The Trials and Tribulations of Being Popular
"RRRRRRRR!" Penny gripped the elastic of the strange mittens on her hand with her teeth but to no avail. They would not come off. Rogue, Forge, Logan and Hank were in the medical room with her.
"Honey, I know wearing gloves isn't fun," Rogue sighed. "But we can't take the chance of you ripping Glory to shreds. Although I gotta admit that I would pay to see that happening."
"They're not hurting her," Forge said. "They're made of a special blend of metals including adamantium specially modified into…"
"Her claws can't come out right?" Logan interrupted him.
"Yeah," Forge said.
"That's good enough for me," Logan sighed.
"What do the A-List Celebrities think about your toenails?" Hank read from a magazine. "How being too thin is a myth. What's so great about being cool? Good lord do people actually read this?"
"No, teenagers do," Logan grunted.
"This magazine is the most frivolous claptrap I've ever read," Hank snorted. "And considering the amount of bad writers published that's saying something."
"Yeah but most bad writers don't get to flaunt their junk all over newsstands and sell it to make a quick buck every month," Rogue said.
"Has she ever written anything about mutants?" Hank asked. "Either pro or against?"
"I cross referenced Glory's magazine with anything on my computer," Forge said. "It came up with only one sentence. More like a question for her readers to answer. 'Will having multi colored fur do away with shaving products?'"
"I think I will choose to view that as a good thing," Hank sighed.
"I knew Charles was hard up for good publicity…" Logan shook his head. He heard the sound of gleeful screaming. "What the heck is that?"
"I believe Glory has arrived," Hank said wryly.
They went to the foyer. Many of the students were waiting. "Now what's going on?" Logan asked. "And why are all of you dressed up?"
Several of the girls were dressed up in new outfits. "We just want to show Glory that mutants have a sense of style," Tabitha grinned, showing off her peach colored outfit.
"What do you think?" Amara asked showing off her outfit.
"I think you've all gone bonkers," Betsy said.
"We have to be fashionable as possible," Dead Girl told them. "Spotlight: The Xavier Institute, a Glory magazine special photo spread! This is our chance to be the next fashion style center!"
"Paris, Milan, New York and now here…" Rogue deadpanned. "Be still my beating heart."
"Where is her Royal Highness anyway?" Logan asked.
"Out there," Bobby pointed to the crowd of reporters just outside the door.
"Oh brother…" Logan grunted when he got a good look.
Glory had short blonde hair, a purple tank top with an unbuttoned yellow blouse, and a very short dark purple skirt. She looked like a thirty-five going on fifty-year old woman pretending to be only nineteen. Which she was. The press surrounded her trying to get an interview and pictures. "I don't know how you all found out about this," She twittered. "I mean this was like supposed to be a secret!"
"But your office called to say you'd be here…" One reporter said.
"Can't talk now! Gotta go work! Bye!" Glory posed for the cameras before ushering herself into the mansion with three other people.
"Hello! I'm Glory from Glory Magazine and soon to be on Glory TV," Glory grinned. "These are just some of my people here! My cameraman, personal assistant and makeup artist! I hope you don't mind!"
"Well…" Xavier began but was cut off.
"Oh my god this place is perfect!" Glory twittered. "This place is so…real."
"Yeah we kind of like it that way," Rogue said. Kitty elbowed her in the ribs.
"Hi Glory," Kitty extended her hand. "I'm Kitty Pryde."
"Oh my god! This is so cool! I mean me spending a day with a typical teen who happens to be a mutant," Glory twittered. "I just knew I had to do this story! It's just the kind of hot hip thing that needs to be written about."
"Because everything else has been written at least a bazillion times in every other magazine," Betsy whispered into Rogue's ear.
"Girlfriend I am so psyched! This expose is going to be P-H-A-T! Phat! Love it! Oh this is my assistant Anna…" She indicated a young woman with brown hair.
"Ann," The woman corrected. "Just Ann."
"She's like going to be writing everything down for me so don't worry, forget she's even here," Glory waved. "And Petey here will be taking pictures."
"Percy," The cameraman sighed.
"Whatever," Glory waved. "Now where is the Human Torch?"
"What?" Hank was taken aback.
"The Human Torch! I simply must meet him and…" She startled as she looked at Hank. "Oh my! Is that real fur?"
"All natural," Hank grinned.
"Hmmm…" Glory looked like she was judging him. "It works for you. Yes very edgy and in!"
"Well that's good to know," Hank said.
"Ms. Glory I am Professor Charles Xavier and I…" Xavier began.
"Oh yes, I love your book! Fabulous title! It moved me!" Glory said dramatically. "How about we all have a little confab about what I'm going to do for you and how we are going to accomplish this!" She saw Warren in the corner, walked straight over to him and hooked her arm around his. "Mr. Worthington I presume? If you'll show me the way?"
