Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Comics and Marvel Enterprises.
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Part 3- Jersey Girl
In the span of less than twenty-four hours, Angelica Jones had seen her life get turned completely and irrevocably upside down. From her uncovering the fact that her Headmistress Emma Frost had been altering her thoughts and memories, to her learning that a number of her fellow classmates at the Massachusetts Academy were secretly involved in the radical mutant-extremist faction known as The Brotherhood, she then had to ultimately fight Pyro, Avalanche, and The Blob, three of the best that the Brotherhood had to offer, and it just seemed that things continued in a downward spiral for her, going from bad to a hell of alot worse.
But on this new day, Angelica now found herself in what were fairly unfamiliar surroundings, as she wandered down the seemingly endless labyrinth of corridors in Xavier's School for the Gifted, on her way to a meeting with school's Headmaster Professor Charles Xavier in his private study. This was after Angelica had woken up this morning on the sofa in the student rec-room of his school in Westchester County, New York following her very eventful night, and now she was trying to prepare herself for whatever new uncertainties lay in store for her.
"Angelica, please come in."
With those words from Professor Xavier thrust directly into her mind with the force of a gentle breeze, the redhead who stood just a little over five feet tall opened the large solid oak door in front of her, and Angelica proceeded to take a couple of steps inside to the Professor's study. Angelica had immediately realized that Professor Xavier was communicating with her telepathically, and given everything that had happened between her and Miss Frost, it was an awareness that Angelica was nonetheless very uncomfortable with.
"Hey Angelica, I see you found your way back down here without a map. When I first got here, it took me almost a week before I stopped getting lost, and I thought the Professor might have to end up mind-calling you with directions too." Bobby Drake smiled and happily told Angelica, as he stood with his back up against the wall close to the Professor's desk, dressed in a blue and white-striped, Rugby long-sleeved shirt and a pair of loose-fitting, soft-washed jeans.
"Yeah, about the mind-calling. Could you maybe lay off of those, at least until I can get my mind straight over exactly what Miss Frost did to me?" Angelica now asked Professor Xavier, as she closed the door behind her.
Angelica came in and stood just inside of the door, dressed in an orange cable-knit turtleneck, camel-colored pleated pants, and was wearing an expression that displayed just how leery she was of anyone poking around in her head right now.
"Of course, Angelica. I've grown so accustomed over the years with automatically communicating with my students telepathically, I apologize for not taking into consideration your justifiable reservations regarding it." Professor Xavier told her, as he sat behind his desk in the study, wearing one of his customary black suits with a white dress shirt and red tie.
"It's alright, really. You don't have to apologize, sir." Angelica smiled and replied, and felt kind of silly for even bringing up the subject to Professor Xavier, especially since he had been nice enough to open up his home and school to her so freely.
"I trust that you are feeling better this morning?" Professor Xavier now inquired of Angelica, as Bobby came over and picked up a newspaper that was sitting on the corner-edge of Professor Xavier's desk.
"Alot better. Even though, I got a few weird looks upstairs when some of your students saw me coming out of Kitty's room." Angelica now said, as she came across the study and stopped right in front of the Professor's desk. Angelica was referring to her trip to the upstairs dormitories, where she had gone to shower and change clothes after she had awoken this morning.
"I will gather them all together later and explained what has happened." Professor Xavier told her, as Bobby unfolded the newspaper that he had picked up, now holding it open in front of him.
"Well, just show them this and I think they'll understand everything." Bobby smirked and said, as Professor Xavier had already seen the front page headline of the Daily Bugle, but Angelica was just now being given that first opportunity.
THE DAILY BUGLE
New York's Finest Daily News!
(Final Edition)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends?
By Joy Mercado
"You've gotta be kidding?" Was the only thing Angelica could manage to slowly articulate, as she walked over to Bobby and took the paper into her hands, closely examining the story that had been run as the paper's headline.
