Whose idea had it been? Oh yeah... his. Lance kicked himself mentally. Why did he suggest to do a party in their back yard? ~STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!~
"Hey Lance, where's those old rock CD's of yours?" Pietro called from upstairs.
"Get out of my room!" Lance ran upstairs to his room. Pietro was digging through dirty clothes on the floor, throwing them everywhere. Including on Lance's head. "Their not on the floor you moron. Their in the CD tower. Duh."
"Oh. Okay." Pietro ran over to the CD tower and began grabbing CDs in stacks. "Gotta have a lot music."
"Why can't you use your own? Or Todd's?"
"Fred ate them, remember? He thought they were new kind of biscuit or something." Pietro stopped suddenly as he thought of a something. "I knew I should've kept my mouth shut."
"What did you tell him?"
"Uh well he asked who Limp Bizcut was and I told him it was a special new kind of biscuit."
"You..." Lance gave up thinking of an adjective to describe Pietro. "Are you done yet?"
"Huh? Oh yeah." Pietro flew out his room, causing every piece of paper to fly up in the air. Lance sighed. Then he heard the banging. He opened his window and looked into the backyard. Todd and Fred were banging away, attempting to build a stage. Pietro appeared, yelling at them to hurry up.
"C'mon you two! It's tonight! Hurry it up!"
"Hey Pietro, if your so fast why don't you do it?" Todd replied.
"Fine. I will." Pietro grabbed the hammer and nails and proceeded to disappear in a cloud of dust. Five seconds later it was built.
"Not bad." Fred said.
"Of course it ain't bad! I did it!" Pietro said. Lance rolled his eyes and shut the window. He fell face first onto his somewhat clean bed. ~Those three are going to be the death of me.~ All of sudden the house started shaking. ~I told Fred to stop running in the house! God, how stupid is he?~
"Hey Lance?"
"What do you want Todd?" Lance's reply was muffled by the pillow in his face.
"Um, just who all is coming to this thing?"
"Ask Pietro. He's in charge." Lance shot straight up and looked at Todd. He had the same look. They ran downstairs and found Pietro on the phone. He hung up just as they got close. "Pietro, who all did you invite?"
"The entire Bayville high school." Pietro said with a smile on his face.
"I'm going to kill you. Probably after Mystique kills us."
"She's on vacation, remember?"
"Then who's watchin' over us?" Asked Todd.
"No one. Magneto's over in Europe. We're on our own for a week." Pietro's smile just got more dangerous looking.
"Pietro? If we're holding a party guess who's going to show up?" He looked confused. Lance decided to clear it up for him. "Who do we fight?"
"They wouldn't be caught dead here. And they can't fight with everybody around."
"Assuming anyone will show up."
"Of course they'll show up. I just got off the phone with a couple of the jocks. I told them there was a party, no adults, feel free to bring beer, and it's an all nighter."
"We better hide our Brotherhood outfits, and any other sign of us being mutants." Lance told him. Pietro nodded and took off up stairs. "While your up there lock the doors and hide the keys!"
They each had deadbolts on their bedroom doors, and each had its own key. They were all on a ring in the hall. Why, they had no particular reason, they just did. A lot of things they just did. No reason given.
"This is going to be long night." Lance said. Todd just nodded and hopped away.
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Pietro had been right. They (the entire school) did indeed show up. And every jock had at least at least six 24 packs of beer. Considering there were about 20 or so jocks, that was a lot. They also brought tons of food. Good thing too. Fred would eat most of it, and leave only scraps behind.
Several different kinds of music blasted out, full bass going. The house was shaking and wasn't Fred or himself doing it. The back yard was only so big as was the house, so it was pretty crowded. But everyone seemed to be having a good time. Lance was too. The X-Freaks hadn't shown up after all. For once he was glad Pietro was right. For once.
And speaking of the devil....
"Hey Pietro, you seen Todd anywhere?"
"Some drunk babe's making out with him over there. Now if you don't mind, I was in the middle of something." Pietro returned to impressing a couple of girls. Lance shook his head. ~Todd making out with a girl? That's about as crazy as Fred being intelligent.~ Lance went in the opposite direction than that Pietro had pointed out. He did not need to see it.
Lance wondered over to the kitchen. A food fight was going on. He didn't want to get into that. Next he headed to living room. Some kids were a little busy with each other. He saw that the TV was on. ~Seems MTV's having a party of their own.~ He went outside. It was like a huge mosh pit. Kids were getting pulled up onto shoulders and carried around. Lance grabbed two beers and proceeded to down them both as fast he could. He needed the liquor badly, if he was going to stay sane. He grabbed a bottle of tequila and downed that too. He was now officially drunk. And damn proud of it.
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"What's this about a party?" Jean asked Scott. Scott shrugged.
"Supposedly there's this huge party on the other end of town. Don't know who's holding it. Supposed to be a blast. I'm thinking about checking it out. Just to see what's going on." Jean rolled her eyes. If Scott was going, she would too to try and keep him out of trouble. This was going to be a long night. She could just sense it. Little did she know that Kitty and Kurt had overheard her.
"Sounds like we should do a little crashing." Kurt said. Kitty agreed.
"Let's go get Evan and Rogue. This is going to be good."
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So Scott and Jean arrived, followed by Kurt, Evan, Rogue, and Kitty. The house was literally shaking. Every light was on and music blasted out. What was cool was there were no neighbors nearby, and therefore no one calling the cops.
"Scott, I don't know." Jean said. She was wary of this remote place.
"Ah c'mon. You and the others always say I need to have a little fun, and now I'm having it." He pulled her inside. Jean just sighed and shook her head.
Kurt and the others arrived just then, and wasted no time going inside. They lost sight of each other immediately in the sea of people, but didn't really care. They were going to party. Kurt himself was especially happy, because the Professor had finally been able to fix the holo-watch so now no one would feel his fur. Not that it would matter to all of these drunks.
