the biggest, sweetest (fakest) smile I could muster across my face.
"By leaving with me." He stood up straight and tried to give me a smile that was supposed to be charming (but after seeing someone else's charming smile, Kenney's smile was nothing compared to it). "But since you won't be up for that anytime soon, I was going to ask you if you wanted to go out with me this Friday."
I thought about it, still not used to actually being asked out (like ever) but he did, and remembering what a creep he was, I turned my nose up in the air (like I see Monet do so much) and simply said, "I'm washing my hair."
"Oh, a classic! I like it." He tried to put his arm around my shoulders but found something blocking him (my wings under the protection of my image inducer), and knowing this, I smiled. "You haven't forgotten that I know a little something about your buddy, Adrian, have you?"
Oh, crap. I had forgotten. And I didn't want it getting around that Adrian was a mutant. It would put us all in jeopardy. I growled in irritation. What was the big deal about being a mutant?
My own mother was getting rid of me like some bad cough and the emancipation was her anti-biotic or something. So what if Adrian was a mutant? So what if I was? It didn't mark me as anyone other than myself, did it? No! In the perfect world I would be in contact with my Mom, and little sister. In a perfect world I would still have my Daddy to run to whenever things went wrong, but I didn't because I was a mutant.
My dad wasn't dead because I was a mutant, but because they existed. If I couldn't change my mom's mind, then I was sure as heck going to try to change this little pea-brained (smashed pea) bigot about it. It was no crime, no secret, and no way to blackmail people to get what you wanted!
"So what does it matter what he is?" I asked, turning around on my heels and glaring at him. "What if I'm the same freakin' way, who are you going to blackmail then? Hmm? What are you going to do if I tell the whole freakin' school what he is? You won't have a right to use it against him or me. You are the last person I would ever choose to go out with if I wasn't so concerned about my friend. You are just a self-centered, got-your-head-stuck-up-your-behind jerk. You can scream it from the top of the school for all I care, and all I have to do is deny it. And what the heck are you doing looking around the locker room anyway!"
Kenney's eyes were huge. He had to blink a couple of times before they went back to a normal size. I guess he didn't realize that I had a temper, and Adrian had tried to warn him repeatedly to leave me alone. Well he should have taken the warnings!
"First off, I wasn't looking around the locker room, it was the fact that he was. I knew he was because I caught him doing so when I was walking in to change. And if you are anything like him, then babe," that was what you call a pig not a girl! "If you are anything like him, then I don't want to have anything to do with you." K'Yo' paused and gave me a devious smile. "Unless you invite me to watch you and yours have some fun one night."
I glared at him, "What are you talking about?" I rolled my eyes, "What exactly do you think Adrian is, anyway?"
K'Yo gave me this totally 'duh' look (the one I was usually giving him) and simply said, "Gay."
It took a while for me to be able to move after Kenney's announcement over what he thought he had to hang over my head about Adrian. After I was able to move, and made my way to class, I busted out laughing which caught Mr. Drake's attention (actually I think it made him paranoid since I started to laugh only after he turned his back to the class). His revenge? Calling me to the blackboard to answer a question (which I got wrong, money and I didn't stay acquainted long enough to know how it worked) and while he sat at his desk like a Professor wanna-be, Bobby-jerk cracked jokes that only he and I heard.
At the end, while my back was still to the class, I stuck out my tongue. I was half tempted to punch him with one of my wings, but decided against it. How was I going to explain it? Ghosts?
"Wrong, Miss Kookie. Please take your seat, Nikki, can you tell me what she did wrong?"
Nikki? He picked Nikki? First Adrian and now Bobby? What was she, my replacement? (Geez, didn't I sound vain!) I couldn't stand the girl. She was stuck up, rude, and full of herself. D-M defended her a lot whenever the group was together talking about junk, but I still thought she was as pleasant as French kissing an Oklahoman hilly-billy named Bubba with only one green tooth that had been chewing snuff.
After class, I (of course) was called to the front of the class. It wasn't 'going to be for long' so I waited for him to start. After cleaning up his desk, erasing the blackboard, and straightening up his bookshelf, Bobby-jerk finally remembered I was there.
"Oh, Kookie, how nice of you to stay."
I glared at him, "I was asked to, if you remember." Glancing at the clock, "I also have to get to class, I'm already late."
"You have study hall this hour, and are permitted to be in a classroom as long as it is approved by a teacher."
I bite at math, but this I could put together, "And you approved me to stay in here, right?"
"Right." Bobby-Jerk gave me that ha-ha-I-got-the-last-laugh smile, and I, in return, rolled my eyes. "As much as I love your optimistic and charismatic company, I did have you stay for a reason."
