A/N-
A longer wait for this chapter but I hope you'll forgive me. I had to do a lot of work ironing out the plot before I could decide how to finish this chapter. And that plot I mentioned? We'll be getting to it soon, I promise :D
Lance was brooding. Not that this was a strange occurrence in the Brotherhood household. Lance tended to brood a lot.
The power was cut? Lance brooded. Someone misplaced his guitar picks? Lance brooded. The milk in the fridge had gone bad? Lance brooded. You name it? Lance brooded.
Todd typically didn't mind Lance's brooding. He'd simply steer clear of the lunkhead until his mood brightened and that would be that. Today was different though.
Wanda had managed to work out a proper transfer to Bayville High, meaning that for the first time she was going to school with them. After snooping through her schedule, Todd knew they had not one but two classes together. With Wanda being new at school, that meant there would be two hours where he was going to be the only one she knew.
The only road bump in this perfect opportunity for Todd to spend time with Wanda was Lance. Lance was their only ride to school, therefore if Todd wanted those two blissful hours with his babycakes, Lance had to get moving.
"C'mon Lance, I know you're awake," Todd called, rapping loudly on Lance's door. "We gonna be late for school!" He jumped up at these last words, putting more force into his voice as he hopped frog like in the hallway.
No response. Not an angry howl. Not the unsettling shaking of the walls. The ceiling wasn't splitting open and falling on top of his head.
Lance was definitely brooding.
"You got rocks for brains or somethin'?" Todd shouted, refusing to give up. He pounded on the door again, louder and longer than the first time. "I ain't going anywhere till you say somethin'!"
"Go away." Lance's voice came through the door as an angry snarl. Snarling was a response at least. Any kind of progress was still progress, Todd reasoned.
"Does that mean you're getting' ready?" Todd asked, knowing full well the answer.
"That means go away!"
"Now don't be like that Lance," Todd tisked his tongue. "We can't get to school without ya."
"Don't feel like going to school anymore."
"Anymore?" Todd snorted, unimpressed. "You went one day."
"I went one day too many," Lance snapped back from his side of the door. "I told you guys this was a bad idea."
Some would say that Todd wasn't the brightest frog in the pond, but even he knew a losing battle when he saw one. In a situation like this there was only a few options. You either changed the staging of the battle or the opponents. Lance clearly wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, so that left him with only one choice.
"Well, you better get moving," Todd called futilely. He then turned away from the door and hopped back downstairs.
In the kitchen Todd found Freddie just as he expected, waist deep in sandwiches, brown paper bags and juice boxes. Hearing Todd's arrival, Freddie looked up with a wide grin on his face. "I almost have your lunches all ready."
It had been Freddie's idea for them to return to school. Freddie who mysteriously procured a high school diploma and was not attending himself. Instead, he had become the self-appointed 'Team Dad', taking the now mostly vacant parental position once held by Mystique and briefly Magneto.
Compared to his competition Freddie had been downright fatherly.
"Are the others moving yet?" Freddie asked, slapping a piece of salami onto a slice of bread thick with mayonnaise.
"Wanda's getting ready in the bathroom," Todd replied with a shrug. "Pietro's not moving yet, but we all know it takes him less than no time to get ready." A fact Pietro often liked to brag about, particularly because it allowed him sleep in longer than anyone else. "Lance is awake, but he says he's not going to school today," Todd dropped this lightly, waiting to see just how Freddie would take it.
"Does he now?" Freddie nodded thoughtfully. It was an entirely too adultish movement for Freddie in Todd's humble opinion. Then Freddie's face split into a wide, crooked grin, which looked much more appropriate. "I'll just have to take care of him then."
Todd pumped the air with his fist as Freddie walked around him to head into the hallway.
The stairs protested shrilly as Freddie headed to Lance's room, but they held against his considerable weight. Todd chose to stay in the kitchen, or as he thought of it at the moment, 'relative safety'.
"Lance!" Freddie's bellow reverberated in Todd's bones all the way downstairs. There was a loud, splintering crack, and Todd guessed that Lance's door no longer stood on its hinges.
There was the sound of muffled cursing, some running and crashing upstairs, and a faint rumbling of the entire house. A violent crash shook the house so much particles fell off the ceiling to land on Todd's face. Then all was silent.
Moments later the stairs creaked once again. Freddie came back into view, holding Lance by the back of his shirt collar, dragging him down the stairs much like a mother cat would carry her kitten.
Freddie dumped Lance unceremoniously at the bottom of the stairs. "Lance has reconsidered his apathy to education, and will gladly drive you all to school," Freddie said happily. "Now, unless either of you have any other problems you can't fix on your own, I have lunches to finish." Dusting his hands off at a job well done, Freddie returned to the kitchen.
Still squatting at the foot of the stairs, Lance looked up at Todd, "I don't think I like 'Team Dad' Fred all that much."