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Pietro was having a blast. These girls were all over him and hung on every word he said. It was heaven. He told them he was going to get more beer and would be back soon. They nodded and he left, somewhat reluctant. As he neared the table stacked sky high with beer and tequila, he heard a voice that sounded familiar. He glanced around and finally spotted the source. It was Kitty Pryde. ~What the hell is she doing here?~ He then noticed she was trying to block attacks by Duncan Matthews. After a little thinking he decided he hated Duncan more than her. Pietro made his way over to them.
"Hey Duncan, I think your girlfriend's getting a little too friendly with some of your friends over there."
"She ain't my girlfriend no more." Duncan slurred. Okay. Plan B.
"Well, you can't have Kitty." He said. He couldn't believe he was doing this.
"Why?"
"She's mine."
"Oh." Duncan said, then something else caught his attention and he disappeared. Pietro turned to find Kitty gone. She was probably off getting into trouble again. Not his fault. He didn't care what happened to her. ~So why am I looking for her?~ He asked himself. He kept searching and finally found her huddled on the steps. He walked over. She seemed so scared.
"Hey, you alright?" He asked. She seemed surprised to see him. He asked her again. She shook her head. She was scared out of her wits. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her upstairs to his room. ~Why am I doing this? I don't care about her!~ He argued with himself as he took his room's key from its hiding place and unlocked the door. He pushed her in and slammed the door shut. The noise was immediately muffled.
"Why am I here?" Kitty asked him. She was sitting on his bed, holding her knees to her face.
"You want to back out there, go ahead." She shook her head. "Why are you here?"
"Kurt and I overheard Jean and Scott talking about this party, so me, Kurt, Evan, and Rogue followed them here."
"So all of you are here?" Kitty nodded. "Lance is going to kill me."
"Why?"
"'Cause I told him that you guys wouldn't be caught dead here, and well, you're here." Kitty said nothing, just looked at the floor. ~I hate myself.~ Pietro thought. "You hungry? I don't Fred's ate everything yet." She shook her head yet again. "Thirsty? We do have soda. Somewhere."
"Mountain Dew?"
"Of course. Todd loves the stuff. Me, I can't stand it. I'll be back." Pietro went back out and finally tracked down a can. Upstairs, he found Kitty sitting at his desk and looking through some of his things.
"Find anything interesting?" She jumped.
"Uh, no. Just looking." ~Yeah right.~ Pietro thought.
"Here." He handed her the soda and started to leave.
"This your room?" He heard her ask.
"Yeah, how could you tell?"
"It's neat."
"True. Lance's is a disaster zone. Fred's got more food in his than a supermarket, and Todd's you don't even want to know." ~Why am I talking to her?~
"Mine's okay. Well, my side is. Rogue's side looks like a war happened there."
"You share a room with Rogue? That sounds interesting."
"Oh, its tons of fun." She said sarcastically. " `Kitty, don't you dare go near my Nirvana poster! Stay away from my make-up! Touch that Cure CD and your dead!'"
"Sounds like Lance. He has a fit if anyone goes in his room. Not that you'd want to. You go in there, you might not come out." Pietro said with fake seriousness. He found himself sitting on the bed, facing Kitty in the chair.
"I'd believe it." She said. She looked around and noticed something. "You don't having any pictures."
"Should I?"
"Well yeah. Of family, your idiot friends..."
"Don't have any family. And why would I want pictures of those `idiot friends' of mine when we live in the same house?" Kitty shrugged.
"That don't mean anything. I have lots of pictures of the others and I live with them. And what's this about not having family."
"None of your business." Pietro went instantly defensive. He hated talking about his former life and the fact that he had no family. Well, except for.... No. He wasn't true family.
"What's wrong with you?" Kitty asked, seeing Pietro's face darken.
"Nothing."
"Uh-uh. Something's wrong. Maybe, I don't know, I could help or something."
"What is with you X-Freaks? You have to always be helping somebody. It makes me sick."
"I am not a X-Freak! And we don't always help everybody! We can be just as selfish as you Brotherhood jerks!"
"We are not selfish, X-Freak! We just try to survive and you and your friends constantly attack us on purpose just to make our life even more miserable!" Pietro was losing his temper. And so was Kitty.
"Make your life miserable? What do you think you do to us?! You think we like fighting you?!"
"Yeah, I do!"
"Well we don't! Don't presume that you know everything about us!"
"I think you need to listen to your own advice!" Kitty looked somewhat shocked. She then realized that he was right.
"You're right. We shouldn't." It was Pietro's turn to be shocked. In a way, though, she was right too.
"Neither of us should." He paused. "I'm sorry I yelled." ~I'm apologizing?!~
"Me too. I guess we really don't know each other, do we?"
"No."
"Then I think its time we do." Kitty went over and sat next to him. "I tell you about me and the others, and you tell me about yourself and the rest of ya. Deal?"
"Deal. Ladies first." He said.
"Ah, you have manners! Amazing! I'm kidding!" She said after seeing his face. He smiled, and she continued.
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While Pietro and Kitty had been talking....
Lance was sick. He was in the far corner of the back yard, puking his guts out beside a tree. He was ready to go back over and give in to the hair of the dog, when he heard a voice.
"Are you alright?" He knew that voice. It his distorted mind, he knew he knew that voice. He glanced up, and after his vision corrected, he saw the familiar red hair.
"What do you want X-Freak?" He slurred out.
"My name is Jean, and I want to know if you're alright."
"I'm fine." Lance said. He leaned against the tree in some hope of regaining what little balance he had.
"You're a bad liar, you know that?" Jean said.
"Look, just leave me alone." Lance tried to walk away, but fell.
"Here, let me help."
"Get away from me!" Lance picked himself up and managed to steady himself. He definitely had one too many tequila shots.
"I'm trying to help you." Jean said.
"I don't want help! Get it through your thick head!"
"Hey! You don't talk to Jean like that Alvers." Oh joy. Scott.
