Chapter 5 - A Monday to Remember
Kurt decided to waste some time waiting for Kitty by walking instead of porting. He strolled down the hall, stopping by his room to stuff a few stray textbooks and homework papers into his backpack. He went over to his messy desk and found his holowatch sitting atop a pile of junk. Attaching it around his wrist, he switched it on. He watched his reflection in the mirror as the holographic image flickered. He stared at the illusion and the five fingered, tailless, pale, smooth skinned boy stared back. He loathed his image inducer and found it to be a miracle all at the same time. He hated that he was so different, yet also despised that he had to hide himself. The young man had often wondered whether he would be wearing this contraption for the rest of his life. Would he have to keep coming to the Professor to update the image to fit his age? Would the Professor possibly ever find new and better technology? Maybe one that would also mask the feeling of his fur and fingers so that he would be able to shake hands without giving himself away? Would there maybe be a day when he no longer needed to hide from humanity?
"Some day." He said quietly to himself, picking up his heavy bag and heading down to meet Kitty.
As Kurt descended the stairs he found Kitty waiting for him, sitting on the edge of one of the several couches in the living room. She was all dressed and ready to go, in some low-rise jeans, flip flops and a red Johnny-collar tee. She didn't notice Kurt observing her outfit.
"Hey." He said as he met with her, getting her attention. She turned to look at him, her pony tail flipping.
"What took you?" She asked smiling in curiosity.
"Vas do you mean?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I told you twenty-some minutes ago, that I'd be ready in fifteen."
"Vas?" Kurt looked at his watch, surprised by the time. "Oh, I didn't realize."
"That's okay, but we'd better book it. The other's went on ahead, but I figured we would just take my car." Kitty smiled holding up her keys, the light reflected off the glittery word "princess" on one of her many key chains.
"Ugh." Kurt moaned in complaint as he rolled his eyes, always fearing for his life and keeping his breakfast down when Kitty was behind the wheel.
"Lay off it, Fuzzy! I was gonna let you drive." She tossed the girlie key chain to him and they made their way out to the garages.
For Kitty's birthday the previous year, her parents had arranged to have a new car delivered to the mansion as a gift. The car was also meant to make up for it being yet another year with her parent's full of excuses as to why they couldn't find time to come and visit. There was no doubt that Kitty's parents loved her, it was just that they weren't very keen on the idea that their beloved daughter was a mutant. While they knew that attending Xavier's Institute would be the best thing for her, they didn't really want to have anything to do with it.
Kitty had gone home every summer, but this last one, as she had stayed to take summer classes. Her parents however, had never once made it to any of their scheduled visits, always canceling at the last minute. Kurt remembered the crushed look on Kitty's face when she had heard that her parents would be missing the fourth birthday in a row of hers. The new, silver, Volkswagen Beetle had arrived the very next day. All the other kids were quite jealous, but it took a couple of months of Kitty's resentment to wear off before she really started driving it.
The truth was, Kitty didn't really know how to drive it either. Ever since she had gotten over her anger, she just hadn't found time to learn. While Kurt always complained about it, she knew that he was more than happy to teach her stick shift.
They made their way to school in mostly silence, except for Kurt's occasional humming along to the oldies station. Kitty stared out at the morning sunlight, still a little shaken by her wake-up call. A Beatles song came on the radio and Kurt turned it up, strumming his fingers on the wheel.
"Baby you can drive my car!" Kurt sang along, turning and smiling at Kitty to see if she had caught the lyrics. She giggled a little, but mostly at how cute Kurt's accent sounded as he continued.
"Yes I'm gonna be a star! Come on Keety!" He pleaded her to join in. She rolled her eyes, but finished the chorus with him.
"Baby you can drive my car and baby I love you!" They both sang.
Kitty could have sworn that she noticed Kurt blush, even through the hologram, as he finished that last line and abruptly turned his full attention back to the road. He had stopped singing and Kitty watched his face trying to read his expression. She ws about to say something when he turned down the radio and changed the subject.
"So vhat happened this morning? Is everything better now?" He asked seriously.
"Oh. Yeah. Like, I was just having a bad dream and I'm still a little worn out from this weekend. I'm sure that's all it was." Even as she said the words she knew that they weren't true, she knew it was something more, but didn't want to deal with it at the moment. So, instead she turned the radio back up, a signal to Kurt that she was done talking for now.