"Are you kiddin'? 'Team Dad' Fred is the best," Todd replied, and leaped victoriously up the stairs to grab his school bag.
One member of the Brotherhood in her English class was irritating. Two members of the Brotherhood in her English was an accident waiting to happen.
Rogue fidgeted nervously in her seat by the window when ten minutes into class the door to classroom opened and in walked Wanda Maximoff. A collective muttering rose up from the rest of the students, a result of Wanda's intimidating appearance.
Wanda's hair had grown out slightly since Rogue had last seen her, during the aftermath of their fight with Apocalypse. It now hung down to her ears, obscuring the silver cross earrings she still wore. Like her jewelry, her choice in clothing hadn't changed much. A blood red tank top, topped by a black over coat, along with a pair of ripped black jeans. Heavy combat boots completed the ensemble.
Mr. Green, the English teacher, merely raised a thinning brow at her arrival, "You must be Miss Maximoff."
Wanda nodded, but offered nothing else. No excuse for her tardiness. No sharp comment about the dry way Mr. Green greeted here.
"Are you familiar with the phrase be careful what you wish for?" Mr. Green asked, prompting a confused expression to come across Wanda's face.
With one eyebrow lowered, and her mouth curved up in confusion, Wanda replied. "Yeah."
"When I saw your name on my register for this class, I had wished that you wouldn't be like your brother," Mr. Green replied. "And he was never late for class. Anyhow, take your seat." He waved a vague hand toward the rows of desks.
In a swirl of black overcoat, Wanda turned to take her seat. Behind Rogue, Toad was waving vigorously in Wanda's direction, ushering her to the vacant chair beside him. Rolling thickly outlined eyes, Wanda ignored the proffered seat and chose one near the front of the room.
"Well, class," Mr. Green walked behind his desk and opened a drawer. From it he pulled out a stack of cards and started shuffling them. Lined up in front of him on the desk was a series of books. "What I was just getting to was your major assignment for the semester. Twenty percent of your mark this year will be based on a collaborative presentation on an assigned novel. To provide you ample time to plan your presentation, you will be assigned both your partner and your book today.
"In the sense of fairness, and to avoid the unfortunate event where everyone chooses not to partner with particular individuals, I'll be handing each of you a card," Mr. Green explained in a monotonous drone. As he spoke, he methodically went about the process of handing out the cards. "Whomever holds the matching card to yours will be your partner. Each of the books on my desk also have a card on top of them. If you're following where I'm going with this, it'll be clear to you that the book you are to be presenting on will be under the matching card you and your partner receive."
When Mr. Green held a card out to her, Rogue gingerly slipped it from his hand. Despite the fact that she knew everything was perfectly safe with her gloves secured on her hands, she made sure to only make contact with the thinly layered cardboard of the playing card.
The word ironic popped into her mind at the sight of the card, but she wasn't sure if that was the correct literary device to apply to this situation. The Queen of Hearts smiled up at her, a mirror of the card which she still carried with her in her pocket.
"Hey, Rogue, trade with me!" Rogue nearly jumped out of her skin, hearing Toad's voice so close to her ear. The cretin was leaning as far over his desk as he could, head nearly level with Rogue's own, and his hands stretched out toward the card in Rogue's hand. "C'mon, please!"
Rogue turned to glare at him. "Would you back off?" She snarled, leaning to the side of her chair, trying to evade his flailing arms. The last thing she wanted was one of his hands to make contact with the bare skin of her neck or face. She did not want this guy's slimy thoughts in her head.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rogue discovered the source of Toad's sudden and desperate need for her queen. In the front row, Wanda was dangling the Queen of Diamonds in her hand, while looking at Rogue with an expression that was as equally desperate as Toad's, and maybe even a little pleading.
Wanda had been the only member of the Brotherhood to agree right away to help them against Apocalypse. Rogue supposed a favour was due. Rogue also preferred to not give into Toad's insistent and irritating attempts to wrest the card from her grasp.
Holding the Queen of Hearts a safe distance out of Toad's reach, Rogue used her other arm to shove Toad's desk backward as hard as she could. Toad, who had been pressed against the edge of the desk as he leaned toward Rogue, gasped in pain as he was forcibly moved backward with the desk.
"Mr. Tolensky," Mr. Green's voice sounded even more deadpanned than usual. "Please behave yourself in class."
Toad snorted at the teacher, and glared at Rogue but offered no further comment. At the front of the class Wanda lifted the corners of her mouth in what could almost be considered a smile of thanks. Rogue nodded back.
Mr. Green made his way back to the front of class, and looked out at the students with his hands on his hips. "If any of you missed what I just explained, or didn't understand, I suggest you transfer into a remedial English class at the nearest opportunity," he concluded with a smile that was little more than a tug on one side of the mouth.
Rogue cracked a small smile at his comment. She was beginning to think she might like this teacher, with his dry wit and obvious sense of fairness.
"Alright folks," Mr. Green clapped his hands together. "We'll start with the aces."