"Look, I don't want to fight. I want to go find Pietro, kill him, then get some Tylenol and go to sleep. Is that too much to ask?" Lance had to remind himself of his pounding head. Scott started to say something, but Jean cut him off.
"Of course not. We'll even help you find Pietro. Isn't that right Scott?" Scott made no reply. Jean mentally kicked him.
"Alright!" He growled.
"Don't waste your precious time." Lance said and once again tried to stagger off. He fell again. His anger got the best of him and the ground started to rumble.
"Knock it off Alvers." Scott said. Lance only stopped because it was making his head hurt worse.
"Here, lean on me." Jean walked over and put Lance's arm over her shoulder. For a scrawny boy he sure was heavy. "Scott? You going to help or not?" Scott sighed and took Lance's other arm. Lance was too out of it to fight. They dragged him inside and up the stairs.
"Over there. My room." Lance said.
"Your room? You live here?" Scott said. Lance nodded, which made his head hurt worse. Scott tried the door. "It's locked."
"Blast the sucker."
"I have a better idea, Lance." Jean concentrated on the lock and finally managed to open it. Inside the room looked like a tornado hit it. Lance hit the bed and it collapsed under him.
"NOT AGAIN!" He said. It had been weak ever since Fred had sat on it, and it collapsed every week or so no matter what he did to it.
"Scott." Jean pulled him over to the one corner of the room. "Go find some water and Tylenol. He's going to need it." Scott gave one last glance to Lance and disappeared into the crowd. Jean shut the door, in attempt to lower the noise.
"Now I know why John hated us."
"Who's John?" Jean asked, sitting down on her knees beside him.
"My one foster parent. Me and a kid named Dominic got sent there. He used to get drunk and beat the crap out of us if we made any noise. Now I know why. Here's to you John Bender!" (get the joke? hee hee hee.) Lance said, pointing upwards. "What am I doing? He ain't up there."
"Oh, he's alive?" Asked Jean. Lance laughed.
"No you idiot. He's in Hell. OD'd on some crack once. I think Dominic killed him. If he hadn't, I would've, I'll tell ya that. That jackass deserved it for beating within an inch of our lives."
"No one deserves to die by the hands of another. I don't care who they are." Jean said. She hoped Scott would return soon.
"Don't know about John, but Dominic sure didn't. I hated the Senfields. They had to go and break his neck. Tried to get me but I ran away and hit the streets. The Alvers took me in and somewhat adopted me. Made me take their stupid name. God I hate it." Lance knew he was babbling, but didn't really care.
"What's your real last name?"
"Last name? Hell, I don't even know my own first name. The orphanage gave it to me when they found me on their doorstep."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh." Lance's headache was subsiding a little bit. But it still hurt. He hoped Scott came back with the Tylenol soon.
"I'm sorry." Jean said. Lance was confused.
"Sorry? What for? You didn't do any of it."
"That doesn't mean I don't feel sad that it happened to you. Things like that shouldn't happen to a person."
"And you don't care who they are."
"Exactly." Scott came inside then. He handed Lance the Tylenol and the water. Lance downed it as fast as he could. "Feel better?"
"Like you would not believe."
"Jean? C'mon, it's time to leave." Scott said. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
"Scott, I think we should tell everyone that the party is over." Scott sighed. "Fine." Jean got up and left. Scott started to, when Lance called his name.
"Hey Summers! Tell Jean I said thanks, will ya?" Scott nodded and left. Lance turned the light off and tried to sleep.
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All the while in the basement....
"AH MAN!" Evan said. Todd laughed. He had beat him again. He felt better now. After that girl realized who he was and took off, he had been kinda down. Then he found Evan and Blue boy. He had challenged them to some games on PS2.
"My turn!" Kurt said, taking the controller away from Evan. "You're not going to beat me Toad!"
"Bring it on furball!" Todd hit restart and the game began again. He loved these racing games. He had played each of them a million times. He especially liked NASCAR HEAT, which is what they were playing now. He was Mark Martin and Kurt was some rookie dude that won every once in a while in the real races. But he wasn't going to win this time!
"Hey! No wrecking!" Todd said. Kurt laughed and tried it again, only this time he missed and ended up wrecking himself. "HAH!" Todd said.
"You got anything else?" Evan said, digging through the box of games.
"Uh, Spyro! Ripto's Rage is in there somewhere. It's Fred's. He likes purple dragons."
"That dude is strange. Any basketball games?"
"I don't think so. Wait, yeah there is!" Todd hopped up on top of a tall cabinet and got Pietro's basketball game. "He doesn't like the rest of us to play it." Evan grinned, took it, and stuck it in the machine.
"I'm playin' this!" Kurt said. Todd watched as they tried to out slam dunk each other. ~These guys ain't half bad.~ He thought.
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Rogue was not happy. She had encountered Fred J. Dukes, and he was driving her up the wall and back.
"I will attack you. I don't care where we are." She said, starting to take her one glove off. Fred back off.
"Whoa, I was just having some fun." He half-disappeared into the crowd. No one his size could completely disappear. Just then, Scott and Jean appeared on the stage with a megaphone. ~Where did they get that?~
"Everyone! Everyone!" Nobody heard them even with the megaphone. Jean mentally turned the music down. Scott nodded towards her and smiled. "Everyone! This party is now over! Go home!!"
"Ah c'mon Summers!" Someone shouted.
"Look, there's no food left and some of you have got to be tired. If you want, I'll drive some of you home if you don't think you can. And if you want to continue this, it'll have to be somewhere else." The kids looked at each and some of them nodded. It was kind of late. And they were tired. "Anyone who wants a ride, give me your keys and I'll take you." Scott and Jean got down and headed towards the parking lot, forming a plan mentally. ~I'll drive their cars to their house and you can follow in mine and pick me up. And take me back.~
~It's going to take a while.~
~Not everyone here is as drunk as Alvers is. Some can catch rides with each other and pick their cars up tomorrow.~
Jean agreed and headed towards Scott's car. Still, this was going to take a while.
