By: Kelly
“Guess what everybody!” said Kitty excitedly at the breakfast table. She had just gotten an e-mail from her mother and she was dying to share. No one even looked mildly interested, the professor was buried in the morning newspaper, Logan was eating those meat-by-product stuffed pig intestines he liked to call sausages, Scott and Evan were engaged in a deep conversation over this year’s Stanley cup hopefuls, and Ororo and Jean were talking about something to do with genetically altering food.
The professor looked over the top of his paper and said simply, “I invited them Kitty, I’m glad you’re happy.” After which he went back to reading.
“Who deed you invite, professor?” asked Kurt languidly, porting in. Kitty noticed that his tail hung limply out behind him and his yellow eyes lacked their usual spark.
Professor Xavier looked up at the team, “Everyone, Kitty’s parents are going to be joining us at the institute this weekend to check that Kitty is comfortable and happy here.”
Everyone nodded politely and went back to their conversations except Kurt, who turned to Kitty, “They are staying at the institute?”
“Yeah, like, what’s wrong with that?”
“Do you really think they should stay here?” He noticed the look she was giving him, “Its just . . .ahhchoo!” He wiped his nose miserably, but she wasn’t going to give him any sympathy.
“Its just what Kurt? What are you trying to say?” It wasn’t like Kurt never bugged her, quite the opposite actually, but to question her parents . . .
“I’m not trying to say anysing, I’m just wor- -”
“You’re worried? About what?” she demanded angrily, the entire table was looking at them.
“You wouldn’t understand,” he shouted back, his voice hoarse, “I don’t need this, I’m outta here.”
He ported out, not even touching his breakfast. Kitty noticed this was strange from a guy who usually cleaned his entire plate and still stopped for a breakfast burrito, but she was too mad to really care. She got up from the table hastily and stormed up to her bedroom, slamming her door, to get ready for school.
Stupid Kurt, she thought, stuffing heavy books into her back-pack. Why does he always bug me? If it were someone else’s parents he probably wouldn’t care but just because its me he gives me a hard time. She stood in front of the mirror, brushing her hair. The silence of the upstairs was broken suddenly by the sound of someone retching. Kurt. Her heart softened momentarily but she shook it off, just because he was sick didn’t mean he had the right to be a jerk.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Where’s Kurt,” asked Evan, joining them at the lunch table.
“Dunno,” replied Scott, looking up from his Trigonometry book, “he hasn’t shown up yet. Kitty, Jean, what’s the cosine law again? Oh man, I’m gonna fail this test.”
“Little a squared equals little b squared plus little c squared minus two times little b times little c times cosine capital A,” replied Kitty absently, wondering where Kurt was herself.
“Thanks, you’re a life saver,” he said, scribbling it onto a piece of paper.
Normally, Kitty would have been ecstatic from even small praise like that from Scott, but today she was paying more attention to the figure that was making his way, head hanging, to their table. Kurt sat down next to Evan, placing his almost empty tray of food in front of him.
“Why so bummed, man?” asked Evan, looking at Kurt’s expression, and then his nearly empty tray, “Did you forget money for lunch? I’ve got some left over if you want.”
“No, but danke. I’m just not feeling very well.” He took a sip of his milk, and then set it back down, staring at it like it was pure evil, “Do you want this? I don’t think my stomach can quite handle it.”
“Sure,” said Evan excitedly, “I’m always up for some more moo juice. Why don’t you just go home, Kurt?”
“We’ve got that major test in European history right after lunch, remember Evan? It’s worth ten percent of our mark, I can’t miss it. You know what Miss McPhail said.”
“Right, oh well. You could always go home after that.”
“I probably will, I . . .” he trailed off, coughing. He put his hand to his mouth and practically ran to the bathroom.
Scott got up from the table, “I’m gonna go check that he’s okay. You guys stay here.”
Evan got up as well, “I’m going too.”
They sprinted after Kurt across the lawn and into the school. Jean began collecting up her books and everyone’s lunch trays and also got up from the table. She turned to Kitty, “Are you coming?”
“Why?” Kitty was still mad at him, he had no right to say what he did at the breakfast table.
“He’s a member of our team. We should show that we care about him.” She looked at Kitty as though her head was screwed on backwards.
“Right.”
~*~*~*~*~
They got into the school just in time to see Evan disappear into the mens bathroom. A short time later, Evan, Scott, and Kurt, looking pale and sweaty, emerged from the bathroom. Kitty noticed Kurt was leaning on Scott for support. Jean rushed right over, but Kitty held back, watching from across the hall.
“Oh, you poor thing,” said Jean, feeling his forehead, “I think Evan’s right, maybe you should go home and rest.”
“No, I’m fine, really,” he said coughing. He stood up shakily on his own, “It’s Friday, I’ll have all weekend to rest and I do really need to take this test.” The bell rang, he grabbed his backpack from Evan and headed down the hall, calling in a hoarse voice, “I’ll be fine.”
