Worms
Jean edged quietly to the corner of the hallway and peeked around it. The coast was clear. She took each step carefully, leaving little footprint puddles behind her. The squelching noise of her soaked shoes sounded very loud in the silent mansion. She paused to kick them off her feet. She left them in the hallway, continuing on in silent, damp socks.
Behind her, in a straight line about five feet off the ground, floated about two thousand earthworms.
She had made it to the main entranceway without being seen by anybody. She wanted to do a mindscan, but she was afraid that she would loose her concentration and the worms would drop to the floor. She would just have to rely on her hearing. If anybody caught her, she would have a very hard time explaining this unusual situation. Sure, she would understand why she was doing it, but she wasn't really sure anybody else would. Maybe Orroro, she thought.
So why was she doing it? Because it was April and it was pouring outside today. The rains saturated the soil with water, driving all of the worms out of their homes for fear of suffocation. They gathered in masses on the wet grass awaiting their fate. They would either drown or bake in the hot sun when it finally came out.
How sad, Jean thought with a small frown.
But they're just worms, Jean! She told herself. Think about how many hundreds of thousands of them are drowning right now. You can't save all of them, you can't do this every single time it rains or snows! No, she thought to herself as she took a quick peek back at her entourage, that would be crazy.
If anybody saw her, they would think she was trying to play some kind of practical joke. It would probably be easier to just admit to that then to explain what she was really doing. Where am I going to put these? She bit her bottom lip. She really hadn't thought this thing through all the way.
When she was younger, and her tk was less developed, she would struggle with a line of fifty worms. They would easily fit into Orroro's garden upstairs in the attic. But two thousand? No, that was too many.
And just how long was she planning on keeping them there? It was supposed to stop raining later today, but what if it didn't? And what if it did stop raining so she put them back and it rained the next day! Any way she looked at it almost every possibility spelled out the same thing. The worms were doomed.
But somehow, some of them always managed to survive. There were always worms around. So they couldn't all die when it rained, Jean reasoned as she began to climb the stairs carefully.
"So, I was like, 'what, are you like kidding me or something!'"
Jean whipped her head around. Kitty! Kitty had phased through a wall and was now sitting at the top of the stairs, portable telephone in hand. Luckily she was too engrossed in her conversation to have noticed Jean at the bottom of the stairs.
"I swear, man, it was seven feet long!" came a voice behind her.
She instantly levitated to the very top of the ceiling, she and the worms. Evan and Kurt had just walked in the front door.
"Ja, right! What kind of shark was it again?" Kurt asked as he rolled his eyes.
"I'm not joking, dude! It was a tiger shark. They're killers! Even more dangerous than Great Whites!" Evan said in a firm voice.
Meanwhile, twenty feet above them, Jean held her breath, praying that nobody would look up. Should I move? Should I try and make it upstairs, out of the room? She wondered. No, she decided, the slightest movement might cause them to look up. She would just wait it out. Hopefully Kitty's phone conversation would end soon and the boys would leave to go find something more exciting to do.
"Hey, Kurt, check this out, dude!" Evan took off his shoes and slid across the waxed floor in his socks. He slid about ten feet until he came to a stop.
"Awesome! But I bet I can go farther!" Kurt challenged as he took off his shoes.
Jean groaned. They are so easily amused, she thought to herself with a frown. Those morons could be there for hours! And Kitty didn't look like she was about to stop anytime soon.
"Like, oh my God! I can't believe he really said that! What did Heather say? Was she mad, did she slap him?"
Jean was getting very anxious. I can do this, she thought to herself with determination. I am an X man! I can keep these worms floating!
Rogue stomped into the entranceway right past the goofs sliding across the floor.
"Outta my way, morons!" Rogue shouted at them as Evan went sliding past.
"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" Kurt shouted in delight as he slid across the floor.
Rogue leapt up the stairs two at a time to reach Kitty. "Kitty! Get off the phone!" Rogue shouted.
Kitty frowned and stood up. She turned her back to Rogue. "Oh, nothing. Just ignore her. She's just jealous that I have a social life but she doesn't." giggle, giggle. Pause. "Like, for sure!"
"Bahhhh!" Rogue shouted and threw up her arms in disgust. "You've been on the phone for two hours! Get off! It's mah turn to use it!"
Kitty put her hand over the mouthpiece and stuck her tongue out at Rogue. "Like, chill out. I'll only be a few more minutes."
"Chill out, I'll only be a few more minutes," Rogue mocked.
Jean almost laughed out loud. She tightened her hold on the worms and tried to regain her composure.
Rogue sat down on the top step, mumbling something about decapitating Kitty's stuffed dragon toy.
Kitty rolled her eyes and turned her back to Rogue, resuming her phone call. "Sorry, so, what were you saying?"
Then it happened.
She didn't mean to, she was trying so hard, but two thousand worms are a lot of worms and one was able to wriggle through. It fell from the ceiling and landed perfectly on Kitty's head. Jean bit her tongue. She was almost choking with laughter.
