2/13
When Scott went downstairs for breakfast, he saw that Jean, Kurt, Rogue and Professor Mcoy were already seated and eating. After pouring himself a glass of juice, he sat at the table and joined them.
"So," he started. "Who's riding with me today?" His head, for some reason, distinctly snapped to Rogue's direction. She looked at him, puzzled, and raised her eyebrows.
"I am," said Kurt and Evan at the same time.
"I am!" shouted Kitty, who just entered the kitchen.
"Well I guess Rogue will be riding with me," Jean said smiling.
"No," replied the Goth. "I'll just walk. Risty and I have to go over to the park to collect some flowers for Bio,"
He saw Jean nod. He knew that she was relieved, on account of the fact that Jean had made earlier plans to pick Duncan up this morning. Everybody continued to eat while keeping up the chatter, except for Rogue who stayed silent.
After everybody had cleared the table, Scott stood up and went to the sink. He sighed and he looked at the pile of dishes in front of him. It was his turn to wash the dishes today.
"Rogue," Professor Hank called. "A moment, if you please,"
Rogue complied but said nothing.
Scott knew it was rude to eavesdrop on other people's conversations, but he really couldn't help hearing theirs. Beast was talking somewhat loudly, after all and he still was in the room.
"I have made the preparations that are needed," said he to the girl. "All I need is to test it so it is absolutely necessary for you to be there. Do you understand?"
Rogue nodded. "Will it work?"
"I'm not sure yet," sighed Beast. "But I am eighty percent certain that it will,"
"Thanks, Professor," she said. "I'll meet you after school,"
And with that, both of them left the kitchen, leaving Scott to finish the dishes with a burning curiosity to know just what the heck they were talking about.
He finished his task and he went out to the garage to get his car. He, along with the others, drove to the normal and mutant alike teenager's bane: school.
When they got there, he dropped the others off at the curb and went off to find a parking spot. On his way to the entrance of Bayville High, he saw the Brotherhood hanging out by the fence, and Jean talking with Duncan on one of the tables.
With a sigh, he walked inside the building alone. It was still somewhat early, fifteen more minutes before the bell rings, but Scott was in no mood for company, so he headed straight to his first period physics room to read on some of the former lecture notes.
Physics always reminded him of Professor Hank, and eventually, his thoughts flew to Rogue's conversation with the said teacher. He wasn't really the nosy type, well, at least not in public, but Rogue's been acting up a bit weird these days, always staring at nothing, daydreaming and what about that conversation she had with him last night? She actually seemed . . . well, for a lack of a better word, perky.
Their last session in the Danger Room, the whole team had to repeat the stimulation three times because she had been hit three times. Nobody took it badly, of course, nobody had anything better to do at that time, but as the team leader, Scott was worried about her actions. Those mistakes could prove dangerous, or dare he say it, lethal when they are fighting real battles.
The sharp ring of the school bell, which signaled the beginning of class, interrupted his train of thought, and a few minutes later, the whole class, including Jean and their teacher, came in.
"So," began Mr. Bennett, the nice Physics teacher with a smile. "Missed me?"
And with that, school officially restarted.
For Scott, Physics was a breeze, hence the two periods reserved for it flew by instantly. After the said subject was Economics, which was a very boring class for him, on account of the fact that it required no computations whatsoever. The woman-teacher usually ate up the time by ranting about the evils of the politicians.
After the bell that ended Eco, Scott moved to the Drama classroom. On his way there, he chanced upon Rogue walking alone with a peculiar expression on her face; it actually seemed as if she were smiling. In public, nonetheless.
"Hey," he greeted. She didn't hear him it seemed. Rogue continued walking through the door without giving him so much as a glance. He stood by the doorway, puzzled, for a few seconds before he went in and took his usual seat besides the Gothic girl.
He didn't get the chance to ask her what was up because the teacher came in and started the class.
Rogue, what's up? Overheard your conversation with Professor Hank this morning. What was that about?
