"Make it stop!" Bobby Drake wailed in terror. "Aaaaaaugh!! MAKE!! IT!! STOP!!" He gripped the sides of his head in agony.
"Geez Bobby," Rogue said, closing her textbook and sighing. "It's just algebra. Get a grip."
"But you don't understand," Bobby implored. "It's going to KILL me."
Kurt flipped through another page of his notebook, unfazed. "Algebra might not kill you, but when he sees your report card, Logan just might."
"Augh!" Bobby cried, plopping his head face first into his math book.
"If you ask me it's your own fault for not studying," Sam said as he took a piece of paper out of his folder. He caught Rogue's eyes across the table, smiled, and blushed as he looked back down at his homework.
Bobby watched Sam in disbelief. "Can someone explain to me why it's fair that HE," Bobby whined loudly, pointing at Sam, "gets both straight As AND gets to go to the prom with the one of the prettiest girls in school?? Life is SO not fair."
Rogue gathered her books together and pushed her chair back from the table, smiling bemusedly at Bobby. "Why Bobby, I do believe that is the nicest thing you have ever said about me."
"Whatever," Bobby waved dismissively in her direction. "I mean, come on! We're already at a school to learn about our powers, why do we have to go to yet ANOTHER school on top of that? Isn't there some kind of law or something that says kids don't have to go to two schools at the same time?"
"Not that I know of," Kitty said, still hunched over her American Literature essay. "Now could you please, like, shut up, so the rest of us can study?"
Rogue stood up and pushed her chair back in. "Has anyone heard from the Professor? I thought they said they would only be gone for a day. They should have been back by now."
"Maybe the Prof is sight seeing?" Jamie offered hopefully.
"I'm going to see if Logan or Scott has heard anything," Rogue said. "I'll be back later."
As Rogue walked out of the library, Bobby shot a disgusted look at Sam, who had a dreamy expression on his face as he watched her go. "Oh shut up already."
"But I didn't say anything?" Sam asked.
"You didn't have to," Bobby said exhaustedly. "I think I'm getting a cavity from the sugar shock I get just sitting next to you whenever SHE'S in the room."
"Quit talking and start calculating," Sam responded, smiling to himself as he turned back to his work.
Gambit felt another wave of nausea wash over him as he struggled to open his eyes. "Ugh. What happened?"
"Go tell 'im dat Sleeping Beauty finally woke up," he heard a voice floating somewhere over his head.
Gambit grimaced as he finally managed to pry his eyes open. He looked up and saw Pierre cackling to another man he didn't know. "I was wrong about him," Pierre snickered. "He IS dumber than he looks, non?"
"Not as stupid as you mon ami," Gambit retorted as he tried to prop himself up to a sitting position. His arms were tied behind his back. Damnation. If he couldn't grab anything with his hands, his powers sure weren't gonna be any help in getting him out of this.
"Where's the Professor?" Gambit demanded.
"Oh, he fine. For now," Pierre chuckled. Gambit's eyes finished adjusting to his dark surroundings. He had no idea where the Professor could be, or even where he was, or how long he had been out. But he had a pretty good idea who had put him there.
"Did you have a nice nap Remy?" that all-too-familiar voice echoed from the other side of the room. Gambit cringed. Maybe he was dumber than he looked after all.
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you," Gambit sneered at his adopted father. "What have you done with the Professor?"
Jean-Luc studied his hands in a bored fashion. "For an old guy in a wheelchair, he sure put up a good fight. Lucky though we was well prepared for his mental mumbo jumbo." He pulled something out of his pocket. "I should thank you Remy. If it hadn't been for your ramblin' on about the Professor, we would never had known we had to find somethin' to short-circuit that brain of his so we could hang on to him proper." Gambit squinted to see what Jean-Luc had taken out of his pocket and was now placing on the floor in front of him. Some kind of vial of liquid...poison?
"If you've hurt him..." Gambit growled. If only he had listened to his instincts and talked the Professor out of coming here!
Jean-Luc laughed. "Tear up our King of Spades? That'd be plain stupid." He leaned in closer to Remy. "We're just keeping him real sleepy-like so he can't use his powers to escape."
"What do you WANT, Jean-Luc?" Remy spat at him.
"After seeing your X-Friends at work, I realized you and your powers were only pocket change," Jean-Luc said as he picked up the vial next to Remy. "I knew that if I could find a way to, how would you say, convince your X-friends to help me with some little errands, me and de Theives Guild would never have spend another day workin'."
"You mean you're gonna blackmail the X-men just to get even with the Rippers?" Gambit asked, still struggling against the restraints on his arms.
"Oh you mean da Assassins?" Jean-Luc asked in a bored tone. "That's what dey are calling demselves now, you know. Partly yes. But I got bigger plans for your buddies when dey get here."
"They won't do your biddin'," Gambit said with more certainty than he felt.
"Dey will, or they won't see their dear ol' Professeur again," Jean-Luc grinned. "And don't worry, I won't be keepin' YOU around here much longer either. I doubt any of them would come for you, anyway. After all, it was you who brought dem the coin in the first place."
"It was a fake," Gambit sneered. How could he have been so gullible?
"Of course, mon petit. Don't you know I know de best forgers in de business?"
"I guess I just believed you really were thinkin' what was best for me, for a change," Gambit said weakly.
Jean-Luc went on as if Gambit hadn't even spoken. "And when they find out, they'll all think you was in on it. So you'll have no place to go. We don't want ya, the X-Men don't want ya, and I am doubtin' that after joinin' up with the X-Men, your Acolyte buddies would want ya back either."
He leaned down and put his face right next to Gambit's. "Maybe you will finally learn, Remy, that no one ever, ever leaves de Theives Guild without facin' the consequences."