Kitty absently brushed a hand over her hair. She screamed a piercing scream and dropped the phone like a red-hot poker. She rubbed her head and danced around. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!"
Kurt and Evan ran up the stairs to see what all the fuss was about.
"What's wrong?!" Rogue asked as she watched Kitty dance around, arms flailing.
"A worm! A worm! You threw a worm at me!" Kitty accused as she finally stopped dancing around and glared at Rogue.
Kurt and Evan snickered.
Rogue looked at her like she was crazy. "What are you talking about?"
"You wanted me off the phone so you threw a worm at me! There was a worm in my hair!" Kitty pointed down to the worm wiggling on the red carpet.
"Kitty, I did not," Rogue rolled her eyes and picked up the worm.
"Ewwwwwwww!" Kitty backed up. "Keep that thing away from me!" she pointed at Rogue's hand.
Rogue exchanged a wicked glance with the boys.
Above them, Jean considered dropping the two thousand worms on all of them. That would be hilarious! She thought with a big grin.
Rogue held the worm out and walked toward Kitty.
Kitty started shrieking. Evan and Kurt were doubled over, clutching their stomachs laughing.
"What's going on?" Scott came running into the room.
"Rogue threw a worm at me!" Kitty accused as she hid behind Scott.
"What?" Scott turned his head around and looked at Kitty.
"She threw a worm at my head!"
"Ah did not ya big sissy!" Rogue said as she closed her hand around the worm.
Scott sighed and shook his head. He paused.
Crap, Jean thought to herself as she smiled. Even though he was wearing the glasses, Jean just knew that he was looking at her.
"Jean?! What the fuck?!" He was looking right at her.
Everybody looked up.
Kitty screamed again. A sharp, sudden, piercing scream.
"Ahhhhhh!" Jean lost her concentration and fell from the ceiling, two thousand worms following after her.
Jean fell on the floor with a loud thump. The worms covered all six if them. Kitty was freaking out. She pushed and tried to climb on top of Scott's back. Kurt slipped and fell on top of Evan, they were both buried under the pile of worms. Rogue furiously shook out her hair, pushing them away from her head and face.
Jean popped her head up out of the pile, "Hi guys," she said with a sheepish shrug.
Scott stared at her, speechless. I mean, what do you say when two thousand worms drop on top of you?
Kitty was in hysterics, sobbing and speaking gibberish.
"What the fuck!" Rogue shouted as she made her way out of the pile and began picking worms out of her clothes.
Evan and Kurt were laughing again, rolling around in the worms, throwing them at each other.
Kitty had freed herself of the pile and was now dancing around again, crying and shaking her fists.
"Come on, let's get cleaned up," Rogue sighed as she dragged Kitty away by the arm.
Evan picked up a handful of worms and rushed after Kurt. Kurt dogged and ***BAMF*** he was outside in the rain. He picked up a handful of mud and smiled.
"Oh, you're on, man!" Evan shouted as he raced down the stairs to go join Kurt in a mud fight.
That just left Scott, Jean and two thousand earthworms.
Scott stared at her.
"What?" She asked nonchalantly.
He kept staring.
"Well I couldn't just let them die, could I?" Jean defended herself as she stood.
Scott's stern face broke out into a grin. "No, I guess not," he shook his head and laughed softly. "You are really something else, Red," he said to her as he stood up.
"What is that supposed to mean," Jean asked as she concentrated on levitating the worms again.
"Nothing," he chuckled to himself as he began to walk down the stairs.
"Where are you going?" She called after him.
"Getting some lunch, you want anything?"
"Sure, can you make me a sandwich? Turkey--"
"-- on wheat bread with Swiss cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, pickles and Doritos on the side. And to drink…raspberry ice tea," Scott said without turning around.
Jean quirked an eyebrow. "Very good, Mr. Summers. But do you know what I want for dessert?" she asked with a laugh.
"Two chocolate chip cookies, warmed in the toaster for a few seconds," he turned and looked up at her from the bottom of the stairs.
She smiled down at him, "My, my, am I that predictable?"
Scott pointed to the worms levitating at her side, "You can be pretty erratic at times," he said in a dry voice.
"What am I supposed to do with these, by the way?"
"What do you mean?
"Well I can't bring them outside! They'll die," Jean said, hands at her hips.
Scott rubbed his chin and looked thoughtfully at her. "Hmm, good point. Have you tried the boy's bathroom? I heard that the bathtub was a wonderful place to hold earthworms," he said with a smile as he turned and headed back toward the kitchen.
"Oh really, and where did you hear that?" she asked with a small smile.
Scott waved his hand absently, "Around."
Jean made her way upstairs and was not at all surprised to find the bathtub in the boy's bathroom already half full of pink, wriggling earthworms. She smiled and shook her head as she deposited her worms in the tub.
"Scott Summers, you weirdo," she said with a laugh as she headed back for the stairs to join her best friend for some warm chocolate chip cookies.