"Yes," Warren's manners shone through. "Right this way." They left with Glory babbling on about herself.
"It's official," Sam said. "Quicksilver is no longer the king of egos. The King is dead, long live Queen Glory."
"She seemed really nice on the phone," Kitty said.
"The phone?" Hank asked.
"Yeah she called me up yesterday and wanted to know what life was like here and who was living here," Kitty said.
"Kitty, in your conversation with her did you happen to tell her that The Human Torch of the Fantastic Four was here as well?" Hank asked.
"Well yeah," Kitty said. "Right after she asked about Warren."
"I think I just figured out her angle," Logan grunted. "And it ain't exactly about her story."
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Meanwhile on another mutant campus far away…
"How can you even accuse me of sleeping with her!" Evan shot at Tarot. They were both arguing in his room.
"I didn't say you were sleeping with her!" Tarot snapped. "I said you looked like you wanted to sleep with her! Are you sleeping with her?"
"NO! Look we had one strategy meeting session between the two of us just to get her up to speed!" Evan snapped. "We didn't even have a snack or anything and all of the sudden you're making it out to be some kind of affair? You have no reason to act this jealous!"
"Oh come on Evan, I've seen the looks half the girls on campus have given you!" Tarot snapped. "Especially since you've been taking the serum! And I don't like how you've been acting?"
"How I've been acting? How exactly have I been acting? More confident? More relaxed? Not worried that I might accidentally stab somebody? For the first time in I don't know how long I look and feel human again and you think it's a bad thing?"
"Yes…No…" Tarot sighed. "I don't know!"
"Look you have nothing to be jealous about," Evan took her in his arms. "I love you but you've been acting way to possessive lately! I can't even look at another girl without you going crazy."
"Well you do have a reputation, you have to admit," Tarot pulled away. "Especially after what you told me about your kid."
"That's what's really freaking you out isn't it?" Evan said. "I never should have told you."
"Are you planning on going back for her?" Tarot asked.
"By her do you mean my daughter or Tommy?" Evan snapped. Tarot stormed out. "Tarot!" He didn't even follow. He flopped back on the bed. "Aw man!"
Yvonne walked into the room. "Trouble in paradise?"
"Ohhhh…" Evan groaned. "You know I thought looking human again would only improve things between us! I don't get it! I finally look the way I should look, and now she's freaking out!"
"In other words, she only liked you when she thought no one else wanted you," Yvonne told her.
"Well she was wrong on that account!" Evan snorted. "Trust me on this."
"Oddly enough I do," Yvonne put her hand on his face. "Believe it or not Evan, you and I are a lot alike. People always have unrealistic expectations of us and they get mad when we don't live up to them."
"You mean like Ms. Frost?" Evan asked.
"She's the exception of the rule in my case," Yvonne sighed as she sat down next to him on the bed.
"Yeah well this thing with Tarot is starting to become a drag," Evan sighed.
"Really?" Yvonne grinned. "Then why not just dump her?"
"I still like her a lot," Evan told her.
"Like is not the same as love," Yvonne told him. "You like a book or a movie. A person wants more."
Then she kissed him. "What the…?" Evan gasped.
"Don't bother protesting," Yvonne grinned. "I picked up your thoughts. You definitely thought about this."
"Yeah but that's not the same as doing it!" Evan gasped. "Besides what if Tarot comes back?"
"She won't. She just left the building to go get some coffee. Most of the other Hellions are gone and the ones that are here are too busy playing Nintendo to find us," Yvonne grinned.
"But…But…" Evan quickly tried to think of a reason. "But Tarot…"
"If she's going to be jealous of me, why not give her a reason?" Yvonne grinned.
How do I let myself get into these things? Evan thought as he fell backwards onto the bed with Yvonne on top.
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Back at the Institute…
"And I said to Matt 'It's so hard to be a wunderkid' and he said 'You are so right,'" Glory was talking a mile a minute to both Warren and Johnny. Even though Scott, Xavier, Kitty, Hank and Ororo were in the room as well, she completely ignored them. "Then he said that I had to get my opinions out there and let people get to know me like he and all my other celebrity friends do, and that's how I started Glory!"
"That's…Interesting…" Warren said diplomatically.
"So Glory," Johnny maneuvered himself next to her. "You say you're going to have a TV show?"
"Yes I am! It's going to be all about me and my wonderful friends and gossip and fashion and…"
"Oh look there are some students outside with some problems, I'll just be a minute!" Scott said suddenly. He left the room and shut the door. Rogue, Betsy and Amara were there. "Thanks for the message! I couldn't take it another minute!"
