Chapter 2- Hanging the Snow
How Rogue had gotten herself sucked into decorating the cafeteria for the dance, she didn’t know. One minute, a girl was shoving a pink sheet of paper- and boom! She was cutting out snowflakes with five other girls from the endless piles of paper…
"Wow! Those are nice!" came a voice from behind her. She looked up and saw the same paper-shoving girl, smiling over her shoulder.
"Yeah." Rogue wasn’t feeling especially talkative- hanging out with all these kids that she didn’t know was putting her on the edge. The girl smiled, and thankfully got the drift.
"Well, I’ll just scoot, there is so much to do and- My god Lance! What the heck are you doing?" Rogue looked back down at her cutting. Another thing she wanted to avoid- the stray Brother that had also apparently gotten roped into decorating.
"Jeez, Lita! Give me a break! You wanted help, here it is!" Rogue hoped against hope that Lance would ignore her, which was preferable to the usual ‘quitting the brotherhood’ crap she usually got from him and the rest.
"You are hanging the snowflakes crooked!" Lita insisted, shoving her clipboard at him and climbing his vacated ladder.
"Am not! Ro- Marie is cutting them crooked!" Rogue almost missed her name, she was so used to being called Rogue by her friends.
"Marie," Lita said testily "Is doing beautifully. Shut up and hand me the tape." Lance sighed and rolled his eyes as if to say ‘Yes, you Highness.’ Rogue almost laughed.
*
"Erg!" Kitty exclaimed for the fifth time- or sixth? she wasn’t sure. Once again she’d failed to save the mannequin from the middle of the Danger Room. Logan and Professor X had made yet another up-grade to the system. And just when I was getting the hang of the last one! Although her powers helped, she couldn’t concentrate to faze through blades, ropes, explosions, lasers, and what else? She’d forgotten. Logan motioned her back up to the observation deck, and Kurt took her place. Of course, with two pops, he was to the mannequin, and back.
"Erg!" Kitty threw down her towel. "If you’ve got to be a mutant, why can’t you have a good power! Crap!" She marched to the elevation and escaped the Observation Deck and Logan, Evan and Kurt’s astonished looks. As she descended, she banged her head against the elevator wall. They must think I’m such a baby! She was furious. Why can’t my powers be any good? She blinked her eyes to stave off the tears that were coming. It had been a bad and long morning- and being cooped up with The Guys made it worst.
She heard the familiar Fip! of Kurt’s arrival. "Go away Kurt." She muttered. "Tell Logan that no amount of pleading on your part is going to get me back up there. Four straight hours in the Danger Room is enough, thank you." The elevator pinged, and the doors opened.
"Okay, Keety." Kurt said, surprised "Actually, I thought I would take a break too." Kitty snickered ironically as they exited and started to walk down the hall.
"Yeah, from what, Elf-boy? Being perfect? At least your powers aren’t junk." Kitty ripped out her sloppy ponytail and started to re-make it.
"Keety, your powers are good too!" Kitty sniffed dejectedly. She didn’t comment, she was to busy chanting to herself: Don’t cry, don’t cry, not in front of Kurt, don’t cry, don’t cry…
They walked in silence, until Kitty reached her room-the Professor finally let her have her own (though she wouldn’t admit it, she missed Rogue’s companionship) when Kurt made a final attempt.
"You know Keety, if you ever need to talk, I’m usually not busy." Kurt gave her a warm smile. Kitty managed a pitiful "Thanks, Kurt." before dodging into her room. She could relate to Scott’s recent habits as she cranked the volume on her CD player, gazing off into the falling snow.
*
"You know, Dan," Lance suggested to a fellow slave to Lita. "If you want to sneak out, I’ll cause a distraction. Just as long as you come back to rescue me." Dan chuckled, and Lance noticed he glanced over to were Rogue (or Marie, to the rest of the school) sat, and shook his head.
"Naw, Lita’s my half-sister. She’d know where to look, and then she’d drag me back here." Lance, clapped him on the shoulder and groaned knowingly. He’d once had a sister too…
"If y’all don’t hurry up with that hanging, me an the girls are gonna drown in snowflakes." Rogue yell across the cafeteria. Lance made a rude gesture, and she returned it, grinning.
Just then, Duncan and the rest of the football team (who Kitty and Rogue secretly called his entourage) arrived. The reason they had come was unknown, perhaps they were also roped into helping by the demanding Lita. Whatever the reason, they forgot as soon as they saw their long-time enemy: Lance.
"Well, well, well. If it isn’t Wet-pants Lance." A burly footballer growled. Duncan and the rest chuckled meanly. Lance, Rogue noticed, went a little pale at the prospect of standing up to the whole Football team- alone. Rogue felt a little sorry from him, and started to edge her boxes upon boxes of snowflakes away from the scene, there was no way she was letting her three hours of work get ripped up in a school-boy brawl.
"Is that all you could come up with? Jeez man! How did you make it out of the seventh grade?" Rogue had to suppress a snicker. She didn’t want to get into this.
"You want to say that again, punk?" the burly footballer advanced menacingly. Duncan and the rest grinned and chuckled their support. Lance looked around nervously. He caught Rogue’s eye. Was he asking for help? Rogue was at a momentary loss.
Stealthily, she crept out of the cafeteria. Positioning herself near the door of the girl’s bathroom. She could still hear Duncan and the others from across the hall. She only hesitated a moment more, before opening her mouth and screaming.
As the sound of thundering shoes came towards the door she ducked into the girls bathroom. From there, she could hear the confused and befuddled voices of the football team. And once they had given up, their angered rumblings as they found Lance gone.
Five minutes later, she sneaked back into the cafeteria, to see Lita pulling Lance in the side door by his arm.
"Thought you could skip out, huh? Nice try. You’re the only one tall enough to hang the snowflakes!" Lita was obviously oblivious to the recent events.
"Oh yeah," said Lance, looking at Rogue and trying not to laugh at Lita. "You sure caught me." Lita made disgusted noises and went to inspect the balloon hangings.
Rogue meandered over to Lance. "Seems ta me, it was a miracle they even passed sixth grade." Lance snorted. They both stood in an awkward silence.
"Hey, a, Marie, thanks for all that, you know." Rogue nodded knowingly.
"Us weirdo’s got to look out for each other." He nodded also, looking at her.
"No kidding