Those were the three questions that were doodled on the piece of paper that Scott was holding. He was about to fold it up and pass it to her when he questioned just what he was doing. Was it any of his business, really? He shook his head and crumpled the piece of paper. It wasn't any of his business, and he figured that he was only acting like this because his male ego had been wounded by the fact that he didn't know everything that was going on inside the mansion.
Besides, a tiny voice inside his head piqued, he could always ask her in the mansion later on.
"Okay class," the teacher, Mr. Staples, said in unison with the ringing bell. "I want you to read page 63 up to page 79 of the text. Also, choose and memorize a paragraph's length of dialogue, because tomorrow, we will have a random-monologue-quiz,"
The leaving students all groaned.
By the door, Scott caught up with Rogue.
"Hey, Rogue," he said, falling into step with her towards the lockers.
"Could you believe that guy?" she asked. "It's the first day of classes and he's giving us a monologue quiz!"
"Hey, don't sweat it," he said comfortingly. "I know that you're a good actress, Kate,"
She laughed dryly at this.
"So," he said, as he watched her put her bag in her locker. "Want to do lunch?"
She looked at him in a way that made him wonder if he had said something wrong. "Why?" She asked. She closed her locker door and walked towards the cafeteria.
"What do you mean 'why'?" he asked, puzzled at the question. Was that so unusual? "I want to have lunch with you, that's why,"
Rogue looked at him, calculating. "Oh, sure," she replied as she took out a piece of paper out of her skirt pocket. "I want to give Kurt something anyway,"
He opened the cafeteria doors for her and asked "And that is?"
"Just . . .something," she replied as they fell in the lunch line.
She just gets more mysterious and more mysterious. Scott turned around and saw that Kurt and Kitty already had a table, and that Jean was already seated with the popular kids' table. His focus went back to the food.
The lunch lady looked at him, her right hand on her waist and in her left was the scoop. "What will it be?"
Scott looked at the options, and picked the thing that looked most edible digestible, more likely to his eyes. After paying for the said 'food', the two of them went over to the table that Kitty and Kurt were sitting in.
Kurt, Kitty and Scott kept up the conversation, ranting about the immorality of the teachers in Bayville, torturing them at the first day of school. Rogue kept quiet, eating her food in a sullen manner.
"Hey Rogue," Kurt called. "Want to go to the arcade later on? I swear this will be the day that I'll beat you at that game,"
"Dream on Blue-Boy," replied she, smiling a little bit. "Can't today, I have that thing. I'll beat you next time,"
Kurt stuck his tongue out at her, and continued his chat with Kitty, who seemed to be going with him to the arcade.
"Thing?" Scott asked, unable to help himself. "What thing?"
Rogue looked at him and shook her head. "It's just a thing. Speaking of which, can I hitch a ride with you after class?"
"Sure," replied he, as the bell rang. "Evan's going to hang-out with his friends anyway,"
"Oh, that reminds me," Kurt voiced. "Kitty and I'll walk straight to the arcade after school. Can't make that ride home with you, Scott,"
"I guess that makes it just you and me," Scott uttered to Rogue. She only nodded.
They all stood up, dropped off their trash at the trash bins and went on their way to class.
Scott couldn't really wait to get back home and see just what exactly this 'thing' is and why the heck Rogue was being so secretive about it.
After getting his stuff from his locker, he went to his Logic classroom, with that young male teacher that was basically the lead actor in most of the female students' fantasies. A period of that and Scott went to Trigonometry. Like Physics, this was also an easy subject for him. For some reason, he was that way: a Whiz Kid in anything that has to do with calculations.
Two periods of Sine, Cosine and Tangent applications, the end-of-the-day bell rang. He went straight to the parking lot to get his car. Leaning on the hood was Rogue, who kept looking at her watch.
"You're excited to get home," he greeted jokingly.
"Whatever," she said, and jumped over the door of the passenger seat and got in.
Scott chuckled, shook his head and dropped his books on the backseat, got on and started the trip that would bring them home.
tbc