They arrived at school and said their goodbyes as they each went off towards their seperate classrooms.
* * * * *
Kitty sat in her third class of the day, AP Calculus, and tried desperately to pay attention. It seemed, however, that her mind only wanted to focus on the event that had taken place earlier that morning. She was seriously freaked out by this new problem with her powers. At the moment she had been so sure that she would never be solid again. And for some reason she was afraid to admit this fear to her best friend.
She found herself, throughout the day, touching or running her hands along everything. Picking up, or grabbing something, just to make sure she could. For now, she was content to pick up her pen, lay it on the desk and then pick it back up.
"Katherine." Her teacher's voice broke her concentration.
She looked up and realized that the bell had rung and she was the only one in the room that wasn't hurriedly packing her bag and rushing off to lunch.
Embarrassed, she quickly stood up and began tossing her things into her bag as her teacher came over to her desk.
"Katherine, is everything all right? You seemed very distant today." He asked her in a concerned voice.
"Oh. I'm sorry Mr. Clarke, I've had a killer headache all day." She lied.
"Well, take it easy tonight and in case you didn't notice, there's a homework assignment on the board. I'll see you tomorrow Katherine." He pointed to the assignment, neatly written in chalk.
Kitty blushed a little in embarrassment when he pointed it out, as she hadn't noticed it earlier. She murmured a "thanks" as he walked out of the classroom.
Kitty sighed in frustration as she opened her bag and reached in to pull out her assignment notebook. Her fingers instead, passed right through the object. She gasped and retreated her arm which phased back through the entire bag.
"No, not again." She said out loud to herself. She stood still closing her eyes for a moment. Then, with a look of defiance, she reached for her bag again and not only did she keep herself from passing through it, but knocked it off the desk with the force of her hand.
"This is like, not my day." She said angrily to herself as she quickly wrote down the assignment and walked out the door and down the hall. When she reached her locker she found Kurt sitting on the linoleum floor leaning back against the neighboring locker's door.
"Hi." She said as she walked up beside him and began working her locker combination.
"Oh, hi Katzchen." Kurt looked up from his sitting position, leaning the top of his head against the cold metal door.
"Zhe others vent on ahead to lunch, but I vanted to wait for you and make sure everything vas still okay." He finished, smiling.
"I'm fine. I was just getting a homework assignment. That's all." She said shutting her locker door, hoping she sounded convincing.
"I like your shirt, grey's a good color for you." She said, switching the subject from herself.
Kurt stood up and looked down at the buttoned up loose shirt he had on.
"Uh, thanks. Amanda gave it to me." He said.
"She has good taste, why don't you ever wear it?" She asked as they began their walk into the cafeteria.
"It's too nice to vear long-sleeves under it, and I vorry about people bumping into mein bare arms." He said shrugging.
"Oh." Said Kitty softly, feeling bad for hitting two nerves. Real great Pryde. She thought to herself, bring up his ex and his self- consciousness about his fur.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, before entering the loud cafeteria. The pair were a few of the last to go through the line, so the selections were slim. Kitty opted for the last slice of cheese pizza, a bowl of fruit and a Diet Coke while Kurt helped himself to the last three burgers, fries and a Mountain Dew. They made their way through the center of the large lunch room, towards the back where "the freaks from Xavier's school" usually sat.
Kitty noticed glares from many of the students as she and Kurt walked past their tables. She hated that an entire year after being revealed as mutants had passed, but the students still treated them like scum just for being different.
In small classrooms it seemed to be better, just as long as they didn't use their powers. Kitty even had a few non-mutant friends in a couple of her AP classes. But in large groups people act out of stupidity and peer pressure. Thus making lunch the worst time of the day. Evan had said that he just figured it made them nervous to see all of them together at once, but Kitty knew that it was just simple prejudice and hatred.
As they walked past, Kitty looked down and realized that she had began phasing again and lost hold of her Diet Coke. The bottle fell through her hands and hit the floor with a loud thump. Students sitting at the nearby tables turned to see what the noise was and began to giggle when they realized that it was one of the mutants. Kitty tried to ignore them, but before she even had a chance to pick up the drink, her plate phased through her other hand and the food fell to the floor.
