"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle with the ordinary."
[xxxxx]
Chapter 14: Typically Unusual
"Jacob, I swore to myself that if anything like this ever happened that I would take it calmly, but now... now I'm not so sure. You're fifteen years old! You should be able to take care of yourself!"
Jake, Evan, Tabitha and Amy all sat in Storm's office. Samantha paced back and forth in front of them.
"What were you thinking? What were all of you thinking? Going after a terribly dangerous group of mutants like that? What good could've possibly come of that?"
Evan raised his hand timidly. "Um... Mrs. Barrington?"
She hardly glanced at him. "No comments."
"Samantha," Hank spoke up from the back of the office, where he had been silently watching until now. "I think we could all benefit from hearing Evan's side of the story."
She looked at Hank for a moment, as if contemplating something, then nodded toward Evan. "Fair enough." She said.
Evan lowered his hand and took a breath. "Well, ya see... it was all Jake's fault."
"Don't you pin this on me!" Jake snapped. "You're the ones who wanted to come along!"
"Oh, don't associate me with him!" Tabitha joined in.
"At least I'm not the one who missed that stop sign and almost got his license suspended!"
"That sign was hidden!"
"Behind what? Oxygen?"
The conversation escalated into a huge slur of insults and snide comments between the four teenagers, to the point where they began to shove each other around.
"Silence!" Samantha shouted over their yells. Immediately, they silenced and straightened themselves. "The fault is on all of you and all of you deserve punishment."
"Which is where I come in." Storm interrupted, standing from her desk. "From now on, all of you will be spending your study hall in my ethics class. You are no longer permitted off-grounds at any times, unless accompanied by an adult. And you'll also be eating your lunches in detention for the next two weeks. Understand?"
The four teenagers nodded unenthusiastically.
"Excellent." Storm said. "Goodnight to all of you and I'll be seeing you fourth period tomorrow." She gave them a pleasant smile, then they left the office.
"This is so unfair." Amy complained once they were out in the hallway.
"Yeah. Tell me about it." Tabitha said, crossing her arms. "Besides, it's all Jake's fault. He's the one that made us go along."
"Ha!" Jake let out a scoff of false amusement. "Made you? Tabitha, you're the one that wanted to drive!"
"Would all of you just shut up?" Evan snapped. "It's over. We got detention - end of story. It's not worth fighting about any more." They arrived at the bottom of the staircase, where Evan left his friends and quickly began to climb the stairs to his bedroom.
"Somebody's got his panties in a bunch." Jake said before following his friend.
[xxxxx]
"Well, that was certainly relaxing." Albino said sarcastically, the loud beat of techno music still ringing in between her ears.
They were just leaving the club, where Pyro and Quicksilver had fought over who was going to teach her how to dance the cool way. It turned out that neither one of them were very good dance instructors. The only things she had gotten out of her 'dance lesson' was sore feet and a headache from the dreadful music.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Pyro said, ignoring her sarcasm. "But now we get to go home and hear an earful."
"I think me and Albie are gonna stay out for a bit longer." Quicksilver said.
"What?" She protested, but he gently covered her mouth with his hand. She tried to fight him off, but he kept at it.
Pyro looked from one of them to the other sceptically, but then shrugged. "Whatever. Just use a condom." He said curtly before turning away toward the parking lot, spinning the key ring around his finger.
Quicksilver released Albino only when the fire-starter was out of sight.
"Okay, what is this about?" She asked angrily, pushing herself away from him.
"You owe me a date."
She scoffed. "You couldn't wait till next week?"
"Next week I might be dead." He said, linking arms with her. Reluctantly, she let him do so. "C'mon. I know a place."
[xxxxx]
A soft white swirl of frozen deliciousness, spotted with awe-inspiring morsels brighter than the colors of Mardi Gras. All of this, delicately placed atop a hand-made pyramid of cinnamon-flavored wafer.
"This is undoubtedly the best thing I have ever had in my mouth." Albino took another bite of her ice cream and let the thick cream rest on her tongue for a moment, soaking in the rich flavor of vanilla.
"It won't be for long." Quicksilver smirked, biting into his own pineapple-flavored ice cream.
They sat outside of September's Parlor, a rather inexpensive ice cream parlor just a few blocks from Empowered, the club they had just come from. Albino was surprised to find that any shops were open this late - it was almost midnight - but Quicksilver explained to her it was because of the lively nightlife surrounding it.
"The stars are pretty tonight." She said, gazing upward.
Quicksilver also looked skyward, but he saw no stars. They were never visible in the city, especially New York. Even from miles away, the lights obscured vision to the stars, making them nearly impossible to see. "I don't see anything."
"But..." Albino paused. "Oh. It's my powers."
He had almost forgotten about her mutant abilities. Albino had the unique ability to see just about any physical thing in any sort of condition. She could adjust her sight to see through night vision, thermal vision, x-ray and many more.
"You ready to go?" He asked once he saw that she was done with her ice cream. "We might want to get an early start. I doubt we'll catch a cab around these parts."
"So shortly? It's been less than a half hour."
"We do have the entire walk home." He stood up and extending his hand toward her.
She looked at him for a moment speculatively before sliding her small pale hand into his.
[xxxxx]
By the time they had reached the Warehouse, Albino found that her fingers had slid between Quicksilver's and she was absentmindedly walking a bit too close to him.
Their topics of conversation ranged from art to world news to Greek mythology and presently, to Jersey Shore, which Quicksilver was surprised to find Albino actually watched.
"I dunno..." She giggled as they walked through the back entrance and into the Warehouse. "I just find watching the idiocy of this new generation to be exceedingly hilarious. Or it's just the Italian in me."
"You're Italian?" He asked, surprised.
She shrugged. "A little, on my mother's side."
He smirked. "I'm Italian too, y'know." He said a bit proudly.
"Really? Is that why you're so good with the ladies?"
"All of the ladies... except for you."
Albino pursed her lip. "Oh, don't you try to make me feel bad about getting you all hot and bothered."
"Bothered?" Quicksilver asked as they stopped in front of the cage elevator. "Hot, yes, but bothered? No, I could never be bothered by you."
She sighed. "I'm flattered."
He smirked and stared at her for a moment. "I never thought that I'd hear those words coming out of your mouth." He placed his hands on her wide hips and gently pulled her closer to him.
Just days ago, Albino would have never let a man she hardly knew hold her so intimately. But Pietro was different. He was bothersome, always hovering not too far off like a lost puppy. She knew that he was annoying and immature- something she wasn't interested in. She knew she should have hated him for the way he teased her, but for some reason she was always a little excited when he walked into the room, and always somewhat flattered when he called her by her birth name.
So as Quicksilver pulled her into his chest and kissed her, she didn't fight it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. After a few moments they pulled away, but still held each other close.
"Pietro, will you do me a favor?" She asked softly, her fingers playing with the hair on the back of his head.
He nodded. "Anything, my dear."
"Sleep with me tonight."
He smirked. "It would be my pleasure."
This chapter was a little short compared to the others, but I would hate to end my story with, like, 17 chapters so I'm trying to stretch it out. But apparently A. Conan Doyle doesn't care because the Hound of the Baskervilles was like 15 chapters. But it was really good.
I'm really unsatisfied with this chapter's title. It was supposed to be like detention is typical for the kids, but it's unusual for Albino to be doing it with a practical stranger. Ah, well. I'll change it later if I think of something better.
Beta'd again by the astonishing martshi3!
Next chapter might take a while, but this one came out whippity-snap, so I better not hear any complaints!