xp_logs | Log: Clarice & Kitty

backdated to last Sunday night after Clarice's rather disasterous visit with her mother. parents suck.

Kitty bit her thumbnail briefly, then knocked on the door from their common room to Clarice and Terry`s room. "Hey," she called out. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Clarice called from inside, rubbing at one eye with the back of her hand. She held several shirts in her lap that she was looking at strangely.

Kitty opened the door, slipping inside. "Hiya. I take it things didn`t go so well at home?" she asked without preamble.

"What gave you that impression?" Clarice retorted sarcastically. "Sorry. I...no. Not good. Turns out my Mom is engaged."

Kitty blinked, both at the tone and the quick retraction. "That`s ok," she said. "I take it it was a bit of a shock?"

"Heh, sit down," Clarice gestured to her bed and propped her socked feet up on the end. "I didn't even know she'd been dating. She emails me pretty regularly about stuff, she wouldn't have just forgotten to mention this."

Kitty dropped onto the offered seat, leaning back on her arms. "No, unlikely she just forgot, I admit. At least your mom does regularly email you, though. I hear nothing for months, email about something
entirely random, and then find out my parents are divorced. Not getting divorced, already done. Past tense." She considered this for a second, then added, "Parents suck."

"Aww," Clarice leaned over and gave Kitty a hug. They both needed one, even if they weren't the best of friends. "Parents do suck. Mine yelled and screamed for years before divorcing. Which sucks goat balls."

Kitty hugged back, in full agreement of the need for such. "Yeah. At least I got to miss out on the majority of the screaming, what with living here full time and all. Of course, my mom was less than happy
when she figured out that I meant the Mansion every time I said I wanted to 'go home' this summer."

"They send us here and then expect us to hate it. And we grow up and they forget 'cause they sent us away, but they treat us like little kids. And they can't have it both ways," Clarice sniffed, the logic getting in the way of a good breakdown. "And we get stuck in the middle of their own problems."

"Sounds about right, yeah," Kitty agreed. "It's stupid, really. I've been here for three years. Before this summer I don't think I'd gone back to Chicago in over a year, so why wouldn't I think of this place as home and everyone here as my family? My highly disfunctional family, I grant you, but family none the less."

Clarice nodded, agreeing. "Family are the people who take you in when they don't have to, our parents? They got rid of us. People never really leave Xavier's once they're here."

"Caught onto that one, did you?" Kitty grinned. "Yeah, even when they graduate, people usually stick around - teaching, being an x-man, what ever. This place is home to all of us, even the ones who go on about not having a home."

"We're living in a hippie commune!" Clarice giggled, much less upset than she was. "We've got the guy with The Dream, his loyal followers and lots of stuff that would be considered acid dreams by most people!"

"You know, that makes a scarry amount of sense. So, is it a hippie commune or is it a cult of personality?" A second after she said it, Kitty heard in her mind a different voice saying almost the same words with a darker intent and her smile suddenly died.

"Hippie commune," Clarice replied solemnly, "Cults of personality go all David Koresh and that's bad."

That got a return of the smile, although it wasn't as bright as before. "Yes, I agree. Not bad is much better."

"C'mon," Clarice said standing, "Let's go find Terry, she's holding Matt Damon hostage. Yum!"

"Sounds excellent. Never let it be said I was one to say no to Matt Damon."