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Pietro just finished his story. He had been to Hell and back a couple of times. Kitty felt so sorry for him.
"I always thought my life was hard. I never knew how easy I actually had it." She said. To her surprise, Pietro put his arm around her and pulled her close to him.
"All of our lives are hard. There are different levels, but still, they're hard." They didn't say anything for a minute.
"Hey, you notice something?" Kitty asked him.
"Yeah. No music. And the house ain't shaking." He got up and opened the door. There was no one. "Everyone's gone." Pietro knocked on all the doors upstairs. He got no response until he reached Lance's.
"What?!" He heard. Pietro turned the knob and found the door open.
"Lance? Where is everybody?"
"Dunno. Summers and that Jean girl are here." Lance rolled over to face Pietro. His headache was gone, but he was tired. "I'm going back to sleep now." He rolled back over and Pietro shut the door.
"Well, party's over I guess." He shrugged. He and Kitty went downstairs. They heard voices coming from the basement. Pietro called down. "Who's there?"
"It's me Pietro!" Todd called, coming up the stairs. He was followed by Kurt and Evan. "Yo, where is everybody?"
"Gone." Kitty said. "Any of you see Rogue? Or Jean and Scott?
"Nope. We was playin' PS2." Kurt said.
"I'm over here." Said a voice. Rogue appeared out of the kitchen with a plateful of chips. "Anyone hungry?" They shook their heads. "Scott and Jean told everyone that the party was over and they'd take anyone home who didn't think they could drive. That was about an hour ago. I think they went home."
"Speaking of which, we need to get home. The Professor's gonna kill us." Evan said. And he was right.
"Yeah, we'd better go." Kitty said. She glanced at Pietro who was surveying the damage. "Forget it. Go get some sleep." She told him. She thought of something, but decided to tell the others on the way home. Pietro gave her a smile and headed back upstairs.
"I'm beating you next time at NASCAR." Evan said.
"In your dreams." Todd told him as he too started to go upstairs. He paused. "Hey, where's Fred?"
Everyone looked at Rogue who was shoving her face with chips. She swallowed and answered. "He's passed out in the back yard."
"Passed out?" Kurt asked.
"It was an accident!" Rogue said, unbelievably. She continued eating. Todd just rolled his eyes and went upstairs. They let themselves out and piled into the hummer they had brought and hid in some trees across the street.
"Hey guys?" Kitty said. She was in the back with Rogue, while Evan was riding shotgun and Kurt was driving. "How about we come back tomorrow and help clean up?"
"Sounds good. Wonder if we should tell Scott and Jean." Rogue said between mouthfuls.
"Probably. They'll figure it out anyhow when they realize we're not home." Kurt said. "The Professor is going to punish us bad."
"What's the worse punishment he could give us? Help them clean up?" Kitty said.
"True." Evan said.
"So we do it?"
"Yep." Kurt said. They went the rest of the way in silence, except for Rogue's munching.
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Lance woke up around nine. He had a hangover, but nothing some more Tylenol couldn't handle. He went downstairs and found Todd and Pietro eating breakfast. "Where's Fred?" Fred never missed breakfast. That was a big no-no.
"Passed out in the back yard still. He had a little run-in with Rogue last night. Now she has his appetite."
"Ah. Sorry I asked." Lance looked around. The place was a complete mess. It was going to take a lot of work to clean this up. Outside a horn blew. Lance's first thought was Mystique, but she never warned them she was coming. She just showed up and walked in.
"Who's that?"
"Dunno." Todd said. He hopped over to the window beside the front door. "You ain't gonna believe this. It's the X-Men."
"What?" Pietro appeared next to Todd. "It is!" He said. "Why are they here?"
Lance opened the door and found the X-Men alright, armed with paper towels, cleaner, two mops, three brooms, and about six boxes of trash bags. Jean saw him and waved. Pietro and Todd ducked passed him out onto the porch.
"Yo, whatcha doin' here?" Todd asked Evan.
"Figured you could use some help." He said.
"You guys amaze me, you know that?" Pietro said. Kitty ran up and hugged him. "Of course. Its what us good guys do." She said laughing. Pietro laughed too. She wasn't half-bad once you got to know her. And strange enough, he felt no anger or anything towards Evan. That's what surprised him the most. Little did he know it was mutual. Evan, too, felt little anger towards Pietro. And for some reason, neither of them were bothered by it.
Lance just stood there. He couldn't believe these guys were actually willing to help them out. He remembered last night. Jean had helped him, no questions asked. She had to convince Scott, but he too helped. Maybe these guys were all that bad.
"Where's Fred?" Rogue asked.
"Still in the back yard."
"Well, I lost his powers, so he should come around soon."
"I hope not. There's nothing but cereal left." Lance said.
"Uh, actually, we finished that off this morning." Todd said. Lance sighed. A hungry Fred was a bad thing to have.
"So we'll go shopping." Kurt said.
"Hey Lance, you gonna invite us in or not?" Scott said. Did Scott actually just call him Lance? Wow. "Uh, yeah sure, come in. Just watch where you step. I have no idea what all's on this floor."
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The X-Men and the Brotherhood got along after that. It seemed that all it took was a wild party and pure chance. Mystique never returned. Nor did Magneto. They must have heard that they were together, more or less, now, and that it wouldn't be wise to come back. Bayville has a new principal, and she is much nicer.(Way to go Storm!) The Brotherhood still live where they do, although it's better looking then it was. Pietro and Kitty are now together, and though Kurt was a little jealous, he's over it. There's some new girl at school he likes. A girl named Mimi Tach-something or the other. She's from Japan. She likes to talk about someone named Palmon. Those Japanese people can be strange. Lance gets into fights a lot less, and he's a pretty nice guy. He and Rogue are falling for each other, and now since Rogue's got control on her powers, thanks to being struck by lightning, they'll probably end up together. Todd's hygiene still needs work, and Fred's appetite only seems to get bigger. But all in all, life is good.
