AN:Thanks go to those on my Facebook page who helped me pick the winner of the Geek's challenge.
Episode 4
"Mad at you?" Amara said to Kitty with a voice that was dripping with scorn. "Why would I be mad at you? Oh that's right; you sent me to elimination, you bitch."
Kitty glared at Amara across the breakfast table. "We had to send someone. You should know all about that. You've been there before."
"Yes, I have," Amara replied scornfully, "and at least we had the decency to send a team that wasn't working and making everyone else miserable."
"I wasn't going to send Rogue and Lance back into elimination two weeks in a row," Kitty said firmly. "No one deserves to be bullied, and that's what that would have been."
"How terrible!" Amara mocked her. "They're not pulling their weight, they don't deserve to be here, and I resent Pyro and I being used as a substitute just so you can feel good about yourself. Know this, Kitty-cat, when Pyro and I win next challenge, we're sending you."
"And your little dog too," Pyro added in his impersonation of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Amanda covered her mouth to smother her giggles.
"I'm sorry," Wanda cut in. "Am I hearing this right? Weren't you two lecturing me and Toad about sending people in out of revenge?"
Amara smiled sweetly at Wanda. "Oh, I'm sure Kitty won't mind. In fact, I think she'll completely understand, especially if it's a choice between her and Piotr, and a team that's already been in the elimination room, won't you Kitty?"
"Oh don't worry, Amara," Kitty said. "I understand perfectly."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Spyke said when next the Beauties and Geeks gathered in the study. "Ready for your next challenge?"
A mix of 'yes' and 'no's followed. Spyke grinned.
"We all notice different things when we walk into a room. Some of your probably notice the lighting, the colour scheme, the décor; while other probably notice the TV, the gym equipment, the gaming system..."
"Yes!" Fred cheered.
"Well, for your next challenge, Geeks, you'll be learning all about interior decorating."
A number of groans followed.
"And Beauties," Spyke went on, "you'll be learning all about computers."
Another, louder series of groans followed.
"Here are your study materials. I'll see you tomorrow."
Kitty decided that the best way to teach Piotr about interior design was to take him on a tour of the mansion and for them to talk about the different fixtures and features in each room. She liked that he was a very attentive listener, and she hoped that his artistic inclinations would work in their favour during the Geek challenge.
Most of the other Beauties thought that this was a good idea, and they did the same thing with their Geeks. They kept bumping into each other all over the place.
x-x-x
Lance and Rogue studied alone in their bedroom, and didn't say a word to each other. Rogue honestly didn't care if she got sent back into the elimination room. For Carol's sake, she would do the best she could, but she refused to be the one to make the first move with Lance. He was the one who had been called out for his poor behaviour, therefore he had to make the first move. In the meantime, Rogue was quite happy to sit on her bed and read through the study material.
Lance was also on his bed, attempting to make sense of what he was reading. He found it hard to concentrate. He wanted to win the money, and he couldn't do that if they got sent home. As much as it pained him to admit it, even to himself, computers were not his strong suit. He only knew enough about computers to get him through school and work. He'd never actually had a computer of his own.
"So," Lance said, the first word either of them had spoken to each other since the last elimination, "I don't think I'll be able to help you with all that interior design crap. Not my thing."
"That's fine," Rogue replied, not even bothering to lift her head from the book as she flipped the page. "I've had plenty of decorating experience and many heated discussions about the same with Carol."
"Who's Carol?"
"My housemate. We took decorating our apartment very seriously."
"You have a housemate?"
"Don't sound so surprised. I'm not a hermit."
"Huh."
Another long silence followed, and Rogue sighed to herself. She supposed that counted as a 'first move'.
"How are you with computers?" she asked.
Lance hesitated. He didn't want to ask for help, but he didn't want to look stupid in front of anyone for the challenge either. And who knew what the challenge would be? Somehow he didn't think it was going to be as easy as sending an email. He licked his lips.
"I...might need a hand...later," he said very slowly, not willing to look at her.