"See, I told you we'd make the news. And it looks like we even managed to bump news of Wilson Fisk getting off from the top spot too." Bobby further said, as he pointed down towards the bottom of the page at a tag line that read 'Mistrial Declared in Alleged Kingpin of Crime Case, by Ben Urich', but Angelica's emerald eyes remained fixated on the Daily Bugle's lead story.
Angelica read on about Spider-Man being involved in a mutant melee in mid-town Manhattan, about how recently escaped convict Frederick Dukes, aka The Blob, had also been sighted in the disturbance along with an Iceman, and how it remained unconfirmed as to whether this was the same 'Iceman' seen a few months ago helping to liberate Washington D.C. from the attempted Sentinel takeover.
"I wonder who took these pictures?" Angelica now said, as she commented on the photo on the front page showing Spider-Man, Bobby, and herself flying away from the scene of the fight, "I don't remember seeing any photographers standing around."
"It's probably the same guy that manages to get all those other photos of Spider-Man." Bobby surmised, as he stood next to Angelica and looked down with her at the newspaper in her hands.
"We should consider ourselves fortunate that neither of you are easily recognizable to anyone in these shots." Professor Xavier now commented, referring to the fact that Bobby was iced-up in the photo and that the aura from Angelica's energy-field obscured any of their distinguishable features, in addition to the fact that the photo seemed to have almost been intentionally snapped from an angle that would have made it virtually impossible to identify either of them anyways.
"Except for everyone back in Snow Valley. The Brotherhood'll definitely recognize and know who's in it." Angelica now said to Bobby and the Professor.
"Since you've brought up the subject, I wanted to let you to know that I've called and spoken to Emma Frost earlier this morning." Professor Xavier told Angelica and Bobby.
"What did you talk to her about?" Angelica curiously questioned him.
"I informed her of your decision not to return to the Massachusetts Academy." Professor Xavier replied.
"And what did she say?" Angelica asked, almost dreading his response.
"She certainly wasn't thrilled to hear that, but she didn't voice any objections to me. Which is as I had expected, given everything that Bobby had told me this morning regarding what transpired with all of you last night." Professor Xavier answered her, referencing the debriefing that he and Bobby had conducted together earlier that morning. It had taken place before Professor Xavier had sent Bobby back to the student rec-room, to check on Angelica and to see if she was awake.
Then, the Professor proceeded to reveal to Angelica another conversation that he had that morning.
"I have also contacted your father, as well."
"You did? What'd you tell him?" Angelica really wanted to know
"A number of things, but mainly your desire not to return to Snow Valley. I told him that I would be more than willing to accept you as a transfer here, even in the middle of the semester." Professor Xavier told Angelica, leaning back slightly in his wheel-chair as he made his offer to her.
"Did he say it was okay?" Angelica was now dying to know.
"Actually, he didn't say anything about it one way or the other. What he did say is that he very much wanted to talk to you. In person." Professor Xavier explained, "I told him that I would have someone from the school drive you home to West Morris at once, and Bobby has volunteered to escort you back there."
"He must be really mad because I ran away from the Massachusetts Academy. I know he's gonna make me go back there, I just know it!" Angelica said, as she started to become visibly upset at the very prospect of going back to the private school located in Massachusetts, and looked as though she might begin to cry.
"Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright." Bobby now said to Angelica, as he came over to her and supportively put his arm around her, "C'mon, let's cut out of here now, so you can go get things cleared up with your Dad."
As Angelica and Bobby then turned to head towards the study's door together, Bobby stopped and turned back around to now say something else to the Professor.
"I forgot to ask, how did things go with your meeting with those people who sent that car to pick you up last night?" Bobby turned back around to inquire.
"Everything is fine, for the time being at least." Professor Xavier replied, talking about that urgent piece of business he had been called away on the previous evening, which he unfortunately had been unable to postpone.
"You wanna stop in the kitchen and grab something to eat before we leave?" Bobby now turned back and asked Angelica, as he had pulled his arm back from around her waist, and the two of them crossed the expanse of the study side-by-side.
"No, I'm fine. I just want to hurry up and get back home." Angelica anxiously replied, as the study's door came to a close behind the pair, both of whom had just stepped into the hallway outside and would soon be making their way out to the campus' car garage.
