xp_logs | Thanksgiving - [Jennie, Julio, Laurie, Angel, Marius, Kyle, Shiro, Scott, Garrison, and Cain]

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Before dinner, several of the students and some of the staff participate in a Thanksgiving tradition.

A football game.

It was a cold and very crisp day for Thanksgiving. While it was cloudy, the weather said there was no chance of rain or snow, which was good, as a certain headmistress was "out of town" for the moment. Which meant it was a perfect day for a game of football. The participants all gathered on the north lawn before dinner that afternoon to hand out sports equipment and to pick teams.

"Okay, boys and girls; I'm pretty sure that covers everyone here," Cain said, gesturing with the dark brown football he was palming with apparent ease. "The game is flag football, that means when you get one of those little streamers yanked off your belt, you're down. Don't go making some big hero tackle and breaking yourselves. I'm captain of team one, that means that the next oldest person gets to captain team two. I suppose that means we add our illustrious headmaster and the Mountie there together. Just to be fair." He smiled over at Garrison and Scott, tossing them the ball. "Who's up first?"

"I think that would be me," Scott said, catching the ball before Garrison could. "I hear they play a weird variety of football up there in the frozen north."

"Yeah, it's proper and challenging, unlike the slugs in the NFL." Garrison said, shrugging into a Roots sweatshirt with the trademark beaver on the chest. He was a little bitter that he had missed the Grey Cup driving back. "Roughriders. Golden Lions. Those are proper football team names."

Kyle was still twisting around to look at the streamer attached to the belt loop of his jeans. "At least you have a damn team. I get to pick between The Lions, the Packers or the Vikings. I say, Eff that. I'm rooting for the Steelers this year." he muttered.

Julio rolled his eyes. "It does not matter whose team is whose, let us just get started, please?" He crossed his arms over his long-sleeved soccer jersey, and tapped his foot impatiently. He would participate, even though he felt football was a mockery of proper sports.

Angel popped up from behind Julio and grinned at him. "At least it's a sport," she soothed, patting him on the back before edging out in front. In the spirit of the game, she was wearing one of her dad's old football jersey's from when he played in college. It was faded but obviously well loved. "Huzzah, football! Better than baseball any day!"

"Okay," Cain said, looking over the kids with a smile. "Gibney, you're with me. Just remember, no tackling, biting, punching, kicking - and keep yourselves on the ground, people. We're playing no-powers here, just for fun. What're you waiting for, Summers? It's your pick."

Several minutes later, after some more explaining of the rules to some of the non-Americans, and those that really didn't know much about football other than "hit the guy with the ball," the two teams lined up on the field facing each other. Scott's team won the coin toss, so they were currently in possession of the ball. Scott was aiming to toss the ball at Shiro, but somehow Jennie intercepted it. Which was slightly improbable, seeing as how she was several feet away from him and on the other team.

"Not my fault!" she yelled, trying to dodge Shiro before her flags were yanked off.

"I thought we said no powers," Shiro chided, waving the flag in Jennie's face before turning back to his team. "Or Mister Summers's arm is broken. What was that?" He was not going to admit that he was almost maybe somewhat enjoying himself. That just wouldn't be right. But casting derisions on others? That's fine.

"Hah, hah, Yoshida," Scott said a bit dourly, but grinned at the younger man. "Move faster next time. You got outrun by a girl."

"Hey now," Angel chided at Scott, hands on her hips, "there's nothing wrong with that. Jennie's just got, uh, long legs. Yeah, that's it. Wait, I'm rooting for the wrong team." Turning, she cupped her hands over her mouth, "No powers, missie! You hear me!" Turning back, she shrugged one shoulder, gave a lopsided grin and then went to join the rest of the team of the next set.

Kyle ducked his head back down in the huddle after watching the other team for a second. "Does it count as powers if I can hear what they're saying?" he asked. "Because I -totally- can. Sort of. Garrison's making fun of the NFL and trying to get Mr. Summers to agree to some weird Canadian tactic." He shrugged. "I say we just rush them."

