30

The cheerleaders' attacks didn't end there. Rumours spread fast and Rogue quickly fell from being one of the most liked people in the school to the one everyone avoided. She heard people say things like "boyfriend stealer" to her which she had expected, but she just kept her head up and tried to keep out of the way.

Luckily, Scott's words from the party the other night rang true and Rogue found herself accompanied by not only Risty, but at least one of the X-Men at every point that day. When Rogue was heading to her first period without Risty, Amara showed up and escorted her there. She didn't say much, just let on and walked with her.

After the second class, Kitty and Risty were both there waiting for her, only, Kitty had questions. Rogue debriefed Kitty quickly before their class, finding explaining things to Kitty much easier than explaining things to Risty had been. She guessed Kitty had a soft spot for her considering her romance with Lance. She must have understood what it was like to be with someone that other's didn't really approve of. That, and she seemed to be a hopeless romantic with all the ohhing and awwwing she was doing.

Still, the escorting to and from classrooms didn't keep Rogue safe completely. During second period, one of Stacy's cheerleaders were sat behind Rogue and she placed chewing gum in her hair. There was laughter in the classroom after it happened. Rogue was oblivious until Risty told her after class what had happened. It made her livid and want to take off after Stacy and smash her stupid face in, only, she turned straight into facing Kitty who was cringing at having seen the chewing gum in Rogue's hair.

"Come on," Kitty said, gently touching Rogue's shoulder. "Let's, like, get you to the bathroom."

Rogue was glad Kitty had been there to stop her because she doubted Risty would have. Kitty took her to the bathrooms after class, looking more broken up about having to cut Rogue's hair to get the chewing gum out than she was. She was used to short hair after all and it didn't really matter to her what length her hair was. It just enraged her that, having her hair cut short would make it seem like the cheerleaders would have a victory over her and she'd be walking around, clear as day, with the evidence attached to her very head.

Risty had been there with them and looked just as pissed as Rogue felt. Rogue actually found herself becoming more annoyed at having a moody Risty around her than dealing with the aftermath of the cheerleader and her hair cut.

"I told you no good would come from seeing that boy!" Risty had stated while Kitty worked on Rogue's hair.

"Not his fault some idiot stuck chewin' gum in mah hair," Rogue hissed back.

"You know what I mean-"

"Risty!" Rogue had snapped at her, supposedly, best friend.

Risty remained quiet after Rogue snapped at her. The only thing she said after that was that she was going to keep watch outside the bathroom. That left Kitty and Rogue alone in the girl's bathroom.

Rogue was shaking, she realised. She was angry and hurt and wanted to punch every single last person in the face who had laughed at her and it was really getting to her that she couldn't. She could only imagine the comments that were going to be made about her hair after she stepped outside and, again, she knew she was going to want to hurt someone but couldn't. Rogue really didn't want to do this anymore. She didn't want to face them. She wanted to leave school and never come back. She realised that school was horrible and nothing like those tv programmes showed. She hated the bullying and the powerlessness, especially when she had the power but just couldn't use it.

Her mind briefly went back to Magneto for a split second and everything he had been saying to her in their first meeting. She was starting to understand now why he wanted mutants to come out. If they came out then normal people would know not to pick on them. Hell, if Stacy and Duncan had known about her powers in the first place, she doubted they would have come anywhere near her. No one would. Except, maybe the X-Men. The X-Men who she was spying on and who were the reason why Magneto wouldn't let her leave school now, even if she asked and admitted to understanding his point. No, if she admitted he was right, she dreed to think just how much worse things would get. He already had power and control over her. She didn't want to give him any more reason to think he owned her and could control her. So she was stuck. Stuck in this hell hole with stupid cheerleaders who were probably going to keep bullying her and whom she couldn't fight back against; stuck with Risty, her best friend being all moody and down about her "romantic" interests and stuck having to get near the X-Men and absorb them when she didn't want to use her powers ever again. Life sucked right then. Royally worse than what it had been than when she was living with Mystique and Irene.