~*~*~*~*~
“Will Nurse O’Reilly please report to room 114? Nurse O’Reilly to room 114 please,” called a nasal voice over the P.A.
Kitty’s looked up from her novel. She had finished her trig. test about ten minutes ago, no one in the class had even finished yet, and was using her free time to read. Room 114 was the European History class, Kurt’s class. Had something happened? She scolded herself, what did she care? But that’s what was so annoying, she did care. If something happened to him she didn’t know what she’d do. But how was she going to see? Putting her novel down, and doing something she had never done before, lie to a teacher, said she had to go to the washroom.
“Okay,” he replied pleasantly, Kitty knew she was one of his favorite students, “Take all the time you need.” He signed her a hall pass and Kitty left the room, feeling strangely liberated. She had lied to a teacher. But she had no time to think about that, she would just nip down the hall, see that Kurt was okay, and head back to her class. She was almost to room 114 when she heard footsteps coming towards her. She just had time to duck into the locked and empty room 116, before the school nurse rounded the corner. She crouched below the window and listened.
The nurse knocked on the door, which was answered almost immediately by the flustered sounding European History teacher, “Come in, one of my students passed out.” They walked into the classroom and shut the door, Kitty could no longer hear.
She phased almost completely through the wall, so she could hear what was going on in room 114. There was the frantic conversation of students chattering everywhere. Kitty could make out the sounds of the teacher and the nurse.
“He was handing in his test, he put it on my desk, turned around, and just collapsed. His guardian has been contacted. They are going to send someone named Logan to pick him up, but until then, I think it’s best if he went to your room and rested.”
“Yes, probably. How old is he?”
“Either fifteen or sixteen. It’s a split class.”
“What’s his name?”
“Uh . . . Cameron or Chris or something. . . he’s only been in my class for a little over 2 weeks.”
A third voice joined them, “It’s Kurt, Kurt Wagner.” (Kitty gasped) “Is he going to be okay?”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Mr. uh . . .”
“Daniels. It’s Evan.”
“Well, Evan, are you finished your test?”
“Yep, checked and double-checked.”
“Then can you help nurse O’Reilly take Kurt down to the nurses room.”
“Sure no prob.”
The nurse left the room and returned shortly after, carrying something with her. She spoke again, “We’ll roll him onto the stretcher first, and then let’s lift on three. One . . . two . . three.”
Kitty heard Evan grunt a little, followed by the classroom door opening and closing. She quickly phased out of the classroom, and followed them, ducking into the empty janitor’s closet right next to the nurses room. She stood on a shelf and watched from a vent near the ceiling.
She could see the bed. Kurt was looking even paler than he had at lunch, and now seemed to be trembling. The nurse turned Kurt’s head to the side, and took his temperature with an ear thermometer. Thankfully, she was wearing gloves, so there would be no danger of her feeling anything fuzzy. She turned to Evan, “So, are you and Kurt really good friends?”
“Fairly good,” replied Evan, “I’m just new here, but, yeah. I get along well with Ni . . . Kurt.”
“Well, from what I can tell, your friend blacked out from a high fever. It really shouldn’t get over 104, depending on the person, and his is at 103.8.”
“Really? I told him he should go home.”
“I think he is now. His guardian will be here soon to pick him up, you can go back to class now if you’d like.”
“Would it be okay if I stayed until someone came to pick him up? I just feel bad leaving him here.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m just going to alert the attendance office to tell them he’s leaving and to direct his guardian to this room. You stay here as long as you like.”
“Okay.”
The nurse left the room and Evan moved closer to the bed, “Come on ‘crawler you gotta wake up,” his tone was quiet, almost pleading, “I don’t know how quick that nurse’ll be back, and what if she takes off her gloves, man?”
Kurt stirred and groaned, “Evan? What happened?” He held his head.
Evan smiled, “Great, you’re awake. You passed out in history, had us all scared. You shoulda seen the look on McPhail’s face,” he laughed, “it was classic.”
“Passed out?”
“Yeah, you handed in your test, turned around and fainted. The best thing is, if you do bad on the test, you’ll probably get to do it again.”
“Yeah,” said Kurt, leaning back on the pillow, “great.”
“Hey, it’s better than nothing, man.”
“True. But still, I’d . . .”
The door of the room opened again and the nurse came back in, followed by Logan. She was talking to him. The nurse looked at Kurt and smiled, “Excellent, you’re awake. Is this your care-giver, Kurt?”
Kurt looked at Logan for a second, and Kitty knew what he was thinking. It was weird to admit Logan was anybody’s care-giver, “Yeah, sure.”
“Alright, then you’re free to go with him. They had you sign the forms at the front office, right Mr. . . .?”