This brought even more laughter from neighboring tables who never missed a chance to pick on someone while they're down. Kitty knelt down to pick up her mess, but couldn't grab hold as her hand kept phasing through the objects. Kurt quickly crouched beside her and started gathering items.
"Kurt, I've got it!" She said a little too loudly out of anger, frustration and denial.
"No you don't Katzchen. Now calm down before..." He didn't even have to finish his sentence. He heard her gasp as she realized that she was sinking into the floor.
"Hey that mutant girl is using her powers!" A student yelled out from the crowd. This caused the rest of the room to turn their focus to the two on the floor. Even students walking around stopped in their tracks to see what was happening.
"Keety, calm down, come on." Kurt said softly, trying to help.
Kitty covered her face with her hands out of humiliation. "Why is this happening to me?" She mumbled through her fingers as tears trickled down.
"Keety, just concentrate and take my hand. You did it before, come on..." Kurt extended his hand to her, hoping that she would be able to concentrate enough to grab it. Instead it seemed to only irritate the young girl.
"I can't Kurt!" She swiped at him out of anger and frustration, if she had been solid she would have hit him pretty hard, but instead she just passed through his outreached hand.
Her shouts and the fact that she was sitting, literally, in the floor from her waist down had kept all the attention on her, but the flickering of Kurt's holowatch had momentarily shifted the attention to him.
"Oh no." Kitty said gasping, a hand covering her mouth. She had phased through Kurt's watch and had caused it to short out. Kurt, still crouching beside her, hadn't even noticed what had happened until he saw her reaction and looked down at his blue, fuzzy arm.
He slowly stood up and heard a few girls gasp. The people who were standing around watching actually took a few steps back. For just a second or two the entire room fell into silence as all of the school witnessed Kurt's true appearance for the first time.
End chapter 5: A Monday to Remember
Author's Notes: I know, I know, but you've got to have a cliff hanger! What else would keep you all coming back for more? :o)
The song is: The Beatles - Drive My Car, I think it's off the 'Rubber Souls' album, but I don't remember they're all on my iPod now. ;o)
Hey, while you guys are reviewing, (cause you know you want to) will you let me know what your favorite part is so far? Please. :o) That way, I can get a taste of what you all are enjoying the most and keep it in mind as I work on future chapters. Thanks so much!
Kurt decided to waste some time waiting for Kitty by walking instead of porting. He strolled down the hall, stopping by his room to stuff a few stray textbooks and homework papers into his backpack. He went over to his messy desk and found his holowatch sitting atop a pile of junk. Attaching it around his wrist, he switched it on. He watched his reflection in the mirror as the holographic image flickered. He stared at the illusion and the five fingered, tailless, pale, smooth skinned boy stared back. He loathed his image inducer and found it to be a miracle all at the same time. He hated that he was so different, yet also despised that he had to hide himself. The young man had often wondered whether he would be wearing this contraption for the rest of his life. Would he have to keep coming to the Professor to update the image to fit his age? Would the Professor possibly ever find new and better technology? Maybe one that would also mask the feeling of his fur and fingers so that he would be able to shake hands without giving himself away? Would there maybe be a day when he no longer needed to hide from humanity?
"Some day." He said quietly to himself, picking up his heavy bag and heading down to meet Kitty.
As Kurt descended the stairs he found Kitty waiting for him, sitting on the edge of one of the several couches in the living room. She was all dressed and ready to go, in some low-rise jeans, flip flops and a red Johnny-collar tee. She didn't notice Kurt observing her outfit.
"Hey." He said as he met with her, getting her attention. She turned to look at him, her pony tail flipping.
"What took you?" She asked smiling in curiosity.
"Vas do you mean?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I told you twenty-some minutes ago, that I'd be ready in fifteen."
"Vas?" Kurt looked at his watch, surprised by the time. "Oh, I didn't realize."
"That's okay, but we'd better book it. The other's went on ahead, but I figured we would just take my car." Kitty smiled holding up her keys, the light reflected off the glittery word "princess" on one of her many key chains.
"Ugh." Kurt moaned in complaint as he rolled his eyes, always fearing for his life and keeping his breakfast down when Kitty was behind the wheel.
"Lay off it, Fuzzy! I was gonna let you drive." She tossed the girlie key chain to him and they made their way out to the garages.
