"I Tried"
Furor Paxx (VulgateOfEarth@hotmail.com)
Chapter 14- Todd Fan
Saturday.
Thank God it's come already. The sooner we get this over with, the better. I never wanted to do this in the first place, but I have no intention of getting caught in a fight between Pietro and Lance. I don't like fighting. That kinda bites since I'm probably the most powerful of the Brotherhood, but hey, what they don't know won't hurt me. By the way, it's four in the morning. Pietro got us up early to check the place all over again. With the speakers, might I add, but we all knew it was coming and he was polite about it. I guess. Well, the bruises will fade in a week or two and he'll be his usual annoyingly pale self. He needs to get a tan, though I'm probably not the person to talk.
"Hey, Todd. Do me a favor and start breakfast. I can't do this on empty." Scott says as he walks past. He's got that look on his face again. The 'Lance' look. Yep. Pietro's toast now.
Speaking of toast, we have no bread. In fact... dammit. We forgot to get just regular food. All we bought were groceries for the Open House. Dammit. I'm so tired I can't even swear properly. Damn. Probably should tell Sc...
"Todd? Mind getting outta the cabinet?"
"Mmmm. Not enough food." I manage to mutter before rolling over. I'm just remembering how to sleep again when someone (I wonder who) grabs me by the back of my shirt and drags me out of my cozy cabinet. Bastard.
"Yeah, we figured that out." Lance says and plops me down in a chair. "Scott went out and convinced Kaysin to help him find something." He shoves a plate of food at me and grins. "You look great."
"Yeah. Thanks, Lance. Thanks." Trust him to mock me now of all times. Time... dammit. How did I sleep 'til ten??
"We've been looking for you for hours. I told 'Tro he shouldn't wake you up early, but he didn't listen. Are you gonna eat, or just stare at me?" I don't mind either when it comes to that...
"I'm still sleepy." Is all I say though; Lance doesn't take compliments well, not since he got back with Kitty.
"You need a haircut." He says all solemn-like. Just because I know it pisses him off, I tossle my hair even more. "It's fine." I look at the plate and decide I'm not hungry. Bacon, eggs, pancakes and sausage. Blech. All that saturated fat... and charred animal flesh doesn't really appeal to me, maybe because I remember one too many times when that was almost me on that plate there. "So. What's everyone doing now?"
"Basically, hiding their stuff." Lance shrugs and picks a strip of bacon off my plate. Just to have something to do, I cram some pancake in my mouth, but I can tell it's gonna take a lot of chewing for me to swallow it. "Kurt's fixing up his room."
I pause chewing to frown.
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I guess Pietro asked him to at least pretend, Principal Buttface already knows we're mutants and it'll only make things worse if he knows that Pietro and Kurt are... well." Kurt's lived with us for almost two months now, and Lance still has difficulty accepting that. Well, it's true, the two of them are Bayville's biggest womanizers- no one even saw it coming. I refuse to believe they really do anything. First of all, Kurt's covered in fur, for Christ's sake, and I know Pietro... the sneaky little bastard is probably plotting something and-
I'm not supposed to think like that. That's why Lance invited Scott over. We're supposed to stop thinking like that. But it's hard.
"Dammit, Todd. Swallow." Lance growls at me. "You've had that one little piece of pancake in your mouth for five minutes." I look at the clock. Four minutes and fifteen seconds actually, but I swallow anyhow. "Ugh. Just eat later. Go to bed. I'll make sure 'Tro stays out." Fine by me, care to join me? "And I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. I've got some more errands to run. Scott'll probably wake you up around one."
"Whatever." I mutter. Why can't Lance come wake me up? Damn that Kitty. She's always ruining everything.
"You're not thinking bad things about Kitty, are you?" Lance asks as he follows me from the kitchen. Damn me. Why am I so obvious? Lance laughs and heads for the door.
"Hi, Scott." I hate him too.
"Hey. I suggest you crash while you can. I'm taking Pietro to Mason for a while so you guys have til about one to sleep."
"What about you?" I ask. He was up at four just like everyone else.