"And that would be?"
"Your sad excuse for a grade."
Oh, ouch. Couldn't he even have tried to candy coat that? With all that was happening (and going to happen) in my life, you'd think he'd have a bit more of a sympathy to show a distressed mutant!
"I have already talked to Adrian and Chris, they too, when able, will be here to get extra tutoring sessions here, and at the mansion right after school." Again that slap-this-off-my-face-please grin.
"You have to be joking!" There was no way I was going to spend more time on this stupid subject than I needed to! Scratch that-wanted to.
"Not on this, so get your book out, and pull up a chair."
I grumbled the whole time I got ready, and sat down in a huff. Who really needed to balance a checkbook? My Dad always did it for my family (the ones disowning me), and after he died, I started to carry cash. I tried this approach, Bobby-pervert said that I had a debit card for my allowance, and I would need to balance it once in a while. He also tacked on that the next time I stuck out my tongue at him, to make good use of it or don't lead his mind down that road.
I ended up blood red from embarrassment the rest of the hour.
"Another dance!" D-M bounced around us like a sugar-injected flea. "And it's Homecoming! Fancy dresses! Big hair!"
"Easy girls," Chris added, dropping his backpack in the hall closet (after about the third time Mr. Logan tripped on it, he threatened to tear the thing and its owner into indistinguishable parts, Chris got the message). Daisy-Mae hit him over the head with her purse.
"Stupid guys," she pointed out, grabbed me by the arm, and letting Chris' threats and nasty comments go unnoticed, "So are you going with Kenney again?"
"Not in this lifetime." I cracked a grin thinking about the assumptions that K'Yo' had made regarding Adrian. Before I could bee-line it to my room, Bobby-jerk announced the study session. As I dragged my feet to the appointed study room, I passed Adam who stopped me for one thing or another. It was about his codename, and whether or not I had approved them yet, and gotten the senior staff to approve as well.
Whatever he was saying, I just stared at him in almost awe.
"Wow."
That shut him up, "Huh? What?"
"Your eyes, I've never seen you without your glasses." It was true, Adam's eyes were awesome. They almost glow red, and like the reptilian form he morphed into, they had ebony slits through them.
"Oh, uh," he groped his shirt to find his sunglasses, but before I could think of what to say or what to do, my hand (on its own accord) reached out and stopped his. Adam looked like he was ready to faint.
"Don't, I think their—wicked." I added a smile (did that constitute as 'flirting'?). Adam gave me a lopsided smile in return.
"Wicked, huh? Where'd you learn a word like that?" Adam's smile broadened.
"Haven't the faintest." That's when he walked into the hall. I knew he had been pulled aside by one of the higher ups and seeing Adam (with my hand on his hand, which was on his chest, smiling) and me smiling dumbly at one another must have not sat right with him.
"Don't forget, the study session," he reminded me, glaring at Adam as he went by.
Sheesh, what a jealous little person and there was nothing to be jealous over.
"Try to relax," Mrs. Jean said to me two days later.
"I am relaxed." It was a lie, and for those concerned about it, don't ever lie to a telepath, they'd just give you this yeah-right look. I was in a session before my session with Paige to learn about ripping skin from my skin (it was so disgusting, and watching her do it was no picnic either, ick).
"No, you are not. If you don't relax, this will hurt."
Then don't do it, which I only thought, and me being the genius that I was known to be almost all the time, didn't think that she could read my little remarks in my mind, and gave me a don't-even-go-there glare. "Okay, I'll try to relax."
How did one relax their brain when it's about to be invaded? It's like trying to tell a woman to relax in the presence of a rapist, knowing what he's about to do. It's a violation, and I tried to point that out, and she said it would be beneficial. If I didn't like the first session, I didn't have to do anymore. But this was also supposed to help me with immunity to my thoughts from telepaths, and also to keep my thoughts quiet.
"Deep breaths." Why do they always say that?
But another expression from her, and Kookie shut up real quick and started to pretend to hyperventilate. I stopped, "Can I close my eyes?"
She raised that eyebrow (it's a trademark with them, I swear it!) and said it was fine. Well, I didn't know how this telepathy thing worked! So I went back to my breathing. But have you ever been told to clear your mind and suddenly start picturing the weirdest things? I watched Beauty and the Beast a day ago with D-M and now all I could see was Mr. Remy dancing around singing 'Be Our Guest'.
Mrs. Jean laughed; I guess that meant she was 'in' my mind. Weird.