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After spending roughly the last hour heading south from Westchester County on the I-87/287 corridor, which they had traveled on the night before when they departed from New York City following their fight with the Brotherhood, Angelica and Bobby now found themselves crossing the state line into New Jersey over the Hudson River via the George Washington Bridge. And, as the red Dodge SRT4 that they were riding in merged onto the New Jersey Turnpike, they knew that they were now one step closer on their trek to Angelica's home.
While Bobby was rolling his driver-side window back up, after paying at and then pulling away from one of the toll booths on the Turnpike, the pair's fairly quiet and thankfully uneventful trip continued on. In the meantime, Angelica continued to stare pensively out of her passenger-side window, her mind heavy with everything that had happened to her within the span of less than a day.
"I guess it must feel pretty good to know we're not too far from you being back home?" Bobby now commented to Angelica, as he continued navigating through the semi-congested traffic on the four-lane highway.
"Actually, if my Dad didn't still live in West Morris, I don't know if I'd ever go back there?" Angelica replied, which somewhat surprised Bobby with her remark, as she continued staring out of her window at the endless assortment of trees lining the sides of the highway. A few of them still managed to maintain a modestly green appearance this late in the season, but the majority were bare and had already lost their withered and brown leaves by this point in the year.
"What makes you say that?" Bobby asked Angelica, regarding her comment about not wanting to return to the place that had been her home for nearly a year before her enrollment at the Massachusetts Academy.
"Let's just say I don't have very many fond memories there. Matter of fact, I have some pretty terrible ones from there, and that's one reason why I was kinda glad when I finally did leave." Angelica revealed, as some of those unpleasant memories now began to conjure themselves up in her mind, "There was this girl named Cassie at my high school, who just loved to find new ways to torment me. She used to always pick on me, and then she'd come up with these horrible nicknames for me that she'd have a lot of the other kids at school calling me by."
"Like what?" Bobby curiously inquired, as he kept his eyes glued on the traffic in front of, and all around them.
"Cassie, and the popular kids she hung out with, had a buncha them." Angelica further explained, as the epithet that she truly despised came to mind, one that she had long tried to forget, "But, the worst nickname they had for me had to be 'shit-breaks'."
"You mean, like that guy in those American Pie movies?" Bobby looked over and asked Angelica, as he couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Yes, and it's not funny!" Angelica angrily snapped back at him, "Every time she saw me, Cassie would always shout and point 'Look out everyone, here comes Angelica. Shit always breaks when she's around'."
Angelica then couldn't help but pause at the thought of how much those insults hurt her, as the pain at having dared to even reveal any of this to Bobby was very much evident in her voice.
"Things seemed to have a weird habit of going wrong whenever I was around, and stuff was always either spontaneously melting or exploding around me. It got so bad that even I had started to wonder if maybe I really was bad luck?" Angelica continued, as she now sat with her elbow propped up on the passenger door's arm-rest, her face gently resting against her right hand that she had half-curled up into a fist, "It took me a long time before I figured out that it was happening because I was a mutant, and even then I didn't know the first thing about the microwave energy my body was producing, or had any idea on how to control it. That's why I was so glad when Miss Frost came and explained things to me, and…well, you know how all of that ended up turning out."
"Yeah, do I." Bobby remarked, as his curiosity about Angelica continued, "So this girl, did she do all of this to you because you accidentally melted her I-pod or somethin'?"
"No, I think she actually hated me because she found out I liked the same guy that she did, a guy at our school named Chuckie Belson." Angelica replied, remembering one of the most embarrassing days of her life. It was when she unwittingly dropped one of her notebooks on the ground and Cassie picked it up, seeing where Angelica had scribbled Chuckie's name all over the inside of the notebook's cover and had affectionately traced little hearts around his name too.
"It was all worth it though, right?" Bobby further asked.
"If you mean, was it worth the living hell she put me through over some stupid crush that went absolutely nowhere, then no. Chuckie was way out of my league, and I don't think he had any idea that I was even alive." Angelica answered him, "And who can blame him, there's really not that much to notice anyways."