In pairs of two, students began filing up to the front of the room, and picking their books up from Mr. Green's desk.
Toad was called up along with his fellow five. His partner was a peppy, blonde girl who Rogue thought was a member of the cheerleading squad. Judging by the way she wrinkled her nose when she went up with Toad to receive their book, she was none too pleased with her partner. Toad in turn sneered right back at her.
When the queens were called, Rogue walked up with Wanda to select their book. Only two sets of books were left on the desk, theirs and those destined for the kings.
Underneath the Queen of Spades lay two books with relatively plain covers. A shadowed man, stood beside the title in big block letters. "The Outsider".
Oh yes, there was definitely some irony in this.
Apparently being barred from trying out for competitive sports didn't have any bearing on the requirement of taking a physical education course. Kitty, currently a mess of frizzy hair and sweaty clothes, grumbled quietly to herself about the injustice of this fact as she filed into the girl's locker room.
The other girls chattered happily and eagerly. Among themselves. Kitty hovered on the outside of their little ring, rummaging in one of the lockers to find her change of clothes. There was a time when she would have loitered with the other girls, chatting and gossiping, but now she only felt like an outsider when she was near them.
She snagged her bundle of clothes and walked quickly to a change stall. The faster she got out of her smelly gym clothes, the faster that she could get out of the locker room. Then she could go to lunch, the only bright spot in her school day, when she was able to spend time with friends.
Exiting the change stall, Kitty returned to main area of the locker room, now smelling a whole lot fresher. Passing by the group of girls still talking excitedly, she made for the door.
"What about you Kitty?"
"Huh?" Kitty halted mid-step in surprise. She turned to see who had called out to her, not expecting it in the least.
The girl's name was Tanya, someone who Kitty had once practiced with as part of the track and field team. They had never been particularly close, but even after mutants had been revealed, Kitty could not recall Tanya ever being outright hostile toward her, a fact Kitty could appreciate in few of her human classmates.
The look on the Tanya's face at the moment was uncertain, but friendly enough. "Are you going to the track try outs after school today?" Tanya said after a moment's pause, obviously repeating a question already asked.
Kitty felt an uncomfortable tightening in her gut. She supposed she should still be fuming about the fact that she wasn't allowed to tryout, but the passing day had seemed to cool the burning unfairness of it all, and left her feeling more empty than anything else.
"Uh, no, I'm not," Kitty tried her best to sound bright and carefree, but even she could easily hear the strain in her voice. She turned back to the door, just wanting to get out of the room.
Another girl spoke, stopping Kitty in her tracks. "Not allowed to, you mean," the other girl scoffed. Hot embarrassment burned Kitty's cheeks, as she turned back to face the other girl who had spoken.
The girl was leaning causally against the lockers, looking at Kitty with her brows raised, and her mouth set in a small smirk. To the other girls she said airily, "They're not letting mutants cheat their way to victory anymore."
The red heat building behind her cheeks no longer had anything to do with embarrassment. "Cheat?" Kitty repeated the word, letting her hand fall off the door knob, and tightening it in anger.
"You heard me," the girl replied, straightening up . "That's why they took all of Jean Grey's trophies last year too. She used her freak powers to win everything, and everyone knows it's not fair for us normal people to have to compete with what you can do."
"Jean's never cheated in anything!" Kitty felt her teeth grinding together s she clenched her jaw. Jean had worked so hard for those awards. Kitty could still remember how upset Jean had been the day the awards had unfairly been taken from her. "And neither have I!"
"If you weren't using your powers to cheat your way to success why did you mutants hide yourself for so long?" The girl asked, her eye narrowed in accusation.
So we could be treated like normal people. So we could be able to participate in things without people thinking we're cheating. So we could avoid people like you.
All of these thoughts and more ran through Kitty's head, but she didn't voice a single one. She whirled around to leave, unable to listen to anything else the girl might say.
She meant to. She really meant to open the door, leave the locker room, and slam the door shut with a satisfying BANG. She really had.
But what she really did was phase straight through the door, hand still outstretched to grasp the door handle.
She passed through to the other side of the door right in front of a group of guys heading to their own locker room. Small patches of facial hair ringed their mouths which opened in surprise at her sudden appearance.
Their expressions changed the instant they realized who, or more accurately what she was, and understood what had just happened. Accusatory looks that screamed "Freak", were more obvious on their faces than their weak attempts to grow facial hair.
Cheeks burning, Kitty stalked away from the boys, and the locker room full of hateful girls.
Kitty took a deep calming breath as she fled the gym. She slowed her pace when she came into the hallway. She reminded herself that lunch was next. That meant a nice hour spent with her friends, where she'd be able to relax and enjoy herself with people who accepted her.
Those happy thoughts were dashed as she approached the cafeteria.
Was that the sound of explosions she was hearing?
A/N-
And another chapter done.
Questions? Comments? Criticisms? You know where to leave 'em. I always love hearing from you guys!