"Nine times out of ten, wanton violence is the appropriate response," Marius replied, adjusting the cuff of rugby gloves that were not only getting their first airing since June, but actually serving their intended purpose as athletic-wear. "Although I feel compelled to warn you that if this daring stratagem necessitates in yet another trip to hospital in under a month there shall be an Unfortunate Incident."

Cain looked over at the other team. "Okay, Fancy Lad's going to go out ten and do a buttonhook. I'll fake to Lucky Girl, lateral to Gibney. Lucky blocks, Gibney does a reverse handoff to Fancy Lad, run for glory."

As the kids blinked in uncomprehending stares at Cain, the big man sighed. "Marius, run forward and turn around. I'll pretend to throw the ball to Jennie, and when they all run at her, I'll hand it to Kyle, he'll hand it to you, you run. Got it?"

"Hey, I understood it, don't sigh at me!" Kyle protested. "Not my fault!" He dug his toes into the ground to set himself and hunched down a little. "Ready when you are, boss."

"There is no way I'm trying to sack that quarterback." Garrison said, pointing at Cain. "He's the damn defensive lines of the Maple Leafs all in one. Anyone else got ideas on how to stop this play?"

"We could pick up Angel and throw her at Mr. Marko, as a distraction? She is tiny enough," Julio said, dodging a swat from the younger girl.

Scott shook his head. "No throwing your teammates - it hurts morale." He gave quick, efficient instructions, matching up each of the kids with someone relatively close to their own height on the other team. "Garrison?" he said, grinning at the other man. "You get the big guy. I want to see how creative you can be..."

"Yeah, lemme go get my car. That might slow him down, eh?" Kane shifted to cover Marko, looking a little dubious. "Or he might end up eating it instead."

"Dude, if he eats it, can I video tape it? I'd get tons of hits on YouTube." Angel eyed where Marius was and then got into place since there was no way she was going to be able to take care of Kyle. It'd take a herd of monkeys or something.

Cain leaned down over the ball, glancing over to Kyle and Marius, then nodding as he shouted "Hike!" and backpedaled swiftly. Noticing Garrison cautiously watching him, he taunted the Canadian by wiggling the ball out towards him, before faking a pass to Jennie, then flipping the ball right under his armpit to Kyle. As Garrison skidded to a stop in front of him, Cain merely shrugged, pointing downfield to where Kyle flipped the ball to a still-confused Marius, who had a small redheaded missile headed right for him.

"RUN! You twitchy little idiot, run!" he bellowed downfield to Marius.

American football might have been a bit of a foreign concept but apparently running was not. Angel yipped as Marius took off and lengthened her own stride. Swimming every day to the exclusion of having a normal morning routine meant she had muscles to call on and she caught up with him faster than most had expected. The flag was nearly in reach, waving wildly from his belt.

It was just her luck that as her fingers touched it, Marius did some funky Aussie twisty turn--probably more along the lines of tripping--and Angel found herself slamming right into him. Someone yelped as their momentum sent them tumbling to the ground in a pile of limbs and a football. It took her less than a second to realize that she had her hand on his butt and a wave of embarrassment flooded through her.

It was, however, a very nice butt.

Jennie pounded up behind them, having shook off Shiro this time. She took one look at her friend's predicament and sighed. "Special hell, you're going to the special hell," she chided and then reached to pull Angel up by her jersey. Only to yelp and jump back as Angel suddenly caught both herself and Marius on fire.

Marius knew what it was like to burn, and this . . . wasn't like that. There was a tingle as Angel's power brushed his skin. A tingle, and fire.

As the small girl jumped back stammering apologies before immediately rushing forward again to bat at the flames Marius raised his hand and stared at the blue flame crawling harmlessly over skin and cloth -- which then abruptly sputtered and died.

"Huh," Marius said. And then, after far too long a moment, "Ah . . . Angel, no worries, I appear to be evincing some peculiar immunity. An' consequently you can probably stop tryin' to put out the daks now."

