Time passes so quickly before she realizes it is the last week of summer break at the Xavier's Institute for Gifted Children. And she is waking up late again, Marie rushes through her morning ritual. Last night was the worst night she's had since absorbing so much of Magneto. But she is fairly certain that she is past the roughest part of it. Magneto, true to his word, has been keeping his distance, as is required, at least until her mother has officially responded to his offer of courtship. It is just unfortunate now that she finally has a handle on the struggles in her mind their vacation is almost over.
A quick jog through the resort later, Marie spots her friends already underneath their tree. Almost skidding to a stop, she gives her friends a quick wave and a smile, "Sorry I'm late, I sort of overslept."
"Sort of?" Jubes smiles from her position at the center of the newer kid's group, tapping the clock on her phone. It is pretty easy to guess why Jubes' popularity is soaring with the new students. Jubes squeezes past her new fans and wraps an arm around Marie, "Still it’s nice to see that even you can have a bad night."
Folding her arms, Marie glares at Jubes playfully, "What am I, some kind of a robot?"
Kitty cheerily skips up to them, she smiles at both of them before smirking at Marie, “Well, we did only recently learn about your real name… So it is entirely plausible-”
Suddenly Ava jumps on to Marie's back and pouts at them. Jubes and Kitty cover their mouths before laughing out loud. "No fair getting Ava on your side, Marie!”
“All’s fair in love and war.” Also laughing, Marie maneuvers Ava down from her back, and smoothes out the child’s ruffled dress. She pats her on the shoulder and gives Ava a smile and mock scowl at her friends, “At least you have my back, Ava.”
“Oh, hi!” The girls all turn around to see Leech standing there looking rather embarrassed and quite nervous. Behind him is the golden-haired and golden-skinned mutant they picked up at the mall, Josh. Leech does not seem to have too much variety in his choice of clothing. Marie smiles at the two boys, and her smile gets a bit wider when she notices a flush on Kitty’s cheeks. Maybe this Josh can help her forget about the mess with Bobby and Johnny.
“Hi, Jimmy,” All the girls greet in unison, with the exception of Ava who eyes them warily from beside Marie.
“Hi, Marie I-uh, umm, I was…” Leech takes a half step forwards while stuttering. It dawns on Marie that when Leech was talking about hanging out he, was actually serious. She’s been approached by many boys and some men since puberty, but never by someone as unassuming and anxious as Leech. She is not sure if she finds that charming or off-putting.
Before she can decide, Josh the type of boy she is used to dealing with steps up, “What my friend here is trying to say is that us new kids are having a party in a few days, to celebrate the end of this trip and he would love for you girls to come.”
When Leech just stands there nervously clutching at his shirt and avoiding eye contact, Josh nudges him in the shoulder, “Right, Jimmy?”
“Uh, right!” Leech practically jumps up and shouts, before meekly continuing, “I would love for you… uhh, all of you to come.”
Marie puts on a pleasant expression on her face. Might be because she pulled him out of the Lab, or perhaps her unique mutant powers, but Leech is crushing on her hard. He is a pleasant boy to be around, and there is the added benefit of being somewhat normal with him around, no powers, a lot less worry. Still, he obviously needs someone supportive and nurturing, and with all the complications in her life, she is not sure if she is up to the task. “I’m not sure…”
“Come on, Marie, it will be awesome!” Jubes exclaims in excitement. Why Jubes is so eager is obvious, her scuffle with Lorna has given Jubes a great reputation among this group. Not to mention how much Jubes can relate with everyone in that group.
“Please, Marie, we can’t go without you.” Kitty looks over at Marie, her eyes big and round. This is about as lively as she has seen Kitty in a while. Though granted she hasn’t been the most observant in the past few weeks.
She would love to go and support Kitty in her attempts to move past her troubles, but she is wary of adding any complication to her own life. She grimaces at her friends, “You two actually could go without me.”
“Leave you alone on the last night of summer?! Not a chance!” Jubes declares before dramatically grabbing both of Marie’s hands. “Please Marie you have to come.”
