Jane and Callie: Late Tuesday Night

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Unable to sleep, Callie heads to the kitchen and meets Jane.



Callie stared at the large wooden spoon in front of her, contemplating whether or not to lick the batter off of it. On the one hand this was the best part about baking, but on the other hand it was a tad unhygienic. As she stood over the sink, gazing down at the pile of dirty dishes ready to be washed, her mind wandered as to how and why she ended up in the kitchen at two am holding a batter covered spoon.

It was quite simple really: She couldn't sleep. The jet-lag had subsided, and in its place the insomnia had settled in comfortably. The news break about India had reawakened her fear of losing her father, even though he had been nowhere near the site. For the first day, Callie had been unable to contact him, which did nothing to lessen her fear. That night she had been unable to sleep. Although she now knew that his cell phone had been off after speaking with him the following day, there was still no quelling her thoughts. Her body was tired, but her brain was continually active.

So instead of lying still in her bed, with only her thoughts to keep her company, Callie decided to do what she always did when she needed to clear her mind: she baked.

Now with the batch of vanilla cupcakes safely in the oven, Callie succumbed to the temptation. She licked the spoon.

Someone was baking. Jane followed the rich sent of baking cake through the mansion. If someone was baking, that meant she wasn't the only one awake at this unholy hour. And that meant company.

Jane was awake because Jane was incredibly wired. Her Red X class had ran long, the Indian Crisis putting everyone to work, leadership trained or not. Jane had spent the better part of the day helping to organize a phone bank for a donation drive, and tomorrow she'd be helping to manage the volunteers who would be manning the phones. It wasn't exactly being right there like she was used to, but it was help all the same. The whole thing was exciting and scary and beautiful (the way people were working together) and horrifying all at once.

Peering into the kitchen, she saw a pink girl enthusiastically licking a batter-covered spoon. She was vaguely jealous. "Hey there."

Callie hadn't heard Jane enter the kitchen, and was startled by the sound of another human voice. The spoon fell to the ground as she jumped in surprise. She had assumed herself to be the only one awake at this unholy hour, and was unsure if she was even supposed to be out of her bed. "I'm sorry," Callie muttered as she reached for a stack of paper towels to clean up her mess. She turned around and found herself facing the speaker.

"I'll clean that up," she promised, her voice no louder than a whisper. "I'll clean it all up. And then I'll go back to bed. I'm sorry."

"Why?" Jane hopped on a stool and peered at the bowls on the counter. "What kind of cake are you making?"

Callie stared at her, highly confused. Here she was, a student, awake in the late hours of the night. She had expected to be punished for being out of bed, not this. "I'm baking vanilla cupcakes" she explained as she crouched down to clean up her mess and place the spoon in the sink. "I, um, couldn't sleep?"

"Neat. I couldn't sleep either." Jane cocked her head. "Y'know, I have some fun frosting dyes and those little silver balls upstairs that we could decorate them with. I'm not sure if Lorna stocked up on sprinkles before she left. You're Callie, right?"

"I didn't see any in the cabinets," replied Callie. "I was just going to make some butter frosting?" She shrugged and threw away the towels. "And yeah, I'm Callie." She paused and pursed her lips in thought. "I'm sorry. What's your name?"

"Oh! That was rude of me." Jane thrust her hand towards Callie with a wide smile. "I'm Jane. I think I replied to your journal post. We definitely need to raid my kitchen. I have all of the good stuff. Why are you up so late?" Jane knew she was probably coming on a bit strong, but it felt to nice just to be able to chatter on about cake and not super serious stuff for a few minutes.

"Jane," Callie repeated, shaking the hand that was offered to her. She tried to place the name; it sounded familiar. "Jane. OH Jane! Ya. You wrote on my journal. I remember now!" A smile spread across her face for a brief second, before it disappeared as she thought about why she was still awake. "Ya. I couldn't sleep. This whole thing in India. And I couldn't reach my dad until today. I just have a lot of thoughts running through my head."

