LOG: Jennie and Forge, It's a bit late...
Sep. 27th, 2005 10:15 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsWhen Jennie can't sleep, she wanders to the rec room for some late night television. Instead of the creepy blinky kid, she runs into Forge.
Jennie sighed and looked at the clock. Almost 1 am. She turned back to her computer and frowned. She couldn't remember writing this last paragraph. She highlighted it and hit the delete button. 'I should be in bed' she thought to herself. But she was too antsy to sleep, and she could hear Meggan snoring from the room next door.
Jennie hit save on the text document and got up. Something was bothering her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It was like trying to remember a word and knowing that you should know it, and you do know it, but can't quite remember it. Jennie reached down and picked her jeans up from off the floor. She pulled them on and stumbled towards her door. 'Maybe see what was on late night tv?' She slipped out of her suite quietly and padded down the hallway in her bare feet.
Forge looked up at the noise of footsteps. Marking his place in his Civics textbook, he perked his head up from where he'd been laying on the couch, reading by the light from one of the small lamps. Studying was easier when he didn't have to worry about waking up Kyle, and since he wasn't tired, he figured that the time ought not to be wasted. Besides, how hard could three weeks of Civics be?
Jennie noticed the light in the rec room from down the hall. She could see the back of Forge's head peeking up from behind the couch. Silently as she could, she padded next to the couch. "Hey." She said, resting her chin on the back of the couch. "Whatcha doin?"
Tilting his head and looking over the back of the couch, Forge smiled
slightly, holding up his textbook. "Civics, with Xavier," he
announced. "Required senior year class. What're you doing up? Can't
sleep?"
"Nope. All restless-like. Plus, I can hear Meggan sawing away in the next room." After Forge raised his eyebrows, she amended herself. "I mean, she doesn't so much snore as well, wheeze, loudly. And I can't for the life of me tune it out." She reached out and tapped the textbook. "So, this is your one regular class, I take it?"
"That it is," Forge agreed, closing the book and stretching out on the
couch. "Managed to pull two correspondence classes and two independent
study classes. I guess I caught Ms. Maximoff at the right time to
approve my schedule. And I hear you about the snoring. When Kyle's not
trying to attack my foot like a guard dog and steal my shoe, he snores
like a jet engine."
Jennie giggled. "Well, look at it this way. He's housebroken, and you'll never have to ask your parents for a dog."
Forge shrugged. "Kyle's good people. And one of the nice things about
being here is that I don't have to ask my parents for anything."
"Do you still talk to yours, then?" Jennie stretched her arms out and yawned broadly. It seemed like everyone at Xavier's was either an orphan or was missing a parent or had parents who disowned them, with the notable exception of Jamie and Kitty, the Disgustingly Normal Couple.
A short laugh answered that one. "Still? I just started a few months
ago. You may not have heard the rumors, but I can be a little
difficult to get along with. My parents and I..." Forge laced his
fingers together and sat up. "Since I could walk, I never thought they
gave a damn. I didn't talk to them, because I thought they didn't
listen to me. You can see where this little cycle ends up."
"Difficult? You?" Then again, Jennie's brain tended to run the same circles as Forge's. Although, she would be off finding number coincidences while he was curing cancer. "I actually can't see where that cycle would lead. Course, my mother actually *didn't* give a damn."
"I think it took them sending me here to get some perspective. They
love me, I'm their son. They weren't the world's best parents. I
wasn't the world's greatest kid. We're working on that." He sat up
fully, leaning over the back of the couch by Jennie. "When's the last
time you talked to your mom?"
Jennie thought. And thought. "Spoken with her? Like actually talked?" Jennie thought some more. "I can't really remember. She threw me out of the house when I was almost 15 because she caught me and my boyfriend together, and that just involved her screaming at me. But, geez. I don't know." She shrugged.
For a small moment, Forge envied Doug's power to interpret that shrug.
Regret? Acceptance? Apathy? "Call her," he suggested. "What's the
worst that could happen? More screaming? You can hang up the phone.
