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John looked around as he sat down underneath the elm-maple. Rogue wasn’t here and that wasn’t good. He had been late on purpose so that Rogue could get here before him; he had noticed that she seemed to be late for appointments.

Well, that and he had seen Lance waiting just outside the school and he really didn’t want another confrontation with the tough boy. The time during algebra had been bad enough, and he dreaded drama the next day. His arm was still smarting from when Lance had bushed past him so fast on the way out of algebra that John had slammed into a row of lockers, and that had been first block.

“Hey, what are yah day dreamin’ about?” a Rogue shaped shadow fell across his face.

“Uh, nothing. Just wondering if you would show, that’s all,” he kept his eyes averted.

Marie noticed this, but she shrugged. John had weird little ticks and things, this was probably just a new one surfacing. She noticed a little purpling under the sleeve of his black t-shirt.

“How’d yah get that?” she asked, suddenly suspicious.

“Got into a fight with my locker. Those things don’t open unless you run full tilt into them,” he lied automatically.

Why had he just done that? Rogue might have been able to explain Lance’s obvious anger towards him. Oh well, habits are hard to break, and it wasn’t like he could go back and admit that one of her best friends had sideswiped him. Plus, why on earth would she believe him? It was just his word against Lance’s.

“Hmm, yeah. Hey, we still got tah get our first chapter ready, so let’s start. First off what powahs should we give everyone? Ah had a few idea’s last nahght, wrote ‘em down for yah. Pay no attention tah what Ah put down for Kurt, I think that teleportation is good,” Rogue slipped a very folded up piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to John, before sinking down onto the grass herself.

John looked at the heading for Kurt immediately. He bit back a giggle.

“Fuzzy blue demon. Whip-like tail, ends with a pointy thing. Yellow eyes. Pointy ears. Fangs?” John raised an eyebrow as Marie looked away hastily.

“Yeah, well, Ah kinda got carried away,” she mumbled to the grass.

“I’ll say, three fingers and toes? You really don’t like him that much, do you?” John said calmly.

C’mon, he thought, what do you have against Kurt? At least give me a hint. You really seemed to hit it off, but whenever you see him in school it’s all ‘turn on the ice queen’. What is it with you, Marie?

“He’s just a little too, Ah dunno, perfect, Ah guess. He’s got it all, and well, he seems nahce enough, but that just makes it all the worse yah know? People lahke him should have this dark broodin’ secret or somethin’, and he doesn’t,” Rogue looked at St. John with the steady gaze of an unparalleled liar.

If that’s what’s really eating you about him I’ll eat my laptop, John thought bitterly. Well, store this for a rainy day, but someday I’m gonna find out about all your little secrets Marie. Hey, that’s a good line, gotta remember that.

“I dunno, I kinda like the fury blue demon you’ve cooked up. It’d be an interesting spin on things. I mean, I sorta made him nervous about going to this strange school ‘cause he didn’t know what the heck it was for and what he could do. With this we could rewrite the character so that he knows about the fact that he’s got this ability, but he’s nervous ‘cause of the demon appearance. It’s actually a lot more realistic, I mean, how on Earth could they know about what he could do if he didn’t?” John took his note book out of his backpack.

“Er, Ah don’t see how we could write that in,” Rogue looked at the story in front of her, “It would change the whole plot lahne, for starters. Ah think what yah’ve got is just great. The idea of Xavier practically abducting him is fun.

“And it sorta lends credence tah th’ whole idea that adults really don’t trust children tah make up their mahnds on their own. I wanna keep that goin’, it’s one of the reasons we’re so, Ah dunno, scary tah adults. We can actually make up our mahnds on our own without their help. It’s a big issue for most teens, lahk privacy,” Rogue looked at her hands.

That’s a big problem for you, huh? That no one tells you what’s going on. Funny, I can’t really see Logan keeping that sort of thing from you. John flipped to his rather long section on Rogue. He wrote it down, but used his own version of short hand which no one could read. He noticed that quite a lot of his entries under Rogue were in his private code.

“Look, I think that I can handle it. I got an idea or two in the works already and I’ll give you the next draft tomorrow. It’ll give me more of a chance to focus on Todd for one thing. Speaking of Todd, what should his powers be?” John busily turned to Todd’s page.

“Kinda preordained on that one. Yah evah heard his nickname?” Rogue smiled as she thought of Todd transforming into a toad. The image was very funny.

“We’re going to make him a toad?” John began to laugh uncontrollably, “A toad meta-morph, or just a person with toad like characteristics?”

“Characteristics, Ah think. C’mon, can’t yah just see him with a green tongue catchin’ flies? An’ hoppin’ about and all?” she fell over laughing.

“Stop it, it’s too much,” John looked off into the distance trying to think of anything that would stop him laughing.

“Hey, what about everyone else? Ms. Darkholme doesn’t have a power yet, and neither do Jean, Scott, Logan, Creed, or Ms. Monroe,” he said as soon as he was able to breathe without breaking into giggles.

Rogue stopped laughing immediately, “Creed! Yah added Creed tah th’ character list?! Ah was gonna skin yah for makin’ Logan show up, but now, Ah think that Ah’ll, Ah’ll.. Ooh, Ah’ll do somethin’ painful.”

“I am not going to make him into a main character; I just thought that we could use another antagonist. You have to admit that Darkholme doesn’t seem to have much imagination, and is really not much of an evil guy. Well, neither is Creed, but I thought that they could be henchmen of some sort for one random evil guy. We can make him up. You know, he could have this whole superiority complex thingy. You’re the one in psychology, you could tell me what to make him act like,” John carefully steered the conversation away from the characters.

“Huh. Yah have been addin’ characters left and rahgt. No more, got that?” Rogue said menacingly.

“Yeah, sure sheila. Ooh, I like what you’ve given Scott for a power. Laser beam eyes, schweet. It would explain why he wears those dorky glasses,” John looked down at the sheet again, “Hey, you actually did one for Logan. Wow, I thought that I would have to fight you to get him in. Healing powers? What good are those?”

“They totally rock! Yah get shot by a gun, no problem yah wound closes instantly, rejectin’ th’ bullet in th’ process. Somebody sticks a knife intah yah,” Rogue looked at John with ‘isn’t it obvious’ written all over her face.

“Or out of you,” John commented quietly, an idea beginning to form, “Ok, I get the picture. But why did you give Jean telepathy? That’s what the Professor has. We can’t have two people running around with the same power,” John pointed out.

“Oh yeah? What would yah give her then?” Rogue challenged him.

“Umm, telekinesis,” John said, using the first supernatural power that jumped into his head.

“What, are you serious?” Rogue began to laugh derisively.

“Of course I am! You couldn’t do any better! Telepathy, huh,” John found himself fighting for a power he really didn’t support in the first place.

They began to argue about it heatedly.