"I'm waiting in the car while he goes shopping." Scott's mask slips and he makes a painful face. "I'll sleep there." I bet Mr. Military could sleep standing. "No, Todd, I can't sleep standing, but the seats of my car do fold back." He laughs too and heads for the door.
"I hate you." I tell the first person I see next. Unfortunately it's Wanda and I interupted her telling me that she hated me. Ow. I'm too tired to even yelp. Go away Pietro. I especially hate you. Yes, Scott's outside. Stop looking at me like that.
"You realize that you're talking out loud, right?" Freddy says. Thank you Freddy, you're the only person honest enough to tell me instead of looking at me like I grew a trunk and have apples growing out of my head. "No problem."
Hmm. I never could figure him out. I drag my weary body to my room. Thank God it's downstairs. I look at the weeping willow painted on my wall and without another thought, curl up at it's base and fall asleep.
"Hey, Todd. Wake up. Time to get ready."
I slowly open my eyes and see Scott standing in my doorway. Yay. It's one already.
I slowly drag myself to sitting position and wonder if Lance is back. Then I kick myself for thinking about him at all, since Miss Kitty is seeing him again. Did I mention I hate her?
From sitting position, to a crouch, from crouch to standing. Man, it's a long way up. What was I doing? ... Uh. I think... hm. Good question. I think I'll just sleep on it.
"Todd. C'mon. You need to eat something. You haven't eaten all day."
I'm tired.
"I know, but try eating something. Or do I need to get Wanda in here?"
Who are you?
"It's Scott, Todd. Now move."
Don't wanna.
"Fine."
Ugh. Cold. Wet. MY CARPET!!
"Glad you noticed." Scott says as he tucks the bucket under his arm. "Hurry up and get something to soak that up. Then get ready. You wasted half an hour."
Twenty seven minutes and three seconds, actually. And ten milliseconds. So there.
I put a towel over the spot of carpet where that idiot dumped the water and trudge to the bathroom. Oh yeah, I think I need a bathrobe. Back to my room, step on the wet towel that's covering the wet carpet. Grab bathrobe, step on towel on spot again and head back to the bathroom.
Damn you Pietro. This is my bathroom time. Go find a mirror somewhere else. Screw you too.
I turn on the shower and wonder if someone can drown while they're in the shower. I'll try that someday. I think. Now that I'm really thinking, I don't think I will. In fact, the mechanics of drowning while taking a shower are a bit... well, I don't know what they are, but they're extremely whatever they are. Or something. What was I doing? Shower. Well, I should go to the bathroom, then. Except I'm already in the bathroom. What the Hell?
After staring at the walls around me for a minute, exactly, I shrug and grab the bottle of shampoo. If I'm going insane then it sure is helping me remember what I'm supposed to be doing.
Exactly three minutes later, I catch myself staring at the wall again. Huh? Again? I was staring at the wall before? Weird. What was I... rinsing the shampoo out. Right.
By the time I finish my shower and get out of the bathroom, an hour has passed. That had to have been the longest shower in the history of mutantkind. Well, excluding Pietro and Kurt's showers. Yuck. Bad thoughts.
Return to bedroom, collapse on bed, (When did I put a bed in here?) realize it's not my room, get up and trudge to my room. No bed here. Okay, collapse on the floor. Five minutes later, my brain kicks in and I get up again. Clothes. Where are my clothes? We have to look presentable, right? Dammit. Totally unfair. Boxers or briefs? Jeans or dress pants? White socks or black? Are they matching? Who cares? Find a shirt. This is the tricky part, making the shirt match the socks and pants. Hmm. The purple one'll do for now. I hate wearing button up shirts. Oh yeah. Shoes. That's easy. I only have one pair of dress shoes. Hope they fit.
They do. Redo buttons on shirt and try to open door at the same time... wait. Stop. Open door. Turn around, is the room straight? Yes. Okay. Now redo buttons. Bah. Who needs buttons. Where is everyone?
I cautiously peer around the corner. No one in the piano room. Or in the kitchen. Or in the TV room. Or... where'd they go? I stand still in the TV room and listen.
