Chapter 3- Ups and Downs


Pietro Maximoff ran a hand through his sleek white hair as he grinned pompously at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. It was the night. He spritzed on some cologne as he admired his reflection. "I am one sexy bastard," he said aloud. He was an open narcissist, and a damn proud one at that. What exactly was wrong with being in love with oneself? Honestly. Society goes around trying to bolster people with low self-esteem. Then those that feel good about themselves are pegged as pompous, arrogant, and bigheaded. Pietro shook his bed. Hypocrites.

Leaving the bathroom, he headed down the hallway to his room to grab his sports coat. He passed by Todd's open door. The younger mutant was sitting on his bed, staring blankly at the poster-adorned wall in front of him. "Hey," Pietro stepped cautiously into Todd's messy room. The dusty-haired boy looked up at his white-haired friend in surprise. Todd was wearing a while ironed shirt and pressed khakis. He had on a tie and his hair was combed. It was definitely a very different Todd from the one who wore ripped jeans and messy hair.

"Oh, heh, s'up yo?" Todd did not look very happy.

"Hey, you ready for the dance?"

The younger boy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. I'm getting a ride with Lance and Cindy."

"Oh, okay." Despite feeling bad for Todd, Pietro couldn't help but feel excited. He was going to the dance with Lily! Her brother was driving them all. They were going to pick up her sister's date first, then get him. They were coming in about ten more minutes. Whenever he thought about Lily, a stupid grin kept popping up on his face. He couldn't wait to walk into the dance with her, that girl was so damn fine! A grin must have been on his face, because an amused smile crossed over Todd's face.

"Excited about Lily?"

"Yep!" He was grinning openly now. Pietro knew he looked stupid, but he couldn't help it.

Todd shook his head as he tried to suppress a smile. The Brotherhood had had to put up with that all week. They'd walk in on him just smiling randomly with a big goofy grin on his face. It had been a little scary at first, but they'd gotten used to it. As for him...the smile faded from Todd's face. Of course he was going stag. He didn't even know why he was going, but Lance wanted him to go. And everyone just expected him to go, and he didn't feel like explaining to them that he felt like a reject who couldn't even get a frickin' date. Even Fred had one. That thought didn't help bolster Todd's non-existent self-esteem.

He looked up as Pietro started whistling happily and leaving the room with a small cackle. Lily must have completely taken over his mind, because the speed demon was normally pretty attentive to everyone's feelings. Todd sighed. It was better this way, he didn't want Pietro babying him. Then Lance would also start in, and even Fred. They were all tough guys. He wasn't, so they stuck up for their little froggy runt.

"Todd! You ready yet?" Lance was calling from downstairs.

With a defeated sigh, Todd got off his bed and headed downstairs. "Yeah," he called back. He glanced at his watch. He normally didn't wear one, but he had a feeling that he would need it tonight.
* * *
A dark-colored car pulled into the Brotherhood's gravel driveway and honked its horn. It was his ride. "Hey, I'm going out now!" Pietro called. Lance, Todd, and Fred were still in the house...somewhere. One of them would've heard him. He opened the front door and went out. A clear box was in his hand, with a corsage inside. He'd gotten the most expensive one he could get. A girl like Lily Kim was worth it. With a grin, he headed down the driveway and up to the car door. When he opened the door though, the face of his angel did not greet him. In fact, it was the last possible face he would ever want to see on a special night like this.

"YOU!" Pietro Maximoff and Evan Daniels both said at the same time. "What the hell are YOU doing here?"

"I'm here with my date," both replied back in unison. "What the hell are YOU doing here?"

They glared at each other for a moment. "Jinx," they said at the same time.

"Double jinx," Pietro snapped, before Evan could open his mouth again. "Ha! Got you there, Evan!"

"Um, do you know each other?" Pietro looked farther into the car. Inside was Lily, the beautiful. Next to her was...Lily? The color drained from his face.

"Hey man, what're you-," Evan turned around in Pietro's direction. Under the interior car light, he got a double exposure to two identical faces. "Ahhh!" He shrieked like a girl.

