Chapter 7- Happily Ever After
"And here’s the last song for tonight." The DJ announced, and the final slow song started to play throughout the gym. The couples all got together with their dates for this one last dance.
At a corner table, Pietro Maximoff and Evan Daniels watched the dancing couples with identical, sulking expressions. Their eyes were particularly glued to Lila and Lorena Kim, who had mysteriously reappeared after storming away from them several hours before, with a new date attached to each of their arms.
Evan recognized Lorena’s new date. He was a dark-haired football jock that hung out with Duncan a lot. Coincidentally, the jock had a twin, and this other twin was dancing with Lila. And I’m stuck here with my worst enemy, sitting on the sidelines like a loser, Evan thought moodily.
He frowned over in Pietro’s direction. The white-haired boy caught his glare and scowled back. "What’re you looking at, Daniels?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to admire your ugly face, that’s all."
"If you want to look at something ugly, look in the mirror." Pietro answered. Despite the harsh words, there was no venom in either of their voices. Both were too traumatized from the loss of their dates to truly be passionate against one another.
Evan sighed again and stared down at the floor. All he’d wanted was a nice evening out with Lorena, then a nice long drive afterwards. He knew this great, secluded part of the road that one of his friends had clued him in on. But noooo, Pietro just had to ruin everything for him.
Meanwhile, the speedster scowled down at the floor and thought of the plans he’d had for tonight. It should have been the perfect evening with Lila. He would woo the girl with his charm at the dance and enjoy a wonderful night afterwards. With another scowl, he remembered the cherry condom he’d bought earlier that day. I should have just bought a pack of gum, not like it’s any use now…I wonder if they do refunds. It didn’t occur to Pietro that Lila wouldn’t have been interested in sleeping with the speed demon, had they stayed together or not.
No, both were too angry and upset. Evan started to pull up his sleeve to check the time, when he remembered that he didn’t have the watch. "Hey Pietro, you got a watch?"
"No, I never carry one. There’s one on the wall behind you, moron." Pietro’s voice sounded strangely dead, like a deflated balloon.
Evan turned around to stare at the clock up behind him. He turned back to glare in Lila and Lorena’s general direction, then to Pietro (who was staring pathetically at Lila), and then finally to the DJ, who was playing some horribly mushy pop trash that constituted as music. Stupid, ugly N*Sync. They’re too ugly to get the girls! Evan glared at the speakers, as though imagining it to be Justin Timberlake himself. I hate this song…
* * *
The last song finally ended and the couples on the dance floor broke apart reluctantly. Freddy and Cindy slowly let go and smiled at one another. It had been the best night of his life, like a fairy tale. When Cindy looked up and smiled at him, he decided that she felt the same way.
In another corner of the gym, Lance and Rogue still swayed on the spot with their arms wound tightly around each other. "Mmm, this is a comfortable position," Rogue murmured in Lance’s ear. She could fall asleep against him as of now and they could just hold each other in the darkness forever.
"Yeah," Lance whispered back. He looked around as the lights started to come back on. Reluctantly, he loosened his grip around her and the two pulled apart. It was times like this when he wished that their past, their powers, themselves, would just disappear. The moment could be as perfect as it was now. Just unrestricted love without the obstacles of past pain and future misery.
But it had lasted for a moment, anyway. Lance took Rogue’s gloved hand and they walked to an emptier part of the gym where they could wait for the others. Rogue brushed a hair from her face, before looking up at him. "Ah definitely think we need ta start talking more often." She smiled up at him, and there was a slight glimmer in her eyes. "We-," she didn’t finish as she suddenly hugged him. Lance squeezed her back, then kissed the top of her head. Even though she hadn’t finished what she had meant to say, he knew what she had been planning to say. They had something special. He knew that.
* * *
Todd and Kitty were heading back towards the gym, hand in hand, when they were assaulted by a rather disheveled-looking Scott. "Aha! There you are!" He cried.
Kitty squinted up suspiciously at his face. What the heck was all over his cheeks and lips? Lipstick? Ohh… she couldn’t stifle a giggle. She’d never seen preppy-boy Scott like this before.
Apparently, Todd was thinking along the same lines. "Yo, what’s up with the drag queen look?"
"Huh?" Scott seemed completely clueless as to what they were talking about. "You two! Are not! Together! You hear me?! You will NOT go out! I am the team leader, Kitty, and I say that you will not go out with Todd-, YEOW!" Boom!
Both younger teenagers watched in shock as Scott’s pants fell down. "Uh…" The older boy turned scarlet. He looked down at his fallen pants, then back to the couple, then back to his pants. "Uh, gotta go." He pulled his pants back up and raced away.
Kitty and Todd stared as Scott ran off. There was a sudden bamf behind them and Kurt appeared with a blond girl that neither had ever seen before. "You see that, yo?" Todd asked uncertainly. "Summer’s pants came down."
"Uh yeah, I know." Kurt looked over at the blond girl, who just laughed. "I told you not to do it to him!"
"Oh, relax Blue. He doesn’t know it was us. Besides, we were just helping those two out."
"Still, if Scott finds out, he’ll-,"
"Don’t worry, Blue, he won’t. Besides, I wanted to see what he wore underneath. Boxers say a lot about a man’s personality."
Kitty and Todd exchanged glances. "Get away from me, yo!" Todd quickly backed off, holding tightly onto his pants.
The blond girl just laughed. "Don’t worry, I won’t do it to you. But for now, there’s a couple jocks I want to embarrass. Come on, Blue, let’s do it before everyone leaves."
Kurt bamfed away with the blond girl.
Todd and Kitty looked at the spot of Kurt and Tabitha’s departure. "Um, that was, like, weird." Kitty finally said.
