Living the X-ceptional Life: An X-men Anthology
The scent of the freshly brewed coffee opened Ororo's eyes as she entered the kitchen. She gazed around the round table and found that her six students were joined in morning conversation as they ate breakfast. Ororo walked towards the fresh pitcher of brewed coffee and poured some into a mug. Before sipping the brown liquid, she allowed its rich scent to fill her nostrils.
"So, are you feeling better, Auntie O?" asked Evan from the table. Ororo nodded at her nephew and took another sip of coffee. "Good, I guess that means our weekend getaway is still a go."
Ororo nodded as a smile came across her face. All the children had been excited about this weekend. Ororo was supposed to take the teens to Panama and join Professor Xavier and Logan, whom were already there attending a conference on mutant relations. While the adults attended to business, the kids were planning having some fun on the beach and around town.
"Yes, Evan. We'll be leaving as soon as you all get back from school. I'm certain that you all have already taken the liberty of packing?" asked Ororo.
"You bet, Storm," said Kurt. "Ve even packed your bags, and put took them into the hall."
"How thoughtful," said Ororo as she smiled at Kurt. "Well, you children had better hurry, or you'll be late for school." With the last warning, each of the students got up from the table and grabbed the bags. Some of the guys even grabbed a few extra slices of toast, which they shoved into their mouths as they exited the door.
Ororo shook her head at the sight of the kids bustling through the door. She turned her attention back to the breakfast table and the mess left behind. "Kids," Ororo said to herself. Ororo walked over to the table and began to clean it off. She grabbed the kids' plates and hauled them over to the sink. When she walked back to the table to finish cleaning, she saw that a few globs of jam had fallen to the floor.
Ororo bent down on her knees and started to wipe of the jam with a small towel. However, her attention was immediately diverted by something else she had seen on the floor. Ororo extended her hand and pinched the object between her thumb and index finger. She brought the object closer to her face and felt her heart sink.
"By the Goddess! No!" cried Ororo to herself. Ororo could hardly believe that she had found it. Ororo turned away and looked at the door the kids had just walked out of. Then, her gaze fell back on the object in her hand. It looked like a cigarette, but she knew that it wasn't. Both ends of the paper were wrapped tightly together. Ororo peeled some of the paper back to find green shreds of leaves inside the paper.
"Marijuana?" whispered Ororo to herself. She quickly got to her feet, unsure of what to do. Whose was it? Where did it come from? Ororo planted herself in the closest chair she could find. She looked upon the "joint" and felt her heart break. As tears began to fill her eyes, Ororo buried her face in her arms. Never ceasing to ask herself what she was going to do?
The cheers could be heard from the driveway. Then, the six teens burst through the front door full of excitement. However, their excitement seemed to cease as they noticed their bags were no longer waiting for them in the hallway. They each exchanged glances of bewilderment as they all realized what had happened.
"You don't think she loaded all of our bags into the van do you?" asked Kitty.
"I doubt it," said Scott.
"Storm, are you home?" called Rogue.
After a few moments, they heard the footsteps of Ororo's heels connecting with the wooden floor. She appeared from the library doorway with her usual bright blouse and a flowered skirt wrapped around her legs. However, the one thing that was different, which made the students know that something was wrong was the fact that Ororo was frowning. She practically never frowned.
"Is something wrong, Auntie O?" asked Evan. Ororo only nodded at the question as he continued to stare at the children. "Is it breakfast? We're really sorry, but we were running late…."
"Never mind breakfast, Evan," interrupted Ororo. "I want all of you to step into the library." Before anyone could raise a question, Ororo disappeared into the library. The other students followed her into the room with some sense of anxiety growing in each of them.
"Vat happened to our bags?" asked Kurt.
"I have taken them back up to your rooms," explained Ororo. "We're not going anywhere this weekend."
"Why not?" asked Jean.
"Because of this," snapped Ororo as she produced the joint. All of the teens gasped at the sight of it. They even turned to look at each other to see who wasn't surprised. "I want to know who this belongs to, and I want to know now." All of the students remained quiet as they merely exchanged looks with one another. Waiting for someone to confess.