Or not. "Yeah," Jane agreed. "It's really terrible. All those people." She shuddered indelicately. "I'm supposed to be in Red X leadership training this summer and I guess its going to be more hands on education than I thought. Your Dad wasn't in India, was he?"

Callie nodded in agreement. "I'm just... It's like..." she sighed and sadly shook her head. "Who would do something like that? Thankfully dad wasn't anywhere near there. He was in Luxembourg. But his phone was off, so I didn't know what was going on. You know? But I spoke with him today, and he's fine. So that's a huge relief. It's still crazy, and scary, and..." She leaned against the counter as her voice trailed off. She didn't know if she was comfortable enough to share everything. "Erm, so what do you do with Red X?"

"That must have been really freaky, not being able to find him," Jane said sympathetically. "I'm glad you got through, though." She swiped a fingerful of batter from the edge of the bowl and popped it in her mouth. "Red X is cool. It's for students, like you! And people like me who aren't old like Mr. Summers yet. It's basically the Red Cross, but for mutants where we go use our powers to help people in need. I'm taking a leadership class right now that's supposed to be about preparing us to take greater leadership positions on the field and other saving people type stuff. A lot of the kids here are members, and I bet they're working on something for India as well. Have you met Angel yet? She'd be a good one to ask. Or Kyle, even if he did break up with us."

"I should probably clean those," Callie motioned toward the dishes. She turned her attention to the faucet and turned the water on. Grabbing each bowl and utensil, she shoved them under the running water and scrubbed them with detergent and a sponge. As she worked, she continued to listen to what Jane was telling her. It all sounded very grand. "Wow. That's so cool," she enthused. "I haven't met Angel, I've heard of her, but haven't seen her. Kyle wrote in my Journal? I think. He has the ears right? Oh I'm sorry. Breaking up is hard. Forget I asked about him."

"Oh, wait, no!" Jane flailed her hands as a timer went off on the oven. "Kyle and I weren't dating. Ever. I mean, he's cute and all, but he's younger than I am and Clarice would dismember me. Never irritate a girl who can teleport your limbs away from you." She nodded vigorously. "See he wrote this letter breaking up with Red X because he just wasn't that into them, and I was so I said I was gonna propose and it's in the journals somewhere, I think. But you should definitely meet Angel. She's nice."

Grabbing two towels, Callie pulled open the oven and carefully removed the two pans of vanilla cupcakes. Their heavenly aroma filled the air causing her to smile. This was her favorite part of baking, the first look at the finished product, not the eating. "Ohhhh," she said, placing the trays on top of the oven. "Okay. Sorry. I was confused." She stared at the cupcakes and sighed. "Now I don't feel like making an icing."

"We could just dust them with powdered sugar," Jane suggested, thinking serious thoughts about how delicious the cupcakes would taste if and when Callie relinquished custody of them.

"Ummmmmmmmmm," Callie pondered aloud. Her eyes lit up at the suggestion. "Yes. You can never have too much sugar." She started to search the cabinets for some. "Then I'll leave them out for people?" She turned her head to face Jane. "You think people will eat them?"

"If there are any left at noon, it will be a miracle," Jane assured her. "It's usually on the left."

"Thanks!" Callie reached up and grabbed the bag of sugar. She placed it on the counter, and searched for a clean spoon. She grabbed one from the pile of dishes that were drying and used it to sprinkle the cupcakes with the powered sugar. "There. Perfect." She glanced over at Jane, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "You want one?"

"Oh, gosh, I thought you would never ask. Gimme!" Jane politely restrained herself from diving across the counter, taking only one of the golden, sugary delights.

"You know," she said a few moments later between bites, "This is so much more fun than sleep. I'm so glad you were down here, Callie." Jane grinned up at the other girl. "Thanks!"


"You're welcome." Callie took a bite of her own cupcake and smiled.