Whenever my mom gets on a ramble, I just hint that I might have a
girlfriend. Sends her into a fit of squealing I haven't heard since
Clarice saw a three-for-one shoe sale. There you go," he smiled, "tell
your mom you have a girlfriend. That's my suggestion."
Jennie laughed. "Maybe." Calling her mother would mean actually finding out where she was. "Who knows? Maybe she's forsaken drugs and become a nun."
Pausing in opening his textbook, Forge wrinkled his nose and shook his
head. "Too cliché. How about... arms dealer for the Russian mafia?
That's a lot more interesting than a nun."
"Mmmmm. Long as she doesn't sell anything to the Turks, I'd be okay with that," She laughed at Forge's quizzical look. "It's a genetic thing. I'm Greek, we're bred to hate the Turks. Well, half-Greek anyway. I think."
"Hmm," Forge mused. "So you're either fated to take over HALF of the
known world, create HALF a republican system of government, or only
draw sorta-gay pictures on urns." Dodging a playful swat, Forge
laughed. "I'm kidding. I take it you're guessing on your dad's
ethnicity, then? Stavros sounds vaguely Greek. I..." he paused for a
moment. "Sorry, I'm not really helpful lately in helping track down
family stuff. But if you want to find your mom, let her know you're
okay, folks here can help."
"Well, Stavros is my mother's name actually. I know she's a naturalized citizen, but I don't know if I have any family in the homeland." She said the last word using her fingers as quotations marks. "As for my dad, well, let's just say I'm a statistic when it comes to that. I have theorized that I could be a half a Kennedy." Jennie drummed her fingers on the couch top. "Well, you have to admit, you found Catseye's family with just a phone number. Catseye told me, by the way. I mean, sucks that they're FOH, but her brother's really nice, and very cute." She said the last with a slightly misty grin. "But you'll remember, I have ties to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. I can probably ask the guy who's watching over me to have some minions look for her or something."
"Witness Security, right." Forge had remembered Jennie mentioning it
once or twice. "Well, aside from the aforementioned commando raids,
one of which I was here for, and the demon invasions, neither of which
I was here for, it's pretty secure here. The FBI sure tossed you into
the right briar patch, that's for sure."
"Well, before, I had a lot of trouble with my probability stuff. I would randomly cause bad things to happen. Makes it kind of hard to protect a witness that keeps making things explode or sending people to the hospital. Being here, bad shit happens already, so it kind of evens everything out." Jennie smiled and yawned again. "Jesus. I should be in bed."
With a knowing smile, Forge just nodded. "You folks and your crazy
need for more than two hours of REM sleep. I tell you, this whole
diurnal sleep cycle's a crazy fad. Like the appendix and platform
shoes."
"I don't know why you don't like sleep. It's so nice and comfy, snuggled up in blankets. When you feel like sleeping that is." Jennie wandered over to the tv wall of doom. "You don't mind if I watch something until I get sleepy, do you? I'll keep it on low."
"It's not that I don't like sleep, I love it," Forge explained, "I
just don't have to. Well, as much. You know that one creepy little
kid? The blinky kid who screws with the channels when he's pissed off?
He doesn't have to sleep. And he's crazy. Me, I'm perfectly sane."
Jennie looked over her shoulder with a wide-eyed expression. "That kid
scares me. I don't know why, he's just kind of off." Jennie flicked the tv on and turned the volume on low, just to where she could barely hear it, and settled on the chair next to Forge's couch. "I'm very happy he's decided to stay in his room tonight."
"You're telling me. I don't want to know what an eleven-year-old finds on Cinemax at this hour." Forge shuddered.
"Mmm." Jennie nodded. "So you really think I should talk to my Mom?"
"I think you should talk to your Mom," Forge answered, glancing down
at his textbook. "Trust me, I know from experience. People can change
when you're apart from them for a while. Perspective, all that. Talk
to the Professor, he can make some calls, track her down, whatever.
It's a good idea."
"Yeah. We'll see." She said non-committal tone. Jennie didn't think for an instant her mother had really changed. But then again, you never did know. She settled back to watch a rerun of the Daily Show and tried to let Forge get back to reading, but he'd look up and offer a snide comment every now and then. Jennie smiled to herself. She felt like she could finally settle down and call this place home, and nobody could kick her out of it.