There, I heard Scott somewhere to my left. I spin around to try to find him and I'm facing... nothing. I turn back around and suddenly Scott materializes in the middle of the room, just walking as though he didn't notice he did anything weird. Next thing I know, Pietro whizzes past, mouth moving as though he's saying something, but not making a sound. Freaky. I turn around and see Lance looking at me. How long was he standing there?
"Are you okay?" Someone asks.
"Yeah. Fine." I answer, wondering who it was. It's two fifty-four. I don't feel good. I mean, I feel fine, but there are these gaps... like I'm missing something.
"Your hair's a mess." Pietro says as he zips past me. "And you need a haircut." Then he attacks me with a comb. Suddenly I don't feel okay at all. "Are you sure you're okay? You're really pale."
"Yeah yeah."
There's the doorbell, just as Pietro backs off with that damn torture instrument. Ten bucks says it's the Professor.
I am ten dollars richer. Oh yeah. Who's the Toad? I'm the Toad. Yo.
Pleasantries are exchanged, blah blah blah. I'm bored. When will this be over? I guess I'll just find someplace quiet to avoid everyone. Where would that be?
A/N
Very confusing, but I just couldn't resist doing a Toad POV right before things get crazy. Which they will. By the way, that next to last line (Who's the Toad? I'm the Toad. Yo) was ripped off my friend, Fran. She says that being able to scream that at the top of your lungs as a victory mantra makes having a name that rhymes with 'man' worthwhile. I dunno, maybe it's funnier when she says it 'cause she insists on pronounciating every letter and somehow manages to do that while babbling at the speed of... sound. Or something. Yeah, all my friends are weird. She's decided to take over the Think Deep story, since I've all but abandoned it. Sorry. But you'll be happy to know that she helped me with a torture scene in To Live Again, and she'll be there when things finally go downhill. I'm sorry, did I say finally? I mean, totally, without any sense of loyalty to the characters, let a homicidal teenager loose on an already violent story. Yeah, one day, you'll look back on that and think, what the Hell was Furor thinking?
Well, anyway. I probably shouldn't promote one story over the other, so I'm sorry. I'll make up for it. Somehow.
Furor Paxx (VulgateOfEarth@hotmail.com)
Chapter 14- Todd Fan
Saturday.
Thank God it's come already. The sooner we get this over with, the better. I never wanted to do this in the first place, but I have no intention of getting caught in a fight between Pietro and Lance. I don't like fighting. That kinda bites since I'm probably the most powerful of the Brotherhood, but hey, what they don't know won't hurt me. By the way, it's four in the morning. Pietro got us up early to check the place all over again. With the speakers, might I add, but we all knew it was coming and he was polite about it. I guess. Well, the bruises will fade in a week or two and he'll be his usual annoyingly pale self. He needs to get a tan, though I'm probably not the person to talk.
"Hey, Todd. Do me a favor and start breakfast. I can't do this on empty." Scott says as he walks past. He's got that look on his face again. The 'Lance' look. Yep. Pietro's toast now.
Speaking of toast, we have no bread. In fact... dammit. We forgot to get just regular food. All we bought were groceries for the Open House. Dammit. I'm so tired I can't even swear properly. Damn. Probably should tell Sc...
"Todd? Mind getting outta the cabinet?"
"Mmmm. Not enough food." I manage to mutter before rolling over. I'm just remembering how to sleep again when someone (I wonder who) grabs me by the back of my shirt and drags me out of my cozy cabinet. Bastard.
"Yeah, we figured that out." Lance says and plops me down in a chair. "Scott went out and convinced Kaysin to help him find something." He shoves a plate of food at me and grins. "You look great."
"Yeah. Thanks, Lance. Thanks." Trust him to mock me now of all times. Time... dammit. How did I sleep 'til ten??
"We've been looking for you for hours. I told 'Tro he shouldn't wake you up early, but he didn't listen. Are you gonna eat, or just stare at me?" I don't mind either when it comes to that...
"I'm still sleepy." Is all I say though; Lance doesn't take compliments well, not since he got back with Kitty.
