Sam checked his watch for the nineteenth time in the past 5 minutes. "Do you think she changed her mind and that's why she's not down here yet?"
Kurt clapped a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Relax Sam! We still have plenty of time."
Kitty was pacing back and forth like a nervous parent. "I shouldn't have left her alone up there. She needs me, whether she likes it or not."
Lance tried valiantly to calm her down. "I'm sure she's fine. She's just..." Lance stopped talking as he looked up at the top of the stairs.
"Wow," Kurt said.
Bobby and Jamie, who were camped out on the opposite couch fighting over whose turn it was to play the Nintendo DS, both looked up to see what was going on.
"Double wow," Bobby said. The DS fell out of his hands as his mouth gaped open in shock.
Rogue shifted uncomfortably at the top of the stairs, unaccustomed to the attention she was receiving. She turned to Jean, who was standing behind her. "See! I told ya I'd look stupid."
Jean smiled. "That's not why they're staring and you know it." She gave her a gentle pat on the back. "Go on."
Rogue sighed in resignation and turned back towards the staircase. Taking a deep breath, she started walking slowly down the stairs. Her eyes met Sam's, and his face flamed bright crimson, and he suddenly looked as if he was going to faint.
Kitty ran up to her as she reached the bottom of the stairs and enveloped her in a bear hug. "You. Look. AMAZING!!" she squealed.
Rogue struggled to breathe. "If you don't let go of me Kitty, the only place I'll be going tonight is the hospital." Extricating herself from her friend's grip, she turned and smiled at Sam, who was clutching a small plastic box in his hands.
"Uhm, this...it's a...you put it on...uhm," Sam stammered as he offered it to Rogue, trying desperately to keep his hands from shaking.
Rogue took the box from Sam and smiled. "Thank you," she said as she slipped the small bunch of flowers onto her wrist. "Lilacs are some of my favorite flowers. How'd you know?"
Kitty cleared her throat loudly. Rogue turned to look at her and saw her conspiratorial wink.
Kurt strolled up between Sam and Lance and draped an arm around their shoulders. "Shall we go then? Amanda is still waiting for us to pick her up."
The group began to move towards the door, chatting amicably amongst themselves. Sam didn't say much; he wanted to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
I'm going to prom with the most beautiful girl in the world, he grinned. Things didn't get much better than...
His thoughts were interrupted as a densely packed snowball whacked him on the back of the head. "Hey!" he protested as he whirled around.
Bobby was shaking his head and smiling wryly at him. "That's for how much I am seriously hating you right now."
Rolling his eyes, Sam turned back towards the door and hurried to catch up with the group. He arrived just in time to see the girls' reaction to their mode of transportation.
"Ok, uhm..." Rogue said, twisting her hands together in an uncomfortable gesture.
Kitty was not quite as subtle. "Wow, it's the X-Van. How romantic." She turned to glare at Lance, her hands on her hips.
"Don't look at me," Lance said, holding up his hands in surrender. "It was Kurt's idea."
"You have to understand," Kurt pleaded. "None of us have jobs, and after school, we're either busy training here or..." he gestured vaguely to Lance, "whatever it is Lance does when he's not at school. Once we bought all the tickets, there was no money left over."
"You could have asked us to chip in," Rogue observed.
"I would have chipped in too," Kitty pouted.
Kurt tried his best to rally. "Does it really matter how we get there, as long as we get there?"
Rogue couldn't help but smile. "'Suppose not."
Kitty crossed her arms. "Fine, fine. But I call shotgun."
Sam, who had finally seemed to regain the power of speech, opened the back door for Rogue. "Your carriage awaits."
Rogue chuckled and did a theatrical curtsy as she got inside. "Why, thank you, sir."
After picking up Amanda and parking the X-Van in the school's parking lot, the trio of couples made their way through the gym.
"I still can't believe the school wouldn't spring for a country club, or some other place," Lance grumbled. "You'd think that what we paid for the tickets and...ooof!" he muttered as Kitty elbowed him in the ribs.
"Stop being so pessimistic," Kitty said. "It's going to be great, you'll see."
As they walked through the gym's back door and out onto the football field, they all stopped and gazed in amazement at the transformation.
A billowing white tent covered the entire length of the field, with a large wooden dance floor in its middle. White tables dotted the area around the floor; each featuring a more spectacular flower arrangement on it than the next. More flowers, and what seemed like millions of fairy lights, hung from every section inside the tent.
"I've been at weddings that weren't even close to as pretty as this," Kitty gasped as she walked by a large pot of exotic flowers.
Lance grunted in semi-approval. "It's nice to know all that money I spent on tickets went towards something." Kitty narrowed her eyes at him.
Kurt grinned from ear to ear. "Ooooh! Look at the dessert table!" Amanda waved goodbye to the rest of the group as Kurt gleefully dragged her towards it.
"So should we like find a table or something?" Lance's prior comment already forgotten, Kitty was grinning so fiercely it looked as if her face would burst.
Rogue shrugged. "I guess. You know more about this stuff than I do."
Kitty directed them to a table close to the dance floor as Sam pulled out a chair for Rogue.
"Uhm, do you want something to drink, or something?" Sam asked, his voice wavering. Why can't I just stop being nervous? She seems like she is having a good time. Relax already, please!!
Rogue looked up at him and smiled. "If the punch looks like it's fit for human consumption, then yeah, sure."
"M'kay I'll be right back," he nodded.
"Ahem," Kitty cleared her throat and looked pointedly at Lance, who had already plopped down distractedly on a chair next to Kitty, and was now waving to some friends across the room.
"What?" Lance asked.
"Did you SEE that?" Kitty gestured in Rogue's direction.