Jennie sighed and looked at the clock. Almost 1 am. She turned back to her computer and frowned. She couldn't remember writing this last paragraph. She highlighted it and hit the delete button. 'I should be in bed' she thought to herself. But she was too antsy to sleep, and she could hear Meggan snoring from the room next door.
Jennie hit save on the text document and got up. Something was bothering her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It was like trying to remember a word and knowing that you should know it, and you do know it, but can't quite remember it. Jennie reached down and picked her jeans up from off the floor. She pulled them on and stumbled towards her door. 'Maybe see what was on late night tv?' She slipped out of her suite quietly and padded down the hallway in her bare feet.
Forge looked up at the noise of footsteps. Marking his place in his Civics textbook, he perked his head up from where he'd been laying on the couch, reading by the light from one of the small lamps. Studying was easier when he didn't have to worry about waking up Kyle, and since he wasn't tired, he figured that the time ought not to be wasted. Besides, how hard could three weeks of Civics be?
Jennie noticed the light in the rec room from down the hall. She could see the back of Forge's head peeking up from behind the couch. Silently as she could, she padded next to the couch. "Hey." She said, resting her chin on the back of the couch. "Whatcha doin?"
Tilting his head and looking over the back of the couch, Forge smiled
slightly, holding up his textbook. "Civics, with Xavier," he
announced. "Required senior year class. What're you doing up? Can't
sleep?"
"Nope. All restless-like. Plus, I can hear Meggan sawing away in the next room." After Forge raised his eyebrows, she amended herself. "I mean, she doesn't so much snore as well, wheeze, loudly. And I can't for the life of me tune it out." She reached out and tapped the textbook. "So, this is your one regular class, I take it?"
"That it is," Forge agreed, closing the book and stretching out on the
couch. "Managed to pull two correspondence classes and two independent
study classes. I guess I caught Ms. Maximoff at the right time to
approve my schedule. And I hear you about the snoring. When Kyle's not
trying to attack my foot like a guard dog and steal my shoe, he snores
like a jet engine."
Jennie giggled. "Well, look at it this way. He's housebroken, and you'll never have to ask your parents for a dog."
Forge shrugged. "Kyle's good people. And one of the nice things about
being here is that I don't have to ask my parents for anything."
"Do you still talk to yours, then?" Jennie stretched her arms out and yawned broadly. It seemed like everyone at Xavier's was either an orphan or was missing a parent or had parents who disowned them, with the notable exception of Jamie and Kitty, the Disgustingly Normal Couple.
A short laugh answered that one. "Still? I just started a few months
ago. You may not have heard the rumors, but I can be a little
difficult to get along with. My parents and I..." Forge laced his
fingers together and sat up. "Since I could walk, I never thought they
gave a damn. I didn't talk to them, because I thought they didn't
listen to me. You can see where this little cycle ends up."
"Difficult? You?" Then again, Jennie's brain tended to run the same circles as Forge's. Although, she would be off finding number coincidences while he was curing cancer. "I actually can't see where that cycle would lead. Course, my mother actually *didn't* give a damn."
"I think it took them sending me here to get some perspective. They
love me, I'm their son. They weren't the world's best parents. I
wasn't the world's greatest kid. We're working on that." He sat up
fully, leaning over the back of the couch by Jennie. "When's the last
time you talked to your mom?"
Jennie thought. And thought. "Spoken with her? Like actually talked?" Jennie thought some more. "I can't really remember. She threw me out of the house when I was almost 15 because she caught me and my boyfriend together, and that just involved her screaming at me. But, geez. I don't know." She shrugged.
For a small moment, Forge envied Doug's power to interpret that shrug.
Regret? Acceptance? Apathy? "Call her," he suggested. "What's the
worst that could happen? More screaming? You can hang up the phone.
Whenever my mom gets on a ramble, I just hint that I might have a
girlfriend. Sends her into a fit of squealing I haven't heard since
Clarice saw a three-for-one shoe sale. There you go," he smiled, "tell
your mom you have a girlfriend. That's my suggestion."