"You need a haircut." He says all solemn-like. Just because I know it pisses him off, I tossle my hair even more. "It's fine." I look at the plate and decide I'm not hungry. Bacon, eggs, pancakes and sausage. Blech. All that saturated fat... and charred animal flesh doesn't really appeal to me, maybe because I remember one too many times when that was almost me on that plate there. "So. What's everyone doing now?"
"Basically, hiding their stuff." Lance shrugs and picks a strip of bacon off my plate. Just to have something to do, I cram some pancake in my mouth, but I can tell it's gonna take a lot of chewing for me to swallow it. "Kurt's fixing up his room."
I pause chewing to frown.
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I guess Pietro asked him to at least pretend, Principal Buttface already knows we're mutants and it'll only make things worse if he knows that Pietro and Kurt are... well." Kurt's lived with us for almost two months now, and Lance still has difficulty accepting that. Well, it's true, the two of them are Bayville's biggest womanizers- no one even saw it coming. I refuse to believe they really do anything. First of all, Kurt's covered in fur, for Christ's sake, and I know Pietro... the sneaky little bastard is probably plotting something and-
I'm not supposed to think like that. That's why Lance invited Scott over. We're supposed to stop thinking like that. But it's hard.
"Dammit, Todd. Swallow." Lance growls at me. "You've had that one little piece of pancake in your mouth for five minutes." I look at the clock. Four minutes and fifteen seconds actually, but I swallow anyhow. "Ugh. Just eat later. Go to bed. I'll make sure 'Tro stays out." Fine by me, care to join me? "And I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. I've got some more errands to run. Scott'll probably wake you up around one."
"Whatever." I mutter. Why can't Lance come wake me up? Damn that Kitty. She's always ruining everything.
"You're not thinking bad things about Kitty, are you?" Lance asks as he follows me from the kitchen. Damn me. Why am I so obvious? Lance laughs and heads for the door.
"Hi, Scott." I hate him too.
"Hey. I suggest you crash while you can. I'm taking Pietro to Mason for a while so you guys have til about one to sleep."
"What about you?" I ask. He was up at four just like everyone else.
"I'm waiting in the car while he goes shopping." Scott's mask slips and he makes a painful face. "I'll sleep there." I bet Mr. Military could sleep standing. "No, Todd, I can't sleep standing, but the seats of my car do fold back." He laughs too and heads for the door.
"I hate you." I tell the first person I see next. Unfortunately it's Wanda and I interupted her telling me that she hated me. Ow. I'm too tired to even yelp. Go away Pietro. I especially hate you. Yes, Scott's outside. Stop looking at me like that.
"You realize that you're talking out loud, right?" Freddy says. Thank you Freddy, you're the only person honest enough to tell me instead of looking at me like I grew a trunk and have apples growing out of my head. "No problem."
Hmm. I never could figure him out. I drag my weary body to my room. Thank God it's downstairs. I look at the weeping willow painted on my wall and without another thought, curl up at it's base and fall asleep.
"Hey, Todd. Wake up. Time to get ready."
I slowly open my eyes and see Scott standing in my doorway. Yay. It's one already.
I slowly drag myself to sitting position and wonder if Lance is back. Then I kick myself for thinking about him at all, since Miss Kitty is seeing him again. Did I mention I hate her?
From sitting position, to a crouch, from crouch to standing. Man, it's a long way up. What was I doing? ... Uh. I think... hm. Good question. I think I'll just sleep on it.
"Todd. C'mon. You need to eat something. You haven't eaten all day."
I'm tired.
"I know, but try eating something. Or do I need to get Wanda in here?"
Who are you?
"It's Scott, Todd. Now move."
Don't wanna.
"Fine."
Ugh. Cold. Wet. MY CARPET!!
"Glad you noticed." Scott says as he tucks the bucket under his arm. "Hurry up and get something to soak that up. Then get ready. You wasted half an hour."
Twenty seven minutes and three seconds, actually. And ten milliseconds. So there.
I put a towel over the spot of carpet where that idiot dumped the water and trudge to the bathroom. Oh yeah, I think I need a bathrobe. Back to my room, step on the wet towel that's covering the wet carpet. Grab bathrobe, step on towel on spot again and head back to the bathroom.