"Okay," Rogue replied, internally rolling her eyes. "Just gimme a yell when you do."
For dinner that night, Gambit had perused the kitchen and realised he had exactly what he needed to make up a batch of nachos. Which he did; a very hot and spicy batch of nachos, just to his taste.
"It's hot," Gambit warned everyone who expressed an interest in it once it was made up.
He was then granted the opportunity to say "I told you so" when certain people tried it and couldn't handle it. Much to his surprise, however, not only did X-23 help herself to a nice big serving, she also added extra spice.
"Are you crazy?" Amara asked while fanning her mouth as Pyro got her a glass of milk.
X-23 quite calmly ate her first mouthful and swallowed happily, completely unfazed.
"I like hot food," she said, and filled up her fork again.
Gambit laughed. "I like you, chère."
About midday the following day, the Geeks were asked to meet Spyke in the foyer. They stood on the stairs while Spyke gave them their instructions away from the ears of their Beauties.
"For your challenge, you will be decorating a bedroom," Spyke told him once all were ready. "The Beauties will be the judges of this challenge, and they will not be told which room is which. You will have a budget of $1500 to buy everything you need to decorate the bedroom, and we're going shopping...now."
No long thereafter, the Geeks piled into the mini bus, and were driven downtown. On the way they were given additional information about the room; the size of the available space, what the pre-existing furniture was, things like that.
Upon their arrival at the store, the Geeks each got a shopping trolley and a camera crew to follow them around. They all set off in different directions. Some of them had decided on what they wanted to do on the way, while the others wanted to see what was in the store first before making plans.
Pyro knew exactly what he wanted to do. He had envisioned one of the characters from his books and decided to decorate the bedroom to match his personality. He was off like a shot, looking for everything he was thinking of, and subsequently got frustrated on multiple occasions when he couldn't find precisely what he was imagining even amongst the store's extensive range.
Toad was determined to impress Wanda by any means necessary. As he went through the store, with no real plan, he picked up anything and everything he thought that she would appreciate. Fred had a similar train of thought, although he had more of a plan, and less of a crush on his Beauty, Jean.
Once Piotr decided on his colour scheme, he had no problems collecting what he wanted in order to pull it off.
Rogue was a little put off by the fact that the Beauties were going to be judging. She knew what she wanted to do; a gothic style bedroom, not dissimilar to the style of her bedroom at home. She also figured if she did that, the Beauties would have no problems figuring out which room was hers. She contemplating going with more Carol's style, but she really did not share Carol's taste, and couldn't bring herself to decorate a room in such a way for the challenge.
Her indecision brought her wandering to the kids section, where she found X-23 holding a stuffed toy dog. X-23 looked up at Rogue and an almost guilty expression appeared on her face.
"He's cute," Rogue said.
X-23's guilty expression faded. "Yes."
Rogue gave her a smile and started looking through the different shelves and displays. X-23 reluctantly put the dog down and started walking again. Rogue noticed X-23's indecision.
"Can't decide what you want?" Rogue asked as she flipped through the available bed sets.
"Remy said I should pick a theme when decorating a room," X-23 replied, looking around with a bewildered look in her eye. "He said that will help keep things co-ordinated."
"Can't decide on a theme, huh?"
"No," X-23 said, wandering over to Rogue.
"I hear you," Rogue said, pulling out one of the set to have a better look. "Too many themes to choose from. How do you pick just one?"
"I do not know."
"Hmm," Rogue said, and then pulled out another set, this one with a dog print on it.
"Can dogs be a theme?" X-23 asked, her eyes locked on the bed set.
"Sure," Rogue replied, pulling the bed set out all the way. "You like dogs?"
X-23 seemed to hesitate and then accepted the bed set from her. "Yes."
"I like dogs too," Rogue said. "Well, I'd better start making some decisions on my own room. Good luck, sugah."
A couple of hours later, there was an announcement over the PA system, telling the Geeks that their times was up. The Geeks pushed their trolleys back to the registers where their things were paid for. Then the crew took over their purchases, and the Geeks were taken back to the mansion.
