Suspenseful! Well, I'm back. I hope I didn't disappoint anybody with that last chapter. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and implications! I do read all of them and take your suggestions into consideration. For one, yes I do plan on incorporating more characters (ie. Scott, Jean, etc). I do know that Scott, Jean, Rogue, Kitty and Kurt and all of them aren't all the same age/grade but for my fanfic (sorry for anyone who gets mad at this) they are all in grade twelve-ish. If it makes any difference, they're not all 18. Some are still 17 (turning 18), some are 18 and some, like Jean and Scott, are in Grade 12x/13(which is an optional year where I am from and yes I do realize the irony haha) and they are 19. I'll clarify in this chapter. I actually should have mentioned some more characters earlier and maybe stated where everyone was in terms of school. Please accept my utmost apologies (Anony.Lover, and Pietro is the ultimate jackass isn't he? Haha). And thank you for all the suggestions! I do have my own ideas, but reading other ones are good too and sometimes I change what my original idea was because I like your ideas better.
P.S. I know Evan is supposed to be with the Morlocks but I brought him back (remember it's my world… he was being a baby with them anyway haha Kurt looks different and did he join them? NO! muhahaha) Sorry.. haha got a little carried away there. And as you said, JCRobin, the plot thickens. And for GIZMAC, who knows how it will go down? Haha :P!! And thank you again to allyg1990 for the italics bit. And same thing for the accent go with Rogue. It's easier for me to write without it, and you all know what she sounds like. And I'm sorry for any die-hard Catholics, but I did do a little bit of God questioning. Just a little bit but if I offend anybody in any way, please know this is just a fanfiction and I am very sorry.
Well I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am writing it! :)...
Chapter 3:
Kurt made his way to the cafeteria. As he walked through the doors he scanned the large room for Kitty. Sure enough, she was sitting at the usual "mutant table" which consisted of Kitty, Rogue, Jean, Scott, Evan, and himself. Depending on Kitty's mood, she would either sit with the other Xavier students or with her other group of friends. Kurt was thankful that Kitty would be joining them that day. His heart almost exploded in his chest when their eyes met and she gestured for him to come over.
"Hey man."
Kurt jumped a bit as the sound of Evan's voice brought him back down to earth.
"Hey!"
"Are you okay?" Evan laughed.
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, considering we're in the cafeteria and its lunchtime and you're not running to get to the front of the line..."
"Oh," Kurt chuckled, "I slept like crap last night so my head's not all there."
"Let's get some food in you and you'll be fine."
Kitty watched from the table as Evan and Kurt joined the long line up by the food counter. Kitty didn't know how to feel about Kurt. He had always been there for her, and she had a pretty good grasp of how he felt. Kurt was her best friend and he had always been there to help her through difficult times, even when he didn't know he was doing it. Any time Kitty felt down from any student making a rude remark about her being a mutant, she would think about Kurt. How he would react and that he had certainly faced a lot of repartee his entire life, while she didn't face much of if any ridicule until she was at least in high school, so she actually considered herself "lucky". She would also be comforted by the notion that Kurt would make her feel better if or when he saw her upset. No matter what situation Kitty was in, she knew she could always count on Kurt to comfort her and she would do the same for him if he ever needed it.
"Yoo hoo! Anybody home?"
Kitty looked up from her vegetarian wrap to see Jean waving her hand in Kitty's face.
"Oh, hey Jean. When did you get here?"
"Um, I walked in with you."
"Oh yeah! Sorry," Kitty let out a nervous little chuckle, "I've got a sociology test after lunch and I really don't want to fail it."
"Doing some 'mental studying' are we?"
"Something like that."
"I see."
Kitty looked over at Jean's smirking expression, clearly knowing there was something else. What was Kitty thinking?
You can't fool a psychic.
Jean was a very attractive girl. She had decided to take grade twelve x along with Scott and Rogue. She had long radiant red hair that fell just above her waist, luminous almond shaped eyes the colour of a shallow green pond, and a golden sand coloured complexion. Kitty watched as Jean lifted a brow and tried to hold back a smile.
"Did you study last night?"
"Yeah, but I still want to do well. I had a rough morning in my other classes so I don't know if I forgot anything." Kitty was trying hard to cover any embarrassing thoughts by her test excuse just incase Jean decided to invade her privacy.
"You'll do fine. Did your rough morning happen to include your sunrise walk with Kurt?"
So much for covering my thoughts up.
Kitty let out another nervous chuckle as all the blood pulsating through her body ran right into her face.
"What do you mean?"
Scott, who had been quietly cramming in some last minute homework questions till that point, cleared his throat.
"We went looking for you guys this morning and realized that the van was still in the garage, meaning you guys hadn't left yet."
"What makes you think we walked?"
Rogue's raspy voice spoke up.
"Kitty, come on."