"Yeah, you know the blond chick?"
She shook her head. "Never seen her before."
"I really can’t see Jean doing that to Scott. The whole kissing thing."
"Me neither."
Both stared in perplexed wonderment.
Finally, Todd started to snicker and Kitty began giggling. "Man, I never thought Tough-Guy Summers would be the one to wear tighty-whities, yo."
* * *
After everyone settled down some (and found their pants), they all gathered in the corner of the gym where Lance and Rogue were waiting. Lance raised his eyebrows. Todd was coming in with Kitty Pryde, of all people. Jean was holding on to Scott, who was looking oddly flustered for some strange reason. He kept pulling at his pants. Kurt came bamfing in from behind them with a flirty looking blond girl next to him. Fred came walking up with Cindy. Someone was missing. "Hey, where’s Pietro and Evan?"
Everyone looked around. "Um, no idea." Todd said nonchalantly.
Kitty spotted the two sitting at a table. "Hey, they’re over there."
The X-Men and Brotherhood approached the table that Pietro and Evan were sitting at. Neither boy looked up as their friends approached. "Uh, Pietro?" Lance prodded his friend.
Meanwhile, Jean said to Evan, "Evan? You okay?"
Neither boy answered, though their faces became increasingly more mutinous. "Hey, what’s the big pout, ya weirdos. Yer dates dump ya or somethin’?" Rogue laughed.
Pietro and Evan both looked up and glared at her. She stopped laughing as she realized what must have happened. "Oh, Ah’m sorry."
"They got different dates," Pietro grumbled, staring at the ground.
"Aww," Everyone tried hard to stifle a laugh. The two looked so funny, with the identical pouts on their faces.
"Hey, who wants to go midnight bowling?" A voice called out from the back. Everyone turned to see the blond girl that was standing with Kurt.
"Do we know you?" Kitty asked skeptically.
"I’m Tabby. I just moved into the Institute." She explained.
There was a murmur of ‘ahh’s’ and ‘oh’s.’
"Sure, why not." Fred said finally. There was a chorus of assents. Lance nudged Pietro. "You two want to come."
"I was dumped." Pietro said slowly. "I’m NEVER dumped."
"Yeah, well you wouldn’t know cuz you never went out, did you?" Evan muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
"Evan!" Jean chided.
"It’s true." Evan mumbled, looking very much like a scolded child.
"At least I could score with a girl if I really wanted to. You probably never even learned about the birds and the bees because you’re so deprived." Pietro snapped back. He sat up and some of his fighting power seemed to come back into his voice.
"Hey, guys, calm down." Lance couldn’t believe he was playing mediator between the two. Above their heads, Jean rolled his eyes, and for a moment, they shared a bond in playing the older brother/sister to their rather immature pseudo-siblings.
"Why don’t you, like, go bowling? It’ll make you guys feel better." Kitty piped up. Pietro and Evan merely stared at her. She shrugged. "You know, you can take your aggression out on the balls. Imagine the pins are your enemies and you’re swinging a ten-pound ball at them. It’ll make you feel totally better."
Pietro and Evan stared at her some more, as well as the rest of the Brotherhood and X-Men. Finally, Evan shrugged. "Okay."
* * *
Later that night, Scott and Lance were tied at 160 with Jean and Rogue cheering them on respectively. Kurt and Tabby had bowled for a while, but had gone off to try and sneak into the bar, much to Scott’s disapproval. Freddy, Cindy, Evan, and Pietro were at another lane.
"Haha! Gutter ball, you’re such a pathetic loser, Daniels!"
"Yeah, well at least my score isn’t 30!"
"I’m not used to bowling shoes. It clashes too horribly with my outfit."
"Sure Maximoff."
Cindy, who had been leaning against Fred, rolled her eyes. "Do they always fight like this?"
"Always." Freddy assured her.
Meanwhile, Kitty and Todd sat watching the others play from the tables. Both had stopped bowling after a while and were sharing some fries instead. "Wow, look at Scott, he looks pretty mad." Kitty commented as Lance ended up winning the final game.
"I think it’s good for him," Todd said philosophically. "You can’t win everything, yo."
"True." Kitty laughed. She smiled at him. "I’m really glad we-, we, like, found each other, Todd."
"Yeah," he smiled back. "Me too."
They both smiled again and reached for each other’s hands. They scooted closer to each other. "You know-," Todd started.
"I think-," Kitty began.
"YOWZA!"
"OW!"
The two were interrupted by the high-pitched screams of Pietro and Evan. Apparently, Tabby had gotten a little bit ticked off at their annoying fighting, and had dropped a mini-bomb down both of their pants. There were screams and curses down below and before long, everyone was fighting.
"Duck!" Todd cried as some miscellaneous object (on closer inspection, someone’s rather smelly bowling shoe) came flying their way.
Both teenagers ducked under the table. "Um, like we were saying!" Kitty cried.
"Let’s continue our conversation outside, huh?" Todd suggested.
"Hey guys, get down here!" Someone, probably Lance, was shouting up to them.
"Um, don’t think so." Todd whispered. He grabbed Kitty’s hand. "Yo, we better run for it. They’re all gonna come after us."
"Yeah, we can leave in Scott’s car, but I don’t have the keys."
Todd thought. "It’s okay. I know how to hotwire."
"You do?" Kitty seemed impressed. "You better teach me."
"All right." The two teens prepared to run.
"Hey, any idea where you want to go?"
Kitty grinned. "Well, I heard Evan, like, talking about this great spot on the side of the road that’s very secluded. You game?"
Todd grinned back. "If you are."
"Then let’s go!"
And they jumped up from underneath the table and ran outside.