As she thought of them, Mystique's offer ran through Rogue's mind. It was an out. Something she really wouldn't mind taking right now. But there were so many consequences to that out. Firstly being the whole blackmail situation and that Colossus' sister would die and secondly, that she'd return to a life of solitude which she hated. It was no way to live at all. Plus, she doubted Mystique would care that her powers would put people in a coma. After all, she had lied to her and had her absorbing people after knowing the possibility of what could happen. Mystique wouldn't let her stop just because she asked. Plus, Magneto had said that he would find her. Find her and take her back from Mystique. That he had his ways and she believed him. He was just as scheming and devilish as Mystique. And if he got her back and found out she'd ran off to Mystique on purpose, well… she had no idea what would happen there and she really didn't want to know.

As all these thoughts went through Rogue's mind while Kitty rinsed her hair in the sink, her bottom lip had started to tremble and tears had begun to pool in her eyes. Rogue was too lost in thought to realise that, being unable to physically lash out and express her emotions, she'd ended up crying instead.

"Hey," she heard Kitty say, bringing her attention back to her. "I'm not the best at giving these kinds of speeches, but it will get easier… ish."

Rogue glanced at Kitty, confused for a moment, wondering how in the hell her situation could get any better. Then it dawned on her that Kitty was talking about the bullying.

"Ish, huh?" Rogue said, now starting to realise that she had tears running down her face. She quickly brushed them away and thought to pull herself together so not to look weak in front of Kitty.

"Yeah," Kitty said, going slightly quiet. "Yeah, I mean, they're, like, not gonna stop, I can tell ya that now, but they might back off over time."

Rogue didn't say anything to that. She just glanced up at the bathroom ceiling were there were wet balls of tissue stuck up there.

"The Professor says that, when it comes to bullies, you've just got to keep standing tall and not show that they're getting to you." Kitty said.

Rogue glanced at Kitty then, raising her eyebrow.

"The Professor?" she asked, knowing she needed to ask it to keep up the façade that she had very little knowledge on the X-Men.

"Oh, yeah. He's, like, our guardian. Mine, Scott's, Jean's, Amara's. He let's us stay with him while we, erm, attend school," Kitty said.

Rogue nodded her head and though over Kitty's words.

"So, this Professor of yours, he'd say to just keep on goin'? How's that advise worked out for ya?" she asked.

"Well, it's true. We can't just, like, stop attending school and all just because a few people want to make things difficult. It's hard for sure! But Scott says we've got each other so that makes it easier." Kitty said.

Rogue couldn't help but agree with Scott there. Although having the X-Men around and as allies didn't stop the chewing gum in her hair, it did make things more bearable knowing that she didn't have to struggle cutting her hair on her own.

"You got any other advice for handlin' degenerates?" Rogue asked.

"Erm," Kitty said and she towel dried Rogue's hair using Risty's towel.

Seeing Kitty struggle, Rogue stood up from where she was knelt and took the towel off Kitty. She turned to look at herself in the mirror as she brought the towel down. Kitty had done a pretty good job of cutting her hair for her.

"Thanks," Rogue said, remembering her manners from Irene. Kitty had actually managed to style Rogue's hair pretty well and shaped it into a nice bob. "It actually looks pretty good," she said.

Kitty made some sort of flattered gush at the comment.

"Well, you look good with short hair so it's not all down to me," Kitty said.

"I look good with short hair?" Rogue asked Kitty.

"Yeah, it just looks like, well, I don't know, kind of like you were meant to have it short. Like you own it," Kitty explained. "Actually, I'm really surprised at how cool you were having your hair cut off. I mean, that was a lot of hair, but you just look so confident with the short hair. Like it's natural. You should so totally rock that vibe! I bet it'll drive Stacy insane!" Kitty blurted out.

A smirk slowly began to grow on Rogue's face.

"So your advise is ta rub it in their faces that they ain't getting' ta meh?" Rogue asked, actually liking that idea. "Own it," she repeated, flicking her hair back and straightening her spine as the idea of irritating Stacy was too juicy.

"Yeah, just don't rub it in too much. It'll just make her retaliate," Kitty said.

"So be prepared for the attacks comin' and try and beat em to the punch," Rogue said, thinking of what Mystique might advise if she was here.