Me for letting her be there, and for her actually wanting to be here.
Before I could think another thought, I was not where I was a second ago. Instead I was in a field. A field with a lot of wind apparently.
/Where the heck…?/ I 'heard' myself ask, but to who? I didn't know, and I didn't see anyone. And I was in a dress. I didn't do dresses by choice, so for me to be in one would be a major psychological hic-up on my personality.
/This is your mind./ Mrs. Jean appeared beside me in a flowy dress of her own.
/Guess I'm an airhead then./ There was a lot of wind blowing around in that field.
/No, this is what you wanted to picture, you control the environment in here, also the events that we see./ Mrs. Jean clarified, as she bent down and started to pick some flowers. /I noticed you don't see yourself with your wings./
Well of courser I looked. And sure enough, no big black feathery wings were sprouting out of my back. Very strange.
/Why are we 'here'?/
/To help you work through some tough issues, to help build up your mental shields or just to pick flowers./
I was more for the last two than the first one, but before I could say something like that, new voices distracted us both.
"Push me! Push me!" It was a lighter voice, and one that sounded familiar. And just like that there was a tree, with a swing, and a little girl with black hair (that's why the voice sounded familiar, it was mine, duh) and then someone who when I saw them, I nearly fainted (if I hadn't been a mental me)-my Daddy.
"Yes ma'am! Coming right away!"
/Is that your father?/ Mrs. Jean asked, which to me was a dumb question. I looked a lot like my dad, with the black hair and all, but he had sun brown skin (carpenter and all). /Why did you think this up?/
I shrugged, watching as more of the field melted away into a familiar house and yard. It was my Grandmother's yard (my mom's-mom) where my Dad pushed me on the swing and I (my 'little' self) was just as happy as could be.
"Zach!" Came an all too familiar voice, and then my mom poked her head of one of the windows. "Get her off that thing! It's old and disgusting and that's a brand new dress! Think once and a while would you?"
I watched as my dad sighed, and rolled his eyes (that must be where I got it from), but followed the woman's orders, taking me off the swing. The dress my 'mental' and 'little' self wore was identical. I could only watch as the man who I loved and missed for over two years danced around the yard with me on his trail. It wasn't until I saw this that I realized how much I missed him.
That's when I decided I didn't want to remember this anymore. /Make it stop./ I begged, my mental voice broken, and my eyes threatening to cry in front of a woman I barely knew.
/Just think of something different. Something good about the present day./
Big mistake. Because the first thing of comfort I pictured, was naturally, him. Mrs. Jean didn't think (I hoped) anything weird about having this guy in my thoughts. Who was he?
Stitch naturally (ha-ha, you thought I was going to mention the other him, ha-ha).
/Well, this is an improvement. Mind explaining the doll?/
"My name Stitch."
Okay, talking doll. Creepy, creeeepy, cree-pee.
The next day at school (joy) I stood in the lunch line (because I had 'forgotten' my sack lunch, oh darn-please ignore my more than happy expression) and I saw something so interesting that equaled blackmail in my book.
"Thank you, Miss Reese, I'm sure I couldn't have lived without that string on my belt loop." Bobby-jerk jumped again as the Home Ec. teacher fussed around him pulling strings and doing other motherly things.
"It's just a pet peeve." She then fluttered her eyelashes (I kid you not), at him, and Bobby-Jerk seemed to get unnerved and tried to back away from the woman, only to bump into the post behind him. I wanted to laugh at him, but if I did that, I'd be stuck with going up to his blackboard and having him poke fun at me again.
"I would hate to have you—blemished," she added coyly. And I started to snicker at him, which seemed to be the distraction he was looking for.
"Miss D'mon, no cutting."
My jaw dropped, "I didn't cut!"
Miss Reese continued her attentions.
"In fact let me help direct you to the end of the line." And he nearly leapt to get to me, and away from the other teacher.
"Chicken heart," I whispered harshly as he ushered me (wrongfully) to the end of the very long line.
"When it comes to her, yeah. I'd rather take on a Danger Room session for a week then have that woman rubbing her hands all over my butt."
Eeeewww! Gross imagery of my teachers! Eck! Bleeh! I suddenly felt the need to bathe! Gross!
That's was almost as bad as imaging your parents…oh great, now I had that in my head. Now I was disgusted and depressed.
"So it is told that 14-60 days after the emancipation papers have been delivered, that the one to be disowned should appear in court for a hearing in front of a judge to decide on whether or not, emancipation is indeed in order or not."