“It’s just Logan.”
“Okay, Logan. It’s probably best if you take him to the hospital, high-fevers could mean more than just a simple flu or cold.”
Kurt tried to stand, but couldn’t, so Logan picked him up, “Alright, I’ll do that,” he sniffed the air and looked up at the vent, “You better get back to class, Evan.”
Kitty took the hint. She climbed off the shelf and, waiting for Kurt, Logan, Evan, and the nurse to pass, phased out of the closet and hurried back to class.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
The team practically ran out of the finely detailed, red convertible as soon as Scott stopped it at the institute. After hearing Evan’s account, Kitty’s for the second time, they wanted to see how he was doing. They rushed up the steps and opened the front door, the professor and Logan were waiting for them.
“How’s Kurt?”“Is he okay?”“Where is he?”“Did he have to go to a hospital?”
Professor Xavier held up his hands, “He’s fine, he’s in his room sleeping. Ororo is with him at the moment, monitoring his fever which seems to be going down since he’s come home, it’s now at 102.7. I believe the school nurse was right when she told Logan that these fevers usually pass with fluids and sleep, so I’ll have to ask you to just leave Kurt alone and let him rest. Besides, we have guests to prepare for.”
Kitty had almost forgotten about her parent’s visit.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
They; Scott, Jean, Evan, Kitty, and Ororo(who left Kurt’s room at about 5:00 when his fever dropped again to 100.7); were sitting in the den, watching T.V. and waiting for Logan to return with her parents. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like it was going to happen. The weatherman was talking about a huge storm band moving over the Chicago area, bringing large amounts of snow.
Logan returned from the airport, soaking wet. The rain was getting worse outside, and it was starting to freeze. “All flights from Chicago are cancelled, they’ve got a huge snowstorm, no planes can get in or out. It’s getting pretty bad outside here, too.”
The phone rang, and Scott picked it up, “Hello . . . . .uh, Kitten? Oh, Kitty, sure, just a sec. . .” He looked up from the receiver at her, “It’s for you.”
She grabbed the phone, “Hello?”
“Hi, Kitten. How’s my little girl?”
“Fine, dad. How are you and mom doing?”
“Oh, we’re fine too. Trapped at the airport, though.”
“Yeah, I heard about the snowstorm on the news.”
“I wish we could come see you.”
“Me too. I wanted you to meet all my friends. I’m sure you could come some other time.”
“Yes, I’d like that. We have to get going. There’s a line up for the pay phone. You’re mother wants to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye Kitten.”
“Bye dad.”
“Good-bye dear, take care.”
“You too, mom.”
“*click*”
Kitty sighed and hung up the phone. Her parents would never come, they were always too busy. That’s why she was so happy when her mother sent her the e-mail that said they were coming. She looked at her watch, it was 7:30, “You know guys, I’m kinda tired. I think I’m going to head up to my room.”
Jean looked at her, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” she smiled, she didn’t want to seem too disappointed, “I’m just tired.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kitty watched the rain splatter against her window, lost in reflection. Nobody knew what she was going through, she barely saw her parents when she lived with them, and now she was lucky if they called her once a week. All she had were her friends from school and the institute.
Kitty wondered if they were ashamed of her, having a freak for a daughter. They were so normal, too normal almost. Living the American dream in the heart of suburbia, the husband’s the provider, the wife stays at the home that has a two car garage and 1.4 children. And then their precious little kitten fell through the ceiling, and all hell broke loose in their bubble of perfectness. A daughter who could walk through walls just didn’t fit into their ideal little world. Kitty sometimes wondered if they sent her to the institute just to get rid of her.
And what about her friends from school? Would they still like her if they knew that she was a mutant, a freak? Her only true friends were those at the institute, Evan, Jean, Kurt and Scott. She smiled. Scott. He and she were meant for each other, he just didn’t know it yet. She was barely sure he knew she existed. She pictured his chestnut hair, sculpted features, and muscular body. And he was so in control, so together, so . . . perfect. He hardly ever fooled around.
Not like Kurt, the other source of her misery. He was always picking on her, porting next to her unexpectedly, flirting, doing stupid things, just generally bugging her. She should have hated him, wanted to hate him, and yet . . . there was something about him. The way his eyes sparkled when he teased her, his friendly smile, his willingness to always help out, the way he always picked up when something was bothering any member of the team, . . . the way he looked at her. She couldn’t help but want to be his friend. That wasn’t the problem. She couldn’t help but want to be something more. Why had she flipped out on him this morning? He’d been feeling so horrible, and something was obviously worrying him about her parents, but she hadn’t even bothered to find out. She just yelled at him.
She checked her watch, it was quarter to nine. He was probably still awake, she wondered if she should go apologize to him. Setting her resolve, she decided she would. But first she would slip down to the kitchen to make him something her mother used to make her when she was sick.