Marie tries but fails to hold in her laughter and she finally relents, “Fine, fine I’ll go.”
“Yes!” Jubes jumps up with a shout. She turns to the guys and gives them a thumbs up, “We will be there!”
Shaking her head with a smile, Marie sits back down and pulls Ava next to her. Looking off into the distance she starts to adjust the girl’s hair ribbons while listening to her friend’s lively conversation.
“Kitty!” A male voice calls from across the field, Johnny can be seen running towards them. Strangely enough, he is not surrounded by friends, not even Bobby. He stops about fifty feet away and looks silently at the girls, clearly something is bothering him. He can visibly be seen taking a deep breath before he speaks, “We really need to talk.”
Jubes stands up off the grass and glares at Johnny. While Kitty just looks nervously between Johnny and her friends. “Look, Johnny, I just need some time to decide.”
“I can’t wait much longer, Kitty.” It is strange for Marie to see Johnny to be so serious. Normally he would never let them gawk at him without a quip of some sort. Instead, he continues on, “It takes time to set things up.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kitty turns away and sighs.
Marie stares at Johnny’s back as he walks away before snapping her attention back to Kitty. “What was that about?”
Jubes walks up to Kitty and places a hand on her shoulder and asks quietly, “Is it about that night?”
Kitty shakes her head and brushes off Jubes’ hand, taking a few steps away, “No, it’s not like that…”
“Then what is it?” Jubes presses on, and even though Marie remembers talking with Kitty about this her reaction is leaving her a bit curious about what might have changed since they last spoke of this.
“I’d just rather not talk about it right now. I need some time alone to think, okay?” Looking back at the both of them Kitty flashes her friends a smile before heading back towards their residence.
“You think we should do something? I do.” Jubes whispers to Marie after she leans her head against Marie’s. “And by I do, I mean you should.”
Marie arches an eyebrow at Jubes in surprise. Jubes loves to meddle in these type of things and add to the fact that she has known Kitty longer, something is not quite adding up. Jubes sags under Marie’s gaze. “The whole Johnny thing seems to be a wedge for us.”
“Oh...” Marie simply nods in reply, not sure what she can say in the moment. Knowing what she knows, this is something Marie feels Kitty needs to work out herself. But that knowledge is not really something she can just decide to share with Jubes on her own.
Sitting in front of the mirror Marie slowly runs her favorite brush through her hair. Tomorrow is the last day here and in a way she actually dreads returning to school. She is much more in her element here at the retreat, not to mention back at the mansion Logan’s absence would be all the more pronounced. She had made a habit of seeking him out each morning if he was around. The change of routine for the last few weeks, did much to distract her from his departure.
“Hey, Marie, can we talk?” Kitty’s head pops into view through her door, a bit of nervousness showing on her face.
Marie looks away from her vanity and sets her hairbrush down. “Kitty? Something wrong?”
“Well…” Kitty plops down onto Marie’s bed and tries to smiles at her, “Yes and no.”
Intrigued Marie spins her chair around and gives Kitty her full attention. “It’s about Johnny right? You made a decision?”
Kitty looks away sheepishly, “Actually, there is more with me and Johnny than I’ve been letting on. But that's not exactly it.”
“Then Bobby?” Marie taps a finger against her cheek, trying to help Kitty along offering another scenario she thought would be plausible. “He found out about that night?”
“No, no…” Kitty takes a deep breath, sitting up, clenching her fists and spills it out all in one breath. “Okay, I was sent here by the Morlocks to spy on the school and Johnny is here to get me back to them.”
“What?” Marie was not quite certain she heard her friend correctly and had to make sure. She looks directly at Kitty, “Morlocks?!”
Kitty sits there looking down at her hands, and nods. “Yeah… Morlocks.”
“But they’re practically considered terrorists.” Marie’s mind quickly races over everything she knows about the Morlock and finds her knowledge lacking. Besides scattering news reports that make them out like some kind of a mutant gang, she has no insight into them, not even her other past. “And why would you…”
“It’s stupid… I wanted Johnny to like me.” Kitty flashes Marie a wry smile.