With that last statement, Bobby couldn't help but look over at Angelica and take in her curvaceously-built, classic Kate Winslet-esque physique, which he himself had no problem in noticing. And, Bobby further thought to himself that if this Chuckie-guy was able to overlook someone as beautiful and as wonderful as Angelica, the he had to be legally blind or something. But, as this entire conversation on the subject of love, and of love lost or not found progressed, it wound up bringing something else to mind for Angelica.
"I heard that you used to date that girl Rogue?" Angelica said, as she was now the one to ask questions, recalling this little tidbit that she had overheard John mentioning to Tabitha on their corporate jet ride from Snow Valley to the joint semi-formal dance that had been held at the Hellfire Club in New York a few weeks ago.
"Yeah, emphasis on 'used to'." Bobby told her, in regards to his and Rogue's relationship now.
"Why'd you two break up? I remember seeing her at the Gala, and she seemed pretty nice." Angelica commented, after having gotten the chance to put a face to the name that she had overheard on a whim, and remembered seeing the girl that John had described to be Rogue that night.
"We broke up for the same reason most people do, over something stupid." Bobby replied simply, as the car continued its acceleration down the highway.
Now, Bobby was the one left to reminisce over painful memories, and over the circumstances surrounding his decision to end his relationship with Rogue, remembering the misery that he had gone through as a result for some time afterwards.
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As the red car carrying Bobby and Angelica came to a slow stop in front of a small, one-story house with faded sage paint on its exterior, Angelica knew the moment that she had been anticipating had now come. Now, she was in West Morris, and she was finally back home.
"Well, here we are." Bobby said to Angelica, as he turned the car's ignition off in front of her home, following a journey that had lasted nearly two and a half hours.
"Yeah." Was all Angelica said in response, as she looked out of her window at a house that she hadn't seen in well more than six months.
Then, as Angelica turned away from her passenger-side view of her house, which still had the same old beat-up tan Ford Ranger that was older than her parked out in front of it, she now spoke to Bobby again.
"Sorry, I know it's not much to look at, but this neighborhood really isn't as bad as it seems." Angelica looked over towards Bobby and said, doing so almost apologetically.
While the neighborhood that Angelica and her Dad lived in wasn't exactly prime real estate, there were certainly places that existed which were far worse off. But having had the opportunity to see such magnificent places, as the ones that existed in Snow Valley and in Westchester, Angelica felt a slight tinge of embarrassment at Bobby now seeing that this was the place that she called home.
"You don't have to apologize, it's alright really." Bobby told Angelica, as he looked over at her and could sense what was bothering her, before abruptly changing the subject to what he was truly concerned about, "Have you thought about what you're going to tell your Dad?"
"The truth, I guess." Angelica replied, looking over right into Bobby's clear blue eyes.
"Okay, but you might want to leave out the part about us getting into a fight last night. Parents tend to freak over that kinda stuff." Bobby advised her.
"Yeah, and I'm sure my Dad's probably already on the verge of flippin' out as it is." Angelica replied, nodding her head in agreement, "So, ummm, here goes."
Angelica then took in a deep sighing breath and was just about to open the door on her side of the car, when Bobby all of a sudden reached over and took her left hand into his.
"Don't worry. It's like I told you earlier, everything's going to be fine. And you'll be heading back to Westchester with me in no time." Bobby once again supportively told Angelica, which caused her to blush a little at his encouraging words, and more importantly, because of the comforting and caressing manner in which he was holding her hand.
The pair then got of their car now parked next to the curb, and went over to open a small entrance gate adjoining a picket fence that surrounded the Jones residence. Bobby and Angelica proceeded through the gate and slowly made their way along a brick walkway that led right up to the house's front door. After climbing a small three-step staircase up to the porch, Angelica went and unlocked the front door for them, then she and Bobby proceeded on inside.
"Daddy, are you in here?" Angelica called out, as she and Bobby came into the house and closed the door behind them, hanging their coats up by the front door.