"Hey Lance, where's those old rock CD's of yours?" Pietro called from upstairs.
"Get out of my room!" Lance ran upstairs to his room. Pietro was digging through dirty clothes on the floor, throwing them everywhere. Including on Lance's head. "Their not on the floor you moron. Their in the CD tower. Duh."
"Oh. Okay." Pietro ran over to the CD tower and began grabbing CDs in stacks. "Gotta have a lot music."
"Why can't you use your own? Or Todd's?"
"Fred ate them, remember? He thought they were new kind of biscuit or something." Pietro stopped suddenly as he thought of a something. "I knew I should've kept my mouth shut."
"What did you tell him?"
"Uh well he asked who Limp Bizcut was and I told him it was a special new kind of biscuit."
"You..." Lance gave up thinking of an adjective to describe Pietro. "Are you done yet?"
"Huh? Oh yeah." Pietro flew out his room, causing every piece of paper to fly up in the air. Lance sighed. Then he heard the banging. He opened his window and looked into the backyard. Todd and Fred were banging away, attempting to build a stage. Pietro appeared, yelling at them to hurry up.
"C'mon you two! It's tonight! Hurry it up!"
"Hey Pietro, if your so fast why don't you do it?" Todd replied.
"Fine. I will." Pietro grabbed the hammer and nails and proceeded to disappear in a cloud of dust. Five seconds later it was built.
"Not bad." Fred said.
"Of course it ain't bad! I did it!" Pietro said. Lance rolled his eyes and shut the window. He fell face first onto his somewhat clean bed. ~Those three are going to be the death of me.~ All of sudden the house started shaking. ~I told Fred to stop running in the house! God, how stupid is he?~
"Hey Lance?"
"What do you want Todd?" Lance's reply was muffled by the pillow in his face.
"Um, just who all is coming to this thing?"
"Ask Pietro. He's in charge." Lance shot straight up and looked at Todd. He had the same look. They ran downstairs and found Pietro on the phone. He hung up just as they got close. "Pietro, who all did you invite?"
"The entire Bayville high school." Pietro said with a smile on his face.
"I'm going to kill you. Probably after Mystique kills us."
"She's on vacation, remember?"
"Then who's watchin' over us?" Asked Todd.
"No one. Magneto's over in Europe. We're on our own for a week." Pietro's smile just got more dangerous looking.
"Pietro? If we're holding a party guess who's going to show up?" He looked confused. Lance decided to clear it up for him. "Who do we fight?"
"They wouldn't be caught dead here. And they can't fight with everybody around."
"Assuming anyone will show up."
"Of course they'll show up. I just got off the phone with a couple of the jocks. I told them there was a party, no adults, feel free to bring beer, and it's an all nighter."
"We better hide our Brotherhood outfits, and any other sign of us being mutants." Lance told him. Pietro nodded and took off up stairs. "While your up there lock the doors and hide the keys!"
They each had deadbolts on their bedroom doors, and each had its own key. They were all on a ring in the hall. Why, they had no particular reason, they just did. A lot of things they just did. No reason given.
"This is going to be long night." Lance said. Todd just nodded and hopped away.
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Pietro had been right. They (the entire school) did indeed show up. And every jock had at least at least six 24 packs of beer. Considering there were about 20 or so jocks, that was a lot. They also brought tons of food. Good thing too. Fred would eat most of it, and leave only scraps behind.
Several different kinds of music blasted out, full bass going. The house was shaking and wasn't Fred or himself doing it. The back yard was only so big as was the house, so it was pretty crowded. But everyone seemed to be having a good time. Lance was too. The X-Freaks hadn't shown up after all. For once he was glad Pietro was right. For once.
And speaking of the devil....
"Hey Pietro, you seen Todd anywhere?"
"Some drunk babe's making out with him over there. Now if you don't mind, I was in the middle of something." Pietro returned to impressing a couple of girls. Lance shook his head. ~Todd making out with a girl? That's about as crazy as Fred being intelligent.~ Lance went in the opposite direction than that Pietro had pointed out. He did not need to see it.
Lance wondered over to the kitchen. A food fight was going on. He didn't want to get into that. Next he headed to living room. Some kids were a little busy with each other. He saw that the TV was on. ~Seems MTV's having a party of their own.~ He went outside. It was like a huge mosh pit. Kids were getting pulled up onto shoulders and carried around. Lance grabbed two beers and proceeded to down them both as fast he could. He needed the liquor badly, if he was going to stay sane. He grabbed a bottle of tequila and downed that too. He was now officially drunk. And damn proud of it.
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"What's this about a party?" Jean asked Scott. Scott shrugged.
"Supposedly there's this huge party on the other end of town. Don't know who's holding it. Supposed to be a blast. I'm thinking about checking it out. Just to see what's going on." Jean rolled her eyes. If Scott was going, she would too to try and keep him out of trouble. This was going to be a long night. She could just sense it. Little did she know that Kitty and Kurt had overheard her.
"Sounds like we should do a little crashing." Kurt said. Kitty agreed.
"Let's go get Evan and Rogue. This is going to be good."
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So Scott and Jean arrived, followed by Kurt, Evan, Rogue, and Kitty. The house was literally shaking. Every light was on and music blasted out. What was cool was there were no neighbors nearby, and therefore no one calling the cops.
"Scott, I don't know." Jean said. She was wary of this remote place.
"Ah c'mon. You and the others always say I need to have a little fun, and now I'm having it." He pulled her inside. Jean just sighed and shook her head.
Kurt and the others arrived just then, and wasted no time going inside. They lost sight of each other immediately in the sea of people, but didn't really care. They were going to party. Kurt himself was especially happy, because the Professor had finally been able to fix the holo-watch so now no one would feel his fur. Not that it would matter to all of these drunks.