"Very well," said Ororo. "You will all remain in this room, until the owner chooses to come forth and confess." Ororo walked towards the door. When she reached it, she turned and looked at the six students one last time. Then, the door shut behind her, and they all heard the click of the lock on the door.
The teens were scattered throughout the library, and merely sat in silence. Occasionally, they would gaze up and stare at each other, but no words seemed to escape the mouths for almost an hour. The only sounds were the sounds of knuckles cracking, deep sighs and chairs creaking.
"Man, I am so sick of this!" cried Evan. He got up from his chair and stormed towards one of the bookshelves. Then, he turned and faced his peers. Anger was clearly displayed on his face. "Why don’t you save us the grief and confess, Rogue!"
Rogue’s mouth dropped open at the accusation. She immediately jumped to her feet and stormed over to Evan. "Me?! I didn’t do it!"
"Yeah, right. Like anyone’s going to believe that!" that countered Evan. "I mean look at yourself. It’s obvious to everyone that that the joint was yours."
"Oh you’re one to talk," said Rogue. "You think the joint was mine because I dress a certain way! How do we know that the joint wasn’t not yours?!"
"Why would it be mine?" asked Evan, his voice sounding agitated after the accusation.
"Well, you’re the one caught up on appearances," said Rogue. "And let’s just say that the media makes it look like members of your culture are most likely to do drugs."
"Are you saying it’s mine because I’m black!" Evan roared. "Everyone here knows me! They know I wouldn’t do anything like this. But I doubt anyone could put it past some street punk like!"
"Hey knock it off you two!" said Scott. He was now standing between Evan and Rogue, who appeared to be about to come to blows. "Listen, we’re not going to solve anything at this rate!"
"Back off, Summers!" said Evan as he pushed Scott’s arm away from his chest. "Everyone knows the joint wasn’t yours!"
"What’s that supposed to mean?" asked Scott.
"It means that there’s no way Mr. Goody-two Shoes, X-Man is going to do anything wrong," answered Rogue. "The only reason you and Jean are in here is probably to make sure the rest of us don’t kill each other."
"You two don’t believe the joint was mine at all?" asked Scott. Scott turned to face the others. "Does anyone believe its mine?" Everyone began to shake their heads confirming his innocence. "I don’t believe this!"
"Calm down, Scott," said Jean. "At least the suspects are narrowed down."
"Suspects?" said Scott. "Jean, they don’t believe that we’re capable of doing any wrong. They don’t see us as equals."
"All right, let’s settle this," said Evan, annoyed by Scott’s disbelief that he wasn’t a suspect, "Scott, is the joint yours?"
"No, but…" began Scott.
"I rest my case," said Evan. He then walked back towards the bookshelf he had been standing next to. He cast another glance at Rogue who looked away once she caught his eyes watching her. "Well, if it wasn’t Rogue, then it had to be Kurt!"
"Me!" answered Kurt. He teleported from his seat and reappeared in a cloud of brimstone right in front of Evan. "Vhy me?!"
"Hey, everyone knows that marijuana is legal in Holland," stated Evan. "And Holland is pretty close to Germany."
"So, that doesn’t prove anything," said Kurt. "Look, the joint vasn’t mine. I promise."
"Can you prove it," said Rogue stepping closer.
"No, but neither can any of you," countered Kurt.
"Oh, come on guys. Please stop fighting!" whined Kitty. "We’re supposed to be a family. We’re not supposed to be at each other’s throats like this."
"Can it, little girl!" rounded Rogue. "For all we know, you wanted to play grown-up and that joint was yours!"
"Leave, Kitty out of this! It’s not hers!" said Kurt.
"And how do you know?!" asked Evan as he approached Kurt. "Unless you’re ready to confess."
"I told you it vasn’t mine," said Kurt. As he began to turn away, Evan grabbed his arm and wheeled him back around. "Let go of my arm."
"Once you confess," said Evan softly.