Kitty could have died right then and there. She didn't know why she was so embarrassed, probably because of how amused Scott and Jean were by the awkward teenaged romance involved, or that even Rogue noticed it, or by the fact that it was Kurt, whose appearance made him the "black sheep" of the group, and it was out of character for someone like her to have such a "moment" with someone like him. For once she was actually grateful that the Brotherhood group was walking towards the Xavier table, which would surely distract Scott, Rogue and Jean's focus. Luck was on Kitty's side as Scott noticed their presence and changed the subject.
"Great, what do they want?"
Rogue, who had been sitting across from Kitty, looked over her shoulder to see the group of mutants walking in their direction. She rolled her eyes and turned back to face Kitty.
"Why do they keep bothering us?"
"Because they have to constantly have someone to irritate, and because if they harass a 'human' student, they'll get punished so they bug us." Kitty said as she glared at Lance.
Kitty would have liked to deny it, but there was a time when she had strong feelings for Lance. She didn't know if it was because of the "rugged" look or if it was because when she first came to know about her powers, he was the first to take her under his wing. But he was still part of the Brotherhood, and he had said and done some stupid things that Kitty found hard to forgive and forget.
"Hey X-lax. How are you guys doing?"
"Shut up, Pietro."
"Hey, I'm not here to insult."
"Then what do you want?" Scott firmly asked, clearly annoyed by the Brotherhood's company.
"We just wanted to pay our favourite mutants a visit." Todd hopped up to sit beside Rogue, who seemed mortified.
"Oh, God! You reek!"
"It's the smell of love, baby."
"Well, it smells pretty disgusting. Besides, I thought your favourite mutants would be each other."
"Nah, it gets boring, so we thought we'd come and express our love for you guys."
"Yeah, you guys are our fellow mutant." Fred said in his usual brainless tone.
Tabitha blew out a deep breath and rolled her eyes. She used to be a part of the X-men and deep down, she actually felt remorse for leaving, especially when she was around the other Xavier students. She almost felt a sense of humiliation whenever the members of her new family, the Brotherhood, wanted to aggravate them seeing as she used to be a part of that and she didn't want to seem hypocritical. Pietro sat down right beside Scott while Todd stayed beside Rogue. Lance and Tabitha sat down at the table alongside them.
"We'll just sit down and join you. How about that? Some good old 'mutant bonding'. You might want to scooch over for Blob there, Jean."
Kurt and Evan turned from the food counter and headed for the table. Kurt had his attention focused on not touching anyone and keeping his food on his tray. Evan stopped his stride, dropped his head back and moaned.
"Perfect."
"What?"
"Look at our table."
"Wundervoll. What the hell do they want?"
"Beats me. Do you want to sit somewhere else?"
Usually Kurt would have done anything to avoid sitting with the Brotherhood, even if it involved him breaking the rule of the X-men being a team. That day was different. He especially didn't want to leave Kitty to suffer with their injurious comments.
"No, we might as well suffer with Kitty, Rogue, Scott and Jean."
The two of them made their way to the table.
"Ah, more love to join the group!" Pietro said, moving over to make room for Kurt and Evan. "Sit down! Sit down!"
"I'd rather stand. What are you guys doing here?"
"We're just expressing our undying love for you guys."
Kurt sneered over at Todd who had Rogue backed up to the wall of the cafeteria and examined the rest of the table to see Kitty's repulsed and slightly anxious expression, Scott's face that blatantly displayed his resentment for the Brotherhood, and Jean's face stuck in a state of what looked like shock. Obviously she knew what Pietro was up to, but she couldn't stop him.
"This doesn't look like love to me." Kurt started to worry.
"Well, you see we were thinking to ourselves. Mutants should all live as one, kind of like a team, in peace."
"In case you didn't notice, Pietro, that's why the Professor started the institute. So mutants could learn to control their powers and work as a team with other mutants." Scott voiced in his exasperated tone.
Pietro's brow furrowed as he mockingly thought to himself.
"Yeah, yeah… you're right. I think that's why I'm having such a hard time believing the whole teamwork thing."
Evan spoke up.
"Pietro, just tell us what the hell you guys are doing here and leave."
"Yeah! Like, what do you want?" Kitty's teeth gritted as she spoke.
Kurt noticed that Lance and Tabitha were at the table nearby, but they looked as if they refused to join in whatever Pietro wanted. Then he started to get even more perplexed as to what Pietro was up to.
"We were thinkin'…"
"Shut up, Fred. You don't think." Todd laughed as he and Pietro exchanged a menacing smile.
"Well, back to that whole teamwork thing. You X-men, or whatever you want to be called, haven't been showing much of it."
Pietro paused to take in the priceless moment of confusing his enemies.