“Really?!” Of all the reasons she might have expected from Kitty this was honestly not one of them. Of course, Kitty just seems so sensible, and not to mention that Marie herself made the same mistake.
“I said it was stupid. He was different when I first knew him, guess I was too. The first mutant boy I ever laid my eyes on. I met him just, before high school. In fact, it was a few days after I found out I was a mutant.” Kitty looks back at Marie again and smiles sadly. Marie walks over to her and sits down on the bed next to her. She reaches over and holds her hand. Kitty gives Marie’s hands a squeeze. “My world sort of fell apart. Everyone looked at me weird. All my friends stopped hanging out with me. I got really pissed off, started doing stupid shit.”
“That’s when Johnny came along. And well...” Kitty smirks at Marie with a twinkle in her eyes. “We kinda hooked up, I just didn’t know he was a Morlock then.”
“Kinda?” Marie is not sure why she focused on that word, perhaps it might be useful to describe whatever it is she thinks she shares with Logan.
“Yeah, kinda.” Kitty did not elaborate. Knowing it is not the most important part of her story, Marie did not press the issue. “Anyhow eventually I found out, and he convinced me to join up too. They basically sent me straight to the school. Must have figured I’d have the easiest time to get in.”
Marie cannot believe that her friend Kitty, the model student, managed to fool them all so long. Even the Professor. “How long did you spy for them? Wait, are you still spying for them?”
“No! Of course not, I haven’t for about two years now. I really grew to like the place, and I just stopped reporting in.”
“Then they sent Johnny. They want you back,” Marie stated the obvious but sometimes it is good to lay everything out on the table and know where everyone stands.
Kitty nods, her fingers worry over her own palm, “Yeah, he held them off for as long as he could, but she’s all out of patience now.”
“Johnny is helping you?” That came as a surprise to Marie, Johnny did not seem to be the overly sentimental type, at least not the one she remembers.
“Yeah, he was, is way more serious about us than I am. I wish I treated him better than I did.” Regret is evident on Kitty’s face, and it gives Marie flashbacks to the Kitty of her other life. It makes Marie want to help her friend, but she would not know where to begin giving advice on such a subject.
Rather than diving down a hole she has no idea how to get out of, Marie focus on a subject she could do something about. “Who is still after you then?”
“Callisto. She is the leader of the Morlocks.” Kitty meets Marie’s gaze again and she can see the fear in her eyes. “She is the one I’ll need help with.”
Marie nods, Kitty’s reaction is rousing a sense of trepidation and excitement within her as well. A totally unknown and dangerous adversary, she is even looking forward to the meeting in a way. “You need to let Jubes know then we go to the Professor and deal with it together.”
Kitty suddenly stands up almost like she is afraid Marie would leave right now to talk with Jubes. She wrings her hand nervously. “I know I should but I just don’t know how yet. Jubes loves Xavier like a father, he literally pulled her out a mall garbage dump. If she found out, she’d never forgive me.”
Marie must admit that she is more than a little bit hurt that Kitty has been lying to her all this time. “Okay, then why me, why now?”
“Why you? Come on, Marie. If anyone would understand I figure it would be you.” Kitty seems almost surprised at her question. “Your mother probably sent you here to keep an eye on things, right?”
“Right, good point.” Marie can’t deny that possibility, she knows how much money her momma has poured into this school. And considering that Marie tells her basically everything she might not even need to be obvious about gathering the information she needs. “So what is the plan then?”
Soon as Marie agrees Kitty seems to regain a bit more of the girl Marie knows, and rattles off her plan counting on one hand. “I want to wait till Johnny is safely a way, then I’ll talk to Jubes and go to the Professor”
Marie nods in agreement, it is a logical plan, except for one thing. “Except we all go see the Professor together.”
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Chapter End Notes:
Up next, more with Kitty.