Kurt shoved Evan backwards. Evan stumbled back towards the bookshelf and caught his balance. Then, he started to launch himself towards Kurt. Kurt, saw the attack coming, and began to charge Evan as well. The two teens found themselves only a foot away from each other suspended in the air.
"Knock it off! Both of you!" shouted Jean. She had lifted them into the air with her telekinetic powers. "Would you two stop being so childish. Nothing will ever get solved as long as we’re upset."
"You’re one to talk," said Rogue. "You could have ended this after five minutes. All you had to do was read our minds, and you would have found out who the joint belonged to."
"The Professor has made it clear that I don’t use my powers like that," said Jean.
"Not unless, you’ve got that person’s consent Jean," said Rogue. "If they give you the okay, then you’re welcome to fumble through their head."
"Do you really want me in your head, Rogue?!" said Jean. She stood up and walked towards Rogue. "There’s no telling what I may find in there. Memories and secrets that you may not want to share; that you may not even know that you have. I could cause all sorts of damage unintentionally, and I’m not prepared to take that risk."
Rogue folded her arms and walked away from Jean. She sat down in her former seat, and simply stared at Jean. Jean let out a sigh of annoyance and returned to her seat. Evan and Kurt, now on the ground, turned away from each other and returned to their seats. For the next couple of hours, the students simply sat in the library continuing to stare at each other, waiting for the culprit to confess.
Around midnight, it seemed that everyone had dosed off. They had turned the lights out and decided to sleep in the library, especially since Ororo had not unlocked the door. Accusations had been cast at everyone, yet no one had yet come forward with the truth. They all slumbered with various suspicions on their minds, but one of them only felt experience.
Scott Summers could feel the warmth of the sun start to shine on his face. He reached for his glasses on the table next to the sofa. Once he placed the glasses on his eyes, he searched the library. Everyone else seemed to be still asleep. Scott looked down, and saw Kitty’s head resting on his chest. She had laid against him a cried herself to sleep after being accused by Rogue.
Scott slowly lifted her head and slid himself from underneath her. Then, he gently laid her head on the sofa, and silently tiptoed to the door. Scott tried the handle, and to his surprise, the door was unlocked. Scott turned the handle softly and stepped out of the room. After a sigh of relief, Scott made his decision. He walked all the way up to the attic, which was where Ororo would be by now.
The attic had served as a greenhouse for Ororo. She had grown and nurtured many plants in there. And she always got up at dawn to water and trim the plants. Scott opened the door and found Ororo watering a pot of lilies. However, just like yesterday, she wasn’t smiling.
"Storm," began Scott. "I came to confess. The joint was mine. I’m sorry, and I won’t let anything like this happen again. I promise."
Ororo raised her head from the blooming lilies and looked at Scott. Her eyebrow was raised as she looked at Scott. She sighed as she set the pitcher of water on one of the tables. Then, she took a few steps closer to Scott.
"That is very noble of you, Scott," said Ororo, "but you are too late."
"What?" said Scott.
"The true culprit has already confessed," answered Ororo. She watched as Scott swallowed hard. "How long did you know who it was?"
"It took about an hour," answered Scott.
"And you didn’t expose her?" asked Ororo.
"No, I couldn’t do that to Jean," said Scott. "I figured I would take the heat for it, and let her off the hook."
"She contacted me telepathically, last night and confessed, Scott," said Ororo. "She told me she found it in the locker room after cheerleading practice. She admitted that she hadn’t tried it yet, but she couldn’t tell me what she planned to do with it. I didn’t press her on it."
"Well, what are we going to tell the others?" asked Scott.
"That is something Jean has decided to take care of on her own," said Ororo. She turned to Scott who had a look of concern on his face. Then, he felt Ororo grab his arm. "However, she is going to need our support through this. She needs to know that we won't judge her because of this, and that we still love her."
Scott looked towards Ororo, and sighed. "She can count on all of us, Storm," said Scott. "We’re all going to help her through this."
Ororo nodded and smiled as she wrapped her arm around Scott. Then, the two began to descend the stairs and head to the library, to check on Jean and the others. Both of them knew that they would have to take it one step at a time.