Disclaimer: No animals were harmed during the production of this chapter

Chapter two – Gossip

Marie walked into the noisy cafeteria and looked around for her friends. Peering through the seemingly endless crowds of kids, no, mutants to find Bobby was rather difficult. After a few moments she saw him. He was sitting at a round table in the far corner; John, his best friend, sitting beside him. Bobby glanced at the door with a worried expression that vanished when he saw Marie standing there. It was replaced with a huge smile and an over-enthusiastic wave. John, noticing the oddity of his friend, glanced over and saw Marie too. He only gave a slight flick of his head before going back to his fork that had been in mid-air.

Marie walked over to the table, and gave Bobby an icy-hot kiss on his cheek; icy on her side, hot on his. As she sat down beside them she calmly said to Bobby, "You looked upset when I came in here, what's wrong?"

He opened his mouth to reply "nothing" but before he could John jumped in and said "He was worried about you."

"I was not!" Bobby shot back to John.

"You were freakin' out man!", then turning to Marie he said, "He was afraid you weren't gonna show up for dinner tonight."

Bobby was going to deny the allegations, but when he saw the smile and the gleam in Marie's eyes he looked at her, blushed, and said, "Well I was a little worried."

Marie reached over and took his hand in her gloved one and smiled at John; who gave her a look that said "little was an understatement." Marie giggled.

"I'm okay." Marie said to Bobby. "I thought about what you said and decided that I shouldn't be too worried. This trip may turn out okay, and if it doesn't that's their choice not mine." Marie shrugged as she said it, seemingly trying to convince herself.

"Exactly," Bobby said, glad to hear her change of mind, "like I said before, I think your folks will be glad to see you." He gave her hand a squeeze and she looked deep into his eyes and smiled. He held her gaze and smiled back. It was only when John began coughing on his food that they snapped out of each others stare.

Marie was about to ask John if he was okay, but he swallowed his food and yelped "Marie has parents!?"

Marie blushed as she closed her mouth and looked down at the table. John and Bobby looked around the room as the commotion at the nearest tables stopped and the kids looked over at Rogue and the guys. Slowly they began to look away and began to talk about the new gossip they just heard.

"Obviously you have parents," John went on leaning into Marie, a bit quieter this time, "but I mean I always thought they died or something... you never talk about them."

"They're not dead," was all Marie could reply. She knew this only because the professor encouraged her to take the trip home and let her parents know she was okay. He tried to get her to go once she had settled into school, but back then she wasn't ready and he wasn't going to push.

John had tons of questions to ask but knew he would get nothing out of Rogue. She never said anything about her life before the school. His only hope for answers was Bobby and he was no hope at all. Rogue confided only in Bobby, and he never betrayed her trust. This quality was one John admired in Bobby, but it was annoying when John wanted to get information out of him.

Rogue got up and went to get food. Bobby just stared at his food, somewhat in shock over what just happened, and a bit mad at John for saying what he did. Bobby realized, however, that it was he who spoke about Rogue's family first, no one else.

"I'm really sorry," John said to them both when Marie sat back down. John was saying this because he wanted to "break the ice" between all of them; but mostly because Bobby and Marie were the only ones who seemed to give him the time of day in school. Their friendship was something he didn't take lightly.

"It was me, I shouldn't have said anything," Bobby said partly to John, partly to Marie.

"Guys it's fine," Marie said giggling, "what do people know, that I have parents. Everyone has or had parents so it isn't a new thing." Bobby was surprised she handled it so well, but then again she liked to move on and not dwell on things.

The rest of dinner was somewhat quiet, at least at their table, until Rogue held up her empty plate between both boys. They both looked up at the plate, then at her, then at each other and a sly grin drew across both faces.

"We got in trouble last time," Bobby said though he didn't appear to let that stop him from bringing a finger up to the plate.

"Give me one last laugh before I leave," Rogue prodded.

"Anything for you my lady," John said, His grin widening. He had already taken his lighter out of his pants pocket and began to open the end to light it. John's mutant power was the ability to control fire, which he showed when he flicked on the lighter and immediately his entire hand was aflame, though he was in no pain. His other hand was reaching to the plate still in Marie's hand above the table.

"Ready Iceman?" John said as he moved the flame from one hand his index finger on the other. Bobby's mutant power was the ability to create ice. He could touch things and make them cold, and freeze. Nitrogen may "freeze" and break things, but when Bobby was in a playful mood nitrogen had no hold on him. To his friends he bragged he could freeze the sun if he could get to it. From what he had displayed of his powers, his friends thought that perhaps it was possible.

"Of course I am, Pyro, are you?" Bobby shot back. They were about to play their new favorite game. John thought up this one of course, as he tends to think of all the crazy ideas. Each would use their powers on one side of the plate. Eventually, the heat and cold would come together and crack, or even more exciting, shatter the plate.

"Go!" Marie called out and both Pyro and Iceman touched one side of the plate. A few moments later the entire cafeteria went quiet as the earsplitting crack of the plate erupted. A few people nearest to the noise jumped and one girl let out a short scream. It was the wrong girl to scare as everyone in the school was left with a slight ringing in their ears.

Rogue broke out in fits of laughter as she heard others in the cafeteria mumble "it's just Pyro and Iceman", "Bobby and John are idiots", "they are gonna get in so much trouble", or something that resembled those phrases.

John quickly put his clean plate in the center of the table and shot four marble sized balls of fire out from his lighter. They began to roll around on the plate. Bobby matched his with four made from ice. The fire and ice marbles chased each other around the plate, consuming one another. Marie watched as John and Bobby controlled their creations. After a little while this plate broke too, with a loud noise, though this one was not as loud as the first.

A bell began to ring and the students emptied plates and began to file out of the cafeteria. Rogue stood up and asked, "Can you both help me carry my bags out to the car?"

"Sure," both Bobby and John said in unison. They too joined the procession of students leaving the cafeteria and began to walk up to Rogue's room to get her bags.

Author's Note:

I know John is in my story and at the end of X2 he was with Magneto. I am pretending that didn't happen for the sake of this story. I am doing this because I didn't want to introduce other main characters and felt Bobby needed someone to talk to while Rogue was gone. Hope you understand. Enjoy the story, and please write reviews!!!