For Kitty's birthday the previous year, her parents had arranged to have a new car delivered to the mansion as a gift. The car was also meant to make up for it being yet another year with her parent's full of excuses as to why they couldn't find time to come and visit. There was no doubt that Kitty's parents loved her, it was just that they weren't very keen on the idea that their beloved daughter was a mutant. While they knew that attending Xavier's Institute would be the best thing for her, they didn't really want to have anything to do with it.
Kitty had gone home every summer, but this last one, as she had stayed to take summer classes. Her parents however, had never once made it to any of their scheduled visits, always canceling at the last minute. Kurt remembered the crushed look on Kitty's face when she had heard that her parents would be missing the fourth birthday in a row of hers. The new, silver, Volkswagen Beetle had arrived the very next day. All the other kids were quite jealous, but it took a couple of months of Kitty's resentment to wear off before she really started driving it.
The truth was, Kitty didn't really know how to drive it either. Ever since she had gotten over her anger, she just hadn't found time to learn. While Kurt always complained about it, she knew that he was more than happy to teach her stick shift.
They made their way to school in mostly silence, except for Kurt's occasional humming along to the oldies station. Kitty stared out at the morning sunlight, still a little shaken by her wake-up call. A Beatles song came on the radio and Kurt turned it up, strumming his fingers on the wheel.
"Baby you can drive my car!" Kurt sang along, turning and smiling at Kitty to see if she had caught the lyrics. She giggled a little, but mostly at how cute Kurt's accent sounded as he continued.
"Yes I'm gonna be a star! Come on Keety!" He pleaded her to join in. She rolled her eyes, but finished the chorus with him.
"Baby you can drive my car and baby I love you!" They both sang.
Kitty could have sworn that she noticed Kurt blush, even through the hologram, as he finished that last line and abruptly turned his full attention back to the road. He had stopped singing and Kitty watched his face trying to read his expression. She ws about to say something when he turned down the radio and changed the subject.
"So vhat happened this morning? Is everything better now?" He asked seriously.
"Oh. Yeah. Like, I was just having a bad dream and I'm still a little worn out from this weekend. I'm sure that's all it was." Even as she said the words she knew that they weren't true, she knew it was something more, but didn't want to deal with it at the moment. So, instead she turned the radio back up, a signal to Kurt that she was done talking for now.
They arrived at school and said their goodbyes as they each went off towards their seperate classrooms.
* * * * *
Kitty sat in her third class of the day, AP Calculus, and tried desperately to pay attention. It seemed, however, that her mind only wanted to focus on the event that had taken place earlier that morning. She was seriously freaked out by this new problem with her powers. At the moment she had been so sure that she would never be solid again. And for some reason she was afraid to admit this fear to her best friend.
She found herself, throughout the day, touching or running her hands along everything. Picking up, or grabbing something, just to make sure she could. For now, she was content to pick up her pen, lay it on the desk and then pick it back up.
"Katherine." Her teacher's voice broke her concentration.
She looked up and realized that the bell had rung and she was the only one in the room that wasn't hurriedly packing her bag and rushing off to lunch.
Embarrassed, she quickly stood up and began tossing her things into her bag as her teacher came over to her desk.
"Katherine, is everything all right? You seemed very distant today." He asked her in a concerned voice.
"Oh. I'm sorry Mr. Clarke, I've had a killer headache all day." She lied.
"Well, take it easy tonight and in case you didn't notice, there's a homework assignment on the board. I'll see you tomorrow Katherine." He pointed to the assignment, neatly written in chalk.
Kitty blushed a little in embarrassment when he pointed it out, as she hadn't noticed it earlier. She murmured a "thanks" as he walked out of the classroom.
Kitty sighed in frustration as she opened her bag and reached in to pull out her assignment notebook. Her fingers instead, passed right through the object. She gasped and retreated her arm which phased back through the entire bag.
"No, not again." She said out loud to herself. She stood still closing her eyes for a moment. Then, with a look of defiance, she reached for her bag again and not only did she keep herself from passing through it, but knocked it off the desk with the force of her hand.
"This is like, not my day." She said angrily to herself as she quickly wrote down the assignment and walked out the door and down the hall. When she reached her locker she found Kurt sitting on the linoleum floor leaning back against the neighboring locker's door.
"Hi." She said as she walked up beside him and began working her locker combination.
"Oh, hi Katzchen." Kurt looked up from his sitting position, leaning the top of his head against the cold metal door.