"I don't like it either, Rogue," Logan growled as he clicked on the War Room's communicator for what felt like the umpteenth time. "The Professor and Gambit both gone and com silent? Don't like it one bit." Logan stood up and stalked around the room.
"I haven't been able to mentally link with the Professor either," Jean confirmed from over at the War Room table, "but that doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. It could mean he and Gambit just prefer to do this alone."
"Or it could mean trouble. If we don't hear anything from them by tomorrow morning, Logan and I will take the X-Jet and head down to New Orleans and try to find out what's going on," Scott said.
"What about the rest of us?" Rogue queried.
"There's no way Charles would want any of you walkin' out of school now, not with all the finals going on," Logan confirmed. "We can handle it."
"Isn't Storm going with you?" Rogue queried.
"She can't. Storm's in the middle of a special new mutant recruitment she was working on with the Professor in New Jersey," Scott said as he clicked off a computer monitor.
"Turns out the girl's dad isn't too keen on other mutants after one of our good buddies from the Hellions found out she was a mutant and messed with her mind," Logan shook his head. "But if anyone can convince him to let her join the X-Men, Stormy can."
Rogue did the math of remaining X-Men in her head and nodded towards Jean. "So you're leaving her here as our babysitter?"
Logan cracked a half-smile. "Someone's gotta stay to make sure Drake does all his homework."
Friday came and went, and a pile of exhausted teenagers filed back in through the doors of the X-Mansion.
"Two down, three to go!" Kurt cheered triumphantly.
"Next week is gonna be a KILLER," Jamie shook his head.
Bobby looked as if he hadn't blinked in several hours. "I. Am. SO!! Doomed."
"Yeah yeah, great, some exams are over, whatever," Kitty waved her hand dismissively. "We have much more important things to do now."
"Like wait around for Jean to tell us what to do while Scott and Logan are gone?" Kurt asked as he tossed his book bag behind the couch and plopped down onto it, sighing.
"Duh! Tonight is the prom!!" Kitty exclaimed.
Kurt sighed again as he grudgingly peeled himself up off the couch. "Tell me why our school is having prom on a Friday night again?"
Kitty rolled her eyes. "Who cares why? " She twirled around the room with her head turned to face the ceiling and her arms outstretched, like a Disney princess come to life. "I'm going to the PROM! I am SO ready!!"
Kurt rolled his eyes and whispered to Rogue. "I wonder if the prom is ready for Kitty."
Two pairs of curious ears were pressed up against Kitty and Rogue's door.
"NO!!"
"Come on, it's just a little eyeshadow."
"Kitty, it's..it's... GLITTER."
"Do you think Rogue is gonna throw Kitty out the window?" Jamie hissed in his most conspiratorial voice to Bobby.
"My money's on a bonfire of her teen magazines," Bobby shook his head. "Now shhh or we're gonna miss the best stuff!"
"Well, yeah, okay, it does have SOME glitter in it..."
"Kitty, look, see the label? The first ingredient listed is GLITTER."
"But..."
"I don't do glitter."
"But this is special!" Kitty said. "Come on, just this once. And please please let me do something with your hair?"
"Out."
"But..."
"You're all ready to go and I ain't gonna ever be if you don't go."
Bobby and Jamie could practically hear Kitty's pout through the door.
Rogue sighed. "I know you're trying to help Kitty, and I really appreciate it. I do. You're a great friend, but I need to do this my way."
"M'kay," a mumbly sounding voice responded as the doorknob turned.
Bobby and Jamie were too engrossed in the conversation to realize Kitty was trying to leave, and as she opened the door, both boys fell face first into her room.
Kitty's eyes narrowed. "You two are like, SO pathetic." She swished her curled, updo ponytail and stepped daintily over them in a flutter of poofy pink. "I'm going downstairs to wait for Lance."
Bobby and Jamie slowly got up, only to face an irate-looking Rogue.
"Get outta my room!" she snarled.
'We're going, we're going!" Bobby managed as he and Jamie scrambled to their feet and raced down the hallway.
As she heard the thud of the boys' footsteps echoing through the hallway, Rogue sat back down at the dresser mirror and sighed. She was still in her battered green bath robe, her beautiful gift from Remy still hanging on the closet door. She dug through her sparse makeup collection and tried to find something, anything, that would work with the dress. Black eyeliner, nope. Dark grey eyeshadow? Uh uh. And what the heck was she gonna do with her hair? Rogue sighed and put her chin in her hands, looking at her reflection. Who was she kidding? She didn't have any kind of experience with this sort of stuff. Maybe she should have let Kitty help her.
She glanced over at Kitty's gigantic pink makeup case, took one look at the overflowing glittery makeup inside it, and groaned, her head plopping face-first to the dresser table in frustration.
A soft knock sounded on the doorway behind her.
"I told you Kitty, thanks but no thanks..."
"It's not Kitty."
Now THAT wasn't a voice she had been expecting to hear. Rogue turned around to see Jean, who was holding a basket containing a slim, small silver makeup case, a large hair brush, a bottle of hair spray and a curling iron.
"Do you trust me?" Jean asked with a smile.
What a question, Rogue thought to herself. To say that she and Jean were not BFFs was a huge understatement. Jean had tried valiantly in the beginning of Rogue's tenure with the X-Men to befriend her, but Rogue took one look at her popularity, her beauty, her over-achieving personality, her star football playing boyfriend, and the boy from the X-Men who followed her around like a lovesick puppy, and had responded in pretty much every way but verbally with a big ol' 'no thanks'. Why would she even contemplate letting Jean go near her with any sort of beauty product when she'd already turned down her best friend's help?
Rogue sighed again and looked at the dress. She really DID want this night to be something special, and Jean was probably the one person in the house who could really help her make that happen.
Rogue gave Jean a genuine smile. "Yes Jean, I think I actually do."