While the Geeks were busy shopping, the Beauties were busy not studying. They spent first hour or so noticing how quiet the mansion was without their Geeks. They couldn't believe just how used they'd gotten to spending time with them.
Lance decided to take advantage of the relative quiet to snare some alone time with Kitty on one of the balconies:
"So," she said, doing a few stretches against the railing. "How's things with Rogue?"
Lance grimaced at the question and shrugged. "Okay, I guess. We can't really help each other this time anyway. I don't know a thing about interior decorating."
Kitty laughed and Lance admired her flexibility as she lifted her leg above her head.
"Anyway, enough about Rogue," Lance said. "I'd much rather talk about you."
"Oh would you now?" Kitty asked, flashing him a coy smile.
While Lance was busy chatting up and otherwise attempting to steal a kiss from Kitty, the rest of the Beauties were in the hot tub. Amara and Amanda sat on one side, while Gambit sat on the other inbetween Jean and Wanda.
"I'm serious!" Amanda said. "There's always a stack of blue fur on the floor every time Kurt uses the shower. He's like a cat shedding his coat or something."
"Fur?" Jean said. "Okay, I know he's hairy, but I wouldn't call him furry."
"Either way, it's gross," said Amanda.
"At least Kurt doesn't need to be threatened before he washes himself," Wanda pointed out.
"True, I guess," Amanda replied.
"Heh," Gambit said with a chuckle. "Just imagine what hanging around Kurt would be like if he didn't shower. Every time he teleports it smells like fire and brimstone."
Amanda turned up her nose. "Eww."
"I'd really rather not," Amara said. "Pyro hates water, but he tolerates it long enough to shower at least."
"I'm amazed Fred even fits in the shower," Jean said.
The girls giggled and Gambit took a swig of his beer.
"What about Laura?" Amanda asked Gambit. "Shower or no shower?"
"She showers," Gambit replied after swallowing. "Twice a day, actually; in the morning after her work out, and again before bed. No blue fur on the floor. Although, I did find some blood in there the other night after she'd been in there for awhile, which was odd. She hadn't injured herself anywhere as far as I knew."
"Blood huh? That is weird," Amara said.
"Umm, no I don't think it is," Wanda said, a slight smirk appearing on her face. "I mean, I don't know about you gals, but I've occasionally gotten blood on the shower floor without having any injuries."
Jean started laughing, immediately grasping what Wanda was alluding to. "Me too."
Amanda frowned. "What are you talking abou-oh..."
Gambit raised his eyebrows as Amanda's face started to go red. He had a feeling he should know what they were alluding to.
Amara sniffed. "Really, this conversation is disgusting. Honestly, some things should remain private."
"Oh merde," Gambit said as the penny finally dropped. "Oui, please, let's change the subject before anyone confirms for me that this conversation is about what I think it's about."
Wanda giggled. "Why, Remy? I think it's fun freaking guys out by talking about that time of the—"
"La la la," Gambit said, covering his ears. "I can't hear you."
The girls all laughed.
The following day, the Geeks were driven to a building wherein eight three-walled rooms had been set up all in a row. They'd all been painted in advance, although most of them were white. In each room there was a bedside table and a dresser. In front of each room was the assigned Geek's purchases from the day before.
"Okay Geeks," said Spyke. "Time to get started."
The Geeks had the bulk of the morning to put their rooms together, and they wasted no time getting to work. Furniture was moved, the bed made, decorations were put into place. They were also free to use their mutations, so Rogue sunk nails into the wall with her finger and didn't bother using the ladder. Fred also used his finger rather than the hammer to put nails into the wall. Pyro did what he called "artistic scorching" of his walls, and only the fact that his mutation was all about controlling fire prevented him from being reprimanded for endangering the others.
Slowly but surely, the rooms were put together. Finally, when the time was up, the Geeks were instructed to stand up outside their rooms and talk briefly about their work to the camera crew as they visited each one, starting with Fred's.