"Oh my gosh!"

"There's two of you!"

"How's this possible?"

The two twins stared at each other in annoyance. One had on a purple dress. The other had on an identical one in red. Their names were Lily and Lorena. One of the twins (Pietro and Evan didn't know who) frowned at the two startled boys. "You didn't know we were twins?"

"Um," Evan gulped. "No."

Pietro looked at Evan in exasperation. "And you were in the car with both of them the whole time? At least I figured it out the minute I got into the car!"

"Well, it was dark!" Evan said hotly.

Pietro warily got into the car. Who was Lily? Hmm, one of the girls, the one in red, already had a corsage. "Here, Lily," Pietro said awkwardly. He tied the corsage onto the twin with the purple dress.

The twin in red smiled grimly. "Funny, Pietro, I thought you were taking ME to the dance."

"What?" Pietro looked up, startled. "You're Lily?" Who could tell them apart? They were identical!

"Yes."

"Wait, then I gave my corsage to you?" Evan looked over at his real date, Lorena, who stared coldly back.

"Yes, I guess you did."

"Then," Evan looked thoroughly confused. "Wait, I'm confused."

"It's easy to figure out." Pietro snapped. "Lily is red, and Lorena is purple! We mixed up their corsages. Actually, YOU mixed up the corsages."

"Me, how was I supposed to know. The one in red was the one right next to me. I thought it was Lorena!" Evan was turning purple, then red, then purple.

"She's your date! You're supposed to know!"

"Yeah, well, you didn't know Lorena was really Lily, and Lily was really Lorena! You mixed up the corsages too!"

"Did not!" Pietro fumed.

"Did too!"

"Well, it's your fault!"

"No, yours! Why can't you ever admit you're just wrong, Maximoff!"

"Cause I always am!"

"Ha! Told you!"

"I mean right!"

"Well, Lily's my date, so stay away from her."

"She's MY date."

"No, Lorena is!"

"That's not what you just said. Red dress is mine!"

"No."

"Yes."

"You're purple, moron."

"What are you talking about!"

"Loser."

"Barf breath."

"X-Geek."

"Juvenile delinquent."

"JUST SHUT UP!" Lily, the red dress, glared at the two quarreling boys. The two sophomores stared at her stunned. Pietro, for one, had never seen her lovely face look so angry. It was so tragically beautiful... "You guys are both idiots!" Pietro came back to earth with Lily's coral lips twisted up angrily.

"You didn't even know I had a twin!" Lorena snapped at Evan.

"You said you had a sister! How was I supposed to know!" Evan howled back.

"I can't believe you couldn't even tell us apart!" Lily shouted at Pietro. "What kind of demented date are you!"

"You two, freaking, look the same!" Pietro yelled back. "How am I supposed to tell you apart! By taking your fingerprints?"

"You should know by her personality, Maximoff," Evan sniffed.

"Oh, the way you did, DANIELS?"

"I can't believe we accepted dates with these losers," Lorena said to Lily, her arms crossed, and Pietro's corsage on her wrist.

"What?" Pietro felt hurt that someone besides an X-Geek had called him a loser. Worse, Lily was nodding in agreement! His dream fairy! He looked over at Evan, who was opening and closing his mouth soundlessly. He looked like a demented fish. Pietro sighed. This was all Evan's fault. If he'd just put the corsage on his own date, Pietro would have put the right one on Lily, and there wouldn't be a problem. As it was, now Lily and Lorena were mad at both boys. Now that he stopped to think about it, he didn't blame them. "Look, Lily," Pietro said contritely. "I'm really sorry. I just didn't know you had an identical twin, and it just took me by surprise."

"Yeah, Lorena, I'm really sorry too." Evan echoed.

The two twins looked at one another. "Well, they caught on better than the others," Lorena, the purple dress, shrugged. "Should we give them another chance?"

