Don't Prank a Kitten
A/N: I lied at the beginning of the last chapter. I'm going to continue, but only because you guys are amazing and have told me I need to do more. So, thank you to everyone who's reading my stuff and supporting me. Wooo!
oOo
Chapter 4:
There was a war going on.
Kurt, Kitty, and most of the X-students wanted to pull the ultimate prank—on the professor. There was only one problem with that, though; the professor was psychic, and fooling a psychic was a difficult matter. Luckily, the students had Jean on their side.
At the same time, Logan had asked Storm for a little help with something. He hated that Kitty had made him look like a fool, and although it wasn't usually his style, he wanted—no, needed—revenge on Katherine Pryde. It was especially weird for him, because Kitty was a student, and one of his favorites at that. But his deep, well-hidden inner child kept pushing him to do something crazy, and he had a good mind to go through with it. He and Storm put together a crafty little plan, and Logan was good to go.
oOo
It was early morning. Kitty and Jean were standing in the middle of the living room. Jean had her hands pressed to her temples. She eyes were closed, and her face looked tense, as if she was concentrating.
"Yep," she said quietly, lowering her hands. "He's still asleep. You ready, Kitty?"
Kitty smiled. "I am, like so ready," she said. She pulled a walkie-talkie out of her pocket and said into it, "Stealth Sirens to Shadow Jumpers. We're about to commence stage on of the operation."
Static followed for a moment. Jean laughed. "Stealth Sirens? Shadow Jumpers? What's with the code talk?"
Kitty glared at her playfully. "I'm getting in the mood for this, ok? And, like, we need a group codename. We're stealthy and we're girls, so yeah, we're the Stealth Sirens."
Jean shrugged. "Ok."
Just then, Kurt's crackly voice came over the intercom. "Good to go. We're standing by for stage 2. Blue boy out."
Jean chuckled. "C'mon Kitty. Let's go."
Kitty nodded. "Meet you in the basement in five." She ran off in one direction, and Jean calmly walked off in another.
Kitty snuck over to a nondescript wall and poked her head through it. On the other side was the professor's study. She grinned and phased her whole body through. The professor's light snoring could be heard from the adjacent room. He was, as Jean had already confirmed, asleep. She did her best to not think anything, trying not to wake her sleeping mentor.
Silently, she stalked over to a small table that stood beside the large window. The table had a small drawer, and in it was a collection of tea bags. The professor loved his morning tea, and was rarely seen without it. Slyly, Kitty removed the five tea bags that were left in the drawer and stuffed them into her pants pocket. Oh, he's gonna go crazy without his tea, she thought. The plan was perfect, too, because the professor could be slightly forgetful, and would have little trouble believing that he was honestly out of tea.
Meanwhile, Jean opened one of the kitchen cupboards and removed a small wooden box that rested on the top shelf. In it were rows and rows of fresh tea bags. Jean took them all out and put them in a large zip-lock bag. Even she couldn't help but smile evilly. Kitty was taking care of the professor's main tea bag stash, and she was taking out his reserves.
I haven't done something like this since I was a kid, she thought playfully as she slipped off with her stolen tea.
She and Kitty met up in the basement. They combined their tea supplies and hid them in an obscure box in the far corner of the basement that read: Misc.
"How easy do you think it'll be to find those again?" Jean wondered as they were leaving. Kitty shrugged.
"Who knows? Maybe the professor will buy that he's out of tea, go get some more, and we'll forget about all this tea down here. Maybe in, like, five years someone will open that box and be like, 'Tea? Where'd this come from?' That would be hilarious."
Jean chuckled at the notion. "Yeah. That would be pretty funny."
oOo
Storm was in the kitchen, making lunch. A few hours has passed since Kitty and Jean had been snooping around.