Fred's room was all about the leopard print: leopard print bed set, leopard print drapes hanging from the walls, leopard print lamp on the bedside table, leopard print cloth draped over the dresser. There were candles everywhere, and a number of tall vases with one or two long-stemmed roses in them.
"Girls like cats and candles and roses, right?" Fred said.
Kurt's room had lots of bright colours. A mirror with a thick, yellow border hung on the bold green wall above the dresser, which held a collection of fun and odd looking ornaments. In one corner was a tall lamp and in the other was a tall, narrow pot full of fake flowers. A clock that rotated backwards, and had the numbers back-to-front, was on the wall opposite to the mirror.
"I had a lot of fun putting my room together," Kurt said.
The bed covers in Rogue's room were pink and a little teddy bear sat against the pillow. On the white walls were butterfly prints. There was a little pink lamp on the beside table. On the dresser there were a couple of dolls. In one corner was a dollhouse. A cute pink clock was on one wall, and a set of pink curtains on another wall (despite the fact that there was no window).
"I figured I can decorate a room for an adult any time," Rogue said. "I'm probably never going to have the chance to decorate a kids room, though, so why not?"
Piotr's room was quite simple. The colour scheme was white, pale blue and dark blue. There was an alarm clock on the bedside table and a couple of simple but elegant sconces on the opposing walls. A tall mirror stood across from the dresser. There were two pillows on the bed, one in a blue pillow case and the other in a white one. A small painting hung on the wall above the bed.
"I felt that relaxing colours were appropriate for a bedroom," said Piotr. "I also didn't want it to be too busy with a lot of decorative objects."
X-23's bed had dog-themed covers, and a stuffed toy dog sat just in front of the dog-themed pillows. There was a mirror hanging above the dresser, and a lamp and an alarm clock on the bedside table. On the floor was a small rug with a picture of a dog on it.
"The theme is dogs," X-23 said matter-of-factly.
Pyro's room had bright yellow walls with multiple scorch marks. The bed was made with a flame-themed bed set. There was a red, abstract lamp in one corner, and a small bookcase in the other. Pyro had also gone to all the effort of making it look like there was a lot of books in the bookshelf by creating a cardboard front for each shelf upon which he painted the spines of a lot of books packed together. On the dresser was a multitude of seemingly random objects.
"My room was inspired by a character from one of my books," Pyro said. "He is an elementalist who specialises in fire magic. He keeps his books and the tools of his trade in his room, and has been known to have a few accidents occasionally, hence the scorch marks on the walls."
Toad's room had red walls, a red bedspread with white sheets. There was red fabric draped from the opposing walls, canopy style. On the bedside table there was a lamp. The dresser top was covered in red flowers and candles. There was a sconce on one wall that was fitted with matching candles. In one corner was a stylish red and black divider.
"I really wanted to create a bedroom that would make Wanda happy," said Toad. "And she likes scarlet and candles."
The Geeks were sent out, the crew placed a number in each room, and then the Beauties were brought in. Each Beauty was given a pen and clipboard with a survey sheet for them to rate the rooms on. They stood in a group in front of the rooms, facing Spyke, who gave them their instructions and then sent them off to begin their inspections. Lance, Kitty and Jean started at one end, while Gambit, Wanda, Amara and Amanda started at the other.
"Wow," Amara said, looking around at Fred's leopard print room. "So, Remy, I guess this room will be getting your first place vote?"
"You wound me, chère," Gambit replied, meeting her sly look with a mock-offended expression. "I don't do tacky."
"So it won't be Laura's then?" Amanda asked as she looked over the things on the dresser.
"I sure hope not."
The four drifted onwards to the next room, Kurt's. As Gambit looked around at all the bold colours, he wondered if this one might be X-23's; she didn't really strike him as a 'bright colours' kind of girl, but then she didn't really strike him as a 'spicy, "if it's not melting the wax in your ears, it's not hot enough" food' kind of girl either. In any case, the room was a little too gaudy for his tastes (although not as bad as the leopard print room).