"In here, honey." They heard a voice call out from the next room, and Angelica and Bobby immediately followed it to its source.
Sitting on the sofa in the living room was Bartholomew Jones, a modestly-built construction worker and father-of-one in his early forties, who this afternoon was dressed in his usual weekday ensemble consisting of a blue button-up workshirt, faded blue jeans, and dark brown work boots. This was despite the fact that a concerned Mr. Jones hadn't been at work today, choosing instead to wait for his daughter's anticipated arrival following the lengthy telephone conversation that he had earlier that morning with Professor Xavier.
"So, do you want to explain to me what's all this business about you just up and running off from your school?" Mr. Jones calmly asked Angelica, as he stood up from the sofa, the light wafting in from a nearby window making the modest graying around his temples all the more visible.
"I left because I…I just don't belong there." Angelica fidgeted and said to him in response, as she and Bobby stood over by the room's entrance.
"I don't buy that. Besides, you know it's way too dangerous for you to be out on your own like this." Mr. Jones replied, this time his tone more serious.
"You mean, it's because I'm too dangerous, don't you?" Angelica bitingly said to him, as a point of contention in her relationship with her father now began to surface.
"And what is that supposed to mean, young lady?" Mr. Jones demanded of her, as Angelica prepared herself for what she was about to say next.
"You never really asked me if I even wanted to go off with Miss Frost. Face it, the only reason you sent me to the Massachusetts Academy is so you wouldn't have to deal with your mutie-freak daughter!" Angelica scornfully yelled at her father.
"That's not why I sent you there, and you know it!" Mr. Jones loudly replied, although his daughter had managed to strike a nerve with him.
There was no doubt that Bart Jones loved his daughter, but even he wasn't perfect. When he first learned that Angelica was a mutant, he was fearful for his little girl having to live in a world where being born with an extra and exceptional set of genes was a social stigma. But even beyond that, Mr. Jones was reluctant to deal with any of these issues that his daughter now had to face, and felt ashamed of the fact that Angelica was a mutant.
Which was the main reason why he felt such great relief when Emma Frost unexpectedly appeared, promising that she could help his daughter. When she made her offer to Mr. Jones, it came not too long after Angelica had accidentally used her powers to set fire to her high school's gymnasium, following a cruel prank that had been played on Angelica by some of her classmates. Mr. Jones readily agreed to send Angelica off to Snow Valley in the hopes that his daughter would learn how to control these powers that she had born with, and as selfish as he knew it was, he also did it so that Angelica would eventually learn how to hide her abilities and could hopefully one day at least pretend to be normal.
"Daddy, I think we need to talk. I mean, really talk, about me and about my mutant powers." A now calmed down Angelica said, as she closed her eyes and took a sighingly deep breath.
"You're right, I think it's way past time we did." Mr. Jones now agreed, as he walked across the living room over to the door of a small den that sat adjacent to it, with Angelica following behind him and soon sliding the door to the den closed behind them.
Now left alone in the living room, Bobby went over and sat down on the sofa to look at the afternoon news program that Angelica's Dad had been watching on TV. But as he sat there, Bobby soon realized that he wasn't quite as alone in the living room as he thought.
Coming in and walking over to one its corners, and acting as though she owned the place, was an orange and black Tabby housecat. Having had a cat of his own back home in Boston, Bobby was very familiar with how to get its attention. Bobby made a gesture by lightly tapping his hand on his knee to beckon the cat, although he knew from personal experience that it was a gamble as to whether the cat would actually respond to him, or would just continue on about its business without so much as giving him a second look.
But, in this case the cat slowly sauntered over to Bobby, first sniffing around his feet and then hopping up onto the other end of sofa. After a few minutes the cat nudged its way over next to him, and was soon purring as Bobby began to stroke the back of her neck. All the while, Bobby patiently sat and wondered what the outcome of the conversation between Angelica and her father would be?
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More than an hour later, Angelica and her father finally emerged from the den, having had the chance to clear the air and get some things out in the open between them during that time.