~*~*~*~*~*
She approached the bed in the cold moonlight. He was turning fitfully, fighting with the covers. Kitty called out to him, “Kurt? Kurt, are you awake?” He opened his eyes slightly. He sat up and looked at her, perplexed. Kitty thought he looked incredible cute when he furrowed his brow like that.
“Keety, what iz wrong? Why aren’t you wiss your parents?” he asked her, his voice sounded hoarse and sleepy, and Kitty felt bad about waking him.
“They were tired, the flight from Chicago was like, totally brutal. Especially with all the layovers and stuff. They went to bed. Did I wake you up? It’s only like nine o’clock, I’m sorry, I thought you’d still be awake.” So, she lied about her parents. She didn’t want to trouble him with her own problems. He fell back on his pillow, closing his large, expressive eyes. He was shivering. Kitty couldn’t help feeling bad for him.
“No, itz fine. What are you doing here?”
“I came to see how you were doing,” and to apologize, she added silently, “The flu can be like, a total bummer. What happened to your fire? Its freezing in here.” She knew she was skirting the whole reason she came here, but she couldn’t help it, she couldn’t just blurt out that she was sorry and also in love with him. She set down the tea and walked over to the fire, poking at the embers and adding more kindling and logs.
“Itz fine, Keety,” called Kurt from the bed, but she had to clear her thoughts. She resolved not to tell him tonight, just apologize, it would be better that way.
“There, that’s better.” She walked back over to the bed and watched Kurt open his eyes a little, staring at the flickering fire.
“Danke.” His voice had almost cut out completely, and she noticed a small waste-basket of phlem next to the bed. Her stomach turned slightly, but she wasn’t just going to leave him here alone.
“So, how are you doing?” She sat down on the corner of his bed and felt his forehead, it was hot and sweaty, even through the thick blue fur. “Oh, you’re burning up. Hold on just a second.”
She rushed to the bathroom and wet a face-cloth that was hanging over the towel rack with cold water. She rung it out and hurried back, Kurt was still lying in bed, but he had closed his eyes again and was clutching his stomach. She sat back down on the corner of the bed, and gently ran the cloth over his forehead. He cleared his throat.
“Keety?”
“Yes Kurt?” she answered. What was wrong?
“Don’t go again.”
“I won’t, I’m right here. It’s alright.” She ran her hand over his cheek as she spoke, hoping to make him feel safe, secure, loved, like he made her feel. “I brought you something to drink.”
“Vas?”
“Tea with honey,” she answered. He opened his eyes in surprise, now was her chance. “Kurt, I’m sorry about this morning, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I shouldn’t have flipped out like that. Can you forgive me?” she blurted out, looking him straight in the eye.
“Of course. Itz not your fault. I should’ve told you from the beginning why I was upset over it.” He looked away from her, staring at the ceiling, “I didn’t want your parents to know I was a freak,” he admitted, looking ashamed.
“Oh, Kurt,” she was taken aback, she wasn’t expecting that, “You’re not a freak. How can you say that about yourself?”
“When you look like I do, how can I not?” he asked, taking the tea out of her hand. His hands brushed against hers.
“Your hands are ice cold Kurt. When was the last time someone took your temperature?” She noticed he kept rubbing the left side of his stomach and groaning.
“Around 5 or so. Why?” he asked through chattering teeth.
“Can I take it again?” He was starting to really worry her, he was shivering violently now. She grabbed the thermometer and gently inserted it in his ear. The machine beeped after five seconds, but she couldn’t read it in the near dark. She flicked on the light and Kurt moaned in protest, covering his eyes. She turned it off again, watching his body convulse underneath the sheets, and rushed to the bath room. His loud, anguished moans followed her and she searched the wall in a panic for the light switch. She finally found it, Kurt’s groans echoing in her ears, and held the thermometer up. It read 105.7EF. The moans stopped. Kitty ran back into the room, Kurt was lying on top of his sheets, curled into the fetal position. He was throwing up a green, acidy goo that looked like it was mixed with blood. She screamed for help. People came into the room, asked her questions, but she was totally transfixed on poor Kurt, lying on the bed in so much pain and distress. And she couldn’t do anything.
THE END
This was not exactly WAFF. You actually feel really bad. This is the second in the trilogy, next time you’ll find out what happens to poor Kurt. I feel so bad leaving it like this. How can Kurt go to the hospital being a mutant? Will he die? Will Kitty reveal her true feelings? It’s like some deranged soap opera. Anyway, I hope you liked it, R&R please, or I swear I’ll leave it as a cliffhanger forever muhahahahahaha. J/k even with no reviews I’ll continue. I seriously feel really bad leaving poor Kurt puking up stomach acid and blood. Awwwwwww. I’ll see you all at TWHFGAAOAITLOAFYOF part 3. Ttyl ^_^