"There's something wrong with that clock," Amanda said, frowning at it. "I can't quite put my finger on it but..."
"It's backwards," Wanda said after a quick glance, and then pointed in the mirror. "See? It reads perfectly in the mirror."
Amara shook her head as she made a note on her sheet. "I hope the rooms improve after this."
The third room they looked at was Rogue's little girl room. Gambit found himself wondering if this might be X-23's room too; sure she might walk around in dark clothes, but he was convinced every girl had a pink phase.
"Aww this is cute," said Amanda. "Definite improvement."
"Bit too girly for me," Gambit said, giving Wanda a wink, who grinned back at him.
"Aww, it has a dollhouse," said Amanda, kneeling down beside it. "I always wanted a dollhouse when I was little."
Amara snickered.
"Oh right," said Amanda, standing up and shooting Amara a look. "Like you didn't."
Gambit chuckled likely while Amara retorted, and moved onto the next room. Gambit looked around Piotr's room with a nod of his head, and decided that this was his favourite room so far. Then he heard a few "aww"s from Kitty and Jean in the room after, and he peered around the corner to see X-23's dog-themed room, and Lance rolling his eyes at the girls' reactions.
"I think one of the Geeks has gotten sneaky, Lance," Gambit said, grinning. "They figured out that girls like cute things like puppies."
"Ahh, smart," Lance said, rubbing his chin with his pen hand thoughtfully. "Even if they only appeal to the girls, that's still five votes out of seven."
"Oh shush you," said Kitty. "It's a cute room."
"Sure," said Lance. "'Cute.' What's that room like, Remy?"
"Blue," Gambit replied as Lance wandered over to join him in Piotr's room. "So far this is the only one I wouldn't be completely embarrassed to be caught sleeping in."
Lance chuckled as Wanda, Amanda and Amara walked into Piotr's room.
"Hey, that other room was cute," said Amanda.
"This one's better though," said Amara, looking around at the various features of the room.
As Kitty and Jean also walked into Piotr's room, Gambit moved on properly into X-23's room. During his inspection he concluded that it wasn't really all that bad. The breeds of dogs on each item weren't exactly co-ordinated, but that didn't really bother him. Might bother some of the girls if they were finicky about those kind of things, he supposed.
Gambit moved onto Pyro's room as Amara, Amanda and Wanda walked into X-23's. Gambit took one look at the scorch marks on the wall and started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Amanda asked, peered around the corner, and then took in the firey colour-scheme of Pyro's room. "Oooooh, hey Amara? I think this is Pyro's room."
Curious, Amara looked. Her eyes landed on the first scorch mark on the wall and she groaned. "Please, please no."
"Well," Gambit said and he turned on his heel in Pyro's room, "the guy does know how to make an impression."
"Ugh," Amara muttered.
She went back to X-23's room, and Gambit moved onto the final room. Gambit didn't think that Toad's effort was all that bad, though, of course, he had no idea that it was Toad who was responsible. There were way too many candles for his tastes, but he could see some of the girls going for a bedroom like this.
Wanda, Amanda and Amara caught up with Gambit as he was starting to rate the rooms on his sheet.
"Wow," Wanda said as she looked around. "This room's actually pretty good. And I love the colour."
"Gee," Gambit said, looking Wanda over in her little red dress, "I wonder why?"
Wanda grinned at him and Amara looked around with a please nod of her head.
"I agree," said Amara. "I think this is my favourite actually."
"I still like the little girl's room," said Amanda. "So cute!"
The Beauties were given a little more time to inspect and rate the rooms, and then they handed in their clipboards. They stood around chatting while the score were tallied, and then they were asked to form a line.
"Okay, Beauties," said Spyke. "Let's bring in the designers."
On cue, the Geeks emerged through a nearby door and stood by their respective partners. Spyke gave the Geeks the go ahead to show their Beauties which room was theirs.
