[It All Started With Duck Pajamas...]
John watched her, well, more like glared at her, as he sat at his official lunch table. Bobby sat to his right, and a few younger boys crowded around the table that lurked in the corner, giving him the perfect cover to study her without a high probability of being noticed. She had just gotten out of the lunch line, where a freshman boy stared at her with a pure admiration she failed to notice (or chose to ignore). She wove through the mess of tables and chairs even though she could phase through, her hips and legs moving rapidly to avoid people, chairs, and the edges of tables in an oddly graceful way. She didn't hit a single one as she turned and swerved her way to her own lunch table, the most crowded out of them all; the flowy top she wore gave the impression that she was a dancer in a show rather than a girl in a lunch room. That girl named Rogue pulled out a chair for her and Kitty sat down in it, smiling at her friend in thanks and saying something quickly that John couldn't quite catch by just lip-reading before she opened her can of ice tea. Jubilation said something, waving her arms around in a way that gave John the impression that she was declaring independence from Great Britain. The table burst into a fit of laughter he could hear through all the noise, and when he tried hard enough, he could pick out Kitty's laugh from them all as he watched her clutching her sides and trying to stay on her chair. After a day of studying her during the classes they shared, he noted that she was a different person entirely when she was alone. With her friends, she was like she'd been before: happy, smiling, somewhat confused but at the same time witty. When she was alone, she was quiet, and when she did speak, it was witty or sarcastic. She'd never really been a bitch, and she'd never really had this smart-ass type of humor that she did now. He wondered what made her change. The mainstream rumor was an abusive relationship with a boyfriend back in the Windy City, but for some reason, John could tell it wasn't that. Nope, it was something different, something closer to home that hit harder than an abusive bastard ever could. He just couldn't figure out what it was.
"Who are you staring at, Allerdyce?" Blink asked, eyebrow raised as he stared at John through the thick glass of the ebony frames he wore. John shook his head, snapping out of his predatory study session.
He was supposed to be studying so he could learn the easiest and yet most brutal way to get revenge. Wondering why she wasn't like she used to be was irrelevant.
"No one," he stated nonchalantly, and took a sip of the beer he'd stolen from Logan's stash. Bobby looked at him from the corner of his eyes, but didn't say anything. He probably saw who he was staring at and knew that he was up to something. No matter. Like Iceman would do anything, John thought. The guy had a stick so far up his ass.
"Really?" Blink snorted, smirking at the fire-controlling mutant. John looked at him boredly, bleached hair falling into his face. They regarded each other silently, and then Blink just kept his smirk and went back to eating.
He knew John Allerdyce was up to something, but hell if he was going to get in the way.
"Okay," Kitty said as she stood in front of the sixth grade Earth Sciences class. "Can anyone tell me the layers of the earth?"
She stood there as kids gradually started to raise their hands as they read through the paper she had handed out a few minutes prior. She really didn't know why she offered to help out and teach a class. Well, maybe it was the fact that it was work and that, when she asked for it that summer, she was desperate for work. Plus, on a good side, she was helping out Storm, who'd been swamped with work since Jean died. Besides, Kitty was seventeen and a few months away from her GED. She was in AP Chemistry for God's sake. She was certainly able to teach the basis of all human life on a sixth grade level.
At least that's what she kept telling herself as the class seemed to get longer by the minute and she remembered that she had probably put too much stuff in her class plan for the day.
"Okay, Travis," she said, nodding to a tanned skinned boy with a golden eyes. He cleared his throat even though his voice cracked from time to time anyway as he stated the answer. "The crust, lithosphere, Mohorovicic discontinuity, asthenosphere, upper mantel, lower mantel, liquid iron core, solid iron core."
"Very good Travis," Kitty smiled at the younger boy and then tossed him a Jolly Rancher, her 'positive reenfourcement' to keep the kids awake and paying attention. He grinned back and popped the candy into his mouth, showing his fangs slightly when he opened his mouth. One girl next to him smiled at him dreamily. It almost made Kitty laugh out loud. Travis, the tanner version of Edward Cullen. That was he was known for. The fact that his slight feral mutation had a little kick of hypnotic charm did not help him fight the title, either.
"Ms. Pryde? There's someone at the door," Katie said, looking at the door. Kitty saw the shadow of feet at the bottom of the door and walked across the room, trying to shake how weird it was that these kids called her Ms. Pryde. It just felt so awkward.