Lily, who had been frowning, suddenly smiled a little sneakily. "Sure, why not?" She looked over at Pietro and gave him a sweet smile. His heart melted and he smiled back. "Let's do the thing properly and switch corsages, shall we?"

"Okay," Pietro said breathlessly. He and Evan actually exchanged goofy grins as they switched Lily and Lorena's corsages. Both were so happy that their date had forgiven them that they forgot they were enemies.

"That's better," Lily sighed when her proper corsage was on her wrist.

"Yeah," said Lorena. She pouted slightly at Evan, her eyes slanted up at him cunningly. "But you better be able to tell me apart from Lily now, right?"

"Oh, of course!" Evan said quickly.

"Good." She put her arm around Evan and leaned against him, making him feel like a million dollars.

"And you?" Lily asked Pietro.

"Never again," Pietro vowed, staring into her exotic eyes in anticipation.

"All right, I forgive you." Lily leaned against Pietro's shoulder as well. Breathing in the scent of her sweet perfume, Pietro grinned in the dark. This night would be amazing and unforgettable! Little did he know...
* * *
"Mmmm, Lance baby, I want you, I want you."

Todd recoiled in disgust in the backseat. Lance was driving up front with a drunken Casey Miller practically sitting on top of him. "Casey, I'm trying to drive!" The dark-haired senior sounded pissed and annoyed. The stupid blonde was practically raping him.

When Lance and Todd had picked her up, the girl had been pretty wasted already. Why she chose to be picked up like that, Todd had no clue. But it was disgusting to hear her up front. Todd stared out the window, trying to ignore the moans and smacking.

"Ahh," Lance swerved into the wrong lane, as Casey roughly rubbed up against him. "Casey! Not now!" He snapped, shoving her onto her own side of the seat.

She looked wounded. "Why don't you want me, Lance? I'm not good enough for you?" She said, tears starting to form in her light blue eyes.

Lance looked at her in annoyance. "You're totally wasted, Casey. I'm really not in the mood for that."

"Well, you treated me so badly lately. I was just really depressed! Why are you so mean to me?" Casey started to cry.

Todd grimaced. This wasn't the first time he'd seen Casey drunk. She always got so emotional like that. Despite her being really hot, she never had a lot of boyfriends, except the kind that used her. He felt sorry for her in that respect, but she was usually the one that took the initiative in that matter. As a result, she was always in an emotional swing, since most guys dumped her shortly after. However, it was hard to feel sympathetic when she was getting all smoochy on Lance with Todd in the backseat. Honestly, couldn't they do that in private? Alone?

In the driver's seat, Lance sighed, as he tried to curb his patience. "Casey, I'm sorry. Just, you're always wasted before we do something. Can't you just, once, stay sober?"

"But then I feel bad," Casey sobbed.

"Yeah, well, maybe you should get some help then." Lance said. He was sick of putting up with Casey. Sick of her coming onto him like this all the time. Every time they got personal, she was always drunk. Sure, he wasn't really interested in her, but when Lance was with a girl, he wanted her to want him when she was sober. Otherwise, he never knew it was real.

It was his own fault. He kept going for girls like Casey because their love just sort of poured onto him. And that was what he needed. Someone to just unconditionally do that for him. Despite it having been months ago, Rogue was constantly on his mind, and other girls helped fill the void. Temporarily at least.

"You know," Casey said. "You think you can just treat me like I'm expend, expend-,"

"Expendable?" Lance offered.

"Whatever. Like I'm expechable. Well, I'm not. If you, if you keep treating me like this. I'll find a guy who can treat me right!" Casey sounded very upset.

Lance sighed. He knew he should feel bad for Casey, but he just had too much stuff on his mind right now. He just said, "you do that, Casey. You do that."
* * *
The Xavier Mansion was quiet, as most of its occupants were gone. Scott, Jean, and Kurt had gone out with their group to a fancy restaurant two hours ago. Evan had just gotten picked up by his date a little while ago. Mr. Logan was out somewhere. Probably doing some lone-wolf thing again. Kitty started at her reflection in the mirror. It was just her and Rogue now. Rogue's date was going to pick them up, along with Jessi and Brandon, two of Rogue's friends. Professor Xavier and Storm were both in their studies, obviously doing important, intellectual things...on a Saturday night. But who was she to judge? Most of her Friday and Saturday nights were spent reading a novel or doing extra credit homework, unless they had a mission.

