xp_logs | Mundane confrontation part 2

It had been a good lesson, Kitty decided as she made her way back into the locker rooms, tossing a smile at Stevie. Between her weekly lessons here, Kurt's gymnastics classes, and the dance class at school, she could feel herself getting better, and Stevie had commented on it. "Good class," she said, nodding to one of the other girls.

Kitty had pealed out of her leotard and gotten her jeans on before the conversation across the room finally caught her attention.

"How's he doing? I heard he got pretty messed up by that horrible boy."

"John's alright. That mutie only blacked his eye. I heard Mickey had his nose broken though." The voice belonged to Karen, one of the town girls.

The shocked gasps covered the sound of Kitty's indrawn breath. Are they talking about...

"_I_ heard the little one had a face like a _snake,_" another girl commented with a dramatic shiver.

Artie?... they are... Kitty quickly pulled her sweater on, stuffing her dance clothes in her bag.

"Creepy..."

Kitty couldn't take it anymore. Zipping her bag shut she turned to face the girls. "What are you talking about?" she asked, working to control her voice.

"My brother John was _attacked_ by some muties at the mall the other day, can you believe it? I don't think they should be allowed."

"You don't think mutants should be allowed? You don't think they should be allowed what?"

"Well, they're monsters, _everybody_ knows that. They should all be locked up before they hurt anybody else," Karen's friend Sam joined in.

"They're monsters?" Kitty squeaked in surprise. "Where do you come up with that?"

"John said the one that attacked him was horribly ugly. Grey skin like a corpse." Karen shuddered. "And please, Kitty, don't _tell_ me you forgot about the way those mutants blew up the train station last year."

"Being ugly makes you a monster, does it?" Kitty snapped. "And yeah, I remember what happened at Grand Central. So because a few muntants made a mess" sorry Mr. Summers "they're all evil?"

"People aren't meant to have powers like that. It's against God. And _anyway,_ if they weren't evil why would they have attacked my brother and his friends? You haven't _seen_ him, Kitty, he's bruised all over his face and he has a sprained ankle."

Kitty scowled. "I think your brother's lying," she said, angry enough not to care. "I bet he started it, and I bet he gave worse than he got."

Karen gasped. "My brother wouldn't lie about something like that! You take that back or you're a mutie-lover!"

Outside the building, Jamie pulled smoothly into a parking space, taking advantage of being alone in the car to hum along with the radio. He bounced up the steps into the building as quickly as possible, hoping if he showed up early enough Kitty would still be in her leotard. *Mmm, leotard.*

Raised voices from the studio interrupted his momentary reverie, and he frowned, quickening his pace.

"I won't take it back!" Kitty yelled. "I don't care what you think about me. There's nothing wrong with being a mutant and anyone who's going to attack a little kid fucking deserves a couple black eyes!"

"Sounds about right to me," Jamie said, voice pitched as deeply as he could manage, as he walked up behind Kitty; he was maybe one or two growth spurts away from a really effective loom, but even at five-nine he was the biggest person in the room. "These girls having a problem, Kitty?"

Kitty turned, posture visibly relaxing at Jamie's presence. "Boy have they," she said, somewhat sarcastically. "Karen's poor brother John's got a black eye from a terrifying run in with a band of scary mutants in the mall..."

"Aww, that's a pity. I bet he just tripped right onto their fists, too." Jamie glowered at the girls. "Maybe you should run home and make sure he didn't slip into a coma, horrible injuries like that."

The girl in question bristled. "What do you know about it?"

"I know I'm a lot more worried about stupid punks who pick on little kids than I am mutants, and I know I really don't like gossipy little witches who scream at my girlfriend. Do _we_ have a problem?"
Karen and her group shrank back a little. Kitty was far more their size than this boy...

"Yeah, I didn't think we did." Jamie offered Kitty his arm. "Let's go, love. Air smells better at the ice cream place."

"Yeah," Kitty took his arm, but glanced at the girls, two of whom had started whispering.

"...mutie-lovers...ask Stevie..."

Kitty scowled. "Go ahead, ask her Meg. She's not going to kick me out of class, so if you don't like it you can go find another Olympic-ranked teacher."

Jamie speared them with his best glare (two parts Grandpa Madrox to one part Scott Summers) and walked toward the door, head held high. "You sure you won't get in trouble with your teacher?" he murmured once they were out of immediate earshot. "Want to talk to her before we go?"

"Yeah," Kitty whispered back, if only because she'd rather Stevie found out about all this from her.

"Well, you lead, then, I just followed the yelling. Man, if there was ever a time I wished I hit girls outside of self-defense class . . ."

"I'm just glad none of them wanted to take the first swing," she admitted, knowing her reflexes were probably too good to keep from phasing. Tugging on Jamie's arm she led the way to Stevie's office.

The office was neat, and clearly not used that much. Stevie was leaning against the empty desk, stretching. "Hey Kitty, what's up?"

"Did you hear the yelling?"

"Er, no. What happened?" she asked, turning to face them.

"Well, Karen et. al are kind of mad at me. Um, if the words 'mutie-lover' come up, don't be surprised."

Stevie blinked, then stared. "What?"

"Um, see, Karen's brother was part of a group that attacked a pair of mutants in the mall the other day, and she was whining about him having gotten hurt and I kind of told her to shut it."

Jamie stuck his hands in his pockets, hoping Kitty's teacher was as reasonable as she looked.

"I see..." Stevie said slowly.

"Yeah, so Karen's not real happy with me. And Meg said she'd come talk to you and I said you weren't going to kick me out of class for standing up to them and saying that attacking kids wasn't right even if they were mutants and um, is that ok?"

Stevie blinked again, but quickly said, "Of course. I'll talk to Karen too, if you want."

Kitty shrugged. "Don't know if it'd help or not. I just wanted you to hear it from me... especially since she's saying her brother was the one attacked and not the other way around."

"Ok..." Stevie looked curious now. "How do you know..."

Kitty blushed, then glanced back at Jamie. "Um, well, the boys who were attacked kind of go to my school."

"Two of 'em are my roommates," Jamie added. "Artie's only ten, and he wouldn't hurt a fly." He smiled uncertainly and offered his hand. "Um, Jamie Madrox? You'll probably hear about Kitty's awful boyfriend later? All I did was glare at 'em, I promise."

Kitty smiled faintly as Stevie held out her hand. "Nice to meet you Jamie. Call me Stevie, everybody does. Look, Kitty, don't worry. I'll deal with Karen if she tries to start anything, and hey," she smiled. "You can always come talk to me if you want, about anything."

Kitty smiled back. "Thanks Stevie. Er, we should probably get back to the school," she added, glancing at Jamie.

"Yeah, they're kinda strict about going off-campus. Nice to meet you, Stevie."

"You too. I'll see you next weekend Kit."

"Yep," she said with a smile. Turning she grabbed Jamie's hand, tugging at it.

Jamie followed her out with a last wave for Stevie. "We're still going to the ice cream place first, though, right? I'm kinda hungry. But we don't have to if you don't want to."

"Nah, I'd like to. Be good to relax."

"Yeah, definitely. I dunno how Piotr does it, that looming stuff takes it out of you. You didn't mind, did you? I mean, obviously you coulda taken 'em if you wanted to, I just thought maybe I could save you the work. Plus, y'know, they made me mad."

She smiles up at him, then goes up on point to kiss his cheek. "Knight in shining armor... I like it."

Jamie grinned. "Well, okay then. Transport and victuals await, milady."

"Lead on, good sir."