Rogue stepped into the English classroom, seeing the students present, but was missing one vital ingredient. A teacher. She sighed as she tightened her books under an arm, passing by the empty teacher's desk. She hoped Scott was just running late, for if he began skipping lessons she knew it would turn into a downward spiral. Rogue paused at this, frowning. Since when did she care? She was snapped out of her thoughts when she glanced over the classroom, none of students within giving her a second glance as they loudly chatted.
Spying one of the few spare seats, Rogue moved to take a seat on the front row besides Colossus who was spending the free time sketching in the back of his notepad. Rogue slammed down her shoulder bag a little too noisily, and the mutant looked up a little startled by her arrival. "Sorry," murmured Rogue quietly as she sunk into her seat, proceeding to pull her equipment out of her bag.
"Don't worry about it," replied Colossus as he turned back to his notepad, continuing to draw. Rogue leant back in her seat as she waited for Scott's arrival, she was already five minutes late herself, and Scott was normally extremely punctual. Rogue's eyes lazily followed the flight of a paper aeroplane, which glided around the classroom without ever losing height. It performed stylish loops and erratic dive-bombs before continuing to idly soar around the room.
The door abruptly opened, but it wasn't Scott. Jubilee hurried inside, looking mightily relieved that Scott wasn't here yet and scampered towards the seat besides Rogue. "Hey," she greeted as she plonked herself down. Rogue nodded in response, anxiously checking her watch. The paper aeroplane continued its course around the classroom, now taking to diving and striking Jubilee on the head. The actions were chorused by sniggers from the back of the classroom. Jubilee sat stonily still, popping her bubblegum idly before she lifted her hand and with a snap of her fingers the aeroplane caught alight in a series of flickering sparks and promptly plummeted to the floor in a smoking mass.
The laughter silenced instantly, in good timing, for the classroom door swung open and Scott stormed in looking surly. Rogue's eyes followed him into the room with a small frown. He dropped his briefcase on the teacher's desk noisily, turning to send a glare across the room like they had caused him to be late.
"Continue from page 47."
The bell rang across the mansion, and the class quickly began to depart. Rogue purposely slowed in her actions, causing Jubilee to raise an eyebrow, "C'mon girl." But Rogue glanced up at her, waving a hand dismissively.
"Just go on ahead, I'll see you later."
Jubilee shrugged her shoulders before she headed out, merging in with the crowd that hurried towards the door. It didn't take long for Rogue and Scott to be left alone, and Rogue sat quietly as she watched Scott return his notes to his briefcase. Scott picked it up from the desk, clearly about to leave when he noticed Rogue still sat at her desk, her bag packed, but she wasn't moving. "Rogue? Is everything all right?" He slowly turned on his heel, moving towards her.
"I'm fine," she replied with a small smile. "Just wondered about you.. you didn't look good when you came in."
"No," sighed Scott quietly, "I had to go to my room to fetch my notes, and Jean was in there." He shrugged his shoulders weakly as he glanced down at the desktop. "We argued for a while."
"Oh, I'm sorry.."
But Scott shrugged his shoulders again, "Don't worry about it, Rogue. I'm sure you've got enough on your plate, especially with the coursework deadlines close. I'm hoping to see some good grades out of you."
"Yeah, about that.. I wanna join the X-Men."
"Oh, yeah?" he said, tilting his head. "Well, I don't see why not. You're welcome to try." He sat himself down on the desk, watching her closely now. "Though don't think this means you don't need grades, Rogue. I still want you to hand in all your coursework."
A sigh was heard as Rogue lowered her head to a gloved knuckle, "Yeah, well. It's not goin' so great."
"You never said this before."
"I know.."
"How's your Shakespeare essay coming on?" Rogue didn't answer, but looked down at the desktop sullenly. Scott sighed quietly as he watched her. "Don't worry about it, Rogue. I can help you out with it, get you started. Tell you what," he checked his watch. "Do you have a free period next?"
Rogue gradually looked up, nodding her head, "Yeah, till lunch."
At this, Scott nodded, pulling a chair round from his desk and sitting himself down in front of her. "So have I. Come on, get your books out. I'll help you."