"…just remember we have a deal. No more running away." Mr. Jones was in the middle of saying, as the door now slid open in front of him.
"Yes, Daddy." Angelica happily replied, as she came out of the den with her father's arm around her.
"And since Xavier's school is a lot closer, I expect to see you more often than I did when you were in Massachusetts." Mr. Jones further said, giving Bobby a definitive answer as to the question of which school Angelica was going to wind up at.
"I promise. Plus, now that Pumpkin's made herself a new friend, I guess Bobby'll have to come back with me for a visit too." Angelica playfully giggled, as they came out to see Bobby and her pet cat Pumpkin sitting and semi-bonding on the sofa together.
"Yeah, I've got my own four-legged welcoming committee here." Bobby replied, as he continued stroking Pumpkin, knowing full well that cats more often than not didn't endear themselves so quickly to strangers.
"I don't believe it! I spend everyday in the same house as that crazy cat and she barely comes near me, but she's all over you in the span of five minutes." Mr. Jones now said to Bobby, as he walked over towards the sofa and Pumpkin noticeably took her leave by heading back into another room.
"It's probably because of that time when you threatened to take her to an animal shelter, after she accidentally ripped down those blinds and curtains." Angelica reminded him, as she pointed over at one of the windows in the living room.
"You know I wasn't serious, sweetheart." Angelica's father turned back and said to her.
"I know, but I'm not the one who still needs convincing." Angelica once again giggled, as she pointed out that detail to him.
"Well Bobby, since Pumpkin's given you her seal of approval, I guess it's only right that I should come over and properly introduce myself too." Mr. Jones smiled and said, as he stopped in front of the sofa and offered his hand to Bobby, having not done so earlier because of his pressing desire to first find out what exactly had been going on with his daughter.
"It's a pleasure, sir." Bobby replied, as he stood up and shook Mr. Jones' hand.
"Since you don't look old enough to be a teacher there, I'm going to assume that you're also one of Xavier's students?" Mr. Jones commented to Bobby, as he took a few steps back from him, his demeanor now much calmer and more relaxed than when Bobby and Angelica had first arrived earlier in the afternoon, "And since you go to this school, I'm also assuming that means…"
"That, I'm a mutant too. Yeah, I guess it does." Bobby finished and confirmed for him.
"I've seen this Charles Xavier on TV before, making those speeches for mutant rights. It takes some guts for a regular joe to stand up and say things like that, especially with the way things are these days." Mr. Jones further commented, as he like the majority of the public were unaware that Professor Xavier was himself a mutant, "So, what kind of teacher is he like?"
"He's the best. I couldn't begin to tell you all of the things I've learned from him." Bobby replied, as he kept his answer intentionally vague since he wasn't sure just what Angelica had told her father.
"He must be somethin', especially with trustin' one of his students to drive my daughter all the way out here to New Jersey." Mr. Jones remarked with a bit of concern over that decision in his voice, as he put his arm back around Angelica.
"But, Bobby's a reeaaally good driver. And he's really safe too, Daddy." Angelica now looked up at her Dad and interjected on Bobby's behalf.
"Yeah, the Professor's also ridden with me a lot of times before. Like when we came to visit the Massachusetts Academy a few months ago, I drove him all the way back from Snow Valley to Westchester." Bobby explained to Mr. Jones.
"And it looks like your recruiting drive worked too. It's no wonder my Angelica kept going on and on about how sweet and nice you were just a few minutes ago, now I have a good idea where all of that started." Mr. Jones smiled a little, as he revealed some of what had been discussed between them in the closed confines of the family den.
"Daddy!" Angelica looked up at him and blurted out, her expression totally aghast as her face turned a deep shade of red. Angelica felt awkward, to say the least, that Bobby now knew he had been a substantial part of the private conversation that had taken place between her and her father.
"Tell me, what do your parents think about you going to this school Xavier secretly set up for mutants?" Mr. Jones now asked Bobby, as he was trying to get a better picture of this young man before him, particularly since his daughter had gone on at such great lengths about him.