"See what?" Lance asked in a dumbfounded tone.
Kitty sighed heavily. "Sam! He pulled Rogue's chair out for her AND went to get her something to drink!"
"So?" Lance said.
"Oooh!" she vented as she pushed her chair away from the table. "Never mind! I'll go get it myself."
"Hey while you're up could you get me some cookies from the dessert table?" Lance asked.
Kitty glowered at him, turned on her heel, and stomped away.
Lance looked at Rogue and shrugged. "NOW what'd I do?"
Rogue shook her head at him. "Kitty has been looking forward to her prom for, well, I think her whole life, probably. She wants to be treated like Cinderella tonight and, well, you're treating her more like one of the Seven Dwarves."
Lance looked uncomfortable. "I'm not good at that romantic junk," he admitted.
"You think I'm any better at it than you are?" Rogue snorted. "A week ago I wouldn't have dreamed I'd be here – actually, I didn't even think I wanted to be here. But I guess I do, after all. Everyone wants to be admired and appreciated, Lance. Especially someone like Kitty."
Lance looked over in Kitty's direction uneasily.
"That means you should go. Like NOW," Rogue said.
Nodding, Lance stood up and straightened his coat. "Wish me luck," he said as he headed over towards Kitty. Rogue turned and watched as Kitty met him halfway, a frown on her face. He started talking, she nodded, and then she squeaked happily and enveloped him in an enthusiastic hug.
The DJ started playing 'Apologize' by One Republic, and Kitty grinned and half-dragged Lance to the floor. Rogue couldn't help but chuckle at how appropriate the song choice was.
Maybe the DJ is an empath or somethin', she mused.
Sam appeared in front of her, holding two cups of punch. "I tasted some and it seems okay," he said as he gingerly handed her a cup.
"Well it's nice to see the school serving something that's edible for a change," she smiled as she took a sip. They both watched as the floor began to fill up with couples.
"I'm always surprised when I see Lance and Kitty together," Sam said as he nodded in their direction. "They seem so different."
"What can I tell ya?" Rogue shrugged. "Opposites attract."
Sam nodded, then placed his empty cup on the table. "Do you want to..." he inclined his head towards the dance floor.
Rogue put her cup down next to his. "I'd love to." She took his hand in her gloved one as they walked slowly to the dance floor.
Rogue's hopefulness that Sam was more graceful on the dance floor turned out to be surprisingly well-founded. He seemed to be a natural, and guided her around the floor with a gentle ease.
Sam seemed to pick up on her observation and smiled. "My momma made all of us take dancing lessons from pretty much when we started walkin' on up."
"She sounds like a really great lady," Rogue said. "Don't you miss her?"
Sam looked down for a minute. "Sure do. And my brothers and sisters too, 'specially Paige. Paige would love living at the mansion. She'd be the only one who could out-obsess Kitty when it comes to famous people."
Rogue smiled. "She sounds great. I wish I had a sister like that."
Sam seemed to relax a bit more after talking about his family, and smiled back at her. "Hey, you got Kurt, and all of us too. Unless Bobby isn't your idea of a dream brother come true?"
Rogue laughed. "Not exactly." Her eyes suddenly started to glisten. "Thank you again so much Sam, for invitin' me. I'm having a really nice time."
"Me too," he smiled back. Sighing contentedly, Rogue laid her head on his shoulder. So this is why the other girls are always going on about prom, she thought to herself. I guess I just didn't know what I was really missin'.
Kitty's voice suddenly interrupted her contentment. "What's Jean doing here?"
Rogue looked up and saw Jean striding purposefully towards them.
"Whatever it is, I didn't do it," Lance said.
By now Kurt had spotted what was going on, and had led Amanda over to the rest of the group as Jean met them at the edge of the dance floor.
"Uhm, wasn't your prom last year, Jean?" Kurt asked.
Jean shook her head. "I have to talk to you. Now."
Kurt patted Amanda's arm. "Why don't I meet you over at the dessert table? It should just take a minute."
Amanda winked at him. "Fine, but if there's only one brownie left, I'm not sharing."
Jean started at Lance. "Lance, would you excuse us, please?"
Lance leaned down to whisper to Kitty. "What the heck is going on?"
"No clue whatsoever," Kitty said.
Lance appraised Jean's disheveled appearance warily. "I hope she isn't gonna go all Carrie on us or anything," Lance whispered back. He pointed at their table. "I'll be right over there if you need me."
After Lance had walked away, Jean led the remaining four teenagers outside the tent.
"Jean, what's going on?" Rogue asked.
"Yeah, you're kinda scaring us," Kurt added.
"There's NO time," Jean stated. "We have to go. Right now. This instant."
"But we just, like, got here," Kitty implored.
"You don't understand," Jean said, shaking her head. "The X-Jet came back."
Four pairs of blank eyes stared back at her.
"WITHOUT Scott or Logan."
"What do you mean, without Scott or Logan?" Kurt asked in the squeaky voice that indicated he was starting to panic.
"The X-Jet has a security feature that allows us to program in the approximate time we think we may be gone on a mission," Jean filled them in. "If you don't return or communicate with its systems by that time, it returns to the mansion. By itself."
"Does that mean Scott and Logan are in trouble?" Sam asked.
"They haven't contacted the mansion on the com all day, AND I can't psychically link with either one of them," Jean said. "Combine that with the fact that the Professor's mind is still not responding to me, and I'm certain that something very bad has happened to them. So we need go. Now."
"In our prom clothes?" Kurt squeaked again.
Jean shook her head. "There's no time to go back home and change. The X-Jet is in the back of the parking lot in stealth mode, and every minute we stand here talking is another minute that something terrible may be happening to all of them."