A small smile came upon Rogue's lips at his offer of help, and she quickly went back to her bag to pull out her equipment once more. She dropped her textbook on the desk, and Scott pulled it towards him, reading the cover.
"Ah, you chose Romeo and Juliet?"
"Yeah," she replied, pushing her back onto the chair besides her as she leant upon the desk expectantly.
Scott nodded his head, leaning back in his seat comfortably, "Right, you got any themes or ideas you want to write the essay about? Remember, it's got to closely link to the text."
"Well," Rogue began as she stared down at the image on the front cover of the script, "I was thinking about how it can still relate to life now, in its themes and problems. Like, how the instance of Romeo and Juliet being unable to be together because of their parents is something we see even today, for allsorts of reasons."
"Yes, good," commented Scott with a nod, "Shakespearean plays come with morals that are reflected in day-to-day life." He then smiled as he glanced up at her, "I'm glad you actually read the script. Last week, Jubilee tried to convince me that the King of Scotland was murdered in the Twelfth Night." Rogue smirked a little at this, for she fully remembered Jubilee's refusal to even looked at the front cover of her Twelfth Night script, let along skim-read it. "Anyway, did you like it?"
"Yeah," said Rogue quietly, then adding contemplatively, "It's sad.. even though you already know what happens at the end, you kinda keep wishin' they'd survive and be able to be together."
"Well, it is a a lovers' tragedy," Scot concluded as he turned the book back to Rogue. "You have a good idea for the essay, I don't know why you're worried about it."
Rogue scratched her neck awkwardly as she watched him, "I just can't start it.."
"Well," Scott took her pen off the tabletop and began jotting notes down on a clean page in her notepad. "If you open with the quoted 14-line prologue – a Shakespearean sonnet, and start by linking that to modern ties, and go on from there. I suggest mentioning how it has modernised in some media productions too, there's the Romeo and Juliet film by Baz Luhrmann. See?" He turned the notepad back towards her, showing her the layout for the opening. Rogue smiled as she read through it, nodding her head in agreement and looking noticeably relieved by this. "Remember to keep quoting."
"Thanks," she said softly. "I would have just kept puttin' it off.."
"Do you think you can do it now?"
Looking up from the notepad, Rogue nodded her head, smile becoming broader. "I'll try, Mr Summers." She began putting her stuff back into her bag, deciding to head upstairs and get started now ideas were buzzing around her head.
"Good," he said as he gave her her pen back, standing to his feet and picking up his briefcase. "Just come and find me if you need any help, all right?"
"Sure," Rogue replied with a smile, standing herself. She stepped out from her table, joining his side as the pair walked towards the classroom door.
Scott held the door for her before he followed her out and shut the door to. "I'm probably going to move to another room now," he told her quietly, momentarily finding it strange how he slipped from the classroom topics to his personal life so easily with this particular student.
"Makes sense," said Rogue reassuringly as she leant on the wall outside his classroom, "It'll be easier for you as well."
"Yeah," he sighed as he tightened his hand about the handle of his briefcase. "Might try and get it sorted for tonight, actually."
Rogue pushed up from the wall, beginning to take a few steps down the corridor, Scott ultimately decided to follow her and the pair slowly travelled together. "You don't have to move everything all at once, though. Just move your important stuff and get the rest when you feel like it." Scott nodded to himself in agreement, coming to a halt at the foot of the entrance hall's staircase. Rogue glanced up the stairs before back at him, "Anyway, I'm gonna go and plan this essay now. Thanks for you help."
"No problem. Good luck with it, Rogue."
With a departing smile, the young woman turned to the staircase, hurrying up as Scott continued on his way. She reached the top of the stairs to see Jubilee smirking at her. Rogue stopped, staring at her, "What?" she asked in complete innocence.
Jubilee turned away with a chuckle, the pair heading to their room, "You're suckin' up to Mr Summers."
"I'm not suckin' up to no one!"
Jubilee winked at her teasingly, "Whatever, chica." She avoided Rogue's playful slap before running full speed ahead, Rogue hot on her heels.
More character developing than action filled, but, hey, they need to be brought together! Also, note how Romeo and Juliet tells the story of forbidden love. Mmhm! Please review!