Kitty turned sideways and studied her body. Flat as a board. She heaved a sigh. She was wearing her pink dress with the flowers. It was cute, besides the fact that it made her look ten. Her hair was curled and put in an updo. She also had a little beaded purse to go with her outfit.

The truth was, she liked her dress, hair, and purse. Kitty liked cute, girly clothes. They were her style. But it seemed so babyish when she stacked herself next to Charlotte Russell, Riley (Chicago version of Charlotte), or even Jean. She just really wanted to be sleek and cool like them. But like that would ever happen. "I'm just a nerdy freshman." Kitty said aloud. Of course, Charlotte was a freshman, although for her, it obviously didn't matter. She sighed again.

The bedroom door suddenly slammed open and Rogue stormed into the room. When she saw Kitty standing in front of the full-length mirror, she scowled. "Ya ready yet?"

"Um, yeah, like why? It Matt here?" Kitty eyed the angry girl in front of her warily.

"No," Rogue huffed. "And ya can just take yer sweet time cause he's gonna be late!"

"He called you?"

"No, AH called HIM after we were waitin' for thirty minutes straight. He thought the dance started an hour later." She rolled her eyes. "Moron."

"Oh," Kitty said. She watched her roommate stomp about the room, muttering to herself.

"Ya know, Lance never treated me lak this, even if he could be a jerk sometimes," Rogue muttered. She snagged the end of her dress on an uplifted part of the carpet and started cursing.

"Um, Lance?" Kitty asked. Lance Alvers? Also known as Avalaunche?" When did she ever go out with him?

"What?" Rogue asked, distracted. She was examining the hem of her dress, which was now torn.

"Uh, nothing." Kitty said quickly. She definitely did not feel like pestering the brown-haired girl right now. Besides, if her and Lance did have a past, it would probably be better to just not mention it.

But, geez! That guy sure got a lot of girls, despite being an outcast and delinquent. He was only here several months, and he'd gone out with Anne Lupin, Jamie Anderson, Leslie Gellar, Angela Watson, Sheri Kinkle, and now Casey Miller. Granted, they were all sluts, and that Leslie Gellar was a cheerleader. Kitty wrinkled her nose. Well, it was so typical a guy like him would - wait! Kitty stopped. Why was she thinking about Lance's love life? That was obviously none of her business and interest. "Eww, I can't believe I devoted my brain cells to that jerk for five minutes," she said aloud.

"What?" Rogue looked up at her. She was sitting on the bed, trying to pin together the two ripped sections.

"Oh, just, like talking to myself." Kitty forced herself to giggle as she turned to face Rogue.

The brown-haired girl roller her eyes. "Ditz."

"Um, gee. Thanks." Kitty said sarcastically.

"Your welcome." Rogue answered unfeelingly. She held up the two torn ends of her dress. "Help me pin those together."

Kitty sighed. She could say no, but then Rogue would just get meaner and angrier and then bully her into submission. Resigned, she helped Rogue pin together the ends of her dress. "So, like, when's Matt gonna pick up up?"

"Ah don't know." Rogue snapped. "He said he's comin' now. So probably a couple more hours later." She sighed angrily. "Ah don't know why Ah decided to go with that idiot. Just, if HE was gonna take a date, Ah figured Ah better have one too."

"Who's he?" Kitty asked, although she had a hunch she knew who it was.

Rogue's head shot up as she stared at Kitty sharply. The freshman had an innocent, barely curious look on her face. Should she tell her? It would be nice to finally get it out in the open. But no, the little freshmen would probably laugh. Since when did a tough girl like Rogue let HIM turn her into a lovesick fool? She sighed. "Just some old boyfriend that Ah thought cared about me," she said. "No one ya know."