This sort of thing never happened when she was with Mystique because Mystique would never allow things to get this out of control and the spoilt women Rogue did have to interact with never made a move to actually touch her. They would always try and pull strings and make unfortunate situations for her like trying to send her to the wrong location when it came to a party or informing her of the wrong dress code. Mystique would always catch them out and counter them because she knew it was going to happen before they did. So, if she could figure out what Stacy and her gang were gonna do before they did it, then she could easily avoid the bullying. She just needed to figure out a way of knowing what they were thinking and what they were planning to do. That was going to be the hard part, but it was more of a plan than she'd had this morning when it came to dealing with the cheerleaders. She doubted she'd be able to do anything to figure out what their next attack was going to be for the rest of the day, but she could look for openings on how to get that information.

Rogue's smile only grew as she became a bit more confidence that things might just be ok. She turned that smile on Kitty who looked like she was saying something about not being too sure about the last thing she said, but Rogue had already made up her mind.

"Thanks Kit, really," Rogue said, taking Kitty by the arm as she smiled at her. Rogue actually wondered what she would have done if she didn't have Kitty there, helping her out and giving her advice on how to deal with these bullies. Risty didn't seem to be of any help and the Acolytes weren't there. If it wasn't for the X-Men, she'd be completely alone and definitely not handling this as well as she felt she could handle it now.

"Oh, no problem," Kitty said, slowly starting to smile as she saw Rogue smiling. She wasn't completely sure if Rogue had heard the last thing she said, but she was glad she wasn't crying anymore.

After the haircut, Rogue kept her head held high, pretending to love her new hair (which wasn't hard). Of course, a few comments were thrown out like "Nice hair," by people she didn't actually know. Rogue thought they were mocking her, but she had already made up her mind on how she was going to take their comments.

"Why thank ya," Rogue said, winking at the guy who made the first comment.

Kitty, who was behind Rogue, held back a chuckle as she noticed the two guys who had made the comment look a little taken back by Rogue's attitude. Risty glanced questioningly between the two boys and Rogue. She had noticed how Rogue had come out of the bathrooms seeming upbeat. It really did confuse her. Why was she so happy to be tormented by a few simple-minded weaklings? Risty had wondered. Of course, her everlasting glare for that day fell temporarily on Kitty, guessing she'd had something to do with Rogue's mood. She didn't like that.

Somehow, that short interaction with those boys got Rogue a few brownie points around the school. But it still didn't halt Stacy.

As Rogue was approaching her locker with Kitty and Risty, they noticed Tabitha moving swiftly and moodily towards a couple of cheerleaders. She was extremely firm when telling them to leave. Rogue approached Tabitha, questioningly.

"What's up?" Kitty asked her.

"Those two clowns were trying to break into your locker," Tabitha said, now turning to Rogue.

Rogue's face remained unchanged. She really was getting feed up with the day. But like Kitty said, she couldn't show that the cheerleaders were getting to her so she just kept a straight face.

"Did they take anything?" Rogue asked.

"No, it looked more like they were trying to put something in," Tabitha said.

"Oh," Kitty said, looking uneasy. "It wasn't dog poo or anything, was it?" she asked.

Rogue moved past Kitty, opening her locker to find that they hadn't managed to put anything in there.

"Wouldn't know. I stopped them before they finished," Tabitha said.

Rogue took the rest of her books out of her locker, deciding they were best with her.

"Thanks Tabitha," Rogue said to her, again, appreciating yet another X-Men being there and looking out for her. And then feeling slightly more guilty when Tabitha nodded her head and smiled back. That was another person who was clueless that she had been absorbed and the information she had was going to be given to Magneto. It reminded her that she had that report to write up at the weekend too.

"No problem," she said, heading off in the opposite direction from them.

Rogue began to walk away from her locker; Risty and Kitty following.

"Rogue, this can't go on!" Risty stressed. "We need to do something about this now. Put those blasted cheerleaders in their place once and for all."

Rogue understood what Risty was saying and if she didn't have the shackles attached to her ankles, then she would have reacted already. But she couldn't and hearing Risty telling her what she should be doing, what she wanted to be doing, it just upset her. Rogue shuck her head.

"No? What do you mean, no?" Risty asked, coming to step in Rogue's path and halt her.

Rogue sighed as she glanced at Risty. Risty had been getting more and more angry with the cheerleaders as the day went on. Hell, it seemed she was even more angry about them than Rogue was.