Damn you Pietro. This is my bathroom time. Go find a mirror somewhere else. Screw you too.
I turn on the shower and wonder if someone can drown while they're in the shower. I'll try that someday. I think. Now that I'm really thinking, I don't think I will. In fact, the mechanics of drowning while taking a shower are a bit... well, I don't know what they are, but they're extremely whatever they are. Or something. What was I doing? Shower. Well, I should go to the bathroom, then. Except I'm already in the bathroom. What the Hell?
After staring at the walls around me for a minute, exactly, I shrug and grab the bottle of shampoo. If I'm going insane then it sure is helping me remember what I'm supposed to be doing.
Exactly three minutes later, I catch myself staring at the wall again. Huh? Again? I was staring at the wall before? Weird. What was I... rinsing the shampoo out. Right.
By the time I finish my shower and get out of the bathroom, an hour has passed. That had to have been the longest shower in the history of mutantkind. Well, excluding Pietro and Kurt's showers. Yuck. Bad thoughts.
Return to bedroom, collapse on bed, (When did I put a bed in here?) realize it's not my room, get up and trudge to my room. No bed here. Okay, collapse on the floor. Five minutes later, my brain kicks in and I get up again. Clothes. Where are my clothes? We have to look presentable, right? Dammit. Totally unfair. Boxers or briefs? Jeans or dress pants? White socks or black? Are they matching? Who cares? Find a shirt. This is the tricky part, making the shirt match the socks and pants. Hmm. The purple one'll do for now. I hate wearing button up shirts. Oh yeah. Shoes. That's easy. I only have one pair of dress shoes. Hope they fit.
They do. Redo buttons on shirt and try to open door at the same time... wait. Stop. Open door. Turn around, is the room straight? Yes. Okay. Now redo buttons. Bah. Who needs buttons. Where is everyone?
I cautiously peer around the corner. No one in the piano room. Or in the kitchen. Or in the TV room. Or... where'd they go? I stand still in the TV room and listen.
There, I heard Scott somewhere to my left. I spin around to try to find him and I'm facing... nothing. I turn back around and suddenly Scott materializes in the middle of the room, just walking as though he didn't notice he did anything weird. Next thing I know, Pietro whizzes past, mouth moving as though he's saying something, but not making a sound. Freaky. I turn around and see Lance looking at me. How long was he standing there?
"Are you okay?" Someone asks.
"Yeah. Fine." I answer, wondering who it was. It's two fifty-four. I don't feel good. I mean, I feel fine, but there are these gaps... like I'm missing something.
"Your hair's a mess." Pietro says as he zips past me. "And you need a haircut." Then he attacks me with a comb. Suddenly I don't feel okay at all. "Are you sure you're okay? You're really pale."
"Yeah yeah."
There's the doorbell, just as Pietro backs off with that damn torture instrument. Ten bucks says it's the Professor.
I am ten dollars richer. Oh yeah. Who's the Toad? I'm the Toad. Yo.
Pleasantries are exchanged, blah blah blah. I'm bored. When will this be over? I guess I'll just find someplace quiet to avoid everyone. Where would that be?
A/N
Very confusing, but I just couldn't resist doing a Toad POV right before things get crazy. Which they will. By the way, that next to last line (Who's the Toad? I'm the Toad. Yo) was ripped off my friend, Fran. She says that being able to scream that at the top of your lungs as a victory mantra makes having a name that rhymes with 'man' worthwhile. I dunno, maybe it's funnier when she says it 'cause she insists on pronounciating every letter and somehow manages to do that while babbling at the speed of... sound. Or something. Yeah, all my friends are weird. She's decided to take over the Think Deep story, since I've all but abandoned it. Sorry. But you'll be happy to know that she helped me with a torture scene in To Live Again, and she'll be there when things finally go downhill. I'm sorry, did I say finally? I mean, totally, without any sense of loyalty to the characters, let a homicidal teenager loose on an already violent story. Yeah, one day, you'll look back on that and think, what the Hell was Furor thinking?
Well, anyway. I probably shouldn't promote one story over the other, so I'm sorry. I'll make up for it. Somehow.