"I really don't know." Bobby replied simply, for reasons that neither Angelica nor her Dad were aware of.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Jones further inquired.
"Well, I haven't spoken to my family for awhile. When I finally came out to them, you know, about me being a mutant, my parents and my brother didn't take it too well. The cops got called out to my house and there was this really huge fight and…that's pretty much where I left things." Bobby explained to them.
"That's too bad." Mr. Jones told Bobby, as he couldn't bear the thought of things deteriorating to that point between him and Angelica.
Meanwhile, as Angelica stood and listened to what Bobby was saying, she also wondered to herself how he had managed to deal with that level of turmoil in his life, being totally unaware of the lasting emotional scarring that this singular incident had actually left on Bobby.
"So, I imagine you two are probably starved by now? Let's go out somewhere, pizza's on me." Mr. Jones looked up at a clock on the living room wall and now offered them, remembering that pizza was one of his daughter's favorite foods.
But, instead of receiving an immediate response from them, Angelica and Bobby just threw each strange looks, before she finally gave her father an answer.
"Um, how about burgers instead?" Angelica replied to her Dad, as she and Bobby hadn't quite yet gotten over the chaos that had erupted the night before, at a now burnt-out and demolished pizzeria in Manhattan.
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After an enjoyable dinner together, which was followed by a quick stop back at the Jones residence so that Angelica could gather a few of her things, and then give her father a fond farewell, Bobby and Angelica found themselves back on the New Jersey Turnpike, now on their way back to Westchester in the early hours of this evening.
But, a brief intermission in their journey had come in the form of a refueling stop, as the red SRT4 they were traveling in had turned off at a gas station right off of the Turnpike. Once they had filled up and Bobby had paid the station's attendant, he then pulled the car over into an adjacent parking lot next to a small diner, so that he could perform a brief and routine check of the air pressure in the car's tires.
"You sure you don't want me to go in and get you anything? You hardly ate anything at all earlier." Bobby now asked Angelica, as he knelt down by the rear passenger-side tire with a pressure gauge in his hands on this chilly and gray overcast evening, the last vestiges of the sun's concealed light now providing its closing illuminations for this day.
"No thanks, I'm all right. I guess it's just all the butterflies dancin' around in my stomach that's got my appetite on vacation." Angelica smiled and replied, as she had gotten out of the car to help keep Bobby company. Angelica was now sitting on the side of the sporty red car up on the edge of its hood, her legs dangling down just inches above the ground right in front of the car's passenger-side fender.
"Why would you have butterflies?" Bobby further questioned Angelica, as he looked up at her from his inspection of one of the tires.
"I'm going to be the new girl, at a new school. Again. You can't blame me for feeling just a little bit nervous?" Angelica explained to him, as she sat there and pulled her tan coat a little tighter around herself on this crisp evening.
"I guess not, but you're not going to be that new. I mean, this won't even be your first night there or anything." Bobby replied, as he stood up and made his way around the back of the car, heading for the driver's side of the car to check those tires before they departed.
"Still, I moved around enough to know that your first day at a new school pretty much sets up how things are gonna go for you there." Angelica was saying, when she was yet again caught up in another fit of the giggles, and the pleasant sound of her laughter immediately drew Bobby's attention.
"What's so funny?" Bobby now inquired, as he peered up at her just over the roof of the car.
"I was just thinking about something my grandma told me, before she died." Angelica replied, still smiling as she started to quiet down.
"What, was it a joke or something?" Bobby curiously asked her.
"No, I guess it was more dumb than anything, at least dumb on my part." Angelica said to him, "Come here and I'll show you."
With that Bobby took a clean rag, which he had earlier gotten out of the trunk and put in his back pocket, and wiped his hands. He then refastened one of the buttons up on his blue bomber jacket, before proceeding around to the other side of the car where Angelica was sitting.
"Alright, so show me what's so funny?" Bobby now told Angelica, as he stood right in front of her.
"Okay, look at my hand." Angelica said to Bobby, as she remained seated on the edge of the hood and opened up her right palm, "What do you see?"