"Well we noticed that one of you is breaking a few laws. One being the whole X-men stupid, little teamwork bullshit and the other being one of Principal Kelly's laws. The one that goes… Oh I don't know… something along the lines of 'any mutant failing to reveal themselves will be denied his or her education.' And we wouldn't want a certain little blue X-man not to be able to graduate, would we?"
Kurt's eyes widened as he stared off into blank space. His entire body became cold and clammy. He bit his lip and flinched as he drew a few drops of blood from the fangs that were hidden by his watch and he swore his stomach was doing gymnastics. He could feel his hands losing their grip on the food tray before it hit the floor getting a few human students' attention. Kurt felt all eyes at the table stare at him and his momentary fright, which felt like an eternity, was interrupted by the sound of one of Kitty's friends.
"Is he alright?"
Kurt slowly turned his head to see Kitty's friend, Amy, turned towards him. Her face was in a state of worry and confusion. Then he noticed Pietro quickly standing up.
"That's a very good question."
"Pietro, can't we talk this over?" Jean, who was usually calm, showed a loss of serenity and her voice shook as she spoke.
"You guys have had plenty of time to talk it over. Did you think we wouldn't notice?"
Scott stood up and towered over Pietro as he leaned in close to murmur.
"Kurt revealed himself to the whole school as a mutant. Can't you live with that?"
"Gee… I don't know, Summers. I mean, technically his true appearance is a mutation in itself. I think that counts as a refusal to reveal yourself to the school."
"Hey! Why don't we settle this outside?" Evan said as he crouched into a wrestling-like stand.
Kitty jumped up from her seat. She couldn't let anything like this happen to Kurt. He would do the same for anyone else. His worst nightmare was going to happen at that exact moment!
"Pietro! Just leave us, especially Kurt, alone! We've only got a few more months left of school. Just drop it! Please!"
"C'mon fuzz-ball, you've got Kitty here stickin' up for you! Can't you defend yourself?"
Kurt looked over at Todd who was now standing across from him. If he were anywhere else but school he could have ported away and left it all behind. But that would risk even more retribution if he displayed his powers. Scott spoke again but this time he grabbed Pietro's arm.
"I'm not going to tell you again! Leave him alone!"
Fred came up behind Scott and pulled his arms off the now pleased Pietro and held him with his brawny, iron grip. Kurt realized that the Brotherhood wasn't the only unwanted attention. He brought himself out of his blank stare and become aware of the fact that he now held the attention of most of the human populace of the cafeteria.
If I port now, they'll tell Kelly and I'll get suspended or worse!
All he could do was pray as he always did. He looked at all the diverse expressions on the faces of his peers. Some were angry, annoyed, some were worried, and some even looked frightened. But the thing that made him mad was they were all "normal" faces. Was he being punished for something? Why would God grant so many people normal bodies and lives, and curse him with such a misshapen body and such intense abnormalities? He looked at the faces of the students that had endlessly tormented the lower end of the popularity scale. Why did such rotten people deserve to be blessed with a normal body? Why should they not have to worry about what and who they are when they are at school? Kurt was a good student; he never made fun of anyone and always tried his best. Why should he be denied his chance at an education just because of something he was born with? Kurt covered his ears and bent forward.
"I never chose this! It's not fair!"
Damn it! Why did I say that outloud?
Stares were all sent his way. If he didn't have some people's attention before, he certainly had it now. His highly tuned hearing picked up a variety of comments to match the variety of facial expressions.
"What's going on?"
"What's up with that mutant kid?"
"What did he say?"
"Why are they all together?"
"Why are they centering him out?"
Kurt didn't know what he could do. It seemed like the silence was deafening. It was broken by the sound of the Brotherhood's laughter. Kurt looked at the three members who were intent on ruining any hope of an ordinary life he once had. Kitty's eyes started to glisten. She was fighting back tears. Lance and Tabitha had turned away, both with their backs to the focus of the entire cafeteria's concentration. Pietro put a hand on Kurt's back and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"This is your chance to do the honorable thing…"
Kurt was still in his state of distress. He could hardly even speak let alone move. Why was Pietro doing this? And why was he doing it now? He couldn't teleport even if he wanted to. He had no strength and no mindset to do it. Who knows where he could end up? Todd, who had been jumpy throughout the entire ordeal, finally lost his patience.
"Too late now!"
With that, Pietro, using his lightning speed, pulled Kurt up onto the table and held out his left arm while Todd jumped up and snatched Kurt's holowatch right off his wrist.
Would you be angry if I stopped it right here? Calm down because I'm not that mean haha.
Screams. That's all Kurt heard. Rushes of old memories he had concealed in his mind busted through the vaults and bounced off the walls of his skull like a bouncy ball thrown into a small, empty room. Kurt's heart hammered against the chamber of his chest. He thought for sure it was going to jump right out of his body and onto the table, which would have suited him just fine. Kurt was standing on the cafeteria table, his true form out on display for the entire school to see. Students who had been out in the hallways were now pouring through the cafeteria doors to see the "demon" mutant in their school.