"Zhe others vent on ahead to lunch, but I vanted to wait for you and make sure everything vas still okay." He finished, smiling.
"I'm fine. I was just getting a homework assignment. That's all." She said shutting her locker door, hoping she sounded convincing.
"I like your shirt, grey's a good color for you." She said, switching the subject from herself.
Kurt stood up and looked down at the buttoned up loose shirt he had on.
"Uh, thanks. Amanda gave it to me." He said.
"She has good taste, why don't you ever wear it?" She asked as they began their walk into the cafeteria.
"It's too nice to vear long-sleeves under it, and I vorry about people bumping into mein bare arms." He said shrugging.
"Oh." Said Kitty softly, feeling bad for hitting two nerves. Real great Pryde. She thought to herself, bring up his ex and his self- consciousness about his fur.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, before entering the loud cafeteria. The pair were a few of the last to go through the line, so the selections were slim. Kitty opted for the last slice of cheese pizza, a bowl of fruit and a Diet Coke while Kurt helped himself to the last three burgers, fries and a Mountain Dew. They made their way through the center of the large lunch room, towards the back where "the freaks from Xavier's school" usually sat.
Kitty noticed glares from many of the students as she and Kurt walked past their tables. She hated that an entire year after being revealed as mutants had passed, but the students still treated them like scum just for being different.
In small classrooms it seemed to be better, just as long as they didn't use their powers. Kitty even had a few non-mutant friends in a couple of her AP classes. But in large groups people act out of stupidity and peer pressure. Thus making lunch the worst time of the day. Evan had said that he just figured it made them nervous to see all of them together at once, but Kitty knew that it was just simple prejudice and hatred.
As they walked past, Kitty looked down and realized that she had began phasing again and lost hold of her Diet Coke. The bottle fell through her hands and hit the floor with a loud thump. Students sitting at the nearby tables turned to see what the noise was and began to giggle when they realized that it was one of the mutants. Kitty tried to ignore them, but before she even had a chance to pick up the drink, her plate phased through her other hand and the food fell to the floor.
This brought even more laughter from neighboring tables who never missed a chance to pick on someone while they're down. Kitty knelt down to pick up her mess, but couldn't grab hold as her hand kept phasing through the objects. Kurt quickly crouched beside her and started gathering items.
"Kurt, I've got it!" She said a little too loudly out of anger, frustration and denial.
"No you don't Katzchen. Now calm down before..." He didn't even have to finish his sentence. He heard her gasp as she realized that she was sinking into the floor.
"Hey that mutant girl is using her powers!" A student yelled out from the crowd. This caused the rest of the room to turn their focus to the two on the floor. Even students walking around stopped in their tracks to see what was happening.
"Keety, calm down, come on." Kurt said softly, trying to help.
Kitty covered her face with her hands out of humiliation. "Why is this happening to me?" She mumbled through her fingers as tears trickled down.
"Keety, just concentrate and take my hand. You did it before, come on..." Kurt extended his hand to her, hoping that she would be able to concentrate enough to grab it. Instead it seemed to only irritate the young girl.
"I can't Kurt!" She swiped at him out of anger and frustration, if she had been solid she would have hit him pretty hard, but instead she just passed through his outreached hand.
Her shouts and the fact that she was sitting, literally, in the floor from her waist down had kept all the attention on her, but the flickering of Kurt's holowatch had momentarily shifted the attention to him.
"Oh no." Kitty said gasping, a hand covering her mouth. She had phased through Kurt's watch and had caused it to short out. Kurt, still crouching beside her, hadn't even noticed what had happened until he saw her reaction and looked down at his blue, fuzzy arm.
He slowly stood up and heard a few girls gasp. The people who were standing around watching actually took a few steps back. For just a second or two the entire room fell into silence as all of the school witnessed Kurt's true appearance for the first time.
End chapter 5: A Monday to Remember
Author's Notes: I know, I know, but you've got to have a cliff hanger! What else would keep you all coming back for more? :o)
The song is: The Beatles - Drive My Car, I think it's off the 'Rubber Souls' album, but I don't remember they're all on my iPod now. ;o)
Hey, while you guys are reviewing, (cause you know you want to) will you let me know what your favorite part is so far? Please. :o) That way, I can get a taste of what you all are enjoying the most and keep it in mind as I work on future chapters. Thanks so much!