"Guess which one's mine," Kurt said, leading Amanda on.
"Umm, that one?" Amanda said, pointing at Piotr's.
"Nope."
"That one?" Amanda asked, now pointing at Rogue's, although Rogue and Lance were already standing silently in front of it.
"Nope," Kurt said, and stopped proudly in front of his room. "This one."
"Oh," Amanda said, looking around again at the brightly coloured room. "I should have guessed. I hate that clock."
Kurt glanced at his backwards clock and grinned. "Why?"
"I can't read it," she said. "Stupid thing not going the right way, all the numbers in the wrong place. Meh."
On the other end, Toad stopped in front of his room and looked up hopefully at Wanda.
"This is your room?" Wanda asked in surprise.
"Yup," Toad replied. "You like?"
Wanda nodded slowly. She was honestly surprised that Toad was the designer of her favourite room.
"Yeah. I like," she said, paused and then added with a growing smile: "You did great."
X-23 stood at attention at her room.
"Huh," Gambit said. "I never would have picked you as a dog lover, chère."
X-23 didn't so much as twitch.
"It looks great," he added. Sure it wasn't his personal taste, but it wasn't a bad room.
Fred scratched his head as Jean buried her face in her hands. "Does that mean you don't like it?"
Jean lifted her head.
"It's fine, Fred, just fine," she said, then added under her breath: "If you're a pimp."
Kitty was rather excited to find out which one was Piotr's, and she congratulated him on a job well done.
"Scorch marks on the wall?" Amara exclaimed. "What were you thinking?"
"It's in character!" Pyro replied enthusiastically.
"Okay," Spyke said, his voice cutting through the chatter. "The Geeks with the two highest rated rooms are...Piotr—"
Piotr sucked in his breath and Kitty grabbed his arm excitedly.
"—and Toad."
Toad's face lit up so fast, anyone would think it was Christmas. Wanda liked his room and he was in the running to win the challenge? This was the best day ever!
"And the winner is..." Spyke said, "Toad."
"Whoohoo!" Toad yelled.
He leaped up into the air with joy and did a triple back somersault. A few more excited bounces later and he was wrapping his arms tightly around Wanda's waist, declaring loudly that he couldn't have done it without her.
"You were my inspiration, babycakes," he said, snuggling really close to her.
"Oh, well, that's great," Wanda replied, torn between wanting to push him off her and not wanting to ruin his moment of victory. "Can you please stop calling me babycakes?"
The crew stopped shooting, and another team arrived, armed with boxes and desks. They placed a desk just in front of each of the rooms, and placed a medium-sized cardboard box beside it. When the crew was done and ready, Spyke addressed the contestants again.
"Okay Beauties," he said. "Now it's time for your challenge. In the box there is a computer. Your job is to take the computer out of the box, assemble it, turn it on, connect to the internet, download a song, burn it to CD, and the first Beauty to play that CD on the player that's also in the box, wins."
Spyke gave them a moment to absorb that before continuing: "No powers may be used for this challenge. You may ask your Geeks questions, but they can't do it for you, and that may not volunteer information. Your time starts...now."
There was a rush as all the Beauties began opening up their boxes and pulling out the contents: the computer, the cables, the monitor and the CD player. Gambit appeared to be rushing as well, although he wasn't really interested in winning another challenge, let alone two in a row. Of course, with his partner watching he had to be careful he was seen to be doing his best. It was a fine line to walk, but Gambit was enjoying the challenge of walking that line. It was much more interesting than putting a computer together and burning a CD.
Lance was feeling relieved even as he rushed to plug cables into the back of the computer. He could plug in cables and burn CDs, no problem. He had been worried they'd have to do things with motherboards and RAM and stuff like that he had no clue about.
It took Amara a little while before she figured out that the cables were colour-coded.
Amanda's long fingernails, although gorgeous, kept getting in her way both while she was trying to plug cables in and while she was trying to type.