"Shit! You little twerps set my lawn on fire and..." Cain stomped over to the pile of teenagers, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw the flames wash over both Marius and Angel, then vanish just as abruptly. "Well. Huh. No harm, no foul." He looked over at the other stunned players, then gave the thumbs-up. "They're okay. But I'm pretty sure flags are out the window."

He dragged Marius up to his feet, looking around at the other players. "Who wants to make this really interesting?"

Scott was staring, slightly taken aback, at the sight of what had to be one hell of a weird powers interaction. All right, something to mention to Charles... He turned his attention, somewhat warily, to Cain. "What did you have in mind?"

"Two-hand touch, powers on. These kids know what they're doing, Summers. You're down by a touchdown, you need every bit of help you can get." Cain smiled widely, placing the ball firmly on the ground. "They don't look scared. Give it a go."

--

Half a minute later, Kyle bounced on the balls of his still-bare feet, biting off the ends of the tape he'd been wrapping the ends of his fingers in. Powers on or not, his claws were damn sharp, and he wasn't about to put big gouges in anyone's flesh but his own. "Okay... so, the girls do a double-slant play. Run the field. Mr. Marko does a hail mary pass to one of them, and Marius and I keep the other team off them. That work?" He paused at the blank stares, and looked up at Cain. "Okay, you gotta translate. I got nothing. It makes sense to me."

Cain rolled his eyes. "Laurie and Jennie, run diagonally and cross in the middle of the field. Marius, follow Jennie and make like you're going to protect her. Kyle, block for Laurie. Laurie, I'm going to throw to you. Ready, break."

"Why does it always get faked to me? I can catch the ball," Jennie grumbled. She saw the look Marius was giving her. "What? I can. Not using my powers even." She held up her hands innocently, then she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Be bait. I better not get sacked."

"Ah, but is there any more enticing a player?" Marius smirked. He wasn't going to question what experience had led to the staff deciding it might be useful to keep a supply of emergency pants on hand specifically in case of powers-accidents, but if there was any truth in rumours of the state a certain RA was reoccuringly seen in after missions perhaps this warranted more investigation. "No worries, my love, for I shall protect you. For approximately the thirty seconds it shall take to lull the other side into a false sense of security as per our brilliant strategy, and then you're on your own."

Jennie put a hand to her chest and fluttered her eyelashes like a heroine in those 1920's serials. "My hero," she sighed dramatically. The girl crouched and waited for Cain to yell "Hike!" before she took off running, dodging Laurie and then turning, holding out her hands and making like she was going to catch the ball, watching Shiro out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh no, not this time," Shiro muttered, running towards Jennie to intercept the ball, easily weaving around Marius to get to her. As Cain pulled back to throw the ball, Shiro jumped . . . and landed empty-handed. "Oh, God damn son of a . . ." The curse died on his lips, and he threw himself across the field towards Laurie to stop her. He wasn't going to hear the end of this.

It was at this point that Laurie looked back over her shoulder and saw Shiro heading towards her at full belt. Eyes widening, she made a small jump to catch the ball Cain had thrown at her and then took off with all the speed she could manage.

"I am a leaf in the wind, watch how I soar." Laurie quoted to herself, starting to duck and weave from side to side.

Julio came at Laurie from the other side, using his smaller size and soccer training to whip around Kyle, running after Laurie. He knew he was only supposed to use "touch" but he wasn't quite sure how much of touch he was going to have to use, so he reached out and grabbed hold of her sweatshirt. Only he overstepped and ended up tackling her to the ground.

"Ow," he said eloquently from the ground, Laurie's foot lodged somewhere in his ribs.

"If anyone winds up with any broken bones," Scott called, "I'm going to throw you to Amelia's mercies and stand back and laugh. Just to let you know!"

"Touch, Richter, not tackle," Shiro called. He glared at Jennie as he jogged back to the line of scrimmage to wait for the next play. "You are not slipping through me a third time," he muttered darkly, eyes on her.

Jennie winked at Shiro and gave him her sweetest smile.

