*Sorry, that last chapter was pretty weak and boring hope I can do better on this one! X-Men and their world belong to Marvel
Kitty was right, our supervisors/teachers gave in and bought the other two girls clothing as well. Jubilee and Kitty proudly walked into the mansion, each carrying a bag, while I struggled under my nine bags.
Scott Summers, Cyclops came up behind me. He was one of the X-Men that fought the Sentinels with me. He could shoot lasers out of his eyes. Jean had asked him to come with us to supervise (the other teacher, Storm, had been too busy with marking to come). Over our shopping trip, I learned what a stiff he was. He was very formal and withdrawn from the students, and Kitty told me how strict he was about rules. Jean was the only one he seemed to loosen up around, and I felt how much he cared about her.
"Would you like some help carrying those?" Summers asked me.
"I'd love some help! Thanks Prof!" Jubilee quipped, shoving her one bag into her shocked teacher's hands. Me and Kitty giggled at the look on our stiff teacher's face.
Jubilee is always doing things like that. She dresses loudly and speaks even louder. I've noticed how she doesn't really monitor what she says, just blurts everything out. She can be rude, and a little whiney, but I don't mind her. She is friendly enough with me and can be pretty funny.
"Um, I think I've got this Professor Summers." I said, still smiling at my new friend's goofiness. After saying that, I lost my grip and my bags crashed to the floor. I grinned sheepishly at Scott while my "friends" snickered at my misfortune.
"You sure you don't want a hand?" He asked again, his voice patronizing.
Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? I thought. I never did like have men do these kind of things for me. Carrying my stuff, fixing things for me, giving advice that I obviously know. My mum said it was because I was a farm girl.
"I've got it." I said confidently. With that, I concentrated on my shopping bags, using my mutant powers to lift them up. I picked up two bags, one in each arm. I smiled at him, trying not to gloat. "Thank you for the shopping trip." And with that I followed my laughing friends up the stairs to our rooms. My shopping bags following us.
"Ah, Scott Summers." Jubilee sighed as we stood outside Kitty's and my room. "He's hot, he has a cool power, he has an awesome car and bike, good fashion sense, but he's living with a stick up his ass."
Kitty giggled, phasing the three of us into the room. Once inside, I opened the door to let the rest of my purchases in.
"Yeah, a stick called Wolverine." Kitty agreed.
"Actually, he was a stiff before the beast came to the school." Jubilee said. "Hey Rogue, waz up girl?"
Jubilee's greeting drew my attention to an unfamiliar girl on the last bed. She was laying upside down on her bed, reading a book. Seeing the other girls enter her room she closed her book and sat up. She was taller than me with a thin figure. She had amber eyes, enhanced by her choice of make up. Her hair was about shoulder length and a pretty shade of brown. Two thick strands of white hair framed her oval face. Her clothing wasn't out of the ordinary, except for a pair of white gloves that came up to her elbows.
"Just got back from mah session with the Professor," Rogue's voice was pleasant to listen to, and had a Southern States accent. "and felt like doing a little reading. How was the shopping trip?"
Jubilee flung herself onto the bed beside Rogue. Rogue reacted by pulling up her gloves as high as they would go and scooted a little away from Jubilee. Does she not like her? I wondered.
Jubilee didn't notice the other girl's reaction, just answered the question. "Amazing. How could a shopping trip be anything but? Though we would have had a better time if "stick up his ass" Summers wasn't being so cheap."
"He was just thinking of the school's budget. Besides, Shadow got what she needed and we got a few things too." Kitty defended, now sitting on her own bed. "Rogue, this is our new roommate, Shadow."
"Hi." I said shyly.
"How ya'll do'n?" Rogue asked. I offered her my hand, but she just stared at it. About to withdraw my hand, Rogue once again adjusted her gloves and gave my hand a brief shake.
Well, that was sort of weird, I though.
"Rogue's ability is to absorb memories, abilities and psyches of other people when she touches their skin. Its weird, apparently she sucked the brains out of her old boyfriend or something before she came here." Jubilee told me.
"Jubilee!" Kitty glared at her friend. "Seriously, you've got to learn when to keep your mouth shut. I'm sorry Rogue."
Rogue went pale and got up to leave. "It happened, can't pretend it didn't. At least now Shadow knows not to get close to meh. Ah'm going to go see Bobby, see ya'll at dinner." Rogue mumbled before escaping out the door.