Mr. Warren had agreed to pay for the very best lawyers (the ones who have the longest words and longest winded explanation of everything) to defend me against my mom. Not only (it seemed) was she trying to emancipate me, she was trying to get me taken from Xavier's and placed in the custody of the state. Triple ouch. Not only did she want to get rid of me, she wanted to make me as miserable as possible.
Just when I was actually getting 'happy' at that mutant high secondary school, too.
"And Mrs. D'mon has agreed to this?" Mr. Warren asked. Him, Scott, and Mrs. Jean all tagged along with me. Mr. Warren because it was his lawyers, and the other two for emotional support. Get me a huge chunk of chocolate, there's my emotional support.
"Of course, after we—persuaded her lawyer," the guy said rubbing his fingers together indicating a payoff. Got to love lawyers, they all spoke the dollar language. "The date is set for Friday, September 20."
"That's in a week!" Apparently I wasn't supposed to say anything at this meeting, because the look that man gave me made me want to find a corner to hide in and apologize.
"Yes, it is. But trust me, honey; you want to be rid of this," I was not going to repeat the word he used, "witch as soon as possible." And then he began to gather up his things in a tiny black box he called a briefcase. My jaw tightened, and I jumped to my feet.
"She's still my mother, idiot." Again, Kookie should not talk during this. Insulting the guy who controls your future was not a smart thing.
"Kerry, calm down." Mrs. Jean tried to reason with me. "I'm sure he didn't mean it."
"Then what the heck did witch mean? Glenda of the north?" I growled, and then looked at Mr. Warren (who I must have shamed because he was shaking his head while Scott didn't say anything), so I just huffed and left. We were in the dead middle of New York City, in a building that was the tallest I had ever been in, and on the twentieth story.
After asking directions to the roof, I stormed up flight after flight of steps. I was angry at something, and ready to cry for the same reason, or it could be some other reason, I had no idea. I was so confused, and everyone thought they knew my mom just because of a couple of quick (though dumb) choices she made. They didn't know her. Heck, they barely knew me.
Slamming open the roof door, I dropped my jacket, and walked to the side of the building. I never would have dreamed I could jump off the top floor of a building without blinking an eye and more importantly—survived it. I was about to take the plunge when a disturbing thought entered my brain.
What if I just didn't open my wings? What if I just fell?
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard a little voice saying, 'that would be quitting'. It wasn't even my own. It was Darcy's, she was always so optimistic and positive, it was hard to believe that we were related sometimes.
"Kerry!" Scott's voice scared me back to reality. He must have run up the stairs like a mad man because Mr. Fit-and-Trim was out of breath. "What are you doing?"
Posing for Gargoyles Illustrated? Looking dramatic with my wings spread and my head turned? I could have said anything, instead I answered, "Nothing."
"Could you do nothing somewhere else besides the ledge?"
No, not really. "Why? I can fly, remember?"
"But where are you going to go?" Scott got closer until he was leaned against the railing I was balancing on. "Acola?" He pronounced it wrong (most people did).
"Ah-so-lay." I corrected, trying to ignore a sharp pain which struck my heart. Darcy said they weren't even there anymore. Our hometown wasn't even home. "And I'm going back to the mansion." I stated lamely.
I was ready to jump, but that man knew how to stop a girl in mid-decision.
"It's too bad you weren't going to ride back with us," he let out this aw-poor-me sigh.
Darn my curiosity, I really needed to put that cat in a cage. "Why?"
"Oh no reason; just thought we'd stop by and get ice-cream…"
Evil, ee-val, evil! Manipulative and evil -"On you?"
"Naturally," Scott replied, "But you want to fly back."
I jumped down, buried my other emotions, and slapped on a fake grin, "What are we waiting for?"
Boy, did I take that man for all he was worth, a triple Cookies-n-Cream in a chocolate dipped waffle cone ice-cream, and you had one happy (and frozen) Kookie. I almost purred as I went to my room that night, until a very stark and cold reminder was overheard as I passed by the kitchen. Sam was on the phone, and all he had said that I understood was 'Mama', and BAM! There went my heart. This bit cookies.
It was late and so I trudged up to my bedroom—only to find my bed littered with cookie packages and chocolate bars. All sorts of things were there, and Stitch, again, held a note like he did when he first appeared to replace my de-fluffed Stitch (which, after I took Mr. Warren's bloodied feather from, I gave it to him who gave me Stitch).
'Thought this would make you smile. But no complaining about not fitting into your uniform come Saturday,' And that's all it read, I wished I could just wrap him in a hug right now, but then again, I would have had to leave the candy unguarded. That meant that someone else might enjoy it, and we couldn't have that could we?
Of course not.