"It's not worth it Risty." Rogue said, actually finding it difficult to believe that these words were coming from her mouth. For some reason, Rogue felt like she had to convince Risty that fighting back wasn't the answer. It was true that, in a way, she wasn't going to fight back, but she was going to try and get the upper hand on the cheerleaders somehow once she figured out how. Rogue had actually been thinking that she could rope Risty into helping her there, but the way Risty just seemed to be losing her cool at the moment, Rogue didn't think she could trust her not to mess up her plan. She was too emotional. Maybe when she calmed down, then they could talk, but Rogue was sure that Risty would put her mouth into gear before her brain if told anything right now. She had to steer Risty well clear from her plans and hope she didn't do anything stupid.

"And besides, what am I gonna do? Report em ta the headmaster? 'cause that'll just make meh inta a snitch. Go beat them up? There's a whole quad of them and I'll just look like the bad guy. Move schools? Well, then that would really make it look like I lost, wouldn't it?" Rogue said.

"You have to do something! They're not gonna stop just because you're ignoring them," Risty near snapped.

"I'm not ignorin' them. I'm just not givin' inta their stupid little games," Rogue said, finding herself on the fence with Risty. She appreciated that her friend was mad on her behalf, but at the same time, her anger was irritating the hell out of her. It had been all day.

"That's the best course of action," Scott said as he approached the three from behind.

He sent a small smile Rogue's way. Rogue tried to pull a smile herself, but it didn't look happy.

"But, Risty's, like, got a point there Scott. She's been ignoring them all day and it doesn't seem to be working," Kitty said.

"Don't be so sure. I've heard a few things while walking this way. A lot of people are talking about how you're handling this really well. They're actually surprised that you're not breaking down into hysterics. Especially after… Well," Scott said, referring to Rogue's hair.

"Oh, this doesn't bother meh. I've actually had short hair for most of mah life so I'm used ta it," Rogue said, shrugging it off.

No, the short hair wasn't the issue. The humiliation was.

"See, that's the thing people are talking about. It's slowly getting around the school that Stacy's bullying isn't getting to you and it's shining a bad light on her," Scott explained.

"Yes, but if she continues to just go on the way she is and making it seem like it's not bothering her, then Stacy and her dumb cheerleaders are just going to keep coming with bigger and bader ideas!" Risty stressed. "You need to nip this in the bud right now!"

Rogue glanced down, thinking. What Risty said made sense. She didn't particularly want to go to war with the cheerleaders, but, even if she did stand up to them, she doubted that would make them stop. If anything, she reckoned it would just up their game a lot faster. Plus, she'd get a bad reputation around the school and she wondered if the X-Men would still protect her if she was seen as "bad". Rogue also thought back to growing up with Mystique showing her how to handle those slimy women at the balls. If they kept trying to discredit her or anything of the like, she would come up with a plan herself and get even without having anything being traced back to her. Rogue thought about it and thought that might be the way to go about it. If she kept up this nonchalant act, it would give her more time to come up with some grand scheme that would embarrass the cheerleaders and make them stop harassing her. Plus, if Scott was right and people were liking her because of it, she might also be able to get the rest of the school on her side.

"No," Rogue finally said, glancing up to meet Scott's shaded eyes. "I ain't gonna fight em and cause a scene. They're not worth ma energy."

Risty huffed and took off down the corridor. Rogue, Kitty and Scott looked after Risty as she took off, none knowing what to say.

"So, you sitting with us at lunch?" Scott asked.

Xxxxx

Gambit had been watching most of the bullying unfold. He hadn't seen what had happened in the bathroom that morning, but he'd noticed Rogue's hair looking slightly damp and the new top she was wearing. That was his first hint that something was off. He wasn't too sure what to make of the change though or if Mystique, somehow, had a hand in that. It didn't seem that way as Rogue was still keeping close to her.

He'd seen Risty grab Rogue and drag her into the school after he dropped her off. He was a little disappointed he couldn't hear their conversation unfold. He wished he could have seen Mystique's face when Rogue told her she was seeing him. It was the one thing he was looking forward to that day, besides the fake kiss. His smugness had been riding high until he gathered what was going on with Rogue.

Mentally, he began kicking himself as he hadn't fully thought through their plan and what could come of it. He'd jumped at the chance, of course, of going back to his original plan and making it so Duncan would back off his girl. He also loved rubbing it in Mystique's face that Rogue was his. But he realised that, in his stupid ego boost, he'd forgotten a lot about Stacy and how she might react.