"There it is people!" Pietro still had his hand on Kurt's arm as he held him up like the winner of a fight.
Kurt was frozen in fear. There he was. All those horrified and scrutinizing gazes stuck on him and his blue fur that covered him from head to toe; his long and thin three fingered hands, pointed elf-like ears and piercing, glowing yellow eyes that were now filled with pain and fear. He watched dumbfounded as the exploratory eyes of his peers slowly moved down his distorted body to look at his two-toed, bare feet.
"Hey Pietro! They can't see his legs!"
"Good point, Todd!"
With that, Todd leapt up on the table and pulled Kurt's right plant leg tight to his body so the school could see his fawn-like legs. Kitty let out a scream as tears gushed down her cheeks. The other X-men were in almost as much shock as Kurt. None of them could move to help their friend who so desperately needed it. Kurt had lost all his brainpower. So many thoughts were exploding in his mind. He could hardly even comprehend what was actually going on. It was like some kin of bad dream that he couldn't wake up from. He started to hyperventilate and the crowd's thunderous cries grew louder when they noticed his fang-like teeth.
"Hey Todd!"
"What?"
"Aren't you forgetting the finale?"
"Huh?"
Pietro was trying to be theatrical, but Todd obviously wasn't on the same page.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the cherry on top, or behind I guess I should say, of this creature!"
With that, Pietro lifted up Kurt's shirt to expose a restraint wrapped around his waist, and ripped it off as Kurt's tail lashed around violently behind him. The entire school gasped before they fell silent.
"Take it in!" Pietro seemed very satisfied and sneered at the other X-men as he and the rest of the Brotherhood walked away.
Kurt crouched down and put his hands over his ears. He would have given anything to be invisible. He stayed as still as he could, but his tail, that sickening addition to his already distorted form, looked as if it was trying to escape as much as Kurt had wanted to. He didn't know what to do. He was so disturbed by the entire outlandish event that if he teleported now, he could end up anywhere. A public bathroom, mall, grocery store or even in the middle of traffic.
The only noise or lack there of, was silence. No screams, nothing. Had he died? Was he deafened by the screams from before? Either outcome would have pleased Kurt. At least he wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore. But that fantasy was short lived when an earth shattering scream sounded through the cafeteria accompanied by many more. The entire room was in chaos. People were standing up and backing up to the doors.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's all blue!"
"And furry!"
"It has a tail!"
"Look at its hands!"
Kitty was just standing there with her hands over her mouth. She had just been a witness to the one thing that Kurt had been dreading since he was old enough to think and she did nothing to stop it. She had been screaming just as loud as the other students in the room. Kitty realized what she was doing and bit her lip to stop her uncontrollable shrieks.
What have I done?
She stepped up on to the table and held Kurt's wrists in her hands and phased through the floor into the basement of the school. They landed on the cement floor soundlessly. Kurt was sitting down pulling his legs closer to him and his head buried in his arms. Even his tail, which was usually uncontrollable, had wrapped itself around his feet. He was trying to make himself as small as possible, almost as if to reduce attention. Kitty was on her knees, and put her hands on either side of his face and lifted his head so his eyes met with hers.
"Kurt, look at me are you alright?"
Kitty looked into Kurt's eyes. She had never seen his gaze like that before in all the years she'd known him. His eyes, instead of being a warm gold colour filled with such life and enthusiasm, seemed to be as vibrant as a highlighter, filled with so much pain and sorrow.
"Kurt, talk to me."
All he could do was stare. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours but was only a minute at the most, just really looking into each other's eyes, almost looking right into one another's thoughts. How could they possibly be part of the same race but have such dramatic differences?
"We've got to get you out of here."
"Kitty?"
"Jean!"
"Are you guys in the basement?"
"Yes. Please, Jean… get here quick!"
"We're coming. How's Kurt? I've been trying to get a mental reading from him for the past five minutes."
"He's not doing so good."
"We're on our way."
"Don't worry, Kurt. We're going to get you home."
Kitty was now holding Kurt in her arms. She stroked his head with her one hand while the other rubbed his back. Kitty felt so useless. Her best friend had just suffered the one thing he had feared in life, and it was huge. What could she do? Any time Kurt had lent a hand or comforted her, it was all things that could be solved by discussion. She had no idea how to console him. How could she tell him everything was going to be alright, when they both knew full well that it wouldn't be? How could he go back to living any kind of normal life he had had? There was nothing Kitty could do, just like there was nothing she did do while it was happening. A flow of questions came back into her mind. Why couldn't she stop the Brotherhood from revealing her best friend? What would happen to Kurt in terms of school? And worst of all; what would Kurt do once he came to his senses?
Well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. I've got much more on the way. I hope you are enjoying reading it . Read and Review! (Positive)