"What?" Jubilee asked us innocently as Kitty glared at her. "Just giving the new gal some background info. And Rogue said it herself, now she knows so the same thing won't happen to her."
"Jubes, you can be such a dunce sometimes!" This was the first time I saw Kitty mad.
"What is the big deal? Telling someone about someone's powers isn't a crime! Shadow, my mutation lets me produce fireworks. See? No big deal." Jubilee said defensively. Kitty continued to glare. "I'll make it up to Rogue later."
"You'd better go now. If you don't, than it will be all awkward at dinner with the two of you." Kitty suggested.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. Catch yah later chicka." She gave me a little wave before leaving the room.
"I am going to strangle her one day, I swear." Kitty grumbled. Then she gave me a smile. "Here, I'll help you put your new clothing away."
Half way through unpacking, I fell asleep in my clothing. Kitty didn't feel the need to wake me up for diner or the classes the next morning. It really didn't matter because I wasn't enrolled in any classes yet, but by eleven the next day I was famished. At twelve Kitty came up to our room.
"I'm beginning to think you power is too sleep forever." She teased lamely. "Come on, lets go get some lunch."
We met up with Jubilee and Rogue on the way down to the cafeteria. Kitty had invited me to eat lunch with her friends and I had accepted. I felt a little guilty, knowing that I should be eating with the kids, but I couldn't help but want to meet new people.
"Hey guys, this is Shadow." Kitty introduced me once we had trays of food. I looked around the cafeteria table and smiled shyly at Kitty's friends. One by one, she introduced me. There were so many of them that I had to just take brief mental notes of them.
"That's John, he can control fire. That's Sam, he can become a human cannonball. That ones Bobby, he can produce ice and is Rogue's boyfriend. That's Paige, Sam's little sister. Robert, his power's pretty cool, he is like solar powered. Rahne is a wolf girl, sort of like a werewolf but don't mention anything about Twilight causes she a little touchy about that." Kitty said, names and faces being pointed out to me. "And this is Piotr, or Peter."
A new boy came up to our table. And he was the most gorgeous person I've ever seen. He had thick black hair, crystal blue eyes, perfect complexion, a face as though carved by angels. He was huge. Standing about seven feet and had vast muscles everywhere.
"Hello." He said shyly, looking down at me. His voice had a Russian accent.
"Hi." I said equally shy. He looked like a model.
"Peter is from Russia." Jubilee told me loudly from across the table. "Our own gorgeous, foreign, giant puppy. He still doesn't know his own strength. But he's completely single if you wanted to try him, Shadow."
Peter and me blushed furiously while the others laughed at our expense. Trying to be cool and ignore Jubilee's silly remark, Peter sat down on the bench. A little too hard. Him sitting down caused Sam and Robert (who were sitting on the other end of the bench) to go flying. Robert landed by the lunch line but Sam land was not as fortunate. He landed on Scott Summers's lap.
Poitr blushed harder and went to go help the other boys and apologize.
Everyone started laughing their heads off. Paige excused herself to go laugh at her brother. Kitty snorted milk through her nose which just made Rogue and Jubilee laugh harder. Jubilee leaned on Rogue for support, barely able to breathe. Rogue gave her a friendly slap on the arm, trying to get her friend to control herself.
"Whoa! Watch it Rogue!" Jubilee practically pushed everyone off the bench, trying to escape Rogue's touch.
The laughing stopped immediately.
"Ah'm wearing mah gloves Jube, Ah can't hurt yah." Rogue said quietly.
I saw the sad look on Rouge's face, the way she pulled her gloves up more and tried to make more space between them. I could feel her sadness and loneliness inside my mind. I could also feel Jubilee's guilt. She didn't want to hurt Rogue's feelings, but she didn't want to have her mind, powers and privacy taken by Rogue either. Or the physical pain of touching that dangerous skin.
The rest of the group slowly began to talk to each other again, the volume increasing with time. Jubilee started a loud conversation with the pyro kid, John, and wouldn't look at Rogue. Robert, Sam and Paige came back to the table, bringing a still blushing Poitr with them. Poitr tried to hide his face, keeping it down while he ate, but his friends still teased him. Bobby talked quietly to Rogue, trying to comfort her and get her mind off what had happened, but it wasn't working.
I didn't take part in the conversation, my mind was busily working out a plan that would help Rogue.