Although there was fumbling from all parties, the race remained fairly close. Lance, Kitty and Wanda beat everyone else getting their computers on. From where Spyke stood, it was impossible for him to tell which one of them was in the lead, although later on he would do a commentary for when the show went to air. Lance, Kitty and Wanda inserted their CDs into the burner within moments of each other, then it was a waiting game while the song they each downloaded was burned to the CD.
Then the CD burner on Kitty's computer opened up. She whipped it out of the tray, placed it into the CD player, which she had plugged in and opened up earlier, shut the lid and hit the play button. The Beauty and the Geek theme song began to play.
"And Kitty's won," Spyke announced as the other Beauties heard the music and stopped what they were doing.
"Yay!" Kitty cheered, clapping her hands excitedly.
"Congratulations again, Kitty and Toad," Spyke said. "You've won your respective challenges. Now go home, relax, and enjoy your victory. I'll see you tomorrow night for your decision on who you choose to send to the elimination room."
As everyone prepared to leave, Kitty sighed.
"Yeah, that's a great way to celebrate a victory," she said dryly to Piotr. "Figure out which one of our friends we want to kick out of the house. Oh joy."
Gambit was pretty sure he was the only one excited about the upcoming elimination, and for that he was careful not to reveal how he felt to the others. He was reasonably confident that Wanda and Toad wouldn't send him and X-23; he and Wanda got along, and there was no way Toad would go against Wanda's wishes. They had bigger fish to fry anyway.
Kitty and Piotr, on the other hand, well, if they were determined to stick with their self-appointed rule about not repeat sending teams to the elimination room, that meant they only had three teams to choose from, since they couldn't choose to send themselves: Jean and Fred, Amanda and Kurt, X-23 and himself. Gambit was pretty sure they wouldn't send Amanda and Kurt since they were close, so Gambit figured there was a 50 percent chance he and X-23 would end up in the elimination room.
He couldn't wait to find out.
Amara, on the other hand, was positively dreading the coming elimination. She knew that Kitty and Wanda didn't really like her all that much (nor she them) and was convinced that one of them—probably Wanda—would send herself and Pyro into elimination. She was even more convinced of this when Wanda, Toad, Kitty and Piotr had their conference, and only disappeared for a couple of minutes. Amara hit the books hard and lectured Pyro on everything he did wrong with the challenge.
"I think," Pyro said later on, well out of Amara's hearing, "I understand what is meant by the phrase 'nagging wife.'"
Toad and Wanda, Kitty and Piotr stood on either side of Spyke in the foyer, facing the rest of their housemates gathered on the stairs.
"Toad, you won the Geek's interior design challenge," said Spyke. "Kitty, you won the Beauty's computer challenge. You won immunity for your teams, and the ability to send another team into the elimination room. Toad, Wanda, who have you chosen to send to elimination, and why?"
Amara caught her breath and squeezed Pyro's hand hard.
"Well," Toad said with a little bounce in his stance, "having been to the elimination room ourselves, we agreed with Kitty and Piotr's policy about not sending the same team repeatedly. So that helped narrow things down a bit. Umm, the team we chose, we think the Geek is already pretty outgoing, and the Beauty seems to be allergic to study: Kurt and Amanda."
Amara stared in shock. Kurt nodded while Amanda looked offended.
"I'm not allergic to study," Amanda huffed.
"Well it sure doesn't seem like you put in a whole lot of effort," said Wanda. "We're here to learn, but you seem more interested in being in the pool all day."
"Hey!"
"Kurt?" Spyke said. "Anything you'd like to add?"
Kurt gave a shrug. "They had to pick someone, and I can't blame them for trying to be fair."
Spyke nodded and then turned to Kitty and Piotr.
"Kitty, Piotr," he said. "Who have you chosen to send to the elimination room, and why?"
Gambit schooled his expression while he looked at Kitty and Piotr in anticipation of their response. Amara dared to look at Kitty, still expecting to be sent into the elimination room.
