So my finals are over and I have all this spare time on my hands with very little to fill it with. It feels weird. I'm not sure what to do with myself.

The five-year-old girl thing in this chapter is a reference to something Professor X tells Wolverine in X2. And Laura's new wardrobe is based on what I see her in in various comic books.

It began with the slush Laura 'accidentally' dropped that splattered onto Jean's brown shoes when they had lunch in the food court, and continued when Jamie deliberately wandered off a few times into stores that Jean hated and annoyed older guys. Laura started eyeballing people, and Jamie told every fifth person, male or female, that they passed that his redheaded friend liked them.

Jean was about to murder them both and hide the bodies in the maintenance closet. But she wasn't going to give in. Admitting that they were driving her mad would be admitting defeat. Jean was a redhead. She would never admit defeat.

"Alright you sweet little miscreants, we've got two more stores. I think- Jamie, get your butt back over here or Heaven help me I'll make you think you're a five year old girl for the next month!- I think that we can be on our way back to the mansion- I mean it, Jamie!- in about an hour or so. Sound good?" She told Laura. It wasn't a question. They were both laden down with bags from half a dozen different stores in addition to the Victoria's Secret bags, most of which actually contained clothes for Laura instead of some things for Jean (like new brown shoes to replace her stained ones). All that Jamie was carrying was a tiny bag from a jewelry shop with a bracelet Jean had liked in it. They figured he'd break or lose anything else.

The way it was unfolding, Laura's wardrobe would look similar to Rogue's- lots of dark colors, hardcore boots and accessories (especially wristbands, for some inexplicable reason), a noticeable lack of any color bright and cheerful. There was a lot of leather in one bag, most of which was a jacket or two and a few vaguely shirt-like things. Under normal circumstances Jean would object and stick some colors in there, but she was beginning to get the feeling that her two brats- charges- were tag teaming on her to make her day miserable.

Jamie was ignoring her and chatting up a girl that had more piercings than face, so Jean sighed and dove into his mind telepathically, studiously ignoring her conscience. He froze for a second, then relaxed and looked around with interest.

"Jamie, come hold my hand so you don't get lost," Jean said sweetly, and Jamie skipped over like a five-year-old girl. "If you're good I'll bake some cookies later, okay?"

Laura watched, fascinated. "What'd you do?"

"I altered his mind. Watch that I don't do it to you too. I know you were working together."

Her dark-haired head snapped forward and she ignored Jean's smug glances. The tables had turned once more, it seemed.

The last two stores went quickly and without incident, and Jean happily led the way to her van with half a ton of bags in one arm (being supported telekinetically a fraction of an inch above her arm so she would be able to use that arm in the future) and Jamie's hand in the other. He was skipping along every other step and humming a song about a teapot. Laura was a few feet behind then, watching Jamie's degrading show.

Soon enough everything was loaded into the car and Jean slammed the trunk door down with a sigh. Laura was maintaining a five-foot berth around Jean in case she randomly decided to zap her brain too, and Jamie was standing there trying to count his fingers.

"Okay, load up!" she said joyfully, glad that they'd all survived and it was only two in the afternoon. Jamie hopped into the car enthusiastically, and as Laura and Jean turned to get in the front seats they heard someone honk a car horn repeatedly. Someone else's car alarm went off.

Both girls ran back to the back of the van just in time for several hooting jeering boys to fly by in a pickup and send dirty puddle water from a short rain shower all over them and the back of the van. Laura looked calmly down at herself, noticing she was wet, but Jean gasped in anger and began to go after the boys, who'd turned at the end of the row of cars out of sight but not out of Jean's psychic mind.

"Those little-" she said something Laura hadn't known could come out of Jean's mouth, "This was a new outfit! They shall pay!"

"Wait," Laura grabbed Jean's drenched arm with her own wet hand, "let's wait until they leave and do something illegal to their truck."

"Illegal? Why?" Jean asked. Muddy new clothes made her sense of morals fade a little, and muddy new clothes that someone else made that way made the sweet little nice side of Jean vanish almost entirely.

"Illegal gets the point across better."

"I think we'd get in trouble for that," Jean said regretfully.

"More trouble than you're already going to be in for turning Jamie into a five-year-old girl?" Laura asked sarcastically.

"Good point. Let's do it."

They strapped Jamie in the car with his Gameboy and set off across the parking lot to where the pickup truck sat, empty and undefended. While they did their work, Jean giggled and even Laura cracked a smile.

When they found the truck it had been in decent condition, if four tires, two mirrors, a windshield, and a steering wheel could be considered decent. When they left, Laura had used her skills with electronics from her assassin days to rewire the truck in a few special ways, and slashed her tires. Jean rotated things around and stuck a giant hardening clot of mud in the exhaust, because even when she was being bad it wasn't very impressive. The driver of the truck and his idiot friends would be very surprised when they returned.

On the drive home, Jean decided not to leave Jamie a young female. He blinked a few times and looked around.

"What happened? I thought we were at the mall." He said dazedly.

"We were," Jean said cheerfully. "You were getting annoying."

"She made you think you were a little girl," Laura said helpfully, twisting around in the passenger seat to watch his expression. Jamie said a few unnice things and glared grumpily at the girls.

"See if I ever go shopping with you two again."

Jean chuckled and glanced at Jamie in the rearview mirror as they turned up the drive to the mansion.

"You might feel differently now, but if you want to I could still braid your hair."

Jamie didn't reply, just folded his arms across his chest and stared out the window moodily. When Jean pulled the van into her spot beside Scott's convertible, he slid out of the van and ran inside, causing Jean to laugh again.

"He'll never forgive you," Laura said, trying to stifle a smile and failing as they picked up as many bags as they could carry and headed towards the door. Jean shrugged.

"Yes he will. It just might not be for a few hours. I think I'll still make him cookies after the Professor and Logan are done with me for misusing my powers."

"I can't believe I'm saying this without bribery, but I actually had a little bit of fun today."

Jean smiled. "A little?"

"Just a little. Most of it was when we were trashing that truck or watching Jamie sing children's' songs as loud as he could."

"How sweet."

They made it to their shared room without dropping anything fragile and dumped everything on the floor, and stood side by side staring at the pile.

"So…" Laura said casually.

"What?" Jean said, knowing that whenever Laura did anything casually that meant she was about to make someone mad.

"Let's do laundry."

The End