"Relax Flash. No setting the opposite team on fire. That's a ten yard penalty." Garrison said, still stuck with covering Cain. How the hell do you attempt to intercept a ball that starts off a good foot and a half over your head. "Julio, come here for a sec."

Kane waited for the teen to walk over, as they watched for Marko to figure out his next play. "You're a proper footie fan, right? Next time you're going for the flag, sideslide them. They're all holding the ball a little loose. Might knock it in play. Since I don't have a tank to sack the QB, we're a little stuck otherwise."

"Hike!" Cain dropped back, then backpedaled faster as Garrison rushed in. Smirking, he flipped the ball behind him to Kyle...

...who was busy sprinting upfield. The football bounced backwards on the grass as Cain slapped a hand to his forehead.

"FUMBLE!" someone shouted, and the race for the loose ball was on.

"Mwahaha, mine mine mine!" Angel crowed, scooping up the ball after it bounced sideways at her. "Miiine and now I run!" She nearly stopped running though when she caught sight of Kyle turning on a dime and bolting straight at her. Sometimes Kyle forgot about things...like bulk and speed and the owing that would hurt on impact! She had no monkeys to stop him. "...AAAAAHHHH!"

Angel was yanked into the air one handed by Garrison as he hurdled the diving Kyle. With Angel tucked firmly under his arm, Kane sped past the defense, Angel holding the ball like tiny redheaded grim death as he crossed the goal line. Garrison held her up over his head triumphantly and pretended to spike the ball and her to a string of frantic 'nonononononono!!!'s.

There had been more bizarre football games in the school's history, Scott reflected, but this was really starting to move up the list. "Nice... um, move," he called, trying not to laugh. "I think that's got to be a first."

Cain looked over at Garrison celebrating in the end zone before most of the kids on both teams joined him in an impromptu touchdown dance. "Well, if that don't beat all..." he mumbled with a chuckle.

After an argument on the grounds of it being fair, (it was) and whether or not to continue playing with a new rule about carrying your teammates across the goal line (it was banned) the two teams resumed play. Cain's team finally ended up scoring, bringing both teams even. It was starting to get a little darker and colder, which meant dinner was fast approaching. Scott's team was on the verge of scoring again when there was a zealous tackle on Marius's part in which Garrison dropped the ball, and a mad dash to claim it. There was a massive collision, and a pile of students, some who were involved in the collision, and some who just thought the idea of a dogpile would be cool.

"OW." Julio said, someone's foot in his already abused ribs.

"Dammit, who's hand is on my ass?" Jennie exclaimed, her arms securely pinned underneath her.

Scott just shook his head, smiling helplessly. "And of course, there would have to be groping..."

"Of course. There is always time for groping." There was a pause as Marius considered the placement of his arm. "Unless of course this would be Kyle."

Kyle stuck his head up, making a quiet growly noise. "I am -not- groping your butt, dude." He said, tugging one out arm from under the pile. The other was under him, he knew he wasn't groping anyone. "Someone's foot is in my stomach. And where's the ball?" He looked around, failing to see it.

"I believe this would be another recovered fumble," came the calm voice from outside the dogpile. Everyone turned to see Professor Xavier in his wheelchair, sitting with the football in his lap. "Might I suggest this game be declared a tie, and that you fine athletes wash up before partaking of the holiday dinner that awaits?"

From the middle of the pile, after muttering something about groping not one but two of her friends, Angel's head popped up. "Turkey?" she asked plaintively. "Turkey would be awesome but I think my leg is in Jennie's ear and someone totally needs to move so I can get up. You guys are heavy."

Laurie made a valiant attempt to scramble out from under...was it Kyle? Possibly, or maybe Marius. It was certainly someone heavy, and she'd been almost on the bottom of the pile when it happened. "I'd move but I think my foot is trapped under someone's butt. I've got a hand free though, so if someone would like to pull me free?"

It turns out Angel was the keystone, when Garrison pulled her free all the other students disentangled themselves.

"All right, food, last one in's a--Hey, Angel!" Jennie yelled, and then sprinted in after her. The rest of the students followed quickly, with the staff following much more sedately.