"Obviously this is a trick question, but I'm going to go with the easiest answer. I see a hand, which belongs to a girl." Bobby sarcastically replied.
"But, don't you see it. I have the rare mark of the 'M' in my hand." Angelica revealed in an astonished toned, as she took her left hand and traced the 'M' outline that was in her right palm.
"Yeah, I guess you do." Bobby told Angelica, as he watched her index finger navigate the crease lines in her palm.
"Okay, now watch this." Angelica said to him, as she took one of Bobby's hands into hers, turning his palm face up and now running her index finger across it in a similar pattern as she had her own, "Look, now you've got it too!"
"Uh-huh. So, it looks like you're grandma was really into beginner's magic tricks, wasn't she?" Bobby remarked to her, as Angelica now took his other hand into hers and also turned it facing upward to show him the same 'M' that was in that one.
"Nope. My 'Nana just felt sorry for her 'plain-jane' granddaughter, and made up that lame story to try and make me think that I was more special than I really was." Angelica told Bobby, as her smile began to lessen considerably. Angelica then sat and leaned back a little further onto the hood, now releasing both of Bobby's hands from her grasp.
"I mean, can you believe that I was actually stupid enough to believe that I was special, just because of some stupid mark in my palm that everybody has. I guess you must think I'm the most clueless girl on Earth!" Angelica continued, as she began another unexpected trip down memory lane, "When I first found out I was a mutant, I started believing her and thought that maybe she was onto something, that maybe there really was something special about me after all. But, when I arrived at the Massachusetts Academy and I was surrounded by a buncha other kids, all of them with powers and stuff too, I felt like just another face in the crowd again."
"Well, you know what I think? I think your face is pretty enough that it'd stand out in any crowd." Bobby told Angelica, as he thought it was high-time that she knew what he thought about her.
"Really?" Angelica skeptically replied with one eyebrow raised, even though her face couldn't help but light up a little at Bobby's compliment.
"Yeah, and you know what else? I think you're special and unique, and not just because of some mark in your hand or because of your powers either." Bobby told Angelica, as he took both of her hands into his and slowly leaned in closer towards this unassuming, yet very beautiful girl right in front of him.
The mutual attraction between Bobby and Angelica had been building for some time now, going back to perhaps their first meeting in Snow Valley those many months ago. And, it shouldn't have been a surprise that at some point those emotions would eventually get the better of these two. What was a surprise, however, was Angelica's reaction, as she shied away from Bobby, just as he was about to kiss her.
"What's the matter?" Bobby now asked Angelica, worried that maybe he had misread the signals bouncing off between them.
"Well, it's just…" Angelica started to say and then paused, as she cast a look downward towards the loose asphalt and gravel on the ground, "It's, just that I've never…um, actually kissed a guy…I mean, really kissed a guy, in that way before."
"Don't worry. It's easy, 'Angel'." Bobby told Angelica, as he placed his right hand gently underneath her chin, raising her face back up so that her green eyes now met his blue ones.
Bobby softly moved his hand around to push away the few strands of her long voluminous red hair that were partially shrouding Angelica's face. He then slowly and deliberately guided her mouth to meet with his, all the while wrapping his arms in a romantic fashion around her. And when their lips finally met, Angelica was instantly overwhelmed by this sensation of two people physically expressing the tremendous and growing affections that they felt for one another.
The intensity of their kiss was great enough that it hit Angelica as though a flame had shot right through her, although she was more than positive that her powers had nothing to do with how she was feeling. On top of that, the massaging sensation of her mouth pressed against his served in helping to give Angelica an up close, and a much more intimate, understanding of what the phrase 'take my breath away' actually meant.
But ignoring all of these self-observations, Angelica chose to simply close her eyes and lose herself in the moment. Instinctively, she put her hands up on Bobby's shoulders above the collar of his jacket, lightly rubbing her fingers across the back of his neck as she sat there with him, relishing and loving every second of her very first kiss…
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Next Chapter: Melt with You…