Storm had instructions from Logan about what to do if she ran across Kitty, and so she was waiting patiently in the kitchen for her to come. Kitty loved to help cook, so she'd show up sooner or later. Storm was pleased with Logan's plan, though the motherly part of her mind found it a bit cruel. But she agreed to help Logan with his plans because she liked him, and because in all honesty, she loved a good prank.
Just then, Amara and Tabby walked in and sniffed the air. "Mmm, Mrs. Munroe, that smells awesome," Tabby commented.
Storm smiled. "Thank you. Lunch'll be ready in about half an hour. You're welcome to help, if you want."
Amara and Tabby nodded. They started setting the table. A few minutes later, Kitty walked in. She glanced from Storm to Amara and Tabby. "Whoa, is there, like, a party going on in here?"
Amara smiled. "We're just helping Mrs. Munroe with lunch. Wanna join us?"
Kitty smiled back. "Sure. Give me some of those plates." So she joined the girls in preparing for lunch. After they'd set the table and swept the floor, Tabby sat down on the edge of one of the counters and sighed.
"Takes a lot of work to make lunch for twenty people," she groaned.
"Tell me about it," Storm snorted. "I'm the one who has to cook for you all." She stirred whatever she was cooking in a large pot and looked up out the window. She saw Bobby running by outside. He grinned as he caught her eye, and he rapped on the window once as he passed. Storm smiled, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to help Logan's plan along.
"Ugh," she groaned in fake discomfort. She shivered for extra effect.
"What is it?" Tabby asked, leaning forward so that she was tediously sitting on the edge of the table. "Bobby being annoying?"
"Yes, well, no," Storm sighed. "He just reminded me of Mr. Pratter." She shivered again. Mr. Pratter? Was that the best name you could come up with? She thought to herself, grinning. She paused and waited for one of the three listening girls to take the bait.
"Who's Mr. Patter?" Kitty asked, rocking back a little and crossing her ankles. Storm cheered inwardly, glad Kitty had been the one to ask. She shrugged casually and sighed heavily, as if recalling something distant and unpleasant.
"Oh, he was a mutant we took in years ago. A homeless man. He stole several things from us, and we had to kick him out," she said, as if it were a bit uncomfortable to think about.
"I never heard about this guy," Kitty said after a moment.
"Yeah, me either," Amara chimed in.
Storm shrugged. "We don't mention him much. He was…well, a bit off the rocker, shall we say."
"You mean crazy?" Tabby said, licking her lips. She couldn't wait to her this story.
"Yes. A bit," Storm replied slowly. "He…was a difficult man. We sent him away and…he kept coming back. He'd do this thing where he'd knock on the windows, to let us know he was there and wanted to come in. Sometimes he'd whistle a tune. 'Oh Danny Boy', I think, was what it was," Storm trailed off. "Anyway, he was a creepy man and the professor finally sent him away for good."
"What'd the prof do with him?" Amara asked. Her eyes—as well as Tabby's and Kitty's—were very wide.
Storm shrugged. "Sent him up into Canada. He came back once, about two years ago. Tapped on the windows, got—I think it was Logan's—attention, and we sent him away again."
The three girls were silent. Oh wow, Kitty thought, her mind churning. Her imagination started working and sending her images to go with the story. She shivered a little.
"Dude, that's totally creepy," Tabby commented after a long silence.
Storm sighed, as if satisfied to the get the story off her chest. In a way, she was satisfied because the girl's had bought her tale. And Logan could back it up. That was easy, she thought, stirring the contents of her pot. And Logan, you owe me one.
Storm was about to say something else, when Jamie walked in, a big smile on his face. "Dinner!" he cried.
"In a minute," Storm said.
Soon, more students poured into the kitchen, and shortly afterward, everyone was eating dinner. After the meal, Kitty and Storm did the dishes. Kitty wanted to stay close to Storm, hoping maybe she could hear something more about Mr. Pratter. She was creeped out, but fascinated at the same time. As a girl, she'd loved stories like that. The only problem was that some of them stuck with her at awkward times, like when she was home alone. Or walking through the halls of the institute at night.