"Thanks, Katie. Oh yeah, new rule. You all call me Kitty, okay? Ms. Pryde just feel too weird," she said, laughing. The kids grinned back at her and she opened the door.
Swoosh.
Splash.
Shriek.
"Looks like someone shouldn't have worn white today," John said, smirking as Kitty's lacy blue bra showed easily through her now drenched white top. "Though I have to say, Kitten. You'd probably win at a wet T-shirt contest."
Ignoring the perverted compliment, she glared at him, ready to claw his eyes out while rocked back on his heels, whistling and smiling at her like he was acting totally innocent when he knew he was anything but. She stood there, dripping wet, just waiting to pounce. A second passed, and the bell rang. Saved by the bell, the class watched in absolute awe as she tackled him to the floor with a shriek of outrage, then grabbed his ankle and phased them both through the floor and out of sight.
"Kitty, you have a lot of explaining to do," Storm declared as she stood to the side of the Proffesor's desk. The Professor also looked less than pleased. Kitty sat on one of the couches, wearing Storm's jacket to cover herself, and John leaned against a book case, sometimes looking around boredly at the titles.
"What about him?!" Kitty practically shouted, gesturing her thumb to the asshole now reading Catcher in the Rye with an uninterested expression on his face, as if he had better things to do than get into trouble. Please, Kitty scoffed in her head, John's life was trouble. He couldn't exist without causing trouble. Causing trouble was all he ever seemed to be good for, other than setting things on fire.
Which, for the most part, usually lead to trouble, which only proved her point further.
"Oh, trust me," Storm said icily, looking at John, "he'll get his a minute. First, you explain."
"Why me?!"
"Because I thought you were the mature one out of the two," Storm said, hinting that she doubted it now with the way Kitty was acting. Kitty sighed and ran a hand through her (still soaking!) hair before she started.
"Well, last night was the big Back to Xavier's party, you know?" she said, and Storm nodded. The Professor looked at her kindly even though she knew she was in big trouble. "Well, apparently, Blink dared Bobby and John to steal a pair of my underwear and show it to all of the boys down in the west wing bathroom..."
"You snuck into her room?!" Storm demanded suddenly, keeping true to her ever-changing attitude and looking at John. He just shrugged.
"It was a dare," he stated matter-o-factly. Kitty fumed at him but continued.
"Anyway. Bobby and John came into my room and attempted to steal a pair of my underwear. I'd been sleeping but I managed to tackle Bobby and phase him to the first floor. He told me that John at my underwear and was heading to the west wing bathroom, so naturally, I pretty much spazzed and ran after him. I chased him down through the west wing and almost had him but then he got into the bathroom. I phased through the door to catch him and there were about thirty guys standing in the bathroom. He held up his catch to boast about how he stole my underwear but then it turns out that he only stole my pajama bottoms-"
"Who wears pajamas with ducks on them?" John suddenly wondered, interupting her. She glared at him.
"I do. They're comfy."
John just snorted in an unattractive manner and Storm glared at him, then looked back to Kitty, who went on with the story.
"So, after being embarrassed in front of all his friends because he stole the wrong thing, he said he'd get me back. So today he came to my Earth Sciences class, where I was teaching. I didn't know it was him so I opened the door and then the next thing you know I'm soaked to the bone and John is smiling and whistling like he didn't do anything wrong at all!"
She left out the part where he'd said she'd probably win a wet T-shirt contest for obvious reasons.
"The bell rang a second later and I kind of, sort of, snapped and tackled him down. I didn't remember that the cafeteria was right below my classroom so we kind of just ended up falling on top of the teacher's lunch table. From there it was mostly me trying to claw his eyes out, him trying to burn me to a crisp, Hank trying to break it up, and Logan watching in amusement whilst smoking a cigar in a no-smoking building until you came along and broke it apart and dragged us here to face what is undoubtedly going to be the worst punishment I've ever received," Kitty finished, raising her eyebrows and looking at the Professor, who smiled at her and gave a small laugh. Storm turned to John with her hands on her hips.
"And what do you have to say for yourself?"
"All I have to add to that is that I mentioned that Kitty would probably win a wet T-shirt contest."
If Kitty didn't sue for sexual harassment, it'd be a miracle.