"Telepathy," Betsy explained to the other two girls. "I could sense his distress halfway across the mansion."
"So could I and I'm not even telepathic," Rogue said. "That bad huh?"
"She's been here twenty minutes and all she's done is talk about herself to Johnny and Warren," Scott groaned. "Not that anyone else can get a word in edgewise."
"Where's Logan?" Amara asked.
"He took one whiff or her new fragrance and he ran off to the Danger Room," Scott groaned.
"Ugh, I can smell it from here," Rogue wrinkled her nose. "Must be brutal for Logan and his enhanced sense of smell."
"Three guesses what it's going to be called?" Betsy said sarcastically. "Could it be…Glory?"
"However did you guess?" Scott said sarcastically. "I wonder if it's too late to call the Misfits and back out of our bet so they can come over?"
"Oh dear," Betsy winced. "She's talking about her close personal friendship with Ashlee Simpson. Better call in Warren."
Warren soon rushed out and nearly slammed the door behind him. "Why the hell didn't you do this fifteen minutes earlier?" He moaned.
"Run Warren!" Rogue said. "You can hide in the attic and we'll hold her off with holy water!"
"Look she can't be that bad," Amara said. "I'd love to meet her."
"Be my guest!" Warren took off.
"Okay…" Scott braced himself. "But don't say you weren't warned."
"So I said to Mark, 'Well who else could be as fabulous as me? Don't I deserve a week in Aspen?'" Glory was going on full steam. Xavier looked like he was going to either wipe his own mind or Glory's. "But I got the deal done anyway and now I have two homes in Aspen! Not bad for a twenty eight year old huh?"
"Twenty Eight?" Hank spat out his drink.
"I know, I know…" Glory waved. "When I go out clubbing with all my celebrity friends, I'm the one who always gets carded!"
"These clubs…" Rogue began. "Are they very, very dark?"
"Were you on TV once?" Glory blinked at Rogue. "You were on the Fashion Channel or something."
"Or something yeah," Rogue admitted. "I ended up testifying before a Congressional Panel about mutant rights."
"Wow," Glory said. "You go girl! Getting the word out on mutant fashion to Congress! That is so cool. You must hear that a lot!"
"Well I can safely say I've never heard it put to me like that," Rogue said.
"Being famous can be such a drag! I never wanted to give up my privacy," Glory said.
"Sure that's why you put you name on your own magazine," Rogue said.
"Uh hello," Amara said quickly. "Glory, I'm Amara. Pleased to meet you."
"Well I'd be pleased to meet me too," Glory grinned.
"Perhaps we should get on topic and discuss what you hope to accomplish here Ms. Glory?" Xavier said, trying not to let his impatience show. "Our mission here is not only to educate mutants, but educate people as well."
"Sounds like school or something," Glory looked puzzled.
"Let me try to explain," Kitty said. "We want you to find the Institute not as just some boring and dull school. But a place that's pretty cool."
"My magazine only does edgy and cool," Glory said. "That's what drew me here! I want to know what it's really like at a mutant school. What you do, what you wear, how hard it is to be a teen…"
"Well then perhaps we should let the students show you around?" Ororo said quickly.
"Fine with me," Johnny stood up and offered his arm.
"I meant the students that have been here longer than a week," Ororo told him. "Girls, if you don't mind?"
"Why not?" Rogue gritted her teeth.
"This way," Kitty was excited. "I'll show you around!" She left with Glory, Rogue, Amara and Betsy. Johnny quickly followed anyway.
"Goddess Charles," Ororo slumped into her seat as soon as they were gone. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
"I knew we were desperate for good publicity…" Hank groaned. "But this!"
"I have to admit, that is the most vapid, self absorbed young woman I have ever met," Xavier was admittedly shaken. "And I've spent several evening's with my ex-wife's friends! And they were hardly Rhodes Scholars to say the least!"
"Does anyone have the number for the Misfits?" Scott moaned.
Meanwhile Glory had tagged onto Johnny and was gushing about herself. Kitty was leading out in front; showing them the garden while the rest of the girls remained behind. "I wonder where all her people are?" Rogue asked.
"I saw them hiding in the kitchen," Betsy said. "I feel sorry for those poor sods."
"Isn't she like a little old for that outfit?" Amara whispered.
"She's a little old for that brain," Betsy said.
"Oh what an adorable pink little girl!" Glory cooed as she saw Penny peek her nose out to see her. "I just love pink! It's so in! What a fashionable mutant!"
"Rrrrrrrrr…." Penny growled. She bounded up to them.
"Oh she wants to give me a hug!" Glory twittered. "Yes you may hug me you…YOU OWWWWW!"
"Oh too bad," Rogue chuckled. "Penny got her gloves loose."
Next: More fun pointless people torture! Gotta love it.