But Storm was quiet, saying nothing. The dishes were done in short order, and Kitty went up to her room to chill out. She was hoping to relax, but the image of a psycho tapping on the windows kept popping up in her mind.
~Back in time three hours~
"Professor?" Scott asked, poking his head into the professor's office. The professor looked up from his magazine. He closed it up and put it on his lap.
"Yes, Scott?" he said quietly. He looked a little tired, tiny bags showing under his eyes.
"Um," Scott mumbled. "Can…can I borrow your 1989 Jaguar?"
The professor paused and pursed his thin lips together. His 1989 Jag was his favorite car. His personal car. It was his 'baby', of sorts. No body touched his sleek, beautiful, untarnished, black Jaguar. "I don't know, Scott," he sighed slowly. "What do you want it for?"
Scott rubbed his neck. "I…I want to take Jean out on a really special date, and I want her to feel rich and powerful and, you know, sexy. I don't feel like my car's good enough for that," he explained, patting himself on the back for thinking up such a good excuse.
The professor ran that through his mind for a minute. Scott was a very careful driver, and he was extremely responsible. If anyone could touch his car, Scott should be it. "Well…alright," the professor gave in finally. "But be very careful, Scott," he stressed heavily.
Scott put his hands up. "I promise I'll be extra careful. Don't worry, Prof-X. You can count on me." Inside, he grinned as he said those words. Yeah, right, he thought.
"The keys are in the rear left wheel well," the professor told him, sighing again with uncertainty.
Scott nodded, noting that carefully. "Uh, thanks. Are you ok, Professor? You look a little tired," he added.
The professor nodded absently. "I appear to be all out of tea. I don't feel quite right without it. I'll have to get some more…" he muttered. "Perhaps you could do that for me after your, um, date."
"Sure, Professor." And Scott departed, leaving quickly. He closed the heavy wooden door as he went, breathing a tiny sigh of relief. The professor had bought his story. And believed he was really out of tea. Things were going according to plan.
He met up with Jean in the garage, who was already standing next to the black, shiny Jaguar. Scott let out a low whistle as he ran his hand lovingly along the body. "I don't think I've ever touched this car before," he remarked, looking so happy he might cry.
"Scott, it's just a car," Jean reminded him, obviously not sharing his enthusiasm for the hot ride. "Let's just get this over with."
Scott smiled, digging the key out of the wheel well, just as the professor had said. He spun them around, feeling them, listening to the chime-like metal clinking sounds. "Even the keys are beautiful," he sniffed.
Jean roller her eyes, snatched the keys, and got in the driver's seat. "I'll take this where it needs to go. You go get Evan and Kurt."
"W…Wait!" Scott protested. "I wanna drive Mr. Shiny."
"You can drive him when we come for him later, ok?" Jean compromised patiently, secretly amused by Scott's love and respect for the car.
"O…Ok," he said a bit wistfully. Jean revved up the engine and drove off carefully. "Bye bye shiny car," he whispered as it pulled away.
Evan and Kurt, remember? Jean's voice rang through his mind, snapping him out of his drooling state of awe.
"Oh, right….." Scott wandered off to find Kurt and Evan.
He found them just outside the mansion, sitting on an old, wrecked black Jag. Scott raised an eyebrow, impressed. "You guys found that in the junk yard?" he asked.
"Ja, I know right?" Kurt said, stretching out on his back on the hood of the ratty car. "Looks sort of like a wrecked, old version of zat nice baby Jean drove avay in a few minutes ago."
"Yeah, man," Evan added. "If we add some effects to this old piece of crap, we just may pull this off."
Scott smiled, his eyes gleaming with joy under his shades. "We just might, Evan," he agreed.
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Aaand if you wanna know what happens next, you'll have to wait for chapter 5. Hehehe hope the grand finale is totally spectacular. I'll tell you that there will be screaming, explosions, and one very upset Professor X.
-The Ember Raven