Then, he saw the chewing gum incident and he was finding it hard to keep his charge in tack. He reckoned things would be difficult with the cheerleaders, but he hadn't figured they'd turn to that sort of attack. He was slightly regretting rushing into their plan without fully thinking through it.

He wanted to go to Rogue when the bullying started, scoop her up, take her out of that school and blow the whole damn place up, but he couldn't. He couldn't even speak to her to let her know that he was proud of her for keeping her head up or sorry that some stupid girls were being beyond brattish. He thought about texting her, but again, he couldn't give away that he was watching her and knew what was happening. He was stuck in the trees he hid in, having to witness all the cruel pranks unfold. He hated it and he especially wasn't happy that the X-Men had to step up in order to protect her. That was his job, but he couldn't do it in his current situation.

He was slightly glad Rogue had someone to turn to, but still, he wished it was someone other than that Scott Summers.

He saw Risty take off in a huff after a conversation Rogue had with the X-Men. He was surprised Mystique wasn't doing more to help Rogue out herself. In fact, he was rather disappointed in her. He snorted at that, wondering why he was surprised. After all, Mystique was a terrible mother before this so why would she be any good at helping her daughter when she actually needed it?

He was tempted to follow Risty to see what she was up to, but he stuck by following Rogue. It was torturous to watch, but he figured, if he stuck by her and there were any openings where he could help her, he'd take them. That and he knew he was still on thin ice with Magneto, even though he didn't kick up a fuss last night after their failed mission.

Thinking of Magneto, Gambit's frown deepened. He knew that the old man wouldn't be too happy to hear about the bullying. Not that he cared about Rogue seeing how he was a big enough bully to her alone, but because he would see it as time wasting. He wanted her to absorb the X-Men after all and, although this was getting her close to them out of pity for her, there was still too much attention on her. Gambit knew that he would be blamed, of course, because he was the one supposed to be looking out for her. He couldn't do anything now, but he figured after school, when he had Rogue back at the base, safe, where he didn't need to keep an eye on her, then he could easily go digging into Stacy's background and the other cheerleader's history until he found something that would keep them tame.

Come dinner and Gambit become even more disappointed in Mystique. Risty had seemed to just up and abandon Rogue completely, leaving her solely with the X-Men to look out for her. He reckoned telling Magneto that Mystique had completely backed off Rogue would be a good thing, but telling Magneto that Rogue had become dependent on the X-Men at school would not go down well. He wished he'd just convinced Rogue to skip the day at school since everything just seemed to be going pear shaped.

Dinner didn't seem so bad. He stayed close and listened to bits of the X-Men's conversation. Nothing really interesting was discussed. He just watched Rogue sit with them and, occasionally, smile at some joke Nightcrawler tried to make or some comment the girls made. As much as he didn't like her relying on the X-Men, Gambit was glad that she had them and could see that she was able to bring her guard down for about an hour during that day. He didn't have to be touching Rogue to know the relief she was feeling at having them there. It was written all over her face.

While she did relax and bring her guard down, he kept a lookout for the cheerleaders and the jocks. They seemed to be keeping their distance, but Gambit didn't like how both pairs seemed to be separately devising plans to take Rogue down. Of course, he couldn't hear either of them as they were further away. That left him with trying to figure out what both the cheerleaders and jocks might be planning. When it came to Stacy, Gambit understood her motive. She was going to attack Rogue and do what she could to discredit Rogue and try to win him back. She was going to be in for a surprise later on down the line, Gambit thought.

When it came to the jocks though, Gambit realised that they hadn't actually made a move on Rogue. At least, not yet. Gambit figured that Duncan and his jocks were going to lash out at some point, but he doubted it would be at Rogue. It would be at him. Gambit only found that idea funny. In fact, he found himself wanting the jocks to come after him so he could soon put them in their place. But still, he had to make sure Rogue wasn't caught in the crossfire. He didn't want her hurt anymore than she already was after all. So, as he kept listening in to Rogue's conversation with the X-Men. Gambit thought of all the ways the jocks might come after him and how to prevent it or counter it. One idea of how they might of attacked him (and hurt Rogue all at the same time) came to mind and had him pulling out his phone and making a few calls to an old contact he knew in New York.