Jennie laughed. "Maybe." Calling her mother would mean actually finding out where she was. "Who knows? Maybe she's forsaken drugs and become a nun."
Pausing in opening his textbook, Forge wrinkled his nose and shook his
head. "Too cliché. How about... arms dealer for the Russian mafia?
That's a lot more interesting than a nun."
"Mmmmm. Long as she doesn't sell anything to the Turks, I'd be okay with that," She laughed at Forge's quizzical look. "It's a genetic thing. I'm Greek, we're bred to hate the Turks. Well, half-Greek anyway. I think."
"Hmm," Forge mused. "So you're either fated to take over HALF of the
known world, create HALF a republican system of government, or only
draw sorta-gay pictures on urns." Dodging a playful swat, Forge
laughed. "I'm kidding. I take it you're guessing on your dad's
ethnicity, then? Stavros sounds vaguely Greek. I..." he paused for a
moment. "Sorry, I'm not really helpful lately in helping track down
family stuff. But if you want to find your mom, let her know you're
okay, folks here can help."
"Well, Stavros is my mother's name actually. I know she's a naturalized citizen, but I don't know if I have any family in the homeland." She said the last word using her fingers as quotations marks. "As for my dad, well, let's just say I'm a statistic when it comes to that. I have theorized that I could be a half a Kennedy." Jennie drummed her fingers on the couch top. "Well, you have to admit, you found Catseye's family with just a phone number. Catseye told me, by the way. I mean, sucks that they're FOH, but her brother's really nice, and very cute." She said the last with a slightly misty grin. "But you'll remember, I have ties to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. I can probably ask the guy who's watching over me to have some minions look for her or something."
"Witness Security, right." Forge had remembered Jennie mentioning it
once or twice. "Well, aside from the aforementioned commando raids,
one of which I was here for, and the demon invasions, neither of which
I was here for, it's pretty secure here. The FBI sure tossed you into
the right briar patch, that's for sure."
"Well, before, I had a lot of trouble with my probability stuff. I would randomly cause bad things to happen. Makes it kind of hard to protect a witness that keeps making things explode or sending people to the hospital. Being here, bad shit happens already, so it kind of evens everything out." Jennie smiled and yawned again. "Jesus. I should be in bed."
With a knowing smile, Forge just nodded. "You folks and your crazy
need for more than two hours of REM sleep. I tell you, this whole
diurnal sleep cycle's a crazy fad. Like the appendix and platform
shoes."
"I don't know why you don't like sleep. It's so nice and comfy, snuggled up in blankets. When you feel like sleeping that is." Jennie wandered over to the tv wall of doom. "You don't mind if I watch something until I get sleepy, do you? I'll keep it on low."
"It's not that I don't like sleep, I love it," Forge explained, "I
just don't have to. Well, as much. You know that one creepy little
kid? The blinky kid who screws with the channels when he's pissed off?
He doesn't have to sleep. And he's crazy. Me, I'm perfectly sane."
Jennie looked over her shoulder with a wide-eyed expression. "That kid
scares me. I don't know why, he's just kind of off." Jennie flicked the tv on and turned the volume on low, just to where she could barely hear it, and settled on the chair next to Forge's couch. "I'm very happy he's decided to stay in his room tonight."
"You're telling me. I don't want to know what an eleven-year-old finds on Cinemax at this hour." Forge shuddered.
"Mmm." Jennie nodded. "So you really think I should talk to my Mom?"
"I think you should talk to your Mom," Forge answered, glancing down
at his textbook. "Trust me, I know from experience. People can change
when you're apart from them for a while. Perspective, all that. Talk
to the Professor, he can make some calls, track her down, whatever.
It's a good idea."
"Yeah. We'll see." She said non-committal tone. Jennie didn't think for an instant her mother had really changed. But then again, you never did know. She settled back to watch a rerun of the Daily Show and tried to let Forge get back to reading, but he'd look up and offer a snide comment every now and then. Jennie smiled to herself. She felt like she could finally settle down and call this place home, and nobody could kick her out of it.
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