Stumbling Along the Path
"Does it ever wake you in the middle of the night?" Erik asked, "The feeling that one day, they'll come for you? And your children?"
Xavier wheeled around, "I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school looking for trouble."
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or universe. They belong to Marvel and FOX Studio.
Jean sprung up and hit her alarm. It was the first day she had gotten to sleep in. She flicked her wrist and a drawer on her desk opened as her agenda floated towards her while she grabbed a pair of high waist jeans and her favorite shirt as she knew it was a bit too warm today for a sweater. As she set her clothes on her disheveled bed, she grabbed her agenda mid air and flicked on a record to help start her day. Music filled the floor of the mansion.
She flipped her agenda to the neon sticker mark: May 20th, 1985. Meeting with Professor at 12:40pm for practice. Nothing else was on her agenda. She wondered if Jubilee would be up for going to the drive in later, she still had not gotten a chance to see The Breakfast Club since it had come out. That was assuming it was still in theatres.
She levitated her agenda back into the drawer and while meaning to shut it quietly, slammed it loudly. She jumped at the sound and went back to changing. It was only 11:18am so she still had time, but she was wanting to make some tea before having to give herself a headache.
She pulled off her night gown in one motion and changed into some fresh panties and a fresh bra. The wire was poking out of it obnoxiously but she was short on bras. She made a mental note to herself to mention bra shopping to Jubilee as well.
"I'm sure even Ororo needs some new bras…" She murmured to herself as she laid on her bed to wiggle into her jeans.
She took a deep breath in as she buttoned the three buttons on her jeans and then stood up and threw on her shirt. It was a shirt that Jubilee had gotten her from some concert she had attended. It was a baby blue or maybe a teal with text that looked like someone in high school had doodled in their notebook that read "Slayer". She had never listened to any of their music but it was a nice shirt and she figured Jubilee might appreciate seeing her wear it for once.
She put in her earrings and her watch and then decided a cardigan might be a good idea and grabbed her blue cardigan from her closet to slip on. She slipped on her shoes and was just about to head out the door when she remembered her record player was still on and with a flick of her finger turned it off.
She headed down the hall it was empty oddly for being close to noon. She walked past the elevator and decided to take the stairs today, mostly in hopes of getting a few peaceful moments to herself before having to deal with everyone today.
As she turned to go down the stairs she saw Ororo headed down, wearing the same outfit she had come in. She had her over the shoulder bag and did not hear Jean come behind her on the stairs.
"Hey there!" Jean said, trying to sound friendly, she wasn't real sure how her tone came out, but judging by the jump the Ororo gave: startling.
"Ag kak!" She said, turning around abruptly, "Sorry, Jean. I didn't hear you coming."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to see how you were taking to everything. It can be an adjustment here. I was just going to make some tea, if you wanna join me. We also have coffee, if you would prefer that." She caught herself rambling and stopped herself.
"That sounds nice." She gave a bit of a forced smile towards Jean and they continued down to the kitchen.
Scott was down in the common room flipping through channels and found the news.
"1,150 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners exchanged for 3 Israelis…" he flipped it again.
"FBI arrests John A Walker Jr, convicted of spying for the USSR…"
"United States began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti…."
He finally clicked the television off, deciding the news was probably not the best thing for him to be watching. His head snapped around as he saw a few students he didn't recognize. He gave a small nod to them but didn't join into their conversation. He overheard a few words about how so-and-so was getting married and placing bets on whether or not his bride-to-be would back out before the wedding.
He was relieved to be pulled from the conversation as Jean and Ororo came in with cups in their hand, laughing about some joke he had not heard.
"Hey Scott." Jean said with a faint smile curling her lips.
"Hey Jean! And hey… um… Ororo!" He said, as he almost forgot the name of the mutant from Africa he had went eyes to lightning to.
"Misa' il khayr, Scott." Ororo said, she was still trying to connect faces to names.
She sat down on the coffee table, pushing the remotes and books aside. Jean looked at the open spot on the couch next to Scott and then back at Scott.
"Oh you can sit here… if you want." Scott babbled, stumbling over his words.
"Thanks." She replied, sitting down next to him while sipping on her peppermint tea.
"Anything good on the news?" Jean joked, giving Scott a bit of a nudge with her elbow.
"Oh you know. Same old problems just a new day. Although I think this is the first time all week that I didn't see anything about us on the news so that is a plus. Must be too busy dealing with Soviet Russia." He attempted his best Russian accent.
The girls giggled and Ororo grabbed the remote and put on the news again.
"Africa still recovers from mutant catastrophe…" She turned it back off.
"We cannot get that lucky." She sighed.