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Pietro was having a blast. These girls were all over him and hung on every word he said. It was heaven. He told them he was going to get more beer and would be back soon. They nodded and he left, somewhat reluctant. As he neared the table stacked sky high with beer and tequila, he heard a voice that sounded familiar. He glanced around and finally spotted the source. It was Kitty Pryde. ~What the hell is she doing here?~ He then noticed she was trying to block attacks by Duncan Matthews. After a little thinking he decided he hated Duncan more than her. Pietro made his way over to them.
"Hey Duncan, I think your girlfriend's getting a little too friendly with some of your friends over there."
"She ain't my girlfriend no more." Duncan slurred. Okay. Plan B.
"Well, you can't have Kitty." He said. He couldn't believe he was doing this.
"Why?"
"She's mine."
"Oh." Duncan said, then something else caught his attention and he disappeared. Pietro turned to find Kitty gone. She was probably off getting into trouble again. Not his fault. He didn't care what happened to her. ~So why am I looking for her?~ He asked himself. He kept searching and finally found her huddled on the steps. He walked over. She seemed so scared.
"Hey, you alright?" He asked. She seemed surprised to see him. He asked her again. She shook her head. She was scared out of her wits. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her upstairs to his room. ~Why am I doing this? I don't care about her!~ He argued with himself as he took his room's key from its hiding place and unlocked the door. He pushed her in and slammed the door shut. The noise was immediately muffled.
"Why am I here?" Kitty asked him. She was sitting on his bed, holding her knees to her face.
"You want to back out there, go ahead." She shook her head. "Why are you here?"
"Kurt and I overheard Jean and Scott talking about this party, so me, Kurt, Evan, and Rogue followed them here."
"So all of you are here?" Kitty nodded. "Lance is going to kill me."
"Why?"
"'Cause I told him that you guys wouldn't be caught dead here, and well, you're here." Kitty said nothing, just looked at the floor. ~I hate myself.~ Pietro thought. "You hungry? I don't Fred's ate everything yet." She shook her head yet again. "Thirsty? We do have soda. Somewhere."
"Mountain Dew?"
"Of course. Todd loves the stuff. Me, I can't stand it. I'll be back." Pietro went back out and finally tracked down a can. Upstairs, he found Kitty sitting at his desk and looking through some of his things.
"Find anything interesting?" She jumped.
"Uh, no. Just looking." ~Yeah right.~ Pietro thought.
"Here." He handed her the soda and started to leave.
"This your room?" He heard her ask.
"Yeah, how could you tell?"
"It's neat."
"True. Lance's is a disaster zone. Fred's got more food in his than a supermarket, and Todd's you don't even want to know." ~Why am I talking to her?~
"Mine's okay. Well, my side is. Rogue's side looks like a war happened there."
"You share a room with Rogue? That sounds interesting."
"Oh, its tons of fun." She said sarcastically. " `Kitty, don't you dare go near my Nirvana poster! Stay away from my make-up! Touch that Cure CD and your dead!'"
"Sounds like Lance. He has a fit if anyone goes in his room. Not that you'd want to. You go in there, you might not come out." Pietro said with fake seriousness. He found himself sitting on the bed, facing Kitty in the chair.
"I'd believe it." She said. She looked around and noticed something. "You don't having any pictures."
"Should I?"
"Well yeah. Of family, your idiot friends..."
"Don't have any family. And why would I want pictures of those `idiot friends' of mine when we live in the same house?" Kitty shrugged.
"That don't mean anything. I have lots of pictures of the others and I live with them. And what's this about not having family."
"None of your business." Pietro went instantly defensive. He hated talking about his former life and the fact that he had no family. Well, except for.... No. He wasn't true family.
"What's wrong with you?" Kitty asked, seeing Pietro's face darken.
"Nothing."
"Uh-uh. Something's wrong. Maybe, I don't know, I could help or something."
"What is with you X-Freaks? You have to always be helping somebody. It makes me sick."
"I am not a X-Freak! And we don't always help everybody! We can be just as selfish as you Brotherhood jerks!"
"We are not selfish, X-Freak! We just try to survive and you and your friends constantly attack us on purpose just to make our life even more miserable!" Pietro was losing his temper. And so was Kitty.
"Make your life miserable? What do you think you do to us?! You think we like fighting you?!"
"Yeah, I do!"
"Well we don't! Don't presume that you know everything about us!"
"I think you need to listen to your own advice!" Kitty looked somewhat shocked. She then realized that he was right.
"You're right. We shouldn't." It was Pietro's turn to be shocked. In a way, though, she was right too.
"Neither of us should." He paused. "I'm sorry I yelled." ~I'm apologizing?!~
"Me too. I guess we really don't know each other, do we?"
"No."
"Then I think its time we do." Kitty went over and sat next to him. "I tell you about me and the others, and you tell me about yourself and the rest of ya. Deal?"
"Deal. Ladies first." He said.
"Ah, you have manners! Amazing! I'm kidding!" She said after seeing his face. He smiled, and she continued.
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While Pietro and Kitty had been talking....
Lance was sick. He was in the far corner of the back yard, puking his guts out beside a tree. He was ready to go back over and give in to the hair of the dog, when he heard a voice.
"Are you alright?" He knew that voice. It his distorted mind, he knew he knew that voice. He glanced up, and after his vision corrected, he saw the familiar red hair.
"What do you want X-Freak?" He slurred out.
"My name is Jean, and I want to know if you're alright."
"I'm fine." Lance said. He leaned against the tree in some hope of regaining what little balance he had.
"You're a bad liar, you know that?" Jean said.
"Look, just leave me alone." Lance tried to walk away, but fell.
"Here, let me help."
"Get away from me!" Lance picked himself up and managed to steady himself. He definitely had one too many tequila shots.
"I'm trying to help you." Jean said.
"I don't want help! Get it through your thick head!"
"Hey! You don't talk to Jean like that Alvers." Oh joy. Scott.