"This was a hard decision to make," said Kitty. "Like Toad said, only sending people who hadn't been there before did help to narrow things down. Of course, that didn't really make things any easier; we think that everyone here needs to be here. But, well, we felt that there was one team in particular that needed to be here just that little bit more than the other. So it's with a heavy heart we choose to send...Jean and Fred."
That surprised Gambit. While Spyke inquired after Jean and Fred for their responses, and Jean and Kitty both got teary, Gambit glanced over at his partner. He hadn't really thought much about the fact that everyone's opinions towards X-23 were just as critical as their feelings towards him. It was something he knew was important in theory, of course, but what with him doing much more to help her than she was to help him, he had all but forgotten they were supposed to be a team.
"Okay, Kurt and Amanda, Jean and Fred," Spyke said. "Go upstairs, pack, say your good byes, and I'll meet you in the elimination room."
Everyone turned and trudged up the stairs. A still-teary Kitty followed Jean to her room and helped her pack, then hurried over to Kurt and Amanda's room where she continued with the teary farewells.
Then the time was up. Their packed bags were taken downstairs, and Kurt, Amanda, Jean and Fred did the walk down the stairs to the elimination room. The rest of the housemates gathered in the first bedroom. Kitty looked despondently out the window while Piotr sat beside her and tried to comfort her. Gambit was distracted from his conversation with Wanda, Rogue, Toad and Pyro by this sight, and finally walked over and joined them.
"Hey Kitty," he said. "Pete."
Kitty sniffed. "Hey."
Piotr gave him a nod.
"Look, umm, I just wanted to say that I appreciate that this was a really hard decision for you," Gambit said. "I know you're close with both teams down there. I wouldn't have blamed you guys at all if you had sent Laura and I in. I was expecting it, actually."
"We thought about it," Piotr said. "You seem to be just as allergic to study as Amanda and Amara are."
Gambit raised an eyebrow. He hadn't thought his lack of attention to his own studies had been noticed.
"But, we also know you've been helping Laura a lot," Piotr went on, "and we feel she really needs to be here."
"She's just starting to come out of her shell," Kitty said with a furtive glance at the other girl. "We didn't like the idea of her going home just now."
Gambit spread his hands. "I don't either. I feel like I'm just starting to get some headway in getting to know her myself. Of course, if neither of us win the next challenges, I guess next elimination we'll be competing against each other."
Kitty sniffed and looked away. "I don't want to think about elimination. Any of them."
"Neither do I," Piotr said gently. "But we will all be going home sooner or later. We can only do our best to get the most out of this experience."
Gambit smiled as Piotr gave Kitty a gentle hug. X-23 wasn't the only one who had been coming out of their shell.
Almost inevitably, the group became quieter and quieter as more time passed. They all heard the front doors open and shut, and then a few moments later they heard the clacking of heels on the wooden floor. The footsteps stopped just outside the door. Everyone's eyes locked on the door, waiting anxiously for it to open...
There was a puff of blue smoke and everyone caught of whiff of brimstone as Kurt and Amanda appeared in the room, just in front of the door, arm in arm.
"Tada!" Kurt declared making a broad gesture with his free hand.
"Kurt!" Kitty exclaimed, running over to them, arms outstretched. "Amanda!"
There were hugs and congratulations all around.
"So, how'd it go?" asked Pyro.
"I'm afraid it wasn't much of a competition," Kurt said ruefully. "Fred and I went first; I got both of mine right, and Fred didn't get any. Then it was Jean and Amanda's turn. Jean went first, got hers wrong, and that was the end."
"So," Amara said, looking at Amanda. "You didn't end up answering any questions?"
"No," Amanda said and mimed wiping her forehead. "Phew, right?"
At the same time, out the front, Jean and Fred sat in front of the cameras:
"I wish we could have stayed longer," said Fred. "I feel like I learned a lot, but I don't think I learned as much as I could have."
"Yeah," Jean agreed. "It' been a great experience. Thanks Fred, for being such a good partner."
"No," Fred replied. "Thank you."