Strangers in an Even Stranger Land


The Test

They all stared at Bobby as he slowly distrubuted the test. For some reason it was making him very nervous.
He didn't want to do this anyway - today was his day off, he was going to spend it with a beautiful blond, and instead he was spending it with these six who had collective caused more trouble then most of their enemies.
Oh well, he mentally shrugged as he took his sip of coffee. He didn't see Jonathan suddenly duck his head , hiding what might have been a grin. He cleared his voice. "Begin"
No one moved - hadn't they heard him? "Go -on, start."
Moe raised her hand
"yes?"
"Can I have some loose leaf please?"
"huh? - But it's a multiple choice test!"
"So... Can I have some?"
Bobby was beginning to feel out of his depth. "Uhh, sure."
"Thanks." Moe took the paper from him carefully. "Not this piece - That one!
- It has to be every third one."
Bobby shook his head, humouring her.
"hey!!"
Bobby turned around to see Lexi staring at the piece of paper in confusion,
"hey - do we need a pencil or something?"
"You didn't bring a pencil?"
"Do I need one?"
"YES"
"Gotcha"
Jonathan listened his teamates, he knew what they were trying to do. They had promised Xavier they'd write it, but Xavier wasn't here. Oh well - he'd done his part.
"Do we have a time limit?" it was Moe.
Bobby gave his most reassuring smile, finally a question he could handle "don't worry about finishing it in the allotted time, you can take as long as you want. The suggested time is 2 hours though."
"Done!" Daemon shouted.
Bobby jumped, spilling his coffee. Done??! "Done what?"
"question # 1. DONE!"
"errr ... good for you." was he going to yell that out after each question? It didn't seem to be bothering anyone else though.
"DONE Again!" Daemon did a small victory dance.
Bobby felt another piece of reality slipping away.
"Sir, SIR I need more loose leaf!"
"but it's a MULTIPLE CHOICE test!" Bobby could feel himself losing it "Fill in the dots !!! What do you need paper for? What are you writting?"
"SHHHH" Moe hissed, frantically looking around her. "His spies are everywhere!" She glared at him like he was a dolt. "What are you trying to do " she demanded , outraged, "trying to get us all killed?!"
Bobby just gapped. They're all lunitics.
India grinned to herself. Her turn.
"Who are you talking to sir?"
Bobby turned on her in amazement.
"Your friend, sitting right there. Asking for Loose leaf"
"Do you feel all right?"
"Huh- yes - why"
"Well that's a bit unreal isn't it - who'd want loose leaf in an m.c. exam?"
"I don't know" Bobby admitted. Everything was blurring together.
"It just doesn't make any sense, does it?" India urged.
"No... I can't understand it." Bobby frowned worridly
"Dreams are hard to understand."
"They are... " Bobby agreed, "hey!" He perked up " Do you think this is a dream?"
"I don't know - could be"
Just then Lexi started humming, and then, pulling out a knife and fork started eating her exam. Bobby stared at her, and then at the others who seemed to find this totally normal.
Should he stop her? What would he say? This must be a dream.
"What should I do?" He asked India helplessly.
Triumphantly India slipped her test over to him, "Why don't you do this until you wake up?"
"yes yes." Bobby agreed, "I can do this, I really can."
"I know you can." And with that, India departed.
"Sir, sir -loose leaf!!"
But Bobby ignored her, he had to concentrate.
***************************************************************

Later that day, Jean called a meeting to discuss the results of the test.
"So ..' Beast prompted "How did they do?"
Jean paused, "The results were most unusual." Scott leaned forward, suddely interested - THAT didn't sound so good, he thought to himself gleefullyly.
"Well," Jean took a deep breath and made the plunge.
"Jonathan did fine, and India would have done quite well too, except for the fact that she somehow got Bobby to write it for her. And, as you should be happy to know, he increased his score considerably. As for Lindsey, well he got exactly the first half of the test completely right, and the second half of it completely wrong. Although he knew what the integral of a cosh function was, apperently 6 minutes later, he couldn't mulitple 5 by 7 to get 35. Daemon's test stumped me for a bit, Starting off well, and then slowly decreasing, unitl at the end he was getting everything wrong. This was worrisome until I found the empty bottle of rum attached to a 4 foot straw under his chair - which I felt - explained everything . Including his comment that it was - and I quote - "The best fucking exam I ever wrote."
As for Lexi?
Well, somehow her test seems to have been misplaced. We can't find it anywhere. As for Moe, she elected to write a phonical essay response, using only the letters a,b,c,d, and e. it is most.. unusual."
Now Jean had everyone's attention.
"Is that all?"
"Isn't it enough?" She shook her head ruefully, "also no one has seen Bobby for hours. They say they don't know where he is."
She shrugged 'Then again, they also said they had no idea how a particularly potent hallucinatory drug got into his coffee."
A voice drifted into the room through an open window " It's a woooonder feeeeeeeling," it sang off-key, "I'm ha-ha-happy agaaiiinnn..."
Logan looked out to see a naked man waltzing with a mop down by the lake.
"I think we've found Bobby."
"Oh good" Jean didn't look up.
"So what's the call? What are we going to do with them? Inroll them in GenX?"
Sean fought for control as he felt his heartbeat sky rocket. 'no no no no please' he silently prayed.
Scott's eyes lite up. "I know! We'll give them to Magneto!"
{SCOTT!}
'Okay.. okay... I honestly don't think he take them anyway. " Scott paused, as he felt his brian kick into overdrive.
And then with a long slow smile, he uttered one word:
"Cable."


'NUF SAID

On to Chapter Ten: The Delivery

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