"Look, I don't want to fight. I want to go find Pietro, kill him, then get some Tylenol and go to sleep. Is that too much to ask?" Lance had to remind himself of his pounding head. Scott started to say something, but Jean cut him off.
"Of course not. We'll even help you find Pietro. Isn't that right Scott?" Scott made no reply. Jean mentally kicked him.
"Alright!" He growled.
"Don't waste your precious time." Lance said and once again tried to stagger off. He fell again. His anger got the best of him and the ground started to rumble.
"Knock it off Alvers." Scott said. Lance only stopped because it was making his head hurt worse.
"Here, lean on me." Jean walked over and put Lance's arm over her shoulder. For a scrawny boy he sure was heavy. "Scott? You going to help or not?" Scott sighed and took Lance's other arm. Lance was too out of it to fight. They dragged him inside and up the stairs.
"Over there. My room." Lance said.
"Your room? You live here?" Scott said. Lance nodded, which made his head hurt worse. Scott tried the door. "It's locked."
"Blast the sucker."
"I have a better idea, Lance." Jean concentrated on the lock and finally managed to open it. Inside the room looked like a tornado hit it. Lance hit the bed and it collapsed under him.
"NOT AGAIN!" He said. It had been weak ever since Fred had sat on it, and it collapsed every week or so no matter what he did to it.
"Scott." Jean pulled him over to the one corner of the room. "Go find some water and Tylenol. He's going to need it." Scott gave one last glance to Lance and disappeared into the crowd. Jean shut the door, in attempt to lower the noise.
"Now I know why John hated us."
"Who's John?" Jean asked, sitting down on her knees beside him.
"My one foster parent. Me and a kid named Dominic got sent there. He used to get drunk and beat the crap out of us if we made any noise. Now I know why. Here's to you John Bender!" (get the joke? hee hee hee.) Lance said, pointing upwards. "What am I doing? He ain't up there."
"Oh, he's alive?" Asked Jean. Lance laughed.
"No you idiot. He's in Hell. OD'd on some crack once. I think Dominic killed him. If he hadn't, I would've, I'll tell ya that. That jackass deserved it for beating within an inch of our lives."
"No one deserves to die by the hands of another. I don't care who they are." Jean said. She hoped Scott would return soon.
"Don't know about John, but Dominic sure didn't. I hated the Senfields. They had to go and break his neck. Tried to get me but I ran away and hit the streets. The Alvers took me in and somewhat adopted me. Made me take their stupid name. God I hate it." Lance knew he was babbling, but didn't really care.
"What's your real last name?"
"Last name? Hell, I don't even know my own first name. The orphanage gave it to me when they found me on their doorstep."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh." Lance's headache was subsiding a little bit. But it still hurt. He hoped Scott came back with the Tylenol soon.
"I'm sorry." Jean said. Lance was confused.
"Sorry? What for? You didn't do any of it."
"That doesn't mean I don't feel sad that it happened to you. Things like that shouldn't happen to a person."
"And you don't care who they are."
"Exactly." Scott came inside then. He handed Lance the Tylenol and the water. Lance downed it as fast as he could. "Feel better?"
"Like you would not believe."
"Jean? C'mon, it's time to leave." Scott said. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
"Scott, I think we should tell everyone that the party is over." Scott sighed. "Fine." Jean got up and left. Scott started to, when Lance called his name.
"Hey Summers! Tell Jean I said thanks, will ya?" Scott nodded and left. Lance turned the light off and tried to sleep.
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All the while in the basement....
"AH MAN!" Evan said. Todd laughed. He had beat him again. He felt better now. After that girl realized who he was and took off, he had been kinda down. Then he found Evan and Blue boy. He had challenged them to some games on PS2.
"My turn!" Kurt said, taking the controller away from Evan. "You're not going to beat me Toad!"
"Bring it on furball!" Todd hit restart and the game began again. He loved these racing games. He had played each of them a million times. He especially liked NASCAR HEAT, which is what they were playing now. He was Mark Martin and Kurt was some rookie dude that won every once in a while in the real races. But he wasn't going to win this time!
"Hey! No wrecking!" Todd said. Kurt laughed and tried it again, only this time he missed and ended up wrecking himself. "HAH!" Todd said.
"You got anything else?" Evan said, digging through the box of games.
"Uh, Spyro! Ripto's Rage is in there somewhere. It's Fred's. He likes purple dragons."
"That dude is strange. Any basketball games?"
"I don't think so. Wait, yeah there is!" Todd hopped up on top of a tall cabinet and got Pietro's basketball game. "He doesn't like the rest of us to play it." Evan grinned, took it, and stuck it in the machine.
"I'm playin' this!" Kurt said. Todd watched as they tried to out slam dunk each other. ~These guys ain't half bad.~ He thought.
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Rogue was not happy. She had encountered Fred J. Dukes, and he was driving her up the wall and back.
"I will attack you. I don't care where we are." She said, starting to take her one glove off. Fred back off.
"Whoa, I was just having some fun." He half-disappeared into the crowd. No one his size could completely disappear. Just then, Scott and Jean appeared on the stage with a megaphone. ~Where did they get that?~
"Everyone! Everyone!" Nobody heard them even with the megaphone. Jean mentally turned the music down. Scott nodded towards her and smiled. "Everyone! This party is now over! Go home!!"
"Ah c'mon Summers!" Someone shouted.
"Look, there's no food left and some of you have got to be tired. If you want, I'll drive some of you home if you don't think you can. And if you want to continue this, it'll have to be somewhere else." The kids looked at each and some of them nodded. It was kind of late. And they were tired. "Anyone who wants a ride, give me your keys and I'll take you." Scott and Jean got down and headed towards the parking lot, forming a plan mentally. ~I'll drive their cars to their house and you can follow in mine and pick me up. And take me back.~
~It's going to take a while.~
~Not everyone here is as drunk as Alvers is. Some can catch rides with each other and pick their cars up tomorrow.~
Jean agreed and headed towards Scott's car. Still, this was going to take a while.