They sat in an awkward silence. Jean looked at her watch.
"Oh crap guys I gotta go!" She jumped up and almost spilled her tea but Scott caught it.
"Where are you going?" He asked but she was already running down the hallway.
Ororo just shrugged and changed the topic as Jubilee, Kurt, and Peter walked into the common room and began chatting.
Jean sprinted to down the hall and dodged the children coming the opposite way. She felt like an upstream fish as she swerved and had students cuss her out under their breath. She offered telepathic apologies one by one as she made her way to the Professor's study.
"Sorry I'm late. I didn't wake up as early as I normally do." She telepathically communicated.
"Tis quite alright, Jean. Let's get started." He responded.
Kurt and Ororo were talking about how different America was in comparison to Germany and Africa. She told Kurt all about her time as a pick pocketer and thief, while Kurt talked about being in the circus and being kidnapped and thrown into the mutant fighting rings.
"That is pretty intense." Ororo responded, "After Apocalypse I will never be controlled like that again."
"Like the Professor told me, it's all in the past." Scott injected into the conversation whilst picking up random books off the coffee table to flip through.
"You are right." They all murmured their own agreements.
Scott picked up a magazine buried under the books. He flipped through the entertainment section before finding a list of movies that recently came out.
"Oh hey look, here's some movies that are out. I haven't been to a movie in forever." He chimed as his ruby gaze laid eyes on a comedy staring Johnny Depp.
"Oh! That sounds rad!" Jubilee cheered as she eyeballed the magazine over Scott's shoulder, whilst popping her bubble gum near his ear.
"We could go to the drive in, borrow the car. Maybe grab a bite to eat?" Scott suggested, moving to the middle of the couch away from Jubilee's bubble gum popping.
They all nodded and collectively made mumbles of agreement.
"Maybe another mall trip?" Jubilee asked excitedly.
"We should ask Jean." He added aloud for a mental note to himself whenever she got back.
Jean and the Professor had been working on mental exercises such as blocking out thoughts and controlling her telekinesis when emotional.
"I'm wore out, Professor. Can we stop for today?" Jean sighed and rubbed the side of head with her hand.
"Yes I think that will be quite enough for today. You may not realize it, but you are picking things up a lot more quickly. Now go and have fun. Enjoy the nice weather and we will try to pick back up next week. Also, if you guys decide to leave the mansion, please do not make it too late." He vocally stated.
He did not wish to make them worry but since the incident in Egypt people had been becoming more hostile towards mutants.
"I wasn't planning on…" and then she realized the Professor must've overheard the group thinking about leaving, "We will."
She got up and grabbed her notebook and began to leave. She walked backwards and thanked the Professor for him helping her. What she didn't realize was that Scott was right outside the door and she backed into him.
"Oh, Scott. The Professor mentioned something about us going somewhere?" She asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Yeah! I was just about to ask if it was cool for us to go see a movie and maybe grab some food somewhere with the group." He said, referring to what the Professor called the X-Men as "the group".
"That is fine, Scott. Just be safe." He waved at them to go and have fun.
"Sweet!" He cheered and turned to Jean, "Would you like to go with me? I mean with the group? To see the movie? It's supposed to be funny."
"We could grab food at the mall, I've been needing to pick up something anyway and you know Jubilee will never pass up an opportunity to go to the mall." Jean stated as they both started walking back to the common room.
Jean had been trying to stay out of Scott's head, knowing he didn't appreciate it and also that it was an invasion of privacy. Jean instead stared straight ahead, afraid of making eye contact and humming to herself.
Scott could not help but think of Jean. How her hair bounced as she walked and how she hummed so melodically to herself. He was so lost in his thought he didn't realize she had asked him a question.
"Scott?" She chimed again.
"Oh? Huh? What did you say? Sorry, I was thinking about the movie." He lied.
"I asked who all was going?" She repeated again.
"Um you, me, Ororo, Kurt, Jubilee, and maybe Peter." He said, he noticed her sigh at the end. He wondered what that meant.
"Alright then. If the movie starts at 6 we should probably head to the mall now to get the running out of the way and get some food. Sorry, you never said the time of the movie, I just heard it in your head. Sorry. I didn't mean to." She rambled off apologies.
"It's fine. No hard feelings. It's a learning experience. If I can't control the mega lasers behind my glasses, I can't really expect you to be able to have full control over yours." He said, although he secretly worried she had heard more than she said.
As they made it to the commons, Scott motioned for them to follow as Jean continued for the door. The group headed towards the cars. Peter had decided to go by himself, insisting the Scott would only slow him down. As Peter left the gang in the dust, Scott started up the car and they took off down the road.