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Pietro just finished his story. He had been to Hell and back a couple of times. Kitty felt so sorry for him.
"I always thought my life was hard. I never knew how easy I actually had it." She said. To her surprise, Pietro put his arm around her and pulled her close to him.
"All of our lives are hard. There are different levels, but still, they're hard." They didn't say anything for a minute.
"Hey, you notice something?" Kitty asked him.
"Yeah. No music. And the house ain't shaking." He got up and opened the door. There was no one. "Everyone's gone." Pietro knocked on all the doors upstairs. He got no response until he reached Lance's.
"What?!" He heard. Pietro turned the knob and found the door open.
"Lance? Where is everybody?"
"Dunno. Summers and that Jean girl are here." Lance rolled over to face Pietro. His headache was gone, but he was tired. "I'm going back to sleep now." He rolled back over and Pietro shut the door.
"Well, party's over I guess." He shrugged. He and Kitty went downstairs. They heard voices coming from the basement. Pietro called down. "Who's there?"
"It's me Pietro!" Todd called, coming up the stairs. He was followed by Kurt and Evan. "Yo, where is everybody?"
"Gone." Kitty said. "Any of you see Rogue? Or Jean and Scott?
"Nope. We was playin' PS2." Kurt said.
"I'm over here." Said a voice. Rogue appeared out of the kitchen with a plateful of chips. "Anyone hungry?" They shook their heads. "Scott and Jean told everyone that the party was over and they'd take anyone home who didn't think they could drive. That was about an hour ago. I think they went home."
"Speaking of which, we need to get home. The Professor's gonna kill us." Evan said. And he was right.
"Yeah, we'd better go." Kitty said. She glanced at Pietro who was surveying the damage. "Forget it. Go get some sleep." She told him. She thought of something, but decided to tell the others on the way home. Pietro gave her a smile and headed back upstairs.
"I'm beating you next time at NASCAR." Evan said.
"In your dreams." Todd told him as he too started to go upstairs. He paused. "Hey, where's Fred?"
Everyone looked at Rogue who was shoving her face with chips. She swallowed and answered. "He's passed out in the back yard."
"Passed out?" Kurt asked.
"It was an accident!" Rogue said, unbelievably. She continued eating. Todd just rolled his eyes and went upstairs. They let themselves out and piled into the hummer they had brought and hid in some trees across the street.
"Hey guys?" Kitty said. She was in the back with Rogue, while Evan was riding shotgun and Kurt was driving. "How about we come back tomorrow and help clean up?"
"Sounds good. Wonder if we should tell Scott and Jean." Rogue said between mouthfuls.
"Probably. They'll figure it out anyhow when they realize we're not home." Kurt said. "The Professor is going to punish us bad."
"What's the worse punishment he could give us? Help them clean up?" Kitty said.
"True." Evan said.
"So we do it?"
"Yep." Kurt said. They went the rest of the way in silence, except for Rogue's munching.
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Lance woke up around nine. He had a hangover, but nothing some more Tylenol couldn't handle. He went downstairs and found Todd and Pietro eating breakfast. "Where's Fred?" Fred never missed breakfast. That was a big no-no.
"Passed out in the back yard still. He had a little run-in with Rogue last night. Now she has his appetite."
"Ah. Sorry I asked." Lance looked around. The place was a complete mess. It was going to take a lot of work to clean this up. Outside a horn blew. Lance's first thought was Mystique, but she never warned them she was coming. She just showed up and walked in.
"Who's that?"
"Dunno." Todd said. He hopped over to the window beside the front door. "You ain't gonna believe this. It's the X-Men."
"What?" Pietro appeared next to Todd. "It is!" He said. "Why are they here?"
Lance opened the door and found the X-Men alright, armed with paper towels, cleaner, two mops, three brooms, and about six boxes of trash bags. Jean saw him and waved. Pietro and Todd ducked passed him out onto the porch.
"Yo, whatcha doin' here?" Todd asked Evan.
"Figured you could use some help." He said.
"You guys amaze me, you know that?" Pietro said. Kitty ran up and hugged him. "Of course. Its what us good guys do." She said laughing. Pietro laughed too. She wasn't half-bad once you got to know her. And strange enough, he felt no anger or anything towards Evan. That's what surprised him the most. Little did he know it was mutual. Evan, too, felt little anger towards Pietro. And for some reason, neither of them were bothered by it.
Lance just stood there. He couldn't believe these guys were actually willing to help them out. He remembered last night. Jean had helped him, no questions asked. She had to convince Scott, but he too helped. Maybe these guys were all that bad.
"Where's Fred?" Rogue asked.
"Still in the back yard."
"Well, I lost his powers, so he should come around soon."
"I hope not. There's nothing but cereal left." Lance said.
"Uh, actually, we finished that off this morning." Todd said. Lance sighed. A hungry Fred was a bad thing to have.
"So we'll go shopping." Kurt said.
"Hey Lance, you gonna invite us in or not?" Scott said. Did Scott actually just call him Lance? Wow. "Uh, yeah sure, come in. Just watch where you step. I have no idea what all's on this floor."
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The X-Men and the Brotherhood got along after that. It seemed that all it took was a wild party and pure chance. Mystique never returned. Nor did Magneto. They must have heard that they were together, more or less, now, and that it wouldn't be wise to come back. Bayville has a new principal, and she is much nicer.(Way to go Storm!) The Brotherhood still live where they do, although it's better looking then it was. Pietro and Kitty are now together, and though Kurt was a little jealous, he's over it. There's some new girl at school he likes. A girl named Mimi Tach-something or the other. She's from Japan. She likes to talk about someone named Palmon. Those Japanese people can be strange. Lance gets into fights a lot less, and he's a pretty nice guy. He and Rogue are falling for each other, and now since Rogue's got control on her powers, thanks to being struck by lightning, they'll probably end up together. Todd's hygiene still needs work, and Fred's appetite only seems to get bigger. But all in all, life is good.